Method R Newsletter: two new blog posts


How did we make mrskew run 20× faster?

This week’s blog post is at method-r.com:

A couple of years ago (June 30, 2020), we released Method R Workbench version 9.0.0.66. It had 113 new features and bug fixes. One of those features was case 7800: “mrskew is now 10–20× faster than before.” We’re prone to sneaking in performance improvements like that. It’s because we, too, use the software we sell, and we don’t like waiting around for answers any more than you do… See more ›​

Coherency delay

I actually wrote two blog posts this week. This one is about coherency delay:

Today, a reader of How to Make Things Faster asked a question about coherency delay (chapter 47): How does coherency delay manifest itself in trace files? My own awareness of the concept of coherency delay came from studying Neil Gunther’s work, where he defines it mathematically as the strength β that’s required to make your scalability curve fit the Universal Scalability Law (USL) model... See more ›​

Tuesday Zoom

This week (November 28), we talked a little bit about Oracle result cache latches, and my good friend Alex Gorbachev from Meta joined our call and told us a little bit about what it’s like to write software for 3 billion users.

Each Tuesday at 10:30am Central US Time (16:30 UTC), I host a Zoom call where a small group of IT professionals spend 25 minutes discussing how to make stuff better. You’re welcome to join us.​

“How to Make Things Faster”

Whenever you’re confronted with a performance problem, there are four simple questions you need to answer: how long? why? what if? and what else? They’re easy questions, but they’re nearly impossible to answer without one simple tool. Find out what it is in chapter 57 of How to Make Things Faster.

If you have training budget available, I’d love to teach your team all about how to make things faster.

Hi! I’m Cary.

Read more from Hi! I’m Cary.

Cary Millsap Weekly Newsletter Canceled: June 4 Tuesday Zoom There will be no Tuesday Zoom call this Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Sadly, a family friend has passed away, and her funeral service is scheduled for the same time as our call. I’ll plan to see you again on Tuesday, June 11. See more › The Fundamental Challenge of Computer System Performance This week’s featured article is one of my favorites from 2015. The fundamental challenge of computer system performance is for your system to have...

Cary Millsap Weekly Newsletter A Lesson in Writing from 1944 This week’s featured article is one of my favorites from 2008. I watched the Presidential debate tonight. One of the candidates mentioned a pair of letters that General Dwight David Eisenhower wrote in 1944. He wrote one letter that he would use in the event of a victorious Normandy invasion, and he wrote another one that he would use in the event of a defeat. I… See more › Tuesday Zoom Each Tuesday at 10:30am CDT (3:30pm UTC), I...

Cary Millsap Weekly Newsletter The Sally–Anne Skill Why won't your customer take your advice? The Sally–Anne skill will help you understand. The Sally–Anne test is a test that helps psychologists gauge a subject’s social cognitive development. Here’s the test: This is Sally. Sally has a basket. This is Anne. Anne has a box. Sally has a marble. She puts the marble into her basket. Sally goes out for a walk. Anne takes the marble out of… See more › Tuesday Zoom Each Tuesday at 10:30am CDT...