“Volta is an experimental developer toolset that allows developers to build standards-conformant, multi-tier web applications using established .NET languages, libraries and development tools. Via declarative tier-splitting, developers architect their applications as a single-tier application, then make decisions about moving logic to other tiers late in the development process- letting the complier manage creating boilerplate code such as communication between tiers.” Wow, this is crazy. Further details on Volta- Storm
“Storm is an object-relational mapper (ORM) for Python developed at Canonical. The project has been in development for more than a year for use in Canonical projects such as Launchpad, and has recently been released as an open-source product.” - AWS uses more bandwidth than Amazon.com
Amazon has done a great job building cloud computing for the masses. This has included the products and developer tools to leverage their infrastructure for others. It will be amazing to see if they are able to commercialize it. - Force.com: The Perils of Platform as a Service
Who do you trust with to provide your platform? What does platform look like in the cloud? Darmesh Shah provides a great job at why Force.com is NOT a platform for entrepreneurs. It has me thinking about Facebook? Live? Google? When I think about using AWS’s S3 for storage, I’d build a storage abstraction layer that immediately uses S3 where you can extend it to include other providers as they come online. - Facebook Platform
Fred Wilson provides a great review of the Facebook Platform and the monetization of Apps. “Facebook apps are being monetized very effectively. Probably more effectively than Facebook itself. The ecpms are low, but the volume is high and money is flowing into the app developers pockets.” I’m still searching for real examples of the monetization. I don’t disagree that a lot of developers are making money building Facebook apps, but it will be interesting to see if this really isn’t just a ad-driven version of the Force.com failure. - A revolution is taking shape
Nicholas Carr provides additional details about the impending utility computing war between Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, SAP, HP, Sun and Google. It has a little bit of a Skynet feel, but it’s a great introduction to the economics of utility computing and why these companies are interested. - Design’s place in a startup
Ever wonder about the role design plays in a tech driven startup. Tony Wright does a great job explaining why it’s not alway necessary but why it increases your chance of success. Read Don Norman’s Chapter 2 of the Invisible Computer for further implications of design in technology product creation and adoption. - More Combinators
If YCombinator was the disruptor, what will the next innovation in VC firms will look like. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. DreamITVentures, Seedcamp, Techstars, LaunchBox and others (BootupLabs I’m looking at you 😉