I think that embedded microformat data is the Next Big Thing. Of 2007, at least: Official Google Maps API Blog: Microformats in Google Maps .

Nice.

Not only can your browser (with plug-ins as of today) do something interesting with the microformats, it also gives a lot more intelligence to search engines and anything else paying attention to the pages you're viewing.

The pre-Next Big Thing: how do people agree on emerging microformats so that we don't have macro-babel?

For some reason, I found myself at Wikipedia, wondering if a techie mentioned at Google was someone I had worked with while I was at Intel Supercomputers in Beaverton, OR. From there, I looked up the Intel Paragon (the class of machine when I joined Intel in 1992).

Then I decided to look-up the Big TFlop Momma that shipped as Intel Supercomputers winded down into obscurity: ASCI Red - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. ASCI Red showed that you could build a supercomputer with off the shelf tech- no excuse me - off the shelf *Intel* technology.

Decommissioned in 2006? Oh, let's take our hats off and lower our head in remembrance.

For some other reason, I remember my business trip to Sandia quite often. Great local food that was super-spicy-hot by default. Rather dingy labs holding the latest in technology. Extreme paranoia about every visitor having a watchful escort present at all times. That made bathroom runs uncomfortable.

So, XIPD (my graphical debugger front-end for parallel applications) runs no more. I hope it helped people find and fix their bugs. That's the hard thing about software development. Your craft produces works that have a short life-time and then disappear. Reminds me of something Roy Batty said about moments lost in time.

OMG, a Slashdot thread that doesn't whine about Microsoft and that's pretty interesting (to me): Any "Pretty" Code Out There?

Back in 2000, I believe, I was working in the Exchange source code to add a thin-client browser-based rendering of NetDocs views. Sort of like OWA. The main piece of code I worked on, the DAV front-end, was a beautiful piece of programming. Elegant. Consistent. Clear.

If you understood how one verb handler worked, you understood everything else you needed. It was fractal in its simplicity. Design patterns in action.

Since then, I've always wanted to collect "Studies in Great Code" as a way to have a high standard to hold myself against. As much as I can, I check out what comes from the Slashdot thread.