Update: Nathan Peel pointed out that I missed the $0.007 hourly usage in my calculation. I originally said that I saved $180 a year, it’s actually $120. Thanks Nathan for the correction!

Please note that what I’m writing here is more applicable to web sites with low traffic and storage requirement.

I’ve been a happy Slicehost user for the past 2.5 years. I used Slicehost for hosting this blog and some other web sites. I used their 256 slice plan at $20 per month, i.e $240 per year which includes 36.5 days bonus. I know there are cheaper hosting plans out there, but none provides the combination of excellent reliability, full root access, easy to use domain management, excellent support and documentation, and competitive price.

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Last May, I recorded a discussion in Indonesian language on Teman Macet podcast with the show’s host, Ronald Widha, and another guest who was a fellow NodeJS user,  Julius Sirait. The discussion itself was more on NodeJS introduction and sharing what we had learnt thus far. The episode, #51 nodeJS bersama Julius Sirait dan Cliffano Subagio, was available for streaming/download in July.

NodeJS is one piece of technology that I’m very excited about. For web application development, I think Node, along with its web stack, is a nice middle ground between Ruby/Rails magical ‘simplicity’ and Java/JEE layers of complexity. For network-related stuffs, (I’m quoting Sami Samhuri here) NodeJS is a swiss army knife. Oh, and have I mentioned that NodeJS is fast? like seriously da*n fast? (thanks to V8).

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If you’re a NodeJS user who happens to use Hudson as a continuous integration server, then perhaps you would be interested to check out NodeJS Plugin which I released about a month ago (yea, I’m always behind with blogging).

This plugin allows you to use NodeJS script on a build step, as an alternative to the existing shell script (out of the box) and Ruby script (via a plugin).

Call me too optimistic, but I’m waiting for the day when all standard shell script commands have their NodeJS equivalence.

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Now you can play games on Hudson using JSGames Plugin, albeit only a cutdown version of Mario Kart and Tetris (credit goes to Jacob Seidelin of Nihilogic Games). This plugin is extensible enough, so it’s pretty easy to add new games. The winners of 10K Apart would be good additions given the right license.

I wrote this plugin as an experiment on using Hudson for non-continuous integration purposes, in this case, a very minimalistic ‘games delivery platform’. Games as plugins, each with a pluggable Hudson UI that automatically adds a game menu / navigation. To push this further, the dashboard can then be modified to look more like Steam or iTunes, but of course I didn’t do this part.

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This post also serves as a note to self when I do another upgrade in the future.

It’s still not clear to me of what’s the best practice for upgrading a CouchDB installation. From the mailing list, some people suggested backing up the config and database files, uninstalling the old version, then installing the new version. But, really, what’s involved in uninstalling a CouchDB installation? manually deleting the files from the old installation? I had the same confusion when I tried to do the upgrade on OS X, once from a compile from source, and another from a CouchDBX installation.

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I just noticed that the latest version of Nginx available on Jaunty repositories was [1] the latest legacy version (0.6.x) instead of the latest stable version (0.7.x), and [2] not compiled with gzip compression enabled.

To solve both problems, I had to compile Nginx from source with --with-http_gzip_static_module option. By default, Nginx would be installed at /usr/local. I would rather keep the locations consistent with those used in the precompiled packages from the repositories, so I ended up having to use the following configure options:

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Pictured above is my copy of Rework. The photo was taken by Latte Girl at the State Library of Victoria.

If there’s ever going to be anyone changing the way we work and the way we run a business, then I’ll bet my money on the 37signals guys. This is one book I’d suggest everyone to read (unless you’re filthy rich and never have to work). I see Rework as the agile movement for the broader working industry. There are so many practices that are just brain-dead-absolute-must pick ups. The challenge out of this will be on the natural fact that people are uncomfortable with change, even when the change is for the better.

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Just moved, to the cloud.

I’ve just relaunched Badminton Academy of Victoria web site. v2.0 sports a new look and floats on Posterous platform.

The site previously used WordPress(.org) and was hosted at Go Daddy. I decided to migrate it to Posterous to allow the users to spend more time using the site, and less time maintaining the site software and infrastructure.

Just like everyone else, I initially considered WordPress.com, but Posterous has most if not all of the features needed for $0, this includes custom domain name, custom theme, FeedBurner integration, Twitter and Facebook integration, easy Google Maps embedding, easy image gallery, short URL, and post by email. Posterous wins, hands down.

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Workcapade -noun: like an escapade, extra work days on a weekend.

Last weekend I went to Wellington, New Zealand, to attend CITCON A/NZ 2010. Write ups about the event have been posted on ShineTech blog:

• CITCON Australia/New Zealand 2010 - Day 1

• CITCON Australia/New Zealand 2010 - Day 2 (Part 1)

• CITCON Australia/New Zealand 2010 - Day 2 (Part 2)

In summary, the current hotness in CI world is continuous deployment, citing the experiences from IMVU and Flickr.

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I finally moved to my own place! Go me! :). It’s kind of hard to say ‘my own place’ since a 30-year home loan is somewhat like renting your soul to the devil. So anyway, after an intense month of dealing with the solicitor, the broker, the real estate agent, and the bank, I finally moved in last February. The place is a small townhouse at Clayton, a suburb about 18km away from Melbourne CBD. There are still tons of things to do, but it’s slowly shaping up.

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