Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The book I can’t put down: Scalable Internet Architectures
I picked up this book the other day on the recommendation of a friend, and I can’t put it down. Here’s the Amazon link (referral credits go to socalfreenet.org): Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle. Here’s why I like it:
- its small (the number of pages 225, the print, the format, the thickness) , but its pithy. Every page has useful stuff.
- the real world experience (pain!) just oozes out of this book. So many times while reading I thought: “Oh yes … hadn’t thought of that.”
- its not stridently opensource, nonetheless ends up most there anyway – but only after addressing commercial products and their role
- its business focused, not geek focused – while still being incredibly geeky
Most of all its just really well written and edited. I’ve caught a couple of minor typos, but nothing that interfered with reading or enjoying the book.
Highly recommended!
Struggling with Hello World Java style
Its fun learning new stuff … especially after learning it! Today I’ve spent a couple of hours trying to get some preexisting Java servelet code compiled and running on my laptop so that I can make some (initially trivial!) changes to some output strings.
The goal is to get Eclipse, Tomcat, MySQL and Apache all playing nicely together on Windows XP. I installed XAMPP, the Tomcat addin for XAMPP. I already Eclipse installed with a PHP addin. After a bit of messing about, more googling, more messing about, I stumbled upon this guide which now has me tantalizingly close. I have a .war file. I have Tomcat running. Just a matter of connecting the last remaining dot!
PHP dev environment for windows
I’ve got some PHP dev work to do. Looking around for the simplest / cheapest option, leads to Eclipse and XAMPP. Fortunately there’s a great guide to integrating the two at http://tanguay.info/web/tutorial.php?idCode=phpDevelopmentQuick. Saved me a chunk of time I’m sure.
