http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk The Tao of Ruby, Python, and....Straw Dogs? Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:34:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've tried more than once to jump onto the Google App Engine bandwagon to no avail. Unfortunately it's preview nature is acting to frustrate any attempt I make build something I'm happy with. Just some thoughts so far: No Direction - It's been dumped into the ether with no ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/07/20/google-app-engine-frustrations/ Well it's been a while since the PHP Asterisk Manager API was released and I've yet to produce a clear and definitive example of its use.  So here goes. Prerequisites Your Asterisk server must be set up correctly before this API can 'speak' to the server. First you'll need to ensure the ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/07/19/using-the-asterisk-manager-php-api/ Where are you on this matrix? http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/07/02/programmer-competency-matrix/ I've just taken up using Twitter.  So far so good.  Two points though, one of which isn't the fault of Twitter but: 1. DowningStreet doesn't bloody shut up!! 2. The site has complained about being snowed under 3 times so far.  They could sort this easily by using Django instead of Rails. ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/06/30/twitter-green/ I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the claims of 250 req/sec for this and 500 req/sec for that. It's never felt quite....right.  Or real.  After all how many sites truly get that many concurrent requests?  How many visitors a day would you need to get spikes of 500 req/sec ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/06/21/realistic-load-tests/ A Foundation!! Putting aside my grammatically dodgy statement the Django Project (the b3zt framework evaz!) has created the Django Foundation.  A non-profit organisation in the same vein as Mozilla, Apache, etc it aims to oversee the development, direction and future of the Django project. You can find out more about the groups ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/06/17/django-founds/ I'm getting bored of Rails now but if you're interested in an eBook detailing the changes in the latest 2.1 release then you can't go far wrong with this one: Free Rails Ebook http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/06/17/rails-21-ebook/ I recently completed a Django-based site for a friend which you can view here.  It's a simple affair but with some interesting features (its very pink!): Shop - Plugs into Amazon feed to get products and revenue generation from Associates tag (not quite finished as it needs to be styled better). Gallery ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/06/16/latest-django-site/ I was going to do a post that we've all seen plenty of by now.  Something along the lines of: "If programming languages were...".  It would be full of wit and merryment and people would giggle inside - or at least I'd hope they would. Then I realised its been done ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/05/25/yala-yet-another-language-as-comparison/ I posted the other week about how great Git is - It took a while for me to get the point.  I'm generally the last to figure this stuff out so forgive me if I'm preaching to the converted.  For anyone still unconvinced this video presentation by Linus about Git ... http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/05/10/but-mercurial-is-even-better/