As part of my job I am required to connect to a third party VPN. The security on that network requires, among other things, all major updates. So, when I tried to login today and could not I decided to force an update. That update took me 3 hours in all. The reason being that SvcHost decided to hog my computer. Steadily mocking me at 99% CPU utilization.

After some head banging I decided to try out my support options. Google was my first stop. I found this site. A very handy description about how to solve this "rare" problem where SvcHost pegs your CPU and Windows Update never gets anywhere. Worked like a charm for me. Thank you Ken!

This also gave me a chance to browse the web a little. A dangerous prospect as it can be hours before I resurface, trying to recall what I was doing in the first place. I came across two things of note.

ZoomIt

The ZoomIt utility from the sysinternals folks. Excellent utility for when you give presentations. A feature I particularly like is being able to wipe the screen blank and write text on it.

Microsoft Surface

The other site I came across was Microsoft Surface. Wow! I want one now! I do think they missed the boat a little with respect to Silverlight. Why not have 2 demonstrations? One done in Flash and another done with fancy interaction in Silverlight?

I like the idea of rotating photos, but seriously, can Microsoft Surface not detect where you are and orient the photos correctly the first time?

The drink demo with the bubbles was neat. What about the Surface detecting you are close to the end of your drink and asking if you would like another?

What about games? It would be cool to see a poker demo complete with digital playing cards and virtual chips.

I would also have liked to see integrated fingerprint/retina reading in the demo. That way, I would not feel so hesitant about putting my PDA or my credit card on one of these Surfaces.

Lastly, this opens up a whole new class of exploits. I love the idea of hacking my way to free desert at a restaurant! Yummmy!