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Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.
 
Permanent link to archive for Thursday, August 30, 2001. Thursday, August 30, 2001

Two views of the scripting world of 2005. In one view, we're all inside Microsoft's box, sharing a common set of libraries and object hierarchies. In the other view, we use our favorite tools and runtimes, our communities stay independent. The glue that connects us is XML-RPC and SOAP.

Daypop is a current events search engine. Very nice!

Krishna Kotecha: "Corporate developers don't compete in the software wars. We're customers who want to build reliable systems quickly to deliver value to our clients. Ultimately, the politics of the platform wars don't really matter. Mercenary? Yes, but that's business."

GeekNews: "It seems there's already a hack for Windows XP 2600 to convert it into the nag-free, crack free, authentication-free Corporate Version."

Maybe I'm missing something but this article in the SJ Merc appears to be total nonsense. Why should Quicken for Mac OS X not be able to talk to financial services that Quicken for Windows can? How is that the operating system's fault? Hello earth to the Merc.

Here's a survey. If I think someone is an idiot, should I say so?

Interesting results. At first the Yes votes dominated the No's, but then the No's caught up and all afternoon they've been running in an absolute dead heat. As I write this at 6PM, there are 66 Yes's and 66 No's. FYI, I voted No. It's not polite to call someone an idiot, even if there's no doubt about it. Aside from that it's impractical, I just checked, and today alone there would be an uncountable number of idiots (e.g. all the people who went long on RHAT in late 1999).

Daniel Berlinger is having an email exchange with the author of the Merc piece. It really does appear that no one is home over at the Merc. If I were going to use the I-word, this would be the time to do it. But I'll resist.

BTW, I got some pushback from people reading my comments the other day about OSes getting in front of the apps. Here's a good example of that. The reporter is so confused that he puts the OS in front about a technical issue when it totally is not. Part of the reason Apple has this problem is that its product is not the OS, it's Steve Jobs. They're probably right that Steve is incompatible with a broad inclusive strategy, but the OS doesn't have that bug. In the end, does it matter that there's a difference between Steve and the platform? This thought may be a little sophisticated for some of my less intelligent readers.

DJ Adams: "Yay! Interop starts here."

BTW, this is the first time I've pointed to the Jabber-RPC list from Scripting News. I wanted to give it a chance to get started before inviting lots of people to join. I'm still struggling to understand how Jabber works. I want a BDG-style document for it. When I grok it I will write it.

BTW, at first I thought DJ Adams and David Adams were the same person. When I introduced myself to DJ at JabberCon it was with this assumption. David Adams is an XML-RPC developer. DJ is one of the leaders of the Jabber community and also an XML-RPC developer. I asked DJ what the D stands for, and he said David. See how strange life is!

I wonder if the J in DJ stands for Jabber?

David Adams pushed back when, in 10/99, I questioned Red Hat's market cap of $5.8 billion. I asked if it was smoke and mirrors. He called it hate and paranoia. Hmmm. Here's what I said. "When you sell a commodity you're very open to price competition. Distribution is a thin business model. In the shakeout that followed one of the CEOs of one of the leading distributers likened it to flying at a thousand miles an hour two feet off the ground. You feel the bumps." Red Hat today is worth a mere $600 million Still overvalued, imho.

BTW, this is why Amazon is in the dumps too. Distribution is a tough tough business.

NewsForge: "VA Linux, the greatest opening hit in stock market history, is now worth one half of one percent of its peak market capitalization."

News.Com: "Even Allchin is unclear on HailStorm's business model and its revenue-generating potential."

Linus Torvalds. "If Microsoft is going to tax everyone on the Internet, don't think the governments will watch their monopoly on tax collection go by."

NY Times: US May Help Chinese Evade Net Censorship. "The agency is in advanced discussions with Safeweb, a small company based in Emeryville, Calif., which has received financing from the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, In-Q-Tel."

2/4/00: "An A-plus for the professor."

Interesting responses to yesterday's piece.

     

Last update: Thursday, August 30, 2001 at 9:38 PM Eastern.

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