There is a Dilbert desk calendar sitting in my cubicle at my office.

Each strip has a date stamp indicating its original publication date. In this calendar, all of the strips were published in 2004 – just three years ago. I know I read those strips when they were new, since I have followed Dilbert daily for over a decade. What an odd feeling, then, to know that all memory of the strips has passed from my brain. When I read the strips now, they invariably appear fresh.

I suppose it doesn’t matter too much; new or old, they are still funny.

Like many other bloggers, Tyler disagreed with Paul Graham’s recent assertion that “Microsoft is dead“[1] by claiming that “Microsoft is (Unfortunately) Alive and Kicking.”

Well, they’re both wrong.

And they’re both right. The truth is that Microsoft is in the process of being resurrected.

Born during an especially bright alignment of the stars called Preparation and Opportunity, the infant Microsoft had instant recognition as something special. It spent its time as a newborn being showered by gifts from the three wise men called Aye, Bee, and Emm. Then some stuff happened, but nobody really remembers much about it.

Years later, Microsoft popped back onto the radar and began amassing a following in the land called Desktop. To the wonderment of many, miracles were performed that came to be known as Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. Others scoffed at Microsoft’s actions and accomplishments, calling them unoriginal and inferior, but the criticisms did not quell the company’s growing popularity. More time passed, but then one day, when the company was about thirty years old, the company was betrayed by one of its own.

The powerful Web 2.0 Empire[2] sentenced Microsoft to death alongside the landline phone and CRT monitors. Most of the populace rejoiced Microsoft’s plight, but at least a few mourned its passing and hoped for its return in a new, improved form. Those left with the Microsoftian corpse interred it and made a prediction: Microsoft would rise again. They even threw together a schedule that showed the glorious return in a few days time. Unfortunately, that schedule was made without engineering input, so days slipped into years.

One morning, somebody went looking at Microsoft’s grave, and lo, it was empty! What had happened?

The faithful whispered “Office XML documents” and “Windows Live” even as the Empire celebrated Facebook, Twitter, and Google Docs.

Is Microsoft alive again? The signs suggest vitality, but the conclusion is yet to come.

[1] This is, of course, an allusion to Nietzsche’s statement that “God is dead” — in other words, “dead” means “irrelevant” not “defunct.”

[2] The empire later fell due to economic problems

Eight days ago, it was 80 degrees here. Now it’s snowing. This stupid weather…

Those who eat cold cereal often have a favorite. For many years, mine was regular Cheerios. After college, my tastes changed to favor Back to Nature Flax and Fiber Crunch.

Despite the unappealing name, the product is quite good. My preferred grocery store, Super Target, sold the 14 oz. boxes for $2.29, so all was well in the world. Unfortunately, my peaceful bliss was shattered this week by the disappearance of the familiar boxes from the shelves.

Where there had once been 14 oz. boxes, there were now 10 oz. bags. That wouldn’t have been too bad, except they seized the opportunity to boost the price to $2.99. That represents an increase of 82%, from 16.4 cents per ounce to 29.9 cents per ounce. Oh, the injustice! That’s on par with the recent run-up in orange juice prices, but it might be nothing compared to the fallout from the honey bee population collapse.

Regardless, I’m left with a quandry: I can pay the newly exhorbitant price at Target, or I can find a new supplier. Amazon looks promising, but I would need purchase a three-month supply to make it worthwhile. I suppose that I could simply find a new breakfast cereal, but I would rather avoid that hassle. The good news is that it will be a few weeks before my stash runs out, so I have time to find a solution.

In other words, I’ll forget about the problem until I have no more cereal, then I’ll buy whatever’s on sale.

The blogosphere is abuzz with talk about Twitter. I admit that I was initially skeptical. Are there really that many narcissists out there who think their lives are interesting enough to warrant real-time updates? On the other side of the equation, are there really that many voyeurs interested in such mundane drivel? What a stupid idea. Or so I thought.

I couldn’t believe that people would post with enough frequency to keep the system interesting. Neither could I believe that people would follow each update with rapt attention. Then it hit me: people already do these things.

With AIM, people will often be “away” just for the sake of posting a comment on their present condition. Completing the system, people will check other people’s away messages just to find out what they’re up to at the moment. Twitter provides the same basic functionality except with a much-improved interface. Since similar systems have been around for many years, it is reasonable to assume that Twitter will also survive.

The question becomes: what’s next? The first entrant to a category isn’t necessarily the one that will prevail in the long term. I would like to see an expansion that gives comments spatial tags in addition to temporal ones. I would like to see the comments become enabled with multimedia.

Imagine that it is Saturday night. You’re in a big city trying to find a club for you and your friends to party. You pull out your cell phone and check the latest twitters from locations less than four blocks from your own. One catches your eye; it has an associated video. The video, shot with a camera phone moments earlier, shows a hot party, packed with people. As you and your friends arrive at the club, you post your own twitter about that night’s ‘it’ spot. Others notice the large number of twitters from the location and also join the fun.

It’s been done, but the existing solutions leave something to be desired.