Archive | May, 2003

Despite the BigCo’s attempts to hijack the definition of Web Services (note the capitalization), the fact is a web service (lowercase) is what we’ve been doing all along, whenever a response is generated from other than a static page. My RSS feeds are web services, even though they are once-an-hour updated XML pages available via http.

“What is a Web Service?. The definition of what constitutes a Web Service has been a moving target for quite some time. This article on Loosely Coupled notes that Gartner have modified their definition once more. The article reads on to state that SOAP and/or BPEL are not required to build Web Services.” from the CapeBlog

Wisdom through the ages. A classic DaveNet essay at: http://davenet.userland.com/1995/09/03/wemakeshittysoftware

I endorsed CloudMark some time ago, before they let us in on their business plan to make money doing this. I had hoped that they were planning on marketing their database and services to businesses, in exchange for fees, while leaving their personal product free. A business with hundreds or thousands of users can easily show a good business case why their storage and bandwidth shouldn’t be consumed with spam. On the personal level, the justification is weaker. There certainly had been no hint during the “beta” that the product would have a fee after the testing period. Now that we’ve populated their database, they want us to pay $60 to continue to access it. With free competitors like SpamBayes available, I doubt they will succeed. Too bad, a good idea gone greedy.

Where’s the “but it will cost you” in the signature a friend uses?

I’ve stopped 29.254 spam messages. You can too!
Get your free, safe spam protection at http://www.cloudmark.com/spamnetsig/

What is it about “free” I am misunderstanding?

Fees rile spam foes. Claiming they helped build a service that was supposed to be free, testers of Cloudmark’s spam-blocking system are protesting the finished version, which costs $60 per year. [CNET News.com]

I’ve been using several wikis as indispensable toolboxes and sources of knowledge for years. Now the NYT picks up on the thread… NY Times: “The wiki, a quirky software technology that has been kicking around the Web since the mid-90’s, is starting to gain respectability.” [Scripting News]

“Gartner advises its clients to pull the plug on Passport implementations in the wake of a recently discovered security flaw” according to this article in Information Week.