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I tried to show how the onslaught of visitors from my Hacker News link last week had an effect on both the server (as shown in all of the 7 day munin graphs), a

by conesus 16y ago

I tried to show how the onslaught of visitors from my Hacker News link last week had an effect on both the server (as shown in all of the 7 day munin graphs), and the project (how I'm responding to feedback and planning the course of NewsBlur for the next few months). I'm just so close to NewsBlur being profitable. I am 35 premium user accounts away (for a total of 80 accounts). Once NewsBlur goes profitable, that's when the real hard work starts. I would then have support issues, broken features in edge case browser/OS configs, and the headaches of keeping a server running for high availabaility, while on a shoe string budget and working super-part-time. (I write most of NewsBlur on the A train, 35 minutes each way from Brooklyn to midtown).

random42 16y ago
I write most of NewsBlur on the A train, 35 minutes each way from Brooklyn to midtown. This is fantastic, and very inspiring.
- conesus 16y ago
  I got the idea from Paul Ford, also known as @ftrain. He wrote a substantial piece of work entirely on the F train, which makes me think he lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and commutes to somewhere along 6th Ave in Manhattan. I take the A train because it's closest to my apartment, but also because of Ella Fitzgerald singing "Take the A train." Now, if you're form NYC, you'll know that the A train is an express train, so when I see the C train, which is a local train, I'll take it to squeeze 5 more minutes out of my commute. The other benefit is that when folks see both the A and the C pull into the station, they all run to the express train, leaving me a greater chance for a free seat on the local train.
conesus 16y ago
Somebody asked what I am using to generate those server graphs. The answer is munin. I love munin so much. I use it to monitor both the server and any custom numbers I have. Here are all of the custom graphs that I make through munin: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/utils/munin/ https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/utils/mun...
colkassad 16y ago
Thanks for the postmortem, it was very inspiring (especially the image in my head of someone hacking on the subway)! The idea of an intelligent aggregator is something that I have thought about often so I find the idea of NewsBlur to be very interesting. I'm going to check it out.
LiveTheDream 16y ago
I'm impressed you could do this sort of work on a train. In trains/airplanes my working capacity seems to be limited to emails, reading, and brainstorming. Sketching designs is the closest I can get to coding.
raheemm 16y ago
Wait! How the hell do you code in the A train? Actually this is worthy of a blog post - "How to code during the NYC subway commute". But seriously, I am curious what you do when there is no place to sit or when u r tired (its easy to fall asleep in trains)or what kind of laptop you use!
- conesus 16y ago
  I have a 15" MacBook Pro. It's the width of my legs. The hardest part about coding on the A train is when dancers/singers come on. I love watching performance theatre, especially on a train. I just stop coding, put the lid down, and enjoy the show. And if you know the A train, you know this happens once a week. Otherwise, I am just so in love with coding NewsBlur that I can focus. I talk to myself a little (quietly), drawing in the air with my finger, and am just a little NYC crazy that nobody questions me. I get a seat 19/20 times. (That's once per two weeks that I have no place to sit). I bring a small book, just in case, so that I at least have something to do on the train. I've missed my stop a few times. It happens, but it gives me an extra 5 minutes to work, so I don't sweat it. Hmm, coding on the subway as a blog post. Brilliant! Ok, next week it is.
  - klbarry 16y ago
    A train buddy! I live all the way out at 88th st, so I always get a seat. I also used to sing in NYC trains, not the A though. I made about $100 every 6 hours.
    - petercooper 16y ago
      Nice! It's a shame there's not a way for a developer to make some quick bucks off the cuff like this ;-)
  - raheemm 16y ago
    Look forward to the blog post. After reading your answers, I feel like there is no excuse about finding time to do side-projects.
jonbro 16y ago
I am unclear on how 80*12 dollars is profitable, altho, I guess if you only worked on this 70 mins a day for a year, I guess that comes out to 4 dollars an hour, but you must have worked on this on the weekends as well... I guess you are only factoring the cost of servers, not your own time.
- joshfinnie 16y ago
  Maybe he meant breaking even? I don't think a salary is included in that figure... at least I hope not ;-)
- conesus 16y ago
  Heh, I am not counting my time as a cost. I am merely factoring in the cost of servers and bandwidth. 3 servers: - App server: 1GB, $40 / month - DB server: 512MB, Postgres/MongoDB, $20 / month - Task server: 512MB, Celery/RabbitMQ, $20 / month
  - theli0nheart 16y ago
    If you're using Rackspace (the costs above are similar to it), you can use reserved instances on EC2 and save yourself quite a bit of money.
Zev 16y ago
(I write most of NewsBlur on the A train, 35 minutes each way from Brooklyn to midtown) Maybe its just me, but, there's something nice about working on a train. There's no wifi (at least, on trains run by the MTA) and the train sounds make for nice white noise. I used to have a ride on the LIRR from Nassau into Penn for an internship. I'd bring my laptop with me and get a good hour's worth of coding, per direction. At least, when I got a seat.

