Cool stuff I saw at MADExpo

A random list of cool things.

1. HTML5.  Start now.  It's supported (more or less) by all browsers if you add appropriate shims.  Start with sites like http://www.html5rocks.com/en/ and continue reading.  It's largely arrived and there's no compelling reason to delay.
2. JavaScript.  I'm not a fan of the language.  However.  It's clearly here to stay. It's part of many important technologies (like CouchDB).  HTML5 shims (or shivs) are necessary.  Flex (and other browser plug-in languages) are effectively dead.  JavaScript is all that's left.
3. Redis.  Wow! Is that cool?  Rather that fart around trying to get outstanding performance out of a clunky old RDBMS, use a simple, high performance data store.
4. MongoDB.  Now that I've seen it, I have a vague notion of places where Mongo is better and places where Couch might be better.  In 80% of the application space, both are fine.  But there's a 20% where we might be able to split a hair and leverage the slightly different feature sets.

I don't build mobile apps.  But if I did, I think I'd start with Appcelerator Titanium before switching to a "native" development environment.  The idea that several standard features are readily accessible with a convenient development environment is pleasant.

I finally laid eyes on an Arduino.  Let me simply say that it looks like dangerous, dangerous fun.  I think I'll be hanging around at Radio Shack a lot.