keyspace server properly recovers after first "real world" server crash

From the beginning, keyspace was designed to automatically recover from server and application crashes, hangs, and other events that are often outside your control, and certainly outsite the scope of the keyspace service itself. During development I tested a number of scenarios that covered events like forced application kills, to server/system crashes, and other events that would cause the service to stop due to an unknown outside event. As a result of these tests, I was fairly confident that it would survive in a real world crash, but you never really know until it actually happens.

Enter an email I received this week from Amazon's AWS service, stating that the EC2 instance upon which the public keyspace server runs had experienced hardware failure, and the need to migrate my instance to another physical host. Unfortunately, I missed this email until after the physical hardware was already down, and the service stopped working.

The instructions from AWS were to stop, then start the EC2 instance. When I entered the AWS console, I saw that my instance appeared to still be running, but I could tell, from the fact that I could neither successfully retrieve key sets nor ssh into the box that things weren't normal.

So, I did as AWS instructed, stopped, then started the EC2 instance. In just a couple minutes the keyspace service had come back to life. Not only that, I discovered that the recovery feature (which automatically skips a pre-defined number of keysets when a crash is detected) worked flawlessly. Then next key set I got from keyspace.karmanebula.com was several thousand key sets later than the last one issued before the crash, which indicated that the server had skipped key sets that it couldn't know whether or not they had been issued, and simply resumed functioning at a safe point in the key set generator's life. This automatic recovery is handled in the loadOrResetKeyGeneratorState() method.

Nothing makes you sleep better at night than knowing that automated recovery systems, when put to the test, actually work!

FedEx Day for all

FedEx Day is an idea put forth by the fine folks at Atlassian. At NUBIC, the department I work in at Northwestern University decided to try doing a FedEx day of our own. It wasn't long before the project idea discussions started, and people wondered, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a place to post ideas and get feedback?"

A couple days later, the fedexday app was born - a very simple, no frills way to post an idea, and get feedback.

Below is a quick screen cap that gives you an idea of what the interface looks like. So, if you want to run a FedEx day at your workplace, now it's as simple as spinning up a small Rails app.

Users don't need to log in, and all submissions are anonymous by design. Simply post an idea, and others can comment and endorse the ideas to give you a rought measure of the level of interest. Everything in the app is free-form wiki style editing without restrictions.

keyspace project goes live

keyspace is a simple network service for generating unique 128-bit IDs for any purpose.  Think of it as a serial number generator for the entire planet.

It's an experiment to allow anyone to tag anything with a unique ID. Once a thing is tagged with a unique ID you can use that ID to lookup the original item.

The first public server is up and accessible right now. Details on the protocol can be found here.

keyspace: the next karmanebula project

About keyspace

keyspace is a public service which generates unique, 128-bit keys, for any purpose.

Inspired by a question asked on StackOverflow.com, keyspace is designed to fill similar needs as those that are filled by Snowflake (a similar open source project lead by Ryan King at Twitter), but rather than being a service you setup on an internal server and run for your own benefit, keyspace is intended to be an open, public experiment, available for use by anyone.

A public keyspace server is being setup soon at keyspace.karmanebula.com When it goes live, and is ready for first public use, it will be announced here.

FeelGoodTrader's mission lives on at Copious.com

FeelGoodTrader was closed down in early June, but if you're looking for an alternative without going back to CraigsList, check out Copious: social buying with Facebook integration. Using Facebook as the login system means you aren't dealing with anonymous strangers.

FeelGoodTrader code released as open source on GitHub

You can get FeelGoodTrader's app code on Github here: https://github.com/normalocity/feelgoodtrader The code is there for anyone to use or learn from, for educational, commercial, or other purposes.

Much of the test and developement data was removed. If you were to download and setup the project yourself:

• Under "app/dev-notes/server and dev build" there are instructions for building a dev environment in OS X 10.6, and a production environment under Ubuntu 9.10 server.
• Once the app is setup, you run the http://[host]/setup/new action to setup an admin account and get the app running

Thank you for everyone who supported the project!

FeelGoodTrader closing

FeelGoodTrader is closing. We will release the code to the public on GitHub, sometime soon.

The new Reputation system

The problem is and old one: how do you know if someone will flake out on you? The idea is simple: implement a reputation system that tracks when people flake out.

Today we launched the first version of our new reputation system. It tracks the following three things:

1. The number of items you bought
2. The number of items you sold
3. The number of deals you flaked out on

Everyone starts at 0 reputation. When you buy/sell items on the site, your reputation goes up. When you make someone an offer, but then back out of it (flake out), your reputation goes down. Flaking out is also weighted more heavily than not flaking out, so in order to have a positive reputation score, you have to stick to your word more often than not.

We're going to need some better humans...

by John Bigane / FGT Community

"And yet, I, for one, am not ready to submit that easily!" - John BiganeAs many of you know, the IBM supercomputer named Watson defeated the greatest human champions in the game of Jeopardy in February. Despite confusing Chicago with another famous American city, Toronto, Watson handily beat our most brilliant triviaologists.  I sat watching, amazed and scared as he (she? it?) blew through the boards of questions, leading the brilliant Ken Jennings to comment, "I for one welcome our new computer overlords."

And yet, I, for one, am not ready to submit that easily! I'm dedicated to improving myself and encouraging other humans in the quest that is to come.  But since I'm no Luddite and I don't expect a mobile version of Watson any time soon, we're going to be stuck with "lesser" devices for the time being.  Fortunately, with the recent release of iPad 2 and other powerful tablets, we have improved devices to help us learn and play... and play a lot more.  I've been my using my various Apple and Android devices to listen to podcasts to help improve my Spanish and study guitar chords. Plus, I figure all the time I spend conquering Angry Birds must be helpful in the long run, right?

The popularity of the iPad 2 also means there are a bunch of original iPad showing up all over the internet, including FeelGoodTrader. Nothing like using a computer, in tablet form or otherwise, to fight our new supposed overlords.

There are other ways we can stay ahead of the Watsons, HALs, Matrixes, and WOPRs.  They may be able beat us in trivia, chess, and numerous other "games" but Skynet has yet to develop anything that can defeat us in a race, a bike event or other various sporting events.  Until that time, we have the physical advantage.  I'm looking forward to the swimming, running and biking that spring bring.  I may even search out a new road bike while looking for an iPad.

To find all these amazing tools to conquer the future Watsons, I have many choices out there, on and off the internet.  When I choose to buy via an on-line service I use the new and improved notifications on FeelGoodTrader, I'm emailed or sent a text message to let me know when iPads or fast bicycles are added to the site!  I don't have to constantly search and search... when the items are available, I get notified!

If only I had a device that could build a perfect NCAA bracket, I'd be really set!  Until then, I'm stuck with the old ways ... and I'm adding a new notification of "Supercomputer Killer" to FeelGoodTrader so I'm always informed and ready.

Improved notifications

From the popular to the obscure, finding things on FeelGoodTrader has never been easier; so easy that you don't even have to come to the site to find new listings!

If you sign up for an account on FeelGoodTrader (it's free after all), then you can setup notifications for anything you can imagine, and get an email or text message when those things are posted on FeelGoodTrader.

Say you want to know when someone posts a listing for an "Xbox." Simply create a notification for it, and as the listings roll in, you'll get a message in your inbox, and a little notification count at the top of your FeelGoodTrader page after logging in.

Notifications work equally well for really obscure items. Say you're looking for a 1957 Chevy - just create a notification for it and you'll know as soon as it's posted. You can create as many notifications as you like!

Notifications are collected into a single place so they're easy to see.

Create a notification

You get a count of all your notifications

Sample notification email

A list of your open notifications