When I first started down the path to the Clam project, I realized I could get sub-second responses when the db/cache/php/nginx were all collocated on the same machine. It literally removes almost all network effects. That being said, how could I use that to my advantage? From a database perspective, for a small site, it [...]
Stop thinking about databases and infrastructure
I've been playing with Microsoft's Service Fabric the last couple of days and getting the gist of it. If you've never heard of it, that's ok. I'm about to tell you all about it. Service Fabric reminds me of Docker + CQRS ... I suppose you could even run it in Docker if you wanted [...]
Abandon Ship: Why I’m Leaving Docker
After a year of getting deep into Docker, and just about every orchestration service from Docker Cloud, to Kubernetes, to Mesos, to Rancher, to Triton, to Open Shift, to ECS, and on and on ... there's one thing I've learned: They are all good for one or two things, but they're not the full package [...]
Yet Another Rabbit Hole
I feel like I've talked about this before. But, I'm going to talk about it again, because it is relevant. Almost six years ago, I discovered an interesting way to manage money, you could call it realtime accounting if you want. I decided to use WordPress as my frontend platform of choice for a variety [...]
Dockerized WordPress With Delectable Press
Dockerizing WordPress is no trivial task. My goal is for a multi-tenant setup -- some being single sites, some being networks. The ability to "mutate" the application (ie, install plugins/themes) without actually mutating anything but the configuration. Something akin to compose/npm/paket/etc, where a simple file describes what you want installed and then it just happens. [...]
Why Docker (The Not So Cliche Post)
A year ago I set out to make WordPress super scalable. Not that the WordPress.com guys aren't doing a good enough job or anything, but just because... Because WordPress is a great platform to build shit on. It's easy for non-technical people to grok. It's powerful to build things with (think actions and filters). But [...]
Promises … WordPress In Docker
Over a year ago, I promised to move this blog off of traditional hosting and into Docker. Holy crap, has that been a lot tougher than I thought... First of all, there's literally dozens of frameworks to choose from. There are hundreds of tools and probably hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of images to examine [...]
State of Software
I started writing software as a kid. I taught myself most of what I know, but I've learned over the years that I'm different than most self-taught engineers... I've read all the books I could get my hands on, I've stayed on top of new developments and found mentors. I feel like so many self-taught [...]
Just Ship It
One of my favorite (coworker|mentor) and I were working on a mobile app at a startup. It was a tall order, but doable. We were still in the design phase, and we were working mostly on the front end. I asked him: Shouldn't we be putting this much effort into the API? His answer (paraphrased): [...]
I’m a Robot
This evening, while sitting on the couch with my laptop, I challenged my wife to "program me" to pick up one of our son's toys across the room. She gave me the "are you crazy look" and I explained that it would show her what it was like to program a computer. Here are the [...]