Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

Benchmarking Wordpress with Apache Bench

Posted in Blogging, Performance, Scalability, WP by Elliott Back on January 14th, 2008.

A lot of people talk about Wordpress performance, and how to get a webserver to perform as efficiently as possible. However, without a quantifiable methodology to testing website performance, you can’t actually talk about it. ApacheBench (ab) is the solution to the problem of measuring website performance. What is ApacheBench? The man page provides a suitable answer:

ab – Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

ab is a tool for benchmarking your Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to give you an impression of how your current Apache installation performs. This especially shows you how many requests per second your Apache installation is capable of serving.

If you have installed apache or apache-devel, you should be to simple invoke ab by typing it on the command line. For example, to benchmark my own site here, I would write:

[root ~]# ab -n 10000 -c 100 http://elliottback.com/wp/

This says “make 10,000 concurrent requests to host elliottback.com via http and request /wp/ on 100 threads.” The result of this is the following report:

This is ApacheBench, Version 2.0.40-dev < $Revision: 1.146 $> apache-2.0
Copyright 1996 Adam Twiss, Zeus Technology Ltd, http://www.zeustech.net/
Copyright 2006 The Apache Software Foundation, http://www.apache.org/

Benchmarking elliottback.com (be patient)
Completed 1000 requests
Completed 2000 requests
Completed 3000 requests
Completed 4000 requests
Completed 5000 requests
Completed 6000 requests
Completed 7000 requests
Completed 8000 requests
Completed 9000 requests
Finished 10000 requests

Server Software: Apache/2.2.6
Server Hostname: elliottback.com
Server Port: 80

Document Path: /wp/
Document Length: 34331 bytes

Concurrency Level: 100
Time taken for tests: 13.596345 seconds
Complete requests: 10000
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 346230000 bytes
HTML transferred: 343310000 bytes
Requests per second: 735.49 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 135.963 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 1.360 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 24868.08 [Kbytes/sec] received

Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 0 0 1.6 0 20
Processing: 8 134 12.7 132 190
Waiting: 4 134 12.7 132 190
Total: 16 134 12.1 132 190

Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 132
66% 134
75% 136
80% 137
90% 145
95% 160
98% 175
99% 179
100% 190 (longest request)

According to these numbers, my dual core server can do 750 requests per second, fulfilling each within about 150ms each. That’s pretty fast, probably because I know the secrets of Wordpress Optimization. If you make every layer as fast as it can be, and cache heavily, you too can see lightening fast Wordpress installations!

Honolulu, Oahu Hawaii Travel Itinerary

Posted in Travel, Wendy by Elliott Back on June 18th, 2007.

So, I’m going to be flying to Honolulu this Friday, so at Wendy’s request I’m collecting a big list of possible things to do while we are there! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted in this category; it feels good!


USS Arizona Memorial

uss-az.jpg

The USS Arizona Memorial is the final resting place for many of the battleship’s 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The national memorial commemorates the site where World War II began for the United States. Experience history through the national memorial’s program tour, museum, and wayside exhibits.

Directions: The #20 and #42 bus will take you to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center
Times: 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 7 days a week


Waikiki Beach

waikiki-beach.jpg

Hawaiian for “Sprouting Water”, this is one of the most famous beaches in the world. The two mile stretch of white sand coast is fronted by hotels and tourist facilities. The area is excellent for swimming, surfing, boogie boarding, catamaran and outrigger canoe rides. You can read more about Waikīkī beach on Wikipedia!


Polynesian Cultural Center

pcc.jpg

Hawaii’s Polynesian Cultural Center, located about one hour’s scenic drive from Waikiki, is the top paid Hawaiian attraction for a reason. Our seven native villages give visitors the rare chance to participate in the daily adventures of Hawaiian and other South Pacific cultures. Add Hawaii’s most authentic luau and the world’s largest Polynesian night show and you’ll see why every trip to Hawaii should include a visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Yes, it’s for tourists, but even my mother said to go!

When: Pickup from hotel around 12:30
Where: The other side of the island


Star of Honolulu Dinner Cruise

star-of-honolulu.jpg

Be pampered at the exclusive Captain’s welcome reception on the top deck, 7-course French style dinner served to your own private table in our Art Deco Super Nova Room, super premium beverages and live Jazz entertainment!

