I hate when a blog turns into a link blog (but I like dedicated link blogs, usually), but I came across a few interesting items that I thought were worth a comment or two.

• Google web hosting - Is there really any reason for .Mac anymore? Is the syncing really that good? Google has upped the ante on everything .Mac offers from email to, now, web hosting. Sure, you can futz around and add a bit more to your web space on .Mac (at the expense of email space) and there’s iWeb, but is that enough for .Mac anymore? I still feel that .Mac was a rare complete miss for Apple. iTools was good while it lasted but web services leaped past that mediocre upgrades Apple has tacked on.

• Distributed computing good for something - Distributed computing power has cracked one of the three uncracked Enigma messages. w00t! It’s just a bit of a shame that the message was kinda lame. I mean, don’t we all really want to read a message that says Hitler wore women’s underwear? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the SETI@home project but it hasn’t produced any results like this that I’m aware of. Results are a good thing for projects like this.

• Apple likes Ruby on Rails - Apple has released a (relatively) short and yet comprehensive-ish tutorial on using Ruby on Rails. I don’t like RoR but this is the first tutorial I’ve seen that actually goes the distance. Most stop just far enough to get you into a lot of trouble. This tutorial goes a long way to explaining what needs to be explained. Other point of interest: Apple uses TextMate for RoR development (note figure 1). Big props to Macromates for making what is the de facto standard for RoR work. I also hear it’s great for all manner of programming but I don’t do RoR and my trial ran out back when it didn’t meet my needs. I’m interested in trying it again but I need another test run before I commit. Xcode is just good enough for programming and TextWrangler is just good enough for other plain text work. My other concern: How applescriptable is TextMate?