Nic Ferrier’s Elnode project is a great example of the power that Emacs and Emacs Lisp can deliver. Its almost unbelievable that you can run a Web server inside Emacs, but that’s what Elnode does. Once again we see in Emacs the echo of the Lisp Machine.
Nic has put up a video that shows off some of its capabilities as well as how to install and configure it. He also has a longish post on his blog that describes Elnode, its capabilities, and its performance. It’s available from Marmalade so installation is a snap if you’ve like to try it out.