Software Performance Engineering

2009-02-05T15:44:00.001-08:00

Obama impacts heavy load site traffic

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/02/webops-culture-graphs-data-obama-lastfm.html

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-12-05T10:02:00.001-08:00

Application Monitoring Options
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/-ENw7Ehss1g/

Blog post with quick description of the possible solutions and some of the players in each space. If you are looking for system monitoring, network monitoring, latency, etc tools, check this out.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-12-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

Great scalability related blog/site
http://highscalability.com/blog

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-10-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

PushToTest TestMaker
http://www.pushtotest.com/Docs/downloads/features.html

PushToTest TestMaker is a free, open-source platform for testing scalability and performance of applications. It has an intuitive graphical user interface with visual reporting and analytical tools. It has a Resource Monitor feature to help you see CPU, memory, and network utilization during testing. The reporting features let you generate graphs or export data into a spreadsheet application for record-keeping or further statistics analysis.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-10-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

IBM Page Detailer
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/pagedetailer

The IBM Page Detailer is a straightforward tool for letting you visualize web components as they’re being downloaded. It latches onto your browser, so all you have to do is navigate to the desired site with the IBM Page Detailer open. Clicking on a web page component opens a window with the relevant details associated with it. Whenever an event occurs (such as a script being executed), the tool opens a window with information about the processes.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-10-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Ajax performance analysis
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-aj-perform/

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-09-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

mon.itor.us
http://mon.itor.us/

A free web-based service that provides a suite of tools for monitoring performance, availability, traffic statistics, etc

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-09-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Fiddler PowerToy - Part 2: HTTP Performance
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb250442(VS.85).aspx

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-09-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

Fiddler 2
http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/

A browser-based debugging tool at the HTTP layer allowing analysis of incoming and outgoing traffic.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

YSlow for Firebug
http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

YSlow grades a website’s performance based on the best practices for high performance web sites on the Yahoo! Developer Network.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-08-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Firebug
http://www.getfirebug.com/

Firebug is a browser-based web development tool for debugging, testing, and analyzing web pages.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-08-07T12:06:00.001-07:00

Best practices for high performance web sites
http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-04-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Robot Fighting League Videos

Remember the TV show Robot Wars? Well, just because it is not on the tube any longer doesn't mean the following is gone. Take a few minutes and consider how you would performance test one of these bots. Not as easy as you might first think...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-04-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Robot Performance Analysis And Testing

Ever wondered what sort of performance engineering happens in other industries? Here is a snapshot from manufacturing.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-04-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

Load Balancing Types

A quick run down of typical load balancing algorithms with advantages and disadvantages of each.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-03-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

ZDNet Project Failures Blog

This is a blog devoted to project failures. Some posts discuss how to kill bad projects, other cover examples of failures, and all take a fairly sarcastic view of projects. Fun and informational all in one!

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-03-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Internationally Agile

13 Steps to Successfully Managing Your Offshoring Supplier

Hot to Reduce Offshore Hidden Costs

Top Ten Risks When Leading an Offshore Test Team

Tactics for Successfully Leading Offshore Testing

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-03-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

Amazon Architecture

Information on how Amazon re-factored system architecture to a service model from a monolithic one.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-02-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

A Study of Ajax Performance Issues

This blog post covers a variety of issues, ideas, tools, and browser specifics relating to Ajax performance. Great read.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-02-04T12:46:00.000-08:00

A couple Ajax links

The morphing web application world

Ajax (programming)

WAPT

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-01-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

Page Load Times Primer

Overview

Optimizing Page Load Time

HTTP Caching and Cache-Busting

Caching Tutorial

Circumventing browser connection limits

5 Tips For Faster Loading Web Sites

14 rules for fast web pages

Tools

Cacheability

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-01-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

Ajax Performance (Blog)

Ryan Breen’s blog covering Ajax resources, articles, and news specific to performance. Good resource for a large variety of information.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2008-01-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome to year 3 of the Stress Team - Link of The Week!

