• A couple of weeks ago Microsoft announced Azure, which is their offering in the hot cloud computing business. It's not easy to grasp what it implies, but it is a platform "in the cloud", on top of which there runs services including Live, .NET and SQL services. For now at least, you're dependent on Microsoft's development tool Visual Studio to develop for Azure. Microsoft's new offering does not depart from the usual confusion surrounding all their web-based products. Also I think that it implies some serious lock-in effects. So unless you have already invested heavily in Microsoft technologies, you are better off staying out.
  Ted Dziuba gives an alternative view of Azure, with some interesting points. Though he thinks it is a bit confusing compared to the offerings by Amazon and Google, he still thinks Microsoft could be a winner:     

  Fortunately for Microsoft, decision makers don't choose a hosted application platform based on specifications. They choose based on the number of stock photos of clouds and the amount of sans-serif blue typeface you have on your webpage. In that regard, Redmond is the clear winner. [...]
  This is all within one standard deviation of the average amount of fail in any given Microsoft product. In fact, I think it stands a better chance than Google's or Amazon's offering.

  Tags: cloud computing, Microsoft

• Microsoft's coming operating system Windows 7, might contain something called MinWin, reports Mary-Jo Foley, referring to a webcast featuring Mark Russinovich. MinWin lies at the core of the Windows OS, containing basic services and is a self-contained executable unit, independent of any outside services. Mary-Jo seems uncertain about whether MinWin will actually ship as a part of Windows 7, or if it's just a development project aimed at future Windows version like Windows 8 or even Midori. Possibly it's part of the much awaited from the ground up rewrite of the Windows code base?
  Tags: MinWin, Windows 7
• In another move to increase its customer base, Microsoft has launched BizSpark, a partner program for startups who for free (almost) get access to Microsoft's development tools via a MSDN Premium subscription, web hosting rights and access to the Azure services platform, for a three-year period. The major catch perhaps is that to join you have to connect with a Network partner, which are venture firms and other businesses and organizations focusing on services for startups and entrepreneurs. This can be a trouble if you want to stay independent. Another catch of course is that if you're still in business after three years, you have to start paying the bills from Microsoft.
  Tags: entrepreneurial, Microsoft
• Last week I wrote that Google now is an OpenID Identity Provider (IdP). Some folks argued that Google somehow had violated the specification and "forked" OpenID, something that is now denied in a post by DeWitt Clinton. A point of criticism stems from the fact that Google has used a new feature of the OpenID 2.0 specification known as Directed Identity, which is exemplified by Clinton as follows: 
  

  Directed Identity allows users to enter a generic domain name (e.g.., “example.com”), rather than a fully qualified identity (e.g., “example.com/users/bob”), so that they can use their identity provider to make an informed decision about how much personal information to expose to the RP [Relying Party]"

  Some commenter to Clinton's post argued that OpenID had forked itself by including such possibilities in version 2.0 of the specification. There is also an ongoing debate about whether it is a good idea to allow for email addresses as OpenID identifiers.
  Tags: OpenID

• OStatic writes that the open source Ogg Theora video codec now has reached version 1.0 status. The Xiph.Org Foundation stands behind the open source effort, which includes the Vorbis audio codec, the Theora video codec, and the Ogg multimedia container format, which encapsulates the codecs. Ogg Theora is a good candidate for the HTML 5 video element, though no codec is officially sanctioned by W3C.
  Tags: HTML5
• Lidija Davis writes about Small Basic, a new flavour of the original BASIC programming language from Microsoft, built on top of the .NET platform. The development environment is purely text based, in contrast to the visual environments provided by the alternatives Scratch and Alice. A commenter to Lidija's post also mentions the commercial alternative Phrogram, which I haven't checked out further.
  The help texts and introductions to Small Basic are written in a quite advanced language, hardly comprehensible to smaller kids. You probably should be at least around 12 years old and a bit nerdy inclined to enjoy Small Basic. I think Scratch, which I first wrote about in May, is better suited for smaller kids, 8 and up, whereas Alice seems to be aimed chiefly at college kids.
  Tags: kids, programming

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• How to Count to Windows 7 (and a few more) [Best of October '08 #2-3]

• This week saw the return of Web 3.0 definitions on the table. Marc Benioff, CEO of salesforce.com, in a guest post at TechChrunchIT, proposed that Web 3.0 is about cloud computing and platforms as a service. As he writes:
  

  The new rallying cry of Web 3.0 is that anyone can innovate, anywhere. Code is written, collaborated on, debugged, tested, deployed, and run in the cloud. [...]
  For developers, Web 3.0 means that all they need to create their dream app is an idea, a browser, some Red Bull, and a few Hot Pockets.

  Naturally, as Marc mentions in passing, salesforce is a provider of platform as a service via their force.com offering. Nonetheless, I think that Mark has point in that infrastructure as a service, as provided by Amazon AWS, Google App Engine and others, is truly disruptive in that it makes it possible to launch an online business with very limited resources.
  Now, where does this new definition of Web 3.0 fit into my categorization of the Web 3.0 landscape? In part it belongs to the APIs and Web Services definition, or the Distributed Web as I proposed to call it, but it could well make up an own category among the "Other definitions".
  Tags: cloud computing, Web 3.0

• Another suggestion for the meaning of Web 3.0 was put forward by Mattt Thompson of the Yahoo Developer Network, as suitably recognized by Josh Catone. Mattt means that Web 3.0 will be characterized by browser extentions, like Google Gears and Yahoo BrowserPlus, that enhance the user experience of Web applications by providing features such as offline access. This view of Web 3.0 is focused more on the client side user experience of the Web, as opposed to the back-end infrastructure view as represented by Marc Benioff above. Not to say that the user experience is unimportant, but in my humble view, the changes that APIs, web services and cloud computing bring to the Web are more disruptive than some user interface enhancements.
  Tags: Gears, Web 3.0
• Chris Shipley of the Demo conference suggests that the Web 2.0 cycle has come to a close, and will be succeeded by the Distributed Web:
  

  This next phase is not about aggregating content or visitors to a single Web site; it's about disseminating information and applications to the users where ever they may be - another Web site, a mobile device, a consumer electronics gadget.

