Software As She’s Developed

Horizontally scaling databases: MySQL/Postgres Sharding

Tue, 17 Jan 2017 13:15:39 +0000

At some point, a single database instance starts to creak as more objects are added to it, even with read-only replication. A battle-proven strategy here is to scale horizontally via sharding, however there be dragons. Here are general design principles … Continue reading →

Explaining to the CDN why “vary” header matters

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 14:29:59 +0000

A CDN asked me why they should respect the HTTP “vary” header. My reply was this. “vary” is needed because the app uses “PJAX” architecture used by many dynamic web apps and embraced in frameworks like Rails’ TurboGears. Simply put, … Continue reading →

Taming Ansible with a control script

Sat, 14 May 2016 03:37:16 +0000

Ansible is very useful for managing multiple servers, but one of its weak points is lack of control over sequencing tasks. The basic assumption is that you can execute all tasks because it embraces the principle of idempotency. If you … Continue reading →

Google to embrace Swift?!!

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 09:56:16 +0000

In other news, Microsoft to embrace Linux. Hahahaha ha ah oh wait. NextWeb reports Google’s considering Swift as a first class Android language. I’m not surprised companies like Facebook and Uber are embracing Swift as it’s sufficiently open and highly … Continue reading →

Progressive Web Apps have leapfrogged the native install model … but challenges remain

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 10:12:56 +0000

I visited Google’s Progressive Web Apps shindig the other day and I’m pleased to see the progress browsers have made towards appiness in the past 2 years. Much of what I wished for in frankly the web’s darkest days is … Continue reading →

How to show dates to humans

Sun, 03 Apr 2016 09:48:29 +0000

First, how not to show them: “Hey come to our amazing concert — 5/6!” Now, how to show them: “Hey come to our amazing concert — Wednesday May 18, 2016!” I admit the former is more concise, bt cncs dsnt … Continue reading →

2016 Tech Predictions

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 14:15:28 +0000

Here are my predictions for 2016. 1. Swift everywhere Swift 2 built on Swift’s popularity and it’s clear this language will fly far beyond the confines of iOS. It’s more open than anyone could have expected from Apple and unambiguously … Continue reading →

Developer Relations: A Five-Level Maturity Model

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 12:53:14 +0000

Having worked on both sides of developer relations, here are some thoughts about different levels of maturity for developer relations. LEVEL 0: No developer relations No internal effort is made to promote the platform, support developers, or capture their feedback. … Continue reading →

Bloom Filters and Recommendation Engines

Sun, 01 Nov 2015 09:07:45 +0000

I’ll explain here what Bloom filters are and how you might find them useful for recommendation engines. I haven’t used them yet in production — just sharing what I’ve been learning. Why Bloom Filters? I was thinking about recommendation system … Continue reading →

Sidekiq 4’s performance boost

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 23:22:38 +0000

Mike Perham managed to turbo-boost Sidekiq for v4, making it six times faster. This in itself is good news for those of us who use it and his write-up is also of interest. #perfmatters The perf tricks that made this … Continue reading →

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