No MassCap: Bad omen for Suffolk?
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It didn't sound like a concession speech, yet it pointed in an ominous direction: toward the closing of Suffolk Downs, perhaps within weeks, with the prospect of a 2007 racing season at the East Boston racetrack a long shot at best.
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By Gorczyca, Beth  ELKINS - A debate over designating a section of stream for  catchand-release fishing could end up casting a question over the state's tax system.
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I'm back, with a very interesting topic too!  Joel Spolsky, ex-Microsoft Manager and software engineering guru has a new essay, How Microsoft Lost the API War that is creating quite a big storm in the blogging communitiy.  Joel posits that the priests in the holy Temple of Microsoft have lost their way, because it has split into two factions, and the wrong faction is winning. One faction worships on the alter of backward compatibility, while the other is led by fervent priests who are proselytizing to raise up the new gods of .NET and Longhorn. Joel suggests that the new gods will cause the destruction of the holy Temple because Microsoft's great victories were built on the altar of keeping customers happy with backward compatibility. Furthermore the old gods of the Windows API continue to grow more grotesque and cruel with the passing of time, driving former worshipers into the arms of the friendlier gods of World Wide Web.  This story sounds extremely plausible. I must admit that i fit the profile of the developer who used to develop on the Window's API, is familiar with COM and Win32 who now develops mostly using PHP and Python. However I continue to develop and maintain Windows apps that keep our customers happy, and we still plan to develop new Windows apps. Some points:  Temple of the Blind? Firstly, Microsoft is still a compelling place to work for to people who feel that they can make a difference. The Temple continues to attract talented people with a Unix background. For example we have the recent hiring of Ward Cunningham, author of the Wiki.  Microsoft is still able to keep talented people like Raymond Chen, and others like him who continue to look after the Windows API, and Longhorn apparently will still give high priority to backward compatibility. Open sourcerers like Miguel Icaza are sufficiently attracted to the .NET vision to stake their careers on Mono. Longhorn and .NET are compelling technologies, so even if Win32 is not so cute anymore, M'soft is providing something that remains very attractive.  What i do see M'soft doing wrong is that they aren't disseminating the .NET runtime fast enough. It remains an optional install in XP Service Pack 2 for example. Also their IE dev team appears to be hog-tied due to political reasons; nevertheless IE remains good enough, particularly when I can embed IE as an activeX control, something I cannot do with Mozilla (AFAIK) - Update: I'm wrong.  Temple of the Spider?  Secondly, people don't merely use a web browser. They run the web browser in the OS.  So let me ask you, if you are using DreamWeaver or HomeSite or Photoshop or vi or emacs or Gimp, how many of you are willing to give it up for a java applet (or whatever your favorite technology is) running in your web-browser? Precisely.  Temple of the Abandoned?  Third, Joel makes the claim that developers are not developing to the Windows API. Well he could be right. But I bet a lot of them are still calling Win32.  If you are using a framework or IDE like Delphi or wxWindows (or .NET or VB) then you certainly are insulated from the Windows API, but that doesn't mean that you're not calling the Windows API all the time. I don't see Borland dropping their Windows version of Delphi at any point in time.   In fact, the fact that many developers are using some form of framework is a compelling argument for Microsoft to enhance the .NET framework to attract developers who are using other frameworks.  Today, not that many students learn x86 assembler, but that doesn't mean that Intel lost the CPU wars. Just because fewer people are learning Win32 doesn't mean Microsoft has lost the API wars, if the frameworks run predominantly on Win32.  Temple of the Lost  Joel even warns you in the beginning that "because I'm talking about big trends, I need to exaggerate and generalize". But you still get sucked in because Joel Spolsky is a first-class writer, in the same order as Philip Greenspun or Eric Raymond. That makes him so persuasive and plausible. But this is not Indiana Jones and doomed temples, but Steve Jobs and reality distortion fields.  Other opinions:  Harry Fuecks (PHP is ASP's upgrade path),  Dennis Hamilton (M'soft is just covering all bases), Robert McLaws (Joel is wrong in 7 points), Oliver Travers (the web is not good enough), One Run-time to Rule them all....
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MELROSE -- The last thing Melrose expected as it headed into last night's Middlesex League matchup with second-to-last place Stoneham was a close game. As New Englanders, they should know better.
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By Daniel D'Ambrosio, Waterbury Republican-American, Conn.  Sep. 7--MIDDLEBURY -- The Board of Selectmen has endorsed a new ordinance  that would require land use applicants to pay for consultants hired by the  town to evaluate their projects.
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By SCOTT VAN VOORHIS  Massachusetts can be a tough place to get things built, developers have long complained.  And Gov.
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Say it isn't so ( "Flagship Filene's Basement to shut for makeover," Jan. 27). Like the mayor, I'm agitated by the news that Filene's Basement will temporarily close. When I travel to Boston, I don't even unpack before hitting the racks at Filene's. What a lousy way to treat loyal shoppers who would gladly put up with the construction while ...
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THE REGION A Cape Cod citizens group is urging Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes to disavow her predecessor's approval last year of hefty increases in the home insurance rates of Massachusetts Fair Plan, the state's insurer of last resort. Attorney General Martha Coakley is arguing in a lawsuit that the increases approved by then-commissioner Julianne M. Bowler, including a 25 ...
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By Mark Harrington, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.  Sep.
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By The Baltimore Sun  Sep. 19--Balancing environmental and economic interests is seldom easy. But the possible effect of Maryland's so-called flush tax to worsen poorly managed growth demonstrates how complex this effort can become.
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It's not enough to pay a fine for breaking securities laws in Massachusetts. State officials want a public admission of guilt, too.
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Tycho:  If my earlier experiences with the co-operative campaign had not endured so, there would be no question - fifteen dollars is quite simply not a value that men of reason would associate with the GRAW Map Pack.  But, drawing on that idea, let us move forward as though the powerful fraternal bonds forged in Campaign One were sufficient to assuage price related suffering to some degree.  I realize that this moves our narrative into the realm of fiction.
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The Massachusetts business community reacted angrily last week when news broke that Governor Deval L. Patrick is considering raising state revenues by closing what administration aides call corporate tax loopholes. Business leaders contend what Patrick is really talking about is a straight-ahead tax increase by a different name. Here's a look at what's under consideration.
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By Daniel Wagner, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.  Jun. 20--With the state legislature expected to wrap up business by the end of Thursday and take a recess, a Long Island group is still working to advance its priorities of environmentally sustainable growth through several bills.
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Nothing clarifies the mind quite like having to win or die. So Vermont's Catamounts, whose season ends if they don't win the Hockey East tournament, came to Commonwealth Ave. last night with a fierce focus, shrugging off an early deficit to beat defending champion Boston University, 3-2, in the opener of their best-of-three quarterfinal series before a subdued 3,977 at ...
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AMHERST -- It's hard to know how to interpret yesterday's 70-67 victory by the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team over Davidson.
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Whether you want Real Salt Lake here or not, a reasoned, sound decisionmaking process should again be followed by the Legislature and the governor. We want a decision based on the real facts at hand, not just paid connections with outstretched hands. The MSL has a track record.