nzoss

pMost UNIX users have heard of the
a href=http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/nice.htmlnice/a
utility used to run a command with a lower priority to make sure that it
only runs when nothing more important is trying to get a hold of the CPU:/p

precodenice long_running_script.sh
/code/pre

pThat's only dealing with part of the problem though because the CPU is not
all there is. A low priority command could still be interfering with other
tasks by stealing valuable I/O cycles (e.g.

pAfter
a href=http://feeding.cloud.geek.nz/posts/doing_a_fresh_debian_ubuntu_install_without_having_to_reconfigure_everything/moving from a hard drive to an SSD/a
on my work laptop, I decided to keep the hard drive spinning and use it as a
backup for the SSD./p

pWith the following setup, I can pull the SSD out of my laptop and it should
still boot up normally with all of my data on the hard drive./p

h1 id=Manually_setting_up_an_encrypted_root_partitionManually setting up an encrypted root partition/h1

pBefore setting up the synchronization between the two drives, I had to
replicate the part

pTaking advantage of a new hard drive, I decided to reinstall my Ubuntu (Precise 12.04.2) laptop from scratch so that I could easily enable full-disk encryption (a requirement for Mozilla work laptops)./p

pReinstalling and reconfiguring everything takes a bit of time though, so here's the procedure I followed to keep the configuration to a minimum./p

h1 id=Install_Ubuntu.2FDebian_on_the_new_driveInstall Ubuntu/Debian on the new drive/h1

pWhile full-disk encryption is a href=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/privacy-ubuntu-1210-full-disk-encryptionbuilt into the graphical installer as of

pIn order to move my blog to a
a href=http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.htmlfree-as-in-freedom/a platform
and support the great work that a href=http://joeyh.name/Joey/a (of
a href=http://git-annex.branchable.com/git-annex/a fame) and
a href=http://liw.fiLars/a (of a href=http://gtdfh.branchable.com/GTD for hackers/a fame) have
put into their service, I decided to convert my Blogger blog to
a href=http://ikiwiki.infoIkiwiki/a and host it on
a href=http://www.branchable.comBranchable/a./p

pWhile the a href=http://ikiwiki.info/tips/convert_blogger_blogs_to_ikiwiki/Ikiwiki tips/a
page points

pI wanted to be able to use the GMail web interface on my work machine, but for a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubbleprivacy reasons/a, I prefer not to be logged into my Google Account on my main browser./p

pHere's how I make use of a a href=https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profilessomewhat hidden Firefox feature/a to move GMail to a separate browser profile./p

h3 id=Creating_a_separate_profileCreating a separate profile/h3

pThe idea behing browser profiles is simple: each profile has separate history, settings, bookmarks, cookies,

I wanted to be able to use the GMail web interface on my work machine, but for privacy reasons, I prefer not to be logged into my Google Account on my main browser.

Here's how I make use of a somewhat hidden Firefox feature to move GMail to a separate browser profile.

Creating a separate profile

The idea behing browser profiles is simple: each profile has separate history, settings, bookmarks, cookies, etc.

pOne of the great ways to reduce the perceived load time of pages on your site is to prefetch resources that will be needed while users are busy reading or interacting with the current page./p

pThere are a few ways to ensure that the browser will already have a page in its cache when users visit them.

One of the great ways to reduce the perceived load time of pages on your site is to prefetch resources that will be needed while users are busy reading or interacting with the current page.

There are a few ways to ensure that the browser will already have a page in its cache when users visit them. In this particular case, I wanted improve the load time of the Persona dialog while users are busy looking at the third-party site they want to login into.

pWhile trying to add gzip compression to a a href=https://github.com/lloyd/awsbox-proxy-servercustom node.js reverse proxy server/a through connect's a href=http://www.senchalabs.org/connect/compress.htmlcompress/a middleware, I ran into a really strange problem: my browser would fetch the first 5 resources without problems, then it would stall for 2 minutes before gettting the next 5 resources, stall for another 2 minutes for the next five, and so on./p

pIf I waited long enough, all of the resources would be loaded correctly and the page would look fine./p

pThis is what I saw in Firebug:/p

While trying to add gzip compression to a custom node.js reverse proxy server through connect's compress middleware, I ran into a really strange problem: my browser would fetch the first 5 resources without problems, then it would stall for 2 minutes before gettting the next 5 resources, stall for another 2 minutes for the next five, and so on.

If I waited long enough, all of the resources would be loaded correctly and the page would look fine.