Tech News - Jan 7 2006

Okay, some of this isn’t really new. But this is the first time I’ve heard of it and/or checked it out.

First, anybody find the acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe interesting? I’m actually glad to see it. Hopefully this will make them a stronger competitor to Microsoft. Of course, if you know me, you know that I like Microsoft’s developer tools immensely. However, I am a strong believer in the existence of competition, and Microsoft needs stronger competition than it has in general. Of course, in the areas that Adobe and Macromedia cover, Microsoft does not have a really strong offering. They do have some products coming out that intend to take some of the space of Photoshop (Adobe), Dreamweaver (Macromedia), and Flash (Macromedia). So, I guess, in this case it’s good that Adobe/Macromedia are actually getting some competition.

Second, anybody else notice the Google Reader? I took a look at it and, unlike a lot of Google’s offerings, I’m not real impressed. Usability is not that great, and it is definitely not a replacement for my desktop rss feed reader.

Third, speaking of RSS feed readers, I’m about tired of RSS Bandit. I’m either going to switch back to Sharpreader or go with the new reader that’s going to be in Community Server 2.0. RSS Bandit is a little buggy and incredibly slow compared to Sharpreader. The only benefit of RSS Bandit is that it is open source (and in C#), so I can fix it if I want to. However, fixing my issues would probably just take way too much time. And, I just don’t have that much time.

Fourth, back to Community Server 2.0. I’m playing with beta 2 now, changing the theme for use as a replacement for the christonomy site. No, I’m not putting a link because it hasn’t been updated in over a year. Embarrasing. Anyway, on to another topic, it has a feed reader in this version. Only one feature is lacking, and I could probably add that in a few hours. They are planning on releasing it officially on Feb 17th. I’m very much looking forward to this. I will at that point be doing some blogging at the Christonomy site. I haven’t decided what will the the difference between this one at blogger and that one exactly, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out in the next few weeks and let you, my faithful readers, know.

Fifth, for all you hard-working programmers out there who have bosses that expect to much and may outsource your position in the near future, this is a song for you.