I can imagine the movie trailer voiceover: "In a world where Thin Clients rule, one man (and a very large software company) is fighting back..."
This is a movie starring Robert Scoble, Microsoft's most famous blogger. It's about the war against Web-based apps and the script is being written by Robert himself. First he said:
"...Olivier has the thin-client disease that's all the rage lately. Here's a hint: the thick client is coming back."
He expands on Thick Clients (ha ha, geddit?) in a later post:
"Thin clients are fine (an entire wing of our business, MSN, builds for them) but thin clients fall apart when you fly in planes every two weeks (without Wifi). Is that drinking the Microsoft Koolaid? Maybe, but when you get Photoshop in your browser let me know, OK? And technologies like WinFS will keep thick clients relevant for more than a decade."
Ah, the old 'Photoshop in a browser' argument. I admit I would love to have a web-based image editor program. I recently downloaded The Gimp, as I no longer have access to Photoshop. Luckily it's not a large program (a little over 30MB I think), so it's not too much hassle to install it on multiple machines. Even so, it would be nice to have it as a web service... So yes, Robert you have a point there.
Incidentally and ironically, I found a good definition of 'Thin Client' on Microsoft's site: "A network device that has the ability to process information independently but relies on servers for applications, data storage, and administration. See also network computer, Windows terminal."
In other words, 'Thin Client' means the server does all the work.
But ultimately, much as I like a good war movie, I have to disagree with Robert. We're now in a world of broadband and ever-increasing storage space on servers - both of which are becoming cheaper every day (unlike petrol). So the Thin Client is not only here to stay - it's set to become the next big Brad Pitt blockbuster.
Thick Clients are like silent movies in the late 1920's, just before talkies took over. We're entering a new era of Thin Clients - and I for one know how this movie will end.
[note: The "in a world where..." bit was inspired by Rogers Cadenhead and The Morning News]
Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202
This week: Google vs Skype, BBC puts TV on the Web, New Apps on the Block, Worldwide Web 2.0 Camps, Techie post of the week - Kottke's Web OS.
On the back of an 18 August announcement that they are raising another $4 billion in funds, this week Google announced a new instant messaging and Internet telephony product called Google Talk. It integrates with Gmail, so Google now has all the primary Internet communications channnels covered. Lots of people had opinions on Google Talk during the week and Download Squad seemed to get the breaking story. But the most interesting angle to me was the competition with Skype. I use (and love) Skype for both its telephony and IM services, similar to how Steve Gillmor uses Skype. Now that Google Talk has arrived on the scene, I and many others will have to choose between the two.
What's Skype doing in response to this huge competitive threat? Nothing short of opening its platform to the web - if this 24 August press release is to be believed. In a move of breathtaking Web 2.0-ness, Skype is "opening up its platform to anyone who wants to integrate Skype’s presence and instant messaging services into their website or application". This statement sums it up:
"By opening up its platform to the web, Skype will instantly be creating the largest open instant messaging platform in the world."
Skype's APIs are an attempt to strike back at Google. And the press release has got some keywords in it that are designed to directly challenge the Mountain View company. For example, "open" is a word that is largely foreign to Google - and I counted 8 instances of "open" in the press release. I also counted 8 instances of the word "platform".
Open platform - gee, does that sound like the only thing that could conceivably stop Google from pinching all of Skype's customers? I believe the phrase is: Game On.
According to the BBC News website:
"A simulcast of BBC One or BBC Two, letting UK viewers see programmes on the web at the same time as they go out on TV, is being planned."
It also plans to beef up tv coverage on mobile phones. The report says the Web simulcast will be restricted to UK viewers only, although how that will work is not explained. PaidContent.org has more details on this development, including pointing to news of the MyBBCPlayer - "which will allow viewers to legally download seven days of programmes".
As TechDirt outlined, this is the latest in a long line of innovative moves by the BBC to open up their content on the Web. I've been a fan of the BBC's Internet efforts since they started their developer network in May 05, BBC Backstage, which lets people remix BBC content.
BBC is in the vanguard of media and television companies in Web 2.0 - let's hope other media companies follow suit.