When: 5:30 – 9:00 PM
Where: Call (808) 983-STAR (7827) to reserve


Hanauma Bay

ht.jpg

Hanauma is both a Nature Preserve and a Marine Life Conservation District (the first of several established in the State of Hawai‘i). Visitors are required by law to refrain from mistreating marine animals or from touching, walking, or otherwise having contact with coral heads. Hanauma is known for its abundance of Green sea turtles, also known as the Honu. Hanauma Bay is a breeding ground for the turtle because of its abundance of foods, protection from predators, and other unknown reasons.

When: 6:00a.m. until 7:00p.m. except on Tuesdays
Where: Number 22 bus from Waikiki; runs down Kuhio Avenue
More fun: Call 1.866.268.7459 to rent bumper boats, jet skis


HOOMALUHIA BOTANICAL GARDEN

gardens.jpg

Settled close by the exquisitely beautiful Pali of Windward Oahu, this enormous garden possesses some of the most exotic vegetation across the greatest expanse I’ve ever seen. We were disappointed in Oahu’s terrain until we went to Kaneohe. We came upon this park by accident. What a beautiful area. This garden had some of the best pictures of our trip.

When: 9 AM to 4 PM
Where: 55 or 56 will stop on Kamehameha Hwy.; it’s a 2-mile walk to the visitor center


Diamond Head

diamond-head.jpg

Diamond Head is the name of a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēʻahi. Diamond Head Trail is 1¾ miles to the rim and takes about 1½ hours. There is NO shade, so schedule an early hike!

When: 6 AM to 6 PM
Where: From Kuhio Avenue, take Bus #22 or Bus #58


The Honolulu Zoo

quirt.jpg

The Honolulu Zoo covers 42 lush, shady acres at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. The zoo features some special exhibits such as the Nene (the Hawaii state bird), native Hawaiian forest birds, and the highlight of the zoo, the Kabuni Reserve. The African savanna covers 12-acres where animals roam freely behind disguised barriers in 30 different habitats.

When:9:00 am to 4:30 pm daily
Where: Downtown, call (808) 971-7171


Waikiki Aquarium

aquarium.jpg

The Waikiki Aquarium, founded in 1904, is the third oldest public aquarium in the United States. A part of the University of Hawaii since 1919, the Aquarium is located next to a living reef on the Waikiki shoreline. Our exhibits, programs, and research focus on the aquatic life of Hawaii and the tropical Pacific. Over 2,500 organisms in our exhibits represent more than 420 species of aquatic animals and every year, roughly 350,000 people visit the Waikiki Aquarium.

When: 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Where: Within walking distance


Waikiki Parasailing

parasail.jpg

Parasail with Xtreme Parasail. The highest flight you can buy in the state of Hawaii. Without a doubt the BEST and LONGEST way to enjoy your flight in the air. If you’re going to do it, get the most out of 1,000 feet of line!

When: Call 808.737.3599 for information
Where: Pickup from hotels


Cirque Hawaii

cirque.jpg

Cirque Hawaii has exploded on Waikiki’s entertainment scene with all the joie de vivre that can be expected from a show patterned in the tradition of the wildly popular and purely magical Cirque du Soleil performances of Las Vegas and international fame. Mounted by two former Cirque du Soleil performers, the Waikiki show features a troupe of 34 award-winning aerialists, acrobats and dancers from around the world.

When: 1.808.922.0017
Where: 325 Seaside Avenue / Honolulu Hawaii 96815

A few miscellaneous things to do around the city:

I’ve got a couple more things to post here, but it will have to wait till I get back from work! Did you know Hotel – Hotels.nl is dedicated to providing the best prices and the easiest and most accurate online bookings for hotels in Amsterdam and Holland?

Longest Page on the Internet?!

Posted in Computers & Technology, Memes, Milestones by Elliott Back on January 21st, 2006.

YOU say that you have the longest page on the internet? Well, let me top that. This page is infinitely long. That’s infinitely longer than whatever the “world’s longest / tallest” page is. This is accomplished with a little javascript that writes 72 pixels or one inch per second that the browser window is open. And it goes on forever:

var dvCount = 1;

function writeDiv(){
var e = document.getElementById(‘longestDiv’);
if(!e){} else {
e.innerHTML += ‘<div style="position:absolute; left:’ + (dvCount * 90) + ‘px; width:72px; height:50px; border:1px dashed red;">’ + dvCount++ + ‘</div>’;
}

setTimeout(‘writeDiv()’, 1000);
}

writeDiv();

(more…)

Next Page »