Category: Uncategorized

For those that use the GrabPERF system, or the performance libraries on the site, I have posted a PayPal Donation button.

Costs for developing, documenting, and maintaining the site is starting to mount, and the wear and tear on my very ancient systems is starting to show. In order to bring the GrabPERF system up to snuff, I will need new database and Web server machines in the very new future, a cost that I have no hope of covering.

Plans to expand the system beyond the single measurement location cannot go ahead without a more stable, secure and appropriate hosting environment.

If you use the GrabPERF System and want to see it improved, please donate.

Rick Heller on Blog Name Hijacking.

When my Blogger space was hijacked (after I had abandoned it), someone else took it over, name and all.

Just sad to see that this is going to become an issue.

Go here. Put on headphones. Be in awe.

I really wish I was there. But then again, I am not an A-List blogger.

Blogging is great for me. But it is not likely that I could make it an adjunct to a successful career. I look at the A-list bloggers, and they have all had careers that I have dreamed of, but have never been able to breakthrough into.

• No MBA
• No Money
• No lucky break
• No brush with fame or infamy

I look at the world and wonder how you get there. How do you take your passion and turn it into a career?

I know I can…and there are a ton of you out there who know that. It’s just that most of them are in Seattle right now!

I have had one of those days that leaves me thinking if what I do matters.

I have a great message; I am enthusiastic about my message. But the more I try and push my message, the more mundane the tasks I am handed. I need a new challenge, one where I am not battling a lackadaisical sales force who just wants to get by, does not want to push the limits.

We have great customers, who have amazing technologies and interesting business challenges. Meanwhile, I am doing basic jobs, jobs that do not challenge me to think strategically or in new ways. Why? I see the challenges everyday, but here I sit.

The question is: what have you done to change this? What steps have you taken to resolve this?

I have blogged my ideas. I have tried to implement them, present them to customers, co-workers. My enthusiasm for this is still there. The only place I have for my ideas is here, and here is where they will be.

Bring on your Web performance challenges. I want them, I want to see them as bad as they get. I live for them.

I think that tomorrow will be a snow day for me — I’ll work from home. I have a presentation to put together for Wednesday, so hanging out in my frigid attic work room is where it will happen.

We went back out around 4PM EST to do some more shovelling. We can now get out if we have to, but why?

Stephen O’Grady of RedMonk is snowed in in Portland, ME [here].

Good day to do nothing but wonder how the Scobelizer feels now that he is 40…a fate I won’t have to suffer for four more years!

Brian Marick has a great article on testers.

I am one of those who is a tester. And frankly, I agree with everything he says.

Why Johnny Cash?

How high’s the water snow, momma?
2 feet high and risin’….

Took the Damnation out…ok, I dragged her behind me. The snow is shoulder deep on her, knee deep on me. And it is still falling. And it is still blowing.

I am not even going to try and dig out until the snowfall stops.

ADDENDUM: Dave Winer has a great movie of guys digging out in Cambridge. Shot from his hotel room.

Since I think that I have stabilized the GrabPERF System into a happy near-production environment, I am considering an expansion of the system. This expansion would include adding more measurement locations.

Much like Ian Holsman’s WebPerf.Org, I want to know if there are any volunteers who would like to participate in a BETA of this system when I have it ready to go.

Requirements for BETA participants would be the following:

— crontab
— Perl DBI
— Perl dbd-mysql
— Perl CURL-Easy
— A stable IP address
— Ability to talk to my server on port 3306

I would establish some very basic Agent verification (hence the stable IP address). This would include allowing the IP address to talk to my database server through IPTABLES, and then verifying that the Agent ID and it’s IP address match, in the database.

Drop me an e-mail if you are interested.