Technology FAQ
Q. What's your favorite Platform?
A. Depends. We tend towards Unix for large-scale and highly dynamic applications, but often use Windows as well. What are your requirements?
Q. What's your favorite Database?
A. Depends. For really big stuff, we use Oracle. For less intensive applications, we use SQL Server, Postgres, or MySQL. Let us know the demands on your database, and we'll give you a more definite answer.
Q. What's your favorite Programming Language?
A. Depends. These days, we've been finding that PHP and Ruby on Rails get the job done. We've also done a fair amount of server-side Java. And we've been known to build stuff in C, Perl, and Python. We've even got a Top Secret in-house project to create an application server in OCAML.
Q. Monolithic or micro-kernel?
A. Depends. If you're looking to emulate a variety of operating systems on a single machine, or allow user-space processes to handle I/O and device drivers that can't affect the entire system if they fail, then micro-kernel's the way to go. But if you're looking for raw performance, aren't too worried about portability, and have the memory to spare, we'd recommend monolithic. Actually, we'd be happy to discuss modular monolithic approaches.
Q. Do you ever answer a question directly, without resorting to "Depends?"
A. Nope. In Engineering classes during Grad School, we learned to answer questions along the lines of "absolutely not" and "impossible!" We look upon this as progress.
Q. OK. Seriously, though. Emacs or vi?
A. No comment.