Enrolled in CS253 on Udacity

I enrolled in CS253 on Udacity.com. I can't get to the course content yet, because apparently their site it slammed?

Anyway, I'm interested in what the course offers:

Description: Web applications have the power to provide useful services to millions of people worldwide. In this class, you will learn how to build your own blog application starting from the basics of how the web works and how to set up a web application and process user input, to how to use databases, manage user accounts, interact with other web services, and make your application scale to support large numbers of users.

WEEK 1: How the Web Works

Introduction to HTTP and Web Applications

WEEK 2: How to Have Users

Getting and processing user input

WEEK 3: How to Manage State

Databases and persistent data

WEEK 4: Whom to Trust

User authentication and access control

WEEK 5: How to Connect

Web applications as services, using APIs

WEEK 6: How to Serve Millions

Scaling, caching, optimizations

WEEK 7: Changing the World

Building a successful web application, project

A lot of this I know, though I'm mostly self-taught. I try to find standards compliant places to learn from, but I always fear there is a better way out there to do certain things; this should help with that.

Week 6 looks the most interesting, as I don't have experience with scaling. I have lots of things I implement to handle scaling, but haven't gotten the traffic to really put them to the test.

I'll keep posting about my experience.