Well it seems that I’m not the only one that thinks WordPress is a tad slow. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great package - this site uses the 1.3 alpha - but I’ve often wondered why the package is so big and page generation takes so long.
So far I’ve made a few tweaks to my own install to reduce the number of redundant queries. However, Ludo Magnacavallo has gone many steps further and created his own WordPress Fast Frontend - a lean ‘n’ mean stripped-down version that loads pages way faster than the vanilla release.
I like what he’s done, at least conceptually. I tried it out on my offline site and saw a 10x decrease in page load times. Granted it doesn’t have all of the WordPress bells and whistles, but I really don’t use those anyhow. My only complaint is that the code is really messy, but its only release 0.1 after all. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Ever since my old bike (a ‘99 Rocky Mountain Hammer Race) was stolen earlier this year, I’ve been extra-paranoid about its replacement. I love riding my Devinci Sydney, but the thought of locking it up somewhere and coming back to find it gone is too much to bear. Losing the Hammer was traumatic enough.
As a result, I’ve ended up biking far less than I should. So this weekend I picked up an old beat up road bike at Our Community Bikes. Its a really neat bike shop that recycles old bikes and parts. You can rent a work stand and their full range of tools for $5/hour - not a bad deal!
My “new old” bike is nothing pretty to look at. But used 62cm Bianchi frames aren’t easy to come by. The bike fits me pretty well and it handles quite nicely. Once I get the hang of the downtube shifters I’ll be tearing up the pavement in no time…
Fantastic run today despite a two-week break due to travel and a bad cold. Felt normal, even a bit slow, but I managed to nail my target time of 30 minutes on a hilly 6km loop. I was happily surprised to look at my stopwatch when I was finished. I’ll have to chalk that one up to proper rest and recovery time!
(The actual time was 30:03 but hey, no need to be picky. After all, I lost far more than 3 seconds due to traffic lights)
I’ve been reading and thinking about this subject quite a bit lately. National Geographic published an excellent article in June 2004 titled “The End of Cheap Oil” which shows that we have some difficult choices to make in the coming years. Most credible predictions peg the peak of oil production in between 2010 and 2020. With consumption rates still rising yearly despite significant increases in fuel efficiency, how are we going to deal with the inevitable crisis ahead?
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Unknown Canadian soldier in a British War Cemetary in Flanders, Belgium.
Photo by Jerome Lavigne (2002).
