Weekly Tweets
- @Warlach How about some cheese with your WHINE?!?
in reply to Warlach # - @Warlach Should I call you a waambulance? in reply to Warlach #
- @zlot I just use the bookmarklet, which is pretty good. Also their native application is nice also (including an iPhone app) in reply to zlot #
- According to my 2 year old, Santa Clause lives in a hole. (Not the North Pole as we tried to explain) #
- Loving tweetdeck for iPhone. Sorry tweetie, you have been beaten. #
- Took the screen protector off my iPhone. A million times better in every regard. #
- It blows me away that an $80k hsv Gts still has very average performance 5.3 to 100kph and a 13.5 qtr is not impressive. #
- Totally in love with mclaren's mp4-12c. One piece carbon fibre chassis does funny things to my insides. #
- Watching Australia trounce wales this morning made my month. I needed that. #
- Send them to Copenhagen!!!! http://bit.ly/5BoFi1 #
- Anybody interested in joining me in pip.io, DM me, I have a few invites available. #
- Town under siege: 6,000 camels to be shot http://bit.ly/5eda6I http://pic.gd/8f3f50 #
- Does Apple seriously think I am going to give a $2k laptop to somebody for chrissy? #
- Anybody know of a ManicTime equivalent on Mac? #
- Check this video out -- Brett Domino: Hip-Hop Medley - Stylophone Beatbox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hELTtsBRie4 #
- There's a girl in New York City, calls herself the human trampoline. #
- #NSD Violence against women is unacceptable. Swear today at http://www.myoath.com.au. Retweet this if you agree #
- @Talej just proposed to me... Need to let him down gently. He's an emotional lad. #
- Sites that dont require that you confirm your password strike me as rebelious... I kinda like it. #
- New sustainmyself.com blog post: I wear my solar panels at night! http://bit.ly/77bJ8W #
- christianbiggins.com: 8 Weeks. Eight-Freaking-Weeks! http://bit.ly/8HXNZY #
- STATS: Xbox Live Generates One Million New Users for last.fm http://bit.ly/8YUuKZ [Seriously awesome! 300 subscriptions per minute!!] #
- Not sure if its a mac thing, but if I copy and paste the title from TIME, I get a link included, but @talej does not; http://bit.ly/74oqWZ #
- How Protecting the Jungle Can Help Combat Global Warming http://bit.ly/74oqWZ #
- A member of Skylines Australia? Got a wave account? Join the public 'Enhancements' wave by searching for 'with:public Skylines Australia' #
8 weeks. Eight-Freaking-Weeks!
8 weeks ago I embarked on a journey that would change my life. Little did I know at the time just how much this journey would affect me physically, emotionally and psycologically.
Lets go back a further 2 weeks. I started a new job as Senior Developer for OMG. We have a 'legacy' codebase for our CMS (Content Management System) which works, but needs some performance improvements. I have been given the task of fixing up this codebase. One of the areas that requires a lot of enhancing is our search engine, but its not quite as simple as writing a little query in SQL such as 'SELECT blah FROM table WHERE name LIKE "%search term%"'... Oh no, its not quite that easy.
Think 31,000 domain names, each with an unknown number of categories, each having either category niche (auto's for example) or a specific location match (Sydney, for example). Then, throw in almost 2,000,000 listings to appear on these sites in an ordering specific to their account type and account data and make sure that Tasmanian Lawyers do not appear on our Perth Plumbers site...
Enter an enthusastic new employee wanting to make his mark and you have an 8 week journey through 19 hour days, crashed servers, day-long data rebuilds and many more exciting activities.
We decided to build the search engine in Sphinx which is a full text replacement for MySQL, I wont go into the details of how we did this, but I will say that the code and indexes have been rewritten about 6 or 7 times inclusive. I have worked on this, day in and day out for 8 weeks. That is the longest time I have ever spent on a single component and a few times I have been curious about whether my boss thought he'd made an incorrect decision hiring me. More of my hair is grey now than it was 8 weeks ago and my wife is questioning my commitment to our marriage after displaying willingness to stay up and work rather than come to bed.
