With the Internet-crushing hoopla surrounding the release of Apple’s widely anticipated iPad, not much attention has been paid to the exciting additions Apple has made to the iPhone OS to support it. Here we’ll explore some of these changes and discuss what they mean to publishers and application developers alike.
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When we were approached by the Oregon Research Institute to build a classroom survey for the State of Oregon using portable devices, we immediately thought of the iPhone. The slick interface and ease of use seemed like a natural way to encourage kids to interact with the device and get them to complete the surveys. The per unit cost for the iPhone was a bit too high - so we settled on the iPod Touch instead. The devices are functionally similar and both run Apple’s iPhone OS.
The notion of the iPod as a classroom tool is rapidly gaining traction. Unsurprisingly, Apple encourages educators to make use of their technology - and a number of prominent educators are actively discussing the pros and cons of classroom use. A recent issue of the “ezine” iLearn addressed many of these issues in some detail.
At Concentric Sky, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to make technology better. Sometimes that means making something faster. Sometimes it means making it more fun or easier to use. Often it means making something more reliable.
The foundation for a reliable Internet technology is a reliable network and, perhaps even more importantly, a reliable server. We host all of our services on top-tier hardware from top-tier vendors. Modern computers are extremely complex, however, and even a AAA vendor can’t guarantee that none of their machines go out the door without minor problems. In light of that, before a server goes into production at Concentric Sky, it gets an early workout from a variety of testing tools to make absolutely sure that everything is performing exactly as it should. A recent addition to our suite of tools is Breakin from Advanced Clustering Technologies, Inc.
Breakin puts an extremely heavy, focused load on a server’s processor, RAM, and hard disks. The 72 hour stress test exposes small imperfections and failures in the hardware - problems that would go unnoticed during the normal run of things.
I’ve had several instances where brand new and seemingly healthy machines fell down under the stress that Breakin put them under. By doing this testing pre-deployment, we dramatically lower the chances that we will have unexpected hardware failures in production. That’s good for everyone.
Like most of the software we use, Breakin is Open Source - but it doesn’t seem to be under a specific license. Visit Advanced Clustering for more information. If you host your own systems, download a copy yourself and give it a try. Even if you don’t discover problems lurking in your hardware, the peace of mind you gain will be worth the time!
Joshua Marinacci from Sun dropped by today. It’s always great to see him - and he brings us such cool toys! This time, we got a chance to play with Sun Lab’s new Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology). These amazing little gadgets actually run Java in a Squawk Virtual Machine embedded right into the device.
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