Musings of a Trained Monkey: Tag stats

RubyGems dependency management and memory use...

Steve Longdo — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 06:30:00 +0000

I've been looking into the nebulous matter of Rails memory management lately, using Typo4 as my model app. In my research thus far I have noticed that several of the highest memory using items are from the RubyGems library. Particularly the Gem::GemPathSearcher object. After running a few days I have picked up five instances of it taking up nearly 8MB of RAM which is odd because the first time I profiled it there were only four of them. I am not sure why RubyGems needs to be in memory after the app initially loads, especially the ~1.5MB SourceIndex and the 352 Gem::Specification objects for another ~1.6MB. Seems like wiring of any dependencies could be done once at start up. I am not sure if this relates specifically to how Typo uses RubyGems or if all Rails apps incur the memory overhead penalty for RubyGems. If any one with knoweldge of the internal functioning of RubyGems would take the time to educate me on this it would be much appreciated. Also if someone could explain why RubyGems pops up at all since all Typo dependencies are deployed into the vendor folder.

Another one to watch is the slow accumulation of ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdpaters::MysqlColumn, up to 217 instances in memory. Not a particularly large memory hit, but they have steadily grown in number over the last few days. i may swith over to my Postgres database and see if the same thing happens with its connecton adapter.

Finally the allocation of Array objects is interesting. The number of instances in use has gone down by roughly -2000 instances but the memory use of the remaining Arrays has gone up by about 2MB. I need to explode these Arrays and see what they hold and why they stick around so long. Partial output of profiling included below:

Class x852(21194)
Gem::Version x709(24981)
ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::MysqlColumn x217(35410)
Regexp x1343(52312)
Gem::Dependency x309(53743)
Gem::Version::Requirement x662(59168)
Gem::SourceIndex x1(1563056)
Gem::Specification x352(1714117)
Hash x1257(1858255)
String x117204(3869923)
Gem::GemPathSearcher x5(7901012)
Array x6093(11102839)
TOTAL == 28496875

Please do share your experiences with Rails or RubyGems memory use in the comments.

Adobe Flex2 is out...

Steve Longdo — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:58:00 +0000

Apparently Adobe Flex2 is available for download today.

When Adobe first announced Flex 2 last fall, it said that it would make the core software development kit (SDK), which provides the core programmer tooling without the bells and whistles of a visual IDE, available for free. The SDK just released includes the framework itself, compiler, documentation, and a command line debugger.

It would be great to be able to use the free SDK compiler to make a simple AJAX driven 3D pie-chart not unlike the ones in Google Analytics. Adobe even provides an open source Flash-Ajax bridge project for linking AJAX activity to a swf file.

Has someone already done this or am I ahead of the curve?

Spreading faster than the bird flu...

Steve Longdo — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 03:07:00 +0000

Congratulations to Anchorage, Alaska for coming into the fold. Leaving just a few more states to go. As excited as I am to pick up another United State, something even cooler has happened: Norway. Thanks to the city of Bodø for stopping by.

Also a very special thanks to Shlomo(Toda Raba!, תודה רבה) for visiting from Israel!

So I think I am going to have reprioritize which countries to get to visit here next. I was thinking South America, but they are finding me on their own, Argentina, Brazil, and Chilé. Literally the ABC’s of South America have already stopped by. I would like to get a visit from Venezuela though. I traveled there many years ago. If anyone from there stops by I will try to find some of my old photos from Caracas and post them.

Geting visits from more countries that the US doesn’t get along with well would be neat. I noticed that I have had two visitors from Vietnam one even from Ho Chi Minh City. Strange to think about my father fighting there in the war and now people are beginning to exchange ideas and information again.

Next on the list Cuba, I am not sure what kind of internet access is allowed there, but I hope someone finds the way here. Visitantes agradables de Cuba.

I would be equally excited to pick up some traffic from the Korean Peninsula. Both North and South are welcome: 여보세요 한반도에서 방문자에.

Last but certainly not least Lichtenstein I am not sure if the anyone besides the Prince on the Hill has internet access there, but if so “Willkommen im voraus zu den Besuchern von Lichtenstein.” I think I have pictures from when I was there to post as well…

Yes I know the US gets along with South Korea and Lichtenstein… for now :-)

Click for larger size

AJAX Accordion...

Steve Longdo — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:50:00 +0000

I’ve added a little AJAX Accordion to my sidebar. You may have noticed I have a fasicination with where vistors to my site are located, geographically speaking. I will probably be posting an updated Google Analytics map in the next few days just to show my progress towards world domination.

Imagine my surprise to discover that while my good friends from Iceland have finally arrived (þakka þú), I haven’t even completed penetration of the entire United States!

As you can see from the new Visitors Sidebar there are ~~nine~~ seven states holding out on me. I would like to take this opportunity to see if anyone out there knows anyone from the University of Alaska – Fairbanks or University of Alaska – Anchorage, if so tell them to avoid further shaming Alaska by visiting me!

To digress for a moment, seriously Norway, what is the deal? I have been getting a lot of traffic from Finland, Sweden, and even Denmark, but you continue to elude my grasp and so now a special plea:

Norge hvorfor vil ikke du komme til besøk meg for www.stevelongdo.com? Er den språkbarrieren? Til tross forJEG er for gammel å delta JEG ville elske å besøk Oslo i løpet av Kanskje når det ‘russ’ festen er under utvikling.

For my English readers that is a little something like this:

Norway why won’t you come to visit me at www.stevelongdo.com? Is it the language barrier? Although I am too old to participate I would love to visit Oslo during May when the ‘russ’ celebration is in progress.

UPDATE: I picked up two states already! Welcome aboard South Dakota and Kansas. I will allow the sun to resume shining there immediately.

UPDATE2: I’ve received reports that the AJAX Accordion doesn’t like IE 6 or otherwise messes up the alignment of my content? I only tested with real browsers and it worked great with them. I don’t have a Windoze box at home so I will check it out tomorrow at work…

UPDATE3: I found documentation on this problem here and implemented a fix So the 12% of users browsing my site in IE can now see the text of the articles lined up correctly again. Seriously though join the other 88% of visitors using real browsers you can even use this one

North Atlantic update...

Steve Longdo — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 07:12:00 +0000

Google Analytics, shows that Finland has arrived and in a big way too (5 cities)! Not only do they have a president that looks like Conan O'Brien, they have good taste in websites too :-)

So Norway why are you still holding out on me? Oslo apparently says

..."the Norwegian market boasts one of the highest penetrations of mobile phones, personal computers (PCs) and Internet access in the world"...

so please won't you stop by here?

While I have never been to ReykjavÃk in person, I have long admired the spelling of the name of the capital of Iceland. Perhaps someone from there will drop by and admire the spelling of the name Longdo?

That would include everyone in the North Atlantic, except Greenland. They might want to consider featuring someone else on their tourist website though, I personally would be scared to run into this guy!
I didn't even mention that Honalulu, Hawaii and Dubai, U.A.E have made it here since last time! Everyone around the world, thanks for stopping by.

The Australians and New Zelanders have landed...

Steve Longdo — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 06:32:00 +0000

According to Google Analytics, visitor(s) have arrived from Australia and New Zealand. Exciting news!

Still no hits from Africa though...

Finland and Norway where are you? Sweden has made it. In fact nearly the entire EU has stopped by. As far as Germany goes, well I am almost as popular as Hasselhoff there. :-)

Have any friends in Africa or Australia?

Steve Longdo — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:04:00 +0000

I've been looking over my Google Analytics. While my quest for world domination is well on its way, I notice that the African continent is under represented. Also what is up with my good friends down under (you know who you are), give a brother a click now and then...