O'Reilly: Which programming language should I learn? “If you read my column, you won't be surprised to see that my final and highest recommendation is Python. It's an easy-to-use programming language with many of the virtues of Perl and PHP–interactive development, RAD, object orientation, and lots of examples of Web use–but it also enforces good… Continue reading Which programming language should I learn?

Dave Winer: Ye-hi, the outliner market on the Mac is coming back to life. Here's a really interesting line from the Omni website. “Multiple columns per row — a first for any outliner that we've seen!” Wow. Takes your breath away. MORE didn't do multiple columns, but InfoDepot did. It was their big feature. Frankly,… Continue reading outliner market

Playing With IT, And Why It Matters [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

The Best Low Budget Macs : There is a short answer to that question. Buy an iMac, used or new. In terms of value, it's pretty tough to beat the iMac in a desktop machine. (Low End Mac) [Applesurf]

Technology News from Wired News – Big Blue's Big Brother Lab. Imagine knowing the name of every single person who lived in this world. One of IBM's lab scientists shows how existing technology could make this scenario possible. [Privacy Digest]

Ozone comes of age. Falko Braeutigam has announced Ozone 1.0, the first stable release of the open source object oriented database, which comes with a XML persistent DOM implementation. [xmlhack]

CamWorld on HailStorm: “Why hasn't someone proposed a similar technology that takes advantage of the open Internet technologies to build a competing “public data project” or “universal profile database” that could be operated by a non-profit organization or by a group of Internet companies like Amazon, Paypal, Sun, etc.?” Cam asks excellent questions. Lumeria has… Continue reading CamWorld

John Dvorak: “I suppose now is as good a time as any to air my complaints about Microsoft's decision to make its next iteration of the operating system into nagware.” [Scripting News]

ZDNet: Business & Tech E-Commerce: In Microsoft do you trust? To breathe in the electronic environment of Microsoft's .Net imaginings, consumers must first hand their private information over to Microsoft, and trust the Redmond company to store it securely and parcel it out judiciously. Some think it's an impossible goal for a company with already… Continue reading In Microsoft do you trust?

Are the Groove designers Architecture Astronauts?. When you say “it's a platform, third parties will build things,” you have to explain what KIND of things and why THEY will be killer apps that sell the architecture. If you keep hearing the same examples, you're in deep trouble [Joel on Software]