sides of march

Installing and configuring memcached and PHP on Windows

brian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:14:21 +0000

After upgrading the CSFBL forums to vBulletin 4.0, I noticed that performance was slightly worse than in the previous version. A little searching revealed that vBulletin supports memcached (an in-memory distributed caching system). Since I’ve got RAM to spare, I figured this is worth a shot.

Unfortunately, getting memcached running on the server (Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit) took a few tricks, and getting memached running through IIS/PHP was another. To help other people through the same process (and to remind myself in the future), I’ll share the installation and configuration steps that worked for me below.

Downloading and configuring memcached

The official distributions of memcached are written for Linux systems, so the first task is finding Windows binaries. The memcached project site, fortunately, has links to Windows binaries, which are hosted by NorthScale. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.

(Note that NorthScale also offers their own free distribution of memcached, but I was unable to get this to run on my system.)

Versions of memcached prior to 1.4.5 supported a command-line option that would register memcached as a Windows service (as in memcached -d install), but this option was removed in version 1.4.5. The simple alternative is to schedule memcached.exe to run using the Task Scheduler service (Windows 2008/Vista/7).

You can create a task to run memcached on system startup using the following command line:

schtasks /create /sc onstart /tn memcached /tr "'c:\dev\utils\memcached-amd64\memcached.exe' -m 128"

Note the -m 128 argument; this tells memcached to use up to 128MB of RAM. There are other command line arguments available; most useful aside from -m are -l (to specify what IP addresses to bind to) and -vv (to add verbose logging to the console, useful for testing).

Integrating memcached with PHP

In order for PHP to use memcached, you must download the PHP memcached library and add it as an extension to PHP.

PHP extensions can be downloaded from http://downloads.php.net/pierre. Many different extensions are in here; the one I used was php_memcache-5.2-nts-Win32-vc6-x86-20090408.zip. This extension matches two key requirements:

PHP version 5.2 (the version installed using the Web Platform Installer)
A non-thread-safe version of the extension (the version of PHP installed is not thread safe, which provides performance improvements using FastCGI)

Getting the right version of the extension is important; download the thread-safe version, or the PHP 5.3 version, and it simply won’t work.

Once downloaded, take the php_memcache.dll and put it in the ext folder in your PHP directory (for me, c:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\ext). Then, open the php.ini file (in your PHP directory) and add the following line to the end:

extension=php_memcache.dll

Restart IIS (from the command line, type iisreset), and if you did everything right, memcached should now be available to PHP. If you want to check, you can create a phpinfo page; if php_memcache is listed in the output, the extension is registered correctly.

Stop the “restart” popup from Windows Update

brian — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:12:41 +0000

I was busy typing away on my laptop yesterday when suddenly, a window flashed on the screen, quickly closed, and my computer began restarting.

The window was nothing other than the “Windows Update restart now” dialog box. I don’t know what the default button is, but considering windows will “click” on a button based on keystrokes, and I was typing at a fast pace (as I am known to do), I had no time to stop typing to avoid unintended activation of an unwanted feature.

In other words: Please tell me what moron would design an operating system that works this way?

In my ranting, I did manage to begin calling Microsoft to complain, a task I quickly gave up on due to its inevitable futility; instead, I focused on using my friend Google to find the best way to turn off the damned restart now prompting from Windows Update.

One of the most common suggested solutions was to turn off Windows Update. I didn’t want to do this, because I wanted Windows Update running (to tell me when updates are available but not to install them for me).

The best solution is to enable a setting named, “No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Update installation.” This should be turned on by default, but it isn’t. To do it, you can use the group policy editor, or you can hack the registry. Using the group policy editor is safer, unless you’re used to hacking the registry.

If you’re a Windows user, I highly recommend turning on this setting. Now that I have it turned on, I’ll avoid the inevitable five-minute rant on poor user experience design that comes around every time I install updates on my computer and resist the urge to restart immediately (which is all the time).

Quote for a Geek: The missing notepad

brian — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:17:18 +0000

Sometimes, geeks translate things in ways most people wouldn’t understand.

Geek #1: I can’t find my notepad. Geek #2: Look under c:\windows.

