June 7th, 2009

Watch out, Simon Wincer, Dwight H. Little, Sam Pillsbury, and Will Geiger, directors of Free Willy, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, and Free Willy 4, respectively–there’s a new director looking to take home the crown of Guy Who Made a Whale-Centric Drama.

He’s Just Not That Into You director Ken Kwapis is in final negotiations to helm Everybody Loves Whales, a film that will finally recognize that the aquatic mammals have the same level of adoration as Ray Romano. Says Variety:

[Warner Bros.] bought the script, written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, in April. It’s based on the story of three California gray whales found trapped in the Arctic ice in October 1988, when their plight created a media circus in the tiny Alaskan town.

Enough whale positivity films like this and we may yet encourage enough whale goodwill to save future generations the task of having to travel back in time to rescue the giant beasts.

June 7th, 2009

/Film has some new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen stills, and any concerns you might have had that Optimus Prime would not wield giant orange blades should now be alleviated–he’s got them. And now my inner child is frustrated in the knowledge that if I’d bought this toy I’d have already broken off the swords and lost them in the couch before finishing this post.

June 7th, 2009

With Terminator Salvation getting dismal reviews and less-than-stellar box office, Sony Pictures has decided on the last-ditch effort of showing their entire Termi-hand, and they’ve released a new television spot that reveals the much talked about cameo by a young, digital Arnold Schwarzenegger head pasted on a bodybuilder Roland Kickinger’s frame. If you haven’t seen it yet, I think you’ll be pretty impressed by how surprisingly convincing it looks. All those years of copy-and-pasting bosses’ and teachers’ heads onto naked bodies has finally fulfilled itself in a meaningful way:

June 7th, 2009

InfoVis is an open source JavaScript data visualization toolkit offering multiple ways to present data using the canvas tag.

It is feeded with data in JSON format & some of the ready to use visualizations are:

• treemaps
• radial layouts
• bar charths, pie charts & more…

Besides a static presentations, InfoVis supports interactive animations which can be fired by any event (like mouseovers, clicks).

It has various methods to add/remove/update nodes & manipulate every aspect of the outputs.

The toolkit doesn’t depend on a JavaScript framework, can be used with any of them & easily updated for adding new features to it.

June 7th, 2009

Flabell is presenting another handy resource for creating Flash-XML based survey with multiple questions.

An unlimited number of questions & a variable number of answers can be added by simply editing the XML file.

When users select an answer, they can pass to the next question & all answers are stored inside the XML file for visualizing them later (not included within the code).

P.S. Download requires a free membership.

June 7th, 2009

jQuery TOOLS is a set of frequently used user interface components, built with/for jQuery, to power your websites.

The library is lightweight (5.8kb) and consists of the following tools:

• tabs
• tooltip
• scrollable
• overlay
• expose
• flashembed

All the tools can be used together, extended, configured and styled which makes it very flexible.

Every feature in the library is very well documented & offers various examples to lower the learning curve.

It is also possible to download the tools you need rather than the whole package, combined in a one file.

June 7th, 2009

Cloud hosting, storage & content delivery networks (CDNs) are very popular services for the last few years, which is very normal, as they offer a series of advantages in running + serving web applications.

An application hosted in the cloud will:

• easily scale (with instantly deployable & API controlled instances, unlimited diskspaces, etc..)
• serve files faster with content delivery network (CDN) support
• have a better availability (with strong SLAs)

With the increasing number of providers & tools created, cloud hosting is getting simpler & simpler everyday.

Getting in the cloud, in most cases, will save so much time & resources when running a growing web application. You won’t need to think of the hardware, better react to the system resources & bandwidth usage fluctuations, pay exactly for what you use & much more.

Here is a collection of popular options & tools that can help you in hosting your applications in the cloud:

Cloud Hosting & Storage Options

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) - (hosting)

Amazon EC2 is a web service that provides you the environment to instantly launch (or remove) new servers (instances) with the OS & configuration you need which makes scaling of a web application much easier.

This functionality can be controlled via the web service APIs or tools to be mentioned in this post.

