Beautiful, tragic and amazing.
I build killer apps. No, really. Unfortunately, I don’t mean WinAmp, AIM or Windows. I build apps that kill webservers. It’s what I’m good at. If you have a machine, I can probably bring it to its knees with nifty in memory caching and data manipulation. I can cripple your web farm with intense bombardment from launching multiple threads and waiting indeterminate times for them. Now, I just need to find a commercial application for my obvious talent of hardware homicide.
I had no idea that a mention on the Legend’s site would result in so much traffic…
My gigantic cool project is in QA and almost done. My talented QA Engineer is now load testing it. I hate load testing. It’s the worst pain you can inflict on me is to make me sit around fretting while you clobber the living crap out of my baby until it gives. It’s even worse when you come back and tell me there’s memory growth. Then, I have to make sure you’ve got everything configured correctly. If you do, then it means I’ve messed up and I have to scour several thousands of lines of code for variables that aren’t unset. Even then, I may not find it. Why is it so bad? Because I can’t do it myself. Things may work beautifully in development and then completely fall apart under stress (kind of like Tim Allen’s movie career).
The latest is that after fixing the config problem, we’re doing fine after running 1000 queries. Yeah, well, we’ll see. I’m gonna go start a bad addictive habit to recover from the stress. Any suggestions?
Geeking Out
At this very moment I am installing RedHat 7.2 on my fancy new G4. How, you might ask? VirtualPC for OS X. Oh yes, this is a gigantic smile on my face.
If you think you’ve done it all on the web and there’s nothing cool left to build, check this out. Philip Greenspun strikes again. Being able to spend time with him last June when I went to Boston for sister’s award ceremony was an eye-opening experience. I’ve used that inspiration at work to crank out some pretty amazing stuff. Now, I’m starting his latest textbook, and damned if I don’t have a long way to go. It’s exciting and depressing at the same time. There are so many things that could be done, but not enough people doing them. It’s time to take your creativity and apply it to problems. Don’t build everything the same old way. Try something new. Take a chance. Hell, just go read the book and get inspired.
More Blogger Insider fun. I have no idea how I’ll match the questions Mike got last time.
I’m thinking about writing a book. I have a couple ideas, the obvious being a book on creating three-tiered applications with AOLserver. I know I’m not the perfect candidate, but I don’t see anyone else writing anything about AOLserver that’s done for the general public.
My other idea is a manual of style for large-scale web projects. I’ve heard all of the anecdotal ideas about where to put css tags and stuff, but nothing out there that a company or group could adopt like Robert’s Rules of Order for writing code. Proper tabbing, where to put graphics on the webserver, what order to put tag properties, etc. I’m pretty anal about all of that stuff at work, and well, I think it would be good to get some of it down on paper.
But now, it’s off to waste some time installing XP.
I signed up for blogger insider, and this is my first cycle. The questions this time are from Ellie, in Massachusetts (and fine questions they are):
Are Macs really better than PCs?
I think they’re better for certain things. I like the fact that you know what hardware’s going to be in them, and I think that makes programming for them easier. I like PC’s for the Wild West-ness of them. My brother and I just put a new machine together for me, made out of all brand new parts we bought at half a dozen sites. You could never do that with a Mac and think it will work. I like Macs for their dependability and Apple’s design sense. I like PCs for their expandability, price and flexability.
What’s the cutest thing your son has ever done?
He recently learned to talk, and has started speaking in short sentances. His new favorite word is “hello”, but instead of just saying it, he says it like a little gameshow host, “Hel-LOOO!” It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen
Do you have any regrets about college?
That I didn’t go back. I wish I would have finished. I don’t think it would have helped my much in my current job, but it would have given me a better foundation so I wouldn’t have had to learn a lot of what I know from scratch.
What is your job?
I build search applications for AOL. My largest product is AOL Search, where I do all the frontend work, and a lot of the webserver programming. It’s challenging being the integration piece and the frontend guy at the same time. I have to take a dozen or so different technologies, get them all to talk to me in a way I want, and then present the results to the users. It’s challenging, but a lot of fun.
Do you listen to Sting when he is without the Police?
I think the last album of Sting’s I bought was the one that had Fields of Gold on it. It was a disappointment. His last great solo album was Dream of the Blue Turtles. I borrowed the big Police boxed set from a friend, and I love their early stuff.
Do you like where you live? What keeps you there?
Work keeps me here, but I really like it. We’re close enough to DC that we can go downtown whenever we want without a lot of trouble (other than getting horribly lost), but we live far enough outside that we’re not totally sucked into the politics of the area. Sterling feels like a small town without being all hicky like Mannassas or Leesburg. It’s a nice balance.
Why do you blog? What made you start?
I saw Megnut first, and saw a whole new part of the web. I was fascinated by these incredibly personal sites, and how small groups of sites seemed like “cliques”. It was an interesting world. I started blogging because I realized that after seven years of instant messaging and e-mail, I’ve become a really crappy writer. I wanted to practice, to write well. I want to be able to express myself like Gail or Michael.
What five songs would you put on the soundtrack to your life thus far?
This is a really hard question…
Would you really dye your hair blue if it went completly gray before you were “old”?
Oh yes. If it completes the transformation before I’m 35, I’m definitely going blue. I already tried Ultimate Blond, which was a lot of fun. Blue’s just a color, and why not make it my hair color?
Have you ever seen Gone With the Wind?
Only pieces. I have this animosity towards the south and melodrama in general. I don’t think I could make it through the whole thing.
Has your life turned out the way you planned?
Oh no. I think that’s because I didn’t have a real concrete plan to begin with, at least no plan with short-term goals. My life is pretty great right now. I love my wife and son. I like my job. I like where I live. Life is good.
first of all, poor Evan. It sucks royally that someone would hack Blogger, which is a free service, and really should be left alone. I hope all the problems are resolved quickly, and whoever did this is caught and punished. So, this update was done manually, and I probably won’t post again until Blogger’s fixed.
The Recap
Christmas was grand. Max was adorable. I’d write more, but I’m still recovering from all the joy and togetherness. And, I just got done doing the trim for the basement. The fam is coming over tomorrow and we’re going to paint the whole thing “Polished Apple” red. Why, you ask? Jen had the cool idea of turning the basement into our own private movie theater. So, we’re going to start by painting the walls bright red, and then adding movie paraphenalia and eventually getting a big-screen TV and a giant sectional. It’ll be peachy-keen.
We also got my new computer together and working! It’s fast and nice and runs a wicked UT.
I also just sent my Blogger Insider questions to young Ellie, my randomly selected interviewee/er. Here are the questions. If you’d also like to answer them, please send them!
Now, I have to go to bed so I can get up nice and early and paint.