Time to highlight some new Web 2.0 apps and
services:
Spanning Salesforce 2.0 - Charlie Wood releases his RSS-powered Salesforce.com service. "Spanning Salesforce delivers presentations, price lists, collateral, and other documents stored in Salesforce.com right to your laptop, desktop, or PDA."
Personal Bee - I still haven't figured out what it does, but it's described as "a 'discovery engine' that helps you discover information from a collection of RSS feeds". No I don't know what that means either, but it's an interesting app and worth keeping an eye on. TechCrunch profiled it here.
Pandora is "a music listening and discovery service" that "enables users to easily create streaming stations that explore their favorite parts of the music universe." Robert Scoble likes it and has sent it to Bill to check out. It's invitation-only right now, but for a preview listen to Joe Lindsay's Pandora music station that he created - named Steriogram Radio.
LiteFeeds - free mobile RSS service, for Java Phones/SmartPhones, Blackberry, Palm or PocketPC.
SearchFox - a Personalized RSS Reader that "uses machine-learning technology to automatically rank and personalize incoming feeds to reflect each reader’s unique interests."
NewsGator APIs - this week NewsGator announced APIs for both commercial and non-commercial applications.
Talkr - "Letting blogs speak for themselves". This isn't so new and I've mentioned it before. But it's so cool and this week I found out some of my family have been clicking on the Talkr audio links on my blog. They were expecting to hear my voice, but heard the lovely computer woman instead. Talkr rocks!
For more Web 2.0 app profiles, check out TechCrunch. They do this full-time and give a lot of background detail on each profile.
My Ireland correspondent Fergus Burns of Nooked informed me this week that Ireland is holding a Tech Camp - "the Irish version of FooCamp and BarCamp". The wiki for this event says:
"Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be as much tech innovation coming from grassroots-tech in Ireland. The US is doing some great work in Web 2.0 and Blogging; having loads of conferences and blogger-dinners; while all we have here is a few very business-like events, and seemingly very few new projects. What's needed is for us to CONNECT and SHARE and maybe a few companies will get started as a result!"
I feel exactly the same way about my own country. Indeed my first thought on reading this was: why doesn't New Zealand do the same? Then a couple of days later I noticed O'Reilly's resident kiwi Nat Torkington bring up the topic on O'Reilly Radar:
"The Maori Haka: learn to do the Maori war dance that the New Zealand rugby team starts all their games with. We'll learn this when I do a New Zealand FOO Camp."
Of course I piped up in the comments: count me in! Although I can't imagine kiwi geeks intimidating anyone with the haka :-)
Actually I think we need these Foo/Bar Camps all over the world. One day maybe there'll be a Live8-type deal, where we have simultaneous Techie Camps happening in different countries - all of them webcast and blogged of course!
You've gotta love Jason Kottke - he writes about his personal life as a blogger in New York for most of the year, but every now and then he comes up with a brilliant techie post. His provocatively titled GoogleOS? YahooOS? MozillaOS? WebOS? is well worth a read. Here is my favourite passage, which is on the tantelizing thread of using the open source Mozilla web browser as the base for a Web OS:
"If Mozilla could leverage the rapidly increasing user base of Firefox and start bundling a small Web server with it, then you've got the beginnings of a WebOS that's open source and for which anyone, including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and anyone with JavaScript chops, could write applications. To market it, they could refer to the whole shebang as a new kind of Web browser, something that sets it apart from IE, a true "next generation" browser capable of running applications no matter where you are or what computer (or portable device) you're using."
That's a wrap for another week!
I've joined the 9rules Network, a community of high quality weblogs and websites. Here's the announcement from Paul Scrivens, 9rules' inspirational CEO. The 9rules Network is very similar to what I described as my ideal blog network a few weeks ago: "a group of niche bloggers, each with their own unique look n' feel but collectively part of a branded network of like minds." In fact that was what attracted the attention of 9rules to my blog in the first place.
Here's how it works. I keep 100% ownership and control of my blog, which is very important to me. But I get to join a community of quality websites, which has opportunities for network advertising. It also gives my blog wider coverage, especially in the design community. Best of all, the network members help each other out - e.g. I could use some design help and in return I'm happy to give writing advice and tips.
