Laurent’s Weblog

Some times ago i wrote an article about installing a Rails stack on Debian Etch (our production server), then how to configure Apache 2 + fcgid to run our Rails app.

After several tests with this deployment configuration , we encountered some problems of performance (i will detail what our application does in a future article) :

- First with Apache server, after an idle time, then accessing a page of our application, we should wait for a long time before our page loads. Seems fcgid processes take a long time to (re)start.

- In our application, we deliver some files with a download controller : for bigger files, the download was very long.

We decided recently to switch the Apache2 / fcgid configuration to Mongrel (Ruby HTTP server) + nginx (as proxy in front of Mongrel).

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If you find Oracle 10g fairly complex to install - if you find Oracle 10g memory hungry, especially when you’re trying to run several JVMs, and a VMWare instance in parallel with a heavy running Oracle 10g system. Think of Oracle Database 10g Express.

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I recently installed Leopard on my Mac and lost a VMWare appliance of Linux (Oracle Enterprise Linux), instrumented with an Oracle database , that i ran before on Mac OS X Tiger using VMWare Fusion beta.

So i decided to install the last release of Ubuntu , Hardy Heron 8.04 :

- Firstly to have a simple platform with a Ruby on Rails stack for testing my current project Sudorace on Linux.

- Secondly i chose Ubuntu and not RedHat EL again (neither CentOS) because i currently do not need an instance of Oracle database for my personal purposes (i follow the YAGNI “You Ain’t Gonna Need It”). Working all business days in a full Oracle environment, i do not need now this kind of environment for my personal purposes; if tomorrow i should have an Oracle database instance, or an App Server, so i will install again the “Enterprise Linux” from Oracle.

I use VMWare Fusion , because i encountered problems while installing Linux with Parallels at a time. It seems Parallels team first focused on running Windows well.

About VMWare:

VMWare is the leader in virtual infrastructures for years. I remember a time near 2003, when we used VMWare to run Linux on a Windows host, for testing an Oracle database & Oracle RAC. VMWare declined the Mac version (VMWare fusion) once Apple switched to x86, but after Parallels.

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Today should be released the last Linux Ubuntu Hardy Heron, v. 8.04. Check this afternoon or in the evening.

Here is a second article about installing Ruby on Rails stack on a Linux Debian Etch. In our case, the host is our production server.

This article does not include Apache 2 , mySQL installation. Our server had been prepared with the LAMP stack.

This article includes Ruby, RoR, additional gems (Capistrano 2, openwferu-scheduler), Apache 2 / FastCGI configuration, mySQL securization, msmtp + GMail configuration to notify our application’s users.

We chose to use Apache 2/FastCGI because it’s simple to configure and we do not plan an intensive use of our application (we don’t care scaling for the moment).

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I begin here a serie of articles about Installing Rails stack on several platforms, for different purposes (development, production). I will continue with the detail of a current RoR application we just launched here, by my client, then how to deploy it on the production server using Capistrano 2, and how to configure Apache 2 to make it run with FastCGI.

The RoR application is developed on our Linux desktops, is hosted on the remote “low cost” Subversion server (BeansTalkApp), the application is deployed with Capistrano 2 to a Linux Debian virtualized server into the DMZ and is running on Apache 2 + FastCGI.

First , i begin with an install of Ruby, Rails, mySQL, Lighttpd done on my desktop running on Linux Fedora Core 7.

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Fringland has released the software Fring for jailbreaked iPhones: Fring allows to chat but also to do VoIP. Already released on many mobile platforms, Fring works for IM Yahoo!, AOL AIM Messenger, Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, SIP and Twitter.

A “Freeze” event happened in Geneva (Switzerland) on April 12, 02:00 PM, in the Cornavin Train Station.

This event already happened in other train stations (New York).

Being fan of many Marvel superheroes since the early beginning of eighties, i’ve seen today this news about how Oracle did a cooperation with Marvel. The communication is focused on the future movie “IronMan”, with Robert Downey Jr, but a new release of the Incredible Hulk (with Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and Robert Downey Jr) is also coming soon.

Marvel Entertainment relies on Oracle to manage growth and provide seamless technology integration. View the article online

Source : Oracle

And thanks to Carl , who twitts about this news

We learned this week the 37Signals Team will consider this year to write/publish the second edition of Getting Real. The second edition will be more small-business focused. Less web-app, more business strategy.

Proposed topics include who to hire, how to surround yourself with great people, how to promote/market without breaking the bank, how to get press without a PR firm, how to focus on what matters and ignore what doesn’t, how to get big things done with a small team, the beauty of the basics, embracing the unknown, throwing out your plans and just winging it, finding a distinct voice, etc

37Signals sold over 40,000 copies (PDF and paperback combined) of  the first edition purely through blog posts and word of mouth (reviews).