Posts Tagged Environments

Engine Yard plugs Node.js into its cloud

Posted by on Friday, 18 November, 2011

Engine Yard’s Platform-as-a-Service offering is adding support for Node.js applications.

This is just the latest indication that Node.js, a server-based and event-driven JavaScript framework, is becoming table stakes in cloud development and deployment environments. Engine Yard competitors like AppFog and Heroku, now part of Salesforce.com, already support the framework.

Developers like using Node.js because it supports JavaScript — a very popular language for client-side development — and because it is fast and scalable.

Specifically, Engine Yard said that the first release of Engine Yard Labs — a program to give developers early access to new features — will  include support for Node.js. That access will be enabled on Friday, the company said.

There is a caveat however. According to a blog post announcing the news:

Features released through Engine Yard Labs are not officially supported and may or may not become supported as part of Engine Yard products in the future.

San Francisco-based Engine Yard started out focused on Ruby on Rails but added PHP support through its acquisition of Orchestra in August. Virtually every PaaS player from AppFog to Microsoft Azure   is in an arms race to support as many languages as possible.

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Hands-On: Torchlight II Fires Up Addictive Multiplayer Dungeon Crawling

Posted by on Monday, 13 June, 2011

Blending the gorgeous isometric art direction and click-click-click, hack-and-slash combat of the first game with an array of new environments and features, Torchlight II could possess that same “oops, I stayed up all night playing” quality that entranced players back in 2009.



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When to Hire a Cherry Picker or a Scissor Lift

Posted by on Thursday, 14 October, 2010

When you’re working at heights it’s important that you have the right equipment for the job. Ladders are often a fairly standard piece of equipment for anybody looking to work at height, however they aren’t suitable for all environments or indeed all tasks. This is why you might consider scissor lift or cherry picker hire. Cherry pickers of course are a popular machine used by workers and industries throughout the world. Without oversimplifying, it is basically a a hydraulic arm (capable of vertical and horizontal movement) with a platform that controls movement. Due to the flexibility and reach of the cherry picker they offer access to areas that would otherwise remain unreachable to workers.

It is this added accessibility that has made them so popular for a variety of tasks. Often a cherry picker will either be attached to a truck, have its own motorised base or be on a trailer to allow it to be positioned in the best possible place to perform all necessary work. This manoeuvrability is equally vital as it means you can gain access to almost any location, no matter what the terrain or environmental challenges.

As a result of all these factors, cherry pickers are widely used in situations such as overhead wire maintenance, window cleaning and even by tree surgeons accessing difficult to reach branches. The cherry picker itself is often a very expensive piece of equipment and therefore it is outside the budgetary constraints of many businesses – particularly those who require the equipment infrequently, or even just as a one-off. This is why hiring is a great option. By choosing to go through a plant hire firm, initial outlay for equipment will reduce significantly. Avoid all those upfront fees for buying the equipment outright and then continuing to service it throughout its lifetime simply by hiring as and when required. All work and usage will be covered by the hiring company’s insurance, therefore you won’t have to worry about anything apart from avoidable damage. . Any mechanical failings will often be resolved by the plant hire company and a replacement provided.

Another option when it comes to powered access hire is the scissor lift. Similar in principle to the cherry picker, a scissor lift is designed simply to raise vertically. The platform is also often significantly larger than that of a conventional cherry picker. With added space comes the opportunity to have more workers, tools and materials transported at any one time.

For this reason scissor lifts are often found in large depots or warehouses. They might be used to carry out regular maintenance on high level electronics or indeed to manage stock control. They can also be used on the exterior of buildings, again this might be for maintenance, although of course it will need to be reasonably flush with the building as there is no capability for horizontal movement on the platform. If your equipment has developed a fault or you simply need to do some work at height for a specific period of tme, scissor lift hire may provide the perfect solution. Again, this is certainly the cheaper option for most as all costs are encompassed within the quoted hire price. As a more specialist piece of heavy machinery, it isn’t going to be available from every plant hire firm. Equally, there are numerous sizes and variations available of the same fundemental design, and so finding the one that matches your requirements can also be a challenge. However , if you go online and have a search for local operators you should be able to find something to suit.