Introduction to Software Engineering - Chapter 1

This is an excerpt from the book by Smith and Williams. This chapter consists of justification and ROI for performance engineering... something I typically skipped because I thought I knew it. I submit that now that we are aggressively moving toward performance engineering that the ability to evangelize its merits is important and this is probably worth a read.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-12-26T12:37:00.000-08:00

Five Steps to Solving Software Performance Problems

Hand-out accompanying a seminar on performance testing. Fairly good core rundown of what needs to be done by a Performance Engineer when covering a project.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-12-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

System-performance modeling for massively multiplayer online role-playing games

The title pretty much sums it up. You will need to create a free ZDNet account if you do not have one.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-12-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

The Tweaking Experience

Ever wondered how to tweak the Windows UI from the registry? How about how to change the frequency that preload information is cleared? What about defragmenting your boot file? This help-like web site has it all.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-12-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

Boost AJAX Performance Using Local Storage

Article about Ajax performance and how to help it out on the client side.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-11-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

Beyond performance testing

Extensive article on what comes after Performance Testing... Performance Engineering. Seems quite appropriate based on the changes the Stress team is going through.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-11-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

Ten ways to improve testing, performance of Web 2.0 applications

Interesting & brief article on Web 2.0, what it is, a gross generalization about customer experience expectations and some things companies can do to score better.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-11-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

An Explanation of Performance Testing on an Agile Team (Part 1 of 2)

Part 1 of 2 articles about performance testing in an Agile development team. Quite in depth...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-11-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

Space Station: Internal NASA Reports Explain Origins of June Computer Crisis

Article covering the event and troubleshooting by geographically dispersed and culturally different teams. Performance testers find these sorts of problems and "solutions" all the time when working across multiple project teams or even the same team with different disciplines (Dev, DB Dev, Tester).

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-10-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Performance Testing 101

Here is an article about a different kind of performance testing and I think you will see many parallels with what we do today in the software industry.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-10-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Performance Enhancements in the Next Generation TCP/IP Stack

A whole list of changes are coming to the TCP/IP stack in Vista and Server 2008 products. This article covers some of the performance impacting ones... generally meant to improve performance.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-09-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

The Product is the Message; the Message is the Product

Interesting article from John Maeda (who's blog has previously been the link of the week) that forces contemplation of hardware, software and which is more important. This link is not directly performance related, however when I read it I immediately thought about the testing, reports and website that my team maintains and what role each part plays, or should play in communication with our customers. And hence, here it is in your inbox.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-09-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered if you had a DNS performance problem? Here is a little app that may be able to help.
http://www.codeproject.com/cs/internet/DNSTester.asp

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-09-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

CNET Labs - How We Test

Ever wondered how CNET tests hardware? Here is some information along this line...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-08-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

CNET 2008 antivirus performance test scores

Check out this site from CNET on how they performance test antivirus software and pick their Editor's Choice. Interesting read.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-08-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

About Java Memory Management

The title says it all.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-08-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Web Services Performance: Comparing J2EE and .NET Framework

This whitepaper documents a study comparing J2EE and .NET performance for web services. In all cases, this stufy found that J2EE outperformed .NET. There is a good description of the test, the test bed, tood configuration, and the tuning implemented.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-08-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Beijing starts IT testing for Olympics

China is excited about the Olympics and testing for the major IT systems has begun. Read on for more.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-08-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

BCCHardware: Core 2 Duo vs Core 2 Quad

This review compares performance from Intel's new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors. There is some extensive benchmarking results and some overclocking. There is also some good matter-of-fact recommendations if you are purchasing a new processor.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-07-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

What is OGSA-DQP?

This link is the kind that you will need some uninterrupted brain time to look at. This is an implementation of DQP (Distributed Query Processing) which is a way to abstract queries for data across multiple componsnts (databases, data processors, formatters, etc) in a distributed way.

Take some time to dig in and contemplate how some of our Expedia systems would benefit or suffer from such a model.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-07-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

5 Stress Reduction Tips

Quick article with some Stress reduction techniques.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-07-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Online travel sites court unmanaged business users

Interesting article about business travelers who are not part of a company/firm that contracts travel services and what OLTPs are doing to try to bring them in as customers.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-07-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2005

This TechNet article covers DB Administrators with basic information on troubleshooting SQL Server performance slow downs. Somce of the topics include Bottlenecks, TempDB, and Query performance.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-06-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

How to use the SQLIOSim utility to simulate SQL Server activity on a disk subsystem

SQLIOSim is the latest version of SQLIOStress which are used to test the Disk Subsystem behind a SQL Server implementation. This document contains an overview of the tool, directions for execution, and some error handling information. Cool tool if you need to test this sort of thing!

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-05-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

E-Mail Functionality in SQL Server 2005

This article covers some of the reasons why email in SQL 2000 was not a realistic piece of functionality for production use, as well as gives directions on how to install, configure, and use Database Mail (the SQL 2k5 version).

