In 2004-2005, as a lark, I created my own Web performance measurement system, using PERL, PHP and MySQL. In August 2005, I managed to figure out how to include remote agents.

I dubbed it…GrabPERF. An odd name, but an amalgamation of “Grab” and “Performance” that made sense to my mind at the time. I also never though that it would go beyond my house, a couple of basement servers, and a cable modem.

In the intervening three years, I have managed to:

• scale the system to handle over 250 individual measurements
• involve nine remote measurement locations
• move the system to the Technorati datacenter
• provide key operational measurement data to system visitors

Although the system lives in the Technorati datacenter and is owned by them, I provide the majority of the day-to-day maintenance on a volunteer basis, if only to try and keep my limited coding skills up.

But this post is not about me. It’s about GrabPERF.

Thanks to the help of a number of volunteers, I have measurement locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington DC, Boston, Portugal, Germany and Argentina.

While this is a good spread, I am still looking to gather volunteers who can host a GrabPERF measurement location. The areas where GrabPERF has the most need are:

• Asia-Pacific
• South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh)
• UK and Continental Europe
• Central Europe, including the ancestral homeland of Polska

It would also be great to get a funky logo for the system, so if you are a graphic designer and want to create a cool GrabPERF logo, let me know.

The current measurement system requires Linux, cURL and a few add-on Perl modules. I am sure that I could work on other operating systems, I just haven’t had the opportunity to experiment.

If you or your organization can help, please contact me using the GrabPERF contact form.

Don’t really need to explain this, do we?

Via Core77 and LuxuryLaunches

Dell:

You just missed on a chance to over-deliver to me.

I got my brand-new Dimension E310 on Monday — ok, it’s Samantha’s computer and it has been sitting in a box all week because I have been in San Francisco.

I get home, fire it up, throw in the wireless card and works like a charm.

Except for one VERY annoying thing: the ATI TV tuner card doesn’t work. And this is the whole reason I chose an XP Media Edition machine. Media Edition doesn’t even detect the card; it simply doesn’t exist.

And no, I will not call support, because the machine should not have left the factory without being tested. And Dell knows that its support is not world-class. I will just yank the TV tuner out — and write a blog post about it.

Dell, you ALMOST had me sold that you could get it right.

This is the last Dell I buy.

UPDATE (Mar 26 2006): Ok, I sent an e-mail to Dell support, and THEY CAME THROUGH! They are going to send out a technician to replace the TV Tuner card. This should be interesting…

UPDATE (Mar 28 2006): Dell Tech came out and replaced the TV tuner card. No luck. Dell’s helpful response to the tech: re-install the operating system.

No. I don’t think so.

DELL: Replace the machine…NOW!

Technorati Tags: Dell, ATI TV Tuner, customer dissatisfaction

I have been sitting at Gate 86 at SFO watching a little drama that gets played out thousands of times a day around the world. I call it the Hierarchy of Assumed Privilege.

The direct flight from SFO to Boston (the one I am not on) was full; nay, bursting.

Yet there were executive-types who were ANGRY at the counter staff when they couldn’t get their upgrades. The ones that they assume they are entitled to.

This is a completely asinine view of the world. Yes you support one airline and fly it a lot, and spend a lot of money with them. But unless you originally BOUGHT the (business|first)-class ticket in the first place, and those seats are gone, why are you venting your unnecessary frustration onto the one person who might be able to help you.

I have to laugh at people who use the anger card to try and get what they want. It shows that they don’t have anything left in their arsenal, and they don’t know that graciously accepting that they won’t get the upgrade may see them get treated in a more positive way, getting some upgrade of whatever kind is available.

Humans have to understand that we are all the same. We are all norn, and we all die. And thinking that what you do entitles you to be better than the rest means that you have failed as a human.

Technorati Tags: SFO, privilege, business-class, first-class, humanity

I land at SFO.

I think we landed on the runway; hard to tell the difference between the ocean and the runway.

The sky over the city looks menacing from Burlingame.

Time to hunker down and do some work.

Technorati Tags: SFO, San Francisco, Bay Area, Burlingame

Looks like I will be in the Bay Area next week (Mar 20-23). I am giving a full day training on Thursday, and meeting with customers between San Francisco and San Jose before then.

It will be good to get back to the old stomping grounds for a few days.

Most likely I will be arriving Monday, flying out late Thursday night.

– Arrive: Monday Mar 20 2006
– Day trip to LA: Tuesday Mar 21
– Client meetings: Wednesday Afternoon Mar 22 2006
– All-day Client Training: Thursday Mar 23 2006
– Depart: Red-eye Evening Thursday Mar 23 2006

Technorati Tags: Travel, Bay Area, San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, San Mateo

Old is such a relative thing.

Where I grew up, in the British Columbia Interior, an old building is one that dates from between 1860 and 1900.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, you might see some buildings from the 1840s, maybe some Spanish ones that are older.

In Massachussetts/New England, there are some buildings that date from the 1620-1640.

In the UK, the new church in a village may have been constructed in 1610, to replace the one built in 1078.

In Cairo or Jerusalem, people don’t blink when you say that you live in a house built in 948 AD.

Old is so relative…and so fleeting.

Technorati Tags: old, age, historic

Thanks to the efforts of Paul Querna, GrabPERF is the proud receiver of data from the San Francisco Ask.com measurement agent.

Thanks to the powers that be at Ask.com, and I look forward to seeing lots of good data in the future!

Technorati Tags: GrabPERF, Web Performance, Ask, Ask.com, Paul Querna

So, the move to the new datacenter is complete. We finished off the final changes last night | early this morning, and the Web server and database are now running on a big fat pipe at 365 Main in downtown San Francisco.

How did I spring for new hardware and hot hosting? Well, I had a little help from some Friends of GrabPERF — Technorati.

About 3 months ago, Dave Sifry contacted me when we went through our last financial crisis and offered to host the whole kit and kaboodle. He put me in contact with Adam Hertz, who turned me over to Camille Riddle.

After driving Camille and her team nuts for two months, we switched everything over starting at about 23:30 EST (04:30 GMT) last night. There were a few hic and burps, and the DNS propagation may take a while to reach some of the most distant folks, but this morning, I issued the final “poweroff” command to my home-based Web server.

I want to thank the Technorati team for all if their help, and I look forward to continuing to deliver quality data to the blog community.

Niall Kennedy talks about the Technorati side here, along with a funky pic of the old GrabPERF datacenter.

Technorati Tags: datacenter, GrabPERF, Technorati, 365 Main

A very insightful article on the clustering of wealth and innovation around the world, riffing on a theme by Friedman. [here]

I firmly believe this concept. I have lived three cluster areas — Vancouver-Victoria, BC; San Francisco – San Jose Metro; Boston Metro — and the level of innovation and original thinking here is unparalleled. When I travel to non-cluster cities, I am always stunned by how far out on the edge I feel; and I am boring and a follower.

It is also interesting, as a side-note, to mention the political leanings of the cluster cities. If you are talking geography, do these clusters tend to be more open to change, more welcoming of difference, and (at least in the Excited States) seen as more “liberal”?

Lisa, does Bill have a blog yet?