Category: Uncategorized

Some would call it old school. I call it classic.

I love pencils. They have a depth of emotion that you can’t get with any pen. But the highest standard in industrial pencils are not the 0.5mm mechanical pencils that everyone uses. No, it’s the 2mm leadholder.

I first used these in my drafting overview in Grade 8 shop class. I sucked at drafting, but these felt good.

I just rediscovered them, and have found that there are many people who share my love of these old leadholders, including the folks at leadholder.com.

The most prevalent ones are the Staedtler 780s, and their cheap copies.

The pinnacle of leadholder lust: the Caran D’Ache Fixpencil 2.

Tags: leadholder, Staedtler, Staedtler Mars, Technico 780C, Caran D’Ache, Fixpencil, Fixpencil 2

I live in the Boston area. I want to buy one (1) Caran D’Ache Fixpencil 2mm leadholder.
Not hard, right?
The only place I can find them is from an online store in Switzerland.
Help?
Tags: Caran D’Ache, Fixpencil, leadholder, 2mm, Fixpencil 2

Got my invite to Joost today. Downloaded the app and tried to use it.

Channel selection is lame.

Response is slow.

And even on my reasonably powerful laptop, the memory, CPU and network usage went through the roof.

Yup. Uninstall.

Tags: Joost

This morning, after months of increasing performance issues, and connectivity issues, I have retired the Boston Verizon measurement location. This location hosted 2 measurement agents.

The machines, hosted in my basement, are connected using Verizon FiOS, which has become increasingly flaky over the last couple of months. As well, the machines are 7 year old Pentium IIs, and require a substantial amount of spoon-feeding that I don’t have time for at the moment.

I have re-enabled the Technorati #1 Agent to fill the gap, but this leaves only 4 measurement locations running. I again put out my plea for more volunteers to host GrabPERF measurement locations. I have had one volunteer contact me about this (thanks Henrik!), and this location should be up in about 3 weeks.

If you have a spare linux box and a static IP, have I got a project for you!

PS: The contact page is fixed. It was set to auto-refresh and overwrite your e-mails. Ooooops.

Tags: GrabPERF, Agent, Verizon, Web Performance, measurement, performance measurement

I have been playing with my personal site, Pierzchala.com, and finally set the re-design loose last night. The last time I touched the layout was 2002 (I think), and it was all done in tables. The new design uses CSS, and makes controlling the layout so easy.

And, thanks to Matt Mullenweg, the header logo rotates for each visit. For someone who wants to improve performance, this is a simple attempt at vanity. Enjoy the home-brew headers.

Tags: re-design, pierzchala.com, pierzchala, logo, matt mullenweg

Trillian, the multi-system messenger program I use, apparently has this really cool new product in development. However, they have taken the Joost approach to releasing things: make it exclusive.

This is making me angry, and I am considering switching back to GAIM, even though I find GAIM clunky and wheezy in it’s latest version.

Trillian developers: open it up! Teasing me only pisses me off. By the time you release your hot new product, I won’t care anymore.

I already don’t care if Joost ever gets released; it’s dead to me. Please don’t do this with Trillian.

Tags: Trillian, GAIM, Joost, ceruleanstudios, cerulean studios

My side project, GrabPERF, is looking for a few good measurement locations.

Right now, there are only five measurement locations, two of which are in my basement, on my personal Internet connection. I am hoping, through this pledge drive, to find a number of additional locations. Areas desperately needed include:

• East Coast, USA
• West Coast, USA
• Midwest, USA
• UK
• Asia-Pac
• Southeast Asia
• Australia / New Zealand

Yeah, I know. I am asking for the world. Can’t hurt to try though.

Basic requirements are a Linux box with a static IP address. Additional requirements are documented here.

You can express your interest in hosting a measurement site by filling in the GrabPERF Contact Form or contacting me directly.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Tags: GrabPERF, measurement locations, Web performance

I did a six-hour presentation / training seminar today, with an encore for a second group tomorrow.

I now realize how frightfully out of practice I am.

I used to do these kinds of events all the time up until 3 years ago. Tonight, my voice is shot, I ache all over, and it feels like my face muscles are injured from smiling and looking positive.

And I liked it.

Tags: presentation, clients, New York, out of shape

This weekend, we went to Maine and spent a wonderful time with the Bodines at the Sweetgrass Farm Winery. Things are rolling into high gear, and there is fruit in the vats, fermenting into fine wine.

I took the time to take some pictures in their old barn, and around the property.

If you like wine and are in Maine, you should definitely look for their grand opening in May

Tags: Sweetgrass Farm, Sweetgrass Farm Winery, Union, Maine, Union+Maine.

Today, I want to talk about what happens when you aggressively adopt an online strategy, but leave your print subscribers behind.

I subscribe to a great architecture and design magazine, whose name I will exclude from this discussion, with a fantastic and informative online presence. The archive and articles available to subscribers are a fantastic resource for people just beginning to explore this field.

In February, I noticed that they had updated their site with the most recent issue’s content and cover. I was somewhat miffed, as my print copy had not yet arrived in the mail. Immediate assumption: print copy lost; request re-transmission.

Today, I checked the site, and all of the content for the March 2007 issue is online. And I don’t have my copy of this issue yet.

Based on the response to the e-mail that I sent to the circulation and publishing team, I may be the first person to bring this to their attention.

When you are in the dead-tree print industry, the Web (1.0 and 2.0) are crucial extensions to your existing business model. But the aggressive use of the Web channel to deliver your content to the rest of the world before the print subscribers receive their copies is doing damage to your business.

Subscribers pay extra in order to gain access to your magazine before the rest of the world can get it. This must extend to the Web channel. As a subscriber, knowing that someone can read the contents of the magazine online before I get my chance to look at the print copy is unsatisfactory.

Subscription content infers a level of exclusivity to those who buy the gold ticket. If you give everyone the gold ticket at the same time, then a subscription loses it sense of exclusivity. Then the magazine loses guaranteed revenue. Then the magazine is gone.

Information should be free. I chafe against the subscription gateways as much as the next person. But if you base your entire business on a subscription model, you better not undermine your own subscription business by giving the subscription content away for free.

Tags: magazine, content, subscription, print, Web