Why I Support NPR

NPR closed “All Things Considered
with a story on Fox’s upcoming
Tonya
Harding-Amy Fisher
boxing match. Then
show ended, and local NPR-guy Norm Howard came on to announce traffic and weather.
“And that’s why we ask for your contributions,” he said in his dry baritone.

I’m not sure if he meant, “because we provide you with hardhitting high-quality
stories like that one,” or “because otherwise, our staff will have to scrabble
for a living any way they can, hint, hint.” Either way, it was pretty darn funny.

OK, so you want even funnier than those pranksters at NPR?
Well, how about C|NET? Today they had
a guest article on web services.
The author was Frank Moss, who came out swinging at Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and BEA
(how sad that everyone’s forgotten about HP). After jeering at the big vendors,
Moss says (warning: marketroid language ahead, may not be appropriate for sensible readers):

Okay, that’s the pain–now for the pain reliever.

What I see emerging is a new layer of vendor-neutral software that sits on top of the Web services platforms from all the major players–the “Web services automation” layer. [Emphasis mine]

Hmmmm, I thought. What the heck is “web services automation”? This would
require further research.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to go too far.
Moss is CEO of Bowstreet, a software
company that “unleashes the power of web services”. Here’s an excerpt from
a helpful page titled, “Our
solutions
“:

What is the Bowstreet Business Web Factory?

The next-generation web services automation system, which works across
heterogeneous web services platforms and provides the capability for modeling,
assembly, dynamic change management and mass customization…
[Emphasis mine]

Well, OK, I still have no idea what a “web services automation” system is. But
surprise, surprise — Moss is selling one!

Yes, yes, I know. C|NET and all the rest of the industry rags aren’t even close to
legitimate journalism. They are merely conduits of
FUD and
advertisement. But sheesh, they could try a little harder. Keep
up a pretense, you know?