Once again, Microsoft employees survived the annual confab and once again were treated to much gnashing of teeth and beating of chests.

The real news according to some who were there:

Hmmm. Well Ballmer again swore up and down that the company will never take five years to ship a new product again. Gee where have we heard that before?

They showed off the "play table" again. Or I think again—it sounds an awful lot like what Bill Gates showed at one of the many Microsoft events attended over the last few years. Was it PDC? Was it Tech Ed? They've all blended together. But the idea is that your real desktop becomes your computer screen, and you can push icons around to move them and initiate actions.

The embattled Jim Allchin was mentioned but did not speak.

HR Chief Lisa Brummel talked up a new employees-only blog where folks can post suggestions, vent their spleen. Brummel promised to post to it her own self. There was a lotta talk about "appropriate" blgging. No mention of Mini-Microsoft but the implication was clear.

"That guy is soooo fired if they find him," says one insider.

Mini-Microsoft himself (herself?) weighed in post meeting saying he has become Microsoft's own Voldemort or "he who must not be named."

But the BIG NEWS is the company will start offering free Starbucks. You could buy Starbucks on site but the free stuff has been Farmer Brothers joe.

Oh, addendum! The supersized use of "super" appears to be on the wane. Insiders say the phrase "super excited" was used just twice!!

This tidbit was met with cautious optimism. "I woulda bazooka barfed if it got to three," says one.