Re: Tension at TCP Towers - Response

The following is a response by Eric Pederson to "Tension at TCP Towers" refering to the increasing number of databases being connected to the web

In <4prs82$pdb@blackice.winternet.com> eric@parka.winternet.com (Eric Pederson) writes:
>This sounds disturbingly familiar. Are we all having to do this now?

Yeah, I guess so. The age of just having a dumb page of HTML up on the web is now gone. It is now the age of CGI generated pages which contain useful information, preferably with lots of Java to be Really Kewl Dewd - <blaugh.

At least we can charge lots more money for it tho :)

>So now, with a sexy point and drool interface for lots of new lusers, these
>DB servers are going to shit themselves dealing with an increased load they
>were not configured to handle.
>I sense upgrades.

If its coming from an old database that wasn't designed for it. In the case of new solution you'd hope that the people doing the work would spec a system capable of handling the load.

In our case, we horribly over-spec'ed the hardware to the point of idiocy. It does make for some very nice machines to use tho. If it wasn't for the difference in OSs I'd be "accidently" using one of the DB servers to do some of my development work on.

>I once had a buzzword-compliant boss. The problem was, that he didn't really
>know what all the buzzwords actually meant. I mean, he could use them in a
>sentence without messing up the grammar, but the sentence really didn't
>make much sense.

Sounds very similar to our boss. He throws buzzwords around like there is no tomorrow. Naturally, his understanding of any of said buzzwords is about the same as a luser's.

>Y'know, Simes, I remember waaay back in '94 or so, you mentioning that you
>were working on a brand spanking new accounting system for TCP Towers, that
>would solve all your problems.

Oh yeah... the new system, otherwise known as "that bit of vapourware" around TCP Towers, has been in planning for a looonnng time. Just after I finished writing the current one AFAIR. ie around Oct '94.

>Still working on it?

Yep. Well, when I actually have time to work on it anyway. The problem is quite simple; there is far too much work on at TCP Towers for the staff we have. Telling our boss this is an exercise in futility 99% of the time. The new staff member he has been talking about to do all of the DB work (including the Informix stuff - thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou) will also be doing work for a sister company as well.... which means that whilst I'll not have the terror of Informix to do, I'll still have a lot of the CGI work we've been doing for clients recently.

The current accounting system, whilst being a nightmare to maintain and a mind of its own, is scaling fairly well. The problem is that it doesn't deal with all of the accounting, just the luser's dial up access. This leaves stuff like web/ftp/domain stuff to be done by claw (which the TCP trolls don't have time to do). However, I don't have to time[1] to do this. To be fair, we didn't offer web/ftp/domain stuff to our lusers when I first wrote our accounting stuff.

When you mix the amount of work we have to do, along with the current system limping along, the result is the new one is constantly set back on my to-do list. However, it is becoming fairly important to get the new system written. We're starting to get salesdroids at TCP Towers[2] who don't like using vi on a CSV file to make changes to accounting details (or shouting across the office (and thus deafening the troll next to them) to see if anyone else is also editting the file).

[sigh] I'm going to be nice and the all singing and dancing new system will have a point and drool interface that even the Boss can understand.

The real problem is finding time to sit down and collate all of the notes I've written down over the past 18 months or so. I've written some stuff for it already (ie a label printing thing and some quota control gunk) which the current systems make use of. The real guts of it (NATASHA) and the frontend (BORIS) have yet to be done. I'm really going to enjoy that. Oh yay.

[1]	Or the bravery. Really I don't know what I was on when I first wrote our accounting system. Or when I changed it for that matter. Suffice to say, it contains some very strange code. Naturally, since it was a rushed hack, none of it was commented.
[2]	Yea, even TCP Towers has fallen low to the invasion of the salesdroids.

Posted on 14th Jun 1996