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• First place: Morehouse College Team 2 (Lawrence Forrester, Kevin Walton, Mark Slade, Michael Davis)
• Second place: Old Dominion University Monarchs (Duc Nguyen, Cesar Barbieri, Darrin Lee, Nicole Jackson)
• Third place: Spelman College YOMamaBoards (Jonecia Keels, Jazmine Miller, Paige McReynolds, Arielle Baine)

I use a couple of venues to generate new material, new talking material every year.  Hotsos symposium has always been one, Oracle University Seminars have been another.  Oracle OpenWorld is definitely one as well.

Well, believe it or not, it is time for me to submit my abstract for Oracle OpenWorld already - even though it is not until September.  So, it is time to come up with yet another topic.  I've been known to do a "top ten" style presentation for a while at OpenWorld - the last few years have been top tens on 9i Release 2, 10g Releases 1 and 2 and most recently - 11g Release 1.  Intermixed with that was a database 'worst practices' presentation as well.

So, now - I'm looking for some fresh ideas.  A topic that can be well covered in an hour and would have broad general appeal.  In reality - if I get a couple of good ideas, I'll probably generate the material for all of them but just pick one (maybe two) for presentation at OpenWorld. 

So, I invite you to submit an idea - doesn't have to be fully fleshed out - just a concept, something you would find useful at a venue such as OpenWorld (or a presentation to a user group - as this is where this material will be used time and time again...)

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

我算得上是 Movable Type 的忠实用户。这两年来，WordPress 快成为 独立 Blog 的标准配置了，MT 可以说每况愈下。自从升级到 MT4 之后，明显感觉 Blog 性能糟糕了很多，每一次发文章都要与 HTTP 500 错误战斗半天才能成功，读者留言也非常费劲，有段时间非常灰心丧气，都不想继续写下去了。如果说 MT 3 之前是与 SPAM 战斗，到了 MT 4 就完全是折腾性能问题了。虽然 MT 4 之后的每次小版本发布都宣称性能上有很大改进，实际表现总是欠佳。

一些常规的 MT 优化技巧 其实作用都不大，我还把 MT 用的数据库索引分析了一遍，删掉了好几个价值不大的索引，虽然不是无用功，但也解决不了问题，因为瓶颈根本不在 DB 这里。大多数 Movable Type 用户的应用场景是在 Dreamhost 上，在这个环境里要想找到应用的瓶颈还真的是个技术活。缺乏 Profiling 工具不说，如果调用某个命令消耗了资源稍微过份一点，立刻被系统 Kill 掉。

其实 MT 的设计思想还是很不错的，大部分页面都 Build 成静态页面，减少对数据库的压力。一般来说，这比 WordPress 频繁调用数据库的方式(当然 WP 是可以起用 Cache 的)，应该在性能上有更好的表现才是。问题是 Dreamhost 对每个用户提供的硬件资源其实是很差的，尤其是磁盘 I/O 。我的所有页面加起来也不过几千个，如果只是访问静态页面或是数据库其实问题都不大的，麻烦出现在构建页面或者是遇到留言行为的时候，MT 会调用若干个磁盘上的模版文件，加上 Perl 本身的系统开销，消耗的资源就到了 Dreamhost 的极限，然后进程就被无情的 Kill 掉了。估计是用户群抱怨太多，从 MTOS 4.1.1 版本开始总算有了一个性能框架 专门用以分析性能问题(并且号召用户提供性能数据以便协助解决性能问题)。启用了一段时间后，收集到的 Log 响应时间典型是这样的：

MT::Template::build[Comment Response]=0.60070
MT::App::Comments::run=28.24320
Total=28.85665

或许在 I/O 不错的系统上，表现会好吧。Dreamhost 上文件都是放置在 NFS 上的，而且众多用户共用一个系统，只能将就一下。

今天看到 4.15 的改进中，已经可以 Cache Template Module 了。甘愿作小白鼠，升级。盼望这次能有效解决特定应用场景的性能问题。不过开启了性能 Log 看了半天，效果并非很显著，

Online tool for creating graphs

“NCES constantly uses graphs and charts in our publications and on the web. Sometimes, complicated information is difficult to understand and needs an illustration. Graphs or charts can help impress people by getting your point across quickly and visually.”

