RoR has all the buzz these days in web development land, and for good reason – it’s a fantastic system for building database backed web-apps. Proponents of other languages have been bringing out a variety of similar MVC-based webstacks in response (or at least, lots of them are getting discussed now that RoR has all the buzz – all ships rise on a rising tide and all that). They vary widely in quality, quantity of documentation and ‘readiness to deploy on,’ and I definitely haven’t had the time to dig into all the ones that have been coming out, but I’ll mention one in particular that looks promising, especially if you see learning Ruby as a barrier to entry for Ruby on Rails. Django is a Python-based web framework that emerged out of work the developers did for a variety of consulting projects. It distinguishes itself from a lot of the other emerging frameworks in that (like RoR) it’s been in production for a couple of years. There are also a few decent tutorials out for it. I ran across a pretty insightful comment about RoR as compared to Django, which described Django as a CMS toolkit as compared to RoR’s as a webapp toolkit.

There’s one significant barrier to entry with Django – they’re building off of mod_python and Apache 2.x – if like me you’re still working off of Apache 1.x this can be a deal killer. Still, this is worth monkeying around with, especially if (again like me) you find Python world’s easier to read and write than Ruby.

Chronicle.com (The chronicle of higher education, a trade publication that covers the higher ed ‘industry’) covered my favorite project last week, the Romantic Audiences Project. Unfortunately the site is paid registration only, so while I can link to the article you won’t be able to read it unless you have an account. I’m sorely tempted to simply snarf their text and reprint it here, consequences be what they may, but since they don’t refer to me by name (I’m named as the Bowdoin web developer a couple of times), I guess it’s not really worth risking the ire of the chronicle’s copyright cops, assuming they have any. It’s cool to see something I had a role in developing get some positive national press even if they fail to mention me.

Check out GreatNews if you’re on windows and can’t or won’t pay for the superb FeedDemon. It’s not quite as featureful as the benchmark standard but it’s super speedy, integrates nicely with bloglines, and you can’t beat the price.

Subject line pretty much says it all – two more web design/css link collections, one of which Danny was kind of enough to send me an email about. First – the css focused CSS Directory and then the almost too comprehensive for comprehension Web Developer’s Handbook. Both are excellent resources if you’re a web developer looking to keep your skill sharp or needing to research an issue.

So you read Snow Crash (and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for, it is along with Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy responsible for popularizing a whole genre of science fiction and a ripping good tale to boot) and you thought ‘how cool was that!’ My guess is so have the folks at Second Life, but instead of just thinking about it, they proceeded to try and build it, and they’ve come the closest so far to realizing Stephenson’s vision of an immersive virtual world. Normally it costs a one-time fee of $9.95, but to celebrate their anniversary they’re giving away free registrations. You’re a download away from checking out one of the coolest community built online worlds that exists, go check it out quick.

Check out SmoothTeddy if you’re on windows and are interested in a really easy to use 3d modeling and painting application. I’ve never seen one as easy to use as this. Of course in part this is because it’s so feature-limited, but that’s really the point here – quick, easy to understand, fun to tinker with.

OS X comes with it built in, and if you’ve added a third party ssh client it is probably the wonderful iterm and on Windows I’ve been recommending putty, but today I noticed a credible cross platform alternative, the java-based MindTerm. It’s worth a look if you’re on a pc – while you pay a slight performance penalty due to MindTerm being based on Java, you get some handy tools like integrated ssh file transfer in return. On the mac side you’re probably better off with iterm, though again the integrated tools may make you consider switching. If you’re managing a campus lab environment this could be a great choice as it will simplify your support and documentation issues by standardizing on one ssh client.

My love of outliners used to know no bounds but I have to admit my ardor has cooled somewhat as wikis have taken over the role outliners used to play in my software toolkit. Still, I can’t resist tinkering with ones new to me as I discover them. Today I found keynote, an outliner/notebook type app which is most easily compared to products like Circus Ponies’ notebook and aquaminds notetaker. Keynote is for windows only and is pretty featureful – a tabbed interface, the ability to nest notes inside each other, encryption, an API to build extensions and a developer community supporting their creation, drag and drop support, plus a ton more. I think it’s fair to say it doesn’t really come close to notetaker or notebook on a feature basis despite all the aforementioned, but free is free and plus it runs on windows. If you haven’t taken to wikis as a model for your personal data storage needs, or if you’re a fan of outliners, check out keynote.

I’ve said it before here, I’ll say it again – if you have a Mac, go get quicksilver. No mac, anywhere, should be without this utility. I’m bringing it up again today because I happened across a great weblog post that gives a series of examples of how you can use quicksilver. It takes a little while to wrap your head around how to use quicksilver but man, once you get it and you sit in front of a mac that doesn’t have it, you’ll be frustrated. To review, it’s a file launcher plus a whole lot more. Every time you have to take your hands off your keyboard, you slow yourself down, and quicksilver provides a variety of tools to help you keep those hands on the keyboard and off of your mouse. Once again I encourage you – go check it out. Anyone want to lay odds on how long it takes Apple to bake it into the OS?

So I’ve sat upon the infamous dot-com fave, the Herman Miller Aeron chair. They’re definitely comfortable, but I missed out on the selloff that happened during the first dot.com collapse and I can’t justify dropping $600 or so on a computer chair. I don’t even own a couch! Still, I spend more time in front of the computer than anywhere else so some investment in my chair would make sense. I ran across a forum thread praising the Russell Executive Mesh Chair as a more than adequate Aeron knock-off. I’m sufficiently convinced to add it to my personal fetish list. Relatives take note – this is a great gift for me, and a relative bargain at around $230.