I thought PostgreSQL's OpenGIS was far better than MySQL's; this certainly used to be the case - has it changed?
Just to get more back on topic, PostgreSQL has excellent Oracle SQL compliance, so it's probably a good DB to play with to bring you up to speed. I know I always felt a little bit concerned learning DB2 on the actual mainframe...
Subversion uses binary diffs in a similar way to rsync. The original poster pointed out bandwidth was not an issue- therefore any bandwidth advantages rsync gives (and yes, there are plenty) are meaningless.
Subversion gives excellent control (tags anyone?) of binary installations. We use it at for things way beyond the usual source code storage.
I have also found disk IO is the main killer. I would suggest looking in to caching. The subversion client sends straightforward HTTP commands to the server. I have a custom PostgreSQL backend which does some caching- in his place, I would have a Squid set up to cache some basic data fetches- obviously, you need to be careful to not cache old data but that's not hard.
So yes, Subversion is excellent for this, and with a little thought, the heavy disk IO can be reduced. Cache, cache, cache.
Much of the time spent fixing is in diagnosis. Having a selection of USB keys and CDs to boot into memcheck and Linux environments for analysis will be very useful. Also have a huge disk around with *everything* on it.
You'll need power. Lots of power. Put a few mains sockets on the wall, and get a couple of big computer power supplies screwed to the wall with extra-long cables. Just make sure you have a means to turn them on and off- modern power supplies can be a pain in this respect. On the ATX ones, I recall you ground pin 10 to turn it on... but check this!
I'd also say my Leatherman has fixed more than its fair share of VCRs and computers:-)
I'm using ADODB for all of my PHP/Postgres work. It's pretty good, but it doesn't yet do proper prepares, unlike Perl's DBI.
I just don't feel happy making my code database dependent. However, at the same time, my confidence in using Postgres is so much greater than when using MySQL- it just seems more solid.
mbox and maildir have been around for a long time; they have been designed by experts to store mail which is a very different problem to storing hierarchical column data. You could make the argument that all email conversations are hierarchical, but...
Personally, I have every email for about the last ten years in maildirs; I know that so long as my data is kept safe and secure, I will be able to read the emails in ten years' time.
There was even an application featured in a Linux magazine a couple of months ago about various simple scripts which will give you a pretty HTML index of your maildirs/mboxes.
Several years ago... actually 5, I almost silenced my Duron 700MHz PC by dropping the fan voltage to 7V.
This is all explained beautifully at 7volts.com. The site is a bit fancier now, but the details still seem to be in the same place.
Dropping the voltage to 7V is very easy (just move a wire) and the noise is considerably reduced. The air flow does drop as the fan speed is reduced, but if you're careful, it's fine.
Basically, as the poster says, you want big, slow fans. The 7V solution is great and has given me many hours of extra sleep over the years!
I have one of the older Asus WL500G wireless routers. At various times I've had photo printers and USB disks plugged in to it- it's a fantasic piece of kit. You can make it boot off USB and have SSH as well.
Not blazingly fast, but enough for most of us.
My Compaq laptop can only do about 1.5MB/sec using SSH anyway. FTP is obviously faster.
I use Mercury Loadrunner frequently, with thousands of virtual users.
It's a very powerful tool but the essence of it is very simple.
I looked at OpenSTA, but it is simply not in the same league.
The Mercury licences cost many tens of thousans of pounds, but do note you can buy short-term licences which can help reduce costs. When you're working with multi-million-pound projects, the costs are well worth it.
I find Skype one of the worst-- if I'm disconnected from a network (i.e. laptop on a train), Skype chews up 100% of CPU for a few seconds every 5 mins or so; this seems to block any other process completely. Scrolling in firefox or Word stops waits until Skype has finished whatever it's trying to do.
I've been using tor for about six months now; not for all browsing, but for times when I want to be anonymous. It is a bit slower, but I personally value my anonymity for certain things. As someone below has pointed out, it's like leaving the house without wearing trousers.
I've been running a verified server node for the last couple of months- it's a good way to give back to the community. It's really easy to set up and makes you feel good:-)
Note you don't need to verify your node- you can just run it anyway. I didn't verify it until I received a nice friendly email from the EFF/tor people asking if I would register - from a human - and I did.
The more tor routers there are, the faster the service may become.
Slashdot Mirror
These are plastic 6mm BBs. I can attest from experience they will not penetrate normal human skin.
And you'd then be completely screwed as a serious security door will have deadlocks to stop you doing just that!
Just don't fry the comms kit so someone outside can hopefully come and find you...
And EveryDNS will do it for $0.
As will several other places.
I thought PostgreSQL's OpenGIS was far better than MySQL's; this certainly used to be the case - has it changed?
Just to get more back on topic, PostgreSQL has excellent Oracle SQL compliance, so it's probably a good DB to play with to bring you up to speed. I know I always felt a little bit concerned learning DB2 on the actual mainframe...
They're also looking at using compression in upcoming versions for the local "hidden" originals.
Subversion uses binary diffs in a similar way to rsync. The original poster pointed out bandwidth was not an issue- therefore any bandwidth advantages rsync gives (and yes, there are plenty) are meaningless.