The 9rules community is very strong in web design - there are a lot of beautifully designed websites in the network. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the community in that respect, because to be frank my blog design looks plain in comparison. On the other hand, I pride myself on writing top quality and original content on the topic of Web Technology. So I hope that my content inspires others and that I introduce some of the 9rules community to my niche interests (Web 2.0, Social Media). I think there'll be a lot of quid pro quo.
Today is my first day as a full-time freelancer, doing Web analysis and writing. It's also my birthday, so double reason to celebrate :-)
I finished up at my day job yesterday, so as of today I'm working 100% virtually - with people and companies from Silicon Valley, Britain, perhaps even Australia. I do have a little bit of work here in New Zealand and in time I hope to put my Web 2.0 knowledge to good use in my own country. But for now, I'm using the Web to do my business. Skype, Gmail and now it seems Google Talk. These will be my communications nexus.
So what am I up to? Here are some of the things I'll be doing over the next few months:
- Traveling to San Francisco for the first two weeks of October, for the Web 2.0 Conference and to meet with people and potential employers.
- Writing a book. I wonder if you can guess what the topic is? ;-) The publishing contract is all but signed, so I'll give you more details soon.
- Freelance analysis and writing work. Here are just some of the projects I've already done:
- Spec Writing for Broadband Mechanics
- A research assignment on RSS/Search/Aggregation in the media space
- A competitive analysis and product comparison / benchmarking for a magazine website
- Analysis of 'The Long Tail'
- Report on defining the RSS vendor landscape (nb: I will be publishing the data for this soon, here on R/WW)
So if you have any work along those lines, please let me know :-)
I have other irons in the fire, which will be brought to light in due course. Plus I intend to re-design Read/Write Web, as it's due for the next phase of its life too!
For now, I'm going to relax and enjoy my new freedom and my birthday with my family. After that I need to sort out the admin parts of self-employment (home office set-up, taxes and so forth), catch up with blogosphere news, and go to work!
Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202
This week: New apps on the block, Schools and the Web, Kids and Web 2.0, API magic, Outsourcing your PC.
Lots of start-up action this week. Two ones that caught my eye were Flock and Wordpress.com.
Flock is described as a "social web browser". Considering that the browser market hasn't had any decent innovation since Firefox burst onto the scene in November 2004, Flock sounds intriguing. Indeed Flock started off as a company, then named Round Two, building Firefox extensions (I wrote about them in this April post). SiliconBeat reports that Flock is a browser "aimed at making it easy for the Web 2.0 crowd to blog, post photos, etc." Roland Tanglao has more details - he was blown away. Will Pate also has a write-up. So yes, Flock sounds fascinating and I've signed up for an invite.
Wordpress.com is a hosted version of the open source blogging tool, Wordpress. It sounds like it'll give Six Apart's TypePad product a run for its money, especially if it's free (as SiliconBeat say it is). Not that Six Apart is standing still - Movable Type 3.2 sounds like a big step forward in functionality and TypePad has new features too. Andrew Watson is tracking the Wordpress.com news.
P.S. Keep an eye out for the TechCrunch profiles of Flock and Wordpress.com. The TechCrunch crew have been making their presence felt over in Silicon Valley - my brothers! Also check out their latest Web 2.0 This Week.
One of the kicks I get out of my blog is tracking how people in The Real World are using Web 2.0 technologies. One of the most active groups is teachers and people in the education system. Cole Camplese's Learning & Innovation blog is a good example. Cole works at Penn State University, in the School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). Web 2.0 is at the core of a class he teaches called IST 110. He explained:
"I will once again use the class blog for the primary communication area, but will extend it to give each their own accounts and spaces. I will be doing quite a bit of podcasting - both my own and expecting them to produce a bunch. I will be testing my enclosure bundles with them as well! I’ll use digital video again so they can communicate their solutions in ways beyond text - and I think I will do a little more of it."
Man, I wish my INFO 110 course in the early 90's had been that exciting (for the record, it was more boring than ECON 101).
Another recent educator that has been talking about Web 2.0 is Noah Brier's Mum, Barbara Rubin Brier. Noah posted an email from his Mum, which outlined her thoughts about how schools are using the Web. Looking ahead 25-30 years, Barbara thinks "the people in our classrooms will not be teachers of content knowledge, but facilitators of learning that will be entirely web-based."
