Encarta Power

This year Microsoft decided that I was a "Most Valued Professional for 2003". Very nice of them, and much appreciated. Not quite sure what I did to deserve this (in a good way) but I intend to try and do it again for next year. Anyhoo, one of the things that you get is a wad of "Microsoft bucks" to spend at the company store, which is a slick, online setup. I've bought a whole bunch of books about programming .NET and a copy of Encarta on DVD. I've got a kind of theory that Encarta plus Tablet PC is a really good idea, especially considering that you can run the product without the disk installed.

And that is how it is turning out. My tablet is now a kind of "super encyclopedia" which I can use anywhere. The book model works really well and the WIFI networking means that I can download updates to the content. But I haven't got to the best bit yet. I fired up the mapping part and opened up a view of Northern Europe, which shows Great Britain amongst other places. The best bit is that only four cities are displayed on the GB map, London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Hull. And Hull is where I live. Ha. Eat your hearts out Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Milton Keynes. A small victory, but significant I feel.

As for Encarta itself, great fun and very useful. The 360 degree views are super, although I'm not sure why they have a view of a wine cellar in France. Nice barrels though....