Posted on 16/9/2013, 1:11 pm, by Colin Charles, under
Tech.
On 19 April 2010, I did some quick research to see which Linode host was right for you, if you were serving mostly Malaysian clients. I did traceroutes and looked at the output of curl. Linode provides speedtest files for you (they’re 100MB in size). I tested it against Streamyx 512kbps and 4mbps accounts (something that I can say was popular in Malaysia back in 2010). I intend to repeat this test again soon, but I have no longer got any Streamyx accounts available, so I expect all this should be much faster.
| Server |
512kbps
tracert hops |
512kbps avg download speed |
512kbps time spent |
4mbps tracert hops |
4mbps avg download speed |
4mbps time spent |
| London |
8 |
52722 |
0:33:08 |
8 |
103k |
0:16:24 |
| Newark |
11 |
52561 |
0:33:14 |
11 |
192k |
0:08:52 |
| Atlanta |
12 |
52663 |
0:33:11 |
13 |
261k |
0:06:31 |
| Dallas |
16 |
47762 |
0:36:35 |
16 |
99k |
0:17:07 |
| Fremont |
9 |
52338 |
0:33:23 |
9 |
408k |
0:04:10 |
From the table above, you want the highest average download speed, with the lowest time spent. Upon multiple tests, on a 512kbps link, London was the quickest in terms of delivery (it also only took 8 hops to reach). However on the 4mbps link, its clear that Fremont is the best, even though it took 9 hops to reach.
Conclusion for me back then was that Fremont is a clear winner so choose a server based in Fremont. Tokyo didn’t exist before. Go on, host at Linode, they’re a great VPS provider.
Posted on 7/9/2013, 4:02 am, by Colin Charles, under
Business.
The business of making music compilations are changing. Ministry of Sound. NOW That’s what I call music.
Today you can make compilations as a playlist, and share it with the world on services like Rdio and Spotify. It’s clear that the Ministry of Sound isn’t too happy with this – read more about how the Ministry of Sound is suing Spotify.
Listen to the quotes from the MoS:
- “What we do is a lot more than putting playlists together” – Lohan Presencer, CEO MoS
- “A lot of research goes into creating our compilation albums, and the intellectual property involved in that. It’s not appropriate for someone to just cut and paste them.”
- “We painstakingly create, compile and market our albums all over the world. We help music fans discover new genres, records and classic catalogues”
- “Millions trust our brands, our taste and our selection. We give them great listening experiences at a good price.”
I call bullshit on all of this. Yes, people like a curated compilation (I for one enjoy it – like dance hits of the year or something). But everyone can now curate compilations. This doesn’t make the MoS special any longer.
The commercial business of making compilations will go away in time to come. We will soon get to federate playlists so you can take your compilations with you, so it wouldn’t matter if you use Rdio, Spotify or something else. DJs will share their mixes that they played in a club and attendees and others will get to listen to the mix – this will eventually decide how “hot” a DJ is.
This is the future, and compilation manufacturers will find something else to do. MoS has nightclubs to fall back on. Embrace sharing.
