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I was recently asked by the Microsoft Partner Program to showcase my company, LiveGadgets.net, and how I use Windows Vista in my business. As I'm a big fan of Vista Sidebar, I was only too happy to oblige.

Check out my video as it appears on Soapbox:

Instead of havng dozens of posts, I'm changing this post to hold my latest powerball score. I'll keep it updated with the rpm and date/time each time I break my old score.

12,320 rpm 02/04/2007 12:30pm (Superbowl Sunday)

1. Wheaties

12,111 rpm 02/02/2007 7:50pm

Whooooooooo hoooooooooooo! I FINALLY passed the 12k mark in Powerball. Not that this is how I acomplished it, but here's what I was doing this time.

1. I used compressed air two days ago to clean out the plastic shards (although you can see from the photo, some have reformed).
2. I started this afternoon cold and managed a few 11.7k runs.
3. Then I slowly spun the powerball at 3-5k for about 15 minutes, transfering it back and forth between hands.
4. I tried to keep my arm as straight as I could and use only my wrist.
5. Then I got my 12k run.
6. Oh, and I had 2 martinis just prior! :)

If you have a Windows Live Space, you can earn commission selling Windows Vista through the Amazon.com Associates Program. Read more about the gadget or download it to your space to start earning $2, $20, even $50 or more PER DAY depending on your site traffic.

Or you can simply order Windows Vista from Amazon.com and receive up to $20 off on selected versions plus free shipping. Windows Vista ships on January 30th but Amazon is accepting pre-orders so you will be one of the first to experience the "Wow"!

On this, the biggest geeks day of the year (the launch of Windows Vista), I would like to blog about something completely non-techy. For Christmas, my brother-in-law received a Powerball. Over the holidays we both got into a bit of a competition trying to best each other's high score (i.e. maximum RPMs). Back then we were both struggling to break 10,000.

I've since gotten my own Powerball and today managed 11,935. Nothing at all compared to the world record of 16,317, but I'm getting there!

Today Microsoft released it's Windows Live Contacts gadget, along with a cool Start a Party mashup demo.

I was fortunate enough to be involved in both of these projects and am excited to see it finally ship!

When I run a gadget locally (i.e. and not within the Live.com environment), a "View Source" reveals something very interesting.

The <TITLE> element is set to "Windows Live Sidebar Gadget" and the binding type is "Start.SidebarGadgetApp".

Hmmm... Could this be a hint at things to come? I've tried to run Live.com "web" gadgets in Vista Sidebar in the past, but unfortunately the public Beta 2 5384 doesn't allow iframes. It looks like the Sidebar team will probably lift that restriction so that "Windows Live Sidebar Gadgets" can run.