lex parsimoniae

Backwards compatibility can kill you

Image via Wikipedia “Release early, release often.”  This is the Web 2.0 mantra, and it’s also a major guiding principle behind agile development proceses. In product development, conventional wisdom has it that first-to-market- or first-mover advantage is hugely important.  But for software products, this can kill you by painting your product into a corner from [...]

New syncing options for WinMo phones

Image via Wikipedia Microsoft and Google have each announced syncing tools for Windows Mobile phones recently, but based on what I’m seeing, I’m sticking with a service you’ve probably never heard of. Microsoft announced “My Phone” last week, and today announced that it will be available for free.  At present, it’s in limited beta, but [...]

What, exactly, is wrong with “Private Clouds”?

Image via Wikipedia I recently saw an interesting post by Gordon Haff that claims that cloud computing concepts can’t really be applied to enterprises smaller in scale than the Googles, Microsofts, and Amazons of the world. Humbug, I say.  I certainly didn’t have that impression when I learned about Azure. I’ll concede that there aren’t [...]

What Chrome means for developers

By now, you’ve surely seen every blogger on the planet sound off on Google’s new browser.  There are dozens of reasons why this is an important development, and hundreds more if you speculate on ulterior motives.  I’ll leave you to consider the overall market impact of this new browser, but if you develop web applications, [...]

Why you should care if Microsoft buys Yahoo?

Anyone not living under a rock knows that Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo!, but so what?  What difference could it possibly make to an end-user or a software developer whether Yahoo! remains independent or not?

Clearly, this is a buyout of historic proportions.  The size alone is impressive: at $45B, this is a serious chunk of change and a sizable improvement over the market valuation of Yahoo! prior to Microsoft’s offer.  But this buyout isn’t notable just for size.  This is a pivotal moment in the growth and maturation of the net: a marquis player is quite possibly going to cease to exist independently, and another is at a "make or break" moment.  As far as brands go, this is an impact on the order of seeing Netscape fade away or AOL get gobbled up by Time Warner. Like AOL, it’s quite conceivable that the brand will live on for a long time, but it’s clear that it’ll never again live with the vigor that it’s had in the past.