Month: May 2007

Thought for the day: Platform lock-in, good and bad

A review of a new PowerShell book on Slashdot features a great comment from an anonymous coward who gives the best argument against supporting multiple platforms that I’ve ever read:

I hate re-using code because it forces me to solve new problems every day. I’d rather create new value on Mondays only, and then spend the rest of the week re-doing the same work on my other platforms. It gives my mind a chance to rest, and I can drink heavily mid-week and still be able to do my job.

I sure hope they charge extra for it, make it a resource hog, lock out third-party extensions, and then discontinue it as soon as I’m dependent on it. I really liked the 1980s and look forward to reliving them.

The nice thing about the comment is that it contains the pro and con of supporting multiple system architectures back to back, and both perspectives are funny, and true.

Links for May 2, 2007

NY Times: No, Really, It Was Tough: 4 People, 80 Martinis. Having tried and failed to articulate the differences among six or seven types of wine, I can only imagine the challenge that this team of tasters faced in their martini-gin review. Palate fatigue, for one.

Local blogger Evan points out that only in Boston would one see the alfresco bookstore strategy that the Brattle Book Shop uses to display its merchandise. I’d go one farther: only in Boston in the spring, where the whole city temporarily goes giddy as the weather warms up and the sun comes out again.

Slashdot points to an embarrassing story for Business 2.0, a tech centered business magazine that forgot to check the integrity of its backups… and lost its entire June issue. Irony: they had mailed the text for the entire issue to their lawyers for review, so the “only” work that had to be redone was the art and layout. I guess they’d better call in Bono so he can make up the entire issue on the spot; after all, he did it for an album once.

Who are the Webbys for?

Probably the same people who think Flash intro pages are a good idea.

That appears to be who runs the show, anyway. The Webbys are the only web award that I’m aware of where the agency, as in ad agency, is given prominent mention.

What has me spun up about this? Best Navigation/Structure: Ikea Dream Kitchen, which appears to have won based solely on a Flash-based VR click-and-hold interface which, needless to say, is badly broken on text-based browsers. Please tell me how this qualifies as best structure, guys.

All is not awful in the Webby world; I don’t think I would have found PoetryFoundation.org without the awards. But seriously guys. I think the whole Web 2.0 thing is overwrought, but I can’t help but think Web 1.0 when I look at that list of awardees. (And yes, I know Flickr is there too; I believe the exception proves the rule.)