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A paper from 8 years ago? Seriously?

"better data can beat better algorithms" well said.

Scribd is another good case study of how to present data to rank high in searches. Could this be that the view of documents is different to a crawler than one presented to a normal browser?

Anyone care to share a real-life GAE performance figures non-free billable account on a long running application?

Consider http://code.google.com/p/google-jstemplate/

"Simple and robust browser side template processing for Ajax based web applications"

While this isn't a macro processor, it actually solves a related problem of management and separation between data (javascript, json) and presentation (html)

Here are the slides: http://google-jstemplate.googlecode.com/svn/slides/jstemplat...

Looking at the API, it looks pretty young/raw.

API offers two types of primary data structures; Files and Tables.

A File is a binary object that can grow and shrink to any size, and data can be written to and read from any position. Table can store string values, supports indexes on columns.

No mention of real query language.

The focus of this and other comments here seems to be to critique how this UI works for the majority of Google users. IMHO there's room for several alternatives interfaces for any popular service.

> 8% surveyed (by Google) in Times Square knew what a browser was

So 92% need the UI that works for them. There should also be a UI for the 8% minority that Google is, who know to hit enter for submit.

We've come to value multiple interfaces adapted to the client device. Isn't it time to have interfaces adapted to the skill-set of the user as well?

Re. geographical redundancy, see comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=422574 :

"Amazon keeps at least 3 copies of your data (which is what you need for high reliability) in at least 2 different geographical locations. "

I can't find the original source supporting that statement, but I also know it to be true based on direct contact with AWS team. (I'm using AWS since private alpha of EC2 in 2005)

YUI includes a similar-looking baseline framework.

Anyone care to compare the two?

Jobs is one of the most deliberate, careful and calculated when it comes to public statements. More on PR see http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

While the post highlights the PR bit you can see though, it does include a couple of useful links with good insights about the role of design in the product development process.

Can anyone comment on why Amazon Payments still not available outside of US?

Amazon.com operates and accepts payments in EU and Canada. AWS is available in EU. Payments service is available for close to two years. There must be something some other answer than "it just takes time".

I think there's "something" here. To summarize the answers to the question I've seen so far:

1. File/print server. Very real use-case.

2. Control motors, device controllers around the home that can be connected via USB.

What if a 40$ computer had wi-fi connectivity? What if one couples it with wi-fi sensors such as http://www.aginova.com sells and wi-fi enabled device controllers. What kind of apps one can build given such as combination?

Now, first one is obvious and clearly valuable use-case. What about the second one?

Also note, PhDs with a job offer get a multi-year year income tax exemption.

So the problem is growing number of people don't pay enough attention to a particular subject or social interaction. They are in the state of continuous partial attention.

Here's a simple test if you have this condition: Consider news/tweets/blog items you read this morning. How many many different topics they covered? How long did you focus on one particular topic (eg. programming, software industry trends, social psychology). Now think if you REALLY paid sufficient attention to each subject to produce a meaningful and lasting effect (eg. form new opinion about a technology trend, make a technical decision affecting your work, etc.). If the answer isn't clear then you too are in this 'partial attention' state.

The point is, it isn't how people use the technology or tools. It is about how many things people pay attention to and how long they keep that attention.

The fix isn't to unplug, but to reduce time spent in 'continuous partial attention'.

May I suggest you now go unfollow a few people from your Twitter account :)

Abstract: A method and computer program product include defining, by a user, a time template including a plurality of predefined time intervals for scheduling meetings. The time template is applied across a collaborative system.

Translation: recurring meetings feature

In order of importance: IM, skype, email, phone conference, trac, wiki, yammer (just starting)

Ironically, most valuable collaboration/project management tools are "generic" like im, voice, email as oppose to those designed specifically for collaboration/project management.

You asked for PAID services, not just any SaaS.

webfaction, AWS (ec2, sqs, s3), paypal

Right, in this case client-side templating just moves to the server.

When JS processing isn't available on the client side, this same stack is moved to the server side. This way the same logical separation between UI and data is maintained.

Separating presentation and data in applications an accepted design practice, but somehow it is not as common in-browser apps as it is on the server side.

Here's an architecture of a dynamic web app that works well for me:

- an app server exposes JSON and no HTML. (eg django or rails)

- html/css/js is completely static (eg. on S3/CDN) and defines UI as a set of HTML templates.

- once html/js is loaded in the browser, the browser makes an AJAX call to the server to get the JSON data

- in-browser JS expands a template, the data is rendered out

In this architecture, http://code.google.com/p/google-jstemplate/ is key. Check it out.

Is there anything you think you were doing that may be interpreted as fraud?

Satchmo support many payment modules including:

        * Authorize.net
        * Trustcommerce
        * Google checkout
        * Cybersource
        * Paypal
        * Protx
        * Purchase orders

Wait a minute, didn't they install Linux on a potato? Potato is much smaller than this black box! Take a look at the pictures http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/12/linux-on-a-potato.html

IMHO this is great, but not perfect. The model of reserved instances takes EC2 users back into the business of provisioning planning. How many instance/years should I buy for the next year? How many is too many? EC2 users are still unable to to spread the 1 year time credit over multiple instances. In principle, it costs the same to run one instance for 1000 hours than to run 1000 instances for one hour. In practice, the current model makes it impossible to capture the discount. What is needed is to able to buy a year worth of CPU time at discount, and then be free to launch as many instances as needed to use up the time credit. (more on http://weblog.smirnov.ca/2009/03/12/ec2-reserved-instances-a...)

Here are some more "business ideas" for your enjoyment:

- Buy tons of those fancy interactive visual advertisements, embed the worker into them and perform mapreduce jobs in the browsers of unsuspecting users

- Run some of the analytic/batch processing related to a popular social network on CPUs of your customers.

- Have a popular site? Sell CPUs of its audience just like one sells impressions via AdSense.

Congrats on release.

People interested in FantomDB should also consider RightScale who also offers managing and scaling MySQL on EC2 - http://blog.rightscale.com/2007/08/20/redundant-mysql-set-up...

RightScale doesn't offer MySQL-specific services such as reporting etc. but can help with treating your entire application stack "as a service"

Take a look at http://blog.rightscale.com/2007/11/13/mysql-performance-on-a... - RightScale Blog MySQL performance on Amazon EC2

Well done and good luck, but it is hard to believe this library will change the dynamic for GData.

I tried searching, but for the life of me, I cannot find an actual web application or a service that is based on GData.

Yes, there are all kinds of importers from Google account that lets a 3rd party service spam your friends with invites. But is this the only use-case Google is trying to support? You'd think that they really do want developers to build on their platform, no? If so, why isn't there a more pick-up?

Granted, those who just need storage (and CDN) there's no point of using an application platform. But with so many startups using EC2 it is clear the service solves a real need for them.

I agree with both of you - it is both the flexibility of EC2 and inflexibility of App Engine that makes a difference.

So why do startups adopt AWS (S3/EC2/SQS) in droves while still only kicking tires on App Engine? Is it a fear of lock-in?

Sure you could view the UI as a set of "motions", but the argument of this article is about how you could simplify such analysis: just count the number of concepts or elements presented to the user. The smaller the count, the easier the UI would feel.

Re: education So Gates has been all over this, and there are many components to it.

The question to this forum is, what technology is needed to help make great teachers? To Tim O'Reilly's slogan, this is clearly the stuff that matters.