No More App Engine

Since my last post, I've been busy setting up my own Python web development environment. Just how easy is it to get 500 request per second? This is just an overview of what I've accomplished so far, and I'll provide more details as I tune things up. Maybe I'll even release my code so that others can get started. I wanted to bring up a Python environment and a database, to be able to get a reasonable comparison with App Engine. This is my setup:

1. Apache 2.2 with the worker MPM.
2. MySQL 5.0 with the thread-safe client.
3. mod_wsgi running in embedded mode.
4. I'm using the MySQLdb python module.

I tuned Apache by adding more processes and threads to handle more connections. I upped the max_connections for MySQL for the same reason. Everything is running on the same machine. I ran two tests, one from the smallest EC2 instance (2.0Ghz CPU, 1.7G RAM) and the other from largest instance (8 3.0Ghz CPU's, 7.5G RAM).

Small instance driver: ab -n 100000 -c 500
Large instance driver: ab -n 1000000 -c 500

I ran the test from one EC2 instance to the other. The bandwidth between EC2 instances is pretty good, so it does push Apache. I did boost the large instance to -n 5000000 and -c 1000, and it handled it with no problem. I ran the test 3-4 times for each configuration, and averaged the numbers.

Here are my numbers:

Small instance: 1650, 1000, 780 Requests per second
Large instance: 4800, 4000, 3100 Request per second

1. The first number just returns a 'hello world' string.
2. The second number does a SELECT COUNT(*) on a large MySQL table.
3. The third number inserts a row into a MySQL table.

I was amazed by these numbers. I'm not that experienced with Apache (although I do know a little bit about MySQL), and yet I was easily able to blow away 500 requests per second even on a small EC2 instance.

The Google App Engine Hoax

I heard about Google releasing the paid quotas on App Engine the other day, and just got around to reading the details. I was horrified - HORRIFIED. App Engine is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on unsuspecting developers.

For months now, I have been writing App Engine applications, waiting for the scalability that Google has been promising. The quotas up until now have been painful to deal with, but hope was right around the corner - right? When the paid quotas are released, I'll be able to pay for what I need - right? Wrong. Read the maximum request quota - 500 request per second. Is Google fucking joking? I can get better throughput on my laptop. Here is the "Automatic Scalability" paragraph straight from Google:

"For the the first time your applications can take advantage of the same scalable technologies that Google applications are built on, things like BigTable and GFS. Automatic scaling is built in with App Engine, all you have to do write your application code and we'll do the rest. No matter how many users you have or how much data your application stores, App Engine can scale to meet your needs."

Note to Google - remove this paragraph. It's a stinking lie. You have been misleading developers for months, leading us to believe that App Engine was the way to go, that all our scalability problems were solved. You're a bunch of fucking liars. 500 requests per second? That's "scaling is built in"? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!!!!

Azure here I come.

Trust is Gone

Much has been written about the Great Depression and how it relates to the current financial crisis. Paulson, Bernanke, and the rest of the clowns are bending over backwards in order to make sure that this crisis doesn't turn into another depression (if it hasn't already).

So everyone is asking the same question - "Why did the Great Depression last so long?". Was it government intervention, lack of government intervention, fiscal policy, ...? The list goes on. The answer, however, is very easy.

It's called trust. Everyone lost trust in the system. It took about one generation for trust to be restored, or more accurately, for the next batch of suckers to grow into adulthood. That's the ONLY reason the Great Depression lasted so long.

So it's easy to extrapolate this to the current crisis. The crisis will end when trust is restored in the system. The American public has been bamboozled for the last 30 years as our high living standard has been squandered by those in charge of it's upkeep. The free market has sold off America piece by piece, and there is nothing left. At least nothing we really own. All the money has gone down a bottomless pit, and it's gone, just like the money Madoff managed.

Krugman was right. Capitalism and free markets are a Ponzi scheme. But today the bill is due, and there's nothing left to sell. So Bernanke and Paulson start printing money to defer the payment for another year or two.

The end is near. Trust is gone, and it won't be restored this time. The USA is finished. Change our name to BUSA, the Banana United States of America. In a few years this will be clear, when we start defaulting on our national debt, just like a typical banana republic.

Thank you, free markets!

The Explanation of the Financial Crisis

"You mean we have to mark to market on the way down too?"

There is Only One Economic Problem

There is really only one economic problem left to solve. The world has an enormous labor surplus. The notion that we have to produce 'something' in order to survive economically needs to be completely rethought.

Most jobs today are little more than keeping people busy. They do little to help anyone, other than the lords of our intractable economic system.

We now have the means to feed and shelter everyone. The only barriers to making this a reality are political and economic. Current economic theories are now a hindrance to progress.

If our enormous labor capacity was directed properly, we would all probably work 4-6 hours a day and enjoy a high living standard.

Fanaticism

Religion, capitalism, communism, name-your-ism can all be lumped into the category of fanaticism. Any ism, above all else, glorifies fanaticism. Sacrificing ones life and killing others for your ism is encouraged.

Fanaticism is the end result of all isms, toward which all isms gravitate. The pull is to hard to resist, and eventually even well meaning isms are corrupted by the fanatics.

If you see another person fanatical about anything, realize this - that person is insane. Act accordingly.

Anti-humanism

An anti-human philosophy is one that subjugates man to something other than human needs. For religion, it's subjugation to an imaginary sky god. For capitalism, it's subjugation to money.

Since most governments are influenced (or even defined by) one the the monotheistic religions, they inherit the profound anti-humanism of that respective religion.

Why can't the board of directors and officers of corporations be duty bound to 'improve human conditions', rather than increasing profits? Why can't the goal of religions be to 'improve human conditions' rather than preparing us for an imaginary future beyond death?

It makes no sense. We spend most of our lives oiling a perpetual motion machine. Our time is wasted. If we spent all our time on human needs, then everyone would be clothed, sheltered, and fed, and we would all work half as much as we do today. We have the means to do this, just not the will.

The only way to trick the public into this tragedy is by conning us into believing in one of the many choices of anti-humanism available today.

Make your choice.