It was 1969 and a busy year for making history: Woodstock, the Miracle Mets, men on the moon -- and something less celebrated but arguably more significant, the birth of the Internet.

On October 29 of that year, for perhaps the first time, a message was sent over a computer network. Leonard Kleinrock, a professor of computer science at the University of California-Los Angeles, connected the school's host computer to one at Stanford Research Institute, a former arm of Stanford University.

Forty years ago today, the Internet may have uttered its first word.

Continue reading...

As a project manager, I deal quite a bit with scheduling here at Tortus: when to schedule meetings, when projects and elements of projects are due, taking into account vacations, client schedules, and many other variables. I was discussing this element of my job with a friend of mine who is a programmer for websites and a variety of other projects like light boards, software and security programs. He pointed me in the direction of a very interesting article about how programmers and designers (the “Makers”) break up and use their time as compared to someone like me (the “Managers”). I found it very enlightening and thought I’d share the article here so you can get a taste of just what goes into scheduling a project such as developing a website.

A Maker's Schedule by Paul Graham

Enjoy!

In the development arena, an underground war exists between the world of open source software (which is free and freely shared) versus closed source software (which is restricted and license fee based). Microsoft has long been a proponent of the closed source model, in which source code is not released to the public and the end user is not actually purchasing software, they are purchasing the right to use the software. The source code of the software is considered the manufacturer's trade secret.

Tortus embraced the open source business model and moved to using Ruby on Rails five years ago -- before it became trendy with the hugely popular Twitter. Ruby on Rails is a powerful web framework that makes creating applications easier and faster with organized code and, it's not a trade secret!

Enjoy this humorous commercial that explains the difference between Ruby on Rails and .NET (Microsoft).

At Tortus, we primarily use the web programming language Ruby on Rails to build our websites. Ruby on Rails (www.rubyonrails.org) is one of the fastest growing web programming languages in the open-source community. It's popularity is due to its rapid development time and the high quality and security of the websites it produces. Some of the ways in which our clients benefit from our use of Ruby on Rails are:

It's Fast

Unlike conventional languages like PHP and Perl, Ruby on Rails is a complete web development framework. It starts the web development process off with an intelligent structure into which a well-designed website can be implemented. Ruby on Rails is fully object-oriented, resulting in greater consistency and less redundancy. Ruby on Rails is built on the acronym DRY, which stands for "don't repeat yourself". Once something is set up, it is often not necessary to set it up again. Ruby on Rails simplifies the nitty gritty details and handles the heavy lifting, letting us develop more in less time than with conventional languages.

It's Flexible

Ruby on Rails is designed with flexibility in mind, which inspires its developers to do the same. Ruby on Rails was designed by a company (www.37signals.com) with a desire to develop a high-quality online toolset. It was made by web developers for web developers to cover a wide variety of applications. Ruby on Rails provides single points of access for what were formerly separate elements, allowing us to more easily make changes both during development and after deployment of our client's websites.

It's Secure

Ruby on Rails treats each website as a complete unit. Other languages may require the intentional duplication or inclusion of code from page to page in order to maintain security. In contrast, Ruby on Rails provides the ability to secure entire areas and place restrictions on particular types of data across the entire site from one location. Once something is secured, it is always secure across the entire website, and any new page will automatically receive the same security. In addition, each Ruby on Rails website that we build is channeled through a single access point. Programming and design code is not available to the web server until it's processed by Ruby on Rails. This requires and allows more thoughtful control over what's accessible and to whom it's accessible.

It's Tested

Ruby on Rails comes with a built-in system for writing tests. These tests use the same code that sends web pages to the internet and redirects the results to code that can review each page and each piece of data within. Once written, an entire site can be tested in seconds, and the same tests can be run repeatedly. They can also be automated to run on a schedule, and any errors detected can be emailed to the appropriate personnel for immediate resolution. These tests can be used to ensure that your site continues to work the way it did when it went live. They can also be used to ensure that future changes don't unintentionally change any existing functionality.

It's Modern

Ruby on Rails has cutting-edge Web 2.0 functionality, including AJAX and visual effects built right in, allowing you to develop richer and more intuitive web pages without affecting the usage of the page for those with older web browsers.