A slightly technical link:
TheServerSide.com – The State of The J2EE Application Server Market: History, important trends and predictions. Its a little outdated, but still quite relevant if you want a bird’s eye view of what is happening in that space.
Among things that appear to have changed since the article has been written
– I am told that HP/Bluestone 8.0 is an awesome product, a huge improvement on the previous version AND open source to boot (though if the unlikely-to-happen marriage between HP and Compaq does happen, this product might be gone with the wind. I dont have much faith in Compaq’s commitment to Java)
-IBM’s Websphere is apparently playing catch up with BEA. A lot of bluechip clients are looking a lot more seriously at Websphere. IBM is also – cleverly branding their entire middlware product line (including MQSeries) Websphere. This would not only rub off some of the much deserved brand equity of those products onto Websphere -the application server, it may also allow them to claim a market share in advertisements that may not necessarily be that of application servers. That’s a huge perceptual advantage. Between IBM and BEA, they may just redefine the application server /middleware space. Anyway, they are getting ready for a battle royale.
-iPlanet is trying to ride a ‘Web services’ wave. They certainly have a strong product line (Disclosure: My current employer is an iPlanet partner).
-Jboss – the freeware (?) product appears to be creating quite a buzz.
This post is probably very different in content from the others on this page. But I have committed myself to functional reading for the holidays. So, over the next fews days there would probably be more stuff in this vain.

I have been looking for a primer of Cyberspace law for some time. I stumbled into
‘CyberSpace Law Lessons’ while browsing this evening. Its written by very well respected people in the industry and appears to be good.

‘Is Ripping a Crime?’ is an account of firsthand experience with Universal Music’s new copy protection technology. Its rather Funny.
At the risk of being considered a neanderthal, let me say I believe that the music companies should continue have a right to incorporate rights protection in their CDs. However, they are such complete buffoons about adapting to new technology and are so hamhanded about trying to protect their oligopoly, that I hate to admit that they have the moral right to do as they please with their property. I think Partick is being a smartalek, but it is because of smartaleks like him that the music industry is being forced willy nilly to adapt themselves to change.