Interestingly Microsoft is advertising the show on such non-traditional sites as Media Bistro a favorite among journalists not necessarily of the tech persuasion.

And for their $1,195 fee, Mix attendees will get a Commemorative Edition of Microsoft Expression Studio. A bargain? You decide.

For another $400, they can also attend the mobile and embedded show.

Note to Microsoft: We know you're big and all, but you're suffering a serious event glut. Word has it that the Microsoft PR force is depressed that not more media people covered the recent management show.

Get a grip people, not everyone has your seemingly-bottomless event budget. One could also add that some of these same events have been quite light on content.

In the next few months: TechEd, WinHEC, the partner conference, PDC are stacked up one after the other.This may be blasphemy, but seriously, do you see Google wasting,er I mean investing, so much time and energy in the razzle dazzle?. Sorry, but true.

As for the real news at Mix, the jury's still out. Maybe we'll see Live Clipboard in some sort of final form? It has been more than a year.

On the plus side, it's always good to see games guy Robbie Bach. Some remember Robbie from back in his Office days. Good guy. At least one Microsoft handicapper puts him on the short list of possible Ballmer heirs. Right up there along with Kevin Johnson and Simon Witts. Oh yes and Kevin Turner. Speaking of which, insiders say KJ looks like he'd much rather be back out on the road with customers rather than doing what he's doing atop the Windows group.

But the pressure is on Ray Ozzie to put some real meat around Microsoft's Live efforts. So far, they've been underwhelming.

But back to Mix. Interarbor Solutions' analyst Dana Gardner says what Microsoft should show is "real productivity applications/services that could be mashed up with other non-MS services to obviate the need for MS Office 2007."

What are the chances that will happen?

"Zero," says Dana.