I Cloud

Earlier today Apple announced a revolutionary set of services called iCloud.  I must say it sounds incredible to be able to edit a document, sync contacts, view my calendar, listen to music, read my electronic books, view my photos, and access my email from any internet enabled device. , It does seem like a great advantage to not have to upload to a cloud music service like the Amazon Cloud Player or Google Music, which iCloud offers via iTunes "scan and match" and I'm certain it will be another service I try in my attempt to find the best cloud experience.   I've been happily clouding for some time now, and hope that Apple does good things in the space.  Happy clouding.

Duostack: Cloud Platform as a Service

I have been using and trying many of the all-in-one solutions for web-based development on my Cr-48, but what happens when your favorite editor does not deploy directly to where you want your app to live (cloud9)?  I tried this recently with a NodeJS app and a cloud platform (currently in beta) called Duostack.  For my NodeJS app, just as everyone else toying with Node, I reinvented reworked the wheel and used Ryan Dahl's (creator of NodeJS) basic chat application.  All I did was partition the client to act like it had multiple rooms rather than one group room as in the original.  That is not what this post is about. This post is about how easy it is to get a node instance up and running on Duostack.

Duostack is a super easy to use cloud platform as a service for Node and Ruby apps.  Databases that are available by default are MySQL, MongoDB, and Redis (the documentation states external DBs are welcome).  The deployments live on the Amazon EC2 by default, but there is 'cross-cloud reliability' that will allow for fail over to the Proactive Cloud in case of a possible Amazon outage.  Deployment is as simple as it could get with a cloud platform (well it could get simpler, but its super easy as you can read below). 

To setup Duostack I had to move away from Chrome OS and into Ubuntu on my Cr-48.  I followed the simple steps to get the command line interface installed.  I used the curl method versus the node package manager install and had my Duostack instance configured shortly thereafter.  So now to create a Duostack app.  This is even easier then setup of the command line client, simply type 'duostack create <yourappnamehere>' and you have it. Duostack uses Git to control deployment so deploying is also a snap, just feed the command 'git push duostack master' from your git repository, wait a few seconds while Duostack works the deployment magic, and you have your Duostack application deployed.  Mine lives here.  So far I am more than pleased with my Duostack beta access and invite anyone with interest in deploying a Node or Ruby app to a cloud platform to signup and give it a try.  I have a few other betas for platform as a service solutions to check out, but Duostack got first dibs by granting me beta access before the others.

A Beatbox in the Sky

Recently I've been trying to find less nerdy things to do on Chrome OS.  I don't know if its because I've been boring myself when I analyze new cloud based development environments, or if its because I want to become a better advocate for Chrome OS and its purpose for everyone, but I started playing around with some cool applications.

I like music.  I like thinking I am a musician (I know cover bands don't really count, but almost...).  So when I saw in the Chrome Web Store a program from Aviary that would allow me to create music right in my fancy home in the cloud, I quickly installed it.  The interface is super intuitive (i.e drag n drop or click a button), so I was off and running.  There is about any sound you would need for a solid beat including drum kits, guitars, voices, even random sounds from around the house.  My first beat tracks were based off of the standard acoustic drum kit, but I soon moved myself to using claps snaps and an 8 bit organ (<<have a listen if you must).

So Aviary is an amazing website that has loads of amazing artist tools, not just music creation.  They have an audio editor where one can edit and mash together tracks, so the next step is to set up a drum track and try to play some music over the top of it in the music studio (or at least sample some of the creations that are out on Aviary's site).  The other tools all seem to be likely candidates for common use for my everyday clouding needs like screen capture and image editing.

Update:  Shortly after I posted the link to my sample sound Aviary's creation listening tool crashed.  I checked a couple creations from other folks and those were broken as well.  I'll update again when I see the link is working again.


Update: the link to the creation should work now.

RAD with WaveMaker

Yesterday VMware announced they had acquired WaveMaker.  I had not explored WaveMaker, but luckily the news exposed this wonderful development tool for me.  WaveMaker is a tool for Rapid Application Development (RAD) that is perhaps the worlds greatest WYSIWYG editor.  Not just WYSIWYG for HTML or page layout, but it can completely eliminate the need for Java coding and with its integrated data structure mappings with Hibernate it can easily integrate with any enterprise database.  The point is that anyone who is computer capable can write a fully functional web application and maintain it without the need for developer time.  As a bonus, there is integration with the big names in cloud hosting like Amazon EC2, Rackspace, Eucalyptus, and OpSource

I checked out the example videos and was amazed.  I was especially excited because I of course noted there was a cloud version available.   Of course the site is down for maintenance without any idea as to when service would be restored.  Being an avid user or Chrome OS on my Cr-48 I was extremely bummed.  So I decided to  cheat a little (its still browser based app development, however it required installing software) and I cranked up developer mode on my Cr-48 and entered my Ubuntu Linux boot.  I downloaded WaveMaker and kicked it off.  

