Ryan Twomey
Web developer and entrepreneur in Woburn, MA.
More Amazon S3 Downtime: How Much is Too Much?
Today’s big news is that Amazon’s S3 online storage service has experienced significant downtime. Allen Stern, who hosts his blog’s images on S3, reported that the downtime lasted iPhone Platform: What We Can Learn From Tap Tap Revenge

If you have an iPhone and have downloaded apps and games to it, there’s a good chance you’ve got Tap Tap Revenge on your phone because its the most popular app right now, free or paid….
It's nice to feel appreciated...
One of the most important parts of starting a company, running a website, or pretty much doing anything in life is to get feedback: both positive and negative. The negative helps you improve, and the positive makes you feel good.
I’m feeling pretty good at the moment: the recent changes we’ve made to invotrak - a site my company has developed for small businesses to track their invoices - seem to be well received by users. Although we still have some more work to do, people seem to be very happy with the updates and have promised to recommend it. That sure feels good.
Is Google's Android Coming Apart At The Seams?
We can’t help but wonder if everything is okay in Mountain View, where Google (GOOG) is furiously trying to get its Android mobile operating system ready for a Q4 launch.
Apple (AAPL), one…
Will Mainstream Users Ever Learn About The Browser's Address Bar?
Traffic analytics company Hitwise released search market share numbers for dating websites in June today and two things were striking about the data.
Ad supported free site PlentyOfFish is…
The Story of the Fail Whale
How An Unknown Artist’s Work Became a Social Media Brand Thanks To the Power of Community
Twitter users are very familiar with the iconic image of the Fail Whale. This social object has been…
For the past few weeks I’ve been working with a fellow developer on a project that required an all-out programming effort. It’s done now, so we’re back to a regular schedule, but when people hear about the crazy hours they often say they’re sorry. They really shouldn’t be. I would never do this often, or for long periods, or without proper compensation if done for an employer, but the truth is that these programming blitzkriegs are some of my favorite periods in life. Under the right conditions, writing software is so intensely pleasurable it should be illegal.
Many programmers relate to this, but others are taken aback when they hear it. I think it’s because institutions are so good at squeezing the fun out of everything. It’s appalling for example how schools can take the most vibrant topics and mangle them into formulaic, mediocre slog. And so it is for programming. Many corporations turn an inherently rewarding experience into something people just barely stomach in exchange for a paycheck.
- Lucky to be a ProgrammergPhone?Just a Rumor - The Real Story Is The Android Developer Revolt
Of course, we all know that the event of the past week (or perhaps we should say the event of the year, given the news coverage), has been the launch of the iPhone 2.0. Yet even amidst the iPhone…





