Wednesday 09 July 2003

so what happens now? 11:08:04 AM

looks real nice 10:33:40 AM

Eric Kidd has summarized some of the responses provoked by his piece on 'Missing Future'. The response that I wish I had written comes from Alex Hoffman, who says "focus away from technology, platforms and the development community, to real world end-users and their requirements" and "Come to realize that the software industry is dominated NOT by companies like Microsoft or the open source movement. That's a developer-centric view of the industry." Of course, it is true that some architectures, platforms and languages are better than others for certain tasks. And the choice of architecture can have serious implications down the road. But my point is that a focus on these things is seriously lacking in perspective. In the overall scheme of things, the value is created and the money flows because you have satisfied a real-world need, NOT because you have made a "better" platform. You can make lots of people happy and solve lots of real-world problems without having a very good platform, but you can go broke even with the "best" platform if you are NOT making real people happy and solving real-world problems. And as far as I can tell, real-world problems that could benefit from software are infinite. [Better Living Through Software] 10:30:48 AM

The White House knew information about Iraq was false before George Bush used it in a speech, a CIA official says. [BBC News] 9:32:55 AM

Arts: American archaeologist urges her compatriots to kill looters who are pillaging archaeological sites in Iraq. [Guardian Unlimited] 9:32:05 AM

Robbie McEwen says he was lucky not be knocked of his bike near the finish of the third stage of the Tour de France. [BBC News | World | Asia-Pacific | UK Edition] 9:27:55 AM

Subhas Mukhopadhyay, one of the greatest poets of the Bengali language, dies at the age of 84. [BBC News | World | South Asia | UK Edition] 12:24:55 AM

The newspaper plans to start charging for some of its online content from 30 July. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] 12:23:20 AM

New York Times:"Andrew Heiskell, a former chairman of Time Inc. and a philanthropist whose efforts at civic improvement helped rescue the New York Public Library and Bryant Park from shabbiness and decline and provide low-cost housing on a large scale in New York, died yesterday at his home in Darien, Conn." Andrew Heiskell was a former executive at my parent company and heavily involved in philanthropy. He was a good man. [Swimming with the Razorfishes] 12:18:01 AM