Wednesday, May 08, 2002

James Snell: Paul Prescod's rules for Extreme Web Services. Quite interesting. I absolutely agree with #'s 1, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10. (#6 is missing for some reason). I'm still trying to determine how I feel about #'s 2, 3 and 8.  Matches my feelings pretty closely.  However,  #4 is worded a bit too "motherhood and apple pie" for my tastes... I've seen a number of underspecified protocols and people all to willing to insert their one opinions as to the original intent.   2, 3, 8 somehow seem to almost presume that the only client is a browser, particularly the statement that clients should be considered entirely stateless.  There are lots of interesting topologies with smart clients and dumb servers. Note also that "RDF is the standard for metadata" is slipped into #5.  Smooth, eh?  Metadata is a broad term.  I also consider XML Schema metadata. [Sam Ruby] 10:49:16 PM

Five Worlds: not all software development is the same. PS. There is a large grey area between internal, consultingware, and shrinkwrap - the three worlds are often a continuum. Often products start out as internal products, then the business guys have the bright idea of selling it to other companies, but it is so brittle and makes so many assumptions about its environment that it takes weeks to install it at other customers' sites, which is how consultingware is born. (cf. Vignette StoryServer which started as c|net's inhouse content management system and now costs millions to get running.) Theoretically the software should then migrate towards shrinkwrap as the customer base grows, with increasing emphasis on ease of installation, but these companies get so addicted to their consulting revenue they don't see any benefit in making it easier to use off-the-shelf. And many internal developers have no prior experience with making software run in the wild, so it doesn't. [Joel on Software] 2:44:13 PM

I.B.M. Chief Told Employees of Weak Outlook. I.B.M.'s new chief executive told employees late last month that the outlook for technology demand was weak and suggested that job cuts were possible. [New York Times: Technology] 2:30:22 PM

Highlights From Berkshire's Meeting. Whitney Tilson sums up Buffett and Munger's investing wit and wisdom. [The Motley Fool] 2:18:40 PM

Dotcom death rate falls. Ripper [The Register] 7:28:25 AM

Java server maker Lutris bows out [IDG InfoWorld] 7:14:54 AM

Earnings alert: Cisco, WebMD on mend. The company also reports its first cash profit...Cost cutting leads Cisco to a third-quarter profit...Weak economy and customer slump spell wider loss for Time Warner Telecom. [CNET News.com] 7:06:10 AM