The Woodwork

Twitter is

2008-07-21T22:27:29Z

Wiredâs cover article caused a friend to try to explain twitter to someone else.

I thought Iâd give a shot at trying to twitter what twitter is:

Twitter is about leaving bits of yourself to your friends in 140 characters or less.

(Iâll twat it when Twitter stops Fail Whaleing.)

ShareThis

I think I found my class

2008-07-19T03:58:34Z

Apparently, itâs the leisure class

I canât hang it up without turning it off, they keyboard goes fritzy, Contacts crashes when I click on a name, battery life is a jokeâ¦but I guess it gets me into geek parties.

Next time I am outside waiting to get in, I wonder if I can just whip out my cell and say to the bouncer guy: âHey, Iâm with iPhone.â

ShareThis

Making a contribution

2008-07-12T00:54:56Z

In condensed matter physics, there is an area called turbulence that has wide practical application: weather, golfing, navigation, bridges, building subs, boats, and planes.

(Most of you know turbulence from those random unexplained dips you get when your plane is in flight.)

But for theoreticians, turbulence is different.

In 1941, some Russian guy wrote a theory for the dissipation of vortices in highly turbulent flows:

Since thenâ¦nothing. Any significant contribution to turbulence has been beyond smartest minds in theoretical physics, despite the describing equations discovered by 19th century classical physics.

In physics, we like to say:

Turbulence is the graveyard of great physicists.

Artificial Intelligence

The topic of machine learning came up before dinner as it relates to online-analytical processing (OLAP). I find it absurd, that in an area where most people canât even code a proper data warehouse, working in the business world where practical realities are paramount, people talk about doing machine learning. You need a great OLAP before you can even talk about machine learning.

Machine learning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI). And since I recently stated my opinions of AI, Andrei steered the topic that directionâto wait for the horse hair to snap.

He didnât have to wait long.

Physics? by magerleagues

This incident occurs shortly after this talk.

Mager asked, âWhat is this?â

This is a slide representing theoretical curves for Black Body Radiation. The deviation from the classical theory created the field of quantum mechanics and its theory became the source of Einsteinâs only Nobel Prize. But is best popularized by this xkcd comic.

Note that in the comic, the points are the measured energy density of the cosmic microwave background radiation of the universe; the line is the theoretical curve for black body radiation. This represents an experimental confirmation of Big Bang Theory (the theory, not the TV show).

So in this one slide, you can see the stars, the subatomic, and everything in between. Is it a wonderâ¦?

âLook, youâre talking about a field that has been around for sixty years now that has yet to make something of significanceâClippy is like their claim to fame. Search? Nope, map-reduce crushed it. Fingerprint recognition and spam detection? Nope, statistical probability-based recognizers like Bayesian ones are how those are done. Chess? No, a brute force Alpha-beta pruning game theory approach crushes those all the time.â

ââ¦but chess isnât an interesting problem,â Some Guy interrupts.

(Iâll mention at this point that Some Guy is apparently writing a book on Artificial Intelligence. In my defense, he didnât have the balls to admit this at the timeâ¦or at all to me for that matter.)

âIsnât it funny how that as soon as AI gets their asses handed to them, the problem suddenly becomes uninteresting? Youâre talking about a branch that attracts the brightest minds in computer science. At a certain point, you should just get a little humility, admit failure, and move on.â

âSo what youâre saying is youâre afraid of failure?â A triumphant smirk creeps across Some Guyâs face. I can read his thoughts. I think, Your heros are the ones who washed out of my major.

Instead, I say, âSo what youâre saying is youâre afraid of making a contribution to the world?â

And the horse hair goesâ¦ Snap!

ShareThis

Top Rails

2008-07-08T01:42:12Z

It came out in conversation today if there were other Ruby on Rails sites bigger than Twitter. The answer is, yes.

The top five ranked Rails-powered sites as tracked by Alexa and provided by this list. Note that the graph is semi-log.

I get a lot of mileage out of ripping on Railsâbesides being easy, itâs also quite fun, and Iâm always game for a cheap laugh. (Iâll continue to get some more blog mileage out if it this summer). But it is important to remember, next time you go Fail Whaling, that there are other Rails sites out there, some of which youâve heard of and use.

