Links: 12-30-2013

Links: 12-3-2013

  • Chris Hates Writing • Small things add up
    Quote: " Despite doing our best to keep cookie size down, our use of Google Analytics puts the average user’s cookie size around 1 kilobyte. Because these cookies are sent with every request made to content hosted on 4chan.org, the average user must send 4chan roughly 100 KB of data per page load to receive the response."
    (categories: performance http cookies web )

  • Home – Sigar – Hyperic Support
    The Sigar API provides a portable interface for gathering system information such as: System memory, swap, cpu, load average, uptime, logins, Per-process memory, cpu, credential info, state, arguments, environment, open files, File system detection and metrics, Network interface detection, configuration info and metrics, TCP and UDP connection tables, Network route table
    (categories: java sysadmin systems devops memory swapping )

  • Blog | Eric Larsen Explore
    Quote: "One of my favorite authors, Sigurd Olsen, used the term ‘Lighting Out’ to describe the physical act of leaving the comfort and convenience of modern civilization and heading out into the wilderness. For some, purposefully putting yourself in uncomfortable situations seems ridiculous at best." Have come across the notion of constantly putting yourself in uncomfortable situations as a sure way to keep growing. Like the phrase "lighting out".
    (categories: life lifehacks culture mental-hacks change )

  • A Beginner’s Guide to Perceived Performance: 4 Ways to Make Your Mobile Site Feel Like a Native App | Mobify
    Quote: "This is a great example of the importance of perceived performance. It doesn’t matter how fast your site is if it doesn’t feel fast. In the case of the spinner, it just drew the user’s attention to the fact that they were waiting instead of distracting them from it." Also some really cool stuff with touch state and momentum scrolling. The "don’t remind users that they’re waiting for something" reminds me of the NY Times story about the airport that just made people walk farther so they wouldn’t have to "wait" at baggage claim. All about perception.
    (categories: performance mobile speed design )

  • Why Waiting in Line Is Torture – NYTimes.com
    Quote: "This story hints at a general principle: the experience of waiting, whether for luggage or groceries, is defined only partly by the objective length of the wait. “Often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself,” notes the M.I.T. operations researcher Richard Larson, widely considered to be the world’s foremost expert on lines. Occupied time (walking to baggage claim) feels shorter than unoccupied time (standing at the carousel). Research on queuing has shown that, on average, people overestimate how long they’ve waited in a line by about 36 percent."
    (categories: performance waiting mental-hacks )