Any application that needs to scale needs to designed to do so from the beginning.  Or at least that’s what I used to think.  Even when Amazon introduced EC2 and S3 there were still design requirements that you needed to consider.  In fact, I actually started this project with S3 as the back-end.  The idea was to store the URLs on S3 which had very quick response times and use quick scalable hosting (I hadn’t decided which hosting service at that time) with round-robin DNS to scale the front-end.  It was a simple architecture but it would have worked.  But…before I was able to go very far with the project, Google launched AppEngine.  AppEngine took an entirely different approach to scalability.  Use their SDK and platform and don’t even bother with scalability.   So, I decided to switch over and give it a try.

http://tcp3.com

This project is the ongoing development effort based on that decision.   I will describe and write about design decisions, feature plans and problems and roadblocks caused by the AppEngine platform.
Oh, and feel free to comment.  I will approve any and all constructive comments both postitive and negative.

With the new 2.0 firmware and the new App Store on iTunes you can get most of the functionality that you need without jailbreaking.

The following list are the apps that I use daily and can’t live without. As an added benefit, all of these are also free apps available from the iTunes Music Store.

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Do you have a right to online privacy?  Do you actually have online privacy?  Most people who use the Internet have no idea of how little privacy they actually have.  The searches you perform are not private.  These are saved by the major search engines.  The sites you visit are not private.  Your visits are recorded in the site’s log files.  The ad companies use cookies to track your interests by keeping records of your surfing habits.  No privacy there.  So do you actually have privacy on the Internet?  If you are like most people, the statements I just made will scare you or simply piss you off.

 

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The following text describes how to restore a non-responsive iTouch after a failed jailbreak attempt.

Symptoms of diseased iTouch:

  • History of failed attempts at jailbreaking
  • Non-responsive to touch
  • Displays pages of scrolling white text before hanging
  • Only displays black screen
  • Permanently displays restore icon

If your iTouch is presenting with any of the preceding symptoms or other similar signs, proceed with the following proceeds until the patient responds to treatment.

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Low-karmer plurk creatureI was checking out my twitters and noticed a post by Leo Laporte (Twit.tv) about a new social service called Plurk.  My first reaction is that this is extremely cool!  My second reaction is that i’m not sure it knows what it wants to be when it grows up.

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Ok.  It simply doesn’t get any easier than this.  I’ve gone through all the backflips (you can read about them on my blog) and have downgraded, upgraded, sidegraded and jailbroken iTouches in just about every way possible on Windows.  I’ve read about the ZiPhone jailbreak and have periodically checked the status of that but on previous visits, it looked like it was a work in progress for Windows anyway.  So, I tried it tonight…and it worked so quickly I wasn’t even sure it was jailbroken, but sure enough, the Installer icon is on my home page ready for me to add any apps that I might want.  So here’s what you need to do…

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Hulu Embed Wordpress Plugin

This plugin simplifies the effort involved in embedding videos for TV shows and movies from Hulu.com into your wordpress blog.

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The following images are some of the cooler themes that are available for a 1.1.3 jailbroken iTouch running Summerboard.

Enjoy!

1984 Theme 3dee Theme Black Blue Theme Black Vista Theme Blueprint Theme Bright Acrylic Theme Read the rest of this entry >>>

1.1.1 Jailbroken iTouchYes. I know 1.1.4 is available. I’m working on it…but i’ve spent quite a bit of time experimenting with the different techniques for a smooth 1.1.3 jailbreak on Windows and this seems to be the best by far. This article explains the easiest step i’ve found yet for jailbreaking your 1.1.3 iTouch. Read the rest of this entry >>>

Apple iPhone SDK Event - March 6

Apple has just sent out invitations to press and developers to an event hosting the introduction of the iPhone SDK. It’s about time!

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