Every so often, somebody will spam all the Microsoft blogs with a survey or a plea for a job or some other boilerplate message. Don’t think you’re fooling anyone. It’s not like each blogger lives in a separate world and never talks to anyone else. In reality, we exchange information quite freely and even occasionally get together—usually under the aegis of our overworked leader Betsy—for an informal face-to-face (usually lubricated with beer).

Which reminds me: That April get-together was held at Fadó Seattle, and at some point during the evening, I excused myself and went into the main part of the pub. I headed for what appeared to be a promising hallway, but which instead was merely a large wall covered in thematic decorations. I scanned the wall for a few seconds, then someone walking past said to me, “It’s over there, through that room, on your left.”

I found it intriguing that the gentleman knew exactly what I was looking for based on the fact that I was staring at a wall at the edge of a bar near the kitchen entrance.