Stashboard is an ope
n source status page developed by Twilio and graciously released to the general public. It allows you to give your users an information resource when a server or service goes down. (See: Comcast Network Health, OpenDNS System Monitor, Urban Airship Status, Rackspace System Status)
One of the main benefits that Stashboard provides is that it can be deployed on Google App Engine — for free. This means it will not be directly tied to your infrastructure; which means if your entire system goes down, your users can remain joyfully informed.
Our only gripe with Stashboard is that it’s designed to be updated manually. We wanted to use it internally so we could quickly check on the servers powering Tulip or delivering content to Suite Tips or iYummi. Fortunately, it only takes minor amounts of hacking around in Python to make this possible. We present to you: hacks.
First, we have the workhorse of this particular hack. This is the script that will query our servers. You will need to modify the ‘servers’ array starting on line 14; just add your servers URL and service name (this is the ID you give to your server when you create it in the Stashboard admin.) Place this file in the project’s root directory.
After that, you just need to create a file called cron.yaml and put it in the project’s root directory as well.
And copy/paste the following code into your app.yaml file to create a pointer to ‘/check’.
Now you should have a functioning server monitor running on Google’s servers that will check your server statuses periodically. In the next episode, we’ll show you how to add notifications. Stay tuned.
CEO and Co-founder of Shockoe.com, LLC
Entrepreneur and experienced software engineer, interested in everything that involves mobile technology.
Apps aren’t just for teens and commuters, anymore. Parents interested in raising bilingual children will be interested in a wide variety of applications designed to familiarize infants and children with phonyms and word association crucial to developing multi-linguistic aptitude. We’ve found a few that are sure to be entertaining for the young and, shall we say, more experienced users.
Tap the Bunny 
Traditional storytelling just became more interactive. Night and Day Studios’ Peekabo Barn allows touch phone users to tap on barn doors to hear animals in English and Spanish. Suitable for preeschool aged children and up. $1.99
Chinese Chicken
Ana Lomba, a multicultural education advocate, chooses storytelling as a vehicle to help kids pick up language. Her free ipad app, a Chinese/English version of The Little Red Hen, is beloved of children and adults. free
Shake It Up, Baby
Shake The Animals is an immersive iPhone app is sold by Rosa Barranco de Helfrich. It pairs sweet vector graphics with the appropriate name for a given animal. An audio playback accompanies text so kids can work on making the abstract connection between sound and print. Choose from English, Spanish and German. $.99
Apps aren’t just for teens and commuters, anymore. Parents interested in raising bilingual children will be interested in a wide variety of applications designed to familiarize infants and children with phonyms and word association crucial to developing multi-linguistic aptitude. We’ve found a few that are sure to be entertaining for the young and, shall we say, more experienced users.
Tap the Bunny
Traditional storytelling just became more interactive. Night and Day Studios’ Peekabo Barn allows touch phone users to tap on barn doors to hear animals in English and Spanish. Suitable for preeschool aged children and up. $1.99
Chinese Chicken
Ana Lomba, a multicultural education advocate, chooses storytelling as a vehicle to help kids pick up language. Her free ipad app, a Chinese/English version of The Little Red Hen, is beloved of children and adults. free
Shake It Up, Baby
Shake The Animals is an immersive iPhone app is sold by Rosa Barranco de Helfrich. It pairs sweet vector graphics with the appropriate name for a given animal. An audio playback accompanies text so kids can work on making the abstract connection between sound and print. Choose from English, Spanish and German. $.99
CEO and Co-founder of Shockoe.com, LLC
Entrepreneur and experienced software engineer, interested in everything that involves mobile technology.