Enter Into The Fascinating World Of On line Gambling and Have Fun

Posted by on Wednesday, 22 September, 2010

On the Web you can discover numerous websites which are giving you the chance to play free casino games. The great thing is you do not have to be concerned when you play them that you will loose important amounts of money. But there are persons who do not enjoy to gamble in that way. They are only entering online casino web-sites where the games are played for real money. Many are enjoying to play casino games with small amounts of money.

What is great about this is in case that you loose you have only dropped a small amount of cash. Usually such players are not taking the game really seriously. They play just because they enjoy the thrill that gambling creates. But there are players who are investing literally fortunes into the casino games and they do not enjoy the concept of a free casino. Some of them are lucky and are winning big money and others unfortunately for them are losing big bucks.

Finding an online casino web site clearly is not very hard as there are several from which you can choose. Before choosing an online casino is important first to do some research and find out which web sites are the most popular. Now that you have chosen you favorite online casino all that is left to do is to download the software and then navigate to the registration page and register. After you have completed this steps you are ready to enter into the world of online casino gambling.

An online casino is the online version of the traditional casino. Such type of environments allow gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Web. The great advantage that the online casino has over the traditional casino is that it delivers a large variety of games. Based on their interface there are web-based and download only casinos. The online casinos usually offers payback percentages and odds which can be compared to those that are offered at the land based casinos.

You have a large number of free casino games from which you can choose such as slot machines, craps, roulette, baccarat and blackjack. These are some of the most popular casino games. Although the online casino is a great entertainment tool there are people which enjoy to gamble in traditional casinos or land based casinos. But the main problem with such venues is that they are not accessible to everyone. Weather you like playing at a real gambling establishment or at an online one the most important thing is to have fun.


Tutorial To Wiper Engineering And Generation.

Posted by on Monday, 2 August, 2010

The evolution of the wiper blades evolved in tandem with the engineering of the automobile. Back in the day most vehicles on the road had no need for wiper blades, vehicles like horse drawn carriages and trucks moved very slowly and had no need for wiper blades when it spitted as glass was not utilised to protect the driver and act as a wind break apparatus. These days you will see wiper blades on all sorts from trucks to cars all the way to helicopters and speed boats. Most wiper blades abide a similar design blue print, the maker purchases all the parts required from businesses that allow in making parts from steel, aluminium, rubber and plastic, and even the motors themselves. Some companies only produce the wiper blades slip others produce the entire apparatus the sweeping arm and the electric motor.

Galvanised steel is used in numerous parts of the wipers construction algorithm, it is utilised in the drive belt and the pivots and is essentially normal steel which has had a coating of zinc applied to its surface. This coating has a special property, the zinc is more excitable than the steel so the zinc will sacrifice itself and decompose leaving the steel entirely untouched. In maritime environments the parts for wipers are usually made from complete stainless steel as the salt present in the water will quickly attack any metal exposed and it therefore requires the maximum level of protection. Another bonus of using galvanised steel to build the wipers sweeping arm machine is that galvanised steel is much quicker and easier to paint than traditional steel. The suspension beneath the wipers arm is also produced from galvanised steel and in all the little parts the nuts, bolts, screws etc than are essential for holding the whole machine together.

The part of the machine which holds the wiper blade in place is called the frame and is nearly always made from aluminium. The wiper blade themselves are made most frequently from a rubber derivative or some other synthetic compound with the same attributes as rubber. Some wiper blade can even be a combination of two rubbers, one soft on the leading edge and one hard on the other side to strenghten the integrity of the wiper blade. The small parts such as washers in the pivots and plastic bushings can also be manufactured or rubber or plastic. The wiper blade motors are often bought from specialist sub contractors and assembled on site into the final product. Electric motors are placed in steel boxes for their protection and comprise of permanent magnetic motors which are wound with copper to make a magnetic field. The design of most wiper blade follows from a simple premise and that is to remove water from the wind screen of the car so the driver can see. Many carriages have wiper blade on the front of the wind screen and some have them situated on the head lights too. The bigger vehicles often have them attached to the rear wind screen as well. The standard wiper blade configuration is usually one on each side of the front wind screen, sometimes the drivers is brawnier than the passengers in this case.


Arduino Microcontroller Feature & Size Comparison by RobotShop.com

Posted by on Tuesday, 27 July, 2010

www.robotshop.com Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (eg Flash, Processing, MaxMSP). For more information, visit www.robotshop.com