Alexander Muse asks an interesting question:
"...does the fact that many of us who were active in the first Web boom now have children affect the direction of the web?"
I'd say the social nature of the current Web and the maturity of the industry now (compared to the craziness of dotcom times) is indeed affecting how Web 2.0 is panning out. Our little Web is growing up ;-)
This week I wrote a post summarising some recent articles about APIs. I want to highlight that theme again here in my Weekly Wrap-Up, so I thought I'd provide a few more examples of APIs in action.
Firstly James MacAonghus' analysis of Expedia, the online travel planning and flight-booking site. James thinks Expedia is more than that, saying it's "a heavyweight ecommerce and search website in its own right". He thinks that APIs would help Expedia compete with the big Internet companies:
"If Expedia could roll out an API platform of its own, it could at least fight it out with Google (and Yahoo and anyone else who will join the fray). At best, Expedia could increase its reach and range of services in ways impossible to a single company."
Of course Google, Yahoo and others won't sit back and wait for Expedia to catch up - they will forge ahead with new APIs. As Mark Sigal wrote in his RSS as a Web 2.0 platform article:
"... I would expect that fierce competition for developer mindshare between Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay will continue to push these folks to open up more and more of their APIs. [...] My bet is that before too long, the filtration, personalization and ad serving functions get reduced to an API that a developer can plug into their application."
Finally, Brad Feld's been thinking of APIs too. He wants a "CIO dashboard" view across all his data:
"Much of this data is “open” and freely available via APIs and web services although some isn’t easy to get."
Which would be a great example of a web app built on top of APIs from various companies - Google, Yahoo, Feedburner, etc. Ben Barren says KlipFolio is an example of this kind of app.
John Clingan has an interesting view on how to reduce spam and viruses on the Web - outsource your home PC by having all its software hosted on the Web. As Stephen O'Grady pointed out in the comments, this is known as the "thin client model". John wrote:
"I haven't been following the Web 2.0 discussion at all, but when I think of Web 2.0, I think of a web with security first and foremost. Every client has a certificate. Every server has a certificate. Email is safe. No spyware. No SPAM. OK, not entirely true, but there is some level of accountability. We have a thread to follow. If you want to be anonymous, back out to Web 1.0 and die a death by a thousand paper cuts. Support yourself, don't come to me."
I'm not entirely sure I follow John's reasoning here - it would be great if he explained it a bit more. But I think I see where he's coming from. It's similar to my SoulWeb post, in which I mused that one's PC will in future be hosted on the Web.
In many ways that will be the zenith of Web 2.0 - when the Web is a platform for our entire computing experience.
That's a wrap for another week!
A bit of admin - just so you know, I'm testing out a new type of RSS advertising with Feedburner. I'm testing it because it's pretty close to the type of RSS advertising I described in this post back in May.
Speaking of advertising, Phil Ringnalda has noticed the O'Reilly Network is using a subtle form of advertising/search engine spam:
"...follow the links to the O'Reilly sites, and scroll down in the left-hand sidebar, and you find nothing but links with the keywords that the search engine spammers want to have associated with their site."
Shelley Powers is doing the same thing. It's one of those tricky moral issues with Web 2.0, but I like how Greg Yardley described it: this form of advertising is "designed for robots instead of people". Because of this, it leads to clutter in the search engines. So in the end, the people lose out.
Segueing again... Robin Good published an excellent round-up of the issues around commercial republication of RSS feeds. In particular read the section by Sharon Housley of FeedForAll. She concludes:
"Optimizing your RSS-based contents to ensure that appropriate credit and linkbacks are always key components of what others may re-use is the only serious strategy that has a life."
Robin and Sharon suggest that preventing people from re-purposing your content is not worth the hassle, even when it comes to search engine spammers. I wouldn't go that far - I think it's worth making an effort to prevent scumbags from profiting from your content.
Finally, check out this interesting post by The Blog Herald which suggests that Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin drink with black-hat SEOs. I'm not sure what to believe, but the comments are revealing - they're dominated by self-confessed black-hat SEOs boasting about profiting from content re-purposing and automated content. Scary.
UPDATE: I've removed the references to my eBook Culture blog, because it turns out the accused spammer was actually my domain name registrar! I hadn't renewed in time, so they were earning money off it. Anyway, I've renewed it now.
