Ask HN: I have systems OCD, do you? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I have systems OCD, do you?

1 pointjason_slack8 comments

I have an OCD where I am constantly debating what is the best use of the equipment I have.

Here is what I struggle with today.

I have a new Mac Mini, 8gb RAM and running 10.6 Server. I am planning on using this to launch a simple HTML5 video site as proof of concept and maybe start something from it if it seems viable.

I have 10.6 Server on it and I just don't get the performance I think I should. The system seems slow, or slower than I would expect.

I prefer CentOS 5 and I have 3 other boxes here in my apartment running that.

Should I load CentOS 5 instead? It can do everything I am using OS X Server for.

You might say is it slow because of your bandwidth? I have a 22/5 Comcast connection, static IP's an Untangle Box front-ending the whole operation and Gigabit NICS and a switch.

Can anyone provide insight? I am literally sitting here going over it in my mind.

Does anyone else go through this?

EDIT: Another example. I have to max out the ram in all of my systems. I HAVE TO. I always have. Anything less and it bothers me.

I promise I'm not calling you out or anything. Please don't be offended, I just want to share a funny observation!

My wife actually has OCD and only our immediate family knows about it. Often friends will use "I'm OCD about X" as a figure of speech.

My wife and I simply look at each other with sly smiles.

I'd like to repeat that I'm am not calling you out nor am I offended. Just a funny observation. You never know if the person you are talking to actually has OCD!

no offense taken at all. I am pretty OCD about a fair number of things like desk placement, tidy-ness of my apartment, layout of my kitchen, etc.

My wife and I laugh to as she will purposely leave her towel after a shower all wadded up over the top of the shower because she knows I will straighten it.

She even comes into my office and will move something out of place as she knows I will walk in and know something is wrong and correct it.

And she knows not to re-arrange the refrigerator without my written consent...or rather just letting me do it my way!

The system seems slow, or slower than I would expect.

Can you be more specific? What's slow?

Hitting the site I am hosting from outside seems slow. I have been in touch with Comcast and they say there are no issue. Sometimes simple tasks in Server Admin are slow to accomplish. Starting/Stopping services, etc.

Using built in Apache, MySQL, Firewall. The site is created with some HTML5, PHP, MySQL, CSS, JS

From my experience my CentOS boxes have been significantly faster with less specs even, although a lot of RAM in the boxes. I am all Apple except for servers usually. I have a box running CentOS 5.4, Pentium-D with 8gb of RAM and it is faster with other sites I host that receive a lot more traffic and another video site i host for a friend.

Hah, you're going to have to learn to break that down a little more. What is the speed of the average request? How much of that is network delay? How much of it is the server taking to respond? PHP/MySQL don't seem like the optimal tools for serving video...

Let me time some things and give more exact answers. I realize I am being vague!

PHP and MySQL I use because I am comfortable with them. If you have suggestions, I am happy being uncomfortable to learn something new..

Sorry, I didn't mean that as a criticism. I wrote my first web apps in PHP/MySQL, as well. If you're serving video, you should probably use YouTube or the like.

Try to figure out "the life of a query": when you load a page in the browser, what happens? More to-the-point, how long does each step take?

(if you want specific advice how to go about this, feel free to ping me - my e-mail's in my profile)

OK, Thanks for the offer. I will e-mail you privately. I will explain plan my SQL and get a feel then time it in a browser when called from a PHP page and then again when I call it in the ajax box I am using...

I appreciate your thoughts.

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