mission: create a representative company website

customer: adyton sales gmbh

tech: wordpress based custom development

notes: photography realized by feine bande. multi-language wordpress base.

mission: create a sportive registered society website

customer: seascape 18 klassenvereinigung e.v.

tech: wordpress based custom development

notes: responsive, magazine-style design

mission: develop an event booking portal

partner: feine bande gmbh

tech: full stack payment integration, accounting and transaction engine

notes: realized with feine bande wannado frontend/backend performance engine

mission: create a german web search engine

customer: freenet ag

tech: c++ based crawler, indexer and distributed search engine. 32-node 64-cpu cluster operation

notes: the speedfind.de search engine cluster was in operation from 1999 to 2003. it had a daily document update rate of about 1 million documents per day and served up to 250.000 search requests per day.

mission: create a web ad server

customer: seekport ag

tech: c++ adserver, cakephp based frontend

notes: initially crafted to serve ads for the seekport.de search engine, the adspread adserver had first public exposure on the munich based demo 2007 exhibition and start-up tech conference.

mission: create a high-performance web crawler (2004-2008)

customer: seekport ag

tech: c++ based modular webcrawler

notes: working with a team of developers to create a new search engine for germany and europe. the crawler was able to saturate a 100mbit/s net connection with text-only page transfer (about 200 pages/second) using a single low-spec server.

mission: create a german web search engine

customer: oberland.net bauer gmbh

tech: c based crawler, indexer and search engine. dual core sgi origin based search engine operation

notes: the intersearch.de search engine was programmed after finishing high school and getting into the internet providing business (1996). it already supported "phrase search" technology and had an index of about 1 million documents.

mission: create a virtual whiteboard collaboration engine

customer: frag-mal-anna.de

tech: php based frontend, node.js server, javascript based virtual whiteboard drawing engine

notes: frag-mal-anna.de simplifies discussing uploaded graphical plans/blueprints between architect and craftsman.

mission: create a persistent multiplayer strategy browser game

customer: knoblach technologies gmbh

tech: php based frontend, c++ game processor, websocket communications, js/css3/html5

notes: kosmor.de was launched as a massive multiplayer browser game in 2003 and is in operation since then. the screenshot shows version 2, which is yet in development, a project with over 100.000 lines of code.

tags: high performance and efficiency

usecase: high-volume backend data crunching or processing, e.g. statistics data aggregation, search engine index generation

frameworks: the standard library, the new c++0x aka c++11/c++14 feature set, the boost c++ libraries

notes: c++ is a superset of c, which is often used on smaller, hardware restricted platforms, see "embedded" tech section

tags: frontend magic and functional programming

usecase: browser user interaction frontend controller, node.js backend server

frameworks: jquery, node.js, pixi.js, fantasy land, react.js, reflux, redux, modernizr, ...

notes: object oriented and functional programming paradigms, incredible libraries and the overall execution speed of the just-in-time compilers has increased a lot

tags: dynamic web

usecase: server-side frontend logic

frameworks: wannado, yii, zend framework, symfony, cakephp, ...

notes: php helped to make static webpages dynamic many years ago. it has become the de-facto standard for server-sided web scripting and is helpful for quick command-line scripting, comparable to languages like python or perl

tags: evolutionary web, markup

usecase: next-gen web applications

subtech: canvas, websockets, web workers, webrtc, local storage, geolocation, ...

notes: html5 has been in the making for long time, but features many revolutionary technologies. they are standardized, which is much better than relying on closed-source single-vendor applications for improving the web experience. html5 logo by w3c

tags: presentation layer

usecase: next-gen web applications

frameworks: sass, less, 960 grid system, bootstrap, skeleton, ...

notes: css3 is a core building block of modern, responsive websites. using advanced selectors, components of a website defined in html can be visually styled. the separation of styling from markup content often improves the cooperation of developers and designers, and also allows for an easy change of looks, without touching the content. css3 logo by w3c

tags: data storage, acid compliance

usecase: database-driven websites or application servers

subtech: innodb, myisam, phpmyadmin, mysql cluster, ...

notes: mysql has always played a major role as a storage backend for dynamic websites. ease of use, high performance, transaction support, the possibility to enforce referential data integrity on a database definition language level and high-availability options make this database system a great choice for any web application

tags: data storage, acid compliance, bsd licensed

usecase: database-driven websites or application servers

subtech: libpqxx, pgadmin, pgfouine, ...

