The Grauniad is sardonic about a new generation of one or two person app shops:

Last month was the turn of Nick D’Aloisio, a 17-year-old who slaved away in his bedroom over an app before flogging it to Yahoo for $30m (£19m). In every profile that played up his normality, and played down his investment-banker dad and funding from Stephen Fry, there was an almost audible sigh: if only more slugabed Britons would do this …

It’s true. Not everyone will be able to have that kind of runaway success, and they’d shouldn’t either.

What we should be celebrating is that more people understand what making good software actually means.

No longer is software made by hundreds of coders in a cube farm, burnt to a CD and stocked on a shelf. It is something we download and use in the bus queue and on the loo.

As even more businesses wake up to the power of having good software (for customers and employees) those people who understand how to make it will become even more valuable – even if they’ve not sold their company for many bazillions.

Another fine post from The Chronic about yesterday’s introduction to Colchester Borough Council by CEO Adrian Pritchard.

But do folk around Sunny Colch know who Adrian Pritchard is? We don’t want to increase to his already heavy workload, but he should be rolled out more often at these type of events. You needn’t employ some hyped up marketing consultant to pay lip service to the town when the Chief Exec is already signed up to the vision of celebrating what Colchester has to offer..

I was there to listen to Adrian last night, and I couldn’t agree more with the quote above. He did a great job of explaining the complexity and possibilities that lie ahead for CBC.

I said during the Q&A that CBC should encourage everyone to communicate more. I think they took an important step forward last night. I look forward to supporting them as they do even more.

Incredible profile of the SEAL who shot Bin Laden in Pakistan:

The man who shot and killed Osama bin Laden sat in a wicker chair in my backyard, wondering how he was going to feed his wife and kids or pay for their medical care.

Interesting little feature in The Observer on Matt Damon:

The family have a two-week rule, where they will not be apart for any longer. Damon is completely unyielding on it: when he shot Invictus, he flew out Alexia’s entire school class to South Africa and organised for them to do a special project on Nelson Mandela. Damon’s advice on living in a household of five women is simple: “Find yourself a little man area.”

“The values that I have are the values I was raised with, from where I’m from, which is a middle-class place,” Damon says. “So that informs everything about me, my politics and all that stuff. I mean, politically I vote against my own self-interest at every election. I actively ask these people to raise my taxes. But I believe a solid, really strong middle-class is the key to making the country in the best way.”

Fun little piece from the BBC about one of the finest games ever made – The Secret of Monkey Island.

“When Monkey Island came out, it didn’t do very well,” says Ron Gilbert, Monkey Island co-creator and former LucasArts employee.

“It wasn’t a huge seller, it didn’t get incredibly good reviews. It has just been through the years that the game has attracted this big following.”