Crazy day.

Quoted: It wasn't just the Dow Jones setting records today; the NASDAQ index had its 3rd largest one-day decline ever by percentage, losing 9% of its value. Among the tech stocks taking a drubbing were locals Microsoft (-8.7%) and Amazon (-10.4%)--though Redmond might enjoy the schadenfreude of knowing that Apple closed down nearly 18%.

Device Driver to connect my pedometer with Microsoft HealthVault.

UPDATE: So far, the main benefit I can see (which is a useful benefit) is that it uploads the info to the cloud. HealthVault, unlike Omron's software, doesn't have any particularly interesting ways to visualize my walking data.

Quoted: Omron pedometers are tested, evaluated and proven to consistently provide accurate results with rigorous attention to safety.

More on the Zoho story. They have employed some interesting tactics...

Quoted: Pay one year of college fees. This is a salary, not a loan, with no strings attached. According to Raju, 90% join Zoho at the end of that year, but there is no obligation. This gives Zoho an edge with the brightest at school as they have an unusual offer.

Nice story. However, I find myself using the lighter-weight Google and 37Signal offerings over Zoho.

Quoted: Defying Conventional Wisdom
...
Everything about this story is improbable. And gloriously old fashioned. When I met Raju Vegesna, I kept on thinking this was some kind of time warp. Zoho has simply ignored much of the conventional wisdom. Consider:

This is a minor headache with DropBox. You need remember to close and reopen the file periodically. They should be using Volume Shadow Copy.

Quoted: hey aditya,
was this a microsoft office file? these files are locked are locked by office, and consequently can't be synced until office is closed. sorry for the confusion.

The bird's eye view in Microsoft Live Search Maps is pretty amazing -- far better than any view in Google Maps. This is a view of the "cut" at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Bill Gates is not 100% retired from Microsoft after all and is still "working on search".

Quoted: However the news isn’t all bleak, as Microsoft believes strongly in the potential advantages provided by Powerset. And they’ve got another ally, too: Bill Gate. Scott Prevost, Powerset’s general manager, was quoted as saying that "Bill has definitely not retired for us". Gates, who has stepped down from day to day operations, has said that he planned to continue to work on search.

Interview with Nate re: the Windows Live Webmaster Center launch and some other topics.

Quoted: What a day! It's our first Whiteboard Friday interview from our new Whiteboard Studios at Mozplex 2.0 (or the Mozoleum as our guest suggest). Who do we have? None other than our good friend and MSN Live Webmaster Center honcho, Nathan Buggia. As many of you know, Live just rele...

Was curious if there was an elastic computing offering for Windows. Seems like there are a few, and Microsoft is planning to launch its own in October.

Quoted: A few companies have attempted to offer on demand Windows clouds including Terremark's "The Enterprise Cloud" (VMware based) and Gogrid. But both have yet to release an API for programmatic access, so there usefulness in a truly "elastic computing" environment is questionable.