Microsoft to Aquire Powerset
Posted by kev Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:55:00 GMT
There’s details here. Sounds like they’re keeping us intact, and there’s something to be said about having an additional 10k machines behind you.
We’ll see what happens.
Holy God, Powerset Launches
Posted by kev Mon, 12 May 2008 06:21:00 GMT
We’re out, searching Wikipedia and FreeBase. Proud doesn’t begin to describe my feelings about what’s been created. I think it speaks for itself, and I’ve been using it instead of Wikipedia for the last few months.
Some people even seem to really get it. And that’s an amazing high.
Huge thanks are not only due to the Powerset team (I love working with these people), but also to all of the open source projects we’re making use of. Hadoop. HBase. Thrift. Ruby. Merb. Rails. god. Mongrel. Mootools. RabbitMQ. The ActiveMessaging Project. Memcache and MemcacheDB. Erlang. Fuzed. YAWS. Countless others. All those people who take the time to answer our questions, and respond to our bugs, and consider our patches, and write interesting articles, and make our code better. You guys rock, and we couldn’t do it without you. So much love is heading in your direction right now. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I’m exausted, and going to bed. Good night, and good luck. And try the app. I’m stoked.
TechCrunch's Twitter Article Translated from Arrington-Speak
Posted by kev Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:19:00 GMT
With apologies to Gruber.
Original text from TechCrunch.
It doesn’t really matter if Twitter’s Chief Architect Blaine Cook was fired or resigned. The important thing is that he’s gone now, and this gives Twitter the opportunity to hire someone (or a team) who may actually be able to scale the nearly two year old service and keep it live.
I haven’t done any research or spoken to anyone about it, so don’t ask, but I have found a scapegoat.
Cook was directly responsible for scaling Twitter, and he very much failed in his job.
Twitter is down sometimes, and I’m angry about it.
A year ago he spoke at the Silicon Valley Ruby Conference about scaling Rails applications. His presentation suggested Twitter’s problems were behind them, but in fact some of their biggest stumbles hadn’t occurred yet. Note in particular slide 9 of that presentation, where Cook says about scaling Rails apps like Twitter: “It’s Easy. Really.”
I found a posted slide from a public conference during my “investigative reporting phase. Oh, and Twitter is on Rails, and I can blame Rails. It’s Easy. Really.
Whether Twitter’s woes were all on Cook’s shoulders or not, he should not have been boasting about solving the problem last year.
I’m high as a kite.
Meanwhile, Twitter has made at least three key hires this year on the technical side. Lee Mighdoll joined as VP Engineering and Operations in January. And this week they hired two scaling experts - John Kalucki and Steve Jenson (”known for his work scaling Blogger and Blogspot”).
And they hired someone, yada yada yada, sprinkle random facts in so nobody notices my complete incompetence. Perfect!
Really Simple Git Deployment with Vlad
Posted by kev Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:13:00 GMT
Just drop this in your Rakefile. This is slightly modified from something I’m using in production.
Disect! Enjoy! Explanation (read: spoilers) after the jump.
##############################################################################
# Deploy
##############################################################################
begin
require 'rake_remote_task'
APP_NAME = "someapp"
DEPLOY_ROOT = "/usr/local/share/applications/#{APP_NAME}"
ON_DEPLOY_RESTART = ["someappd"]
role :app_server, "myserver.com"
def archive
commit = `git-rev-list --max-count=1 --abbrev=10 --abbrev-commit HEAD`.chomp
file = "#{APP_NAME}-#{commit}.tar.gz"
end
def restart_daemons
ON_DEPLOY_RESTART.each do |app|
run "sudo god restart #{app}"
end
end
namespace :deploy do
task :build do
sh "git archive --format=tar HEAD | gzip > #{archive}"
end
remote_task :push => :build do
rsync archive, "/tmp"
end
desc "Install a release from the latest commit"
remote_task :install => :push do
date_stamp = Time.now.strftime("%Y%m%d")
last_release = run("ls #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/rels | sort -r | head -n 1").chomp
if last_release =~ /#{date_stamp}\-(\d+)/
serial = $1.to_i + 1
else
serial = 0
end
rel = ("%d-%02d" % [date_stamp, serial])
rel_dir = "#{DEPLOY_ROOT}/rels/#{rel}"
run "sudo mkdir -p #{rel_dir}"
run "sudo tar -xzvf /tmp/#{archive} -C #{rel_dir} && rm -rf /tmp/#{archive}"
run "sudo ln -s -f -T #{rel_dir} #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/current"
restart_daemons
end
desc "Rollback to the previous release"
remote_task :rollback do
current_link = run("ls -alF #{DEPLOY_ROOT} | awk '/current -> .*/ { print $NF }'").chomp
current = File.basename(current_link)
releases = run("ls #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/rels | sort -r").split("\n")
previous = releases.find {|rel| current > rel}
raise "No previous release" if previous.nil?
