Mike-O-Matic

Web Services come in lots of flavors.  In all of the confusion of vendor positioning and jibberjabber across the tubes, it can be hard to keep them straight.  In my experience they roughly break down into two classes:

Procedure-Based: Like XML-RPC or SOAP, where you call procedures on remote machines that do stuff.
Document-Based: Like REST, where […]

The other day at work an interesting debate unfolded. I’m sure anybody working at a Type 1 organizations similar to the one in question can relate to this:
New developer comes into a workplace, flailing his arms in the air.
“The new site will be wonderful!” he exclaims. “Normalized databases! Wonderful new PHP framework! […]

Browsing Slashdot the other day I came upon an interesting article comparing several different “WebOS” systems.
But what is a WebOS (…) or a Webtop, anyway ? Here’s a simple definition: WebOS is a virtual operating system that runs in your web browser. More precisely, it’s a set of applications running in a web browser that […]

Jeremiah Grossman mentioned an interesting Google hack in his blog the other day. Apparently it would let you get a valid Slashdot URL linking to an article of your choice, which you can then place in your spam blog. Wait for the search engine spiders to come find it and, viola!, a PageRank 9 […]

Being a web programmer is hard work. To be successful at it, one needs an intimate knowledge of many different languages and technologies: SQL for talking to databases, JSP/PHP/Coldfusion/ASP/Perl/Python/Ruby/etc to handle the dynamic functionality, and HTML/Javascript/CSS for the front end. In addition, they need to know the optimal way to fit each of […]

Last week the founders of Kiko.com placed the site up for sale on EBay, complete with all source code, traffic, and domain rights. Lots of people have been speculating what this means for web startups, including the esteemed writer/Lisper/entrepreneur Paul Graham whose Y Combinator put some funds behind the venture. He says that […]

The big news out of the UK today is that 21 suspected terrorists were nabbed after being implicated in a plot to bring liquid explosives on commercial airliners. While this is undeniably great and has probably saved many lives, I am less enthusiastic about our government’s response: They have now banned passengers from […]

Like many of you out there, I have been involved with computers since a very early age. My Apple IIc may not have been the fastest kid on the block, but it did have a mouse. I also was fortunate enough to have an original Compaq Deskpro 386, which some of you may […]

Jeff over at codinghorror.com posted an interesting perspective regarding whether or not open source developers should expect compensation for their work. The backround for this quote is that a developer for a popular OS .Net app recently decided to leave his project, citing frustration that the rewards for his work weren’t worth what he was […]

Yesterday I read a good article on the Wall Street Journal online. It talks about many of the famous Internet personalities who have emerged during the Web 2.0 era via MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, and their brethren. Included in our cast:

Christina, the early MySpacer who now has over a million people on her buddy […]