by conesus 16y ago

random42 16y ago

I write most of NewsBlur on the A train, 35 minutes each way from Brooklyn to midtown. This is fantastic, and very inspiring.

conesus 16y ago
I got the idea from Paul Ford, also known as @ftrain. He wrote a substantial piece of work entirely on the F train, which makes me think he lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and commutes to somewhere along 6th Ave in Manhattan. I take the A train because it's closest to my apartment, but also because of Ella Fitzgerald singing "Take the A train." Now, if you're form NYC, you'll know that the A train is an express train, so when I see the C train, which is a local train, I'll take it to squeeze 5 more minutes out of my commute. The other benefit is that when folks see both the A and the C pull into the station, they all run to the express train, leaving me a greater chance for a free seat on the local train.

conesus 16y ago

Somebody asked what I am using to generate those server graphs. The answer is munin. I love munin so much. I use it to monitor both the server and any custom numbers I have. Here are all of the custom graphs that I make through munin: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/utils/munin/ https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/utils/mun...

colkassad 16y ago

Thanks for the postmortem, it was very inspiring (especially the image in my head of someone hacking on the subway)! The idea of an intelligent aggregator is something that I have thought about often so I find the idea of NewsBlur to be very interesting. I'm going to check it out.

LiveTheDream 16y ago

I'm impressed you could do this sort of work on a train. In trains/airplanes my working capacity seems to be limited to emails, reading, and brainstorming. Sketching designs is the closest I can get to coding.

raheemm 16y ago

Wait! How the hell do you code in the A train? Actually this is worthy of a blog post - "How to code during the NYC subway commute". But seriously, I am curious what you do when there is no place to sit or when u r tired (its easy to fall asleep in trains)or what kind of laptop you use!

conesus 16y ago
I have a 15" MacBook Pro. It's the width of my legs. The hardest part about coding on the A train is when dancers/singers come on. I love watching performance theatre, especially on a train. I just stop coding, put the lid down, and enjoy the show. And if you know the A train, you know this happens once a week. Otherwise, I am just so in love with coding NewsBlur that I can focus. I talk to myself a little (quietly), drawing in the air with my finger, and am just a little NYC crazy that nobody questions me. I get a seat 19/20 times. (That's once per two weeks that I have no place to sit). I bring a small book, just in case, so that I at least have something to do on the train. I've missed my stop a few times. It happens, but it gives me an extra 5 minutes to work, so I don't sweat it. Hmm, coding on the subway as a blog post. Brilliant! Ok, next week it is.
- klbarry 16y ago
  A train buddy! I live all the way out at 88th st, so I always get a seat. I also used to sing in NYC trains, not the A though. I made about $100 every 6 hours.
  - petercooper 16y ago
    Nice! It's a shame there's not a way for a developer to make some quick bucks off the cuff like this ;-)
- raheemm 16y ago
  Look forward to the blog post. After reading your answers, I feel like there is no excuse about finding time to do side-projects.

jonbro 16y ago

I am unclear on how 80*12 dollars is profitable, altho, I guess if you only worked on this 70 mins a day for a year, I guess that comes out to 4 dollars an hour, but you must have worked on this on the weekends as well... I guess you are only factoring the cost of servers, not your own time.

joshfinnie 16y ago
Maybe he meant breaking even? I don't think a salary is included in that figure... at least I hope not ;-)
conesus 16y ago
Heh, I am not counting my time as a cost. I am merely factoring in the cost of servers and bandwidth. 3 servers: - App server: 1GB, $40 / month - DB server: 512MB, Postgres/MongoDB, $20 / month - Task server: 512MB, Celery/RabbitMQ, $20 / month
- theli0nheart 16y ago
  If you're using Rackspace (the costs above are similar to it), you can use reserved instances on EC2 and save yourself quite a bit of money.

Zev 16y ago

(I write most of NewsBlur on the A train, 35 minutes each way from Brooklyn to midtown) Maybe its just me, but, there's something nice about working on a train. There's no wifi (at least, on trains run by the MTA) and the train sounds make for nice white noise. I used to have a ride on the LIRR from Nassau into Penn for an internship. I'd bring my laptop with me and get a good hour's worth of coding, per direction. At least, when I got a seat.