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Paul Thurrott's Xbox 360 Review

i don't do computer games. No time. If I had the time I'd sleep, bicycle, skate, something.

Nonetheless, the Xbox 360 has got my attention. Paul Thurrott, who adores computer games, tells why even non-gamers should care.

Joel Sposky's reading list: 75 books

Working in the software business (or any business)?

A valuable resource is ...Reading List: Fog Creek Software Management Training Program - Joel on Software. 75 books.

OS X PNG Compressor - good for screen shots

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): PNGCrusher

Jon Udell on synchronizing data transactions: visions of Microsoft and Google

Jon Udell: Dueling simplicities

A deceptive title. No Udell essay is truly simple. He's looking at some big issues in this blog -- Google and Microsoft's dueling visions for the semantic web. Interesting background on Google Base as well.

Note Jon's hint about what he thinks Google will do with Firefox -- embed data services into the browser, so it will be tightly bound to GoogleBase. Both IE and Netscape have had similar visions at various times. Application developers are always looking for persistent stores, here we're talking about a secure persistent store that would be available anywhere. Start your work on one machine, continue on another ...

On the other hand Microsoft is tackling the synchronization problem that killed Palm (Microsoft used Outlook/Exchange sync to kill the PalmOS, and Palm helped them.). Using an open source class license.

Note also Udell's method for integrating GoogleBase and del.icio.us views of his bike trails. Cringely and Udell are my two favorite tech writers, but Jon Udell strains my brain more...

Yes, this feels like 1995 again, when a thousand flowers bloomed (only to be cut down @1999 ...)

Finding coders for small IT projects

A review of RentACoder. These sites are not necessarily offshore.

The Healthcare IT Guy: How to dip your feet into offshore custom development of medical/clinical software

I’ve been using an auction-style service known as RentACoder. Their business model is simple: if you need software related work done you create an account, describe what you want done, and within 24 to 48 hours you will have a bunch of developers from all over the world bid on your project. You take your time to decide on what you want and RentACoder (RAC) will provide ratings, previous work history, etc. Once you’ve selected a “coder” RAC will escrow the project funds and tell the developer to initiate work; during the project you can keep contact directly with the developer and through the RAC website’s messaging system. Their website isn’t the friendliest in the world and the messaging system is a bit difficult but if you dispute anything they want you to document it through their system to ensure non-repudiation.

Interesting IT blog, I need to review the back issues. (I just realized last night that I would be better served reading back issues of the best blogs than reading current issues of so-so blogs. Duhhh.)