Web Performance Tuning

I just came across this very good article on web performance from Steve Souders over at Yahoo.

Thirteen Simple Rules for Speeding Up Your Web Site

Of course, tuning your UI code isn't always enough to get optimal performance out of your web application (there's a lot of other things to look at in even a simple web application) but it usually can help pretty dramatically given how small the changes often are. So, while it's not the end all be all of web performance, know and implement the thirteen rules and you will be better off than you were before!

For those of you who have Firebug, you can also try their YSlow Firebug plugin. I'm going to give it a try.

At TripIt we've been using YUI pretty extensively. I have to say that I have been extremely impressed with the quality of Javascript and Javascript Tools the guys at Yahoo have been releasing to the public. Keep it up guys, we thank you!

A $1.9 Million Dollar Dime

The dime might have only been worth $1.9 million but the story is priceless:

'I didn't eat and I didn't sleep' -- Coin dealer flies dime worth $1.9 million to NYC

The only part I don't buy having done a fair amount of traveling lately is the part about how he got upgraded to first class.

TripIt Getting Coverage

Just saw this nice coverage of TripIt.

http://www.tretakoff.com/blogs/2007/07/dude-im-so-tripping.html

Python Tip of the Day

Have you ever wanted to sort the keys of a python dictionary by their values?

I wish I could take credit, but the credit must go to my dear friend AquaRapid. Check out this pythonic goodness:

[ x[0] for x in sorted(dictionaryToSortByKeyValues.items(),
                       lambda x, y: cmp(x[1], y[1])) ]

It's like a zipper, people!

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to California and started driving all of the time was that people have really bad instincts when it comes to driving and preventing unecessary traffic jams.

The top things I've observed about how people drive and how their behavior causes non-jams:

• Merging - Quite simply, people don't know how to merge. When you step back and think about it, it's really simple. Let the guy on your left go and then hope that the guy who was behind him let's you go. Don't try to cheat, it's like a zipper! If you cheat, the zipper gets stuck. The result is traffic where none should have occurred.



• Rubber-necking - When there's an accident on the other side of the road that doesn't effect the line of traffic you are in it seems that there is an irresistable human urge to slow down and try to figure out what happened instead of keeping your eyes on the road down which you are traveling.



• Go Faster! - Everytime you see that guy who has a need to be right on the tail of that guy in front of you you inevitably see him have to step on his brakes. If you're right behind this guy you inevitably are forced to step on your brakes so you don't rear-end him and you can bet that this process continues on throughout the line of cars following you. If everyone is stepping on their brakes, you can intuitively understand that there is going to be a traffic jam or an accident.
  

Moral of the story: slow down, keep your eyes on the road, and remember, it's like a zipper people!

See William Beaty's detailed and fascinating explanations of the mysteries of traffic here:

http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

Welcome to my Blog

I am going to try to begin a web log. Things that interest me that I may write about include technology, photography, politics, current events, and travel. I am new to blogging and but I am very curious about it and wanted to learn more about it. What better way to learn about something than to try it out. So, here we go...