Pushing the problems around

In a recent blog post DHH again questions the status quo with the Basecamp database architecture.

I was surprised to learn that Basecamp continues to use what I call the Big Ass DB architecture — which boils down to keeping all your data in one big SQL database and then building a bigger and bigger server. This goes against the increasingly common wisdom of using distributed NoSQL DBs based on cheap, replaceable hardware, to get to “internet” scale. Another notable site that has gone the Big Ass DB route is StackOverflow.

I’m starting to find wisdom in both Jeff Atwood and DHH who have pushed these designs. I wish I had the scaling problems these guys have, but I don’t. It is almost certainly better bang for the buck for us to tune our current application and add more features than to use a more “advanced” database architecture.

With that said, the secret behind scaling up these architectures is that increasingly significant portions of the database are managed outside the DB itself in huge RAM caches. In fact DHH follows up his DB post with a picture of his caching hardware.

That is 864GB of RAM.

I’m one of those old dudes that remembers when RAM was a scarce commodity, and David is right, old habits are hard to break. But as I type this in a text box on a machine with 24GB of RAM, it is hard to not notice that times have changed.

But all this fast, cheap RAM has created a whole new set of problems for programmers — namely keeping cached data consistent with the data on disk. To be honest, my own team can be a bit too cavalier when caching data and calculations.

There is currently no easy way to determine where the canonical data in a complex system resides and how it is updated, and my bet is we will see a new set of tools and languages evolve to create abstractions which will make it possible for mere mortal programmers like myself to get these architectures right. I’m curious to hear more about DHH’s “russian-doll” architecture. Maybe this stuff will drop in Rails sooner than latter.

The Wiggle

The Wiggle is an east/west bike route in San Francisco. This mural is at the end of the west bound wiggle on Fell St.

The Camera is only a Tool

This week, K and I watched Richard Press’s documentary about N.Y. Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. While the movie is packed with life lessons, and I’d recommend it on those merits, I was drawn to the mechanics of Bill’s profession as a street photographer.

Bill, who was a spry 82 when the film was released, has two photographic fashion columns at The Times, “On the Street” and “Evening Hours,” which feature candids shot with a vintage Nikon 35mm film camera and a fixed focal length manual focus prime lens. The film depicts Bill shooting with his camera held at arms length pointed in the general direction of his subject. Throughout the movie Bill never discusses his equipment or the technicalities of his trade; instead he is intensely and obsessively focused on his subject.

Press does make one editorial comment about Bill’s technique in a sequence at the Paris Fashion Week. The other photogs are lined up elbow-to-elbow at the end of the runway sporting 18 inch “professional” zoom lenses. Bill instead is seated mid-runway with his Nikon in hand.

I’m guilty of this, but how many amateur photographers do you know who talk only about their equipment choices, and never about shooting or their subjects? How many times have you heard, it isn’t about the camera? For Bill Cunningham it is clear that the camera is only a tool.

Coq Au Vin Notes

I got a Dutch Oven for Christmas last year, and started what I thought would be a tradition — New Year’s Eve Coq Au Vin. This year I tried the dish again, but, unfortunately, it didn’t come out as well as my previous attempts.

I used Molly Stevens’s recipe. I have Stevens’s braising book which is great for learning the basic techniques.

I purchased chicken pieces with the bone in. I think tried to get too many pieces into the pot, but ultimately downfall was the cooking time. I thought it would be difficult to cook the chicken too long — but I was wrong.

We left the house for a couple hours to visit a party and when we came back to finish the dish it wasn’t possible to get the chicken out in whole pieces — the chicken was literally falling off the bone. This made it really difficult to create the final sauce.

I used fresh pearl onions. Unless I had a lot of time, I think I would use frozen in the future. Peeling pearl onions is very finicky, and adds a lot to the prep-time.

Also if I was cooking for a group, I would consider preparing a day in advance. Braised foods have a property where the seem to get better the next day, and some Coq Au Vin recipes call for leaving the chicken to sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Alden Cordovan AF53 Boot: Long Term Review

If I could only own one pair of shoes, it would be my Alden AF53 Cordovan boots built on the Trubalance last with a commando sole. I’ve worn these boots everywhere and with everything including suits in the winter.

Shell Cordovan is a hide from a horse’s rear quarters. One horse can yield two “shells”, or enough for one pair of shoes. The leather is extraordinarily dense and supple, but because horses are not raised for slaughter in the U.S., cordovan has become rare with only one U.S. company producing the leather in any quantity —Horween of Chicago.

4 years ago, I went searching for the ultimate boot. My requirements: durable, stylish, and made in the U.S. (to feed my fetish like interest in classic american products). The internet lead me to Alden shoes.

I was fitted at the Alden Shop in San Francisco, and eventually ordered the boots for what I felt was a ridiculous sum of $525. With the recent popularity of cordovan (even J. Crew is selling cordovan these days), the boots now sell for $685 from Alden of Carmel (who has this particular model specially made).

Welted boots and shoes are serviceable — that is the soles can be replaced by a cobbler. Shoe repair is a dying trade in the U.S., but it is worth repairing a pair of welted shoes, so had these re-soled with a Vibram sole at Geary Shoe Repair in San Francisco.

The boots come with what is called a “commando” sole. The commando sole is a triple sole of two pieces of leather and an sewn in rubber outer sole. Unlike most leather soled shoes, they work great in snow and winter slop. The replacement vibram outer sole was glued on, so time with tell how they work relative to the originals, but the workmanship looks great.

Many folks on the fashion forums claim Alden shoes will last “decades.” That may be true, but only if you wear them lightly. I wear these boots like a San Franciscan might have in 1914 — that is hard and everyday. The uppers are showing wear. The liners have ripped at the heel, probably as a result of the roominess of the last. The top two speed lace eyelets are pulling away from the upper. And, as has happened with another pair of my Aldens, there is a break in the leather at the top of the boot where the liner and outer shell meet. But overall they are still serviceable.

After 4 years, I have my eye on the J. Crew cap toe boots. The only down side (outside of cost of course) is the lack of the commando sole. I think a boot should wear hard, and I don’t think the leather sole will stand up to Tahoe and N. California’s wet winters.