========================================================= ----- PETER COFFEE'S ENTERPRISE IT ADVANTAGE ----- ========================================================= A weekly newsletter from eWEEK Technology Editor Peter Coffee focused on application development and technologies at the cutting edge of enterprise-class computing.
========================================================= Sponsored by Mercury Save $100 off your registration for Mercury World 2004 (Nov. 7-10, Orlando, FL) enter code ZDDISCOUNT. Learn how Mercury's Business Technology Optimization (BTO) offerings can help you optimize for growth and change. Register now at: http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145938-1 ========================================================= November 1, 2004 ========================================================= In This Edition ========================================================= PETER COFFEE: Why Measure What Can't Matter? EWEEK NEWS: 1. News: Microsoft Lays New Groundwork 2. News: Programming Legends Debate .Net, J2EE 3. News: Envisioning the Programming Language of the Future 4. News: MySQL Update Puts a Toe Into Big Vendors' Database Turf 5. News: Microsoft Sharpens Its Software Factory Vision ========================================================= PETER COFFEE ========================================================= Why Measure What Can't Matter? Developers have a duty to focus stakeholders' attention on relevant metrics and technologies. by Peter Coffee I was talking with someone about this year's presidential election, when I said that it was silly for polls to report anything other than predictions of the Electoral College votes. I argued that a poll purporting to measure, for example, "a 51-to-49 lead" for one candidate versus another was meaningless--since there's no such thing as a "popular vote" for the Presidency. "What do you mean?," came the reply. "You count up all the votes in all the states for one candidate, you count up all the votes for the other, that's the popular vote." "OK," I said, "Imagine it's the end of a football game, and the announcers say, 'Well, our home team carried or passed the ball for a total of 1,100 yards, and the other team only moved the ball 980 yards, so our team is the real winner-- but a technicality in the rules only gives points for moving the ball across the lines at the ends of the field, so the referees have declared the other team the winner.'" Read the rest of Peter's column here. http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145941-1 ========================================================= EWEEK NEWS ========================================================= 1. News: Microsoft Lays New Groundwork As Microsoft released the first building blocks of its Software Factories project last week, the company laid the groundwork for a new ecosystem of software development. http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145944-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. News: Programming Legends Debate .Net, J2EE In a meeting of programming heavyweights dubbed a shootout of competing platforms, participants exhibited criticism and sarcasm, but also a grudging respect for their opposing peers. Find out what they had to say. http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145947-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. News: Envisioning the Programming Language of the Future What will be the dominant programming languages a decade from now? Microsoft developer division architect Herb Sutter told attendees of the OOPSLA conference here that he couldn't predict the names of the most prominent programming languages of 2014, but he had a good idea of the characteristics of those languages. http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145950-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. News: MySQL Update Puts a Toe Into Big Vendors' Database Turf MySQL last week released into general availability a version of its open-source database with subqueries, faster and more secure client-server communication, tools that ease installation and configuration, and support for international character sets and geographic data. http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145953-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. News: Microsoft Sharpens Its Software Factory Vision In a speech at the Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applications conference, Microsoft's head researcher announced a new framework and tools for building domain-specific languages and the precursor to the company's software factories strategy. http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145956-1 ========================================================= Tech Jobs http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145959-1 ========================================================= Ziff Davis Channel Zone http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145962-1 ========================================================= DevSource http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145965-1 ========================================================= eNewsletter Information ========================================================= You are subscribed to this newsletter with the e-mail address [EMAIL PROTECTED] TO UNSUBSCRIBE, click here: http://www.eweek.com/unsubscribe_newsletter/0,4223,,00.asp?n=08&type=u&[EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your HTML/text preferences, change your e-mail address or subscribe to other eNewsletters from Ziff Davis Media, click here: http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145968-1 Questions about your newsletter subscriptions? To read our FAQ, click here: http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145971-1 ========================================================= eWEEK Magazine Information ========================================================= To apply for a free subscription to eWEEK, please go to http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145974-1 For help with your print subscription to eWEEK, click here: http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1319-6-7-214274-145977-1 Copyright (c) 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016
