It is a very interesting development from a content point of view, because Microsoft is embedding a lot of the features directly into the OS instead of plastering them on top.

Especially with financial content, the questions can get pretty complicated and not easy to explain in one keyword.

[This version] continues the trend to bring data mining more into the mainstream of business. Five years ago, data mining was an island unto itself. You needed to be a statistician to use it. It was always somewhat difficult to integrate it with the operational business.

Consider the example of a developer wanting to figure out the best location for a new shopping center. It becomes much easier to create a map with the appropriate value and demographics information using Vista. These are truly intelligent applications.

People are not the only interesting organism on earth. From the point of view of scientific or commercial value, there are lots of interesting organisms.

I certainly wasn't interested in inserting my own point of view. The questions themselves are interesting. There are very intelligent people who come down on both sides of the argument about the existence of angels and demons. For me, it's impossible to live without reckoning -- honestly and deeply -- with those questions, because how you answer them is going to affect how you live, how you think.