Last week Google announced AppEngine: a service that provides the option to deploy custom applications on the legendary Google infrastructure.

Updates on the blog have languished lately but we are really busy; I am working on setting up the foundation for the new project we are working on, and Marco is having a really tough moment on his personal life, for which I send him and all his family my best wishes.

I have just seen this great post by Wil Shipley:

[…] So, seriously, have you failed today? If not, why the heck not? I mean, think of the consequences of failing, and if they aren’t deadly and/or permanently disabling, then go ahead and bite off more than you can chew. Try to cook something that you just made up. Take a bike ride that’s too far. Take your car into an empty parking lot and do donuts until you learn where the tires give. Start a project that might be too big for you. […]

I think it’s time for clipperz too to get a real business model. And if nothing profitable comes out, simply reload, and reload, and … laugh!

Reading Marco’s post on spreadsheets, some old memories were resumed on my mind. On his analysis, Marco missed to cite the very first application implementing the conceps and interface now found on Quatrix and Flexisheet: Lotus Improv.

The other day I was going through some old issues of the Time magazine when I stumble upon a very effective synthesis of what’s the perception of italian cutting-edge “technology” in the world: