The hallmark of an architecture astronaut is that they don't solve an actual problem... they solve something that appears to be the template of a lot of problems. Or at least, they try. Since 1988 many prominent architecture astronauts have been convinced that the biggest problem to solve is synchronization. 

Live Mesh is, initially at least, all about synchronization, but there is a greater vision, as Joel writes:

It's a whole goddamned architecture, with an API and developer tools and in insane diagram showing all the nifty layers of acronyms, and it seems like the chief astronauts at Microsoft literally expect this to be their gigantic platform in the sky which will take over when Windows becomes irrelevant on the desktop.

I'm sure there are other opinions on Live Mesh, this was a particularly colorful view worth mentioning, anyhow. Another note about Microsoft Live Mesh, it should not be confused with the Open Mesh, as envisioned by Marc Canter in a series of blog posts.

 
The other article I saw this morning was part two in a series of posts describing a Windows developer's conversion to Mac OS X. This part two is a description of the .NET platform and how it fails to attract top-level or "conscientious" developers. Two basic problems with the .NET platform is that it 1. Tries to be the single tool for all levels of developers, from the casual business analyst to the top-notch developer, and 2. The never-ending backwards compatibility to Win16 (Windows 3.1, released 1992).

Another obstacle is the vastness of the .NET platform with reportedly some whopping 39 509 types.

• Louis Gray came up with some interesting number crunching on the "Twitter Noise Ratio", defined as the (total) number of updates for a user divided by the (current) number of followers. Listeners have a noise ratio less than one, "normal" people around one, and megaphones or fire hoses above 5. My ratio is 1, putting me in the normal group, but I will soon become a fire hose unless I get some more followers, which points to one weakness of the definition. Interesting attempt anyhow.
  Tags: Twitter
• Marshall Kirkpatrick on how RWW uses Twitter for Journalism: Breaking News, Interviews, Quality Assurance and Promotion.
  Tags: journalism, Twitter
• Josh Catone on the history and demise of Web 3.0, with links to my featured articles.
  Tags: Web 3.0
• Marshall at the Web 2.0 Expo concludes that APIs and platforms now are ubiquitous and asked around what will come next. Filtering for information overload and Standards and interoperability were a few answers.
  Tags: API, trends
• Josh on Microsoft's Live Mesh, a data synchronization platform, which launched in private beta to much fanfare, but the confusion around Microsoft's online services remains.
  Tags: mesh, Microsoft
• Michael Arrington is now so dependent upon Twitter that despite the service's frequent downtimes, he foresees its dominance to continue.
  Tags: Twitter

• How to build the mesh - #1: ID, Social Graphs and Groups – Marc Canter
  "A strategy for the open web." A summary of where we stand today, and a road map for the future.
  Tags: mesh
• Tradera släpper publikt API – Martin Persson
  The swedish auction site Tradera (now own by eBay) finally releases a public API.
  Tags: API
• Ringside to offer first open-source 'social-application server' – Matt Asay
  Allows web site owners to build social applications that operate with existing web site content, while seamlessly integrating with social networks such as Facebook.
  Tags: open source, social applications
• The Lifestreaming Backlash – Josh Catone
  Activity streams are leading to information overload and need to be filtered. Facebook is already doing this.
  Tags: activity streams

• Quotably: The Perfect Tool To Make Sense Of Twitter – Michael Arrington
  A new service that reformats Twitter messages into threaded conversations.
  Tags: Twitter