Simplicity 101: reducing clutter via minimalism

brian — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:58:29 +0000

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older is simplicity. Less confusion, less clutter, less distractions can yield less stress and more productivity. (Note: I appreciate it much more than I am actually successful at doing it.)

One area where simplicity is important is in web design. A recent article by Smashing Magazine, “Principles of Minimalist Web Design, With Examples,” does a fair job at illustrating the importance of simplicity on the web, even though it’s focus is more on graphical design (not my specialty!) than interface design.

A link in the aforementioned article goes to an article, “The Minimalist Principle: Omit Needless Things,” by zenhabits, which is the source of the remainder of my comments in this post.

An exercise in minimalism: reducing clutter

To do this exercise, you’re going to need a medium-sized box. Take your box and go into a room in your house (or office) that you want to simplify. Take a deep breath, and…

Step 1: Identify and Collect

Take a look around the room. (Don’t look inside drawers or cabinets; only take note of what you can see without interacting with anything.) Consider the importance and value of the items in it. After surveying, pick the item that you feel has the least importance and value and put it in the box.

Now, look around the room again. Pick the next least important/valuable item, and put it in the box. Repeat this process until the only items left in the room are ones you can not live without — they are too important or valuable to let go of.

To illustrate this exercise, I did it in my office at work. Looking around, I threw the following items in the box:

A half-empty bag of sunflower seeds
Three honey-herb Ricola throat lozenges
Half a tube of Ritz crackers
An AM/FM walkman with no headphones
A used iTunes gift card
Five white #10 envelopes
An empty box for a gooseneck desk lamp
A pile of papers and a manila folder which have been sitting untouched for at least six weeks
A stack of other people’s business cards
A small, empty plastic container
An empty stainless steel thermos

Step 2: Consider and Take Action

Sit down and take one item out of the box. Ask yourself the following five questions. Consider your answers and how they impact what you should do with that item.

When was the last time I needed, used, or noticed this item? If you haven’t used something in a long time, or taken notice of it, it’s something that you probably don’t need.
If not for this exercise, when would be the next time that I’d need, use, or notice this item? It’s one thing if you haven’t used it in a long time, and another if you don’t expect to use it for a long time, either.
Does it provide long-term sentimental value? Sentimental items are often hard to give up, so think hard about whether this one item will really be in your shoebox in your golden years (see below).
If it wasn’t here, would I miss it? That 5.25″ floppy disk hanging on my wall is a cool conversation piece, but I wouldn’t miss it if it was gone.
Can it be easily replaced? After all, I could always find another 5.25″ floppy disk, or another reason to start a conversation.

Depending on your answers to each question, you should start understanding how much you need and value each item. You may choose to re-purpose an item to a different room (my empty thermos goes into a kitchen cabinet), store it in a more appropriate place (envelopes in my desk drawer), or put it in your shoebox (see below).

If you conclude that you really don’t need an item, try selling it on Amazon or eBay or craigslist (if it has any resale value); otherwise, recycle it or toss it in the trash.

The Shoebox

In considering items with long-term sentimental value, I follow the shoebox principle: Everything I want to keep long-term for sentimental reasons must fit inside a single shoebox. If the shoebox is full, I must remove something in order to make room for something new.

This may sound draconian, but it yields two benefits. First, it gives you reason to visit your shoebox every now and then; second, it forces you to keep only the items that have the most value, and value the items you choose to keep.

(Fortunately for me, I wear size 12 shoes, so my shoebox is larger than average; I suggest folks with small feet get a shoebox from a large-footed friend or neighbor.)

What have you gained?

In the end, take a look around at the room you simplified. Odds are, it feels larger, is less cluttered and easier to clean, and ultimately more enjoyable to be in. Keep doing this for each room in your house and office. Taking before and after pictures helps visualize your progress. When all is said and done, you’ll have taken your first step to simplifying your life!

The waiting is the hardest part

Domain, data, or UI modeling?

brian — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:39:09 +0000

From “Domain Modeling or Data Modeling“:

Users do not care “objects”. They care UI, and the fact that the data on the UI are saved in databases. So, by definition, UI and the key data are the “business language”; objects are not.

