My intern puzzlhunt puzzle is on the web. Neat.
6:48:51 PM    comments ==

An internal blog pointed me to Todd Proebsting's presentation on disruptive technologies for programming languages. It's a good read that points out a few areas to look for programming lanaguage improvement in the future.

• Automatic persistent tracing for crash anaylsis
• Checkpoints / Undo
• DB / SQL integration
• Parsing
• XML Manipulation
• Constraint Solver
• Distributed Computing

Also there is a good swipe on slide 25: "Java's a drug you rub on venture capitalists to make them crazy." Except the Java is crossed out and replaced by XML and Venture capitalists is scratched out and replaced by "Microsoft Execs"
6:33:37 PM    comments ==

Since scoble noticed who my employer is, it's a good time to remind folks that this is my personal place where I'm not talking on behalf of my employer. I guess my point is that hailstorm as I understood it has zero to do with html generation. I'm reading his response to me over and over, and I'm wondering if scoble is mixing up asp.net and the .net framework with .net myservices/hailstorm. His arguments make a lot more sense if he is talking about asp.net and .net frameworks. In which case I'd say that ASP is pretty neutral platform in respect to web standards, and asp.net tends to encourage you to create better html in respect to web standards. As for the different microsoft sites, I actually couldn't find a main microsoft web site with an .aspx in sight. Sorta sad really. While I'd like to see standards compliance through all the sites, I can understand why it doesn't happen. Often it is expensive to get right, and it doesn't have any tanagible rewards. Which do I prefer, a fast loading site that is full of functionality, and bug free, or one that will pass a validator? Does that mean that web standards aren't important? No. I believe standards has made the web a lot better and more usable across browsers, and as a developer (I don't do much web programming in my job) I like the idea of having a standard to code to.
5:22:12 PM    comments ==

Whitehouse.org is supplying patrotic posters. :)
4:07:41 PM    comments ==

One of the well features of Opera and Mozilla that IE doesn't have is Mouse Gestures. So today I did a google search and installed StrokeIt. I've got to admit drawing a C to close a window is super handy. I do a A and get my weblog. Another gesture is bound to opening a cmd window with the build environment.. Very Cool.
4:06:53 PM    comments ==

Scoble still isn't getting what Hailstorm/.NET MyServices was.

He's right about concerns on where the data lives. It was that issue that killed hailstorm (or at least has made it go away till they had thier federation story worked out at ship time instead of V2 time). But the main point is that what MSN 8 is shipping simply can't be hailstorm because hailstorm is a platform and what MSN 8 is providing isn't.

Finally, what does server side data sources and manipulation apis have anything to do with how the web site chooses to display it? A familiar example is RSS. Every news aggergator and web site has a different way of showing the information retreived through the format. Some are standards compliant, some aren't, and some are not even web based at all.
1:53:04 PM    comments ==