run "sudo ln -s -f -T #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/rels/#{previous} #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/current"
restart_daemons
puts "Moved to #{previous}"
end
desc "Rollforward to the next release"
remote_task :rollforward do
current_link = run("ls -alF #{DEPLOY_ROOT} | awk '/current -> .*/ { print $NF }'").chomp
current = File.basename(current_link)
releases = run("ls #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/rels | sort -r").split("\n")
next_rel = releases.find {|rel| current < rel}
raise "No next release" if next_rel.nil?
run "sudo ln -s -f -T #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/rels/#{next_rel} #{DEPLOY_ROOT}/current"
restart_daemons
puts "Moved to #{next_rel}"
end
end
rescue LoadError => e
puts "NOTE: Install vlad to get Kevin's awesome deployment tasks"
endpostgresql gem on Leopard stock gem system
Posted by kev Sun, 23 Dec 2007 01:24:00 GMT
This fails horribly.
The solution is to make sure you’re only building for your architecture:
Odysseus:ext kev$ sudo -s
bash-3.2# ARCHFLAGS='-arch i386' gem install postgres
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed postgres-0.7.9.2007.12.22
Installing ri documentation for postgres-0.7.9.2007.12.22...
Installing RDoc documentation for postgres-0.7.9.2007.12.22...Rubinius Runs Mongrel
Posted by kev Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:40:00 GMT
Reposted from my message to rubinius-dev. Congrats to the whole Rubinius team. This was entirely a group effort, and one hell of an achievement.
Here's the first Mongrel handler running on Rubinius:
http://pastie.caboo.se/paste/asset/126441/Picture_4.png
From this code:
$:.unshift "/Users/kev/code/mongrel/mongrel-1.1.1/lib"
puts "Requiring mongrel"
require 'mongrel'
class HelloHandler < Mongrel::HttpHandler
def process(request, response)
response.start(200) do |head, out|
head["Content-Type"] = "text/html"
out.write "Hello World! I'm running on Rubinius!"
end
end
end
server = Mongrel::HttpServer.new("0.0.0.0", 3000)
puts "Started Server"
server.register("/hello", HelloHandler.new)
puts "Registered handler"
t = server.run
t.join
***THE CATCH (as this may be viewed by many people)***
This isn't completely complete. rb_global_variable was #define'd out
to do nothing (so no garbage collection on the global vars), and there
was a slight modification from the trunk to make global aliasing
ignore the fact that the globals just weren't there. Mongrel's
http11.c was also _slightly (very very slightly)_ modified to use the
rb_str_get_char_* methods we've decided to move to from RSTRING()->ptr
and RSTRING()->len, and I haven't gotten around to defining ALLOC_N
yet, so it was changed to a simple malloc. That's it though.
And it seems to run. And I feel like I need to run around the block.
It's in 9976301ba.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!Secret Incantations
Posted by kev Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:03:00 GMT
Install the do_postgres gem against postgresql82 on MacPorts:
Make sure that /opt/local/lib/postgresql82/bin/ is in your path. You need pg_config easily accessible. Then run:
sudo gem install do_postgres -- --with-pgsql-include-dir=/opt/local/include/postgresql82/ --with-pgsql-lib=/opt/local/lib/postgresql82/
Autotest with Rspec on Merb with a Leopard install using the supplied Ruby (whew)
This will break because it can’t find the “spec command”. It searches the configured bin directory, which with the supplied ruby is /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin.
ln -s /usr/bin/spec /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/spec
Depth First Search
Posted by kev Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:24:00 GMT
Because I hadn’t implemented DFS in Ruby before, and it’s just so damn easy.