Last night, we pushed the latest changes to a staging server and replayed Apache logs (from a period when traffic was destroying our servers) to test performance... and it passed. To say I am happy is an under statement, we went into this to increase performance and to remove as much as we can from MySQL (for various reasons) and a few times there I was unsure whether we had just wasted our time, including one time when I made the suggestion that we use a different Full Text Indexer (such as Xapian.) But today, the finish line can be sensed, a term search across 1,900,000 rows is taking 0.07 seconds which is awesome, which only one or two queries in MySQL.
This is why I am in development, this sense of satisfaction you get when, after weeks of nutting something out, it works... and works well. Hopefully I'll still have a job now when my probation period is up next month.
I will be making a post about my findings with Sphinx and how to make it work well when you have multiple criteria to search within on Fliquid Studios in the coming weeks (once I am absolutely sure that this is working ok.)
Wavering unconditional support
This week I decided that I'd really start pushing my blogging again. I've been slack, mainly because I have had a lot going on, but also because I have been lazy. I dont spend much time online on the weekends anymore (on purpose) and I dont have time at work to stop and write for a little while.
So, todays post is a little different from the norm. I am a staunch Wallaby's supporter. They are my team. I go well out of my way to make sure I watch all of their games, I know all the players, I grit my teeth when other's speak badly of them. But lately, they continue to find ways to let me down, they have such an amazing lineup, a great coaching staff, huge levels of financial support from the ARU... But they can't win. Yesterday morning's 9-8 loss to Scotland was a big blow for me, I want to be the number 1 fan, but they continue to give me reasons not to be. I will continue to be an unwavering, staunch supporter, but maybe its time to come to the realisation that maybe Australian rugby will never reach the heights that it has before. It pains me to say that as for the first 2/3rds of my life, the Aussies have been very strong, winning 2 world cups and many Tri Nations and Bledisloe cups, but lately the trophy cabinet seems to get emptier by the day...
I am just bummed. I love my rugby, I love my sport, I just think they don't care anymore. To quote an awesome article today on FoxSports.com.au; 'Meanwhile the Wallabies were spending their chances like dissolute, drunken millionaires. Missed that chance? No matter, there will be another one along soon'.
Bleugh... I'll get over it. But I feel flat, heartbroken, I am suddenly not looking forward to the clash with Wales next weekend, not sure I'll cope with another astonishingly ugly performance.
Weekly Tweets
- Almost 1 year since being made redundant from REA Group - Was a blessing in disguise, much happier now. #
- It is really time to ramp up my blogging. I reckon I have made about 2 or 3 posts to my 3 blogs in the past 6 months... So slack. #
- Stunned by the Wallabies losing to Scotland... I love my team but I am starting to get discouraged... #
- @jezkerwin I'm worried I'd offend all my Christian followers. in reply to jezkerwin #
- I love people who follow based on term matches. Christians follow me because of my name and a pest place just followed because i said hornet #
- @MattBalara Yep, its a scorcher. The harbour certainly looks inviting today. in reply to MattBalara #
- Finally found a sweet Fender Eliminator for my Hornet. http://bit.ly/2P6m9x. #
- Why did it take the Department Of Community Services (DOCS) 3 YEARS to discover a child was missing? http://bit.ly/4hXrhG #
- Cundall offered free legal help after arrest [Brilliant story! Down with Gunns!] http://bit.ly/4uLpPl #
- @aimzsta Not sure if it will help, but check out Google Chart API, its super easy to use. http://bit.ly/7u9H0 #
- Japan whaling fleet leaves for Antarctic! http://bit.ly/1jJTAl #
- Macvim's screen refresh rate when scrolling bugs me a little bit. Cant find a solution anywhere. #
- @jezkerwin Whats the worst thing that can happen? You write it off! No biggie. in reply to jezkerwin #
- Springboks have now lost 3 games on the trot .... http://bit.ly/xZmwC #
- Writing a search engine for 1.9m rows with multi one-to-many relationships elsewhere is a tricky task... Up to rewrite number 3. #
- Join me in eRepublik please!! I need more friends! http://www.erepublik.com/en/referrer/cbiggins #
- The Australian Greens: Greens call for cap on working hours http://bit.ly/2Z3clF #
- Why do I feel inclined to add people I dont like as friends on facebook? Thats a little weird eh? #
- I want a Ducati Street Fighter. #
- Recycling SUV's to make baby incubators. http://bit.ly/3H8CVL #
- @Zee Heh, I can't write 'myself' without writing 'mysql' ... in reply to Zee #
- @Talej Nono, just a rickrolled jailbroken iPhone. in reply to Talej #
- Rick free since 09. #
- Bought the new Shazam but am fairly disappointed so far. #
- @sach33 Yeah I have now... Stupid root password. in reply to sach33 #
- Stupid Rick stupid Astley on my stupid iPhone.... #
Weekly Tweets
- @matmurray hahaha, yes I feel a similar weekend is in store for me too. in reply to matmurray #
- @zlot That looks awesome, I'm concerned about battery and bandwidth with the amount of tweets I receive... in reply to zlot #
- Melbourne announced as 15th Super Rugby license holder!! http://bit.ly/1YgoP8 #
- RT @junal: Another player in programming language "Google Go" http://bit.ly/2FqPNF something cool on the way hmm? [love the 'players'] #
- RT @AusConservation: Solar power backflip welcomed by environment groups: http://twurl.nl/83omk3 [AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!] #
- @zlot I just put my neck out looking at that. in reply to zlot #
- @shanmoorthy Yikes, emo already?
