There’s always a risk of bloating your application, no matter if it is a web app, or traditional software, especially over time. This column talks about what you need to think about when developing and maintaining a large software project.

Automattic’s acquisition of IntenseDebate brings up the discussion as to wether it is a good idea to use hosted comment solutions in the first place. What do you think?

There are numerous calls from designers to stop supporting Internet Explorer 6, a browser most people think just plain suck. I’ll continue to support it, and this is why.

One of the worries I had early on with OpenID as an authentication system was its decentralization, the key feature of the system. I still to this day, don’t understand how a system like OpenID could be considered secure enough to use as a membership system for various sites.

There are many different ways to secure areas of your site that are open to users, and one of the most popular methods for years have been CAPTCHA’s. They are images that have distorted text which you then write in an input field to verify you are a human and not a machine.

One of the worst things about CAPTCHA’s is how inaccessible they are to those with visual impairments. Heck, I am only twenty-five, and while I do wear glass, even I find myself unable to read some of the letters and numbers on the more complex CAPTCHA images.

So, now that the HD DVD versus Blu-ray is basically considered over, with Blu-ray the winner, it made me wonder how people chose one over another. How do you decide you are going to learn PHP over ASP, WordPress over Movable Type, Windows over Linux? What drives your decisions to chose one format over the other?

As a freelancer, you can become an expert in your field, or acquire a respectable amount of skill in multiple fields. Which is better?

So with 2008 right around the corner, it is time to reflect on what has happened in 2007, and what we are looking forward to in 2008. I have watched as frameworks, javascript (ajax) and new versions of a variety of different programming languages picked up steam this year, but what are you hopeful for in 2008 in regards to developing new applications. Are you waiting for PHP 5 to build up more of a following, a new framework to make your development process faster, and more efficient, or a new version of an application that will finally have all the features you have been waiting for?

Are you releasing your work to the community? Scripts, plugins for blogging software, design templates, fully fledged open source platforms? Then this is the checklist for you, to save time, avoid stupid questions, and make life easier for both user and developer.

Are e-books helpful resources, or just useful to those profiting off them? Why do so many people online spend money on products that promise the world for cheap, and not deliver?

Would you pay to subscribe to a blog, if it was similar in price to purchasing an e-book? Have your say.