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-05-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Designing Performance Testing Metrics into Highly Distributed J2EE Applications

This article covers one case study on including performance data collection in a vastly distributed system. Come to think of it, Expedia.com is a vastly distributed system...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-05-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Last Mile

This PDF defines the "Last Mile" in a performance test context. In short, it is a method to find a good representation of what end users of a website experience when they interact with a site.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-05-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

Windows SysInternals

If it has been a while since you looked into the SysInternals utilities available, you should check out this site. You will notice that the URL is now Microsoft... my how times change.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-04-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

How We Test - Vehicle Performance Testing

Today launches a mini-series into performance testing in other industries. Today's link provides a view into performance testing sports cars.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-04-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Custom Google Perf Test Search Engine

Excerpt: "Are you tired of all the results for tuning sports cars, training for a marathon and measuring employee productivity when searching for material related to software performance testing? We were. That is why PerfTestPlus customized our own Google search engine. We found it so useful that we decided to make it available for you to use as well. We hope it makes your searching more productive."

Comments: Scott Barber is an independent contractor/owner of PerfTestPlus, Inc. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and has many years of performance test experience. I encourage you to also check out his blog on TestingReflections.com.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-04-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Creating an Effective Test Plan

An article from Parasoft on the Who, What, When, Where, Why, How of effective test planning. Quick read.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-04-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

A World-Class Infrastructure for Performance Testing

Article presented at STARWEST in 2002 which is a SQE conference about building out a performance test world. Interesting content though slightly dated.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-04-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some links on how to make use of performance counters in .NET code:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms979204.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/perfcounter.asp
http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/PerformanceCounterUtils.asp
http://www.codeproject.com/system/cpuusage.asp

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-03-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

Top Ten Readings In Software Performance Engineering

Performance engineering is an area the Perf Test team will be breaking in to shortly so these make excellent primers. This link reveals a slightly dated list of readings on the subject.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-03-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

Measuring SOA Performance Is a Complex Art

A fairly thin article on SOA and how managing and monitoring is a new beast from traditional IT software systems.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-03-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Conformance and Performance Testing

This is quite a long white paper on IPv6 and the transition from v4 to v6 and the testing considerations that should cross your mind. Information in the article includes Background, Benefits, Operation, Testing and the approach/tools used by this vendor.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-03-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

Vista Performance Shootout: Upgrade Vs. Clean Installation

Here is an interesting article on the new deployment process of Windows Vista and how it compares (performance wise) when running an upgrade and a clean install.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-02-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Browser is Slow

This is a look at the render time and browser data-handling capability of IE7. There are some interesting comparison charts between Safari, Firefox, IE6 and IE7. This was written back when IE7 was in Beta 1 so some things may have changed, but major changes are unlikely!

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-02-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Gordon's car fails post-race inspection

This is an article about NASCAR which, you may know, started the 2007 season on Sunday with the Daytona 500. This race is arguably the toughest and most popular race of the entire season. Jeff Gordon, a popular and very successful driver was driving a car that didn't conform to the performance requirements which resulted in an unfair advantage for the race. Mr. Gordon was penalized, along with several other drivers who committed other violations. This brings us to an interesting conversation on the two types of performance requirements.

At Expedia we test systems every day that struggle to meet the performance requirements set by business owners, project managers, and test teams. What we must remember is that there are disciplines where performance is so good, that performance needs to be restricted. Wouldn't it be great if we were one of those systems? Our customers would call in saying that the homepage loaded too fast, or that they switched to dial-up because they couldn't handle the speed of our flight searches. Our partners would call in saying we need to slow down our support systems because they were too quick for the system on the partner's side of the connection. What a different world it would be in Performance Test land if this were the case!

My hope is that next time you consider granting an exception to an Expedia-style performance requirement, you think of the NASCAR style and suggest that the project team give better performance one more try before they throw-in-the-towel.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-02-12T11:49:00.000-08:00

Again about performance requirements (Testing Reflections)

Interesting comments about performance requirements versus recommendations as well as links to other related posts. We maintain recommendations for Expedia pages on the performance test wiki under the project consultation section.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-02-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple links on Apache Tomcat performance both on the tuning side and on the benchmark side. As we're moving this direction with E3 R1, it is right up our alley.

Tomcat Tuning Notes

Comparing Apache Tomcat Performance Across Platforms

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-01-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Boost Tomcat performance for static content

This article is a good overview of how to speed up web server performance. In this case the software is Apache Tomcat but most of the content can be generalized to any web server suite.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-01-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

A Metric to Predict Software Scalability

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-01-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some links on Windows Vista performance. Most are more consumer-oriented than business oriented, but I'm sure as critical readers you'll plow through the fluff.

