Microsoft decides

...not to include a Java Virtual Machine in its forthcoming Internet Explorer 6.0 Web browser

Update: Actually this seems to be a case of misreporting by ZDNET (and others). According to a Microsoft spokesperson a JVM will be shipped with IE6 - just not installed/activated by default. Can' be bothered just now to go looking for a link that has the direct quote.

The Curmudgeon 'celebrates' Burn's Night too:

Rabbie Burns, born this day in 1759. Our dog Duncan's favorite holiday

I'm glad to see that Curmudgeon didn't name the dog after me ;-)

John, don't listen to Homer - haggis is delicious. Honest! And, BTW, Curmudgeon's sheep.wav file features Groundskeeper Willie - he of the dubious Scottish accent.

It's 1:40am GMT. I've just finished processing about 150 UCAS applications today from prospective students. Almost 700 applications now dealt with. Several hundred more to go. But as usual the 80:30 rule kicks in and the last 20% will no doubt take up about 80% of the overall time. And I still have to mark my exam papers B-}

One a nicer note it was good to hear from one of my students that I've not seen in a while. Hi Gareth, thanks for 'signing' the 'Guest Book'.

via Doc - I would definitely seem to be an ENFP person too.

I truly wish I could write as well as Doc. Go read kuro5hin.org || Rebuilding the software industry, one word at a time not only for the sheer pleasure of the words but also for the premise:

The construction industry is as old as civilization. The software industry is as old as disco. it will only finish growing up when it becomes as much a part of civilization as construction.

This is why the best technology bets to make aren't on technologies and companies, but on technologists. That's what IBM was really up to when it declared itself a Linux company. Show me a big old company declaring its love for Linux and open source, and I'll show you a company in compliance with its own engineers. Linux was an IBM fact before it became an IBM strategy.

The Register: Sun, MS settle - war resumes with .NET, C# vs Java

Open warfare over Java resumes between Sun and Microsoft today, after the two companies folded their legal tents and agreed to disagree. Microsoft pays $20 million and gets to ship existing and beta Java product for seven years, while Sun terminates Microsoft's Java licences with immediate effect.

This news of course is of some interest to the students at Strathclyde since we teach Java as their first programming language.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Dear Andrea's Weblog: January 25 2001...

It's been a pleasure to be part of a community of so many kind and friendly people. Thank you.

And thanks to you Andrea for being a weblog maven - it's always a pleasure to read your news and views. No doubt I will be just one of many that highlight your anniversary. Here's to the second year!

Thanks to David of Serious Instructional Technology (SiT) for

A Little Gift
javascript:window.location='http://www.google.com/search?q=' + escape(prompt('Search for?', 'search terms'));

The active link on his site can be dragged to the tollbar or saved as a bookmark. Neat!