rail

What's really going on at JBoss?

Oddly enough, the answer to that question ("What's really going on with JBoss?") is probably best answered by someone outside Red Hat: Marc Fleury. Marc isn't shackled by the need to keep corporate secrets, though perhaps he's a little biased.

Marc offers several data points that suggest that JBoss adoption and monetization is "going through the roof." But he also takes on two potential aspirants to the JBoss throne: Ruby on Rails and SpringSource (I've sanitized Marc's comments to suit my Puritan sensibilities):… Read more

Rail gun uses kinetic energy to deliver Mach 5 wallop

The U.S. Navy is installing an electro-magnetic laboratory rail gun at its Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., bringing it one step closer to developing a ship-mounted version of this futuristic cannon.

The 32-megajoule weapon appears to be the largest rail gun ever built, according to defense contractor BAE Systems. A joule is what's needed to produce one watt of energy for one second.

It uses a magnetic "rail" instead of a chemical propellant like gunpowder to heave projectiles at Mach 7 for what could be up to 220 miles down range--that's 10 times farther … Read more

What Benchmark's investment in Ruby on Rails support should tell us

Last week, Benchmark announced a $3.5 million investment in Engine Yard, which provides commercial support for Ruby on Rails applications. Engine Yard is doing $3 million in business and growing. It's also profitable. It didn't need the investment.

The investment, however, is very telling. When one of the top venture capital firms on the planet puts hard dollars behind a support model, it's significant. It becomes doubly so when the firm (or its investors) in question previously invested in JBoss, MySQL, SpringSource (Interface21), and other support-based open-source companies.

It may mean that Benchmark knows something that the rest of the industry seems determined to ignore: services-based businesses may well be the future of the software industry.… Read more

"Rails is a Ghetto" -- a ranting exit from the Ruby and Rails Community

I know it's only January 1st, but Zed Shaw, creator of Mongrel, a hugely popular library and web server for Rails has posted the rant of the year already.

This is that rant. It is part of my grand exit strategy from the Ruby and Rails community. I don't want to be a "Ruby guy" anymore, and will probably start getting into more Python, Factor, and Lua in the coming months. I've got about three or four more projects in the works that will use all of those and not much Ruby planned.

This rant … Read more

Internet2 races 10 times faster

If you thought your new Verizon Fios service was fast, take a look at what Internet2 is up to.

The research-oriented network has just boosted its network speeds to 100 gigabits per second, the Associated Press and others reported this week. That's a 10-fold increase from the theoretical 10Gpbs network connections offered today to its university, research and commercial members.

Network connections this fast mean that a high-quality version of your favorite movie could be downloaded over the Net in a few seconds instead of the half a minute it takes over the old Internet2. By comparison, the same … Read more