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April 08, 2003
LAMP and JAMES
Jon Udell makes reference to LAMP platforms (Linux/Apache/MySQL/Perl|Python|PHP) in an article about his interview with MySQL's CEO Mårten Mickos. I've been thinking of using an architecture I'm calling JAMES when I teach my large-scale distributed systems class next fall.
JAMES stands for JSP, Apache, MySQL, EJBs, and SOAP. In my class, I'd like my students to see three different client-server architectures, a 2-tier architecture, an n-tier architecture, and a web services or service oriented architecture (SOA). Ideally, I'd have them use LAMP for the 2-tier architecture because its so popular. But they don't already know PHP|Python|Perl and that creates some overhead I'd rather do away with. So, I'll substitute JSP and have them use JAM for the first, JAME for the second and JAMES for the third. In fact, we'll probably have the entire installation done so that they work from the start with jBoss and Tomcat. I'll probably use Axis for the SOAP part.
In the past, they've done a series of homework assignments that installed and familiarized them with the components they'd use to complete a large final project. The problem is that it back-end loads the semester with a lot of work and adds considerable stress to the students lives as the semester draws to a close. (And you didn't think professors worried about those kinds of things, did you?) With the new set-up, I think I'll have three separate projects. One using a 2-tier JSP/Apache/MySQL platform, one the uses an n-tier architecture with jBoss thrown in, and a third that creates web services using Axis on top of their EJB project. The advantage is that there's one platform and one set of tools to learn. What's more, the third project would be the easiest, rather than the hardest.
I'm always looking for good ideas for projects. If you've got some ideas that would work on the 2-tier platform or the n-tier, I'd love to hear about them. One of the hardest things to get students to understand is why they'd ever want to use anything but a 2-tier architecture. At the scale they work on in the class, there's nothing you can't do with LAMP. Its tough to bring the realism of a multi-machine distributed n-tier architecture into a class with limited hardware budgets and too many students.
08:06 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Evelyn Rodriguez Blog
Evelyn Rodriguez, who although living in the Bay Area right now, has some deep Utah ties, has started a blog. Evelyn was the organizer of the Digital Identity Summit that I blogged a few weeks ago. She's got an interest and expertise in digital identity and web services. I look forward to following what she writes.
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Bonding for Broadband
One of the little noticed bills in the past utah Legislative General Session was Senate Bill 184 which allows the creation of municipal improvement districts for telecommunications. This is the way it works:
- A group of property owners decide that they want some telecommunications service (like broadband).
- They petition the city to create a "special improvement district" for that purpose and the property owners are put into that district. They need not be contiguous.
- The city creates the district, bonds for the capital required to build out the facility, and contracts with someone to do the build-out and someone to provide service.
- The city charges members of the improvement district a property tax sufficient to meet their bond obligation.
This creates a situation where a group of property owners can more or less take matters into their own hands, with the city's cooperation, to create a viable broadband alternative. The city has a much lower cost of capital since these are general obligation bonds and thus tax free than a private entity making previously questionable project profitable.
This is an interesting development with respect to Utopia. It could be used by non-Utopia cities to provide broadband to their citizens. I've heard of non-Utopia cities who are considering using this bill to do just that. I think there's also a way for Utopia to use it to use general obligation bonds in place of revenue bonds on at least some of the project. Between this, Utopia, and the Utah Valley Community Network (or UVCN) initiative there are at least three very different models that are being tried out right now along the Wasatch Front to deliver broadband. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
04:22 PM | Recommend This | Print This
LAL Cat Archive
I spoke to Quinn Snell's CS426 class yesterday. One of the things I talked about was how the World Wide Web got introduced to BYU. I had just joined the faculty in 1993 from the University of Idaho and was waiting for my equipment to arrive. To combat my boredom, I started playing with these new things called web servers. We set one up at http://lal.cs.byu.edu. We even set up a web site for the University (without any explicit permission) and we'd teaching professors and grad students from all over campus about HTML, browsers, and web servers. One of the most popular things we did was called the LAL Cat Archive.
Because all the machines in my lab were named after cats (like panther, jaguar, etc.) one of my grad students, Kelly Hall, started to collect pictures of cats from various places. For a time, this collection was the most popular content at BYU and even got a mention in Newsweek magazine. Eventually, we had to take it down because of the bandwidth drain, but the pictures have been preserved and I've made some of them available in my photo gallery.