TechCrunch picked up on a couple of goings on at TechFest 2009 ? where the smart guys at Microsoft Research share their latest ideas. Stuff such as: Surface Image Projection beyond the screen. Social Desktop Viveri ? actually, this was mentioned by LiveSide. But my favourite ? as a citizen-journalist kind of a guy is this real-time video stitching stuff. Now, I?d settle for an audio input jack on my Kodaks right now, but it?s very cool to see where things might be going. What fills me with optimism is that despite the tough position the world is in, that this sort of research is continuing to be being funded by Microsoft, that we?re betting big on R&D and continuing to drive innovation and advances in technology.