Et tu, Brute? (This in response to “From the Editors: Defining NoSQL to avoid the hype.”) I can understand non-technical people believing that Y2K was a non-issue, but I expect a whole lot more from people who should know better. Y2K looked like a non-issue because of the fantastic work done by thousands of programmers who combed through code and data and fixed them to be Y2K-compliant. Your opinion piece is a slap in the face to these people. Shame on you.
Bill Winett
United States

Good advice on mobile apps
This is a good reminder for all companies that are considering joining the mobile app bandwagon (talked about in “Tread carefully with your mobile app”). This point is especially critical: “Combining their expectations with your business goals will help you create the best product.” Keeping this in mind is the best path to developing a product that will not ruin your brand, or cause frustration among your customers and clients.
Hans Peter Bach
Denmark

Mobile apps require client input
As a developer, I see this all of the time (also in response to “Tread carefully with your mobile app.”) Many companies are not sure of the difference between a mobile app and a website. For us, we try to work with our clients to make sure whatever we are creating is helping our clients’ customers and fulfilling a need. This in turn makes for some really great apps and can streamline a business.
Larry Addles
United States

The times sure changed, thanks to the ‘net
David Gerrold, you rock. Okay, specifically (in “The Trouble with Gerrold: The Internet massage”) you are talking about social changes that I am seeing, and articulating the stages in a way that I could not.

I got my first PC when I was 34, in 1995. I had a fear that the teenyboppers of the world would have the job jump on me in a few years if I didn’t get my butt in gear. The first one cost US$3,000: a Packard Bell, post 386. It had the wrong software. The modem port and printer port wouldn’t work properly. Luckily, I got the right geek on the phone, and she rectified the situation with me by sending me a new disk.

Then I fried the modem with static. The tech was nice and sent me a new one without charging me. Very nice.

I belonged to CompuServe forums then. I loved them with a passion. I was addicted to the ‘net from the beginning. Today, unemployable, I sit in front of the machine and try to save the animals. I wonder if I do any real good. But then I think that everything I ever really knew was hyperspace-jumped by the Internet. Thanks for The Trouble with Tribbles, dude.
Alycia Keating
United States

Android started the fall of the skeuomorph
I’d say that getting rid of skeuomorphs (as stated in “Zeichick’s Take: Fake leather textures on your mobile apps: Good or bad?”) started with the release of Android Honeycomb (3.0) in February 2011, and is now therefore an established software- design approach. Why no mention of Android? I thought at the time of the release of Honeycomb that it was a rather bold departure from the Apple-esque UI of the past. Let’s give Android its due.
Jack
United States