She's only 2. in reply to shanmoorthy # - Just gave my daughter balsamic vinegar for the first time and she told me her tongue was bleeding. #
- So upset to see Stoner didn't even get to start last nights motogp race. #
- @Talej Is that a rifle down your pants or are you just pleased to see me? in reply to Talej #
- @Talej I'm not about to buy her a gun, but dont you think it strange that I can still buy a gun, but not pepper spray? in reply to Talej #
- I love that it is apparently illegal to own pepper spray in NSW, but not to own a gun. My wife is going to need a bigger handbag... #
Weekly Tweets
- RT @Zee: YouTube, Last.fm mashup is pretty good, very illegal http://tnw.to/3MjW by @MartinSFP #
- @warlach - Agreed, New graffiti laws are ridiculous. 6 months imprisonment? Way to help the youths.. http://bit.ly/21g0y0 #ihatenathanrees #
- @Warlach ooooh, link me, link me... That sounds like something I'd be pissed off by too. in reply to Warlach #
- Just watched Australia beat England 18-9. Awesome, needed that lift. #
- A rollerskating jam named Saturdays - classic - http://bit.ly/nEFOy #
- Just watched Leicester beat the boks. Awesome. #
- @sach33 Yeah sure, its just over there. in reply to sach33 #
- @brop There needs to be a leaderboard that includes people with lives tho. Brop #1 - 140, 95% Life! in reply to brop #
- @brop Damn, thats a great score.. I am still at 71! in reply to brop #
- Yahooie, just got my Google Wave invite... Now what do I do with it? #
- @BlokesLib Timezones really seem to throw people. Or, the fact that people live outside the US really seems to throw people. in reply to BlokesLib #
- @BlokesLib haha, yep, me too. in reply to BlokesLib #
- At a parent teacher night at abbeys Kindy for next year. So exciting. She is growing up. #
- @clembastow If it helps, I just realised I'm not the type of dude people want as Prime Minister... in reply to clembastow #
- wow... iTerm is such an enormous piece of crap. #
- @neerav 500 days is too long! Just think of what else they could destroy in that time! in reply to neerav #
- Have uploaded all Fiji snorkelling pics to flickr, including the shark that almost ate me... http://bit.ly/2TZQb7 #
- Reading: Hunting for Tuna: The Environmental Peril Grows http://bit.ly/3DoT2W @time #
- Started adding my Fiji shots to Flickr. First snorkelling trip is up. http://bit.ly/4EucXk #
- My horses vanished after a minute or so.. I reckon they just ducked out the side and went home. #melbournecup #
- Just found the 'Image Capture' app on Snowleopard.. Can tell it to stop opening iPhoto when my iPhone is connected. Thank God! #
- @brop You should probably take it off. Ticks lose their appeal after a day or two. in reply to brop #
- My two horses for the work Melbourne Cup sweeps here at work may as well already be glue. *sigh* #
- Optoma Pico Pocket Projector - SO freaking cool! http://bit.ly/3ENwGm #
- Read an awesome article in Time mag on the plane from Fiji about 4 day work weeks. http://bit.ly/1BQ8wn #
- http://twitpic.com/nzeha - About to land in Sydney. Looks cloudy. #