Technology Over the Years

Woody Allen used to say that 80% of success is showing up. I’d add that the remaining 20% is staying there long enough.

I was first introduced to Information Technology when I was in high school, back when the Apollo program was going on and the Foundations were singing “Build Me Up Buttercup”.

I am a member of a very small group of people around town who studied “Computer Science” 40 years ago and stuck with it ever since. I enjoy being at industry roundtables when we go around the room introducing ourselves and stating how long we’ve been in the business. I’m often the granddaddy of them all.

So naturally, over the years I’ve come to see all kinds of technology come and go and I thought this month I’d summarize the ones I think were truly revolutionary.

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Web-Enabled Software Applications Are Less Expensive to Maintain

When it comes to computer software applications, in many ways we have come full-circle since the mainframe days of the 1960s and 1970s. Back then, corporate information was housed in central locations with strict rules for access and modifications. To use the applications, we used “dumb terminals”, whose job was nothing more than displaying information and accepting user data.

When the personal computer revolution came, much more power was given to individuals so that mainframe computers were no longer needed for simple tasks, such as word processing for example. This allowed for huge productivity improvements because it reduced the dependency on the IT department for anything other than centralized systems, such as billing or inventory control.

But then “islands of productivity”, as we called them, emerged with no central control, very little security, and no sharing of corporate data. The first step towards solving this problem was to implement local area networks which connected personal computers together and allowed for sharing of information.

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Looking for Silverlight Books?

So am I.  I decided to at a look at some well known software development publishers to see what they have available for Silverlight books.

Apress has five titles listed for Silverlight, but as of this blog posting, all are “NOT YET PUBLISHED”.  It doesn’t look like they are offering a Silverlight 1.0 book as most titles reference specifically Silverlight 1.1.  I like Apress books and I highly recommend their “Pro” series.  I am a little disappointed in their lack of a decent Silverlight 1.0 book.

O’Reilly has three titles that are currently in print, all three at an introductory (or essentials) level.  Their “Getting Started with Silverlight” began shipping back in April 2007.  There are not many reviews listed with this title, but the average rating is five stars out of six.

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