The blog is too cluttered with marketing-speak, but the accompanying 22-minute video is very good in conveying what "Project Glidepath" is about: guidance (including, but not just code templates) for "MicroISVs" (1-10 person SD teams), integrated into the IDE. Too much "software factory" talk has been very rarified; it's nice …

Apropos of yesterday's blog entries (XML: Unix Pipe or ASM? and WS-* vs. REST/POX: Revenge of Worse is Better): the always interesting Peter Coffee paints a picture of how WS-* approaches to SOA lead to success. Contrast with Brian Marick's \<a href="http://www.knowing.net/ct.ashx?id …

If we're to have any defense against the zombie hordes, it will be by the innovative work of a generation of master roboticists. This vanguard of humanity will, perhaps, learn their skills using the new Microsoft Robotics Studio, available for free download . The only excuse to not check this out …

I recently talked to a former client for whom I'd architected a system 4-5 years ago. When I left, they had a technical staff of about 10 and 2 clients using the back-end system we developed. Today, they have the same size technical staff and 900 clients using the system …

I screwed up an online order entry and wrote to customer service, saying that I wanted to affirm that I ordered two instead of one. This was how "Josh" began addressing the issue: "I recognize your concern that you want to affirm that you ordered...." Seems rather Eliza-esque to me …

Fluffernutters banned from schools. Mmmm.... Fluffernutter. Between Fluff, Necco Wafers, Hoodsies, and Drake's Cakes, my Boston childhood was apparently in line with the "eat locally" value. I wonder where Spaghettios were invented...

Richard Gabriel's famous essay "The Rise of Worse is Better" (which, incidentally, I still think was originally published by me when I was editing AI Expert) details the "survival characteristics" of two approaches to software design: the "MIT approach" and the "New Jersey approach" (Bell Labs). He proposes these characteristics …

The sharp and capable Clemens Vaster says that "XML is the assembly language of Web 2.0," drawing a complexity/productivity analogy to higher-level programming languages, which everyone but Steve Gibson thinks are worthwhile tools. The upshot: "[we] have arrived at the point where matters have gotten so complicated that …

ActiveSync is the worst piece of software I use on a regular basis. I hate it: the way it irregularly wakes up the device, the way it loses profiles, the way it deals with resolving conflicts, its bugs... Vista apparently has device synchronization built in to it, hopefully rewritten from …

My "knowing" exercises made the Digg homepage. Now I have to resist the temptation to check the comments every 15 minutes...

Failed...Okay, this time for sure...