For ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Web Developer, we have to be able to deliver a super high quality product that is rock solid from a functional perspective, can run the world’s largest sites/applications for months without hiccups, is bullet-proof secure, and is faster than previous versions despite having infinitely more features (do a file size diff on System.Web.dll comparing V2 with V1.1 and you’ll see that it is 4 times larger). [via Testing ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Web Developer]

The sort of claims that can come back and bite you very hard (bullet-proof secure was perhaps a little unwise given Oracle's experience) but a very interesting article with good PR value (the open source people will have a job responding to this).

Under Gmail's hood.  .... So what's this got to do with Gmail and the future of Web UI? I suggest there's no one-size-fits-all solution. In many cases, what will make the most sense is a hybrid application that uses Web 1.0 for all it's worth, pushes the DHTML envelope, and weaves in rich-client technology where it adds the most leverage.  [via Jon's Radio]

Absolutely; the phrase I used years ago was "bread-board" programming - DHTML is great for this (and Zeepe provides a great platform in which to do wonderful presentation of the results <g>).

There are probably definitions of these things somewhere that clear up the confusion but the close jaxtaposition of these two factoids [from a Reuters page of October stats from the ONS], both using 'since 1984' stood out:

Still, the more internationally-recognised ILO measure of the unemployment rate in Britain fell to 4.7 percent in the three months to August, the lowest since comparable records began in 1984.

and

The ONS also said the number of inactive people of working age rose by 91,000 on the quarter to 7.93 million, the highest figure since this series began in 1984.

I wonder what the official definition of full-employment is - its what the govt seem to keep claiming we have.

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.