Say what you like about Vista, but one ace up is sleeve is definitely the ability to play Crysis using DirectX 10. Eye candy indeed, and an astonishing feat of programming.

I was intrigued to notice in the game's title sequence the other day that the island setting for the game is not too far off the coast of Korea. Coincidentally the venue for the upcoming SC 34 meeting is Jeju Island, and as I write I am in that state of nervous excitement that precedes any long trip. From leaving the front door it is going to be over 20 hours before setting foot in the meeting hotel. If everything goes smoothly.

On a personal level I am expecting (hoping) to hear less at this meeting about OOXML than in the last few, and to be able to return to the important infrastructure XML standards (and in particular DSDL) that first lured me into International standardisation.

So, no nanosuit required ... we shall see ...