one of the best things about being a web developer right now is the huge amount of resources available to help developers like me accomplish what it is we want to do. the amazon web services offerings are especially noteworthy. for the first time, infrastructural elements such as storage and processing power are now available as a service, and acquired on demand. this means that developers can leverage an essentially infinite pool of resources for absolutely zero fixed cost, but only pay for what is actually used. for many, bootstrapping an application is now a complete reality. at work recently, i’ve been building an application with a storage model based on amazon’s s3 (simple storage service). it’s been a wonderful experience so far, and everything’s been working great up until a few days ago. i just realized that this post is about to abruptly shift from a nice general overview to a incredibly specific level of detail, so to spare those less technical *cough (nerdy)* readers, the slightly amusing story and s3 troubleshooting tip is after the break.
(more…)

a while back, i linked a video that combined beer pong and skateboarding for some amazing antics. next in this series, which i’ve entitled ‘youtube pastime mash-ups,’ is this impressive domino routine involving four pool tables, six cues, damn near 50 billiard balls, and more bones than an archaeological dig site. i’d like to see mike massey pull this one off.

proof positive that your favorite things are even better when you put them together.