Astute observers will recall that I’ve owned fatalexception.org for some time, so the choice of titles isn’t entirely a coincidence. But it also means something, which I’ve tried to explain in the first post.

In programming parlance, an exception is some kind of unforeseen condition that raises a red flag in the system. And since the story of computing and the Internet reads like a history of unforeseen developments and unlikely outcomes, I thought the title was a pretty decent choice. Plus it sounds cool.

At any rate, over the coming weeks you can expect me to cover stories relevant to Web and software developers and the people who love them. Sometimes I’ll be on a “big think” level, other times it will be nitty-gritty technical stuff. But the idea here is to help to chronicle the ever-changing world of software and computing and how developers keep on changing it. That will inevitably involve a lot of “Web 2.0″ type stuff, but more traditional software development also.

I should have a new column up each Thursday morning, with maybe some shorter posts interspersed here and there throughout the week, when interesting things pop up. As with my PC World blog, I’ll pull in the RSS feed and list the most recent posts in the righthand column, so this site remains a good place to keep up with everything I’m doing, including any upcoming in-depth articles or features (more of those to come soon).

At any rate, I hope you like the new blog and I can develop it into something that suits you. Please don’t hesitate to send feedback, either here or at InfoWorld.com.

Expect a bit of a departure from my Neil on Software blog at PC World. Instead, this one will take me back to my roots, looking at news, trends, and issues for software developers, with a particular emphasis on the new generation of “Web 2.0″ technologies (hate that term).

Between the two blogs, I should get an opportunity to look at a wide range of stuff that interests me — from basic productivity software and office-oriented how-tos, all the way up to Web frameworks, databases, and scripting languages. (Now all I need is a gig writing about hardware and gadgets — any takers out there?)

As before, I hope to keep an RSS feed of my latest posts here on this site, so one way to keep up with what I’m doing in each of these two “worlds” will be to look here.

More info as I get it. But as it looks right now, the InfoWorld blog could launch as soon as next week — or whenever we think up a title for it, whichever comes later.

Speaking of which, if you have a killer idea for a title for a developer-themed blog that you’re willing to give up, send it my way. If we actually end up using it, I’ll make sure you get something-or-other.

It should be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming weeks. I’ll be looking for feedback on how I’m doing, so feel free to leave comments on the site (or here, if you prefer). It’s a work-in-progress at the moment, but my goal is to steer it in the direction that best serves PC World’s readers.

And, if you’ve got any interesting news in the area of business software, send them to my “tech” address as usual, which you can find on my contact page.

If you missed the show yesterday — or for some reason you don’t listen to NPR — you can hear the interview via streaming audio in RealAudio, MP3, and iTunes podcast formats.

I should have some new work out there soon to tell you about, and a little more just getting in the works.

One thing that I’m looking forward to is getting a chance to fool around with the OLPC hardware. InfoWorld should be getting me an evaluation device sometime in the coming week. So if anyone out there has one of these yourself (perhaps through the give-one-get-one program of December) or you have a specific question about it that you’d like answered, drop me a line.

Otherwise, I hope to post a little more frequently as the year gets underway, including new book reviews and other stuff as well. Bear with me and watch this space.

OK, so you don’t have to be a genius to figure out what’s going on. It’s true. At about the same time that InfoWorld announced its transition to an online-only publication, editor-in-chief Steve Fox and I agreed that we’d part ways. There’s someone else enjoying the view from my corner desk at IDG’s San Francisco offices now, and may the evening symphony of the Bay Bridge traffic traffic bring them much inspiration.

As for me, I’ve gone solo. There’s no bad blood between me and the folks at Infoworld.com; doubtless you’ll see my byline on their HTML pages on a regular basis. But with any luck, moving away from the editorial rat race to concentrate on writing will give me a better opportunity to pursue projects a little more diverse than enterprise IT.

That’s not to say that I’m no longer interested in tech. In fact, I have a request. If you’re involved in computing hardware or software PR — or better yet, actual product development — feel free to keep me in the loop. Just please don’t bombard me at my primary email address. Send all unsolicited press releases and briefing requests to this special email box, [Email address: neil at the domain fatalexception.org ] which I’ve set up specifically for this purpose.

Another request: Please stay on topic. I cover business technologies, generally — not consumer ones. There’s virtually no chance that I’d ever cover Windows desktop widgets, themed browsers, emoticon packs, games, or exciting new AJAX-powered community sites, no matter how groundbreaking they might be.

If you want to pique my interest, tell me about operating systems, open source, database servers, identity management, high-performance computing, enterprise middleware, mainframes, grid computing, extreme programming, processors, embedded systems, SOA, J2EE, RFID, or .Net. You get the picture.

I’m also particularly interested in computing and information technology for the healthcare industry and the life sciences. If you’ve got an interesting story or new product information in that area, be sure to shoot me an email at the above address. [Email address: tech at the domain neilmcallister.com ]

So what about these “more diverse” projects that I mentioned? Well, I’m a little reluctant to disclose too much about that for the moment. I’d rather over-deliver than over-promise. And some of them are still waiting to be discovered! So stay tuned. Through the modern miracles of the Web and RSS, you need never lose track of me again.

Welcome to my new and improved personal homepage, which is only part of a comprehensive overhaul of all my various Web sites and properties. For a while now I’ve felt that it’s high time I got myself a grown-up’s Web site to replace the rather shabby version I’ve been using since the late 90s. (You remember that one, right? All the skulls and calligraphy fonts? How we’ll miss it.)

Building the new site around a blog back end will make it easier for me to keep you up to date on my comings and goings, if you’re the sort of person who cares. I’ll post updates on my latest work and where to find it, highlight some events of interest, and maybe even post the occasional review or random observation, just for fun.

If you’ve arrived at this site and can’t find what you were looking for, don’t fret. A few things have moved around, but most everything is still available. A lot of the miscellaneous stuff that cluttered my old site has been relocated under one of the menus in the right-hand column — I’ll let you guess which one — or will be soon.

More importantly, as I mentioned, this site is just part of a complete relaunch of a number of sites I have in the works. I’ve taken the step of bringing all my domains under the umbrella of a new hosting provider, with the goal of separating properties into the domains that suit them best. If you came here looking for The Adventures of Action Item, for example, you can now find it at its own site, professionalsuperhero.com. I’m mulling some other ideas that I’m not ready to discuss yet, but overall I hope the new site architecture will be more flexible, more reliable, and will also allow me to get more done and bring it to the Web more often.

“So, wait,” you ask, “does that mean you’re actually going to do something new with Action Item?” Time will tell.