JSP's get a new face

Fri, 06 Aug 2004 08:24:54 +0100

I'm keeping an eye on how to build web apps using JSPs and seeing more and more stuff about the Java Server Faces (JSF) web application framework. More here, here, and here.

It was an interesting experiment but I think it's over

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 17:35:42 +0000

I signed up for shared hosting with TextDrive last year so I could start developing Rails applications. At the time they were a small company with big ideas and the service, although a little quirky, felt like doing business with friends -- there was a lot of excitement and energy in the air. At the time I remembered thinking that it would be very hard to scale this up and charge what they were charging ($12/mth). But you can hope.

Over the last year there have been some problems. I think people on Gilford and Harwood have been suffering most recently but Barclay and Bidwell (my server) users were plagued with unreliability problems (and very tiresome 1hr+ restarts) lasy year. I guess things have improved somewhat since their move to a new datacentre but it's hardly been anything to make a song and dance about.

At $12/mth I wasn't complaining particularly loudly. I didn't have live applications unable to serve customers. I hadn't recommended paying clients to use the service. It wasn't hosting my email or anything vital. In short, the interruptions to service were irritating and I would wish for better but I still felt I was getting, more or less, what I was paying for.

Now I'm getting closer to releasing an application, developed with a friend in the U.S., and trying to test it and running into the TextDrive AUP and a watchdog terminating my processes with prejudice -- no exceptions allowed. Let's just say these are not mammoth processes so I was quite non plussed. I also wasn't terribly impressed that the terms the watchdog works under were not listed in the AUP (it is even more aggressive than what is defined there).

So, TextDrive has been an interesting experiment but I just don't buy running applications on shared hosting at $12/mth. Apparently their business hosting packages have higher limits and less contention on the box. Frankly, at this point, the balance in my goodwill bank doesn't extend to giving them $60 for a month to find out.

Instead I am going to look at using a Virtual Private Server. You may still have contention issues, I'm concerned about the real life performance you get, and it means having to administer the box yourself but I have realised, yet again, that I don't like giving up essential controls over my environment to other people. VPS seems to be a good compromise between shared hosting and the costs of a dedicated server.

It seems the experiment may not so much be over as moving to a new phase.

From one dabbler to another... wow!

Mon, 29 May 2006 15:46:01 +0100

I just watched the demo of Dabble DB from Avi Bryant's Smallthought Systems Inc and it's pretty impressive. It's the kind of application that I imagine could make database applications a reality for a whole new class of user that wouldn't otherwise think it was possible.

If, as I imagine it is, Dabble DB is implemented using Avi's SeaSide framework then I think it merits a good look. I've downloaded Squeak (the SmallTalk IDE Avi recommends) a couple of times but never gotten beyond dabbling. Unfortunately I don't have time to do more than think about this right now, but I'd love to find time to have a better look.

For $10/mth for 1 user & 3 applications I think Dabble DB is definitely worth taking a look at.

Curiouser and Curiouser! on web-application-development

JSP's get a new face

It was an interesting experiment but I think it's over

From one dabbler to another... wow!