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We've switched to reCAPTCHA as a mechanism to block spammers. Instead of using our own alphanumeric characters with a few lines, this mechanism also helps digitizing books at the same time. Also, some neat features such as reading the captcha aloud or generating a new one might be helpful.

Many people have asked us what software we're using for running this blog service. So I'm writing a few very technical words about our system.
It is written completely in Java, yet we're currently not running it within a servlet container such as Tomcat. It's running as a stand-alone server compiled with the Java SE 6 Development Kit. The architecture is based on the model-view-controller pattern (MVC), like other frameworks such as Ruby on Rails are. The HTML template language we are using is our own, so we could do some performance optimization targeting specifically on our requirements. Some information about our template language is available right here.

We have a modular extension structure, which means we can develop plug-ins that can be loaded specifically for our customers, while still keeping the core system. This allows us to upgrade our main system and provide customers with the newest releases without further costs. So if you want to have your own installation on a dedicated server, be assured we won't charge you for providing updates. Of course you can stay out of the update process if you want to. Interested? Let us know!

There are already various modules available, starting from virus scanners for uploaded files, single-sign-on (SSO) connectors, up to session migration management for distributed installaionts on multiple servers. On our main installation here at 21publish.com, we are running many, but not all modules (SSO isn't required, for example).

On the database side, we can attach different sources - although it's quite some time that we have used our Oracle connector... We can even use a RAM-based store oder use a file for saving data - which we'd never recommend for a productive environment, of course.

For performance reasons, we're also using an Apache as a proxy server - maybe there are faster solutions, but we just love our Apache!

Guess I'll keep posting some tech updates over time, though if you've specific questions, just leave a comment.