> Now time for a concrete example: PaaS – Platform-as-a-
    > Service.  These modern cloud-based technologies enable an
    > extremely lean and agile dynamic response to delivering
    > software for a problem domain.  For a broad class of
    > business applications, this new era of development
    > represents a game changer.  Akin to 4GL for Web 2.0/Rich-
    > Internet-Applications, a team of 1-2 can easily run
    > circles around larger teams using antequated tools like
    > Eclipse or Visual Studio.

What the hell is this guy talking about? PaaS has nothing to do with what IDE you use. Guess what, two well known PaaS systems (Google app engine and Windows Azure) work with the two tools he mentions as "antiquated"!

To the larger point: Great people can do great work with crappy tools, crappy people will never put out great work, even with the best tools in the world.