Late Night Haiku XII

XXXII. A locust chirps soft,
A cry for the rush of time
To slow just a bit.

XXXIII. Signs abound to enter
The journey's new, wide roads,
But not exit ramps.

XXXIV. I ask tomorrow
What might perchance to happen.
Answers mix with noise.

Joining the Crowd

Well, I enjoyed my brief moment as t3h l33t subquery h4×0r, but in the end, subqueries seem to fall flat on their face. Two queries with subqueries were taking SAFARI 7-20 seconds to run, a totally unacceptable speed, especially since my goal with SAFARI was to build it in such a way as to allow it to be Slashdotted without performance problems. Conversely, using a join statement, I accomplished the same effect while reducing the processing time to less than two seconds (how much less, I cannot yet say, since I'm still working on developing the perfect query, but I'm expecting it to drop below 1 sec before I am done).

The road to the next generation of SAFARI progresses…

Update (10 July 2006 12:14 AM): OK, so I wanted to see if I could count the number of comments in my comments table in addition to comparing the objects (metadata) and articles (normal article stuff) table all in one query for efficiency. I ended up with what might be best termed a hybrid solution: the meat of the problem is taken care of via two LEFT JOINs, the latter one joining the results of a subquery to the main results. It seems reasonably efficient: it takes a mere 0.0274 seconds to process! How 'bout them apples?

Subqueries Take One

As you may recall, I recently discovered subqueries. While everything should seem functionally the same, you'll now be receiving subquery produced information when you view category pages. I think everything seems to be working OK thus far, although the subqueries seem to be a bit slower simply doing several queries, which suggests to me I must not be doing something right — why would initiating multiple queries be faster than one complex query?

Hopefully, I'll continue working on adding functionality via subqueries in the near future.

Oh, and about commenting or the lack of the ability to do thereof: I think I finally fixed SAFARI so that commenting should be on by default on asisaid. I'll be distributing that minor bug fix to other SAFARI-powered sites, such as Ed's, once I stabilize the subquery work a bit more.

Intelligent Stick for $29.99

Returning to the subject of the little grocery store that isn't just a grocery store, I'd like to point your attention to the fact that Aldi has been recently carrying the PQi Intelligent Stick 1 GB USB key for just $29.99. I picked mine up about a week ago, and have been meaning to say something on here ever since — I'm not sure if they have any left, but if you want one, you might take a gander at your local Aldi. Ask at the checkout if you don't see them on display as they've been keeping them in the back room to avoid theft.

Why would you want this USB key? Well, let's just say it isn't simply a large capacity stick, it is also a very small stick, somewhere between an SD card and a Memory Stick card in size. I've had a 128 meg I-Stick for about a year (which, oddly enough, I discovered for $19.99 at the Home Depot), and I find it indispensable. It is small enough that it comes with a credit card shaped protector that can hold two of the keys and then slip into the credit card section of your wallet. Because of that convenient method of carrying the key, I always have it when I need it, which was not the case with other USB keys I have, which, at best, generally can be carried in one's pocket (another thing to remember to stuff in there in the morning) or attached to a lanyard (do I really want to wear my storage device?).

The i-Stick is also really durable. I had my 128 meg stick slip out of my case into my pocket, without noticing it, a few weeks ago. I only discovered it after it had been washed and dried. I let it sit in a warm, dry place for a few days and found afterward it was no worse for wear (my data was all intact!).

If you can't guess, I highly recommend this USB key, should you be in the market. How can you beat it for under thirty bucks?

Wikipedia Time Loss

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but sometimes when I feel otherwise inclined to do absolutely nothing, I end up spending a couple of hours surfing around the Wikipedia, reading up on random topics that somehow end up being linked together. Tonight was such a night. I had some coding to do, but it just didn't happen — hopefully tomorrow I'll have more energy.

I really do like Wikipedia — I find I learn a lot by my haphazard exploration of it that I wouldn't run into just reading other sources of information. Perhaps it is the unique perspective of having enthusiasts writing the pages that helps.

Well, I guess I'll give up doing much productive for the night. G'night!

Cooling

After a scorching July 3rd and hot July 4th, the weather has taken a cool turn, topping out at 85 degrees or so today and dropping to 66 presently at 11:56 in Mid America. I think I would have preferred the opposite, given that we did fireworks displays for friends and family on July 3rd and 4th, but I won't complain — at least it didn't rain!

How's the weather around the blogosphere this fine July?

Happy Fourth!

Well, I'm off to bed, but I just wanted to wish y'all a happy Fourth!

Hope all of you had a very nice one.

Bam!

Most of my family got together today, rather than tomorrow, since the work week resumes on Wednesday. We had a great party, but best of all, we planned to shoot off just enough fireworks that I reached the final stretch right as the wind picked up and it started to look threatening outside.

And I planned the whole thing last night! Not bad, huh?

More Fireworks Fun

I actually bought fireworks tonight. I've been collecting information on fireworks in a more organized fashion over the last two years, so maybe I'll actually start up that fireworks web site I always talk about. If I did it now, it'd be really polished by next fourth… as if I need another job to do.

Finding Fireworks for the Fourth

I've talked about favorite fireworks in posts from last year and 2003 (I seemed to skip any such mention in 2004, when I only talked about the loss of fireworks), so to start off my discussion of fireworks this year, I would like to talk about favorite firework retailers instead. Since I sometimes get St. Louis/St. Charles residents reading my blog, I encourage you to consider patronizing these fireworks tents as you shop for the fourth of July (note: in this area, fireworks are sold in tents, save for a few permanent retailers that appear outside of St. Charles county).

• Fireworks City on Fifth St. (between QuikTrip and the abandoned Philips 66, a bit beyond several other Fireworks City tents that are closer to I-70). I don't like Fireworks City in general but I make an exception for this particular, smaller Fireworks City tent. The owner or manager of it is a genuinely nice guy who remembers me, and many of his customers from year to year. That he remembers me is surprising: they have not been the cheapest or largest tent in the past, so I haven't always bought that much from him, but that doesn't seem to matter. They have some neat fireworks — such as Pop Goes the Fountain, Nuclear Meltdown and the Reloadable Fountain — that are hard to find elsewhere, so I do buy those kinds of things there. Notably, this tent was cheaper than other tents on some items that I had looked at over the past week, which made it even better this year. Even before I realized that, I had resolved to purchase more from him this year just because he deserves the business. The fact that he has unique stuff helps in that regard.
• Bubba Fireworks (next to Citgo on the service road of I-70 in Cave Springs, beyond DAD'S and President's fireworks tents). This is a new tent with a very helpful, enthusiastic owner. Part of the key to finding good, new fireworks is helpful workers at the tent (since it is not feasible to try everything), and the lady who owns this particular tent seemed to genuinely love the fireworks she recommended. While she favored larger ones, they weren't excessive, and the tent featured some nice, smaller fireworks.
• Mr. Whalen's Fireworks (Mid Rivers Mall Drive, beyond the community college, noticeable by all the military branches' flags flying on the tent) was reasonably helpful at pointing out fireworks and pushed finding better values over bigger price tags. Notably they were one of only two tents that had Just Another Stinkin' Fountain (JASF), and they had it for only $7.00, a real bargain.
• TNT (Rte. 94 in the Walgreen's parking lot across the street from St. John's UCC) offered a better selection than the other TNT tent I've been to this year. The gentleman who was managing that tent was very good at recommending fireworks that were reasonably safe in subdivisions and was very into pointing out fireworks that had vivid, unique colors.

There are lots of other good ones, but consider checking these ones out this year.