Posts by Phil Pélanne
In The Clouds
Why Virtualization?
The last several years have seen a move towards the buzzword compliant world of cloud computing. Cloud computing is a somewhat nebulous term that has been used to describe all kinds of web-based services, from mail to storage to hosting.
At NewCity, one of the ways we're leveraging the cloud is by using the services of virtual server providers. This has allowed us move from the monolithic model of running physical web servers in-house to a much nimbler model in…
Redundancy: Good Things Come In (at least) Twos
A large part of the work NewCity does deals with the conception, organization and construction of websites. In all aspects of this process, short of a repeal of Murphy's Law, redundancy is something that cannot be ignored. In truth, that's a great rule of thumb for anything computer-related.
Consider that virtual pile of digital photos that has accrued on your hard drive over the years. If you don't maintain some kind of backup of them, you are one errant disk platter away from losing all…
Developing in CakePHP
Over the last year or so, NCM has begun utilizing a tool called CakePHP to build some of its websites. CakePHP is a PHP-based flexible framework which allows developers to quickly build web applications in a manner similar to Ruby on Rails. It has a large, very active community and is based on free, open source projects. Because of this, support for the framework is widely available and easy to come by, both via the web, IRC, or local and web-based user groups.
Sites built with CakePHP…
Five Minute Vacation
There is nothing quite like being on an island, knowing that beyond the rocky outcrop on which you stand is an extremely large expanse of water populated by colorful fish, roving boats, and the occasional nuclear submarine. It's a good feeling to know that given a serious episode of not being able to read a map, the worst you can do is travel in a large circle and end up where you started, hopefully in time for lunch.
Well, that last bit is comforting for me at least — maybe not so much my…
