At this time of year I allow myself a little introspection. Why do I write this blog? In part because I enjoy it; in part because it lets me write what I want to write, rather than what someone will commission; in part because I need to be visible on the Internet as an individual, not just as an author writing for various publications; in part because I highly value the feedback I get here.<\/p>\n
Running a blog has its frustrations. Adding content here has to take a back seat to paying work at times. I also realise that the site is desperately in need of redesign; I\u2019ve played around with some tweaks in an offline version but I\u2019m cautious about making changes because the current format just about works and I don\u2019t want to make it worse. I am a writer and developer, but not a designer. <\/p>\n
One company actually offered to redesign the blog for me, but I held back for fear that a sense of obligation would prevent me from writing objectively. That said, I have considered doing something like Adobe\u2019s Serge Jespers and offering a prize for a redesign<\/a>; if you would like to supply such a prize, in return for a little publicity, let me know. One of my goals is to make use of WordPress widgets to add more interactivity and a degree of future-proofing. I hope 2010 will be the year of a new-look ITWriitng.com.<\/p>\n So what are you reading? Looking at the stats for the year proves something I was already aware of: that the most-read posts are not news stories but how-to articles that solve common problems. The readers are not subscribers, but individuals searching for a solution to their problem. For the record, the top five in order:<\/p>\n Annoying Word 2007 problem- can\u2019t select text<\/a> \u2013 when Office breaks<\/p>\n Cannot open the Outlook window \u2013 what sort of error message is that?<\/a> \u2013 when Office breaks again<\/p>\n Visual Studio 6 on Vista<\/a> \u2013 VB 6 just won\u2019t die<\/p>\n Why Outlook 2007 is slow- Microsoft\u2019s official answer<\/a> \u2013 when Office frustrates<\/p>\n Outlook 2007 is slow, RSS broken<\/a> \u2013 when Office still frustrates<\/p>\n The most popular news posts on ITWriting.com:<\/p>\n London Stock Exchange migrating from .NET to Oracle\/UNIX platform<\/a> - case study becomes PR disaster<\/p>\n Parallel Programming: five reasons for caution. Reflections from Intel\u2019s Parallel Studio briefing<\/a> \u2013 a contrarian view<\/p>\n Apple Snow Leopard and Exchange- the real story<\/a> \u2013 hyped new feature disappoints<\/p>\n Software development trends in emerging markets<\/a> \u2013 are they what you expect?<\/p>\n QCon London 2009<\/a> \u2013 the best developer conference in the UK<\/p>\n and a few others that I\u2019d like to highlight:<\/p>\n The end of Sun\u2019s bold open source experiment<\/a> \u2013 Sun is taken over by Oracle, though the deal has been subject to long delays thanks to EU scrutiny<\/p>\n Is Silverlight the problem with ITV Player- Microsoft, you have a problem<\/a> \u2013 prophetic insofar as ITV later switched to Adobe Flash; it\u2019s not as good as BBC iPlayer but it is better than before<\/p>\n Google Chrome OS \u2013 astonishing<\/a> \u2013 a real first reaction written during the press briefing; my views have not changed much though many commentators don\u2019t get its significance for some reason<\/p>\n Farewell to Personal Computer World- 30 years of personal computing<\/a> \u2013 worth reading the comments if you have any affection for this gone-but-not-forgotten publication<\/p>\n Is high-resolution audio (like SACD) audibly better than than CD<\/a> \u2013 still a question that fascinates me<\/p>\n When the unthinkable happens: Microsoft\/Danger loses customer data<\/a> \u2013 as a company Microsoft is not entirely dysfunctional but for some parts there is no better word<\/p>\n Adobe\u2019s chameleon Flash shows its enterprise colours<\/a> \u2013 some interesting comments on this Flash for the Enterprise story<\/p>\n Silverlight 4 ticks all the boxes, questions remain<\/a> \u2013 in 2010 we should get some idea of Silverlight\u2019s significance, now that Microsoft has fixed the most pressing technical issues<\/p>\n and finally HAPPY NEW YEAR<\/p>\n At this time of year I allow myself a little introspection. Why do I write this blog? In part because I enjoy it; in part because it lets me write what I want to write, rather than what someone will commission; in part because I need to be visible on the Internet as an individual, … Continue reading A year of blogging: another crazy year in tech<\/span>