I spent the evening with the folks who are writing LiveSide, a blog about Windows Live. These guys aren't Microsoft employees. They just thought it'd be interesting to do a blog about Windows Live. They invited me to a dinner and also invited a bunch of people from the various Windows Live teams (there's a ton of them now).

When I got home I checked my feeds about Microsoft and I see that Dave Winer said something about us. He says that Microsoft is falling behind Google and Apple and that we better get our s**t together soon.

True.

But we're fortunate because people like Chris, Harrison, Kip, who like what we're doing enough to build great community sites.

I agree with Dave, though. It's put up or shut up time.

One thing in response to Dave: I am working very hard to make friends among bloggers. My phone number is on my blog. You know how to find me if you need something.

All the content from the Mix06 conference is now online. 50+ hours. Good stuff, including Marc Canter's panel discussion and much more (the videos include all the slides, too). Mike Swanson has more on his blog.

Why is it when you meet someone face to face that your opinions of them change radically? Today I became fans of Donny Deutsch and Jay Z.

Donny hosts a show called the Big Idea on CNBC. He asked Bill some excellent questions like "what do you get pissed about?" Bill tried to weasel out of that and Donny had none of it. Bill was really stumped. He also asked "what would you say to Google?" He set a high bar for interviewing Bill that I hope I'll get to meet someday.

Jay Z is a rapper. But he breaks all the stereotypes. He's astute. Personable. And is interesting to listen to.

Donny's interview with Bill Gates will be on CNBC on Monday and Jay Z's interview will be up next week.

Anyway, both interviews are ones you should consider checking out.