Notes from the field: Robert X. closes out this year's columns with a question that could be applied to last year, the year before that, and it will linger through the next as well. Why is Microsoft tech support so horrible? The latest: a Cringester who contacted Microsoft received in return an e-mail with too many questions and even more troubleshooting steps. The Reverand Sun Myung Moon makes a guest appearance. Microsoft tech support swoons, Google promises the moon.

Best of the blogs: Through a public relations firm, Microsoft and AMD apparently are giving some bloggers free notebook PCs with Vista pre-loaded. Why bloggers? Online editor Mike Barton has a theory: they're easier to sway than traditional journalists.

Podcasts: Plowing through despite the holidays David Marshall points out that the path to server virtualization leads to storage; the network-attached variety, specifically. To that end, he examines moves by Hitachi and BlueArc, as well as a survey by Peripherals Concepts. Listen to Virtualization Report.

Happy New Year to all! See you in 2007...

Posted by Tom Sullivan on December 29, 2006 10:55 AM