This just in: Fatal Exception, my InfoWorld blog, has received a rating of 8.0 at the blog rating site Blogged.com, qualifying it for a score of “Great.” Just six other InfoWorld blogs have been reviewed by the site. Tom Yager rates a little higher than I do, as does Zack Urlocker and Savio Rodrigues’ Open Sources blog, but I daresay I can deal with “Great.” Drop on by the site and leave a review of Fatal Exception, if you’re so moved.
Posts from my Fatal Exception blog at InfoWorld have been linked on Slashdot a lot lately. This morning it was my editorial “Was JavaScript a mistake?”, which asks whether we’re spending entirely too much effort trying to standardize a single language for client-side Web programming. Other recent posts to receive the royal Slashdot treatment include “The Web development skills crisis” and “Java is free at last. Now what?”, among others.
Naturally I’m pleased as punch with the attention. The so-called Slashdot effect is well known, and while visitors from Slashdot have yet to bring InfoWorld’s servers to their knees, the mention is always a surefire way to bring in a lot more traffic. It’s especially great in this case, because the Slashdot audience is pretty much exactly who I had in mind when I launched the blog. I’m a longtime Slashdot junkie myself — and in fact, long before you saw any of my editorials linked on the site, you’ve probably seen my posts in the comments. » More... »
After a few technical glitches at the outset, my new InfoWorld blog is at last online. If you’re interested in the geekier aspects of computing, drop on by and take a gander at the first-ever installment of “Fatal Exception.”
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. » More... »
As you’ve no doubt noticed, even though I’m no longer an employee at InfoWorld, I still do a fair amount of work for them. Now it looks like my role there is due to expand even further. Recently I’ve been in contact with the InfoWorld editorial staff, and they’ve extended me the opportunity to launch a new blog on the InfoWorld site.
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). » More... »
The good people at PC World Business Center have flipped the switch on my new blog there, so we are officially rolling. You can see a little RSS widget with the current headlines along the right-hand side of this page.
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.
Yesterday, Jon Gordon interviewed me for his radio program, “Future Tense,” regarding the top tech flops article I mentioned earlier. “Future Tense” is a 5-minute daily program that airs on National Public Radio on about 100 stations across the country. I think you can usually hear it as a segment during the CBC radio show “As it Happens.”
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.
Hi there! I just realized that it’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates to this blog. The holiday season got on top of me for a while there. But welcome, all, to 2008!
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.
If you’ve found your way here and you work in PR for the tech industry, you’ve probably been getting a little worried. I’m sure it always seemed like getting me to answer your emails (or, heaven forbid, your phone calls) was a little difficult. But lately it must seem like I never answer them.
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. » More... »
Don’t call it a blog! Well, OK, I guess it is a blog, technically. But we don’t do any of that “blogosphere” nonsense around here.
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. » More... »
