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Update 4: Why Google App Engine is broken and what Google must do to fix it by Aral Balkan. We don’t care that it can scale. We care that it does scale. And that it scales when you need it the most. Issues: 1MB limit on data structures; 1MB limit on data structures; the short-term high CPU quota; quotas in general; Admin? What’s that?
Update 3: BigTable Blues. Catherine Devlin couldn’t port an application to GAE because it can’t do basic filtering and can’t search 5,000 records without timing out: “Querying from 5000 records - too much for the mighty BigTable, apparently.” Followup: not the future database. “90% of the work of this project has been trying to figure out workarounds and kludges for its bizzare limitations.”
Update 2: Having doubts about AppEngine. Excellent and surprisingly civil debate on if GAE is a viable delivery platform for real applications. Concerns swirl over poor performance, lack of a roadmap, perpetual beta status, poor support, and a quota system as torture chamber model of scalability. GAE is obviously part of Google’s grand plan (browser, gears, android, etc) to emasculate Microsoft, so the future looks bright, but is GAE a good choice now?
Update: Here are a few experience reports of developers using GAE. Diwaker Gupta likes how easy it is to get started on the good documentation. Doesn’t like all the limits and poor performance. James here and here also likes the ease of use but finds the data model takes some getting used to and is concerned the API limits won’t scale for a real site. He doesn’t like how external connections are handled and wants a database where the schema is easier to manage. These posts mirror some of my own concerns. GAE is scalable for Google, but it may not be scalable for my application.

It’s been a few days now since GAE (Google App Engine) was released and we had our First Look. It’s high time for a retrospective. Too soon? Hey, this is Internet time baby. So how is GAE doing? I did get an invite so hopefully I’ll have a more experience grounded take a little later. I don’t know Python and being the more methodical type it may take me a while. To perform our retrospective we’ll take a look at the three sources of information available to us: actual applications in the AppGallery, blogspew, and developer issues in the forum.

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People have been asking me to comment about Sarah Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account being hacked. I’ve already written about the security problems with “secret questions” back in 2005:

The point of all these questions is the same: a backup password. If you forget your password, the secret question can verify your identity so you can choose another password or have the site e-mail your current password to you. It’s a great idea from a customer service perspective — a user is less likely to forget his first pet’s name than some random password — but terrible for security. The answer to the secret question is much easier to guess than a good password, and the information is much more public. (I’ll bet the name of my family’s first pet is in some database somewhere.) And even worse, everybody seems to use the same series of secret questions.

The result is the normal security protocol (passwords) falls back to a much less secure protocol (secret questions). And the security of the entire system suffers.

After months of private beta, Skyfire, a free mobile browser lauded for offering support for Flash, AJAX, and other goodies generally reserved for PC browsers, has opened its doors to the public. Just in time for the resulting stampede of new users, they

By Bhavin Turakhia CEO, Directi. Covers:
* Why scalability is important. Viral marketing can result in instant success. With RSS/Ajax/SOA number of requests grow exponentially with user base. Goal is to build a web 2.0 app that can server millions of users with zero downtime.
* Introduction to the variables.

There

Apple has had a string of bad luck lately. Today, the company announced that it is recalling the power adapters for all iPhone 3Gs sold in the United States, Canada, Japan, and all Latin American countries that use American style plugs. Apparently, the metal prongs on the adapters can break off and remain stuck in the power outlet, creating a serious risk of electric shock. Users can either exchange their adapters in an Apple store, or order a replacement online.

However, new adapters will only be available starting October 10. Until then, Apple recommends that users only charge their phones by connecting them to their computers.

This is not the first time that Apple had issues with its power adapters. In August, Apple announced that it was investigating issues with its MagSafe power adapters for the MacBook and MacBook Pro line. According to some users, these adapters tend to overheat, short out, and burn.

With millions of iPhone 3G phones sold in the last few months, this is a major undertaking for Apple. The only advantage for Apple is that these power adapters are relatively inexpensive. Currently, replacement adapters retail for $29, though Apple’s actual cost is surely a lot less. Apple will probably take a small financial hit from this, but the real question will be if the image of the iPhone will be tarnished by this recall - especially after so many users have already complained about other problems with the phone.