Most likely you’ve seen the news today of the 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich up for sale on eBay. A Miami woman claims to have taken one bite from the sandwich only to find the face of the Virgin Mary staring at her. The photos look pretty convincing. According to several reports the bids have hit as high as $69,000. It’s a shame that the woman wasn’t more of a shrewd marketer. Just maybe, if she had contacted the folks at Microsoft in time the decade-old half sandwich could have been part of Microsoft’s “magic” themed keynote presentation earlier this week at its IT Forum in Copenhagen. I bet she could have got more than $69,000 out of Bill.Bill Gates and Co. used a real magician, smoke, mirrors, and its own software to talk about how the magic of software can reduce IT complexity. Gates discussed Microsoft’s long-term DSI vision, which promises reduced IT complexity through automated creation and maintenance of distributed systems. I might be a little more sold on the magic of Microsoft products if Bill would have unveiled the image of Melinda Gates on a grilled cheese. They also could have claimed that buying Microsoft products will bring good luck, just as the Miami woman claimed her Virgin Mary sandwich helped her rake in $70,000 at a local casino. In fact, it may not be too late. The Virgin Mary grilled cheese aparently has spawned several copy cat eBay edibles, including Yasser Arafat on a falafel and a George W Bush tortilla. But seriously, one tid-bit of news coming out of Copenhagen that seemed to get lost behind all the smoke and magic is the release of the Windows Server System Common Engineering Report, a Web-based report that lists the status of compliance in various Windows Server System products with the Common Engineering Criteria for 2005. Back in May at TechEd I wrote about this Common Engineering Criteria for 2005, which aims to provide a consistent set of server features across Windows Server System products. This will help reduce complexity at the engineering level and improve integration, according to Microsoft. The Common Engineering Criteria is connected to Microsoft’s DSI plan it touted this week in Copenhagen. According to a Microsoft representative, the DSI technology concepts will be productized in the Windows Server System via this common engineering process. The report posted this week is Microsoft’s attempt to show its progress toward that end, and give its customers information about which products are compliant with the effort.The Common Engineering Criteria effort is designed to make DSI more tangible. Proof that Microsoft is taking steps toward making IT system management less painful and less complex for IT managers, now that’s magic. Technology Industry