Some of them even run.

Scribd

If you want to read this graph correctly, it basically says that Scribd is easily the largest Rails site on the internet, and there are at least three others with traffic-parity with Rails.

Scribd hosts a presentation they made last year on how they scale Rails. Itâs worth a look, though Iâm curious what their numbers are today, and what a ârequestâ is. The need (at the time) for only a single web server had to do with the mostly-static/segmented nature of their problem area. Remember: many CMS-style news sites reached very large traffice levels before memcache even existed. Iâm also very curious why theyâre disk-bound IO on their appserver. The section about analytics is very humorous in its naÃ¯vetÃ©.

In spite of the caveat of the problem space, itâs a pretty good job to do all that with three people. It reminds me when I was shocked to find out Cal built Flickr on his laptop (buy his bookâreview).

Yellow Pages

YellowPages.com made a high profile switch from J2EE to Rails last year. The cynical me notes that the only thing that gets beat on more than Rails in my universe is J2EE. Itâs impressive that they handle 23 million visitors a month, which puts them around half a Tagged by dead reckoning. Of course, if you are counting dynamic page views, we do more in a day than they do in a month. So I guess it depends on how you count. Another cynical thought is the question with improvements like memcache which has come out since YellowPages was first built, they still had to write some binary-level code to Ruby and increase the server count.

But Iâve always said re-architecture midstream is one of the hardest things to do, so the team there deserves props, because they managed to change both the architecture and the app platform midstream with nary a hitch.

Hulu

I love Hulu. Theyâve had phenomenal growth that is very deserved.

Of course the cynical me notes that itâs no YouTube in traffic or even in community structure. And they managed to migrate from PHP to a pure Python implementation fairly easily. It makes me think, that there really isnât much of a challenge to build any mostly static high-bandwidth content delivery website that gets huge traffic in any platform. Yeah, Iâm looking at you FunnyOrDieâ¦and scribdâ¦and Yellow Pages.

Still, I love Hulu, if only to get my BSG fix. You should join.

Justin.TV

One Friday last year, I cut across Washington Square in order to drop off a letter on my way to work. I passed by a group of people starting a BBQ and stared at one of them who stared back at me. When I got in to work, before we headed to our 50 millionth user party, I asked a co-worker, âHey, is that guy you mentioned who films himself 24/7 asian and have a hat on his head with a camera on it and a backpack?â

âYeah, I think so.â

âThen, I think I saw him on my way to work.â

Thatâs the first time I met Justin of Justin.TV.

Justin.TV 2.0
-Ning, Palo Alto, California

Nikon D200, Tokina AT-X PRO 16-50mm f/2.8 DX
-1/25sec @ f/2.8, iso800, 50mm (75mm)

Theyâve since moved to posher digs from the hellhole in North Beach they used to inhabit, and their traffic is also respectably within the realm of Twitter.

Another reason that they deserve mention is that, while they are one of those high-bandwidth content-driven site, Justin.TV does stand out from the others above in two key ways: live-streaming and a large social networking component. I am mildly curious of how much the live-stream and live chat architecture is powered by twitterâbut not enough to bother asking at a partyâbesides I have a feeling I already know that answer.

But it does go to show you, that the lines between âcontent managementâ and âsocial networkingââthe lines between âdata drivenâ and âuser drivenââare being blurred.

Or maybe itâs that social networking, like content-management, is becoming old hat, that now the solved problems are solved.

And that means, it soon wonât matter what language you choose or architecture you use.

Anyone know of any good memcache bindings for HOMESPRING?

ShareThis

Eli leaves digg

2008-07-07T19:30:23Z

Eli White is no longer at digg.

He was one of the first PHP programmers there, has given a zillion talks about it, and he works remote.

Someone should hire him stat!

ShareThis

Great taste tastes great

2008-07-11T00:45:28Z

At San Francisco Brewing Company:

View from a room
-San Francisco Brewing Company, Financial District, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
-1/60sec @ f/2.8, iso1600, 24mm (24mm)

I grab Marieâs glass and drag it toward me. âIt smells like you squeezed a whole lemon.â I take a sip. âThatâs way too sour! You should get another one.â

âNobody can squeeze that much lemon.â

âThe lemon is only there to cut the taste of the unfiltered yeast.â

âTake a sip of mine. It tastes great!â I offer.

