Author: spierzchala

In the GigaOm blog today, Allen Leinwand puts up a monstrous wake-up call to all the hip and cool Web 2.0 companies out there: Your apps run across the Internet [here].
I have spent 9 years investigating, diagnosing, and validating the Web performance issues of companies. I can tear the Web performance data of a site down quickly and ask pointed questions about why certain components of an application are behaving poorly.
But even after 9 years, there are still gimme problems around connection setup that I can seem brilliant about, not because I have some secret knowledge, but because I think of Web performance from the Network UP, not from the Application DOWN.
The subtlety of this difference what Leinwand is alluding to. Fancy applications run across the Internet. The Internet is built on TCP. And TCP is built on-top of a very complex networking infrastructure that is way beyond the realm of my skills.
If you don’t know what packet loss looks like, or how your fancy app presents to clients, or how to ensure that this data is collected and presented to you in a timely way, then you are being exposed to alerting by client calls.
All because you thought the biggest problem was scaling your app, not ensuring that the network it crossed to reach people affected the way it performed. Network geeks created Web 1.0; Web 2.0 seems to think they are mostly unecessary.
Wrong.
Measure your performance. Understand TCP. Hire a network geek (or 20).
Then sleep better at night.

If you’ve come here looking for Xobni invites, don’t bother. It’s open to all now.
Go make your Outlook less excruciating.

Got six of them. FIFO.
Gone!

Last week a colleague, who had been forced by corporate policy to switch to a Verizon Treo, donated his Blackberry Pearl 8100 to me.
It was a Cingular/ATT locked phone. I unlocked it, stuck my T-Mobile card into it, and upgraded my plan to the unlimited data plan. I the MIS department at work add an Exchange redirect of my work mail to the Blackberry-provided email address (Blackberry Enterprise Services are evil), so that I could claim a real work usage for this. But there is also a personal email on it (and you will have to ask me for that one!).
[Author Sidebar: Two days later, I managed to lose my T-Mobile Z3 Rizr. Lose. Like can’t find. Likely in the hands of another happy user who has figured out the GSM thing. I am an idiot.]
What is my main purpose for this thing? I previously had not had email on my mobiles. This restricted (prevented) my ability to use services like Flickr, BrightKite, TwitPic among others. Also, I can add services such as Google Maps and other mobile apps for the Blackberry. Still waiting for Skype for the non-wifi Blackberry.
My opinion thus far is positive. While there are obviously newer and better smartphones out there now, but the Pearl meets my needs for now. And the price (donation free!) was definitely within my budget. I am still adjusting to the 3/4 QWERTY keyboard, but it is not anymore difficult than MOTO’s intellitype (yeah, I know it’s a stretch) system.
Will keep you updated on my joy/frustration factor.

When FireFox 1.0 was released, the sites hosting this eagerly awaited software effectively were overwhelmed by the number of users attempting to download it.
A colleague of mine referred to it as a Success Failure. What is that? It simply means that you have been so successful at getting the word out and getting people excited about the release that you fail to deliver as a result.
Given the background buzz and increasing frustration of people, it seems that Twitter is having the same thing right now. Question is not so much the cause (broken code? new hardware run amuck? old hardware groaning? a breakpoint in the number of users causing the system to seize up?), but the effect it is having.
High profile users of the service are upset. Regular users are wondering if it’s time to seek an alternative.
Part of the frustration stems from the lack of updates from Twitter itself. For a service that is designed to provide people with flash updates of ongoing events, it appears that they are failing to make use of their own technology and approach. There a semi-secret Twitter Status timeline available (here).
I hope that the team at Twitter get it figured out soon, as I am a new addict to the system. I hate to think that I finally started on this meme at the precise moment that it collapsed.

Those who saw me at the edge of the A-list (B-list? are those terms valid anymore? I am so out of touch) circle during the first wave of the blog explosion saw me flag and then fall. But where did I go? What did I do?

I left town, essentially. Mentally. I had to go down a new path, find a new cause, lose that cause, explore more. Step away from the places I had known for so long.
I went into Typography. Architecture (Mid-Century Modern). Design. Photography.
And I come back refreshed. I come back being at least 6 months behind in M&A news, new products being flogged by Guy, in opinions expressed by Fred and Brad.
I can recommend it for anyone. I know that the people out there have become addicted to it all. But walking away from the constant need to be informed, to be in the game, on your game, it’s exhausting.

And when you mix in my bipolar (follow the category, young man), things can get really intense.

I will now be participating with fresh enthusiasm.

Staring into the spiraling madness of Silicon Valley and laughing, so glad I can watch from afar. Visit occasionally, but juts sit in the audience and let the lions fight it out.
So, what do I need to know?

Oh. If you want to follow me on twitter, I can guarantee sleep. 🙂

So, Microsoft is releasing Internet Explorer 8 later this year, and a Beta is available now.
The question is, are you ready for it?
Internally, the tech savvy folks (myself included) have been tossing around the football of how to tackle it. The leap from 2 to 6 connections per host, on top of the basic rendering challenges that come with any new browser release are enough to make a Web team’s collective hive mind melt.
So, the bright team at Gomez are developing an IE 8 readiness kit.
Sounds like a great idea.
Why do you need to be concerned at a network level?
Let’s see…Well, while 6 simultaneous connections may be faster for clients, what happens to the TCP stacks of the devices that handle all of these connections, especially as more and more people start using IE 8?
Imagine that every Firefox user is using FasterFox, and then IE 8 comes along.
Do you have enough TCP sockets?
How quickly are sockets that are ready to be recycled actually recycled?
Are you really ready?
🙂

Ok folks, I am tired of people spamming my captcha contact form. I need a better solution. Does anyone have an excellent, proven, and simple to deploy method for fooling the bots on a contact form?

On type of my usual performance consulting, I have recently taken on the role of Web site breaker/stress tester at work. Our updated external load-testing tool is coming out soon, but we have some clients who need some of its functions now.
So, what does this mean? Well, I have learned a lot about how to and not to load test a system, and that load testing a Web site is not a straightforward process.
However, it has also shifted my schedule quite substantially. You see, companies like to load test their sites at night. This means that I have been working a lot of long days, what with my usual working day starting at 06:00 and ending at 22:00.
But the it’s better than tv! 🙂