As we mentioned in the IE Blog last week, we're getting close to finishing IE7 and shipping it out to the world; in fact, we hope to have it out sometime this month.

This is really a nerve wracking time for me in any ship cycle. We've done everything we think we can and are tying up the loose ends necessary to complete the release. At this point, if we find a bad bug, we have to reset the clock and maybe push out the date. There isn't much we can do to stop the one bad bug; in fact, if it's in there, we want to find it since it's better to find and fix them before we release, regardless of the disappointment to us.

It really reminds me of the feeling I had in the hospital waiting for the kids to be born. We had done our part and were then just waiting for nature to take its course. It's an odd combination of feeling like you've created something and yet being powerless.