In case you haven’t seen them before, it’s interesting to look at how different computer languages implementations fare on different hardware. Check them out at The Computer Language Shootout Benchmarks.
My friend Eric Spiegel’s just finished a nice article on working with startups. It’s a great explanation to customers on why they should do it and what some of the challenges are.
The challenge that early stage firms encounter is that customers don’t usually understand they need to deal differently with a startup than an established technology vendor. Let’s be clear what “early stage” means. A company with 50 employees, a few million in revenue and a version three product is not early stage. A company with a handful of employees and almost no revenue with a version one (or beta) product is most definitely early stage.
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By working with an early stage vendor, you can gain a competitive advantage on your competitors who aren’t willing to take this risk. You’ll have first access to thought-leaders and an innovative product. This will enable you to build and fine tune processes and best practices to get the most out of the new product. When your competition finally discovers the vendor, you will be light years ahead in getting the most out of this investment.
Read more: The Benefits of Working With Tech Startups
If you’re looking for a good overview of available data modeling tools (includes open source and commercial ones), check out this link: Data Modeling Tools.
NIST Special Publication 800-95 addresses security needs for networks in which automated Web services are being deployed in service-oriented architectures. It’s only in draft but it covers the basics fairly well. If you’re doing business with the government and you plan to offer consumable services it’s worth making sure you follow the recommendations since the NIST requirements will start showing up in RFPs soon.