This is news to me. Apparently there's a version 3 of RSS, which purports to be "a derivative work which is meant to replace the 2.0 version." That'll please Dave Winer, I'm sure. A guy called Jonathan Avidan is behind RSS 3.0 and he seems to be the only one contributing to the RSS 3 MessageBoards at this time.
Mr Avidan also posted an article at Slashdot, which seriously makes me wonder if there is any decent editing going on there - because frankly this RSS 3 looks to be a load of bunk. As one Slashdot commenter said:
"There is zero community behind this "standard", it's just a spec some guy decided to write of his own accord. In contrast, a real community effort, Atom, has just reached 1.0 and is standardized by the IETF. Nobody should take this "RSS 3.0" seriously."
Indeed just yesterday the Atom Syndication Format was approved by the IESG as an IETF Proposed Standard. In English, that means Atom is officially an alternative RSS format to RSS 2.0.
In comparison to Atom, which is a real community effort backed by some very smart and distinguished people, RSS 3 looks to be simply a publicity stunt for its author.
But let's be fair to Avidan and hear him out. In Slashdot he defends RSS 3 and answers the obvious question, why not support Atom? Avidan wrote:
"...why not Atom? I don't like Atom and believe that with more documentation, RSS stands a good chance. Competition, if moderately friendly and not destructive, is beneficial to both parties."
He doesn't like Atom? That's his reason for starting yet another RSS format?! He explains more in the "official blog":
"...it is my belief that RSS 2, given further documentation and reworking, can compete with Atom. Why do I want to compete with Atom? That would be too long to explain here, unfortunately."
Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I can't see the point of RSS 3 at all. Jonathan, at the very least you need to explain to people why you're not supporting a true community standard, which Atom undoubtedly is. RSS 2.0 already has significant uptake as the main RSS format, so why are you starting yet another fork of it?
There have been a lot of excellent posts and articles this week about APIs, the Web as Platform, web sites as software companies, and so forth. Here's my own mash-up of some of the highlights:
To set the scene, let's consider what the essence of Web 2.0 is. Peter Merholz has been thinking about this: "The point isn't the features, it's the underlying philosophy of relinquishing control." He pointed to Barnes & Noble's failed attempt to replicate Amazon's features and also cited Blockbuster trying to copy Netflix.
New blogger Sergey Schetinin has a 2.0 twist on an old theme: The Web is Atomic. I particularly liked this remix of Paul Miller's words:
"Web 2.0 presages a freeing of data, allowing it to be exposed, discovered and manipulated in a variety of ways…
Web 2.0 permits the building of virtual applications, drawing data and functionality from a number of different sources…
Web 2.0 applications work for the user, and are able to locate and assemble content that meets our needs as users…
Web 2.0 applications are modular …
Web 2.0 is about sharing; code, content, ideas…"
So the philosophy of Web 2.0 is to let go of control, share ideas and code, build on what others have built, free your data. It's actually a difficult philosophy to live by, when you consider how capitalistic Western society is. But more on that in another post...
btw, I've gotta love a new blogger that puts me on their v0.1 blogroll alongside just 3 other people: Clay Shirky, Kevin Kelly, Tim Berners-Lee. :-)
ZDNet is calling the current generation of the Web the "recombinant Web". Although that term is too much of a mouthful to catch on, the explanation is spot on:
"...the recombinant Web, Web mash-ups, Web 2.0 or just the next phase of Web evolution heralds the use of the Web as a platform for creating new kinds of user experiences and businesses. Jon Udell calls it remixable Web applications."
In a CNET article entitled Catching up to Web 2.0, Martin LaMonica gives us his definition:
"Now programmable Web sites are becoming more widespread, a change that unleashing all sorts of intriguing combinations, or "mash-ups." Some people call that Web 2.0."
LaMonica wrote more on that theme in a follow-up CNet article entitled From Web page to Web platform. His bottom line:
"Experts predict Web site owners will increasingly resemble software companies: To generate traffic and sales, they will encourage add-on products and Web services."
Hmmm, there is an overarching theme developing here. In CNET's words:
"The effect is to put a great deal of power in the hands of outside individuals and to transform Web sites into programmable machines."