  In my Web 3.0 post, I proposed that the Distributed Web is characterized by APIs and web services, "signifying that a web site's content is consumed at multiple destinations through its API." Thus, while my definition is more focused on the underlying mechanisms of distribution, APIs and web services, Chris focus is more on the result of the distribution: the user's ability to consume web content and services wherever she might be.
  Richard MacManus, who first noticed Chris article, agrees to the significance of the notion of the Distributed Web, but disagrees that the "free" model of web services has ended, which also was one of Chris' assertions.
  Tags: Distributed Web, Web 3.0

• Google Jumps Head First Into Web Services With Google App Engine – Michael Arrington
  Google App Engine, a hosted web application platform. Current limitations: Free up to 500 MB of storage and 5 M page views a month, Python language initially, Synchronous HTTP or HTTPS requests on standard ports (GET, POST, HEAD, PUT and DELETE), Can read but not write to file system (use Datastore for persistance), Application only runs in response to a web request, and must return within a few seconds.
  Tags: App Engine, cloud computing
• GitHub: A Social Network for Programmers – Josh Catone
  A code repository hosting service and social network for programmers. "GitHub could be the next SourceForge."
  Tags: programming
• How to Get Customer Service via Twitter – Sarah Perez
  The interesting part: How to track tweets. Via a pipe, Tweet Scan or Quotably.
  Tags: Twitter
• FirstRain Research Suite: Look and Drool – Marshall Kirkpatrick
  An expensive financial web analysis tool with intelligent filtering. Interesting as a concept.
  Tags: aggregation, concepts

• Trendrr Makes Data Mashups A Breeze – Josh Catone
  Trendrr, a potentially useful service for tracking and graphing data. Comes with an API.
  Tags: graphing
• Scalr: The Auto-Scaling Open-Source Amazon EC2 Effort – Henry Work
  An open source initiative for managing Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service.
  Tags: cloud computing, open source
• Google Gears, a Software Update for the Web – Ionut Alex Chitu
  An embedded Google TechTalk video about what's new with Google Gears - "An open-source mechanism for updating the Web." HTML 5 and Gears have a lot in common.
  Tags: Google Gears
• Europe-Focused Blog Search Engine Twingly Goes Into Private Beta – Michael Arrington
  A Sweden-based blog search engine.
  Tags: blog search
• How to Disagree – Paul Graham
  A disagreement hierarchy in 7 levels: DH0. Name-calling DH1. Ad Hominem DH2. Responding to Tone DH3. Contradiction DH4. Counterargument DH5. Refutation DH6. Refuting the Central Point
  Tags: blogging
• Not Your Ordinary Google Interface – Ionut Alex Chitu
  The Google interface in unusual languages, including "Bork, bork, bork!", the language of my favourite Muppet Show character: The Swedish Chef.
  Tags: humor

• Reaching for the Sky Through The Compute Clouds – Alex Iskold
  Alex makes a brief comparison of cloud computing vs. LAMP, and lists a few scalability issues with the LAMP approach. He does not mention any potential problems with cloud computing other than occasional outages.
  Tags: LAMP, cloud computing
• Tom Coates: Web of Data – Richard MacManus
  Tom Coates gives a presentation at Webstock and talks about a "web of data", which is where "data sources and services are the center of the Web, rather than pages." Examples are Twitter and Flickr. He recommends opening up your data, the main reason is a "network effect", new services can build on the data.
  Tags: open data
• Game On: Zynga and SGN Battle For Social Gaming Developers – Erick Schonfeld
  Social gaming networks are growing. The benefit for a developer to join a network is increased visibility of their application. The Social Gaming Network, SGN, provides an API for their gaming hub, where developers can add their games and leverage the "gaming graph".
  Tags: social gaming, online games
• Crude Android Prototypes Unveiled – Daniel Langendorf
  Pictures of early prototypes of Android mobile phones, mostly circuit boards, displays and solder.
  Tags: Android
• Study: 6% of People Online Contribute 50% of Display Ad Clicks – Marshall Kirkpatrick
  Further, they have a low income and are "more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites."
  Tags: advertising
• The Social Cloud – Kevin Marks
  Kevin Marks has a video up of an interesting presentation he gave at the recent Geneva LIFT conference. A few quotes from the presentation:

  The Social Graph API puts this cloud around finding me and finding my public friends on the web. That means we can assume that that is there and it is abstracted that stuff away, which means we can assume that these public connections that we have already asserted and made on the web, can be discovered and can be reused in other places.

  ... OpenSocial, that puts a cloud around social networking sites, and the details of friends, the details of people, the details of the actions they do and data you store.

  So by the concept of a cloud, he means that something just works, and we, as developers or users, do not have to think about the details of the implementation or how it works. From a developer's point of view, OpenSocial enables the concept of a Social Cloud.
  Tags: Social Cloud, OpenSocial, Social Graph