This sound familiar? You've got most of your tunes on your PC—you know, that dull black box sitting quietly in your home office. But we all know that's not where the action is. 

No, you wanna rock out in your living room...your bedroom....your kitchen.  

Enter the media streamer. In its August print edition, PC World has a nice piece on these increasingly popular gadgets, which basically tap your home network to stream music, photos and video from your PC to your TV or stereo.

Here's why I bring this up. In the article, writer Lincoln Spector briefly points out that you don't necessarily have to shell out $200 to $400 for a stand-alone media streamer. Because it turns out that you can do pretty much the same thing with an Xbox 360 and Windows Media Center.

If you're curious, check out the column I recently wrote for Windows Help and How-to that explains how well the Xbox 360 works as a media jukebox and how you go about setting it up.

I'm also thinking about posting an informal video to illustrate how it all works. Any interest? How many of you are already using your Xbox like this?

<Michael Stroh>

OK, I'll admit it: I have a soft spot in my heart for geeks (hey, look where I work) and cute babies (got one of my own). But geeks and cute babies?

Meet the enchanting Vista Avalon Simser. Born in May to a Canadian programmer named Bil Simser and his wife, the baby girl was named after, you guessed it, Windows Vista. On his blog, the proud parental unit (who—natch—specializes in Microsoft software) announced the arrival of his offspring as only a true techie could: "After almost 9 months of pre-production she's finally arrived."

As for baby Vista's middle name. Yes, "Avalon" was a one-time Microsoft codename. But Simser says he and his wife were inspired more by its appearance in Arthurian legend and Canadian geography. The name, he writes, just "sounded right to match Vista."

It turns out the Simser clan is far from unique. A Swedish couple recently named their son Google (his middle name). And then there's this dude in Michigan, who somehow convinced his wife (under anesthesia?) to append "2.0" to the name of their second son, rather than the traditional "Jr." or "II".

None of these tech-inspired names has yet to make the Social Security Administration's popular database of baby names. Is it just a matter of time?

Simser, meanwhile, thinks the torrid pace of change in the technology industry will insulate his little girl from the "slings and arrows" of Luddites, Apple fans, or anyone else who might take issue with having a computer operating system as a distant relative. "Hopefully by the time she's old enough for someone to make fun of her name, nobody will remember where it came from," he writes. Ouch.

<Michael Stroh>

There's no shortage of blogs about Microsoft these days. Some are written by business journalists who cover the company. Others are cranked out by Microsoft insiders—the product managers, designers and sleep-deprived code jockeys who actually create the software.

Interesting stuff if you're a business junkie or a programming geek. But what if you're not?

Welcome to Click.

Click is a Microsoft blog for the rest of us—a place to share stories, blow off steam, swap tips, get help and talk shop about Microsoft Windows and the other technologies in our lives.  So whether you're an armchair technophile or you're still learning your way around the keyboard, we think you'll find something worth checking out here each week. (So go on and click that RSS feed button at the top of the page...we know you don't wanna miss a single word!)

Who are we?

We're a team of Microsoft writers and editors who help create Windows. We write many of the words you see in the software, from the sublime poetry (humor alert) of "Shutting down" to the rich archive of built-in help articles that explain how to do stuff and solve problems with your Windows PC. All these articles, as well as cool how-to videos, columns and much more, are also available at Windows Help and How-to, Microsoft's official online Windows help center.  We run this too, so check it out!

Some of us are former technology journalists who've worked for daily newspapers and magazines like Popular Science, PC World and National Geographic Adventure. Others here earned their nerd creds at Boeing and NASA.

What unites us is a passion for technology—and irritation at the unnecessary complications and confusing techno-babble that often go along with it. As Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg once wrote: "Personal computers are too hard to use, and it's not your fault." At Microsoft, we're doing our best to make PCs easier to use (hey, we have to live with this stuff too, you know)—but we know there's more work to be done.

So whether it's a question about Windows or Microsoft, a suggestion for improving Windows Help—or just some random musing about life in the digital age, we hope you'll join the conversation at Click.