From the MySQL manual: For any Unicode character set, operations performed using the xxx_general_ci collation are faster than those for the xxx_unicode_ci collation. For example, comparisons for the utf8_general_ci collation are faster, but slightly less correct, than comparisons for utf8_unicode_ci. They have a amusing “examples of the effect of collation” set on “sorting German umlauts,” [...]
March 3, 2013
Canon + iOS tethering solutions
There’s magic that happens inside the camera. Yes, magic. Most cameras expose the controls to that magic via some knobs and buttons and a small LCD screen. The knobs and other physical controls we like, but the screen pales in comparison to those on our iPhones. And that’s the thing, the hundreds of apps on [...]
February 15, 2013
Testing apply_filters() times
Testing how long it takes to assign a variable versus assigning through WordPress’ apply_filters(). Filters are core to WordPress, but I haven’t yet looked at the total number of apply_filters() calls used throughout the code. The answer to this question is that calling a non-existing filter before assignment is about 21 times more costly than [...]
February 10, 2013
Clarity from a distance
The sky looks big from earth, but it’s rather different the other way around. I’m not saying it’s not quite an experience, but inspecting the metadata on this photo of New York and surroundings taken on Christmas day, 2000, during the first International Space Station mission surprised me. To wit: it’s only a 180mm lens. [...]
February 7, 2013
3rd party JS libraries cause downtime
Facebook Connect went down hard tonight. HuffPo reports that their site was redirecting to a Facebook error page, even when people weren’t attempting to log in. Yep. Busted third-party JavaScript brings portions of the Internet to its knees: huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/fac… — Kent Brewster (@kentbrew) February 8, 2013 It makes me more comfortable with our decision to strip [...]
February 2, 2013
Camera frustrations and other first world problems
I’m not a camera pro. I have some photos on Flickr, but it’s just for fun, so I don’t really need a new camera. But I do want one. Thing is, there a lot of cameras out there, but none of them has the Goldilocks factor. None has the right mix of features, size, and [...]
January 31, 2013
Testing file include times for a file that may or may not exist
Question: Should you check for a file before attempting to include it, or just suppress errors? Calling file_exists requires stating it twice if the file does exist, so that could take longer. Answer: the file_exists pattern is more than five times faster than the @include pattern for a file that doesn’t exist, and not substantially [...]
January 20, 2013
An American iPhone in Europe
January 19, 2013
SVN or git?
@film_firl poked @WordPressVIP to ask @wordpressvip @mjangda @viper007bond MOOOOVE TO GIT!!! she half-kids. No really, please? — Christina Warren (@film_girl) January 18, 2013 @nacin piled on with @viper007bond @film_girl @mjangda VIP aside, it’s fairly crazy that WordPress.com hasn’t migrated. SVN != tenable dev environment. — Andrew Nacin (@nacin) January 18, 2013 @Viper007Bond tried to defend the team, and [...]
December 17, 2012
Where did all the votes go?
December 13, 2012
On wp_enqueue_scripts and admin_enqueue_scripts
An argument has erupted over the WordPress actions wp_enqueue_scripts and admin_enqueue_scripts vs. init. One of the points was about specificity, and how wp_enqueue_scripts and admin_enqueue_scripts can reduce ambiguity. I didn’t realize I had strong opinions on it until the issue was pressed, but it turns out I think wp_enqueue_scripts and admin_enqueue_scripts are unnecessary and unfortunate additions [...]
November 23, 2012
Confirming that object references in arrays are preserved while cloning the arrays
November 21, 2012
Ignoring noise in svn diffs
November 21, 2012
Is Perl the best solution to write code that needs setuid?
November 18, 2012
@Adam: I’d seen `git log –find-copies` and its friends, but my frustration is that I have to know to look for copies to find them, whereas the svn approach made that history very obvious. @Casey: the issue is that I want to split one file that’s grown too large into two and preserve the history in both. In short, I want to be able to do the equivalent of `svn log filename` that will tell me the full history of the file, including the file it was copied from and its history too.
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