Damn, thought I was logged in for that comment. Sorry about that.

I've lived in Scottsdale for the past 2 years, having previously lived in Chicago and Silicon Valley. The vast majority of developers here are C# developers who would rate between a B- and a D if graded on their development skills. The vast majority of development jobs in Phoenix are also centered around C#; seeing as most web-based startups are using Java or LAMP as their underpinning technology, Phoenix's labor pool and developer job opportunities simply aren't aligned to maintain a robust startup environment. Additionally, development jobs pay anywhere from 30-50% less than other major coder cities. Lower cost of living be damned; if companies are looking to hire C# developers for $70k/year, they're not going to attract top talent. Chicago, San Jose, Austin ... you could spend an afternoon listing all of the cities that are healthier for startups and talented developers. And, all of these issues are just the tip of the spear - we haven't even addressed the political climate in Arizona. Good luck convincing talented developers here on an H1B that Arizona is a safe place to live and work.

RIM should abandon QNX, and run either Android, WebOS, or even Firefox OS instead. Maybe Firefox OS is exactly what RIM needs to both go-to-market faster (since QNX still isn't ready, and this arguably is more so) and ingratiate itself with a development community.

Get your ITIL v3 Expert / Manager certification. Jobs for ITIL Experts / Managers start at about $150k and work up from there.

Yahoo! should merge with Ask, AOL, and Lycos. They could call themselves That 90's Web Company.

Yahoo still doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. Is it a news aggregator? A search engine? An email service? An online gaming site? A social network? A web hosting company? A bookmark sharing site? A photo sharing site?

Yahoo reminds me of that old SNL skit - it's a floor wax, and a desert topping. Only Microsoft comes to mind as a parallel when reviewing the absolute scattershot approach to online monetization that Yahoo has taken, but M$ has a host of other products / services (ok, just Office & Windows) that keep it's bottom line solid, allowing it to experiment w/ various approaches online until it finds a "hit". Yahoo doesn't have the luxury of online experimentation that M$ does; it needs to find a magic formula and stick with it, which it seemingly refuses to do.

BTW, I bet dollars to donuts that in ~5 years, Yahoo, AOL, and IAC (Ask.com) merge. They could call themselves "That 90's Web Company". LOL

Shutting down Desktop search really sucks. GDS was an amazing productivity tool and will be sorely missed; it was and still is so much better than the native search faculties available on Windows and OS X. The review I wrote about GDS in '05 still stands.

Mathieu, I'll take this up with you over email then. I appreciate the response. - DrGroove

Dear Creators of Opa - Honestly, what were you thinking? Opa is basically another crack at the same approach that ColdFusion tried years ago, and failed at. Opa isn't Object Oriented, meaning that developers working in an OOP language (Java, .NET, Python, PHP, Ruby, Perl, etc) will have a tougher time making the transition - it also means that Opa can't implement or support standard Design Patterns, which is a huge mistake IMnsHO. The sample code on the Opa site shows a mix of Opa functions, database interaction, markup language, CSS, Javascript... what a mess. Haven't we all learned that clean separation of functional application concerns is the only way to write scalable, enterprise-class programs yet? Opa doesn't appear to support any database beyond it's own build-in, slightly obfuscated one, meaning it will gain no enterprise/business traction. As much as I like to see new programming languages succeed, I have to agree w/ a lot of the other posters on /. - Opa is dead on arrival.

I'm a little surprised more /.'ers aren't familiar with HP's software and services division. HP is considered to be one of the "Big 4" of enterprise infrastructure, service, and asset management, along with CA, BMC, and IBM. HP's acquisition of EDS strengthened their professional consulting position, and put them squarely in competition with IBM as their main software/services competitor. Enterprise software is basically a license to print money. Companies and governments spend inordinate amounts of cash on the Big 4's closed-source software, enterprise license agreements, support contracts, and implementation services. If HP is anything like CA or IBM, they're making the vast majority of their money on enterprise software and services, and very little on PC's and devices. Spinning off or selling their PC / device manufacturing business made sense for IBM, and it makes sense for HP, especially in light of the consumer competition in that space. There simply isn't the same competition in the enterprise space, hence why the Big 4 can charge the inflated prices they do for their software and services.

I'm a Firefox user on my laptop, and decided to download it for my Droid X. It runs so painfully slow, however, as well as having some odd behaviors (double-tap to zoom causes it to zoom WAY in, rather than the more measured zoom approach of the default Android browser) that I uninstalled it. Wish Mozilla would release a lighter weight, faster, more user friendly browser for mobile...

Agree completely. Certification in ITIL demonstrates not only that you understand technology, but that you understand how technology works to support the goals and processes of the business.

I only spent 10 seconds looking at the website of ExtJS' producer, Sencha. But... the first thing I noticed is that ExtJS is available both as open source, and as a commercially licensed product that one pays for. Errrr... OK. So, which is it? Frankly, any software product that is available as both open source and as a commercially licensed product is ... well, it's scary. The last thing I want is an "open source" framework where the producing company has the ability to pull the rug out from under me and start charging me, or claiming that any product I've personally developed that uses their code infringes on their IP. I'm all good with commercial / closed source software - don't get me wrong. Capitalism rocks and all - go America. But, pick a license and stick with it. The whole license bifurcation thing is just too shaky. Didn't anyone listen to Mr. Miyagi? Open source yes? OK. Open source no? OK. Open source maybe? Squish like grape.