Speed changes
18 Apr, 2010
2010-4-18 5:32:18 PM UTC
2010-4-18 5:32:18 PM UTC
Spent some time last night cleaning up under the hood. More work to be done (mostly because some changes had unexpected consequences so I held off on doing them) but the website should load a lot faster now.
Initial loads (for new visitors) should have gone down about half (for me, from 15 seconds to 8 seconds) and the same for subsequent visitors (again for me, 8 seconds to about four). Your mileage will vary because speed depends on where you are in the world, but hopefully this makes the site more usable in general.
One of the side effects I haven't come up with a perfect answer for is removal of some widgets I like but that are really slow - the Google Translate was itself about a second of latency, and the Twitter feed widget was about three seconds of latency by itself! These should be the only visible results of the tweaking though, the rest is behind the scenes improvements.
Initial loads (for new visitors) should have gone down about half (for me, from 15 seconds to 8 seconds) and the same for subsequent visitors (again for me, 8 seconds to about four). Your mileage will vary because speed depends on where you are in the world, but hopefully this makes the site more usable in general.
One of the side effects I haven't come up with a perfect answer for is removal of some widgets I like but that are really slow - the Google Translate was itself about a second of latency, and the Twitter feed widget was about three seconds of latency by itself! These should be the only visible results of the tweaking though, the rest is behind the scenes improvements.
Geez, I thought it was "Speed Kills" ?!? 
Am glad that you know how to do that "stuff." I didn't even program my current website. My son did during a college web class. (OK, I HAVE done all of the programming and updates based upon the templates that he provided.) So I'm impressed.
But how busy are we when we think that waiting only 8 seconds is SOOOOOOO much better than waiting 15? I think it speaks to the impatience resulting from wanting to do so much and only having so much time. I have to admit clicking my mouse a million times (seemed like that many, anyhow!) and yelling, "C'mon you stupid computer. Load the ^!$%%* page!"
Frankly, I don't care how long it takes. These pages are worth the wait (even if it were still an entire 15 seconds!) I don't post on everything. But I do read the many threads with interest (even if I don't collect the books.) Hearing what the knowledgeable have to say about the many subjects is worth the reads.
OK. I'll stop waxing philosophical and thank you for this site no matter how long it takes to get onto it!
Away from The Green Hill Country,
P
Am glad that you know how to do that "stuff." I didn't even program my current website. My son did during a college web class. (OK, I HAVE done all of the programming and updates based upon the templates that he provided.) So I'm impressed.
But how busy are we when we think that waiting only 8 seconds is SOOOOOOO much better than waiting 15? I think it speaks to the impatience resulting from wanting to do so much and only having so much time. I have to admit clicking my mouse a million times (seemed like that many, anyhow!) and yelling, "C'mon you stupid computer. Load the ^!$%%* page!"
Frankly, I don't care how long it takes. These pages are worth the wait (even if it were still an entire 15 seconds!) I don't post on everything. But I do read the many threads with interest (even if I don't collect the books.) Hearing what the knowledgeable have to say about the many subjects is worth the reads.
OK. I'll stop waxing philosophical and thank you for this site no matter how long it takes to get onto it!
Away from The Green Hill Country,
P
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