Give your Squeezebox Server enough RAM

Posted on 2/28/2010 by Jon Stahl

I’ve had a Squeezebox as my digital music system for over three years now; it’s still one of the best few hundred bucks I’ve ever spent on electronics.

The Squeezebox’s server software runs on a server. Since 2006, I’ve been using an old Dell Dimension 2350 that we had lying around. But this weekend, I upgraded (slightly) to a Dell Dimension 3000 that my employer Groundwire excessed from its inventory. Wow, what a difference!

The old server had 512MB of RAM and a 2GHZ Celeron. My “new” server has a 1.25GB of RAM and a 3GHZ Pentium 4. My music library is about 24,000 tracks (that’s large-ish, but not huge by community standards, it seems). While my old box never swapped, it was often running pretty close to its RAM limits, and the web interface could be sluggish at times. Under the new server, it’s smooth and fast. I suspect it’s additional RAM rather than the faster processor that’s making most of the difference. I also swapped in a set of optimized MySQL caching settings (thanks Squeeze community!), which allows the system to take more advantage of its increased RAM.

Bottom line: I shoulda upgraded the RAM years ago.

Popup Forms for Plone

Posted on 2/18/2010 by Jon Stahl

Shortly before dashing out the door for Pycon 2010, David Glick pushed out a 1.0 release of Popup Forms for Plone, which he and Steve McMahon built on top of Steve’s excellent Pipbox and PloneFormGen products.

Popup Forms for Plone makes it point-and-click easy to create timer-driven javascript popup forms anywhere in your Plone site. You can see a simple example in action at Washington Conservation Voters. It’s amazingly simple: just build your form in PloneFormGen. (If you just want to popup a static HTML page or an image, you can use PloneFormGen’s “Form Prologue” and skip adding any form fields!) Then, you use Plone’s portlets mechanism to assign the form to a page or folder on your site, and to configure an optional time-delay. That’s it! No programming, no javascript, no fuss, no bother.

Popup Forms are great for email capture forms, action alerts, user surveys, and many other calls-to-action. If that’s what you need in your Plone site, I encourage you to check it out!

Wireframes first

Posted on 2/18/2010 by Jon Stahl

Here’s a pattern I’ve observed. Many website design clients, especially those who have never been responsible for a website project before, expect to a process that goes roughly like this:

1) Talk about requirements

2) Do a complete graphic design

3) Fully implement the design in the site

4) Then move on to building out the functional elements of the site and the content.

Unfortunately, modern web development processes don’t usually work that way.

The process usually needs to go more like this:

1) Identify requirements

2) Do sitemaps and wireframe mockups to get the functional elements and information architecture right

3) Implement the technical bits

4) Do a design to make it pretty

Lots of missed expectations can easily ensue. Educating clients to the point where they can understand a wireframe can be a big — and costly — challenge.

We’re hiring (again!) at Groundwire

Posted on 2/17/2010 by Jon Stahl

We’ve got two open positions at Groundwire right now: one for a CRM database consultant and one for a manager for our “Groundwire Labs” innovation program. Both are incredible opportunities for a creative, entrepreneurial social change technologist who wants to join one of the most accomplished teams in the nonprofit sector.

I’ve been here for nearly 14 years, so I’m happy to field any questions if you’re thinking about applying!

CRM Consultant

We need an experienced CRM Consultant to build customized databases that transform the effectiveness of the environmental movement. Our ideal candidate brings to the table client-facing consulting experience, project management experience, and a technical understanding of database design & development.

Read the job description and apply online

Groundwire Labs Manager

We are now looking for someone to run Groundwire Labs. As the Groundwire Labs Manager, you’ll lead Groundwire’s R&D investments and define the cutting edge of how we use technology to help organizations to do a better job of engaging their communities. It’s all with an eye to our mission of building a sustainable society.

Read the job description and apply online