Rob Relyea on Fixing the XAML Attribute Grammar.  Rob's been talking about fixing various parts of XAML lately ... However, Rob isn't telling us just want the changes are likely to be because, as he puts it, "I'm not going into great detail in the description of our fix because I'd prefer to be the first company to ship our design.  "

... it's nice to see us grow into the role of thought leader instead of follower. [via Marquee de Sells: Chris's insight outlet]

Getting a bit desparate when syntax changes to a disastrous piece of design work is sold as leading the pack, they've not got a lot of track record that their second round of design (.NET 2 is still being revised - this is the third bite at the cherrry) is going to be that much better than the first so they might regret the secret approach.

At the Web 2.0 conference today, Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer unveiled JotSpot, a new venture that aims to move Wiki technology into the realm of application development. ... [via Jon's Radio]

Interesting product/idea. Also interesting how all these 'web applications' always show cropped screen shots - and the cropping takes away the host browser window. As a result, one gets no-sense of how the application actually looks in real-world usage.

Microsoft Is Missing The Boat.  In response to Ryan Dawson's very interesting post: Avalon Knock-Offs Don't Make the Cut I have the following to say: .... [via MyXaml Web Log]

Go read - fair comment. It does look like rather a lot of people are casting around for just what all this stuff is - Rich / thin / fat / etc is part of it as well.

What You Should Know About a Reported Vulnerability in Microsoft ASP.NET.  

Tonight we posted a bunch of information about a reported ASP.NET security vulnerability.  I urge you to take a look at the security incident page at:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/aspnet.mspx

That page has all the latest info and will continually be updated as new information becomes available.  You can also get in depth information on how to help protect your ASP.NET site by taking advantage of some simple code to programatically check for canonicalization issues at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=887459

There is also a discussion thread that I started on www.asp.net forums that you can find at

 [via Microsoft WebBlogs]

I first saw this a few days ago - I can't remember where. Anyway, this is here so I know where to find it.

Amazon Launches New Web Services.  The online retailer adds new Web Services offerings for developers, including access to the Alexa Web Information Service. [via eWEEK Technology News]

Boring old me doesn't use Amazon (!) but the family do - perhaps I should ask what they want that isn't done by the web site.

"Laszlo itself has shifted its business model from platform licensing to professional services, support, and commercial application development."  [via Laszlo Open-Sources App-Building Platform]

Worth following up for the analysis... "Schmelzer said open source should not be viewed as a panacea".

Its getting mighty competitive out there.

well, you then go below Control, but in that case, you probably know what you are doing.  I expect the number of people who will go below that line is .1% of all developers. [via Avalon Stack Levels]

Hopefully, this should read "who will need to go below" - writing controls has always been a bit of a messy affair under Win32.

Via Scott Watermasysk comes a link to Cool Url "shrinking" utility from smart guy, Mitch Denny...If you click the balloon it will go off and talk to Shrinkster.com and turn that URL into something smaller....

I'd not heard of Shrinkster.com before and there is also TinyUrl.com. If you know where to find it, there is always something out there.

Regulators propose funding new TV channel  [via Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage]

Some interesting and original thinking going on. Most heartenly there is also some thinking about funding beyond "it must be the license fee", dishearteningly it then falls back to "it must be the license fee model". I'm also pleased to see - "We do not support the privatisation of Channel 4" - good.

For those interested in this sort of thing, the executive summary is here: Ofcom review - Executive summary and recommendations.

I name the guilty ones.  ... In an age when journalists are turning into quasi-politicians, appearing as co-equals on programmes such as Question Time, it is right that they should be ruthlessly monitored by each other. That is the function of a media column, a genre that did not exist 20 years ago, and which has grown along with the egos, picture bylines and general importance and self-importance of journos.  [via Boris Johnson MP]

Boris allows himself to be portrayed as a twit, whether you agree with him or not his writing is interesting and thought provoking.

On this particular issue, Tom Baldwin should answer the question he refused to answer at the Hutton Inquiry - who briefed him. Without an answer it seems reasonable to me to assume it was Mr Campbell.