I’m going to take some time off of blogging and enjoy being temporarily unemployed (I start at Podtech on July 5).

My Microsoft email is no longer working. You can write me at robertscoble@hotmail.com.

My cell phone stays the same. 425-205-1921.

Thanks and have a great weekend, see ya at Gnomedex!

Melodeo starts up tomorrow and with a bang. Former U.S. Senator John Edwards is one of the first users.

What’s different about it? They have nice support for mobile phones. I played tonight with it on a Nokia phone and the service helped me find several podcasts and listen to them.

It’ll be interesting to see which distribution network ends up being important. This one is certainly one to watch.

Interesting, Vic Gundotra leaves Microsoft, Business 2.0 says, to take a year off and then head to Google.

Vic is the guy who hired me into Microsoft and is one of the people who made me believe. I will never forget his pitch to me to join Microsoft: “this might be good for your career.”

Thanks Vic for everything and good luck in your future career.

+++++

Brain drain at Microsoft?

Is there a brain drain going on at Microsoft? It sure looks that way but keep in mind that Vic and I didn’t write code. We didn’t make the products.

Those of us who — whether deserved or not — become public faces of companies can wildly change the perceptions of those companies.

There are 60,000+ people working at Microsoft. Not two or three. Or even 15.

What’s ironic is I met quite a few employees at Microsoft who used to work at Google. No one talks about them.

On the other hand, this is a win for Google and a loss for Microsoft. They got a good guy.

By the way, I tried to call Vic for several hours tonight to get his comment and he didn’t return my calls. I didn’t know either Vic was going to leave before today, either, although when we talked recently about my own career I could tell he was considering life changes as well.