Peter Coffee, who's been providing some of the most insightful, technically-based discussions of the IT and software industries for 18 years, has left eWeekto become Director of Platform Research at Salesforce.com. This is a significant loss to the field (although I am sure a great benefit to Salesforce.com). When I was an editor, especially at AI Expert, Peter used to keep me honest with pointed questions about the depth and accuracy of what we were publishing; one of my major regrets of my tenure as an editor is that I never got Peter to write for me.

In the years since, I've always looked forward to his columns. Peter always provided a great enterprise-level focus to his discussions, even as he stayed grounded in the realities of the programming experience. I think he's the most trustworthy development tool reviewer of the past decade, providing an invaluable service to countless developers at thousands of companies.

Well, so it goes. I wish the best to Peter and his family on this new direction....