I have seen the value of domain driven design, but my style lends itself mostly to UI modeling using mockups. This is probably a result of my upbringing: I’m not a trained computer programmer!

For me, user interface mockups are the most effective way to communicate concepts and start building an application. Normal business people (that is, everyone except computer programmers!) respond to a visual and interactive UI in a different way than an abstract object/data/domain model. UI mockups can be easily understood by any user, which improves feedback.

Installing Systems Center Essentials fails: “The specified domain does not exist or cannot be contacted.”

Running a Windows NT Domain / Active Directory Audit

Stop the email!

brian — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:11:18 +0000

Some days I get over a hundred emails. Often, 90% of those are a waste of my time, and that is after excluding junk mail and related marketing mumbo-jumbo. Why so much email fluff, not-quite-spam-spam? It’s because people don’t consider the human cost of sending an email.

The Email Cost Algorithm

To understand the productivity cost of an email, we need to consider the factors that go in to an email, and how they correlate to time.

First, some facts and assumptions regarding email reading speed.

All emails are intended to be read by all recipients.
The average American can read and comprehend at a rate between 250 and 400 words per minute.
People read about 25% slower on a computer screen than on paper.
We will assume the typical email reading speed is 250 words per minute.

Second, some facts and assumptions about email writing speed.

Every word in an email must be composed by the author.
Any text copy/pasted yields no net benefit to composition speed, since the author must first identify the source text and conduct the copy/paste operation.
The average computer user composes 19 words per minute.

Third, we’ll present some ancillary facts.

Typically, a person will spend 15-20 seconds reading a common email.
Typically, a person will spend 51 seconds reading a newsletter email.
The average worker in the US receives about 56 email messages per day.

You can take your best guess as to how much time email takes up based on all that information. My back-of-the-envelope guess is that the average worker will spend about 30 minutes a day composing email, and 30 minutes a day reading email.

That being said, how do you avoid wasting people’s time with email? By knowing when you should and should not send an email.

You should always send an email when:

It is after hours, there is no other way to get in touch with someone, and you must make sure they received information from you at a given time. (Example: A client wants to know that their server is back online. You bring it online at 4AM. Send them an email, unless they explicitly told you to call them and wake them up.)
You need a record of your correspondence or need to maintain an audit trail that can be used to prove (or disprove) facts in the future.

You should sometimes send an email when:

You need to send a file or files to one or more people. Before sending, consider other solutions, such as YouSendIt, ShareFile, or 2Large2Email, to send your files.
You are sending information to an large number of recipients and have no more efficient way to communicate to them. (Example: Your company has no intranet and you need to distribute a new HR policy. A better solution than email is to hire a web development company to build your intranet, then post the HR policy on the intranet.)

You should never send an email when:

Typing the email takes longer than picking up the phone, dialing a phone number, waiting for someone to answer, and saying what you need to say.
You are sending an email to people who don’t need to read it. If a recipient isn’t expected to provide feedback to your email, and the recipient doesn’t have a need to know the information contained in your email, they don’t need to receive it. In other words: carefully review every recipient in the To: and Cc: fields; if they don’t need to know, don’t waste their time.

Remember — if it isn’t important, don’t waste someone’s time with it; and if there’s a faster way to do it, do it the faster way.

Quote: How to manage a client’s expectations

brian — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:53:11 +0000

How to manage a client’s expectations:

It’s not about bending over backwards for the client. It’s about making the client think your bending over backwards when you’re not bending at all.

Not sure if I heard that from someone else or made it up myself, but I’m sure I learned it from someone much smarter than me!

Forcing users to choose a browser other than Internet Explorer doesn’t help them

brian — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:15:05 +0000

In the news this morning, I stumbled across an article, EU: 100 million Microsoft users to choose browser. Reading this, there were a few instances of questionable logic.

The first instance (emphasis added):

Microsoft is starting this month to send updates to Windows computers in Europe so that when computer users log on, they will see a pop-up screen asking them to pick one or more of 12 free Web browsers to download and install, including Microsoft.

