Category: Uncategorized

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! 🙂

On Friday morning, my brother called to tell me that Grandma Isa had passed away overnight.

Isa was my father’s mother, and was one of the most amazing people in my life. In her life, she had survived poverty that few of us can imagine, seen 5 children die in infancy while raising 5 of the most different and unique people I know, survived the unexpected death of her husband, and the slow death of her eldest surviving child (my father).

She was always there. She always had something to say. And she was there to tell you anything you wanted to know about the family.

I miss you Grandma.

You hear a song off Bob Mould’s album Workbook used in a TIAA-CREF commercial.

I think I’ll just nip off and shoot myself.

Most days, I look inside. And that’s part of the problem I suppose. That’s why I haven’t posted in so long: there has been no inspiration to stand and shout about anything.

I suppose that’s why I have been so viciously depressed these last few weeks. There has been nothing to write of. My life has been void.

Have I missed anything while I was away?

Many, many years ago, I started my depressing voyage through the world of work at an Overwaitea food store in my home town. As a teenager, I expected to work so weird hours, and accept some level of abuse from the “adults” I worked with.

However, it seems that the organization now expects all their employees to accept this crap [here].

A major B.C. grocery chain wants some of its unionized staff to work shifts of just two hours, a move the union representing 8,500 workers called shocking.

The Overwaitea Food Group, which also runs Save-On-Foods and Urban Fare, made the demand for two-hour shifts as it began negotiating a new contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the union said.

I know that I have been bad at blogging news about GrabPERF, but today there is some. In the last two weeks, we have added two measurement locations: Washington DC AOL and Argentina LaNacion.

Thanks to Carson Evans of AOL, and Jose Falvo and Leonardo Lancellotta of LaNacion for helping out with the installation process.

So, on New Years Eve, due to the vagaries of modern air travel, the family will be spending seven hours at Sea-Tac waiting for the second leg of our trip home.

For me, this is usually not an issue, as I can huddle up in a corner with my wireless connection and while away the hours with work and general interest. However, we will be a one laptop family, and my children need to be entertained.

Likely at least an hour of the trip will be handled by immigration as they subject us to the joys of entry with our Advanced Parole documents. It’s now harder for us to get into the US via air as late process Green Card applicants than it is if we were simply visiting the country.

After that, who knows.

Does anyone out there in blog land have any great suggestions for entertaining a family for seven hours at an airport?