Update: Phillip rightly pointed out in the comments that with the yield at the end, it’s actually post-order traversal, not depth first search per se.
class TreeNode
attr_reader :name
def initialize(name)
@name = name
@children = []
end
def add_node(node)
@children << node
end
def each_depth_first
@children.each do |child|
child.each_depth_first do |c|
yield c
end
end
yield self
end
end
# root - a - b
# \ \
# e - f c - d
# \
# g
root = TreeNode.new("root")
root.add_node( a = TreeNode.new("a"))
a.add_node( b = TreeNode.new("b"))
a.add_node( c = TreeNode.new("c"))
c.add_node( d = TreeNode.new("d"))
root.add_node(e = TreeNode.new("e"))
e.add_node(f = TreeNode.new("f"))
e.add_node(g = TreeNode.new("g"))
root.each_depth_first do |child|
puts child.name
end
# produces:
# b
# d
# c
# a
# f
# g
# e
# rootThis is too entertaining not to share
Posted by kev Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:08:00 GMT
I’ve apparently “hacked” someone’s unborn children. Or something.
And, among the lists of names, includes someone who goes by the name of Kevin Clark. And, if you were to take it even one step further, and INVESTIGATE this person, you would also come to the conclusion that he is a computer hacker who resides (or has resided) in San Francisco before. Another coincidence, I suppose?
Update: She says in one of her latest comments that she has a gun now. It’s amusing, but please do not poke/provoke her. Look, but do not touch.
Update 2: She’s still accusing me of multiple felonies, but seems to have leveled off. I don’t think she’s going to track me down at this point. Woo personal safety. Oh, and technorati is apparently involved now:
I believe Mr. Clark is somehow routing fake websites through technorati via powerset and is doing something illegal.
13 New SD Ruby Podcasts Up
Posted by kev Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:04:00 GMT
They’re all up at once. Wow.
Mine felt good, but it’s long. Rather long. 50 minutes fairly non-stop, ~600 megs long. Find some time before watching.
Episode 036: The Return of Kevin Clark Kevin Clark takes a break from Powerset to give a full-throttle talk on using Merb as a JSON-RPC service, god, gem2rpm, and heckle. Episode 035: ActiveRecord Backup & MimetypeFu Matt Aimonetti demonstrates his newest plugins: ActiveRecord Backup and MimetypeFu. Episode 034: Intro to JRuby Brian Chapados shows how to install and work with the latest JRuby release. Episode 033: Life on Edge If you’re a Rails junkie, you’ll want to develop on Edge Rails. Matt Clark explains how to get started and shares some of the challenges of working on Edge. Episode 032: Capistrano Rob Kaufman takes on Capistrano 2. What is it? How does it work? What’s changed since version 1? Episode 031: Seaside Roger Whitney explores Seaside, the web application framework based on Smalltalk. Episode 030: Tuneshelf Dominic Damian talks about his experiences building Tuneshelf, a web application that allows music fans to keep track of their favorite music albums. Episode 029: Big Stinking Piles (of data) What do you do when third-party data vendors don’t speak REST? Rob Kaufman discuss real-world techniques for importing and exporting data. (This talk was also given at RailsConf 2007.) Episode 028: Simple Sidebar Plugin Ryan Felton shows how to use Simple Sidebar plugin to DRY up sidebar content in applications. Episode 027: Headliner and Styler Patrick Crowley talks about his newest plugins: Headliner and Styler. Episode 026: ActsAsSolr Rob Kaufman shows how easy it is to integrate Solr powered search into your Rails application using the ActsAsSolr plugin. Episode 025: Ajax CSS Star Rating with ActsAsRateable Ryan Felton shows off how to build an Ajax-powered, CSS star rater using the ActsAsRateable plugin and Komodo Media’s CSS Star Rating Redux technique. Episode 024: Using Ruby + Amazon SQS to build backdoors Brian Chapados talks about using Ruby and Amazon’s Simple Que Service web service to build backdoors into systems.