Microsoft is allowing users to choose one of more than 12 free web browsers, because the EU didn’t like Microsoft bundling its own free web browser into Windows. Call me strange, but punishing a company to give something away for free because it blocks out other companies from giving their own products away for free strikes me as odd.

The second instance (emphasis added):

The EU’s executive commission said giving consumers the chance to try an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser that comes with the widely used Windows operating system would “bring more competition and innovation in this important area.”

Wait, didn’t we just read that there are “more than 12 free web browsers”? That doesn’t sound like lack of competition and innovation to me at all. How many industries offer a choice of over a dozen free items? None that I can think of.

I am aware of Microsoft’s predatory practices in the web browser arena, particularly related to the browser wars between them and Netscape. Microsoft muscled out Netscape by giving away its browser for free, something Netscape didn’t do until early 1998. Isn’t that a good thing for consumers? Further, client software (such as Navigator) was a small portion of Netscape’s revenues, and at the time, “Netscape has successfully shifted its business over the past year toward enterprise software sales and to revenues from its Web site business, and away from standalone client revenues” (source: Mitchell’s Blog). If Netscape was successful in transitioning away from a client product, but ultimately failed in the enterprise marketplace, why is Microsoft being punished?

In the end, Microsoft was penalized for providing a product for free – and forcing the market leader to ultimately transform their business (“successfully”) and offer their own (similar) product for free. The fact is, Microsoft’s efforts were largely responsible for the explosion of free web browser alternatives – yet the EU still feels a need to punish them because there is “[not enough] competition and innovation in this area,” as they say.

Final point: let’s not mention the pain and suffering that novice users will have after installing other browsers, wondering where their bookmarks went, and wondering why they are being prompted to (re-)install Adobe Flash so they can play YouTube videos.

Some things are better left alone. This is one of them.

Choose your passengers wisely

brian — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:22:21 +0000

I commute to work five days a week, via train and ferry, and in each of those days I rub elbows with hundreds of fellow passengers. Fortunately, I often get a seat, which is helpful as I am on those trains and ferries for 60 minutes (each way!).

There are plenty of well-known rules when commuting, and I try to respect them all: be reasonably quiet, keep the headphone volume low, put your bags and packages at your feet or on your lap, don’t eat, and similar courtesies. One rule of commuting that is not well-known is related to how to choose what passenger you sit next to during your commute — and that is today’s topic.

Though I don’t do it as often now, I occasionally take (and used to always take) an express bus to work. These buses have four seats across, facing forward, split into pairs by an aisle. On an express bus, choosing a passenger to sit next to is easy: find the smallest person with reasonable hygiene who is not yapping on a cell phone. More often than not, this means an attractive woman. (I do not have bias to women; it is just that they are often smaller than men, and when given a choice, I would prefer to sit next to the more attractive one. My wife may not be pleased, but I have no doubt she understands; for years, she was a daily express bus passenger, and undoubtedly had guys sitting next to her for similar reasons.)

Picking the person who sits at your side on a 60-minute bus ride can make a big difference. Pick the right person, and you enjoy a pleasant commute (and maybe a follow-up dinner or movie, if you play your cards right). Pick the wrong person, and your commute can be a miserable one.

The same holds true for life. We must pick our passengers wisely and carefully. The people who sit by your side can make the difference between happiness and sadness, achievement and failure, passion and despair, a good fit or a bad fit.

So the next time you are alone, out in the world, looking for a seat, wondering what passenger to ride withm think about your ideal, and find the best match. You’ll be glad you did.

2009: A personal retrospective

brian — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:48:04 +0000

As is usual, I find myself sitting in front of a computer in the late evening. This evening is, of course, different than most. It is January 1, 2010, the first day of a new year, and the first day of a new decade. (In reality it is January 2, 2010, because it’s after midnight, but in my world the day doesn’t change until I go to sleep, which is often well after midnight.)

