Just like any other big tech convention, cool announcements always float out that make everyone giddy like children and this is no exception. DirectTV announced they would be pairing up with software goliath Microsoft to put the digital television service in the Xbox 360.

A new Google subdomain replete with the software packages comprising Google Pack went online today and offers Windows PC users nearly everything they need to make their computers very useful.

Well kind of live. Engadget is “Barry Schwartzing”* Terry Semel’s keynote speach.

Nobody can say Google doesn’t have a sense of humor. But they might be able to say Google doesn’t have a sense of fashion. At least at the Google Store, they have something for everybody, like

Rubel reports Jonathan Schwartz, President and COO of Sun Microsystems is a big fan of blogging.

Shel Israel talks about the disruption of his own business:

This was written in January of 1990, but is still meaningful today, though we do have better debugging tools now. This was originally published in the Boston Computer Society’s PC Report.

The scenario: A limited budget and more limited knowledge of coding and SEO make choosing a shopping cart software for a website a frustrating task. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then you needn’t read the rest of this article. Enjoy your customizable open source build from the ground up world. If this is your predicament, welcome to the club and read on.

I have been invited to try the public beta of Newsvine, a news aggregation/citizen journalism hybrid.

Google’s not the only search company with something to announce at CES today.

After purchasing a small technology firm based in Waterloo, Ontario, Google has decided to expand its presence by adding more staff in Waterloo.

Yet another telecom CEO, this time Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg, sees the need for content providers like Google and Microsoft as well as consumers to pay for the network.

A global business perceptions survey is offered for your participation by William Prado, Director of the MBA Program at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.

Come over to Lora Heiny’s monster geek/tablet/blogger meetup at the Aladdin Desert Passage shopping area at 4 p.m.

YellowPages.com listings have a new place for online display: the immense number of pages contained in Yahoo’s local site.

Here’s a link to the “About Google Pack” page. Looks like you at least get something extra with Google Pack.

I ran into Paul Thurrott tonight at one of those stick-50-companies-into-a-room-with-beer-and-finger-food-and-pour-press-people-in parties and we got to talking about Office 12.

Rather than wait through the weekend until Patch Tuesday, Microsoft made a patch for the critical flaw available today.

ThreadWatch writes that the Wall Street Journal has the scoop on Google’s CES announcement, and its a video download rental service and a software bundle?

Oh goody, more speculation and rumor.

The line between email marketers and spammers is a thin one. But for many legitimate e-business professionals, targeted email is an essential part of the business. The next wave of email marketing is permission-based, and companies are working to differentiate their bulk emails from spam.

Microsoft, like the other major players in the tech world, isn’t about to miss the boat on Web and mobile entertainment. Google and Yahoo will no doubt be launching a media blitz at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and Microsoft has won’t be overshadowed. The Redmond-based software-and-everything-else company has made agreements to take MSN TV to the car and anything else that moves.