"... Hmm. Yeah, he's processing millions and millions of requests a day off of one web server. ..." I wouldn't say It's not possible, just painful. Firstly the

"... Hmm. Yeah, he's processing millions and millions of requests a day off of one web server. ..." I wouldn't say It's not possible, just painful. Firstly there's the cost (os, tools, languages) and externalities (bugs, slow code updates). I don't know if I could face going to work using such a crappy environment again. As for the number of transactions, you cannot deny this. The real test will be adding the financial transactions and converting hits to dollars. I like people succeeding - it just makes me wince (personal prejudice) thinking of the technology choice.