With an empty beer bottle in front of me, I find myself thinking back on the year that ended, and the highlights and lowlights it brought me…

Not changing jobs in the course of a calendar year for the first time since 2004.
It’s hard to believe to most people, but it is true: 2009 was the first time in the past five years that I didn’t change jobs during the calendar year. As of today, I have been employed by the same company for 13 months. With 14 jobs in the past 18 years, averaging one year and three months per job, if past history repeats itself, I will be expected to change jobs this year. As they say in the financial world, past history is not a predictor of future results… but we’ll see what happens.
A new addition to the family: Jessica Emma DeMarzo!
Born on February 20, 2009, Jessica is absolutely adorable, with the biggest cheeks on a baby that I’ve ever seen, and with blue eyes that are nothing short of astounding. For nearly four years, my older daughter, Alyssa, was our only child; in an instant, when Jessie arrived, everything changed. To experience again the wonderful experience of bringing a baby into the world, and to add to that the experience of seeing your own daughter become a sister (and a big sister at that) is nothing short of heart-stopping. Having had one child for quite some time, and now having two, I can tell you this: if you have the means and the opportunity, don’t have just one child, if not for yourself or your spouse, but for your children. It’s a lot of work, but the rewards are immeasurable.
Realizing the limits of what I can do.
Sometime back when I was in my early 20s, my mother warned me of burning the candle at both ends. I’ve burned the candle at both ends ever since, and the burning has only gotten more intense as I’ve gotten older, with more demanding jobs and a family to care for. For the first time, I can honestly say that I think I’ve reached the limit of what I can do. Maybe it’s me getting older, maybe it’s the increasing demands that life puts on me, maybe it’s the increasing demands that I put on myself. Reaching the limit doesn’t mean I am going to stop pushing myself; instead, I’ll put a greater emphasis on prioritizing and focusing my energy most effectively, and I’ll take more time for myself every now and then to recharge the batteries.

The funny thing about reaching the limit of what you can do is that it doesn’t stop you from doing more. My plans for 2010:

Put the band back together. I’ve been an on-and-off musician throughout my adult life, and have been largely out of the music thing for nearly a decade. No longer; I’ve picked up the guitar and started tickling the ivories once again, and plan to be in a band that is ready to play gigs by the end of the year. I also plan on resuming the classical guitar lessons that I abandoned 17 years ago.
Finish rewriting CSFBL — really! For nearly four years I’ve been talking about and working (on-again, off-again) on rewriting my baseball game, CSFBL. It’s time to get it done, and this year, one way or another, it’s going to happen. I have some traction and a game plan, so for the first time, I can go into a new year with a feeling that the end of the rewrite journey is within my grasp. For the sake of the thousands of people who have stuck with the game for all these years, I had better deliver!
Getting involved in local politics. Those that know me personally know that this has been something in the back of my head for a long time. Late in 2009, I hooked up with some folks of the Libertarian Party, and I’m in the process of working with them to start a chapter in my home town. I’m still not convinced this is my final political resting place; though I am more Libertarian than Republican, I also have concerns about the limitations of a third political party in a two-party system. Still, I will be at the first meeting of the Staten Island Libertarian Party on January 6, 2010, and we’ll see where it takes us. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll see my name on a voting ballot? (I’d hope you’d consider voting for me!)
Clearing up the book back-log. I just got a Kindle, so I really have to start getting through the pile of books waiting to be read. If necessary I will cut out reading some magazines, at least temporarily. I’m sure the folks at Discover or Scientific American will understand, so long as it is temporary.

This is all very interesting to me, but who else cares? What does Joe Average care about my New Year retrospectives? Why do I write on this blog, anyway?

Everything I’ve written in this blog has a target audience.

The tech articles are intended for the tech audience, in hope that I spare them some of the pain that I’ve experienced.
The opinion articles are intended to give people a perspective which, hopefully, they feel is thoughtful and worthy of consideration.
The personal articles are written in part for my friends and family (though few actually read them)… but mostly for my children. I hope that some day they can read this and learn things about their father that I forgot to tell them, or that I had forgotten altogether.

In the end, this blog is the best legacy I have to my children. It is about me, what I’ve experienced in life, what I’ve learned; this blog is here for me to share the many different sides of me, the “Sides of DeMarzo”… and anyone who knows a little Spanish will know that “de marzo” translates to “of march” – hence, the “sides of march.”

So thanks to all those who have the patience to sit through my maximum verbosity. I hope you learn something about yourself through my experiences. In any event, a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to all, and to all a good night!