Spontaneously Combusting

Double Black Diamond Sessions...

EclipseCon is using the ski run difficulty standard for session submissions. Something to consider for Lotusphere 2010 technical sessions. Techincal depth is not the problem it was in the (distant) past. I didn't attend between 1997 and 2006 so I don't know how things were then but a rating system of some sort might help.

Via More Difficult = More Attractive

50 States

Unconference - Open Space - Lotusphere

Luis Suarez posted commentary and a link to a podcast on The Future of Conferences. Click through to the podcast page and read the first two paragraphs (listen to the podcast too!).  I agree with the problem statement.

In June, I attended a one day unconference that used the Open Space Technology model. It had by far the highest signal to noise ratio of any technical event that I've ever attended..and I've been around a while.

I posted a suggestion to Idea Jam/Lotusphere for IBM to provide unconference space at Lotusphere. I'm looking forward to the usual tracks and sessions but I would like to have a more conversational option during some of the prime time hours. There's so much knowledge and experience walking around the Epcot resorts area the third week in January. Let's tap into more of it. It might suck. It might rock.

Read the Open Space Technology article and vote on Idea Jam. If you vote down, please give a meaningful comment.

What happens in Vegas happens near an Apple store

As of last week there are three Apple stores on the Las Vegas strip (a Megastore at CityCenter next year will make four). All are in shopping malls on the West side of Las Vegas Blvd. The most recent store opened in the Forum Shops at Casears Palace. The other two are in the Fashion Show and Town Square malls. The Town Square mall also has a  Fry's. That's a *serious* afternoon of tech shopping and budget busting for just one parking space...and it's only five minutes from McCarran airport.

Four miles, three (soon to be four) stores. Plus Fry's. There's no excuse for leaving Las Vegas without some cool new hardware.

"Demonstrably false supposition[s]"

Sean McGrath doesn't mince words in Paths to the New Reality. Very interesting in light of the ServerSide folks discussing whether "Java is losing the battle for the modern web".

The data center as a black box

No not that black box. I don't want to have to be a hardware, OS, middleware, scalability stuff I've never heard of expert just to deploy an app and be prepared for the "problem" of high traffic.

Why? Ian Bicking said it best:

I hate computers.  I really hate them a lot.  I dream of some world of Platonic ideals where software just exists...

Long gone are the days that I would set aside a Saturday to install a new video card in my PC. IRQs, QEMM loading seqeunce blah blah blah. I love USB. It just works. We need USB for the data center. Like Google App Engine but Open. Deploying an app should be as simple as "who has the best plan for my stack today"? Click click. Done.

Data diodes

Much has been said about Google App Engine and portability, openness etc. I think that we'll eventually get the same kind of service on an open stack, albeit at a higher cost (higher than free). Aside from authentication, and you don't have to use Google's for App Engine, it's the database that locks you in. Same with Amazon. Someone will build a similar service on CouchDB (should be 1.0 soon enough) with options for your favorite language/framework above that with ease of deployment more like Google's than Amazon's. CouchDB is particularly intriguing because it should be easy to move/replicate the data from one provider to another. Wanna move? Run in parallel, replicate the data, shut the old site off, replicate again. Done. It's even cooler when your site design replicates too. Just put those design documents in the document database. People have been doing this with Lotus Notes for decades.

Don't lock us in. Leave the door open and compete on service, value and reputation.

Perl Onion 11

"My worse-is-better is better than your worse-is-better because I'm better at being worser!" - Larry Wall,  State of the Onion 11 

The ever quotable Mr. Perl is back with the annual status report. If you love, hate or are even just mildly interested in scripting languages, there's something in it for you.

Focus on Focus

Please Don't steal My Focus. That's MY focus..not the computers focus...not the window's focus...MY focus. It's not a TV. Books don't interrupt me. The piano doesn't interrupt me. Why should software?

Idea Jam

I added a Recent Idea widget from Idea Jam and it reminded me that it's about time for the annual post so here it is. Click through to Idea Jam and check it out. It has been interesting watching it evolve and seeing  how people are actually using it. This kind of application requires a balance between structure and freedom so people can just add ideas without having to think too much about categories and keywords. So far it feels pretty good. Just reading through ideas across all Idea Spaces has raised my awareness of issues and ideas that are not on my radar screen but are important to the community. I tend to very language and back end focused so I've learned a lot about client application and development problems and potential solutions. As an ISV working on tools for Notes and other Eclipse based environments, I hope to spot opportunities that would otherwise have remained invisible. Congrats to the Idea Jam team.

And check out Idea Battle. Nathan Freeman has found a way to significantly increase the signal to noise ratio of all those ideas. Good stuff.