A big thanks to everybody who came to the Server 2008 launch event last week. Andy and myself had a great time presenting to such an enthusiastic crowd. In the end we ran long because of the amount of dialogue around the new features of Server 2008 and I hope everyone went away having got something useful.

Now I need …

You know, the thing about RSS is that it's a bit like the advent of the motor car - you miss things. Just as driving around means you don't get to pass the time of day with folk, or discover that tiny little deli you'd never notice from the road, RSS dehumanises the web.

For example, I subscribe to the blog of my good …

IE8 Activities look cool. They're almost like favlets from where I stand, but they offer a very simple way for users to access online services and pass simple parameters.

I decided I wanted to play, and we use SharePoint heavily here at Black Marble. The obvious thing to do was to create an activity which would allow …

I can't spend much longer playing with IE8 or my wife will skin me. However, from my cursory browsing experience I'm worried. Either the devs have a good deal of work to do or I'm going to be very busy with CSS rules for a while.

Here's the University of Bradford site in IE8:

Well, as expected, the public beta of IE8 appeared on the web pretty much straight after the Mix08 keynote mentioned it. I managed to grab it within mere moments and I now have it installed on my trusty laptop.

As announced only a day or two ago, it defaults to the new rendering mode, with a big toolbar button to …