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Port80 Software Releases New httpZip Version

The folks at Port80 Software have released Version 3.0 of httpZip, their compression and caching application for IIS servers.
Looks like thay have put a lot of time and effort into this new release, with great features such as a compression cache to prevent unecessary re-compression of frequently requested files, and better server resource controls.
Congrats!


DISCLAIMER:
I am not paid or compensated in any way to promote the products of Port80 Software.

GrabPERF Retired

I have decided to just retire GrabPERF. I have locked the access, and will give passwords out to anyone who requests one.
Traffic is pretty light to the site anyway. Pretty sure no one will notice.

More on GrabPERF

I have reduced the number of measurements taken by the GrabPERF system down to 24 URLs every 15 minutes.
Also, I have purged the archives and data tables of all of the inactive measurements.
I feel a little sad, yet relieved that I am starting to trim this system back. I feel that unless I get some large outpouring of support, or interest, I will disable the system entirely on April 15, 2005.


The GrabPERF Measurement script is available here if you would like to take a crack at enhancing it.

GrabPERF Measurement Changed — and The (Possible) Retirement of GrabPERF

For those of you who use GrabPERF, please note that I have reduced the measurement cycle to once every 15 minutes.
Currently, I am not using this system for much, and I am looking for a graceful way to retire it, or pass along the code, as I can no longer reliably host or maintain the system because:

  1. I am running low on disk space that I could be using for a home file server
  2. The machines can no longer effectively and efficiently maintain and process the volume of data that I have stored from my measurements
  3. I have lost interest in further development

I am actively entertaining interested parties who would like to take this on and evolve it.

Comcast Brings you this Regularly Scheduled Outage

  1. I should not be running servers on my Comcast connection. BAD DOG! BAD DAMNATION HOUND!
  2. Comcast should not make it so easy to spot, and then not be able to explain, a daily outage pattern
3 Days of Comcast Outages

The nice lady in customer phone support said there were no problems in my area, but that she could not contact my modem. Hmmm….
Can you spot the pattern? Anyone have any recommendations for reliable hosting providers in MA? Or better yet, inexpensive and reliable home broadband options?

A great quote: Are you selling to the right people?

From BrandShift:

“The brands that are ballsy enough or are brave enough to say, ‘You know what – we’re selling way too much product to the wrong people; we need to change the language of our brand, change the face of the brand, and get brave in product design again,’ the companies that are capable of doing that can thrive a lot longer as a brand versus those that get safe and complacent and start chasing numbers and quarters.”

Sometimes I wonder which category my employer falls into…

Shot down by OSCON 2005

A while back, I posted that I had submitted a presentation concept for OSCON 2005. [here]

Got a very nice rejection letter Friday.

Then Dave Winer posts a link to this fantastic quote.

But it’s clearly not the only criterion considered by O’Reilly & Associates for its event lineup. There’s a distinct rock-star syndrome going on with O’Reilly conferences that is a bit disappointing to me. So many of the scheduled speakers are former speakers, re-hashing, remixing old speeches that keep them busy on the lecture and blog circuit for months or years at a time.

I wish this weren’t the case with the ETech conference. I wish there were a lot more unknowns speaking at the conference, about technology that’s not yet on my radar. That is what I would find valuable. I suspect that the vast majority of attendees to ETech are people already, if not intimately, familiar with most of the topics and technologies being discussed the conference. There will be a lot of familiar faces there, which is nice. I wish none of them were speaking though. I wish all of the speakers had never spoken before at ETech or any other O’Reilly conference. In fact if I had my way, I’d say the deal with speaking at ETech is that you can’t have spoken there before, at least on the same subject, but even then, probably not. I wish ETech were more like DEMO — not similar in the way it does its frantic six-minute pitch sessions from seventy-odd unknown startup companies. But in the fact that most of the speakers are unknowns, presenting new things, different things, (often remixed things).

I went to OSCON in 2000 in Monterey. And I realize that no one besides the rock stars can break into this group.

It’s too bad that an open-source conference is so focused on the stars, and not the implementers, hackers, and module builders who took the core ideas and made them jump.

Trying the Glide Pad and slipping geek cred

As many of my readers know, I have been pining for a Powerbook. However, one if the “fear factors” has been the need to switch to glide pad.

I am a “pencil eraser” pointer man. All of my laptops have had them — even the Dell Inspiron I am using now. But I can see that I am in the minority and that I will have to become a convert.

So, I have disabled the keyboard pointer and switched to the glide pad.
On a secondary note, the “What’s in your bag” meme appears to be catching. So many iPods and Powerbooks…I feel my geek cred slipping way down.

Off to walk the Damnation in the latest 10 inches of snow.

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