Meeting Ray Ozzie last year was pretty cool. It was one of those events that helped cement in my brain how little I knew about the history of the profession that I'm in. In some ways it seems that computing is so focused on the future, that we rarely look into the past.

Ray starts this latest discussion with some observations about WinFS. Which inspired Stutz to respond with his Natural History of Software Platforms. And then most recently Ray has a short reply...

When you read Stutz's essary, be sure to follow the link to Butler Lampson's presentation on components... Talking with Butler is always a bizare experience - it sometimes feels as if he has tried everything we are currently thinking about in the future, and he can give you the pros and cons of each option!

So, is there anything really new going on, or are we just repeating the cycle of features, platforms, and decreasing value?