Second round
-San Francisco Brewing Company, Financial District, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
-1/60sec @ f/2.8, 200, 24mm (24mm)

The Dragon ale on the second round.

âExcuse me,â Marie asks the waitress, âThis Hefeweizen is bad. Can you have them replace it with the beer Terry is drinking.

âNo, Hefeweizen is supposed to taste like that,â the waitress replies.

âHefeweizen and me have shared a lot of time together. I know Hefe, and this is no Hefe.â

âIâll ask the bartender and see what I can do.â

âSee,â I point out, âYou should have just ordered what I did. I have great taste in beer!â

âWait, didnât you make Andrei order your beer?â

Andrei laughs, âShouldnât you be saying, you have great taste in friends who have great taste in beer?â

No, I should have said, I have great taste in friends. Full stop.

Much better
-San Francisco Brewing Company, Financial District, San Francisco, California

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G, SB-800
-1/250sec @ f/8, iso200, 24mm (24mm)

Sheâs much happier with the albatross in hand.

ShareThis

Unfortunate names

2008-07-03T06:17:05Z

In college, I had a classmate and friend, Richard Chiu.

It hurts me to confess it, but it was two years before I dawned on me he had been given a most unfortunate name.

ShareThis

The boxes we are

2008-07-08T01:24:51Z

A random post on my stalker feed brings me back of the last party

â¦

âAre you single?â Itâs the second time at the party, Alex has asked that. The internal dialog is now in fine form.

This is San Francisco, shouldnât you ask if Iâm gay first?, âStop trying to fill out a social networking registration page, Alexâ

Somewhat less emphatically: âYou are single?!â Then slightly more emphatically: âTerry is singleââas if repetition makes it true.

Iâm in a relationship with my Nikon and itâs complicated. âMy status is not some box you can check off,â I retort.

Single? [interactive demo: click me]

âWait, you are single, arenât you?â decidedly less emphatically.

Thatâs thrice! Damn Canon photogs! âYou couldnât even shoot my D3.â I laugh.

âTerry is single,â Alex declares to anyone who was interested. (Nobody was.)

Nelson Muntz voice: âHa ha!â Maybe if you were a Nikon-toting hottie, Iâd have given you a straight answer.

Party photography Q&A tree

Now, in my defense, when it comes to that senseless brand war, I have to represent. But I admit that it was a bit harsh, especially since, as an event photographer himself, he must get asked my most-despised geek-party conversation starter an awful lot: âWho are you with?â (i.e. âWho are you shooting for so I know if I should do a posedown.â)

We hates it, my precious, yes we do.

Coincidentally, just that day, I devised a customer support answer tree to turn this question into a lethal conversation-killer:

â¦then give them that dismissive look, like they just said something incredibly stupid.

Of course, sometimes the question comes out differently:

These are still in beta.

If they persist, the next question will inevitably be âAre you a [professional] photographer?â

At this point, itâs best to fess up: âNo, Iâm an overpaid software architect.â Then, if they look like they might be an engineer, give them that look that says, âCâmon, I just dare you to use âRubyâ and âscalabilityâ in the same sentenceâIâm so ready to throw down right now.â

Letâs face it, most questions we ask are crass. People want to put you in a box, and I donât want to be thereâ¦

The boxes you are (to me)

Then I realized, I do the same thing.

Earlier, in the same party

â¦

Iâve had a bit too much Bud Light and am talking to Tâ and Sâ: âI found everyone falls into two categories: those taller than me, and those not.â

Tâ is the former; Sâ is the latter. They both laugh anyway.

Iâm deadly serious. The laughter gives me pause and I remembered what happened earlier. An amendment was order: âUnless theyâre about my height and they decide to wear heels, that really fucks me up.â

(not) Some witty banter

Even earlier, in the same party

â¦

Someone I donât recognize, recognizes me. âAubs?â Oh shit, what if she isnât. Sheâll think Iâm asking who her doctor is. âUhh, Aubrey?â

âEither is fine.â

Whew! I guessed right. âI havenât seen you since [I crashed someoneâs birthday party.]â

âYeah, thatâs right!â

Hmmâless than a week, why didnât I recognize her? No, haircut seems the same. Oh! thatâs it! âHey are you wearing flats?â

[Any discussion of fashion is immediately forgotten, proving that Iâm still a straight guy.]

