Programming question for the audience: I'm gaining familiarity with Perl's syntax and structures but have yet to actually start writing in it, so maybe this a dumb question: Is it possible to distribute a Perl application without the source code? Or is the source code the application itself, since it's not a compiled language?

Put another way, does anybody sell Perl applications? And do they simply require an agreement that the source code won't be used beyond the licensed use or given away to others who haven't paid? I'm curious.

Since I had a few issues left coming to me of the now-defunct Byte Magazine, and since CMP has decided not to relaunch Byte as a print publication, the remainder of the subscription will be filled with issues of Windows Magazine. Um, gee. Just what I wanted.

The unfettered free market is the answer to everything! Honest! And that's what we're trying for in America! Honest!

• Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon [Salon]

Salon asks computing 'names' about their personal plans for Y2K. Many interesting differences:

• Lawyers, guns, money? [Salon, seen on Slashdot]
  

  Who has an interest in promoting the Y2K problem? Just about everyone. Computer consultants looking for fees, IS managers looking for bigger budgets, software and hardware companies looking to sell new stuff, ... and, yes, journalists looking for stories. Who has an interest in downplaying the problem, especially at the risk of being wrong? Well, no one. So we're all one big happy conspiracy. People are gonna be sooo disappointed when the clock strikes and nothing happens. [Jonathan Weber]

  ...the first-order effects of software failure may well be outweighed by the second-order effects of panic: hoarding, hiding and a hideous waste of trees. Not to mention lawyers. [Larry Wall]

  Be sensible, keep your head and resist the alarmists, for they will cause more harm than the actual computer glitches. [Paul Saffo]

There, now nobody needs to ask any more computing people what they're doing for Y2K and waste trees on it. Right?

For the first time, somebody presents an argument for frames that I'll buy. It's an old article (May 1998), but it's new to me:

• Frames: Information Vs. Application [peterme, seen on More Like This]
  

  peterme's Rule Of Thumb for Frame Design: If you're creating an information-centered Web site, frames are a bad idea. If you're developing a Web application, frames are a good idea.

The Apple Store's design is an example of a not-so-bad frameset, since it's part of a task-centered application rather than a source of information.

Dang, now I'll probably have to learn how to do them someday. I hate frames...