On Stack Overflow I was captivated by "What tools would you used to write a modular database in Python? " and "Implementing a 'rules engine' in Python ".

Both questions are quite amazing because they already have a modular, flexible rules engine (called "python") but it's not good enough: they want to …

The Windows and .NET watch column, February 1, was Python: arbitrarily interesting . For certain classes of "interesting" problems, where interesting is defined arbitrarily, Python is an easy way to tackle those interesting problems.

It picks out a few specific areas of IronPython application, which is good and bad. Good because …

See the 10 Open Source Opportunities entry in CIO Minute.

The OS and Virtualization territory is already staked out. Not sure this will be a real opportunity space.

Enterprise applications (CRM, ERP, BI) are scary. Scary because these are purchased by CIO's. CIO's are herd animals and -- of course -- an …

The disruption from Microsoft's failures are only starting to be felt. Check out Frank Hayes' "The Pain Begins " column in the January 26th Computer World.

Corporate IT stubbed Vista. What will it do with Windows 7? And what's the fall-back plan if Windows 7 is bust and Microsoft does an …

Check out Binstock's January 15th column in Software Development Times, Integration Watch: The End of PERL?

Very compelling case, generally free of the kind of subjective rants that often characterize analysis of PERL's viability. I tell people to drop PERL all the time, but I don't often have as clear …

Years ago, I was working with a client who was implementing their first web site.

Well, actually, it wasn't their first. It was their third. But their first two were haphazard "we hope this works" kind of web sites. They relied on third-party security and were pretty sure they were …

Last week I noticed that some contacts were repeated in my iPhone contacts. That's awful. It makes the phone suddenly very hard to use.

I did a little reading, found some stuff about various levels of synchronization. I have a Mac OS X 10.4, plus 10.5, plus the …

Thing 1 -- My son's album is out today. You can visit the Siva Noir site. You can buy from their site or iTunes. Samples are available on their MySpace page.

Thing 2 -- More updates on Python 3.0. The story is not on the SD Times web site yet, but …

Here's the article, "The New Focus Group: The Collective ".

The point is that simplistic Return on Investment misses the point. The point is that marketing models aren't simple linear relationships between promotional dollars and sales.

I was all excited about the value of innovation and the source of innovation .

The …

I've received a steady flow of email on Building Skills in Python and Building Skills in OO Design .

Readers have located a number of mistakes. It's been easy to correct and republish these books on-line.

At some point, I'll have to start the Python 2.6/3.0 revisions.