In any field, you can find segments that are close to maturation and draw a conclusion that the field is homogeneous. Carr is saying commercial-transaction processing in the U.S. and some parts of Europe has reached the top parts of an S-curve. But instead of talking about that segment, he put a provocative spin on it -- that information technology doesn't matter -- and suddenly the statement is grossly wrong. It couldn't be further from the truth.

It's like saying: "I have an old three-speed bike, and Lance Armstrong has a bike. So why should he have a competitive advantage?" Besides, it is outside of traditional commercial-transaction processing where info tech will have the greatest impact in the future.

This weekend there have been a bunch of articles from people who are not bored. They are excited.

Adam Bosworth wrote about a web services browser where a slightly smarter browser talks to the server using web services. Instead of presentation data being exchanged, real semantic data is exchanged and processed on the client side.

John Robb had two posts on Web 2.0, a system that

moves the power of the Web/Internet to the desktop

Dan Gillmor believes RSS is hitting critical mass.

A common them in all of these is client software integrated with access to internet data and functionality. Recent history has seen a "client software winter" as everyone has focused on browsers and web applications. The trend that I see emerging is for clients and internet applications to collaborate. For the first time in years, I'm interested in building "regular apps".