JQuery. Prototype. YUI. All popular, stable Javascript libraries, all open source. All downloaded tens of millions of times a day, identical code each time.
Why aren’t browsers bundling them? I don’t see any insoluble problems. If a site specifies a newer version than in the bundle, that could be used instead. They include Flash, after all.
Thin is the only standalone web server that’s compatible with both 1.8 and 1.9, so let’s test how they go head to head.
I did just the most cursory of tests, using a recent web site I’d been involved on, running Rails 2.3.2. Tests are with and without the DB turned on, which slowed us down by a factor of 10 and wasn’t testing Ruby so much as this dog-slow laptop disk anyway.
DB off:
1.9.1: 212.15 req/sec
1.8.6: 178.64 req/sec
DB on:
1.9.1: 23.53 req/sec
1.8.6: 19.49 req/sec
So for this particular (pretty simple) site, we get about a 10-15% speed increase, which is surprisingly little – it “feels” faster than that. I look forward to testing 1.9.1 further on more complex installations, and with Passenger. Locally, I’ve switched over to 1.9.1 for most development now, and will move over completely once Rails gets its fucking act together.
Came across by graduate student Joshua Greene, which attacks head-on some compelling questions about the nature – and definition(s) – of morality. A really interesting paper, despite its length, but the payoff for me in the short term was simply his proposal to split the word “moral” into two – moral(1) and moral(2). The ambiguity and confusion surrounding the word “moral” – and the dearth of alternatives – has long bothered me, as I do consider myself a moral person, but have had difficulty reconciling my conception of “morality” with, say, the malignant received “wisdom” of your average “moral majority” conservative Christian.
Anyway, he splits “moral” thusly:
moral(1): of or relating to the facts concerning right and wrong, etc. (ie, moral realism)
moral(2): of or relating to serving (or refraining from undermining) the interests of others (aka moral anti-realism)
Flash of lightning! I’d been searching for a word to adequately express my own outlook for longer than I care to admit – “altruistic” implies a more active “charity to the poor” stance, “ethical” doesn’t quite cover it. Moral anti-realist sounds too postmodern. But I can get on board with moral(2).
Anyway, if reading 400-page theses on Philosophy is your thing, definitely put this one on your list: by Joshua Greene.
Anyone else think this is a pretty weird inclusion in the ruby core distribution?
This output appeared on my console while tuning some CouchDB reduces.
Erlangst (n) : The fear that (subject) is not smart enough to program in, or even comprehend, the Erlang programming language.
related: Haskellitis, Lisp Cringe
Excited about the new Mac Pro ‘09? You will be if you live in Australia, where Apple offers the thrilling possibility of paying almost $6,000 for the base 8-core model:
But that’s the lowest speed CPU option, with two 2.26GHz CPUs. How about if we want the faster option, with 2.93GHz processors? Let’s configure that:
Over $10,000 dollars. No extra RAM, HD or indeed anything else – this is the emptiest box you can buy with the high-speed CPUs. And in fact a prudent buyer would expect it to be about $11,000 once he upgraded to the sweetest nearby spot, getting rid of the useless 1GB DIMMs which come with the “base” model, and adding a couple of other necessary items best factory installed, like a wireless card.
How many people do you know who spend $11k, or indeed even $6k, on a computer, in 2009?
DJ Kool + Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
Rock to the rhythm of the funky rhyme!
Lil’ “I Have Throat Cancer” Wayne + Sinead O’Connor.
It ain’t my birthday but I got my name on a cake!
Notorious Biggie Smalls meets Elton John in another in a series of my favourite parts of Girl Talk mixes, and also test playback techniques for future use. Kind of weird timing on the editing, sorry, I should have let it play out longer.
It was all a dream! I used to read Word Up Magazine!
From Night Ripper, track 4, Too Deep. You should be able to click to play the below mp3 in place, without leaving this page.
I left in the preceding 16 bars so it’s not too jarring.
Please bear with me while I test JS music players and CSS combinations for future and external use.