Aral Balkan has a superb post about the problems with Google App Engine. I've tried it - and I even have an application stored on it - but having Google host your web applications is a bit silly if they can't scale upwards. I've also been playing with Heroku, which is like Google App Engine but uses Ruby on Rails, and Amazon's Web Services platform. This is what scares me a little about Google App Engine - if I build a Rails app and host it on Heroku, then decide that I don't like Heroku or they don't do what I want, I can take my app and host it on anynumberofalternatives. The same is true of the LAMP stack, the Java stack, even the .NET stack. This is part of what is most useful about widely-implemented open source platforms. It'd be nice if there were some other people who would do AppEngine hosting besides Google, if only to keep Google on their toes.2008-07-10T12:24:54Z
If you are in any doubt as to the irrelevance and bureaucracy of DataPortability.org, check out their new official bylaws. Can you imagine any hacker worth their salt wanting to spend any time with these bureaucracy-addled pencil pushers?2008-07-10T10:41:46Z
The Obama dream comes crashing back to reality as the current Democratic contender for President votes for the immunity for telecoms companies who spied on Americans. Guess Obama is just one of those "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" zombies after all. One day the Democrats will nominate a pro-Constitution candidate. Obama is not that candidate, and the FISA immunity bill really is the litmus test.2008-07-10T10:21:03Z
I also write for the Citizendium, an online encyclopedia project. If you know about stuff, you should join in. I occasionally produce audio recordings for The Pod Delusion.
