JPennington.net» Cool Stuff

Microsoft Web Platform

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:15:40 +0000

You may already know this, or you may not. However Microsoft really wants you to develop your websites to run on Windows. Especially if you are an amateur developer. So much so that they are willing to give you versions of some of their most expensive software for free. They must figure that if you use Microsoft software for your spare time projects you will need to use it professionally.

Microsoft has a put a bundle together for anyone to download for free on their Windows computers called the Microsoft Web Platform. It is a compilation of popular web applications, the .Net Framework, Internet Information Server (IIS), SQL Server Express, Visual Web Developer Express, and a bunch of extras (Including PHP for Windows). With these tools you can make just about any web application you could ever want. This is a great way to get a development server up and running on your computer without the need to have a virtual machine of buy tons of software.

Persoanlly, I think it would be better to have a virtual machine running all the actual software your live hosting enviroment will have, but this is still a great way to get started without the compleixty of having to run an entire web server.

You can download the Microsoft Web Platform from: http://www.microsoft.com/web/

Live-Android

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:13:21 +0000

This morning I decided to finally give Android a try. I have not really ever been able to give Android a real shot. I have heard that this one little operating system will someday be on set-top boxes, netbooks, and our cell phones (it’s original intended location). From what I briefly played with before it felt like a good cell phone OS.

Well today I got to give it a try on my PC with Live-Android. Live-Android is a live CD of Android so you can burn the iso to disk and have the full Android experience on your PC without having to actually install it (when you reboot your PC it will be just as you left it). The setup was incredibly simple. Just download the two parts of the file, use HJSplit to join them together, burn the new iso, and reboot.

So how does Android feel as a computer operating system? It feels like a very simple operating system that makes sense. There really appears to be nothing hidden from the user. You have your apps listing on the right in a pull out menu. You have multiple desktops that you can navigate away from. It is just a very simple environment.

This does not mean you can go run out and use this to replace Windows. You cannot install this (that I know of) on your computer and there really are no applications that are very useable. The input methods for the OS are pretty much the exact same on the cell phone so you find yourself doing the same finger gestures on the screen except with your mouse. So the interaction method needs some work.

All in all Live-Android feels a little more proof-of-concept rather than a replacement OS. Having said that I cannot wait to see what happens with Android on the desktop/set-top box/netbook. It has a lot of potential. Hopefully Google Chrome OS won’t destroy Android’s potential.

Genny Spencer on Twitter

admin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:32:16 +0000

This is probably one of the coolest things I have seen on Twitter. David Griner found his Great Aunt’s diary that contained short entries for each day. After they decided that this was the Twitter of the 1930’s they started putting the entries on Twitter. It is so interesting to read. I recommend that everyone follow Genny_Spencer on Twitter.

Credit goes to Leo Laporte for retweeting foundbypat’s message. The site for the backstory can be found here and you can view the message stream here.