I knew that this would be a strange day. On the ride over to Microsoft's impromptu press conference, the taxi driver began riffing about how rainy days were good for sleeping in and watching porn.

A few minutes later, I had a front-row seat to watch Steve Ballmer publicly put the final coda on a decade of dispute in the computer industry as he posed for a handshake with Ron Hovsepian, his opposite number at Novell.