Loss of Cred at TechEd?

Die Weltmeisterschaft," proclaimed the Prussian-purring Puss, as he and a plethora of Microsoft TechEd attendees at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center huddled around some large flat-screen TVs to watch World Cup soccer. And why not? It was a better diversion than seeking in vain someone who understood exactly what Windows Live is.

Suddenly, as the Furball and his fellow footballers were watching Brazil take on Croatia, the screen went blank. "It must have been caused by the BCECs systems rebooting after applying Microsofts Patch Tuesday updates," laughed the Lynx.

Unfortunately for the Redmondites, the bus company they hired to shuttle attendees from hotels to the BCEC went on strike during the conference. "Hey, a bus error is nothing new to longtime Microsoft users," cackled the Kitty. The Baron of Babble was bemused when the keynote came not from Bill Gates but rather from Chairman Bills major man crush himself, Ray Ozzie. But, hey, Bill was too busy playing in the World Bridge Championships in Verona, Italy, a fellow attendee told the Katt, who was no dummy himself when it came to bridge. "Amazingly, that event isnt televised globally like the World Cup," mused the Mouser. Gates probably would have done better to address the Microsoft faithful, as he was eliminated from the tournament in just two days, despite the fact that hed finagled being partnered with Sharon Osberg, a two-time world bridge champ. Rather than race back to his companys event, Gates chose to be a gentleman from Verona and stayed in Italy to continue watching the tournament.

Soon, Spence had enough of the hoopla and headed with a crony to Coogans bar near Bostons Faneuil Hall. There, the pal told Spence the jury is still out on how handy OpenSUSE 10.1 users will find the patch the company recently released to correct the Linux distributions broken package manager. "Me-ouch! If youve ever managed to break your package, you know how painful that can be," giggled the Grimalkin. As the duo downed another round, the crony told the Kitty that Cisco plans to appoint CEO John Chambers as its chairman of the board at the companys shareholder meeting on Nov. 15. Chambers will retain his CEO title, said the pal.

Speaking of chairmen, Spence said he heard that Intel Chairman Craig Barrett has been tapped to head a U.N. committee called the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development. The group will hold its first meeting this month in Kuala Lumpur and hopes to help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations. "The wildest rumor Ive heard recently was that Apple was looking to acquire Nintendo," said Spencers buddy as he ordered yet another round. Spence laughed as he recalled that Nintendos new gaming system is called Wii (pronounced "wee"). "If thats the case, then a handheld iPod and Wii combo would, unfortunately, have to be called iWii," scoffed the Scatological Snitch.