A rant about ZendPlatform
This is a small rant about ZendPlatform. Take it with a puff... My web servers are getting hit with more and more traffic, and things were slowing down big time. So I looked into it, and found my assumptions about how mod_php works by default is just plain wrong. It does NOT cache the bytecode by default. I just have to get out of the silly notion that others would write code and design modules the way *I* would have I done it. So I tried APC initially. That kept failing for some odd reason. Then I looked at ZendPlatform, a non-FOSS $1000 solution. Installed the free eval version on my workstation just to try it out. Didn't work either. Didn't have the time to delve deeply into it, so I commented it out in the php.ini I even looked at IonCube, but that's been dead for a while. No workie on PHP 5.1.2 Then I decided to take another look at APC. I did managed to get it to work on the workstation, but it didn't work on the servers. Puzzled, I looked a bit more closely at the php.ini files. I noticed that on the workstation I had commented out the Zend extension lines, whereas on the server they were not commented out (put there by Zend Optimizer, I think). So lo and behold, I got it to work, and it resulted in a dramatic 10x or better speedup, since no longer were thousands of lines of PHP code were being recompiled on *each* query. APC is free as in freedom (as well as free beer), so I was delighted not to have to fork over $1000! I noticed, though, on my workstation, that ram and swap space were being eaten up. Puzzled, I topped it and saw java chewing up 300megs of swap! What in the blazes? There were some other processes in there too chewing up ram and swap. They were all related to ZendPlatform. Ouch. Let's get that baby uninstalled! Let's see, where is the uninstall script? Gotta be around here somewhere, right? No uninstall script. So, I searched the documentation for how to uninstall this beast. No text readme files that were useful, but there was this big PDF document. Hmmm. So I opened that up and near the end of it, there were 2 pages of uninstall instructions All of it was manual, annoying, and required 10 steps or so! I had to manually switch off the apache cron job -- what, it created an apache cron job??!!! I also had to delete this directory, disable that deamon, etc, etc. I did all of this and managed to recover my swap and ram that was swamped by ZendPlatform. Well, folks, I'm peeved. For a $1000 product, I expected *much* better than what I saw. I was shocked at all the stuff it added to my system, and fuming at the fact I had to undo all of their crap by hand. While I was thinking that maybe some of the other features of ZendPlatform might be useful, I now get an upset stomach at the thought of all those resources eating up my server and slowing it down. And it would've been overkill anyway just for its PHP accelerator, which *used* to be a separate product, but is now bundled in with all that bloat. So while I give the Zend Engine and the Zend Optimizer two thumbs up, I give ZendPlatform 4 thumbs down. 4 thumbs down? Yes. I grew two extra hands for the expressed purpose of showing my displeasure at the experience. The Zend folks should stop smoking the weed, and weed out the problems with the over-bloat of their $1000 product. -Fred ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: A rant about ZendPlatform
Fred, Great rant to the list but you did not cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I hope that you do enlighten them also. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: A rant about ZendPlatform
(Forgive me for stating the obvious. :-) Well, folks, I'm peeved. For a $1000 product, I expected *much* better than what I saw. I was shocked at all the stuff it added to my system, and fuming at the fact I had to undo all of their crap by hand. Isn't that the reason most of us are using free software -- to avoid the stupidity and corner-cutting that the entire business model of commercial software forces onto people? Regards, . Randy -- Fast fact: Today's average American worker works 160 hours -- or 4 full workweeks -- longer per year than 25 years ago. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Connection Reset By Peer on ssh sessions
I've got an annoying problem with the new Verizon Fios service. If I leave an ssh session open and sits idle for longer than 2-5 minutes, it is killed with a Connection Reset by Peer error message. This may not be a Verizon issue at all. I have always had this problem with connections through my Netgear router. Now that I've moved to using a dedicated router (half-depth server running Linux/iptables), it's not a problem anymore. Ultimately, the keepalive stuff ought to work. It never drops an SSH connection while in use, so I've done things like 'tail -f /var/log/messages' or some kind of bash 'while [ 0 ]; do sleep 5; do something_else;done' loop on the prompt to keep them open longer in the past. -N ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Connection Reset By Peer on ssh sessions
The 'ServerAliveInterval' setting did the trick, and my hair stays on my head! Thanks, all. -Fred ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: A rant about ZendPlatform
On Sunday 05 February 2006 09:52, Jon maddog Hall wrote: Fred, Great rant to the list but you did not cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I hope that you do enlighten them also. md Just fired off a copy to their marketing department (that'll get their attention!) Besides, I've definitely have an earful to tell them when they call me back a 2nd time with why haven't we received $1000 from you yet for our crappy product phone calls. -Fred ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: A rant about ZendPlatform
Randy Edwards wrote: (Forgive me for stating the obvious. :-) Well, folks, I'm peeved. For a $1000 product, I expected *much* better than what I saw. I was shocked at all the stuff it added to my system, and fuming at the fact I had to undo all of their crap by hand. Isn't that the reason most of us are using free software -- to avoid the stupidity and corner-cutting that the entire business model of commercial software forces onto people? I'll second that, and add a little something from my own personal experience: The more you pay for software, the less it actually works. I've found that most of the software systems that I've had to maintain that come with 6-digit (and higher) price tags are complete and utter crap. They require near constant attention from the admin. just to keep them up and running, and should some user be so bold as to make a mistakeWell, beyond that door lies madness. There's a saying that I've heard about SAP, We don't change SAP to suit your business, you change your business to suit SAP. (No, I've never used SAP's software. I just heard that once from a consultant who made ridiculous amounts of money doing SAP installations and troubleshooting.) ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: A rant about ZendPlatform
