Within a week of installing Microsoft Security Essentials, it is hard at work catching evil threats to my operating system.  The software was easy to install and obviously does a good job.  It was worth every penny I spent on it…

I just downloaded the Silverlight 4 (beta) client for Facebook.  My first positive impression is how much more data I can see without it being too much or cluttered.  I can clearly see the advantage for viewing photos and albums.  If you are a Facebook junkie, you will want to experiment with this app!

I highly recommend Bing for you iPhone users out there.  Here are the things that work great:

• Search – as you would suspect, the search engine is the main attraction.  I find the results are fast and relevant.
• Voice Search – the voice recognition is pleasantly accurate.  I have become very trustworthy of its translation.
• Directions – it is easy to find locations and quickly get directions from where you are (or another predetermined location).
• Settings – this may seem silly, but I enjoy using an application that does not drown the user with endless options.  The settings fit on one page and are easy to understand.

I have only one complaint.  Bing team – why did you not give me the ability to easily copy/save items from my search results?  For example, if I find a link to something I want to review later, the application does not have a provision for this.  If anyone from the Bing team reads this, please add this feature.

Compared to other search engines for the iPhone (Google, SearchIt, default Safari), Bing is clearly my favorite!

Since January 2004, I have been involved with Microsoft’s MVP program with my technical interest being XML.  All good things come to an end, and I am no longer an XML MVP.  This is due to Microsoft dropping XML as an MVP technology proficiency.  In other words, there are no more XML MVPs.  Our days are over…

On a positive note, I have recently been awarded ASP.NET MVP.  I am looking forward to this, as I love to develop in ASP.NET.  As always, a big thanks to Microsoft!

For what it is worth, I still enjoy XML development :)