The Wall Street Journal has amazing article describing how Jim Allchin approached Bill Gates with the news that Vista, was so complex that its writers would never be able to make it run properly. The article goes on the mention,

‘Throughout its history, Microsoft had let thousands of programmers each produce their own piece of computer code, then stitched it together into one sprawling program. Now, Mr. Allchin argued, the jig was up. Microsoft needed to start over.”

And start over they did. This article also points out the applications that Google has released in the past year which compromise Microsoft’s plans for Vista and other products. Its seems that Microsoft is getting beat at their own game and shortly the growing threat from rivals such as Google Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and makers of the free Linux operating system will put a stop to Microsoft. I guess since they are falling back on new innovations that’s why they have developed a creative suite hoping to boost some creditability. Read the full story

IBM’s site posted an article aimed at Java developers and new concepts in building dynamic Java applications.

“This article gives you a good understanding of the fundamental principles of Ajax, and a nuts-and-bolts knowledge of the client and server side components that participate in an Ajax interaction. These are the building blocks of a Java-based Ajax Web application. In addition, you will be shown some of the high-level design issues that come with the Ajax approach.”

Author Philip McCarthy does an outstanding job presenting the new concepts by using AJAX to build dynamic web application. This article is focused on developing with Java but the key principles described can be used with all other language such as PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, etc. I strongly recommend this read especially if you’re looking towards adding or build future applications with an AJAX approach.
Read the full story.

Its official Slashdot.org went HTML 4.01 Strict and CSS. It still has several bugs and functionality issues to overcome so keep your eyes open. As well for those interested in CSS contests, Slashdot will run an official CSS redesign contest. Here are the files:

http://images.slashdot.org/slashdot.css
http://images.slashdot.org/ostgnavbar.css
http://images.slashdot.org/base.css
http://images.slashdot.org/print.css
http://images.slashdot.org/handheld.css

What is Bill Gates up to now? I guess the company most be going poorly if he has to go out and release a creative suite. Now Adobe and Macromedia have been around for a long time and it seems that they have everything under control so what makes Bill think he can slide in and poison the industry with some over price applications which are nothing but waste of hard drive space?

“Macromedia Flash, in my opinion, is becoming less of a significant player as developers shift from Flash to using DHTML and AJAX to create applications like GMail and Google Maps,” wrote former “Sparkle” program manager Jon Meyer yesterday. Meyer claims that “Sparkle” – now officially re-named Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer – “will go significantly beyond what is possible with Ajax or Flash.”

I’ll believe it when I see it. I bet all the application will only run on windows based platforms and probably only on Vista. The way I see it this is only another ad campaign to promote Vista and force users to upgrade.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, is starting to add in-dash USB connections come December. This option will be available for the Golf, Golf Plus and Touran. All other models will have this option available next year. The option comes in two varieties, one for the iPod, another for other USB-based players. Read the full story.