Google AppEngine is a great tool for building simple web applications which are automatically scalable. All of the basic building blocks are readily available and accessible from both python and java. This includes a database, a caching layer, and support for background tasks.
What about the big data analytics and informatics that made Google famous? Does AppEngine help us there as well? The answer is yes; although with some serious limitations.
After a year and half of big data research for the government and quite a bit of fun with Hadoop, I’ve decided to join some good friends at an early-stage startup called Alphonso Labs.
Pulse is currently the #1 news reader on the iPad, iPhone, Andriod app stores. I’ll be leading the development of our backend data platform and working with a great team.
As we start to build out Pulse’s backend, I’ll be continuing to experiment with Google App engine. Stay tuned for more posts in that regard.
There has been a lot of coverage in the news lately about payday loans and check cashing services. They routinely take advantage of people in hard financial times, charging them interest and fees up to 300% per year. Because of the predatory nature of these services, there has been a strong push for legal oversite.
But these types of predatory practices are much more widespread than one might think. Consider credit cards. The way a credit card company makes a lot of money is when someone can not afford to pay off what they charge and must maintain a balance for an extended period.
Large car manufacturers are also in the game. Continue Reading »
Question / Pain #1: Why must bills come in the mail and be paid by snail-mail check (or sometimes over the phone during business hours)?
Question / Pain #2: Why must the bill payment workflow be manual, resulting in waisted time and forgotten bills?
Answer: Legacy systems & dinosaur companies
Use Case: Bill from medical lab arrives via snail-mail 6 weeks after appointment. No further reminders. Did the customer get/pay the bill?
Solution Idea: Continue Reading »
A few thoughts from my first test of Google App Engine.
My goal was to put up a prototype java web app for pushing email alerts based on RSS content (more to come on the full idea). Unfortunately, it took much longer than I expected to get things going (longer than my web app protoype took to write) – leaving me feeling a bit disappointed. On the up side, the app has been running quite well for about a week now.
With the introduction of the new iAd platform, will undoubtedly come new opportunities. Lets take a quick look at who might benefit:
Why should you have to log in to facebook to see photos intended to be shared with the world? Do we want Facebook/Google/etc to dictate what users can to with their content? I decided to borrowed some photos from my facebook account (those from my mobile uploads album) and make them available here via the Facebook API.
Check out my Facebook photo experiment. (2010-present)