A well loved joke is slain

One of my favorite jokes has been:

SOAP was really created by Cisco to create a need for more bandwidth.

Now Cisco has gone a killed that joke by pushing a SOAP replacement. (hat tip to Paul Madsen). Oh well, I will still have this one:

SOAP is the COBOL of XML messaging protocols.

I thought it was amusing that in the announcement Cisco positions Etch as a replacement for not only SOAP but CORBA and EJB as well. Saying that Etch will replace CORBA is kind of like saying VOIP will replace Telex. You are right in a way, but not directly.