• Did you know it costs between US$3922 (Infor) and US$5995 (SAP) per user (services included) to deploy an ERP? (source: Aberdeen 2006) I think 1) I find the people complaining about the price of MS Office 2007 (between US$149 & US$679) insane; 2) Deploying an ERP or any other solution is not so expensive after all when you consider good software adds value to the shareholders of client companies through improving business processes (or improve end-user comfort). Sadly enough, only the best Chief Information Officers understand software is more an investment (balance sheet) than an expense (P&L) line.

• Did you know it seems there is a difference between SaaS and ASP, and I don’t know what it is? SOS

• Did you know Microsoft launched Popfly? Popfly is an amazing tool devised in Silverlight, that allows for creating mash ups without writing a single line of code. I love Microsoft’s strategy of driving the ‘web philosophy’ within the organization through ’small, useful & beautiful’ apps like Popfly [More on blogs: Don Dodge; Robert Scoble; TechCrunch; Somasegar; for those who read French and feel like reading a nice brainstorming on potential mash ups, here's a nice post by e-tail entrepreneur Michel de Guilhermier; and here's a mash up matrix, if you lack ideas to start building in 2 clicks your own mash ups on Popfly] Congrats to Pierlag & Clauer, from MS France, who contributed to building Popfly last month in Redmond.

• Did you know I had breakfast this morning with one of my most reliable industry sources, in Paris for a couple days? Well, of course you didn’t know…According to many people around, Google is getting ready to enter the mobile OS market to compete with Symbian, Blackberry & Windows Mobile. Remember: Google had acquired Android back in August 2005. If the rumour turns out to be true, it means Google has chosen to go it alone in telco device software and not partner with Apple in the end. I would see it as good news for consumers as competition is always good. On top of this, I think Google has in its DNA what it takes to build simple, light software that fit hand device use characteristics.

• Did you know I’ve been wondering whether Microsoft’s fiercest competitor isn’t Cisco after all? I believe Cisco is a amazing company, ran by very smart people, that’s threatening Google as well by slowly entering the consumer market via a computer networks angle.

• Did you know I found blogger Cédric Giorgi’s case study about the way French & Toulouse-based eCommerce start up Vente du Diable organized its viral marketing & community building thrilling? Download the .pdf here. In English. Congrats Cedric, it’s a really nice case study and your down-to-earth strategy shows how well you understand the web.

• Did you know that one year ago I didn’t know what Ajax, Ruby (both heard about from Hubert) and C# (heard about from Damien, I knew the C# sign but had never pronounced it actually) were?

I’m about to organize a demonstration in the streets of Paris to protest about a software architect not blogging about software architecture.

My friend Youssef el Alaoui, aka Joseph Cargo when online, is a software architecture specialist in a Paris-based consultancy. And you know what? Youssef has blogged about everything (politics, books, TV shows, education, EVERYTHING!!) but software architecture. I’ve blackmailed him, and I even removed him from my blogroll. And he still doesn’t blog about software architecture.

Youssef, listen to me if you don’t start writing about software architecture in English, I am to organize the biggest online wildcat strike action ever.

People, readers, dear friends and enemies, let’s all post the following comment, “Youssef, I love you”, on his blog until he starts writing about software architecture.

I badly want to read the interesting things he’s got to say about it.

Come on Youss, do it!