Photos:

China pictures processed

 
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2006.05.22 @20:39 

My Anti Virus loves me ... too much.

My Anti Virus loves me ... too much.

At work, the product manager of the piece of software we are developing based on Joomla!, asked us at some point "Why the admin console is so bloody slow ???".

Well indeed, a simple html page was taking ages to be built and/or downloaded on a LAN with the server being an outrageously powerful piece of hardware for the job to be done. And the server was 10 meters away from my laptop.

Ok joomla is definitely not a racing horse but still, why oh why taking 5 or 6 seconds to build a simple admin page every time we click on something (and joomla users know that a lot of page refreshes are needed if you want to do anything).

Strangely enough the same pages under Firefox are lightning fast. Sadly the target is Internet Explorer only. I had to investigate all down the line, put timers everywhere in the php and javascript code etc... Result of the battle: FF 0.3 secs, IE 4.3 secs at its best !

This, in fact, comes from the admin menu printed as a banner on all admin pages. This is built using another opensource piece of software called JsCookmenu. Rather than being processed on the server, it is built from a multidimensionnal array by the javascript itself. Hmmm well ok, why not.

Quickly enough I was able to determine that the problem was coming from the way it is built : a 60 KB(!) string that the browser must parse on the fly (because built by javascript) before a classic innerHTML setter. Huh ok, innerHTML was "invented" by IE but definitely looks quite slow here, weird... but us - as (a little bit) geeks - tend sometimes to drop the investigations thinking "hey whatever, FF beats IE clearly, cant compare isnt it ?".

Until I found another computer not on our LAN where suddenly the admin was quite fast. My mind clicked this time ! Oh bloody stupid macafee get out of my way ? Reload --> lightning fast !

What's the problem ? Simply that this menu (by the way only around 50 items) is intensively based on "onmouse*" kind of events. Each of the 50 items (and the spacers !) has the 4 : onmouseup, onmousedown, onmouseover, onmouseout events defined. So everytime the html parser finds the start of an event definition the browser gives the control to the anti-virus that instantiates lots of stuff just to parse a 50 bytes string and imply replies "this is a virus or not..." and trashes everything. And this takes something like 0.2 secs (!) and 100% CPU every time of every event assignation of every menu item of every page... Even if of course this is the same code EVERY time ! In this menu this is actually exactly the same string as this is the same call every time, even the parameters are the same if I remember well.

The result is that the poor computer is completely STUCK for 4 seconds (100 % CPU, cant click on anything on the page). Nice one.

It was already quite a pain these "On access scanners" when it slows down the launching of any program because of the .exe scan prior to it but on the other hand this is indeed a nice protection for non-techies who dont really know much about viruses. But now, completely screwing the computer while checking all the small javascripts handlers strings every time is a hell of a nightmare ! 

So, If you are using joomla! and you find it slow on the admin console : disable your anti virus, if sometimes you find web pages that seem too slow to be because of the network latency, try disable your antivirus before a refresh... you never know, it can make your life easier.

Be AFRAID of javascript you people, you never know how evil this technology is. Or is it evil anti virus technology ?


2006.05.15 @20:46 

Un remake du poseïdon pour vous rafraîchir cet été

Un remake du poseïdon pour vous rafraîchir cet été

Bon. Ca y est. L'été revient et les films popcorn aussi. Joie joie joie. Oui on a beau être un brin intello tendance geek on n'est pas forcément contre un bon film qui scotche au fauteuil de temps en temps. J'avoue.

Mais quand il s'agit de soi disant dépoussiérer un classique je sens une certaine appréhension pointer à l'horizon. Déjà j'ai un peu de mal à comprendre l'intérêt de refaire un film qui était si réussi et surtout dont le principe est quand même si "simple" qu'un enfant de 3 ans l'utilise lorsqu'il joue aux playmobils : un bateau sur l'eau, une vague le retourne, des gens qui ont oubliés d'être bêtes essayent de sortir en "descendant au fond du bateau". Ben oui, vu que le bateau est à l'envers. Faut suivre.

Le gros avantage du premier opus si brillamment exécuté est qu'on savait raconter des histoires en ce temps là. Ehhh oui ma bonne dame. Certaines scènes et certains dialogues sont restés dans l'histoire (du cinéma - n'allons pas non plus exagérer). Le CGI (les nordinateurs) c'est beau mais ca ne fait pas tout - appréciez le commentaire à sa juste valeur .

Alors je n'ai pas encore vu le film et j'étais quand même tenté d'y jeter une papatte dans une salle obscure lorsque la chaleur se ferait sentir, surtout que le réalisateur n'est pas un bleu. Mr Petersen nous avait quand même pondu quelques films bien sympa : The Perfect Storm, In the Line of Fire, Das Boot, même Troy était plutôt réussi.

Mais vu les critiques de nos amis américains qui ont eu la chance d'avoir l'été plus tôt que nous je pense que j'aurai piscine ce jour là...

Voir la fiche imdb pour les plus anglophones d'entre vous.


2006.05.13 @17:59 

IT rulez...

IT rulez...
Well ok, I've installed FCK Editor on my blog admin pages. And I havent posted 2 posts that it already made the browser crashed 5 or 6 times (more under IE than FF). People who knows me the best knows that I'm kinda "this guy will make crash dont worry" but still I'm quite pissed off. I like reinventing the wheel (see this blog) but hey I didnt plan to redo everything

Until now...

2006.05.13 @17:32 

Drawings on pavement, is this real ?

Drawings on pavement, is this real ?

Julian Beever

If you like really nice drawings, trompe l'oeil, and ... headaches, you'll love this guy.

A must see.







Impressionants dessins a la craie

Impressionants dessins a la craie

Julian Beever

Si vous aimez les belles réalisations, le trompe l'oeil ... voire les maux de tête, ce gars est fait pour vous.

Tous simplement fantastique !

Son site officiel.
Mais certaines photos sont mieux ici.
Vous pouvez aussi voir comment il fait.



2006.05.10 @23:01 

Welcome to this little blog.

Welcome to this little blog.

I'm quite proud to launch this little new blog. Since the beginning of Internet I was quite tempted to rule a "I-make-my-own-news" website or blog as we call them nowadays but never really crossed the line. Another site (like this one) is not very far but nothing like a real blog.

So let's try it. Here it is... with a little late. See here why.

You can find some pieces of information about this blog in the menu above or here and there.

Note: this blog is rather new so expect some bugs...

Bienvenue sur ce petit blog

Bienvenue sur ce petit blog
Voila, il aura fallu du temps mais je me suis enfin(?) attelé a la publication d'un blog. J'ai toujours été tenté de le faire depuis que le monde est monde (ok depuis qu'internet est internet, et... oui il y a une différence !) mais je ne l'avais jamais réellement fait. Même si parfois un site comme celui ci n'est pas si loin dans le concept.

Alors nous y voici, avec un peu de retard. Voir ici pourquoi.

Vous pouvez trouver d'autres informations à propos de ce blog ici et .

Note: vu que ce blog vient de naître, il y aura certainement des bugs...