Every other time, Iâve been talking to her chin, (No, not there!) So this is what she looks like? Nice eyes. Oh, I think sheâs done talking about shoes. I better say something. ââ¦because normally youâre really tall.â

âIâm five feet andâ¦[some discussion of actual height and other stuff that Iâm sure will help Alex fill in those checkboxes, but I couldnât pay attention because I hadnât yet sampled the free alcohol.]â

âWell, I gotta find that keg. See you around.â

Pretty boring, I know. But in my defense, there was no Poppy Jasper thereâjust Bud Light and box wine.

My favorite grammatical mood

Believe it or not, that was about the largest exchange of words Iâve ever had with her. All previous discussions with Aubsâs chin were pretty much confined to my favorite grammatical mood to use at parties: the Passive Aggressive Imperative. Iâm sure you knowâ¦

â¦

âHey! Hello, my nameâs Terry!â Translation: Tell me your name.

âLetâs take a picture!â Translation: Stand still and smileâ¦because I just ran out of interesting things to say.

Daisy and Aubrey
-111 Minna, South of Market, San Francisco, California
-Nikon D3, 24-70mm f/2.8G, SB-800
-1/40 sec @ f/2.8, iso 5000, 24mm (24mm)

Yeah, it look like sheâs taller than meâbut then you realize that Iâm using the camera live-view to hold it way above my head. Thatâs why live-view was invented, by the way. So that short Asian photographers can pretend theyâre giants.

âYouâre not in frame.â Translation: Stand closer together. I need that blackmail shot.

âLetâs try that again!â Translation: Stand still and smileâ¦again. I still havenât thought of anything interestingâ¦and apparently thereâs a Ballmer Peak for photography, too.

âDo you have a business card?â Translation: Give me your e-mailâ¦so I can stalk you.

âHey, have you met ____?â *grab some random person at the party* No translation, except possibly, Iâm leaving now to find the open bar. Then spend rest of night fiddling with iPhone acting unapproachable.

So, relatively speaking, I was a positively âsparkling conversationalistâ at the party.

â¦Just Tell? Thereâs nothing to tell.

So back to that post.

She has a point in her article.

But the point of this article is to remind her: that behind every twitter is a storyâan interesting story that 140 characters canât describe; that behind every smile is a personânot just a pretty face; that we are not some boxesâto be checked or leave unchecked; that we are and will always be more than the sum of our tweets.

Because if that is all I am, well, then you can just check this box right now:

- Touretteâs?

So remember, dear reader, the social network will never contain youâthat angsty, conversation-killing, wonderful youâand neither, for that matter, can a conversation.

â¦

Now I can return to my iPhone, turn it ON, and twitter this post. Maybe, if I do it right, I can make Aubreyâs boyfriend jealousâ¦

â¦or at least her chinâs boyfriend.

ShareThis

Looking for that mouse

2008-07-03T00:12:18Z

A friend sent me this article with the comment, âI think you will enjoy reading this.â

I did. Thanks.

ShareThis

Two more positions

2008-07-02T18:06:29Z

Georgina sent me two more recs. The first is for a front-end developer and the second for a PHP developer (and front-end).

Front end web developer - Online Messaging (Redwood City, CA)

PHP Web developer - Facebook Photo application (East bay area, CA)

Apparently, you can mention my name and I get a bonus. If you get the job, just tell me and you can have it.

ShareThis

The Woodwork

Twitter is

I think I found my class

Making a contribution

Artificial Intelligence

Top Rails

Scribd

Yellow Pages

Hulu

Justin.TV

Eli leaves digg

Great taste tastes great

Unfortunate names

The boxes we are

Party photography Q&A tree

The boxes you are (to me)

(not) Some witty banter

My favorite grammatical mood

â¦Just Tell? Thereâs nothing to tell.

Looking for that mouse

Two more positions

â¦Just Tell? Thereâs nothing to tell.