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Magnetk and Joyent have created Slingshot , a tool that allows a Rails application to work offline! At the same time has been granted the Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 , or Firefox 3, also ready to take on this new frontier dell'offline. We can say without exaggeration, at least from what we read on the net, which started a real competition that sees deployed Adobe Apollo , FireFox 3 and new contenders as Slingshot .

Slingshot , however, it is proposed to develop (or bring) a Rails application directly on your desktop and run them in a " simple and transparent ";

Joyent Slingshot allows developers to deploy Rails applications that Work The Same online and offline (with synchronization) and with drag into and out of the application just like a standard desktop application.

For a demonstration of Slingshot see the Quicktime movie.

There is, therefore, a real live COMPETITION IN between Slingshot and Apollo . The latter, in fact, has a different target in the end, as indicated by Wikipedia

"A cross-OS runtime allows developers to employ That Their existing web development skills ( Flash , Flex , HTML , Ajax ) to build and deploy desktop Rich Internet Applications . "

Interesting - however - are the features of Firefox 3 (as Animated PNG - APNG ), which arises in a different way from the solutions above.

The contenders share the characteristic that, then, is this new trend to work - or permit to work - offline! It is curious that this interest has exploded, almost suddenly, in a historical moment that sees the network at the center of many interests. Also, just in recent years, the spread of broadband has led users to remain continuously connected to the network, an umbilical cord unthinkable until a few years ago, the era of the Dial-Up is now over.

It is this need for perpetual connection has given rise to the generation 2.0 (web2.0), the social contribution of all because all connected. The offline is nonstante all this, a technical requirement, not a change of trend. It is probably of great interest to invest in such technologies. The Wireless, most likely, will dominate in the near future, but unlike a cable may be more prone to sudden failure or (!

Being able to work disconnected evidently a number of advantages - as often happens - now we can not even see clearly.

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It is available online version of Firefox 3.0 Alpha 2 , code-named Gran Paradiso. Among the features announced (the final version is expected in late 2007) we can use the browser off-line mode. All this reminds Adobe Apollo, which, although not present it as your browser, it evokes the essential features.

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