Amazon Web Services

What and Why

This will be a multiple part posting as I explore AWS (Amazon Web Services). Right now, the company I work for is not exploring any cloud based solutions due to the lack of knowledge on where and when to apply the technology. Since I am working on MASSIVE enterprise projects that entail consolidation of multiple stakeholders information into a centralized knowledge content management system, I feel like this is an area that could come in handy knowing in the near future.

Logical Structure of Posts

The posts will be broken into the following areas:

• Setup and Configuration
• What is Amazon Web Services
• My First AWS Project
• Whatever comes up next...

Every Sunday morning as I wait for my wife to awake, I will brew a big batch of coffee and sit down to document my exploration into Amazon Web Services. If you have questions/suggestion on where to explore, don't hesitate to post it. Once I feel like I have a good grasp on AWS, I will jump over to Windows Azure.

Andriod Development Setup

So I have decided that in my spare time I will be attacking Andriod Development and perhaps some iPhone/iPAD development. Somthing new will be good. So first things first, lets setup our environment.

Things you need to start (Unallotted Amount of time...)

1. A computer with an OS. I am installing on a Dell Latitude running Windows 7 64 Bit.
2. An internet connection.

Download eClipse IDE (6 to 7 minutes):

Download eClipse IDE from here (took about 6 to 7 minutes): http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/technology/epp/downloads/release/helios/SR1/eclipse-java-helios-SR1-win32-x86_64.zip

Install eClipse?

No install required. Just more downloading in the future. But you do need to open the zip file up and begin by running the setup program. If you grabbed an ISO of it, mount that puppy. I use magicdisc to open mount:

Magicdisc download (couple seconds...): http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm

Either way when you are done you will have a directory with all the files needed to start eclipse but still not enough to install the ADT plugin. First, make sure your version of eclipse is updated.

Java SE Development Kit Install (1 to 2 minutes)

You will need the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) if you don't already have it installed. I did not so I went to the following link and ran the exe version across the internet to get it installed:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Java SDK Install (1 to 2 minutes)

Download the SDK from the following location:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Once that is unzipped you can update it. Mind you this takes awhile so skip if you want.

Install the API

Now just start eClipse up. Go to the help menu and then the Installed Software... option. Once the window opens you can add the google andriod api download url which is located here: http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

This may be updated in the future so go here if needed for more instructions on the api install or up to date instructions:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html#installing

Should be good. Start playing.