Mike's Manic Minute 23 Mar 06

AJAX Write. . . When you're the big guy on the block everyone wants to take a share of your market and Microsoft, it seems, even more so.   Today Michael Robertson, formerly of MP3.com and Linspire fame, launched a new web-based "word processor" called AjaxWrite as a self-described replacement for Word.   I'm singularly unimpressed.  First, no spell checker, hello?!?  Second, It won't even launch in Internet Explorer.  You *have* to have Firefox, and Firefox 1.5 at that!   Jeff Nolan, over at his blog, Venture Chronicles, http://jeffnolan.com/wp, says "The server was largely unavailable and loading the app caused my browser to reset several times. Can you imagine using this service for critical documents and facing that kind of reliability challenge? No"   I know many people think web-based software is the future, and I'm in full agreement that web-based functionality is great, you just can't deliver a service that will ever work as well as a dedicated solution, and there's a time, place and scenario for both.   Podcast of the day. . . The Alan Watts Podcast http://www.alanwattspodcast.com/   The late Alan Watts was one of the most read philosophers of the past century.  His son Mark has sifted through the hundreds of public appearances he made and now they're being delivered as podcasts.   Manic Minute Recommendation: Thinking at its finest delivered straight to your brain.     And that's your Manic Minute for March 23nd, 2006, brought to you by www.Business-Podcasting.com!