Microsoft's Solver Foundation

The new iniciative seems very promising! It's also interesting how Microsoft is focusing on DSLs and declarative/functional programing (LINQ, F#) to enabled easier modeling of problems.

The exact features of this new managed library are not clear. Will download to check it out.

WebSlice, Activity XML and IE8

As part of the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, both WebSlice and Activity are really cool ideas.

I could not imagine anything much simpler than what was proposed. And while some people ignorantly keep reject everything Microsoft, I'm pleased to see the old activex days behind and very excited to welcome the new Microsoft to the new web!