I do a lot with messaging architectures, and because I work on embedded systems so much lately, my main broker protocol has been MQTT, used with Javascript. I learned something that surprised me this morning, even though it really shouldn't have, given some thought. MQTT is a common protocol used in IoT. It stands for… Continue reading Messaging with MQTT and Javascript
Category: scalability
A few thoughts for a Monday…
Life has changed a lot lately. First, I changed employers; I've left Red Hat (for various reasons) and am now working for a company that will give me a little more direct purpose, along with an imperative for using Scala. (Did you see what I did there? Scala's typically a functional language, not an imperative… Continue reading A few thoughts for a Monday…
Adding arguments to CentOS boot
I'm running CentOS in a VirtualBox image (so I can play with Docker while using Windows, because ... um... because). I don't want X running; I am happiest with the command line for this application. So the screen resolution is really important to me; I don't want an 80-by-25 console, I want something better. It's… Continue reading Adding arguments to CentOS boot
Smart Grids series reposted
I just republished an article I'd worked on for Red Hat, called "Smart Grids." It's got twelve parts already, with two more not actually finalized; I'd been pulled off of the smart grids article and never quite got back around to it. I'd still like to, though. It's a good walkthrough of an "Internet of… Continue reading Smart Grids series reposted
Repost: Caches, an unpopular opinion, explained
I have an unpopular opinion: caches indicate a general failure, when used for live data. This statement tends to ruffle feathers, because caches are very common, accepted as a standard salve for a very common problem; I've been told that cloud-based vendors say that caches are the key to scaling well in the cloud. They're… Continue reading Repost: Caches, an unpopular opinion, explained
Repost: mea culpa: “offheap access is slow”
Steve Harris has been commenting on dzone about my last post, "BigMemory: Heap Envy." One of his comments linked to a blog post of his, "Direct Buffer Access Is Slow, Really?," in which he says that direct access is not slow, and therefore one of my points was invalid. Well, folks, he's right, for all… Continue reading Repost: mea culpa: “offheap access is slow”
Repost: BigMemory: Heap Envy
Terracotta has announced the availability of BigMemory, which provides a large offheap cache through their Ehcache project. It is designed to avoid the GC impact caused by massive heaps in Java, at a license cost of $500 per GB per year, if I have my figures right. The Reason We're Here First, let's understand the… Continue reading Repost: BigMemory: Heap Envy
Repost: It’s all about the boundaries, baby
The key to distributed – and enterprise – computing is boundary management. Even worse, it’s not conceptual boundary management – it’s real boundary management, which is a lot harder to figure out. A boundary is a barrier between things or places, right? Well, consider a web browser and a web server; the TCP/IP layer is… Continue reading Repost: It’s all about the boundaries, baby
Repost: Adding high availability in Terracotta DSO
Terracotta DSO is a package for distributing references in a heap across virtual machines. (Thus: Java. I thought it included C#, but Geert Bevin reminded me that I'm an idiot.) That means that if you have a Map, for example, you can set it to be shared, and your application can share it with other… Continue reading Repost: Adding high availability in Terracotta DSO