I can't remember when I first started noticing this pattern (maybe PDC last year?), and I know it's nothing new. I've been hearing more and more MS and related techies starting their sentences with SO... I've resigned myself to the realization that now ALL (ok most) MS employees do it, and now it's becoming more pervasive outside the MS camp. What's funny is that even in emails and IMs, it's written as the first word - proving that it's really ingrained as part of their speech pattern.

I've been conciously trying to avoid this pattern myself, and have succeeded so far. It's becoming more difficult now that it's leaked into our office here at IK. I wonder how much longer we have until it will die out or move on to another fad (or hopefully I don't subconciously start using it)?

Kirk Allen Evans' Blog : The Red Pill Affects Your Speech Patterns

...and from one of the comments to the above post: Channel 9 and MSDN