A new project using Google Earth, etc.

I told myself that I would just write about what I'm doing in order to keep notes. So, this is basically just to keep track and for later to look back.

I'm working on a particular mashup for Google Earth. I actually had a version on a computer at work in December, but it was generated using a PHP program with a MySQL program. Besides having something that worked, my objective was also to make something that worked _efficiently_. Therefore, I've been trying to learn about new tools to do it more efficiently.

I first looked into web servers. Apache's HTTP Server is the default server everyone uses (if not IIS, guh). However, already with my last project, I had been experimenting with Lighttpd, one of those next-gen super-light web servers. nginx is the other that people use and is gaining ground as the fourth most popular web server according to Netcraft this month. Since I started with lighttpd, I decided to keep using it.

Then, I tried looking for a new language to use besides PHP, just because. I don't know if it's being tired of the same language one uses all the time or perhaps the reputation that other languages have. So this language would be Python, one language which I worked with in university during the course of one semester but didn't touch since then. The more you program, the easier you find picking up a new language is.

Then, I was looking for a Web framework, which greatly helps when developing web-based apps, which is what I want my application to be. So, I went for Django, which is today one of the leading Web frameworks for Python out there. Because geographical information is such an important component of today's world of mobile phones equipped with GPSes, then naturally there are geographical extensions written for Django which are part of GeoDJango.

From there, it's pretty exciting. I still need to see how I can store my geographically mashed data and how I can make retrieval efficient in Google Earth or any other platform supported by GeoDjango.

Everything is run from my laptop computer, because it's the best machine around over which I have entire control. Now, I should learn tricks about "getting work done" since that is definitely the most important hurdle right now...