[full disclosure, I work for Microsoft.]

Do you have a home computer and a laptop?  Or perhaps a mobile phone running windows mobile along with a computer?  How many different computers do you spend your time on.

Me?

Five.

Two home, two work and my mobile.

Do you want to keep your documents synchronized across that varied landscape?  If the answer to that question is yes then Windows Live Mesh is the answer for you.

How mesh works:
There is a website that you login to using your @live.com email address, http://mesh.live.com.  It becomes your online desktop, the center of the wheel of your devices.  You then download an application to all your other computers that you want to sync with and sign each machine up to the same account.

Once that is done you may create a folder as a mesh folder and the contents of said folder will be sync'ed across all your devices.

It's cool.

Listen to this scenario.

I downloaded the mesh app to my windows mobile phone.  I now have the folder that stores the pictures from my camera phone sync'ed with Live Mesh.  So when I take a picture on my camera, the picture is automatically sync'ed across all my other computers.

Sweet.

Caveats:
You only have 5 gigs to play with for free, so sync'ing your music isn't an option (and any other large media files).  But for personal documents, such as all my writing, it is perfect.  I can pick up any of my writing projects on any machine and just write.

Also, I do not sync my work stuff on my personal pcs.  That is just common sense.

About the Microsoft offer to buy Yahoo!

Nope.

Not gonna do it.

Go somewhere else to read about it.

...oh ok...since you forced me to.

Damn! but what a bold move!

It is a curious move though, in some regards because in many respects Microsoft and Yahoo have competing platforms: email, search, advertising.  But where the rubber meats the road in Internet superhighway is in the size (and quality) of audience.

Google has been able to charge a premium for its advertising because it has the largest audience.

This merger would put the combined Yahoo - Microsoft search engine market share at a near parity with Google.  Therefore they would be more able to compete in the market place.

It remains to be seen if they can successfully merge the two efforts successfully, not a simple task.

This is just dang cool and once again shows us how the world does not stand still.  Innovation continues apace.

http://translator.live.com/Default.aspx?MKT=en-US

So you say...big deal that's just like babel fish from years ago.  Well yes and no.

techRivet Translated

Voila'.  There's techRivet translated for you.

Still you doubt it.  Been done already.

OK, check out the techRivet homepage.  Look up in the top of the right hand column see the translator drop down?  For the vast international audience of the techRivet blog, this must be a welcome relief.

Choose language, click and go.

And for techRivets IT staff it was a simple implementation.  I didn't even have to get the Project Managers involved just spoke to the developer directly and he had it up and running in a matter of minutes.  (The layers of bureaucracy over here is mind numbing).

The UI is intuitive and easy and configurable.  All goodness.

Windows Live is starting to bear fruit for Microsoft.  Once the Office suite goes online it will be an interesting change of the playing field.

ht: Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com