What rolls out on day-one with more than 300 million users and nearly a BILLION authentications per day?

The new Windows Live ID, that's what. And that's exactly what happened, while you were using it and going about your daily business.

Microsoft's completed the roll-out of Windows LiveID to replace its Passport network infrastructure. It was all happening behind the scenes recently, and the next steps are for Microsoft and its partners to start rolling out some of the new technologies - some of which you can see and some of which is under the covers - to show off and leverage the new service.

"You'll start to see the new sign-in experience and all the goodness within a few weeks when we light up some partners," said Trevin Chow, Lead Program Manager on the Windows LiveID team.

So, what exactly is LiveID?

Well, you can read a whitepaper that was recently published to get all the salient details, but basically it's a new component in the Identity Metasystem that replaces Passport. It will eventually support both self-issued and third-party managed/issued InfoCards as credentials, and a SDK will be available.

What this all means is that Passport has grown up, and control of personal information will be more and more in the hands of the end users. In the future, Live ID will leverage InfoCards, which means more individual control of the claims used to identify users to online apps. Participation in the Identity Metasystem and following it's governing standards - the Laws of Identity - mean end users can leverage a centralized service but still maintain control over - and make decisions about - what specific information is sent to what services.

It's good news. Check out http://login.live.com - you'll notice the new footer on the signin section.

I've used Mike Singer's little SysSense tool to keep an eye on my Google AdSense for quite a while now. He keeps it up to date whenever Google changes their AdSense system, and I really appreciate that. Since I was over at his site upgrading the tool today to a new version he just released, I looked around at some of the other software he has built.

I downloaded one of the apps, called Weather Watcher, because it looks very cool and seems to be a great little app that displays things is a very usable and concise manner. Turns out it's really very cool, very configurable, and very free. Use it and if you like it, make a donation.

Victor Garza over at the InfoWorld Zero Day Security weblog wrote a bit about his experience with his Verizon EVDO card. He recently switched over to the Kyocera KPC650 PC card (which is the one I have) after complaining to Verizon about the performance of his older card, which had an integrated antenna, and says he has seen some real improvements.

What really caught my eye in his blog entry, though was this:

"I've also heard that several speed improvements are coming to Verizon's EVDO marketplace. Requiring only a firmware update to existing EVDO cards this update will kick speeds up to the megabit range..."

Hmmm - anyone heard about this? If this happens - and I sure hope it does - I will be one very happy Internet addict. Looks like the reference is to EVDO Rel. A, which promises upgraded speeds of up to 3.1mbps downstream and 1.8mbps downstream - much faster than today's EVDO networks speeds. Fingers crossed here that a firmware upgrade will be available, and we don't all have to buy new cards!

Also, you can read a bit more about the history and future of EVDO here.

If you have a Blackberry and want to make custom wallpapers for your device (for example, I have the 8700 and wanted to make my own backgrounds with a few image files I have on my computer), check out the Blackberry Wallpaper Generator on the Blackberry Cool web site.

Just upload an image, and the site will let you send the pic link in email to your BB device. Click on the link to view the image on the handheld, then save it and - if you like - make it your wallpaper.

Nothing too complicated, but this is a quick and easy way to get it done.

I thought this was just about the coolest thing ever when I saw it a couple weeks ago in Florida.

Many people park their boats in the water at a marina. But at the place where my aunt and uncle keep theirs in Florida, the boats are all stacked in these huge racks in a warehouse and are moved around by great big fork-lifts. Want to take your boat out on the water? No problem, they'll get it for ya. They drop it right in the water alongside the dock and pick it up from the same place. High, dry, and presumably safer from storms than if it was stored outside in the water. Sure keeps the boats nice and clean and secure. Pretty cool.

A couple weeks ago I visited my aunt and uncle, Gail and Scott, in St. Pete while I was in Florida for a work conference. We went out on the boat and hung out for a while on the beach. It was a great weekend.

Scott pilots the boat:

... and cleans it afterward:

Me and my aunt Gail on the beach - you can tell I'm not from Florida eh? I didn't pack any shorts.

Back before the iPod was in anyone's hands, Steve Jobs introduced the new product to the world. It's interesting to look back at his introductory speech, which was presented back in 2001, in the context of what's happened between then and now.

View the video here.

I'm glad we've been able to switch from FireWire to USB 2.0 though.

Apple had a powerful vision back then, and made it came true. It's returned them to the true center of the stage. The company is three times the size it was just a few years back  (and they're building a whole new campus in Cupertino - click for video) and - of course - it's once again the major household name it used to be back in the 80's. It will be interesting to see what else they come up with next in order to completely define an industry. And I mean define an industry and a market that does not exist yet, much like they did with the iPod.

(via Presentation Zen)