Fortune 500: Wal-Mart rules yet again

Fortune magazine released it's Fortune 500 list yesterday and no surprises there, Wal-Mart retained it's title as the # 1 company in the US. Another company I love, GE stood at #5. Not surprisingly, Enron and WorldCom are nowhere to be seen. According to Fortune's Editors if Wal-Mart continues bringing in profits like this, it could very well open up a gap between other top companies and maintain it's position for many years. Personally, I love Wal-Mart, Why? because of it's low prices and it's penetration in US cities. Wherever I have stayed in US, I could find my friendly neighbourhood Wal-Mart. Most of the times I've had choices of what Wal-Mart store to visit because of their proximity. Another reason for this love is one project I did for Wal-Mart while working for GE Appliances. Cool !!

JavaScript gets XML [ via Loosely Coupled weblog ]

JavaScript now known as ECMAScript is getting native XML support.

ECMA International (ECMA) is completing extensions to the widely used ECMAScript standard, currently being updated to its 4th Edition. The enhancements known as E4X (ECMAScript for XML) standardize the syntax and semantics of a general-purpose, cross-platform, vendor-neutral set of programming language extensions adding native XML support in ECMAScript.

This is a great step given the importance of XML in Web Services world. It would be interesting to see how client side functionalities get extended with the XML support.

The Myth of Loosely Coupled Web Services

In his Opinari Newsletter, David Chappell breaks some more myths about Loosely coupled web services. He compares loose coupling to asynchronous communication and then goes on to tell that WS-ReliableMessaging will allow Loose Coupling of web services. I haven't yet gone through this spec but looks like I may have to soon. For the uninitiated, here are some more links on this new spec.

Patching made painless

InfoWorld reports, Microsoft has released SUS (Software Update Services) 1.0 which allows companies to have their own update server within the intranet. Apart for being free, the software will reduce headaches for SysAdmins. In a big enterprise, updating servers and PC's is a big pain and I have been feeling this pain for quite some time now (not applying patches but validating those).

SUS uses the latest version of the Automatic Update client, installed as part of either Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or Windows XP Service Pack 1, which allows redirection to the SUS server through use of an Active Directory group policy, or a modification of the desktop's or server's registry keys. SUS only accepts content that's signed by Microsoft, so security is much less of an issue than it might otherwise be.

But SUS just takes care of enterprises (big and SMB's), for individuals Windows Update is still the best bet.

Pop-up ads, spam and those old jokes

Writes Rob Pegoraro in his Fast Forward column:

The Internet comes with its share of annoyances, most of which -- spam, viruses and those old jokes your friends can't seem to stop forwarding to you -- have exhibited a cockroach-like tenacity despite our efforts to make them go away.

Well, the article focuses on blocking Pop-ups but the above statement is so true. Getting old joke(s), again and again from different set of friends is annoying but what can you do. You can't tell them, stop sending me this crap. Jokes are meant to make you laugh but these mails take every bit of smile away from your face while breaking your concentration and impairing productivity. But as I said, What can you do?

While I am on subjects of email, Read this very good article on when to email, what to email, who to email etc.

Martin Fowler on design of distributed objects

In the April issue of SDMagazine, Martin Fowler discusses how the design of distributed objects interfaces affects the performance of the system.

The overriding theme, in OO expert Colleen Roe’s memorable phrase, is to be “parsimonious with object distribution.” Sell your favorite grandma first if you possibly can.

Good Read. BTW, This article is adapted from his new but already famous book, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture.

Good enough for today and at the right price

Read this Infoworld article by Chad Dickerson. He talks of integrating off-the-shelf software and outsourcing as the trends that will outlast the current economic downturn. At the end of the article, he twists a famous phrase by Steve Jobs of Apple as:

...enterprise IT has moved on from "insanely great" to "good enough for today and at the right price."

So true. I see this happening all the time and more so in the last few months. I have seen that the IT attitudes have changed but it is very difficult to change the habits of end users/clients. They have been accustomed to getting things done their way all the time. Guess these attitudes will have to change sooner than later.

The Deliberate Revolution: Transforming Integration With XML Web Services

Came across a great article on web services by Mike Burner, a software architect at Microsoft. Some very good information in there, especially the section on Service Patterns, where he describes the use of patterns for designing web services. The patterns he describes includes, Facade (to encapsulate complexity), Interception (Is this the same as Proxy pattern?) and few other non-standard ones (EAI Hubs, Information Portals, Catalog Publication, Business Process Management etc). To conclude the article he writes:

As the Internet becomes the backbone for data and application integration, common schema for describing our world and our interactions will unblock the flow of information between organizations, and allowing us to communicate with a precision we have never known before. But this shift requires organizations, from small businesses to world governments, to reconsider how data and processes are managed. The software industry, meanwhile, must deliver on technology that allows people to express and manipulate the information that drives our businesses, our societies, and our social interactions. Web services promise to be central to every facet of the transformation

I would rate the article as essential read for anyone interested in Web Services.