>>>or maybe javascript or PHP & PostgreSQL
>>
>>for the front one of the JS toolkits (jQuery, Sencha, Dojo, QooxDoo - many more)
>>for the backend either Web2Py if you like python or
>>look for an also JS based backend based on Node.Js
>>(***very*** bleeding edge, but dev occurring by leaps and bounds)
>>data backend Postgres is correctly identified IMHO
>>
>
>You really keep up, don't you? Hats off to you. I keep up some with the more mainstream stuff but sometimes the pace of change is so much I just want to read detective stories.

Yes, and I know that probably half the time I am chasing rainbows that will never go into production,
and half of the rest will do it only after heavy changes. At least with Node I was right -
I was telling people to keep an eye on that last year, way before MS half-heartedly added support for it.

Have you ever read some of the articles laudating "mature programmers" getting more work done ?
Part of the things are certainly true - but also some of the fun is gone with that.
Wishing to rekindle some of the spirit of early years in computing.
Not all IT is ossified - but there is a tendency to "mature" in the bad sense as well.

I am looking at the projects "alive" in the sense that they attract the guys shaping the future -
something that I fear is often gone from the MS part of things. They still offer value,
but are missing important parts of the picture like mobile and at least part of the web.
The IBM of the MS-Dos years - in need and perhaps capable of redefining itself.

Kinect was probably their best bet for the future, but I don't see anything flowing into the normal systems -
whereas Siri was planned to be pushed to Pads and other devices as well - just hope that Jobs' demise
will not put a wrench into such plans.

regards

thomas