TechNet: Windows Vista: Reliability and Performance

Why Windows Vista Won't Suck

Windows Vista Performance Enhancements

Putting Vista in The Fast Lane

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2007-01-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

Performance Testing Web Services: Strategies & Best Practices

This add-heavy article covers web service testing from "Test Planning" to "What Are We Measuring" including some code examples of problems and some considerations for how to test and what load to use.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-12-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

Performance Testing Blog Compilation
http://www.testingreflections.com/taxonomy/page/or/54

Testing Reflections is a blog compiler and this link takes you to all blogs matching the term "Performance Testing". Happy reading.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-12-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

The Making of an Open Source Stress Test Tool
http://tejasconsulting.com/papers/stress_driver-QW02-paper.pdf

This is a bit of a white paper on creating a stress testing tool from the ground up. Interesting read based on the amount of home-grown and low quality perf tools projects are providing.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-12-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

Windows Server 2003: Performance and Scalability
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/performance/default.mspx

This page provides a jumping point to many articles on Windows 2003 performance including benchmarks, fault-tolerance, and scalability.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-11-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple links on Ajax performance.

Ajax Performance Blog
http://www.ajaxperformance.com/

How to Profile and Optimize Ajax Applications
http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2006/08/tutorial-how-to-profile-and-optimize.html

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-11-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Technical Overview of IIS 6.0
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/iis.mspx

Here is some Microsoft documentation on IIS 6.0 which is used in Windows Server 2003. To view the article, click the download link on the right side of the page.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-11-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

This week I have three links for you related to SQL Server 2005. As we are rolling down the steep slope toward 2k5 implementation, a variety of knowledge on this topic (performance and otherwise) is well timed.

Getting Ready for SQL Server 2005
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906773

SQL Server 2005: Transactional Replication Performance Tuning and Optimization
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sql2k_replperf_tran4.asp

SQL Server 2005 Books Online
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms166019.aspx

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-11-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

Performance Improvements in Windows Server 2003
http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/update/2003/08aug/0803piiws2.htm

Overview level article covering changes in Windows Server 2003 including 64-bit, Hyper-threading, and Non-Uniform Memory Access Systems.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-10-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

Hyper Threading Aware Process Scheduling Heuristics
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jrb44/docs/bulpin_usenix05/

Here is a rundown on hyper-threading. Over the past year we tested various machine roles with HT-ON and rolled that change into production for most systems. However, we found it hurt BFS performance. This article covers the "Engineer" level content and touches on why it is not the best solution for all software.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-10-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

Load Testing Web Services
http://webservices.sys-con.com/read/284564.htm

Article covering challenges of performance testing web services and some of the performance differences between legacy and SOA architectures.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-10-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

High-performance software testing teams: A guide for managers and team leads
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/content/RationalEdge/sep04/dimaggio/index.html

I am a big fan of knowing what the judge or teacher or boss is looking for when I'm working toward some end. This article thinly covers some team dynamic topics (targeted at managers) for performance test teams, much of which translates to any technology team. Happy reading.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-10-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Approaches to Performance Testing
http://dev2dev.bea.com/pub/a/2005/09/performance_testing.html

This article by BEA covers various types of perf testing and what to look for. Generally targeted at Java...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-10-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

Multiple IE Versions At Once
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

This article explains a handy exploit to the workings of "DLL Hell" that allows users to deploy and run multiple versions of internet explorer on a single machine.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-09-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Approaches to Performance Testing
http://dev2dev.bea.com/pub/a/2005/09/performance_testing.html

Overview of performance testing J2ee applications including sections on benchmarking & capacity planning.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-09-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Expedia.ca: Canadian Couples Need to Take Their Relationship on Vacation
http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=612679

Expedia.ca is all about running studies related to travel and then publishing the results when they are positive... at least that is my impression given the number of recently published studies!

