Microsoft's softly spoken Ballmer whispers of change

Whispering into the microphone at an audience of IT developers and professionals at Microsoft's Tech Ed event in San Diego, Steve said that the next 10 years will bring more positive change.

Natural language, artificial intelligence, improved search, mobility and interoperability will be the areas that will have just as much impact as the development of the cell phone, he said.

IT has the power to change the world and in his understated way, he demonstrated what Microsoft was about to do just that.

He previewed the Visual Studio 2005 Team System, Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 2.0 and the Office Information Bridge Framework.

Quite how this cutting edge software will change the world and bring peace in our time, Steve did not say.

He added that companies would face budget constraints and security problems. Then without a trace of irony he added "If security is not addressed confidence in IT could be lost, which would be devastating".

According to the IDG news service, Steve didn't release a beta of Visual Studio 2005 as was expected. A company Microsoft spinster bellowed that the beta might be released at the end of June at Tech Ed Europe in Amsterdam. µ