• 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]

• eWeek has a long interview with Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, covering areas such as the open source aspects of Flash, the competition Adobe Air is facing from Google Chrome, Gears and possibly from Microsoft and Silverlight, and a bit about new features of Creative Suite 4 (CS4). Josh Catone does a good job of covering the Adobe Air part and the competition from Google Gears and Silverlight. In conclusion Josh thinks that Microsoft might play an important part in the cloud computing/rich Internet application (RIA) arena, something that Adobe's Kevin Lynch doesn't fully recognize.

  On open source, Lynch points out how Abobe is gradually embracing the open source movement, and he gives several examples of Adobe's contribution to OSS:

  We already open source the core of Flash, the virtual machine, Tamarin. Ten years ago we published the format that Flash uses called SWF. And for a while that format had a license agreement around it where we asked that people not make their own Flash players. And the goal of that was to maintain consistency of the runtime. [...]
  we actually removed the license restriction this year from the SWF format. So anyone can go create anything they want around that format, including a player if they want to. [...]
  But we need to balance openness and consistency. So we're very open about what goes into Flash Player, the bugs in Flash Player, the code and scripting engine in Flash, the format with Flash, the protocols with Flash. 

  On completely opening up of the Flash player Lynch is more hesitant:

  [That] would be somewhat challenging in that there are some codices in Flash that we don't have the rights to all the source to. That's one challenge with that. The other is that I think in terms of what's best here for consistency of Flash on the Web, having multiple implementations and having forking and splintering of that code would be a big loss for the Web in terms of that consistency.

  Well, there might be some truth in that, but there for sure are a multitude of OSS projects that have managed to keep control of the core development, without sacrificing consistency.

  In August I wrote about new directions in the development of ECMAScript, which is the parent language of JavaScript, ActionScript and a few other languages. The ECMAScript Harmony agreement implied a step back for the group working with the more ambitious ECMAScript 4 specification, including Adobe. Kevin Lynch, however, did not express too much worry about this development, saying:

  I think the amount of innovation that we were trying to do with ECMAScript 4 perhaps was too big of a leap for some and they wanted to see a more collaborative approach on that. So the standards process is a collaborative one where there are lots of points of view. And we're happy to continue working in the process to advance ECMAScript. But we're hoping that innovation can happen faster and that we can raise the level of scripting on the Web. So we're going to continue innovating in Flash Player. We're not removing features that we've already deployed because people are relying on them and we think they're good. And we'll keep developing it further. And at the same time we'll keep working with the standards process.

  Tags: ActionScript, Flash

• Microsoft is embracing jQuery, a popular open source JavaScript library, and intend to support it natively in Visual Studio alongside its own ASP.NET AJAX library.
  Tags: JavaScript, Microsoft
• Watch out US, the European Union (EU) wants to take the lead in the development of the next generation of the Web, aka Web 3.0. EU Commissioner Viviane Reding says: 
  

  Web 3.0 means seamless 'anytime, anywhere' business, entertainment and social networking over fast reliable and secure networks. It means the end of the divide between mobile and fixed lines. It signals a tenfold quantum leap in the scale of the digital universe by 2015. Europe has the know-how and the network capacity to lead this transformation. We must make sure that Web 3.0 is made and used in Europe.

  For other definitions of Web 3.0, check out my review from April.
  Tags: Web 3.0

• Automattic, the parent company behind Wordpress, acquires commenting system IntenseDebate, writes ReadWriteWeb, who also reviews Habari, a blogging platform and potential competitor to Wordpress. Habari uses the Atom Syndication Format for feeds and the Atom Publishing Protocol for web site communication. It also builds on PHP, and makes use of PHP Data Objects (PDO) for database access, and it supports MySQL and other databases.
  Tags: blogging, Wordpress
• Ringside Networks, offering a "Social Application Server", which I wrote about in March, is closing up shop. Bad luck and timing could be the reasons.
  Tags: social applications
• Royal Pingdom has a list of ten less known operating systems. For example, MenuetOS is written entirely in assembly language and is designed to be lightweight and responsive, and it fits on a floppy disk (1.44 MB).
  Tags: operating systems

