TechKnow Beta launched

Check out the new IT club starting up at a university campus near you, TechKnow.

I have a short blog post on there about Processing, a cool image and animation programming language I recently was introduced to.

Google’s web unification

Google’s App Engine is an exciting development in the unification of the internet. This platform allows application developers to build a site, and host it “in the cloud.” It’s instantly scalable and initially free. Currently only one language, Python, is accepted, but Google hope to support more.

There are a few main reasons I see this is unifying the internet:

• Integration of Google IDs means users of your web app do not necessarily need to sign up, making it that much easier for users to trial a new web app. You carry your online identity with you from site to site.
• The entry-level free account means a nill-cost entry to market for application developers. This encourages usage of the platform – and the more sites that are affiliated with Google, the better that is for Google.

I wonder if some of the other big players are working on similar platforms?