Blogging Roller

Here's an anecdote from the hallway, between sessions at InfoWorld's Web services conference. I was chatting with a CTO and a VC. Both told me they've never seen a buyer's market like this one. Vendors are being expected to trot out their wares and perform in bakeoffs. Buyers have the time and inclination to shop slowly and carefully. When the upturn comes, the CTO and VC told me, IT consumers will be a lot smarter and better-informed than they were during the tulip craze. If they're right, marketing bluster alone won't drive many sales in the current climate. [ John Udell, The 39 Steps]

The Triangle JUG is having one of these bakeoffs tomorrow night, the J2EE Container Shootout, September 23, 2000 at 6:30PM at the MCNC. BEA, JBoss, IBM, and Oracle will be there and if you are a Java developer in the Raleigh-Durham area, you should be there too.