After spending hours learning to play the fake guitar simply to get a higher score, I often wondered why someone couldn’t make a game to learn useful skills. Where’s arithmetic Hero? Going-to-bed-on-time Hero? Microsoft Office Ribbon Hero?

Well, at least the last one finally exists. Microsoft Ribbon Hero lets you learn to use the Microsoft Ribbon and earn points while doing it. They even have Facebook integration so you can compete against your friends and coworkers. (My FB account is here, if you want to challenge me)

The premise of the Ribbon is based on sound UI design (it’s even won awards), but it’s so different than what we were used to. If you’re like me, you’ve figured out where your most commonly used items are on the Ribbon, but haven’t fully explored the other features and often have to hunt for that one option that you use so rarely. Well, let’s take that need for points and apply it to learning something we can actually use in everyday life.

Finally, a game you can play in front of the boss. After all, you’re increasing productivity!

While browsing Microsoft's Virtualization site, I stumbled across an upcoming event:

Looking at Desktop Virtualization including VDI? Thinking about Windows 7 migration; Want savings, but wondering about ROI?

Join Microsoft, industry experts and IT leaders: Desktop Virtualization Hour, March 18th, 9am PST.

This is all the information they’re sharing with the public at the moment, which normally might indicate a lack of planned content… but considering the fact that they purchased a domain just for this event, http://www.desktopvirtualizationhour.com/, Microsoft is being suspiciously vague about their plans.

I managed to find a ZDNet whitepaper posting from January that has some extra lines of description:

Have more questions than answers on the topic?
...
Watch and interact live with Microsoft, industry experts and IT leaders for a moderated televised discussion. Submit your questions in the hour or in advance.

Does the fact that these lines don’t appear on the event-specific domain mean something? Perhaps they’ve already chosen the questions they’re going to answer, or perhaps the list of experts grew too large to allow viewer participation? We’ll have to wait and see what transpires.

In the mean time, you can study up on VDI in preparation of this event:

• Microsoft's Virtualized Desktop Products and Technology – Homepage for Microsoft’s VDI solutions
• TechNet video series on VDI deployment (Part 2, Part 3) – Matt McSpirit walks through setting up VDI