All Posts — Digital Sanctuary

Weathered dock extending into a still lake at dusk, a child's sandal on the edge, warm light fading to cool grey.

Turning 29 stings harder than expected. Twenties slip away; thirties loom with regrets lingering.

Life & Personal

Devon

February 10, 2009 1 min read

Get 4 Free Tech Books and Give $29.95 for Aus bushfire relief!

Five tech books for $29.95 with all proceeds funding Australian bushfire relief - skill-building with purpose.

Career & Business

Terracotta herb pot, river rock, and kindling on a hearthstone bathed in amber firelight.

Devon

February 5, 2009 1 min read

Happiness

Fireside with your iguana while dinner simmers - add rowing machine gains and clean eating. This is happiness.

Life & Personal Fitness Food

Weathered dock post with a rusted iron ring and knotted nautical rope trailing into calm harbor water.

Devon

January 28, 2009 6 min read

Making Your DHTML or AJAX Application Bookmarkable

Preserve browser history for dynamic web apps - JavaScript-driven pages need URLs too.

Software Development JavaScript Web Development

Worn leather heavy bag and wooden rowing machine on a rubber mat in a concrete basement under warm amber light.

Devon

January 25, 2009 2 min read

Home Gym

Heavy bag + rowing machine + bodyweight circuits = basement transformation into serious workout shrine.

Life & Personal Fitness

Aerial view of a river delta branching into many smaller channels across a flat plain in golden light.

Devon

January 24, 2009 1 min read

Additional CDN Information

CDNs boost end-user performance 20-25% while slashing server load - geographic distribution wins.

DevOps & Infrastructure Performance

Cracked ceramic vault spilling white crystalline powder onto dark slate under harsh light.

Devon

January 24, 2009 2 min read

Monster.com Security Breach

Monster.com breach: user IDs, passwords, emails compromised. Change yours now.

DevOps & Infrastructure Security

Four wooden dock pilings casting long shadows across a frozen lake at amber dawn.

Devon

January 24, 2009 2 min read

A Brand New Year

January reflection beats resolutions - annual markers focus effort where daily grind often fails.

Life & Personal

Aerial view of a river delta splitting into many narrow channels at golden hour, ochre sediment and pale blue-green water.

Devon

January 19, 2009 3 min read

Improving ATG Performance With a CDN

Content delivery networks serve static assets faster from servers near users, doubling perceived performance.

Software Development ATG Performance

Small clay vessels consolidated into a few large ceramic urns on a white salt flat at golden hour.

Devon

January 18, 2009 5 min read

Improving Secondary Asset Loading Time for an ATG Application

Images and scripts kill load time - reduce file count, leverage caching, and watch metrics plummet.

Software Development ATG Performance

Copper pipe manifold with industrial valves at different positions along a concrete utility corridor.

Devon

January 15, 2009 5 min read

Setting Cache Headers from JBoss

Cache HTTP headers from JBoss using servlet filters - control what browsers keep and for how long.

Software Development JBoss Performance

Dozens of glowing amber paper lanterns hanging from dark cedar rafters, with flat-folded lanterns stacked below.

Devon

January 12, 2009 8 min read

Improving JSP Serving Time for an ATG Application

JSPs are bottlenecks; cache content sections to cut generation time, free up threads faster.

Software Development ATG Performance

A marble rolling fast down a tilted wooden ramp with a motion blur trail, beside a stationary marble on an identical ramp.

Devon

December 31, 2008 2 min read

Why Is User Experience Performance So Important?

100ms slower = 1% sales drop (Amazon). Half-second delays tank Google traffic 20% - speed is revenue.

Software Development Performance

Stack of brown shipping boxes near a Christmas tree, one open to reveal gift wrap inside.

Devon

December 22, 2008 1 min read

Note to retailers

Stop spoiling gifts. Big labels screaming contents on Christmas boxes ruin the surprise.

Life & Personal

Stone fireplace with crackling flames beside a frost-rimmed window showing a heavy sideways snowstorm and snow-laden birch trees.

Devon

December 21, 2008 1 min read

Snow

Seattle's freak snow and 90-mph winds. Massachusetts buried in two feet. Winter goes wild.

Life & Personal

Dense tangle of copper pipes of varying diameters converging into a single narrow spout in an industrial basement.

Devon

December 16, 2008 5 min read

ATG User Experience Performance Tuning

Page load speed directly impacts user behavior - ATG apps need tuning across HTML, DOM, and assets.

Software Development ATG Performance

Devon

December 13, 2008 2 min read

ATG Performance Tuning

ATG performance isn't magic. Proven strategies cut costs and lift conversions on complex e-commerce apps.

Software Development ATG Performance

Devon

December 11, 2008 1 min read

Comcast 50/10 Service

Comcast 50/10 launches in my area - blazing speeds after the kinks get ironed out.

DevOps & Infrastructure

A rusted iron gate buried under dozens of mismatched tarnished padlocks and chains in flat grey light.

Devon

December 10, 2008 2 min read

Bank of America Fraud Protection Sucks

Normally I'm all for Fraud Protection and security and all that stuff. But Bank of America takes it to an awful new level. I was doing some online Christmas…

Life & Personal

Dense wall of stacked split firewood logs with visible growth rings, photographed in warm raking light.

Devon

December 10, 2008 1 min read

Woodshed

Built a weatherproof woodshed capable of holding two cords of firewood - sturdy enough to survive nearly anything.

Life & Personal DIY