Month: June 2007

  • Gizmo: One more advantage — slow connection performance

    This morning, I noticed that Gizmo has one more advantage over Skype: substantially better performance over slower/less optimal WiFi connections.
    Skype is slowly getting the can from me. Sorry kids.

  • Dog Friendly Hotel: Comfort Inn — Syracuse Airport

    Ok, we are back from Wasaga Beach. We crossed the border in a ridiculously easy manner — when you have a work visa, you always expect the body-cavity search treatment — and made a run for Syracuse. We picked a hotel out of the air and lucked out with the Comfort Inn near the Syracuse Airport. They said they were dog-friendly and they weren’t kidding. more hotels need to learn how to treat people who travel with pets from this place.

    If you are on the New York State Thruway, and need to crash with your puppy, make it to Syracuse and this place will treat you like a normal person, not someone who wants to destroy their hotel.

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  • Wasaga Beach: Life? What Life?

    We have been in Wasaga Beach, Ontario for the last four days, and it is a wonderful place to turn off your brain.

    So far we have spent the weekend celebrating ZenWife’s grandmother’s 100th birthday, then we have decided to do as little as possible. Shopping in Collingwood (without the boys; go Grandparents!), and hanging with the family are the plans for the rest of the week.

    If you need me, I’m dead. 🙂

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  • Dear Apache Software Foundation: FIX THE MSIE SSL KEEPALIVE SETTINGS!

    Dear Apache Software Foundation, and the developers of the Apache Web server:

    I would like to thank you for developing a great product. I rely on it daily to host my own sites, and a large number of people on the Internet seem to share my love of this software.

    However, it appears that you seem to want to maintain a simple flaw in your logic that continues to make me crazy. I am a Web performance analyst, and at least once a week I sigh, and shake my head whenever I stoop to use Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) to visit secure sites.

    I seems that in your SSL configurations, you continue to assume that ALL versions of MSIE can’t handle persistent connections under SSL/TLS.
    Is this true? Is a bug initially caught in MSIE 5.x (5.0??) still valid for MSIE 6.0/7.0?

    The short answer is: I don’t know.

    It seems that no one in the Apache server team has bothered to go back and see if the current versions of MSIE — we are trying to track down the last three people use MSIE 5.x and help them — still share this problem.

    In the meantime, can you change your SSL exclusion RegEx to something more, relevant for 2007?

    Current RegEx:
    SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive
    	ssl-unclean-shutdown
    	downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
    Relvant, updated REGEX:
    SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE [1-5].*"
    	nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown
    	downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
    
    SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE [6-9].*"
    	ssl-unclean-shutdown

    Please? PLEASE? It’s so easy…and would solve so many performance problems…

    Please?

    Thank you.

  • GrabPERF: Wireless Provider Metrics

    I have set up measurements to monitor the main pages of some of the world’s largest mobile phone providers.

    Just something to do on a rainy Sunday.

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  • BIPOLAR: "There’s no need to ask directions if you ever lose your mind"

    There’s no need to ask directions
    If you ever lose your mind
    We’re behind you
    We’re behind you
    And let us please remind you
    We can send a car to find you
    If you ever lose your way

    Cake — Comfort Eagle

    So, last week, I did it. I dropped Paxil/paroxetine/seroxat completely from my medicines. Seems that other medical issues I am having are aggravated by the stuff, so after 7.5 years, it’s gone.

    The withdrawal shouldn’t be as bad for me as it is for most people, as I am on pretty high doses of the mood-stabilizer Trileptal. Still, it should be an interesting couple of weeks.