You are charged with the resources consumed like hours your servers (instances) work or the bandwidth used.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) (storage)

Amazon S3 is the cloud storage option of AWS where unlimited number of files can be stored & retrieved.

It can be used with the API provided or various tools (mentioned in this post).

Pricing of the service is calculated with the number of requests made, amount of data stored & bandwidth used (transfers between EC2 & S3 are free)

AWS also offers other services that power (or powered by) EC2 & S3:

• Amazon CloudFront: content delivery network which enables faster delivery of files hosted on S3 to end users by distributing the files to various locations.
• Amazon CloudWatch: monitoring for EC2 resources like CPU, RAM, disk read/writes & more.
• Amazon SimpleDB: a simple web based database which provides basic db functions.

GoGrid

Hosting

Like S3, GoGrid also comes with ready to deploy server images with various configurations (Linux & Windows).

The system can be controlled via a web-based GUI or an API.

It also offers a service named Cloud Connect which combines the elasticity of cloud computing with the customization of dedicated servers in one unified solution.

Storage

GoGrid Cloud Storage can be reached by mounting the drive to any server (protocols supported are: SCP, FTP, SAMBA/CIFS, and RSYNC). An API for this service is not yet available but on the way.

Mosso

Cloud Servers - (hosting)

The service provides instantly deployable servers with a choice of popular Linux distributions (no Windows). Currently, there is no API support but it is on the way.

Cloud Files - (storage)

A redundant data storage service which replicates the data in 3 seperate locations.

Files can be managed from a web-based interface or an API. The system is integrated with LimeLight content delivery network & files can be selected to be served faster via this network.

Google App Engine (hosting)

Google enables developers to host their applications inside its own infrastructure. And besides many other cloud hosting systems, Google doesn’t provide you root access but gives the possibility of unlimited resource usage.

The platform supports 2 languages: Python & Java. But there are tricks to run other languages in the engine (Run PHP on the Google App Engine).

The service comes with a free quota where a basic application can be easily hosted for free. For over-quota, the pricing is applied.

CloudLayer

CloudLayer Computing - (hosting)

On-demand computing instances with several OS options can be ran in a very short time like 5 minutes.

Created instances can be standalone or integrated with other SoftLayer dedicated servers, virtual servers, automated services, and additional CloudLayer Services which makes the usage highly flexible.

Instances can be reached via KVM over IP & managed via an API or the web-based control panel.

CloudLayer Storage - (storage)

The cloud storage of SoftLayer can be reached via API, a native Windows client, WebDav, or mobile devices. The system also integrates with CloudLayer CDN which offers fast delivery of content from 21 locations around the world.

NewServers (hosting)

NewServers is a cloud hosting provider which offers controlling the system via a web app. or an API.

Currently no cloud storage or CDN is offered.

Cloud Hosting & Storage Tools

This is a free Amazon S3 file browser application that enables creating-deleting-updating buckets, folders & files.

It supports:

• multiple S3 accounts
• setting up file access permissions
• generating external URLs & more..

CloudBerry S3 Explorer is a must-have for Amazon S3 users.

ElasticFox - (free)

This is an amazing Firefox extension for managing Amazon EC2. Using ElasticFox, it is possible to create & delete instances, volumes, IPs, get the root passwords & much more..

S3Fox Organizer - (free)

A FTP-like Firefox addon which enable anyone to reach S3 buckets for uploading & downloading files.

It supports managing CloudFront, changing access policies & syncronizing S3 with the local system.

JungleDisk - (paid)

JungleDisk is an application which can work with Amazon S3 & Mosso Cloud Files to create an online storage.

Besides the backup capabilities, it offers a great feature which is mounting the cloud drive as a local drive. This way, anyone can use cloud storage without the need of coding with API.

JetS3t - (free)

It is an open-source Java toolkit and application suite for the Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront content delivery network.

The toolkit contains 5 applications for reaching, syncronizing & creating an authorization service to mediate to S3 accounts.

GridGain - (free)

An open source cloud platform, built with Java, that enables developers to develop and run applications on private or public clouds.

The application is simply focused on providing the best Java software middleware to develop and run grid applications on the cloud infrastructure in a simple and productive way.

abiCloud - (free)

abiCloud is an open source software for creating & managing public or private clouds.

