Chapter 25. High Availability, Load Balancing, and Replication

Database servers can work together to allow a second server to take over quickly if the primary server fails (high availability), or to allow several computers to serve the same data (load balancing). Ideally, database servers could work together seamlessly. Web servers serving static web pages can be combined quite easily by merely load-balancing web requests to multiple machines. In fact, read-only database servers can be combined relatively easily too. Unfortunately, most database servers have a read/write mix of requests, and read/write servers are much harder to combine. This is because though read-only data needs to be placed on each server only once, a write to any server has to be propagated to all servers so that future read requests to those servers return consistent results.

PostgreSQL: Documentation: Manuals: PostgreSQL 8.3: High Availability, Load Balancing, and Replication

SimpleDB/dev provides a local SimpleDB server, so you can develop offline, without even currently having a SimpleDB account.

Now supports Linux, OS X and Windows >=XP.

simpledb-dev - Google Code

Using SimpleDB Management Tools, you can create and delete domains, view the contents of your domains, run queries and edit and save data, using the kind of visual interface familiar from traditional databases such as SQL Server or MySQL. SimpleDB Management Tools installs itself as a data provider in Server Explorer, from where you can navigate your domains and launch query windows. Click here to find out more.

Too bad its behind the MS iron curtain.

Mindscape Blog » Blog Archive » SimpleDB Management Tools Released

Because their API is simple, this WSDL is actually good documentation. I've never seen that happen before... always had WSDL be a Visual Studio generated total nightmare.

Amazon SImpleDB WSDL

Dr. Gupta, who performs double duty as a medical correspondent for CNN and a neurosurgeon, is a leading contender to fill the high-profile position in the Obama administration. The job could be accepted in the coming days, according to people familiar with the situation at the television network and in the Obama transition.

CNN Medical Correspondent as Surgeon General? - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Eli Lilly is using on-demand servers and storage from Amazon to support its pharmaceuticals research. Dave Powers, an IT pro with Eli Lilly who is helping to spearhead that effort, says the speed of implementation, flexibility, and collaborative capabilities of cloud services are "absolutely disruptive" in how the company thinks about and deploys IT resources.

How Eli Lilly Taps Into The Cloud - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek

Wow, about time.

Something new from Google!

Picasa for Mac: Free download from Google

They’re going down. Now, that’s not to say they’ll be wiped out, exterminated, whatever. That doesn’t happen any more, for reasons I’ll discuss in my next column. What we’re talking about here, what the IDF has in mind, is more what the Romans called “decimation”: killing enough of the right people to make Hamas weak for five or ten years, which may, just may, be long enough to give Israel’s allies the PLO/Fatah the edge in the Palestinian Civil War. That’s what this is about, getting your guys to win that war.

The War Nerd: Hamas Ain’t No Hezbollah - By Gary Brecher

George Tice on Toulouse.

YouTube - Interview with George Tice of Toulouse

Toulouse is a casual bistro serving American cuisine with a French influence. The restaurant is located at 2293 Peachtree Road, a few miles south of Buckhead, overlooking Peachtree Creek. Toulouse serves dinner beginning at 5:30, seven nights a week. We are happy to accept reservations. The price range of our entrees is primarily $15.00 - $20.00.

The restaurant itself is a cozy, open loft with hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and exposed brick walls. Our open kitchen allows the aromas of our wood burning grill and brick oven to infuse with the dining room and lends a welcoming warmth to the room. Everything we serve from our kitchen is homemade, including our pastries and our bread, which we are consistently told is the best in town.

Wine is an important feature at Toulouse, and we offer most of our wines by the glass. Three times a month, we host wine tastings that are a great deal of fun as well as informative. Our menu is designed with wine in mind and offers wine suggestions to go with each of our entrees. Toulouse is a wonderful relaxed environment to enjoy, learn about and try new wines.

I just got a voicemail from the Chef at Toulouse, telling us that they would be happy to make the AMAZING Tomato Basil soup for us on our one year wedding anniversary that we had there almost two years ago that is no longer on the menu. The owner, George Tice has class.

This has been my favorite restaurant in Atlanta for several years. Very cozy environment, nice but not "too nice", casual elegance fits the ambiance and the food. Try the pork chops.

Toulouse - An American Bistro