July 2016 Summaries

Digital out-of-home (OOH) media has seen significant innovation with the integration of technologies like facial recognition, live data feeds, geolocation, and social media integration, creating more engaging and interactive advertisements. Examples include campaigns by Ocean and JCDecaux, which have utilized cutting-edge technology to deliver real-time updates and context-sensitive content. As the hardware and network infrastructures improve, there is immense potential for the use of real-time technologies and internet-connected sensors to further enhance these experiences. This could involve mobile phones acting as sensors to interact with digital OOH screens, allowing for immersive and interactive experiences. Ideas such as using phones to engage with games or activities displayed on OOH screens illustrate the potential for creative applications. The continued development of large screens that can project different images to individuals based on their location opens up opportunities for multiple viewers to interact simultaneously, driving further innovation in the digital OOH space.

This article discusses the differences between pub/sub and queue based messaging patterns and why both are sometimes needed. It explains that a pub/sub pattern is designed so that each message published is received by any number of subscribers, while a queue-based pattern typically requires that each message is received only once by a single subscriber in a linear yet distributed fashion. The article also explores scenarios where the pub/sub pattern works well and when it feels like forcing a square peg into a round hole. It then introduces message queues as the solution to this problem, explaining how they provide a buffer to cope with sudden spikes, ensure data integrity, and can be used in conjunction with Ably's realtime messaging platform for processing real-time data on servers.

Ably provides a generous free tier and fair pricing for its services, with paid packages starting at $9.99 per month. The platform offers transparent pricing, complete feature sets, and self-service options. Enterprise packages are now available, offering premium support, onboarding assistance, nominated customer success managers, custom configurations, guaranteed fixed pricing, no hard limits, Europe-only storage, early access to the roadmap, and a voice in shaping Ably's future features.

Ably's client libraries in version 0.8 were designed with the assumption that customers would handle channel failures themselves. However, many users did not expect channels to become detached and had not coded defensively for this situation. In response, version 0.9 introduces a new suspended state for channels when a connection becomes suspended or Ably cannot provide message continuity. Customers can listen for the suspended state events and implement their own business logic at this point. Automatic re-attachment of channels is also implemented in v0.9 to handle failure conditions, with client libraries attempting to re-attach detached channels every 15 seconds.

Ably is a realtime data delivery platform that aims to educate businesses about the potential of realtime technology in enhancing customer experience and differentiating from competitors. The company provides ideas for media, content, and publishing businesses on how they can use realtime platforms like Ably to innovate and differentiate. These include realtime content and publishing updates, reader engagement features, real-time advertising optimization, real-time content distribution, and collaboration tools for editors and journalists.