From the feature well: Eight years in the making, Con-Way’s service-oriented architecture began before the acronym SOA suggested anything more than a typographical error for the word soap. But today the company’s successful deployment stands as an example of just how effective the service-based approach to application architecture and business agility can be over the long haul. Lessons from an SOA pioneer examines how they made it happen. The news beat: An open source tool translates Yahoo IM’s into different languages. Motorola joins up with Google for search and Kodak for pictures. The European Commission measures which is the most innovative country in Europe. That answer just might surprise you. Notes from the field: Robert X. Cringely, tired and shriveled dry from a CES stint in the desert, has not yet lost his snarky sense of humor. But Grokster.com, Cringe found, has lost something: an identity all its own. Visit the site and you’re sure to encounter a Twilight Zone-style nastygram: “You are not anonymous.” Though one Cringester may have felt invisible when calling Microsoft tech support. It was the old hardware-two-step, in which Microsoft blames the PC vendor who, in turn, follows Redmond’s lead and spins the blame right back. Intel makes a leap, Grokster snares IPs. Columnists’ Corner: If there’s starting to be a market again for analysts that are bullish on IT, then that’s a good thing, opines Dave Margulius in this week’s From the Analysts installment, titled Resolved: Things go better with IT. Margulius confesses that he is considering a new approach to spam for 2006. “Maybe I’m losing my mind, but I’m thinking about turning over a new leaf and starting to read the stuff, looking for gems of wisdom and potential. Maybe the world is trying to tell me something. Maybe I do want to go to that rave in L.A. tonight. Maybe ‘my future business’ will need ‘an impressive logo.’ The future is exciting and opportunity is everywhere.” Technology Industry