I recently had a need to set a maintenance page with Nginx. The process was simple to redirect everything and return a 503 (Service Unavailable), but a problem developed when the maintenance page needed access to the stylesheets and images of the main site. So we could no longer use a simple ‘redirect everything’ rule. I searched for an answer and couldn’t find anything that seemed right. Most of the answers were everything from ‘use inline stylesheets’ to ‘serve the images and css from another server.’ After a bit of tinkering, I came up with a very simple solution.

Read more… Setting a maintenance page with Nginx

Where we stand

In the first part of this post, I discussed some of the issues web-oriented companies face when they decide to upgrade the software technologies they rely on, taking the example of updating our development framework from Ruby on Rails version 2.x to version 3. I highlighted issues linked to code deprecation, time consumption, evolution of programming practices (greater emphasis on JavaScript programming for example) or compatibility between old and new libraries. However, keeping up with technology is essential to improve the quality of products and services you deliver to your customers, and to make your life easier in the process. Read more… Can living on the edge throw you over the edge? Part 2: Coming of Edge

Walking the edge

Rails 3.0, HTML5, Unobtrusive JavaScript, Grails, No-SQL databases…These are some of the web technologies that have exploded recently, and with them the promises for better, stronger, faster tools that will improve the end user experience. However, from the programmer’s perspective, transitioning to these new technologies, which usually happens shortly after you start telling yourself “I think I finally got a hold of this previous release”, can be time-consuming and may, at times, drive you to reconsider career choices. Read more… Can living on the edge throw you over the edge? Part 1: Looking down

The tech world ceases to exist without innovation.  The rate at which technologies evolve and eventually become obsolete will sink your tech-reliant business if you’re not constantly reevaluating and retooling. To keep up, unless you are satisfied with lagging mediocrity, you have to create an environment that is conducive to innovation.

Read more… The Relationship Between Trust and Innovation

I am frequently amazed at the low priority that some businesses and IT teams seem to place on defining and managing enterprise-wide architectural and configuration standards. It seems to be common sense, but it is not uncommon for me to come across a cluster of application or web servers that are serving the same code, but are using different directory paths, naming conventions, environment variables, etc. and I’ve even found a few that are running different versions of the same software on different servers within the same cluster.

Read more… The Importance of Defining and Implementing Enterprise Standards