Web sites as software companies, programmable machines... I like that way of expressing the power of Web 2.0 sites/entities such as Google and Amazon.
The second CNET article also has a paragraph devoted to eBay's use of APIs. Apparently 20% of eBay's listings come from the APIs - mostly for "high volumes". There are now 18,000 people in eBay's developer program, up from just 300 in 2003.
Robert Scoble recently visited eBay and was so impressed he was moved to comment:
"I think we're about to see a revolution in retailing. Someone could build an interesting new store using a combination of Google Maps or MSN Virtual Earth, Amazon, eBay, and other Web services."
But as usual, Robert's commenters had some interesting counterpoints. Developer Morgan Schweers said:
"There are some questions to be asked about the openness and design of eBay's API. [...] As for the people who are making $1Mil/mo., they are most likely spending $750+K/mo. to make it."
On the topic of implementations of API services, Feedburner has just released its FeedBurner Feed Management API. It's described as:
"...sort of like a universal remote control for FeedBurner services. You can create, manage and remove feeds in your account without ever visiting feedburner.com."
According to Rashmi Sinha, the quintessential Web 2.0 application is Flickr. She explained:
"Its data and metadata is contributed by its users; while the interface is its own. Its API's are used by developers who tend to use its data, but not the interface (such as Mappr, Color Pickr)."
Flickr is certainly a great example of a small company using Web 2.0 technologies to its advantage, although on a larger scale I don't think you can go past Google, Amazon and eBay as quintessential Web 2.0 entities. I also liked this line by Jon in the comments to Rashmi's post: "When web sites start acting like software companies, then you have your Web 2.0."
Finally, to end this mash-up on the topic of mash-ups, let me go right back to the original source of the Web - Tim Berners-Lee. In a recent interview with the BBC on the topic of the read/write Web, Sir Tim had this prediction for the Web in 30 years time:
"My goal for the web in 30 years is to be the platform which has led to the building of something very new and special, which we can't imagine now."
'nuff said.
Feedster have come up with a Top 500 blogs list, in response to Jason Calacanis' challenge. I make the charts at number 215. Even though charts are elitist and all that, it's cool to see my blog up there. Maybe charts are only elitist when I'm not on them? But reality check: as number 220 (hee hee) SiliconBeat wrote: "Actually, we knew if someone made a list long enough we could eventually worm our way on to it." Too true.
Feedster honchos Scott Rafer and Scott Johnson have both posted about the list. And the press release has good background, despite a howler in the first sentence: "Today, Feedster launched the FEEDSTER Top 500, a ranking of the most interesting and important blogs in the US." Unless they're counting me as an employee already and will sponsor my green card (in which case I accept!), my blog is based in New Zealand.
It appears there are already issues with the list - one commenter in Jason Calacanis' post pointed out that uber-blogger Jason Kottke is not on the list! There are a couple of others not there, who I would've expected to see. And people on Blogger and Radio Userland are missing, or ranked lower than they should be because of their URLs. Seems a bit unfair, because I follow quite a few such blogs.
Oh well, the 215th best blogger in the US can't be expected to worry about such trifling issues...
I got quoted in an IDG article, currently on Macworld, about the RSS naming debate. I'm pleased to get my name in mainstream media, however they got the dates out of context. Here's the extract where I'm mentioned:
"The debate raged on after Torres' response to Winer. In an Aug. 10 entry on his Web log Read/Write Web, freelance analyst and Web writer Richard McManus wrote that he, too, believed that Microsoft and Google should not mess with the brand because "it's bigger than both of them."
However, he admitted that the companies will probably drive the adoption of "feeds" because as the two "biggest Internet companies around," they are extremely influential. And anything that drives RSS into the mainstream is a good thing, McManus wrote."
The article referred to these posts by Mike Torres and Dave Winer - dated 9 August.
In fact my post was published before those guys - indeed Mike actually linked to my post. But because I live in New Zealand, which is 1 day ahead of the US, the date on my post is 10 August and not 9 August as it is on Mike and Dave's posts.
OK it's a relatively minor quibble, but the whole IDG story was structured around the dates things were published. So I've now re-set my Movable Type settings to Pacific Daylight Time. I figure I'm spiritually there anyway, so I may as well blog on Silicon Valley time too :-)
