Technology

Here’s a lesson the rest of the world’s airports could take from PDX: free WiFi.

Most other aiports charge dearly for WiFi, but PDX offers it free. Knowing this, I arrived at the airport a couple hours early and got my dinner and caught up on my email here instead of elsewhere. The Port of Portland didn’t get my $7.95 an hour, but they did get an extra customer in their restaurants and shops.

And now that my flight is delayed (because the incoming flight had to land in Denver to top off its fuel tanks!), the WiFi is giving me something to do besides complain (I’m saving my book for on the plane).

Zach suggested it last week, but it’s only now that I’ve gotten around to setting up MySQL’s slow query log.

It’s easy enough, you’ve just got to put a couple lines like this in your my.cnf (which is in /etc on my server):

log-slow-queries = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log<br /> long_query_time = 10

This should get most people running, but this story in Database Journal offers a few more details. Potentially more useful is this guide to query and index optimization (though it’s probably a little out of date).

A couple notes from the past few days of tweaks and fixes:

• Hyper-threading has a huge effect on LAMP performance.
   
• From now on, I’ll have bad dreams about running MySQL without Query Caching in the way that I used to have nightmares about going to school wearing only my underwear. The difference is that big.
   
• WordPress rocks, but it has some queries that will kill large databases. I’m playing with baseline when I fix ’em, but it’s worth it.
   
• Being highly ranked for searches related to bears and bear lovers on the weekend that Grizzly Man airs on TV is both good and bad: it doubled my previous high for daily page-loads, but killed my server and taught me some lessons about sloppy coding.
   
• The support techs are Lunarpages continue to pretty much rock.
   
• Having friends who cut their teeth on high-performance PHP/MySQL and are willing to spend the night workshopping it with you is indispensable.
   
• It’s hard to beat the calming beauty of driving home through a snowfall on back roads at 2 AM carried by your life’s soundtrack.
   

There’s a bit of discussion of AIM‘s role in personal communications over at Remaining Relevant. I mention it here because I’ve been thinking about this lately.

We’re seeing some great shifts in our modes of communication. Take a look at how “webinar” technologies have changed sales forces. The promise is lower costs and faster response time, but it also challenges our expectations and the skills of the salesperson. Now imagine the generation of kids who are growing up with AIM entering the workforce. Imagine how much more effectively and naturally they’ll be able to communicate remotely (and also imagine how they’ll probably not tolerate today’s mostly one-way “webinars”).

IM will significantly rearrange the communications landscape, even if it may not completely replace any previous mode. My worry is my doubt about my ability to communicate effectively and naturally in the communication mode that is so common to a generation just younger than mine.

The market for large-format flatbed scanners is shrinking, so products turn over slowly and development is far behind my expectations. That said, the Epson GT-1500 doesn’t look like a bad choice for tight budgets. It has a relatively low maximum resolution of only 600DPI, but has the highest claimed scan speed of 30 seconds at 300DPI. Following that is the Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL, which has a much higher maximum resolution, but much slower scan speed (even at the same resolution as the Epson). The scanner sets itself apart, however, with noise-reduction technology that has made it the darling of some art archivists.

Both of these scanners are around $1,200, but neither of them is really suited to doing much volume.

Looking elsewhere, I found the Konica Minolta PS5000C, a planetary book scanner that returns scans in less than 10 seconds. Price is under $12,000 — not cheap, but low relative to other planetary scanners I’ve seen. Also from Konica MInolta is the MS6000 MK II microform scanner, and a lusty thought crosses my mind: get rid of the old microform printers our libraries have and go all-digital.

Cameron Moll (via Ryan Eby) wants “weight” customer ratings to reflect how two products of the same rating might have wildly different numbers of reviews.

At first glance I agree with him, but after a moment of thought, I begin to wonder if I want the ratings weighted by the number of reviews, or the number of reviews I “trust.”

Amazon keeps huge amounts of data about all its customers. So how hard could it be to correlate my purchasing behavior with the purchasing behaviors of the reviewers along with the details of which reviews I’ve previously checked as “helpful.”

It’s good to know Hard to Find 800 Numbers.com is there when you need it. Here are the top five:

<td width="85">
  HTF#
</td>

<td width="86">
  Who
</td>

<td width="136">
  Notes
</td>

<td>
  800-201-7575<br /> <br /> 877-251-0696<br /> <br /> 866-348-2492<br /> 206-266-2992
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> <br /> Seller support<br /> <br /> Rebate status Local or int’l
</td>

<td>
  24/7<br /> <br /> "<br /> " ( Press 0 to bypass menu) <br /> "
</td>

<td>
  888-749-3229<br /> 800-322-9266
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> "
</td>

<td>
  6:30a-5:30p<br /> M-F (Pacific)
</td>

<td>
  888-215-5506<br /> 888-221-1161
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> "
</td>

<td>
  6a-12midnight (Central) <br /> 7 days/wk
</td>

<td>
  408-349-3300<br /> 408-349-5151
</td>

<td>
  Corporate hq <br /> Billing cust. svc.
</td>

<td>
  8a-5p M-F (Pacific) <br /> "
</td>

<td>
  800-426-9400</p> 
  
  <p>
    800-936-5700</td> 
    
    <td>
      Sales<br /> Tech support:<br /> Personal support:
    </td>
    
    <td>
      6a-6p M-F (Pacific)<br /> Option 2 <br /> 5a-9p M-F<br /> 6a-3p Sat/Sun
    </td></tr> </table> 
    
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