On Feb 5, 2006, at 10:46, Jason Stephenson wrote: There's a saying that I've heard about SAP, We don't change SAP to suit your business, you change your business to suit SAP. I haven't been involved with SAP, but I can vouch for that being true of PeopleSoft. I watched a project balloon to well over 5x its budgeted cost (where x $1M) at a place I used to work including a team of at least a half a dozen new people to support it. Departments and processes were all re-orged to fit the PeopleSoft model, and those costs aren't even counted in the IT budget. And, no, they won't fixed-price-quote an installation for you. See, If you're spending $15M for a software package, you can afford a few administrative staff to support it, is the logic in this realm. And if you're in a corporate IT environment where (headcount + budget) == (power + importance) a project with $15 + 6 people _must_ be powerful and important. If you just did 'yum install PeopleSoft' it wouldn't make it into many organizations. You have to give props to their sales team. Imagine if Open Source had that kind of persuasive power behind it! (no idea what's become of their practices since Oracle swallowed them) -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Fwd: [Gnhlug-jobs] Job Posting: Senior Linux Admin Needed
If anyone is interested in this job, I can put you in touch with a guy who used to work there who's an open source contributor. (strange coincidences aside, are we accepting random jobs from NC on the gnhlug-jobs list now?) -Bill Begin forwarded message: From: Jared Watkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: February 4, 2006 09:32:16 EST To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Gnhlug-jobs] Job Posting: Senior Linux Admin Needed National publishing company based in Charlotte, NC has an immediate need for an experienced Linux Systems Administrator. Required Skills: Knowledge of RedHat based distributions Ability to build custom kernels with 3rd party drivers Expert knowledge of email systems including CyrusImap, Postfix, Amavis-new, SquirrelMail Experience running Postgres in a production environment Through understanding of networking fundamentals, systems management, file systems, and raid Ability to work independently in an unstructured environment Desired Skills: Experience with the Nagios monitoring system Mid level PHP/Perl/Shell development experience Knowledge of Storage Area Networks and a switched Fibre Channel environment Experience with LDAP management and interface programming. Some knowledge of Windows 2k, 2k3 Server systems management Protocol level knowledge of SMTP, IMAP, POP3, HTTP, LDAP, SCSI If you are available and think you might be qualified.. please send your resume to Wedge Abels (wabels at bizjournals dot com) and include the best way to contact you. I will conduct technical phone screenings before bringing you down for a face to face. This position is in downtown Charlotte, NC. Thanks, Jared Watkins American City Business Journals ___ Gnhlug-jobs mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-jobs - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: A rant about ZendPlatform
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: There's a saying that I've heard about SAP, We don't change SAP to suit your business, you change your business to suit SAP. This is actually the basic, fundamental principal between anything which is made to specification and that which is manufactured, face it. The age if mass production created an audience that traded off true service for lower price, but at a cost of not having exactly what you wanted. The new economics of free software means that you could still accept this as the end result, but you now have the choice of taking that software that is produced in general, and having it changed to fit your specific need. Some companies (I will not say which one in particular, but their name rhymes with Psychoboft) will tell you their software packages lead you to a set of best practices for your company, and that is why you have to rip your company apart and put it back together again to use their software. It is provable that proprietary software is breaking under the load, and has been doing so since before 1997.I am wondering when some company is going to shout Enron and take the CEOs of those companies to court for fraud. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Video translation magic
Hey all - Per some suggestions on this group (and the BLU list), I decided to take a little of my holiday gift money and purchase a Hauppauge MediaMVP (http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_mediamvp.html) to attach to my TV, with the idea of taking some of the video files on my home fileserver (Ok, my Doctor Who videos) and being able to watch them on the TV. I got the box, and since I didn't want to have to run a Windows machine just to power the box, I set up the mvpmc project (http://mvpmc.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=main) on the fileserver (which is incidentally running Debian Sarge). It works great - the Hauppage box boots off an image from the fileserver that it retrieves via bootp, and then nfs mounts the remote filesystem. Nice. Here's the problem. The Hauppage box itself only supports mpeg1/2 encoded videos and I've got a variety of formats ranging from vob's, to mov's, to asf's, wmv's, and avi's. I've tried looking at (and playing with) ffmpeg and transcode, and I just don't understand this stuff well enough to figure out how to translate the files to the proper formatting. I was wondering if some kind soul out there knew the magic commands to take a given file and translate it to mpeg1/2? Many many thanks in advance to anybody who can help... -- The memory management on the power pc chip is something that should be shown to small children when they've been especially bad. -Linus Torvalds Cole Tuininga Lead Developer Code Energy, Inc [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP Key ID: 0x43E5755D ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Video translation magic
On Feb 5, 2006, at 16:13, Cole Tuininga wrote: Here's the problem. The Hauppage box itself only supports mpeg1/2 encoded videos and I've got a variety of formats ranging from vob's, to mov's, to asf's, wmv's, and avi's. I've tried looking at (and playing with) ffmpeg and transcode, and I just don't understand this stuff well enough to figure out how to translate the files to the proper formatting. I was wondering if some kind soul out there knew the magic commands to take a given file and translate it to mpeg1/2? You're going to lose noticeable quality by transcoding and it's not pleasantly fast - have you considered one of the alternatives that uses MPlayer as the front end? Sorry, I'm still working on the hardware end of my DVR (parsing a Dish Network signal is apparently difficult) but from what I've read most of the projects use MPlayer as the front end and it can handle most video streams presented to it. Geexbox http://geexbox.org/en/start.html would be one to look at or Freevo http://freevo.sourceforge.net/about.html if you want to hack on python. You'd still use the video out of the Hauppage but the CPU would handle decoding. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
