I see that Proto have repositioned their excellent VBA scripted mash-up product as a “desktop business intelligence system”. This is to be welcomed as the first time I used it I described it as a “mash-up tool for adults” and although it has the ability to play hard ball with the other Web2.0 mash-up kids, its DNA is firmly within the business world, more BI2.0 than Web2.0. It is in effect, a “reporting tool on steroids”.
The “free for non-commercial purposes” product is no more, but you can still download a 30-day free trial and the really good news is the new price of $300 for the Proto Individual product.
Also, another business-oriented mash-up tool, RSSBus, is partially out of beta, RSSBus Server RC1 is now available. Still no information on final pricing for the server product. A new Beta 5 release of the free desktop edition is also available for download. As I’ve said before, RSSBus Server front-ended by Proto would be a very powerful combination.
[...] datasmithing activities is Excel VBA. That’s why I was so excited to see a tool such as Proto utilise VBA as its scripting language. But, Microsoft has abandoned VBA, there will no more [...]