Why Chipotle does less than other chains

“Chipotle also avoids the frills that pad other chains’ bottom lines. ‘Desserts and other sides are all profit for these chains,’ says industry analyst Clark Wolf. ‘The whole infrastructure’s already there, so they can make a 90% margin on extras.’ But founder and CEO Steve Ells staunchly refuses to expand his menu beyond four options (burrito, burrito bowl, taco, salad). ‘We want to do just a few things better than everyone else,’ Ells says. ‘We just do things we think are right.’” [via BL]

The quietest place on earth

“Silence is a truly rare thing. All reverberation is removed… all sounds that aren’t coming from your own body disappear. After a few moments in the anechoic chamber, you’ll begin to feel a touch jumpy. Hearing your heart beat, your blood pulse, the sound of your own ear buzzing and your body functioning like you’ve never heard before has a tendency to be a bit unnerving. And in complete silence, you lose all sense of space and surroundings. The absence of reflected sound and reverberation makes ‘feeling out’ the room impossible.”

How to meditate

“The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.”

“In Japan, That Donut Could Cost You Your Job”

“To curtail Japan’s overweight population, the Japanese health ministry recently mandated that all waistlines among its 56 million workers over age 40 be below ‘regulation size’ of 33.5 inches (for men). Any company failing to bring its employees’ weight under control — as well as the weights of their family members — will be fined up to 10% of its earnings by the government.”

Online Vietnam Veterans Memorial

“it’s a 5 gigapixel image (about 460 feet wide when viewed at 100%) of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall (stitched from 1,494 images) where you can click on any name to learn more about that person or add photos and comments.”

OpenID for Google accounts

You can now use your Google Account to log into any site that supports OpenID.

Canoe made from disposable chopsticks

“A former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Koriyama has built a 4-meter (13-ft) long canoe from thousands of used disposable chopsticks recovered from the city hall cafeteria. Bothered that perfectly good wood was going to waste after a single use, Shuhei Ogawara — whose job at city hall involved working with the local forestry industry — spent the last two years of his career collecting used chopsticks from the cafeteria.”

Online tool for creating graphs

“NCES constantly uses graphs and charts in our publications and on the web. Sometimes, complicated information is difficult to understand and needs an illustration. Graphs or charts can help impress people by getting your point across quickly and visually.”

Why Chipotle does less than other chains

“Chipotle also avoids the frills that pad other chains’ bottom lines. ‘Desserts and other sides are all profit for these chains,’ says industry analyst Clark Wolf. ‘The whole infrastructure’s already there, so they can make a 90% margin on extras.’ But founder and CEO Steve Ells staunchly refuses to expand his menu beyond four options (burrito, burrito bowl, taco, salad). ‘We want to do just a few things better than everyone else,’ Ells says. ‘We just do things we think are right.’” [via BL]

The quietest place on earth

“Silence is a truly rare thing. All reverberation is removed… all sounds that aren’t coming from your own body disappear. After a few moments in the anechoic chamber, you’ll begin to feel a touch jumpy. Hearing your heart beat, your blood pulse, the sound of your own ear buzzing and your body functioning like you’ve never heard before has a tendency to be a bit unnerving. And in complete silence, you lose all sense of space and surroundings. The absence of reflected sound and reverberation makes ‘feeling out’ the room impossible.”

How to meditate

“The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.”

“In Japan, That Donut Could Cost You Your Job”

“To curtail Japan’s overweight population, the Japanese health ministry recently mandated that all waistlines among its 56 million workers over age 40 be below ‘regulation size’ of 33.5 inches (for men). Any company failing to bring its employees’ weight under control — as well as the weights of their family members — will be fined up to 10% of its earnings by the government.”

Online Vietnam Veterans Memorial

“it’s a 5 gigapixel image (about 460 feet wide when viewed at 100%) of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall (stitched from 1,494 images) where you can click on any name to learn more about that person or add photos and comments.”

OpenID for Google accounts

You can now use your Google Account to log into any site that supports OpenID.

Canoe made from disposable chopsticks

“A former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Koriyama has built a 4-meter (13-ft) long canoe from thousands of used disposable chopsticks recovered from the city hall cafeteria. Bothered that perfectly good wood was going to waste after a single use, Shuhei Ogawara — whose job at city hall involved working with the local forestry industry — spent the last two years of his career collecting used chopsticks from the cafeteria.”

dbanotes posted a photo: