We can predict the future. Once it happened. From the exaggerated rumors of Steve Job’s demise:
(IF STOCK DROPS): The decline is no surprise to investors and analysts, many of whom considered Jobs irreplaceable. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis had said if Jobs left the company for any reason, Apples stock might plummet as much as 25%.
Speaking of telling the future once it happened …
XMPP stock down 25%. From beyond REST we learned that the failure of FriendFeed to poll Flickr for updates is best solved by switching to XMPP. From FriendFeed we learned that the solution is just a smarter feed. I’m going to make a prediction that:
(IF SUP WORKS): The ability to scale REST is no surprise to developers and pundits, many of whom consider REST irreplaceable.
I also have a contra prediction lined up, just in case the other hindsight proves right, in which case I’ll just categorize the entire thing as a “streaming problem”, for which we know XMPP is a damn good protocol. Always be prepared.
But does it scale? Unfortunately, Ruby developers don’t.
Getting around one bottleneck. I managed to shorten my tab list to three (keeps Firefox happy) by saving everything else with Read It Later. I still have a bottleneck reading/blogging through that list, but at least it’s no longer crowding my tabs. Give it a try.
Pound per dollar. How do you change the perception that bigger is better?
In a sign of today’s ecoconsciousness, almost every student asked about the Peugeot’s fuel economy. Most were unimpressed that the 207RC’s direct-injection, turbocharged, 172-hp, 1.6-liter four-cylinder manages an average of about 30 mpg in a mix of city and highway driving. As foremost as economy seemed to be, many of the students also said that the 207 (and most European cars) was too small for their taste. Two seemingly contradictory demands kept popping up: the need for lots of interior space, plus the desire for good fuel economy.
Above, hug a developer. Via Mark Blomsma.
Geoffrey O’Brien