Check out these cool Silverlight Flash demos of this new product from Microsoft. It’s as if they took a computer and put it in a table with touch sensitive glass cover. Then they hired the beautiful people to move stuff around. It reminds me of the sit down games of old like Miss Pacman and Dig Dug. Remember those? You’d find them at pizza joints although there was a 50/50 chance it wasn’t working.

Has anyone heard how much these are going to cost?

Here’s a speed test from my home in Auburn, WA on Qwest DSL. I’ve had DSL with Qwest for the past two years and can only remember one or two times when my service has been down for more than 30 minutes. I could get Comcast’s service here but at over $50/month it’s not that Comcastic! That’s only $5 less than I pay for my local phone line + DSL service.

How fast is your connection and what do you pay for it? Test it here.

I’m going to wear it on the next casual Friday.

Digg is one of the few sites I visit each day. Sometimes I’m after the latest tech news. Other days I’m looking for wacky YouTube videos. But lately I’ve found myself checking Digg Spy quite frequently. There’s something voyeuristic about watching real time Diggs coming in on the screen. This is a great way to uncover interesting articles that never make the front page.

“Giant Cat Sized Rats Have Invaded Florida” article just arrived. Gotta run!

May 30 UPDATE: Official Beta Link now available from Microsoft

I decided to install the leaked version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 this afternoon. The changes are subtle, but I like the look so far. I will have to wait for the Mess Patch to come out so I can strip out all the ads and crap it includes, but it’s not bad. The install was uneventful which is always a good thing. Here’s how I did it:

1. Exit all the way out of your current version of Messenger.

2. Download the program and language .dll from here. It’s the post at the top.

3. Once the install is finished, you’ll have to exit out of the program once more in order to overwrite the English language .dll you downloaded.

Here’s a screenshot.

It seems like every WordPress user is using the Akismet, Popularity Contest, WordPress Database Backup and such plugins. These are excellent plugins that nearly everyone either runs or has tried. I decided to focus this list on my favorite plugins you might not have heard of before but I’ve found to be just as valuable.

WP-Postviews – Very simple plugin that tells you and your visitors how many times each post has been viewed. Look just above the title of this post to see it in action.

Registration Blacklist + Spambam – Even using Akismet, I still received thousands of spam before I installed both of these plugins. Now I get none.

Share This – I’ve tried other social bookmarking plugins but they were either ugly or too complicated. This one is simple to use and doesn’t confuse your readers with a line of tiny little icons. Click here for an example.

aLinks – This plugin is amazing. It takes keyworks or phrases and turns them into links pointing back to Amazon or eBay. I great way to take advantage of their affiliate programs. Whenever I mention iPod in a post, it will automatically link back to Amazon using my affiliate code.

My Video – With this plugin, you can add YouTube, Google and Metacafe video directly to your blog. This is one of easier video plugins to install.

Whenever I iron an item of clothing other than pants, I somehow feel I’ve sold out to the man. I’m not sure why, but it’s true. Nordstrom has a nice line of shirts that need very little, if any ironing. I recently purchased a few pair of Dockers that also don’t need much ironing. But I still own several, mostly cotton items of clothing that require a fair amount of ironing.

I hope in my lifetime I’m able to purchase both casual and dress clothing that require no ironing. Whenever I pull out the ironing board I figure I might as well iron everything in my closet that needs it. I inevitably look back and wonder what I was thinking when I ironed a t-shirt or pair of Levis.

Lifehacker pointed to a list of the 20 signs that a pink-slip could be coming your way found at the Wise Bread blog.

I enjoyed reading through the list and found the following signs most interesting:

#7 – Do you now have less responsibility than the intern? – I’ve worked at a few places where the intern did a lot but others where all she did was answers phones.

#8 – Has your office, cubicle or working space recently been down-sized? – To this I’d add, “Has your work space been moved to an entirely different wing of the building, as far away as possible from the management team?” If so, it may tell you how much they value your department or team.

#9 – Do people whisper more, or does the conversation change as you approach? If your only interaction with management is behind close doors, you might want to polish your resume.

#15 – Are you finding it almost impossible to get approval or ‘buy in’ on projects? Or does your manager reject your projects because they interfere with other projects?

#16 – Have you recently been asked to work on a “special project?” If you’re interviewing anywhere and your potential boss just came off a “special project”, be very worried.

I’ll add one more to the list.

#21 – Has someone recently been hired to fill a job nobody in the company understands? If you and your coworkers are sitting around a year later wondering what this person’s job is, you’re working for a company that needs direction in hiring.

Unlike most Saturday mornings, Kim and I got up early, tossed clothes on the kids and drove to a little breakfast joint in downtown Auburn called The Sun Break Cafe. As we’d been warned it was packed full of patrons. The cafe is really just a small bakery attached to an even smaller room, dotted with tables. As we stood in line I noticed the following signs posted on the wall for all employees to see:

“Nobody gets Mother’s Day Off. Don’t even ask”

“Nobody gets Father’s Day Off. Don’t even ask”

These were handmade signs probably made by the manager. They were written on white paper in black marker.

We had a great breakfast together. The kids wolfed down a gigantic pancake, scrambled eggs and cinnamon, raisin French toast. The food and service were both excellent. I approached the cashier, gave her our tab and asked if they took American Express. I’m sure you know what her answer was. On my way out I noticed two more signs near the entrance where the waiting line was snaked back to:

“Sure we cash checks. You give us cash and we’ll give you checks”

“We are not fast food. But we make our food from scratch as fast as we can”

So goes life at the Sun Break Cafe. The food is moderately priced while the attitude is on the house. We’ll be going back soon.