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-09-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

Effective Hotel Internet Marketing: Avoiding The Legal Pitfalls
http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4028728.html

This article discusses impacts to hotels as consumers use internet sites such as Google and Yahoo when searching for hotel rooms. This discussion carries over to other travel inventory too...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-09-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

Gallic art of taking five... weeks of vacation
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/03/TRG1SKS1KH1.DTL

A little comparison article on the vacation habits of the French & Americans, as well as some French history.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-08-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Hotel-Rate Figures Raise Eyebrows
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=7704&sc=7

Expedia.ca recently released its average per night price for hotel bookings across different cities in Canada as well as the up/down movement from last year. Now, it seems that some of the higher priced locations are feeling "offended" and stating that the actual rates are much lower. So, what does this all come down to? Money! If rates are published as high in one city and low in another, travelers are more likely to book in the low city... Interesting read.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-08-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

When flight troubles loom, travel sites spread the word
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-tr-internet20aug20,1,4287584.column?coll=la-headlines-technology

This is an interesting article on some differences between Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity when it comes to customer service. A word of caution, do not let the Orbitz slant get to you.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-08-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

LoadTester Inc
http://www.loadtester.com/

This is a LoadRunner consulting company with a variety of news and articles generally covering LR capabilities but also covering some broad perf testing topics.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-07-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

SQL Server Performance Testing
http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/performance/sql-server-performance-testing/

This SQL Server 2000 article covers the basics of indexes and primary keys which are fundamental to the performance of large database systems (think Expedia.com...).

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-07-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Reviving a Dying Online Category
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9623.asp

"It is not good enough for a destination site to display a few thumbnail images, short descriptions and contact information for local attractions. Consumers can go to any online travel agency and find that information along with special deals, real-time booking, traveler reviews, robust mapping systems and beautiful imagery. When you look at it this way, you can see why consumers continue to use Travelocity and Expedia while shying away from official destination sites..."

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-07-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Tax lawsuit against Expedia and other online travel agents is tossed out by judge
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003043755_webhoteltax06.html

Interesting article about municipalities trying to collect tax dollars on the marked up rate that Expedia charges for inventory we purchase at the bulk rate. I imagine we haven't seen the end of this since there is quite a lot of money involved.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-07-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

EXPEDIA and UN FOUNDATION PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
http://www.maximsnews.com/1006mnunfoundation6july.htm

This is a news release about Expedia's involvement with the World Heritage Alliance. Interesting read...

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-07-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Online Travel Sales to Boom
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9953.asp

This is an iMedia article on the travel market and projected growth worldwide.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-06-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Lowest Price Keeps Travelers Searching The Web
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=44626

This new article presents a short-sighted travel industry overview with interesting customer information and competitive analysis.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-06-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Can New travel Discount Site Out Do Expedia
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/News/062006/travel.htm

Here is a quick release on Your Travel Rates.com, a new competitor in the online travel space. I suggest that along with reading this short article that you check out the site. You'll notice that the interface looks very familiar (TravelNow.com).

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-06-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Testing Reflections
http://www.testingreflections.com/blog/67

Though this bog is more and more out of date, there are many interesting and up to date topics on performance testing. There are also many links to other blogs on performance and stress testing topics.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-06-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Stress testing
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

Today's link is something fun (but hopefully not inspiring) to get you back in the swing of things. I'll say no more and let you discover it for yourself.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-05-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

Performance Testing SOAP-based applications
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-testsoap/

This article covers basic SOAP web services design and implementation as well as load testing strategies which include stateful, speed, boundary-timing and regression tests.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-05-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

SQL Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_intro.asp

This is a w3 schools tutorial on SQL. Since more and more of our testing is database focused these days this should provide a good overview for those of you interested in expanding your abilities.

I have quite a bit of SQL experience and it has served me well in roles that made use of a relational database as well as those that just require organizing data. Well worth knowing if you work with software or data.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-05-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Re-Imagineering
http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/

If you have been to Disneyland or Disneyworld or Euro Disney as an adult you will likely have some understanding of the total experience that Disney works to create. This blog, though not directly related to issues of travel or performance testing is an interesting read for anyone trying to generate creative solutions or even revolutions.

I have a book in my office call "Be Our Guest" which covers customer service the Disney way. This is the only published book by the Disney Institute which conducts very successfully executive training and I definitely recommend it.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-05-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

Getting started with automated testing: Road map to success
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/274.html

Automate Testing of Your Stored Procs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/09/TestRun/

Today's double-link is a pair of articles on automating performance testing. The first is a basic road map and the second is an example of stored procedure test automation.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com

2006-04-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

Should acceptance tests be included in the continuous build process?
http://agiletesting.blogspot.com/2006/04/should-acceptance-tests-be-included-in.html

Today's link is the latest entry on the Agile Testing blog which I have sent you previously. This article is a discussion on automated acceptance testing being part of the automated build process. It does a good job on vocabulary and linking to other related content.

Jeffrey Kelly
http://sailwhatcom.com