So, it's too early for me to say much, but I am meeting with a friend today to discuss a possible startup. From what I know, the idea is solid, we just have to execute. What gets really gets me excited is the opportunity to use some new tools that haven't been useful in previous work.

The first thing I'm planning on working with is the Amazon EC2 system. If this project takes off as expected, then we'll need the ability to scale quickly, which the EC2 cloud allows for. As a bonus, the first year is free with a micro-instance. I'm rather interested to see how the system works firsthand. We currently use it at work, but it isn't anything I've been able to work with yet.

Next is a mobile app, specifically for the iPhone. I have done a bit of work with Objective-C and have created a complete app for work. It hasn't been launched yet, because it needs to coincide with a new website. That app failed to push too many boundaries though. It was mostly just text display and a few images. The app for this project should allow me to do more work with images, possibly some video, and several API interactions.

I'm also planning on trying out a few alternatives to Apache as well. Nginx seems to be the most likely candidate, but I'm also planning on dabbling in some Node.js as well. I'm thinking of using Nginx as the primary HTTP server, and then using Node.js to serve out some of the more "live" feeds. I've read and heard good things about how fast Nginx is, and how it can handle much higher load on lower resources. Then with Node.js all of the talk seems to be centered around how it is non-blocking and event oriented. I'm hoping to strike a balance between the two. Nginx would probably suffice on its own, but I feel like the data that will be served out by Node.js should be separated out from the primary site.

The last part that interests me is the opportunity to interact with some new APIs. I don't want to go into specifics, but they are social APIs. Two are obvious, Facebook and Twitter, and I've worked with them before. The others that will be involved are entirely new to me. API interaction in itself isn't interesting, but the architectures chosen by companies are.

Looking forward to getting started in the next few weeks, and I'll try to post progress updates as I can.
Posted
AuthorMichael Cantrell