The tool mainly offers users the capacity for scaling, management, automatic and immediate provision of servers, storage, networks, virtual network devices as well as applications.

Tarzan - (free)

For any developer who wants to use Amazon Web Services, Tarzan offers an unique experience for an easier integration.

Besides being a high-performance development framework, it can:

• manage Amazon S3 with added functionality like moving, renaming, copying entire buckets, and storing remote files.
• integrates with SimpleDB
• manage EC2 & more..

You should also check:

• S3tools - various open source tools for reaching Amazon S3.
• Appscale - an open source implementation of Google App Engine cloud computing interface.
• Windows PowerShell Snap-In for GoGrid
• CDNTools: A Wordpress plugin that integrates your blog with Mosso Cloud Files for serving the images from their CDN.

These are definitely not the all options & resources on cloud hosting & there can be more great ones not listed here. If you know them, please share in the comments.

June 7th, 2009

Living it up in the sunshine state, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian were spotted out on Washington Avenue in South Beach on Saturday afternoon (June 6).

The E! reality starlets stepped out for a lunch break as they continue to work on the newly opened Dash boutique and film their spin-off show, “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami”.

Keeping fans up to date via their Twitter accounts, Kourtney wrote, “Went for a walk/run on the beach this morning! Such a good way to start the day.”

The brunette beauty later added, “Just had lunch with Grutman at Fontainebleau cant wait to go to LIVtonight.”

Showing her sense of humor, Khloe chimed in, “How much would someone pay me to have Kourtney? I am thinking of selling this girl! I am over her… I am starting at $10,000 bucks.”

June 7th, 2009

Looking ever the happy couple, Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr were spotted side-by-side in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon (June 6).

The “Gossip Girl” co-star couple ended up grabbing up lunch, dining out at The Belmont Cafe before leaving to find paparazzi awaiting their exit.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview, Ed was asked to pick his tops between “Gossip Girl” characters Blair and Serena, to which he replied: “There’s something about the character of Blair. They’re both a little bit annoying. If I had to pick between Blair and Serena I would go with Blair - I’m partial to a brunette.”

The CW stud, who’s getting ready to film a new movie called “Wuthering Heights” adds, “But they’re both great girls in real life.”

June 7th, 2009

This summertime delight provides more than 50% of the daily requirement for thiamin — an important B vitamin that’s lacking in most of our diets, especially in those with diabetes.  In addition to thiamin’s role of converting carbohydrates to energy, recent research shows that it may also help to guard against diabetic-related kidney damage.¹

Time To Table: 30 minutes
Serves: 4

Excellent Source of: Protein, Selenium, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Thiamin, Riboflavin
Good Source of: Fiber, Potassium, Zinc, Niacin
Preferences: Low Sodium, Gluten Free

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped
1 Tbsp organic raspberry vinegar
1/4 tsp organic cinnamon
4 organic pastured pork chops
1 cup mango, diced
1 cup fresh organic raspberries
2 Tbsp organic spice rub (try Simply Organic Chophouse)

Preparation
First, rub chops with spice rub. Set aside. In a ramekin, mix vinegar and cinnamon. In a medium non-reactive bowl, add mango, raspberries and mint.  Pour vinegar mixture over the fruit and mix well to coat. Set aside. Heat a grill or use your FlavorWave oven. Grill chops 5-7 minutes per side or until desired doneness. Serve fruit mixture over pork.

Nutrition Information
204 calories, 7 g total fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 3 g monounsaturated fats, 1 g polyunsaturated fat, 64 mg cholesterol, 82 mg sodium, 13 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 8 g sugars, 23 g protein

Reference

1. Thornalley PJ, et al. Diabetologia. 2007 Oct;50(10):2164-70. Epub 2007 Aug 4.

[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder of Healing Gourmet – the world's leading website on the power of foods to promote health and protect against disease. Her latest work is a revolutionary health transformation program called, Your Plate, Your Fate. In this 7-part program you'll learn how to protect your health and optimize your weight by maximizing the nutrients in your food. Learn more here.]