Last fall it was Chrome. Now it’s Safari 4 Beta. Soon it will be Firefox 3.1 and IE 8. Each browser has its harsh critics and fervent supporters. But in the end, does the browser really matter? The answer to this question depends on who you speak to. Developers will say yes, because browsers m...

Well, it’s done. After a week of trying this and that, I finally got DSL (DamnSmallLinux) rolling on the Fujitsu B2131 last night. To remind folks what the challenge was (and is for some of the linux dev teams out their who claim to support older platforms): Install a fully-functioning OS on a...

Budgets are shrinking. Resources are tight or shrinking. In a recent post, I discussed how ideas that I had been a proponent of for 2-3 years suddenly became extremely valuable to companies during the downturn of 2001-2003. This downturn is a different beast. This means that you will need more than ...

In the end, it’s all about performance. And when times get hard and budgets get tight, performance should be high on the list of online businesses. The issue that I see when I work with online firms is that the first item to be on the chopping block is the performance budget. Performance appea...

On a fine July day, a local man runs into a neighborhood bar carrying a stack of pamphlets, and wearing the hat announcing a new service. His beaming smile and easy attitude made the rest of the patrons want to listen to him. “I have seen the greatest new thing in the history of our species,&#...

In the first part of this series, using Web performance measurements to generate new customers was the topic. This article focuses on using the same data to keep the customers you have, and make them believe in the value of your service. Proving the Point Getting a customer is the exciting and glamo...

Flying back from SFO after a long and frustrating week introduced me to a new rule that UAL gate staff have been asked to start enforcing. Apparently, my Premier status, which I realize is the lowest of the frequent-flyer levels, means even less now than it did in the past. Over my career, I had set...

Yes, it’s YATPBP (Yet Another Twitter Performance Blog Post). About 10 days ago, I turned GrabPERF loose on Twitter. Now before you accuse this of crippling the service and bringing it to its knees, realize that GrabPERF simply requests a document over HTTP about two times a minute. No additio...

Well, back to dreaming. It (very briefly) looked like I might be able to get my MacBook Pro (a constant whining theme here). But, again, it fell through. Reality kicked in and the money went to where it was really needed. Maybe I’ll score a consulting gig or something to help with this… ...

Many, many years ago, I started my depressing voyage through the world of work at an Overwaitea food store in my home town. As a teenager, I expected to work so weird hours, and accept some level of abuse from the “adults” I worked with. However, it seems that the organization now expect...