• Knol, Google's Wikipedia killer, opened to the public this week. Anyone can write a Knol — "A unit of knowledge", about (almost) any subject. Multiple Knols can exist on a given subject, and it's up to the author to decide whether the Knol can be directly edited by other users, is moderated by the creator, or is closed.
  Interesting commentary from the blogosphere suggests that Knols are ranked high in Google searches, despite being just a day old. Also, duplicate content in Knols is ranked higher than original content on the web, which seems quite a bit disturbing. This suggests that web publishers should consider cross publishing their content to Knols, as a way to claim the ownership of their work. Also noteworthy is that links are "nofollow" in Knols (like in Wikipedia), so that no "link juice" is flowing out of a Knol. This is understandable, otherwise Knols would have been a heaven for link spammers.
  From an international perspective, it's a bit disappointing that only US citizens can have their name verified, though that may not be that important.
  Tags: Knol
• The Open Web Foundation, yet another open web standards organization, was announced this week, possibly most for the benefit of the founders. As Dare Obasanjo points out, there is already an old and well established organization for internet standards, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Possibly if you make the distinction between the Web (linked pages) and the Internet (infrastructure), the new organization could serve the purpose of handling pure web related issues.
  Tags: organizations
• There seems to be a backdoor to the encrypted communications in Skype, allowing authorities to intercept phone calls of suspects. A not too far-fetched guess is that the Swedish authorities have the key to this backdoor, in view of the infamous "FRA law", which allows the Swedish authority FRA to intercept all internet traffic passing the Swedish border, which about all Swedish traffic does, even if the start and end destinations are within Sweden. Using a secure protocol for web mail might be a good idea.
  Tags: privacy
• A story of a developer's journey (Mike Gunderloy of OStatic) from full-time Microsoft contractor to "100% Microsoft-free".
  Tags: Microsoft
• A new freely available collection of astonishing space images from NASA.
  Tags: images
• PlayCrafter, is a new site where you can build your own Flash games using drag-and-drop, reviewed by Marshall Kirkpatrick. The quality of the games are surprisingly high, and it is easy to get stuck playing. The games are embeddable on other sites, and there is an ad-based revenue sharing system for creators. Comparing this to my previous posts about Popfly Game Creator and Scratch, with PlayCrafter it seems to be a lot more easy to create compelling games, though you will not have the benefit of learning actual programming.
  Tags: online games

• Recent data from Hitwise shows that Microsoft has lost almost 50 percent of its market share in search from June 2007 to June 2008. In the U.S. the drop is from 9.8 % market share to 5.5 %. In the U.K. the drop is from 5.7 % to 3.7 %, and in Australia a dramatic fall from 14.7 % to 6.7 %. Google is the great winner, while Yahoo shows a minor drop and Ask a minor gain. Ask is now almost as big as Microsoft on search in the U.S. As it seems, to remain a major player in the search field, Microsoft desperately needs to get hold of Yahoo's search service.
  Tags: Microsoft, search
• Google's supposedly open mobile platform Android, loses in credibility among developers, as it was revealed this week that a few select top contestants of the Android Developer Challenge were given access, under the counter, to an updated version of the SDK. Additionally, the code was provided under a non-disclosure clause, rhyming poorly with the promise of open, though technically Google has done nothing wrong.
  There seems to be a lack of communication from the part of Google. As suggested by AndroidGuys, more frequent updates to the official Android blog would certainly calm down some hard feelings among developers. It will be interesting to see in the coming year what impact Android will make on the mobile phone market, which currently is overwhelmed, in terms of buzz at least, by the new iPhone.
  Tags: Android
• Gnip, the notification proxy service, finally hooks up to the XMPP firehose of Twitter. Does this mark the beginning of the end of the troubles of Twitter?
  Tags: Gnip, Twitter
• OStatic points to an "executive summary of Open Source", a white paper challenging 10 Open Source Myths. Some examples of myths covered: "Open source is free", "Open source equals open standards", "Open source is not for mission-critical functions", "Open source is for non-conformists" and "Open source software is lower quality".
  Tags: open source
• 5 tips on using Twitter to improve your online-reputation. Some examples: "Start conversations with notable peers", "Share valuable industry news" and "Monitor your Twitter reputation".
  Tags: online reputation, Twitter
• IPv6, the next generation internet protocol, about to replace the current IPv4 in a couple of years, might pose a security risk, writes the Wired. The problem is that it is enabled by default in many operating systems, and lots of applications may not yet be up-to-date to handle the new protocol. Affected operating systems include Windows Vista and Mac OS X. Windows XP is however safe, i.e. IPv6 is not enabled by default. You can test here which IP protocols are supported by your computer.
  Tags: IPv6, security

• Working at Google vs. Microsoft:
  

  I left [Google] because Microsoft turned out to be the right place for me. [...] I like engineering, but I love the business aspects no less.
  [...] the culture at Google values 'coolness' tremendously, and the quality of service not as much.