Amazing.  I created a test project with one of the provided templates and started dragging objects onto my web page.  Styling is available at the click of a button, and wiring up events to buttons exposes so special handling can be added.  I can already grasp the power of this tool and I have not spent a whole hour in it.  I can imagine in the coming days and weeks as I get the chance to get more familiar with it, I will be even more amazed.  I am also excited for when the cloud.wavemaker.com site is operational again when the true power of being able to code an application in the cloud and even deploy to a cloud host like EC2 without leaving the comfort of the browser.

Coding in the Cloud: Part ?

"your Cloud9 beta account has been activated".  I had been anxiously awaiting this email (although one can sign up now without a wait period) to continue my quest to find the best coding environment for use with my Chrome OS on my Cr-48.  Cloud9 is another development-as-a-service platform that claims to be the go to solution to marry HTML5/JavaScript development with github and has received some decent reviews lately after  its presentation at DEMO Spring 2011.  So I had to login and get coding.

I followed the link provided and once signed in I was able to quickly create a new project.  I added an html file and a JavaScript file to create a simple "hello world" website to test how the cloud9 development environment worked.  I saved my work, then clicked "Preview" and my boring website was previewed in a new tab.  Everything was working well until I returned to my project files and decided I wanted to rename them from untitled.html and untitled.js to test.html and test.js.  Moments later as I was about the check out the "Run" and "Debug" options mysteriously the screen flashed and the files were once again named as the default "untitled".  I saved the project to return later and investigate.

So I signed back in to my account and saw my previously saved project and selected "Open".  This took me to the sign in screen only the styles were all gone and it was a bunch of blank screen with the login box.  I of course had to try again, and after repeating this behavior a few times I thought, "maybe this is because its a beta account".  So I created a new account and thought "at least I can get a test project started to my testing so I can do a good comparison of cloud9 with kodingen and coderun" but I was not able to create a project at all.  I tried to use the shared github project that cloud9 provides as an example and that to failed.

Apparently cloud9 is getting hit hard with tons of new users who are experience some issues similar to mine, at least according to some of their twitter posts.  I'll be anxious to get a real review of this cloud based development environment because in my brief time on the inside, it seemed very easy to use and elegantly constructed.

To The Cloud?

I want to maximize my time in the cloud, but as a Software Engineer, I currently spend a majority of my day developing web applications tethered to a desktop development environment loaded onto a workstation running a popular operating system developed in Redmond, WA.   This is a fine environment when I am capable of getting to my cubicle at the office, but when a massive ice storm (as an example) prevents my journey to the office park, I must be able to work remotely.  

There are many solutions to this problem, and most require some form of secure connection to my work network followed by a remote desktop session to control my machine at the office.  Traditionally (before my chrome notebook) I had no reservations doing this as an adequate means to get my work done.  On my Cr-48 my traditional methods of remotely connecting to my workstation are not possible, so I set out to find my new solution, a web-based remote desktop solution.

There are plenty of these remote desktop solutions to choose from.  A popularized method in recent commercials stating "to the cloud" is not applicable here since it would require a cloud connection via "Internet Explorer 6 or later (32-bit version only)", which is probably not how I'll be connecting using my Google Chrome OS notebook.  A couple of other web applications that will allow remote access that I have tested since getting my Cr-48 are LogMeIn and TeamViewer.

After trying out both of these I think I'll settle on TeamViewer if I need to connect remotely.  This application is extremely user friendly and quick to set up.  Download the installer onto your remote PC, get the connection information, log into the web access site and you are looking at your remote PC.  Just as with other remote connections it seems to lag a bit but I was connected and able to navigate my applications remotely without much trouble.  I did experience one minor issue where the character mappings from keyboard input were a bit off, i.e.  '/' key became '§' but still nothing to prevent me from utilizing TeamViewer in a pinch.  

After going through all of this I feel that my real goal should be to get all of my work including the code base to the cloud so no matter where I am, what computer I'm sitting behind, I can get to work.  Thats what I plan to do next with some amazing new tools like Kodingen, CodeRun, and once I get my hands on the beta, Cloud9

Home in the Cloud

Three days ago I received a marvelous gift from Google in the form of my very own CR-48 notebook.  In December I had submitted my application to the Chrome OS pilot program, crossed my fingers, and a half dozen weeks later was lucky enough to receive my very own chrome notebook, and it is amazing.

This stealth notebook comes complete with a fledgling operating system (chrome os) that is proving to be powerful enough for all my everyday computing needs.  The boot time is remarkable, with the removal of standard operating system boot bloat, Chrome OS is running in ~10 seconds.  There are plenty of sites discussing the specifications of this device in detail, and I am not going to review the device here.   Other reviews state this device and the Chrome OS are dead in the water, but so far I have to disagree.  I can see a bright future for a fast, affordable, notebook with a lightweight operating system designed so that no matter what my location, I am able to connect to the cloud quickly and accomplish all the tasks I need to. I am going to push this device to it limit and see what, if any, limitations it has.

I have been courting the cloud for some time, working in Google Docs, syncing photos to the web with Picasa, and loading a lightweight linux distro on an old HP laptop for nothing but netbook purposes, but now with the chrome notebook and Chrome OS I am going for a more committed relationship, attempting to detach myself completely (or as much as possible) from the standard operating system and live in the cloud.