turnings

Applications | JumpBox Inc.: We take popular Open Source server applications, remove all the install headaches and make them much easier to use. We call our virtual appliances JumpBoxes and they are free to download and use. To earn our living, we sell access to enhanced features of the JumpBox platform and additional support options in the form of JumpBox Assurance plans. Feel free to browse around, there’s something in the library for pretty much anyone. [Nice. Where's a Rails setup?]
Source:

The serverless Internet company: They have about 15,000 people already creating live video channels. They have one of the most innovative Web sites I’ve ever seen.

But they don’t own a server.

How else has the world changed? Where the hell is Microsoft in this whole business? How did Microsoft screw this up so badly? Let’s get this straight. Amazon used to be a book store. Now they are hosting virualized servers for Internet companies. So much for having billions of dollars in the bank like Microsoft does, some of the smartest people in the world working in your research arms and having “monopoly” market share in operating systems. [Wow.]
Source: Scobleizer – Microsoft Geek Blogger

A Public Market for Public Music | Linux Journal: I’m wondering about a project name and description. Right now I like Project Pay4Play, or p4p. With p4p tools, I should be able to say “I’ll pay for that” when I hear a song or a program I like. I want to be able to do this with any podcast or stream that I hear on my browser, my mobile phone, my PDA, my iPod, my iTunes — even my car radio. [I like the idea, but I don't understand the value proposition.]

Programming conventions as signals: The computer doesn’t care, of course, but it signals an extra piece of information, the fact that you are chiefly interested in side effects in one case and chiefly interested in the result in another case. [Great article. Subscribed!]