  In other words, Google is for geeks and Microsoft for nerds.
  Tags: Google, Microsoft

• The next version of Windows, code name "Windows 7", seems to build on the same core architecture as Windows Vista, which is a problem according to Randall Stross of the NY Times, since: "[Windows] has become an obese monolith built on an ancient frame. Adding features, plugging security holes, fixing bugs, fixing the fixes that never worked properly, all while maintaining compatibility with older software and hardware".
  Tags: Windows 7
• A recent study challenges the Long Tail theory and suggests that the real money is in the head, writes Matt Asay. The study may have some flaws though.
  Tags: business
• More news on the problems webmasters are facing with the antivirus software AVG 8.0. The pre-scanning of the links from a web search, that the software does, is now even more difficult to distinguish from a real user, writes the Register. I'm still using AVG 7, and it seems to continue to update its database, despite the updating was supposed to end June 25th. The annoying upgrade messages have also stopped.
  Tags: web analytics
• NoiseRiver, a FriendFeed filtering service reviewed by Louis Gray.
  Tags: news filtering, FriendFeed
• Top-level domains are finally set free, and will soon (in 2009) be available for registration by anyone that can present a business plan, writes the BBC. However, the cost will be high, probably around $100.000.
  Tags: domains
• Twitter died June 27th, according to Dave Winer: "So the conversation moves to FriendFeed. True, I am ignoring the flow I have on Twitter. Easy come easy go. The flow there is pointless."
  Tags: Twitter
• This week's bonus video, a perfect elevator pitch delivered by 15-year-old Daniel Brusilovsky for his startup Teens in Tech.
  
  Tags: teens

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.

I woke up this morning, at the other side of the pond, to the news that Microsoft had walked away from its offer to buy Yahoo. Apparently Microsoft had increased its offer by $4 a share to $33, but Jerry Yang demanded $37 to accept the offer, a price Steve Ballmer considered unjustified, so he instead folded. It seems like Microsoft seriously considered a hostile takeover, but were intimidated by Yahoo's threat to pursue its search advertising deal with Google.

This is not good news for the Yahoo shareholders, who expected to make a few bucks on the deal, and probably is not good for Microsoft, who will continue to linger in the backwater of Web 2.0. For the rest of us, an independent Yahoo, free at least at the moment from the jaws of Microsoft, is good news. We can continue to enjoy services like delicious, flickr and pipes. We can hope for Yahoo's continuous adoption of semantic technologies and other open standards, as well as further opening up of their services through APIs and web services. If just Yahoo survives the foreseen struggle with disgruntled share holders, an important player will remain on the web arena.

• 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

• Your Email Password: A True Horror Story About Why We Need Authentication Standards – Marshall Kirkpatrick
  Unsuspicious users got their login credentials harvested, seems to be a perfect fit for OAuth to solve.
  Tags: authentication, OAuth
• The future of social networks: Social networks will be like air – Charlene Li
  In the future, social networks will be everywhere, characterized by 1) Universal identities (OpenID, email), 2) A single social graph, 3) Distributed social activities (social shopping), 4) Influential people having a high marketing value (personal CPM, PageRank of people). BigCos (MSFT, GOOG), will dominate 1) and 2).
  Tags: social networks, trends
• Microsoft hits multiple Internet home runs – Robert Scoble
  Robert is excited about Microsoft's internet strategy presented at Mix08: Standards compliant IE8, passing the Acid2 browser test. Though not yet Acid3. A cloud storage service (SSDS) based on SQL server was also presented at Mix.
  Tags: Microsoft, IE8
• WordPress: The Social Network – Erick Schonfeld
  BuddyPress, a suite of Wordpress plugins that make a social network platform of a multi-user Wordpress installation, becomes an official Wordpress project.
  Tags: Wordpress, platforms
• 6 Ways to Filter Your RSS Feeds – Josh Catone
  A list of some useful services, more in the comments.
  Tags: rss
• Innovation comes cheap, says Google engineer Kevin Marks – Caroline McCarthy
  In an interview Kevin Marks talks about OpenSocial, why open source and open standards are a good thing, how MySpace allows applications on both home (private) and profile (public) user pages, and how privacy concerns make interoperability between social networks a hard problem.
  Tags: OpenSocial
• Yahoo’s MyBlogLog Adds An Activity Stream Feature – Michael Arrington
  And Mike says that the best activity stream aggregator is FriendFeed.
  Tags: activity streams