a new app server

I am adding this to my list to take a look at.

InfoQ: SpringSource Launches New Application Server without Java EE

High Performance Web Sites :: Cuzillion

High Performance Web Sites :: Cuzillion

This is a major time savings for testing and site optimization.

waiting on account

I've written my first mini-app in Python for Google App Engine and now I'm just waiting on an account. After so many years of Java, Python feels strange and awkward. I'll need quite a bit more time with the language before it feels more comfortable.

Google App Engine and Python

I'm setting out to learn Python and Django in order to make some use of Google App Engine. I spent an hour yesterday working through the helloworld sample that results in a reasonable guest book application. I don't want to sound like an ad for Google but there are many compleing reasons to give this technology a try. The specific reason that interests me at this stage is the ability to take an idea for a site and actually have someplace to host it for free. Maybe there are other offerings similar to this?

The only feedback I have so far is that editing just an html template does not cause the page to be reloaded by the Python server. At least this is the case for me on OS X 10.4. Maybe it works differently on Leopard? Instead making a change to the .py class file does cause the html to be refreshed.

Also, I don't know any Python yet! Java clouds my vision for now.

thoughts on iPhone

I switched to an iPhone this week after my trusty Treo 680 stopped working. That is for some reason the sound and voice microphone stopped working. I thought the Treo was the best phone I have ever owned and that was true then. The iPhone is even better.

One thing about the iPhone I find interesting is the design choice to not have drop down menus. I know this greatly simplifies the UI but the Treo had the concept of a button that would trigger a drop down menu to appear at the top of the screen. I found this intuitive and a good way of hiding the menu to gain more screen real estate. I find that the iPhone has to put buttons at the top of the screen for save, exit, etc since it lacks a menu system. It is a tradeoff. Since the iPhone only has a single home button for simplicity sake I can understand how the hidden drop down menu was not included in the UI design.

Garmin adds more Mac support

Hooray

Garmin Bobcat

This lets me cut just one more cord to my PC.

Thinking in Google

I've found it interesting lately how if I come across a topic that I need to research or find more information then my brain automatically begins to think in keywords for a Google search.

This leads me to think back as to what it was like before Google existed. As a software engineer, it used to be far more difficult to obtain useful samples or information for issues with code. One tended to rely on everything provided by a vendor for documentation and if a topic was not covered or not covered well, then it was highly difficult to obtain good information. This goes back to the days of CompuServe forums for me.