...more recent posts
It's getting pretty exciting on the software front. Microsoft's new .NET strategy has really stoked the fires. Perhaps because it sounds just like what everybody except Microsoft has been saying for the past couple of years. Now that Microsoft has bought in, things are going to evolve fast. Tune in to scripting news for near constant reports from the trenches. Here's a typically insightful link. Lots of buzzwords, sure, but that may be the best explanation of what's happening I've heard lately. The key point, I think, is that we are trying to enable our data (content, documents, ect...) to be understood (read, processed) by software. Until now we've only been concerned with our data being accessible to people. Making the jump from human readable to machine readable is a big jump. It is like we are turning our minds inside out. The process of externalizing our minds is the process of completely specifiying how it is that we process information in our minds. Producing this complete specification is the same as producing software that can do the job. XML is not any sort of answer. It's the starting point. It's a specification for how we are going to describe this externalization of our thought. It's not the externalization itself. That will be something implemented using XML (not XML itself.) I think the real fun part is about to begin.
The BBC has a funny article on Russian crop circles. I like how the Russian government just talks matter of factly about the existence of UFO's. Vasily Belchenko, security council deputy secretary, said "An unknown object definitely landed there. It obviously used an unknown landing principle."
Had a great dinner with MB, Mike, and Linda last night at Blue Hill (75 Washington Place.) Get in before the word gets out. Trust me.
Lots of quick links today. First up, genehack refreshes our memory with a link to As we may think, the 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush. Amazing. Is it that he saw the future, or that people built the future he saw? I can't think of a better starting place for the historian of computers. A modern example of the knowledge sharing made possible by the information devices Mr. Bush predicted is nanodot.org, yet another slashdot style site, this one run by the foresight institute and of course covering the world of nanotech research. Looks good. Tord Jansson gives us his first draft of Why software shouldn't be covered by patents (from advogato) while the Free Protocols Foundation explains why we should just say no to WAP. Will Sanchez (lead Darwin developer from Apple) outlines, interestingly, some of the problems integrating the MacOS and UNIX (if you're into that sort of thing.) And finally, Simon St.Laurant tries to poke a little hole in the hype, as he explores some of the problems generated by the transition to XML.