Sunday, September 12, 2004

Popularity doesn't scale I could have quoted from any of a numbers of posters about the RSS non-scaling non-controversy, but Dare offers a round-up of the bleating masses The RSS Sky is Falling...Again.This is becoming a broken record. Every couple of months some web site that hasn't properly prepared for the amount of bandwidth consumed by having a popular RSS feed loudly complains and the usual suspects complain that RSS is broken. [Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life] Sure, RSS doesn't scale. It doesn't not scale either. All of the problems with scaling have thus far been shown to depend on nothing particular to RSS. Scoble attemps to show RSS not scaling a) generating a gedankenexperiment where hits on the RSS are a fixed factor greater than HTML hits, and b) by quoting figures that the bandwidth consumed by RSS requests (for what site I'm not sure) per month is growing at a much faster rate that bandwidth for HTML. The former shows exact parity in scaling between RSS and HTML, while the latter fails to factor in the relative popularity of RSS versus HTML readers. If new traffic for RSS is N times new traffic for HTML, but new requestors of RSS are 10 times new requestors for HTML , this is also parity in scaling between RSS and HTML. There are attempts to blame the automated nature of  RSS requests, but HTML can be and is requested by machine as well. Either way, requests at regular intervals may affect the absolute value of the traffic but bear no relation to the scaling of the traffic growth. Certainly Amdahl's law would tell you that if RSS is a significatly larger portion of  your traffic that it may be worth while applying some RSS specific fixes. However, the discussion is not really about a scaling problem in the sense that the proposed solutions do not affect scaling. If requests are still growing exponentially, reducing response size may delay the point at which you hit any particular traffic level but it cannot prevent it. This is independant of  what the response is, and also independant of the absolute size of the response. 10:42:15 AM     Categories: Pushing rectangles... Radio

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radaR's LiveJournal   3:45PM PST Artists are scary. Animaris Rhinoceros Transport: Not your typical day at the beach. We know this unhinged, genius Dutch artist created these At-At-Walker-looking creatues just so he could play lion-master with his walking stick (argh, stay back unruly beasts!), but that’s definitely the first thing we would do if we encountered one of these creatures lumbering around the beach. The artist created these skeleton things, which he named Animaris Rhinoceros Transport, out of a steel skeleton and polyester skin and since they’re almost 5 meters tall they actually move (must look at the videos) by wind power. The Animaris’ weigh about 2 tons each and can carry passengers, though the artist says that he’s going to make living quarters in the beast since travel can only be accomplished during strong winds. Right, good thinking, the artist also wants to set the beasts free on nearby beaches so that they can “live their own lives”. Alright so he’s completely loopy, but in that brilliant “It’s Alive!” kind of way.[Via Near Near Future][Engadget] By radar@poboxes.com. Can you tell us, Jimmy Swaggart, when it is okay to lie to your god?. Moment of Jimmy Swaggart Zen. Xeni Jardin: During a recently broadcast sermon in which he discussed his opposition to gay marriage, evangelical telepreacher Jimmy Swaggart said: "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died." Link (via Warren) [Boing Boing] By radar@poboxes.com. Stoopid peeple. A Little Short on Those Risk Assessment Skills (or: Expectant Mom of the Year). Bonus reading: Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article Big and Bad: How the S.U.V. ran over automotive safety, in which the author talks about what people worry about when they worry about safety: "not risks, however commonplace, involving their own behavior but risks, however rare, involving some unexpected event." [The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Weblog] By radar@poboxes.com. Sadly, I lack both a girlfriend AND a PlayStation. Help this guy find a girlfriend, get a modded PS2. Not quite up there with the guy willing to buy an iPod for any girl willing to pretend to be his girlfriend for a few days while his parents were in town, but some (apparently desperate) young man in New York is offering up his modded Japanese PlayStation 2 (with three games) up to the person who successfully finds him a mate: That’s right. I’m giving my PS2 away along with some games all in the name of charitable contribution. Well ok, more like I scratch your back - you scratch mine. The premise is simple: When it comes to meeting girls, matchmakers always seem to deliver better than self-service. I am asking you to play matchmaker for someone who you think is suitable, eligible, and preferably legal for a late 20 something guy with lots to give and no one to give it to. I - after a yet to be determined period of time, will award (by hand delivery if I must) said PS2 to the matchmaker responsible for the most ‘successful’ match. About the guy: Fun-loving, adventurous, laid-back yet responsible, Asian guy with a big heart possessing nice cushy full-time employment, living on his own in the big city, and solemnly losing all of his best friends to marriage and them becoming old farts. About the PS2: Japanese modified PS2 which will play any/all PS2 games regardless of region. Includes 1 controller, 1 memory card, and 3 games. Kindly direct all your match inquiries, requests, comments, and of course matches to: helptheguy@rayswheels.com Guess it beats offering a girl’s father 15 gallons of insecticide. [Thanks, foo][Engadget] By radar@poboxes.com. A special day. Today was a special day at work. For the first time. the CEO specifically identified a group that I am associated with to tell to fuck off and die. By radar@poboxes.com.