Killing Servers With Music Graphing

A talk I gave at Oxford Geek Night 7

Transcript

1. killing servers with
   music graphing
   Andrew Godwin
   www.aeracode.org
   (or, how I learned to stop worrying
   and love the load averages)
   

   View Slide

2. last.fm profile history visualiser
   

   View Slide

3. August
   July
   May
   2007
   June
   Cascada
   Mika
   Mika
   Mika
   Anda in
   Anda in
   Black Mesa Source
   D.H.T.
   D.H.T.
   DJ Sammy
   DJ Sammy
   DJ S a mmy
   Faithless
   Hybrid
   Hybrid
   Hybrid
   Hybrid
   The Postal Service
   T h e P o sta l S e rv ice
   Chicane
   Chicane
   Chicane
   Chicane
   Robert Miles
   Robert Miles
   Milk Inc.
   Milk Inc.
   ATB
   ATB
   Nightwish
   Nightwish
   Nightwish
   Groove Coverage
   William Orbit
   William Orbit
   William Orbit
   William Orbit
   Moby
   Moby
   S y lv e r
   Novaspace
   Sash!
   S a sh
   !
   Ha n s Z imme r
   Murray Gold
   Clint Mansell
   

   View Slide

4. svg
   downloader
   lastgraph
   pdf
   renderer
   lastgraph
   (graphication)
   amazon s3
   user
   

   View Slide

5. last.fm's API: 1 request per second
   Each user: ~50 requests
   This is fine if you're only getting a user a minute...
   Solution?
   Ask them nicely to let y ou have 10 per second.
   Worry about getting a user every few seconds.
   

   View Slide

6. I have live graphing (simpler ones made on the fly)
   This hurts CPUs
   I don't have many CPUs
   Solution?
   Get more CPUs
   

   View Slide

7. I was using mod_python
   So, a Python interpreter per Apache process
   I don't have that much memory
   Solution?
   Use FastCGI. Or buy more memory.
   

   View Slide

8. (which may or may not work)
   

   View Slide

9. Andrew Godwin
   www.aeracode.org
   

   View Slide