O’Reilly – Are Rich Clients Taking Off or Tanking?
Bruce Epstein:
XML is more like basic research into physics, like the Manhattan project, whereas Macromedia is more like a chemistry lab trying to refine gun powder or invent TNT.
On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, 2:10:55 PM, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
XML is more like contractors who take care to ensure that the foundation and building are up to code and will last a long time for their homeowners, while Macromedia is a company that builds feature-filled homes quick without much concern for the building code and rents them out to whoever needs a house in a hurry…
Nat Torkington:
Ooh ooh! My turn!
XML is like a VW Jetta: environmentally sensitive, slow, dependable, and terminally uncool. Lasts a lifetime.
Flash is like a mid-80s Corvette: impressive but environmentally destructive. Oh sure, it gets you the chicks for a while, but ultimately most people sharing the road with you are thinking “what’s *he* compensating for?” It only lasts a lifetime by decreasing your lifetime.
via somebodydial911

Clay Shirky’s newest thoughts
…in the database world the new challenge is not a single unified database, but rather decentralized interoperability, interoperability brought about by a single universally used ID. The ID is DNA. The interoperability comes from the curious and unique advantages DNA has as a primary key. And the effect will put privacy advocates in a position analogous to that of the RIAA, forcing them to switch from fighting the creation of a single central database to fighting a decentralized and interoperable system of peer-to-peer information storage.

Salon – The 9/11 movie Hollywood won’t let you see
Two months after it was ready for release, and after it screened at high-profile international film festivals in Venice and Toronto, “11’09″01,” the French-produced movie about the international repercussions of Sept. 11, can’t get no respect in the U.S. Dubbed “stridently anti-American” by Variety, the movie is in distribution limbo despite the participation of hot international directors such as Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding”), Alejandro Gonz∑lez I“∑rritu (“Amores Perros”) and Danis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”).
Yet another reason to despise the Bush government. If we Americans cannot understand how we are perceived outside of America, we cannot be a good global citizen.