ServiceStack Self Hosting

While there is a HTTPListener  available in .NET,
making it a full web server is not quick without tools...

Self hosting · ServiceStack/ServiceStack Wiki · GitHub:
"It's very easy to host ServiceStack in a console app or in a windows service. "

var listeningOn = args.Length == 0 ? "http://*:1337/" : args[0];
        var appHost = new AppHost();
        appHost.Init();
        appHost.Start(listeningOn);

online demo: All Rockstars

Statue of Responsibility

Statue of Responsibility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Statue of Responsibility is a proposed national monument structure to be built on the West Coast of the United States. The prototype, sculpted by project artist Gary Lee Price, consists of a pair of clasped hands oriented vertically, symbolizing many things but primarily the responsibility that comes with liberty.

The Statue of Responsibility was suggested first by scholar Viktor Frankl in his book Man's Search for Meaning. He recommended "that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast should be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast." He wrote: "Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness."

Erich Gamma: Visual Studio Online

Yes, same person from GoF Design Patterns fame, now working in Microsoft to make Online Visual Studio editor + Azure integration....

Erich Gamma introduces us to Visual Studio Online integrated with the Windows Azure Portal - Part 1 | Windows Azure Friday | Channel 9: (Scott Hanselman)

NoSQL In Travel Big Data

NoSQL Stars In Travel Giant's Platform Upgrade - InformationWeek:

Couchbase NoSQL database will be the cornerstone of new real-time inventory management platform for Amadeus
...the European-based competitor to the US-based Sabre system, but it does business all over the globe, working with more than 700 airlines, 95 railways, 30 car rental companies, 50 cruise lines, and 100,000 hotel properties

...with peak loads of more than 2 million requests per second

...replacing Memcached distributed memory caching system backed up by MySQL databases running on fast Fusion-io solid-state disk storage.

OpenCourseWare Consortium

A non-commercial alternative to MOOCs:

Courses | OpenCourseWare Consortium:
"An OpenCourseWare(OCW) is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials for colleges and universities. "

OpenCourseWare is the name given to open educational resources that are presented in course format, often including course planning materials, such as syllabi and course calendars, along with thematic content, such as textbooks, lectures, presentations, notes and simulations. Open Educational Resources are materials developed by experienced educators that are available for use, repurposing, and modification (including translation), in whole or in part, by everyone, everywhere in the world.

All content on ocwconsortium.org is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Coursera $20 million in new funding

Coursera lands $20 million in new funding, despite online education and MOOC business stumbles - Silicon Valley Business Journal:
"Coursera...has raised $85 million since April 2012 — far outpacing competitors in the MOOC field like Udacity and Udemy, which have raised $20 million and $16 million in venture capital, respectively. Also in the MOOC mix is Harvard and MIT-backed nonprofit course provider edX."

Coursera has positioned itself as a technology provider, publishing classes by well known teachers from well known universities, and  getting support from those universities...