notes: postgresql, while being a free-to-use open source database, has a lot of professional features, like a very powerful query optimizer, a "lock-free" multiversion concurrency control system, full acid compliance, distribution/replication features, very good sql standards compliance and generally feels like a "big database system"

tags: operating system, bsd

usecase: server hosting

subtech: jails, zfs, pf, geom, ...

notes: freebsd is derived from bsd, a version of unix® developed at the university of california. it is developed and maintained by a large team of individuals, and offers very high reliability, stability, and the concept of a minimal operating system core (world) with optional add-on software modules (ports/packages). one machine at knoblach technologies gmbh had an uptime (continuous running time) of over 2500 days - it was shut down, because of outdated hardware, but the operating system never failed

tags: service separation, packaging and replication

usecase: service deployment

subtech: freebsd jails, ezjail, ...

notes: by separating each individual website or application into compact, minimized runtime images, deployment and replication among physical servers is simplified. in case of a hardware failure, an image can simply be archived and moved to another machine. the freebsd lightweight virtualization environment (jails) has no cpu performance impact, because all virtualization and jail separation is handled within the kernel. virtualization also helps development, as new application images can be easily cloned for testing or staging purpuses

tags: clustering, distribution, load balancing

usecase: high traffic or mission critical applications or websites

subtech: carp, hast, haproxy, ...

notes: by running a redundant clone of a virtualized server, a potential hardware failure will not affect the availability of a service. high-traffic websites benefit from an active load balancer, that splits traffic among multiple running instances, increasing the total application throughput. sql replacation/clustering can improve performance (if the application is heavily sql select/read based), but will also aid service availability

tags: low-power, mobile, internet of things

usecase: remote monitoring and control applications

subtech: rtos, arm, atmega, lpc17xx, stm32xx, ...

notes: whenever full server/pc hardware is too much for a simple monitoring or control task, embedded devices with low-power, yet high-performance microcontrollers can be employed. the boards offer a wide range of connectivity features, and can be programmed in c/c++ or assembler. rtos (real time operating system) simplifies development on the modern 32bit microcontroller platforms

* requirements assessment, project resource and time planning

* working with a team of developers/with an existing code base

* existing-code reviews and code quality check-ups

* preferred core languages: c, c++, javascript

* preferred web technologies: php, html5, css3

* preferred database environments: mysql, postgresql

* preferred operating systems: freebsd, linux

* planning, setup and development of online shop services

* integration of a full-stack of online payment services, also into existing applications or web sites. cooperation with multiple payment providers

* financial transactional and bookkeeping engine development for more complex web services or applications

* statistics aggregation and reporting, sales velocity monitoring and alerting in case of deviations from a normal running business day

* monitoring of safety alerts to be able to quickly update critical exposed components (e.g. operating systems or 3rd party services)

* evaluation of daily safety dumps of virtualized services, including automated service safety assessments (update requirements)

* employment of encrypted communications protocols where possible

* minimization of service exposure, reduction of the number of running services, testing for unnecessary open ports

* implementation of pci safety standards for financial processing

* consulting before actual development starts, analysis of the business side of the planned service

* financial law regulations consulting, especially when dealing with inbound and outbound customer payments

* auditing support, e.g. for a planned pci evaluation

* code safety consulting

* freebsd based virtualized image hosting, allows for easy transfers of hosted applications or websites among physical servers

* daily backups to a physically remote location (additional data safety in case of eg. an earthquake or a fire in one data center)

* managed hosting, including security updates of running services

* icinga/nagios based service monitoring and alerting

* perceptive quality of user experience is a key factor for customer loyalty

* prototyping, testing and iteration. no design strategy survives contact with the first testing user unharmed

* use the right presentation for the target audience, e.g. a tech look for a tech website, a confidence inspiring look for a banking site

* adhere to user interface standards, where possible

* choosing the right technology for the project. some frameworks may be inefficient or too bulky for the task at hand, but others may have just developed what is needed

* manifesting and communicating a net of safety regulations before work even begins (i.e. filtering and questioning the validity of all inbound user form data, examining requirements for customer communication)

* optimization (seo, structured website content pleasing search engine indexers) and analysis of website efficiency, implementation of traffic enhancing or advertising methods, like affiliate marketing

* providing consulting services to finalize the project idea, supporting project time and resource planning, adhering to financial regulations from the start

* providing design and development services / creation of the project

* providing hosting services to run and operate the project

* providing support services to help end customers in case of technical issues or operational questions