Development

People keep trying to save Cobol. But is it really in any danger?

The short answer is: nothing. And that's a problem, not only for large companies that are trying to make plans, but equally for Microsoft's credibility in the small-business and consumer markets.

With speech recognition practically a commodity today, IT should start treating it as they would a keyboard or mouse.

It's IT Blogwatch: in which folks worry about lock-in at Google's new App Engine. Not to mention a slightly pointless game...

Andy Baio claims an "exclusive":

One of the biggest criticisms of Google's App Engine have been cries of lock-in, that the applications developed for the platform won't be portable to any other service. This morning, Chris Anderson, the Portland-based cofounder of the Grabb.it MP3 blog service, just released AppDrop — an elegant hack proving that's not true. AppDrop is a container for applications developed with the Google App Engine SDK, running entirely on Amazon's EC2 infrastructure. Just like Google's Appspot, anyone can use a modified SDK to deploy their App Engine apps directly to Amazon EC2 instead of Google, and they work without modification ...

It's IT Blogwatch: in which Google does an embarrassing volte-face on an App Engine app. Not to mention the 50 greatest comedy sketches of all time...

Heather Harreld Havenstein goes all alliterative on us: [Get a room -Ed.]

Just a day after launching a preview version of its new Google App Engine, Google Inc. yesterday yanked one of the development product's demo applications after a blogosphere brouhaha erupted over its origin. The move came after bloggers contended that the real-time chat demo application for Google App Engine, called HuddleChat, was a copy of the Campfire real-time chat application from 37Signals LLC.

Consultant pilot fish gets the order to build an online store for a major client. "When I ask for the specifications, I'm told it's a basic shopping cart, nothing special. This worries me."

It's IT Blogwatch: in which Windows 7's might come next year -- or not -- and might have a new, modular architecture -- errr, or not. Not to mention the worst interview questions...

Eric Lai reports:

Microsoft Corp. has dropped two strong hints [last week] that the next version of its Windows operating system will arrive in 2009, shaving up to a year off previous expectations. It could also be a signal that Microsoft intends to cut its losses with Windows Vista, which has been poorly received or shunned by customers, especially large companies ... Responding to criticism that Windows has become unnecessarily bloated, the company has 200 engineers developing a slimmed-down kernel called MinWin that uses 100 files and 25MB, compared to Vista's 5,000 files and 4GB core and is so small it lacks a graphical subsystem ...

Census Bureau, Harris Corp. fail to resolve requirements dilemma

One vendor argues Flex and other Web 2.0 tools can make enterprise apps more engaging to users and, therefore, more successful for the business.

Bill Thompson at the BBC asks the question Who will write tomorrow's code?, and it's a similar question to the one I've asked before now.

How do we get kids interested in programming computers, as opposed to just using them?

Rabbits, white rabb-it's IT Blogwatch: in which the world goes to heck in a handbasket. Not to mention Portal in Flash...

Sir Richard Branson is over the moon:

I'm delighted today to announce Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google ... [its] goal is simple: the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and I feel strongly that contemporary technology is sufficiently advanced to make such an effort both successful and economical, and that it's high time that humanity moved beyond Earth and began our great, long journey to explore the stars and establish our first lasting foothold on another world ...

The RSA Conference on IT security begins next week. Wouldn't it be nice if it weren't necessary?

Voice communications keeps getting cheaper and cheaper thanks to voice over IP technology. How does 2-cents per minute sound for international dialing?

Scientists have just concluded that evolution inevitably drives living things to become more complex. It seems the same principle could be applied to information systems.

Voltage Security Inc. has a tool to comply with Identity Theft Red Flag regulations.