I disagree with Ted. I believe he's thinking about this too narrowly. The title of his post should be "Are Programming Languages/Tools/Utilities Less Exciting

I disagree with Ted. I believe he's thinking about this too narrowly. The title of his post should be "Are Programming Languages/Tools/Utilities Less Exciting Today?" From that perspective, one may certainly claim to be bored. What goes around comes around, as those of us who have been around long enough can identify when the processing pendulum swings from client to server to client to server over the course of time. Back and forth, side to side, the more things change the more they stay the same. But that's the wrong perspective to take. It limits the definition of someone, as a programmer, with their chosen tools. How many Enterprise-Java-vs-Dot-Net or PHP-vs-Ruby/Rails debates have ever made a difference in that regard? Programming languages, server systems, utilities, etc. aren't the path to the future -- they're the results of the past. I prefer to think of programming as usage of these tools in solving problems, creating businesses, or just plain creating mischief. With that, I see wide open spaces to be addressed (and not enough good engineers to do it.) Hardly boring, in my opinion.