Subversion gives excellent control (tags anyone?) of binary installations. We use it at for things way beyond the usual source code storage.
I have also found disk IO is the main killer. I would suggest looking in to caching. The subversion client sends straightforward HTTP commands to the server. I have a custom PostgreSQL backend which does some caching- in his place, I would have a Squid set up to cache some basic data fetches- obviously, you need to be careful to not cache old data but that's not hard.
So yes, Subversion is excellent for this, and with a little thought, the heavy disk IO can be reduced. Cache, cache, cache.
I'd definitely agree with the USB key/CDs.
:-)
Much of the time spent fixing is in diagnosis. Having a selection of USB keys and CDs to boot into memcheck and Linux environments for analysis will be very useful. Also have a huge disk around with *everything* on it.
You'll need power. Lots of power. Put a few mains sockets on the wall, and get a couple of big computer power supplies screwed to the wall with extra-long cables. Just make sure you have a means to turn them on and off- modern power supplies can be a pain in this respect. On the ATX ones, I recall you ground pin 10 to turn it on... but check this!
I'd also say my Leatherman has fixed more than its fair share of VCRs and computers
You must be in the UK as well!
(UK petrol i.e. gas is about to hit 7 USD per US gallon - a pound a litre).
I wish I had mod points this week!
Does anybody know any similar sources of information for the UK?
I once managed to download a list of speed camera lat/long co-ords, but street map data would be amazing.
I'm using ADODB for all of my PHP/Postgres work. It's pretty good, but it doesn't yet do proper prepares, unlike Perl's DBI.
I just don't feel happy making my code database dependent. However, at the same time, my confidence in using Postgres is so much greater than when using MySQL- it just seems more solid.
The concept here is very similar to virtual servers. Instead of charging per disk and RAM, they're formalising the charging process for CPU.
You could apportion a similar costing structure to a normal e.g. unixshell/linode virtual server to charge by CPU hours.
Are you blocking on SMTP connection or with procmail after the email has been received?
You should be able to save a lot of bandwidth that way.
Having said that, I use dozens of different email addresses on my domain (generally one per sign-up &c.) so this doesn't work so well for me...
Indeed!
mbox and maildir have been around for a long time; they have been designed by experts to store mail which is a very different problem to storing hierarchical column data. You could make the argument that all email conversations are hierarchical, but...
Personally, I have every email for about the last ten years in maildirs; I know that so long as my data is kept safe and secure, I will be able to read the emails in ten years' time.
There was even an application featured in a Linux magazine a couple of months ago about various simple scripts which will give you a pretty HTML index of your maildirs/mboxes.
This will perhaps also make people realise that switches, routers and firewalls are no substitute for real security.
Want to share laptop files?
So did I.
I still have it, in fact.
Or you could just go to a library.
In England, even the tiniest library has dozens of audio books on tape or CD, available for free.
Several years ago... actually 5, I almost silenced my Duron 700MHz PC by dropping the fan voltage to 7V.
This is all explained beautifully at 7volts.com. The site is a bit fancier now, but the details still seem to be in the same place.
Dropping the voltage to 7V is very easy (just move a wire) and the noise is considerably reduced. The air flow does drop as the fan speed is reduced, but if you're careful, it's fine.
Basically, as the poster says, you want big, slow fans. The 7V solution is great and has given me many hours of extra sleep over the years!
I have one of the older Asus WL500G wireless routers. At various times I've had photo printers and USB disks plugged in to it- it's a fantasic piece of kit. You can make it boot off USB and have SSH as well.
Not blazingly fast, but enough for most of us.
My Compaq laptop can only do about 1.5MB/sec using SSH anyway. FTP is obviously faster.
I use Mercury Loadrunner frequently, with thousands of virtual users.
It's a very powerful tool but the essence of it is very simple.
I looked at OpenSTA, but it is simply not in the same league.
The Mercury licences cost many tens of thousans of pounds, but do note you can buy short-term licences which can help reduce costs. When you're working with multi-million-pound projects, the costs are well worth it.
Drupal.org has been back for a couple of days now; they should be moving to their new server soon as well.
(they were offline for 72 hours+)
I find Skype one of the worst-- if I'm disconnected from a network (i.e. laptop on a train), Skype chews up 100% of CPU for a few seconds every 5 mins or so; this seems to block any other process completely. Scrolling in firefox or Word stops waits until Skype has finished whatever it's trying to do.
Don't forget the alternative, browniand!
This sounds rather like MusicBrainz software.
Yes, this sort of service has been around in the UK and France for several years now.
Giles.
I've been using tor for about six months now; not for all browsing, but for times when I want to be anonymous. It is a bit slower, but I personally value my anonymity for certain things. As someone below has pointed out, it's like leaving the house without wearing trousers.
:-)
I've been running a verified server node for the last couple of months- it's a good way to give back to the community. It's really easy to set up and makes you feel good
Note you don't need to verify your node- you can just run it anyway. I didn't verify it until I received a nice friendly email from the EFF/tor people asking if I would register - from a human - and I did.
The more tor routers there are, the faster the service may become.
I think he's right on this one: eating 640K of snails would probably be enough for me.