Posts tagged as: bosworth
Adam Bosworth sighting
Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006
at 4:19 PM (permalink)
The last time I got to talk with Adam Bosworth was a little over a year ago, just before he vanished into Google. Now Garett Rodgers reports that his name appeared on the PC Forum attendee list with the title "Architect, Google Health." I respect Adam as one of the best database designers in the business. Heck, just designing Reflex in the early Eighties wins him a place in the software hall of fame. If Google actually lets him build a quality product, and doesn't rush it out half-baked and then leave it in beta for a few years, he could make a significant contribution to one of our nation's greatest challenges. Please, please, please don't let this be another Google Base.
This is not Googlebase
Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005
at 7:37 AM (permalink)
This is not Googlebase. This is not a beta. This is not an alpha. This is not an app. This is a screen show. This will be the most actively tested and documented screen show in software history.
I can't blame them for wanting to put something up, but this will not help them. If they leave this up for a long time, people will dismiss it. If they keep dribbling out features like this, people will get angry. I'm already getting angry thinking about wasting time describing what is up now.
My best podcast was with Adam Bosworth describing why Reflex failed and Access didn't. He is too wise to get himself in this type of situation. Yet he apparently has.
Googlebase, Googlebase, Googlebase!
Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005
at 7:19 AM (permalink)
It's up. This has to be the first time the launch of a database has gotten people excited since Microsoft Access, another Bosworth effort. I can't wait until Adam is allowed to talk about this. That will be enough to get me podcasting again. (via Alex Barnet)
Book Note: Ajax in Action
Posted on Wednesday, November 2, 2005
at 7:20 PM (permalink)
 Ajax is so bleeding edge that I am reading a book on it from the future. I thought the rule in publishing was that you could use the next year for the copyright if it was printed in late November, but this book arrived November 2 with a copyright of 2006. After yesterday's Microsoft Live demonstration, it is clear that all forces are converging on client side programming with Javascript and DHTML. There have been many blog posts accusing Microsoft of being a follower rather than a leader in this area, but the irony is that Microsoft created the XMLHttpRequest functionality that is the heart of Ajax. Adam Bosworth has an interesting post on this history.
The idea of simulating a desktop app in a browser using DHTML and Javascript goes back further than the XMLHttpRequest. I designed just such a product called GifWorks in 1998. The goal was to create Photoshop in a web browser. It wasn't completely client-side though. The interface runs in the browser, but the image processing is done on a server.
I'm not sure what I will do first with Ajax, but the most likely candidate is some type of mashup with Google maps.
Does the word "Base" give you a hint?
Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2005
at 11:44 AM (permalink)
Am I the only one who sees GoogleBase as an online database? You know, like Access only on the web. The blogosphere and the MSM are rushing to describe it as competition for Ebay and Craigslist in offering a free site for classified ads, and that probably is part of Google's plan. But I've known Adam Bosworth for more than 20 years, and he is a database guy through and through. It can't be a coincidence that he started working for Google almost a year before GoogleBase made its first appearance. The only blogger I've seen who has recognized the possibility of GoogleBase becoming a standard end-user database has been Om Malik, and he assumes that since Quickbase wasn't a success GoogleBase will also fail to attract an audience. He failed to mention that Quickbase sucks. The performance is unacceptable and the functionality is weak. I can't believe Bosworth would make those mistakes. The acceptance of online apps is also much greater now than when Qucikbase appeared. We'll have to wait until it appears, but I think a fast end-user database with large amounts of storage and a good API could become a significant part of the web services infrastructure.
Adam Bosworth + Google = GoogleBase
Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2005
at 4:59 PM (permalink)
There is much buzz about a soon to be released online database at base.google.com. I guess that was easy to predict when Google hired Adam Bosworth. Adam is the author of Reflex, the prettiest database in history, and Access, the database that ate the Xbase world. You can listen to Adam's views on database design in a podcast I did with him this past spring.
|
