Stephen Pontes [.com]

Facebook’s Photo Storage

Stephen Pontes — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:25:55 +0000

Small Team, Big Impact: The People Behind Photos (video above) from Facebook’s “Life at Facebook” page

Whoa! According to the above video Facebook is currently (as of three months ago) storing roughly 19,000 Terabytes of photos.

The video states that they’re growing at a rate of 1 billion new photos a month (2,000 every second). Based on a VERY rough guesstimate of 500K a picture (half a megabyte) which doesn’t include the various “versions” of a file that they store including thumbnail, “medium” and the full size, that works out to an additional 476 Terabytes in a month. To give you a sense of size, that’s approximately the space required to store 142,606,336 songs… which is increasing each month.

It must be mindblowing to see the infrastructure that has to be in place to not only handle that number of photos but to also accommodate the explosive growth! Anyone at Facebook want to give me a tour?

Home In Redding… Time for bed!

Stephen Pontes — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:28:59 +0000

I always feel bad messing up the bed!

RTL8169 not Gigabit in Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Stephen Pontes — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:57:44 +0000

If you couldn’t tell from the title, this one’s a bit nerdy.

I was (as I always am) working on the media server tonight and noticed I wasn’t getting the speeds I used to when transferring data locally. I was maxing out at around 4-5MB/sec (indicating 100Mbit speeds). The router and ethernet card in the Ubuntu machine are both Gigabit capable, and worked in Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04). After some googling, I stumbled on to this thread which showcased how to disable the RTL8169 driver in 8.10 (since it’s apparently causing headaches to people others than just myself).

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-network

Press enter after the above command is entered into the Terminal. Now paste the following:

# Prevent r8169.ko from loading and allow r1000.ko to load blacklist r8169

Now save the file by pressing Control + O then Enter. You can now exit the document by pressing Control + X

Now reboot Ubuntu (or restart the networking interface if you know how) and you should see 1000Mbits listed when you right click the network icon in the task bar and get info about your connections!

Ad blocking in Safari with ad_blocking.css

Stephen Pontes — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:51:57 +0000

Safari has the ability to use a custom stylesheet to modify how you see content on the web. For example, if websites’ text are frequently too small for you to read you can modify a css file to override the text size setting for all websites to increase your text’s size. Unfortunately, most people haven’t heard of this feature.

This file, in addition to increasing text size, can block ads. Read on for the “how”.

my_ad_blocking.css

I can’t find the original source, but it could be from here or here. Not sure.

What I’ve done is edited this file throughout the past couple months as I visit various sites to include even more “rules” for ad blocking. I’m pretty sure I’ve killed off most facebook, myspace and google ads everywhere.

How to use

Save my_ad_blocking.css (updated on 6/28/09) to the following directory:

Home folder > Library > Safari

Then, in Safari, navigate to the Advanced tab of your preferences and select the my_ad_blocking.css file. Quit and relaunch Safari to experience web browsing without ads! (For the most part). Please link me to any sites you find that have ads that you’d like to remove in the comments of this post and I’ll do my best to keep the file updated!

My Comcast Experience

Stephen Pontes — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:58:50 +0000

I know there’re a million other stories just like mine – but here it is anyway.

I’ve been a Comcast customer for roughly 4 years (off and on) – and I’m fast approaching the point of canceling my service completely. While the service itself has been steady and reliable over the 4 years, the customer service varies wildly. I’ve had extremely positive experiences: Call center CS rep and Supervisor Michelle and Judy were extremely helpful; But I’ve also had downright horrible experiences with other call centers (I’m looking at you – Guadalajara, Mexico) and service centers (260 Potrero Hill location).

Read on for my complete ~~and fun-filled~~ experience.

Some history…

As a college student (now graduated!) I’ve moved frequently. I’ve patronized Comcast’s services whenever possible (which excludes my brief time in the dorms at SFSU). As I’ve mentioned before, the service itself is fantastic and that kept me coming back. At my previous residence, Comcast was managed by my room mate. After moving out, the account remained in his name. I continued to make payments (I guess it’d be considered “on his behalf”) and changed the information online to match my own information. After a service outage, I brought up transferring my account over to my name and was told I’d have to visit the service location nearest me (260 Potrero Hill, SF, CA). I put the transfer off as anyone who lives in SF knows it’s a pain to drive into the city.

Moved…

I then moved to a new location. I called in to asking to cancel my service as there’d be a brief period where I wouldn’t need Comcast’s services. I also told the CS rep that I would (honestly) be considering DirectTV and ATT for HD service and Internet. The CS rep persuaded me to keep my service active and offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse. I would receive Starz, the HD starter package and the expanded basic (SD) cable plus 16Mb “Blast” internet for around 100/month. I agreed, and continued my service.

After moving in…

I ended up purchasing an HDTV and realized my previous (non-HD) cable box didn’t output HD signal. I called and was notified that I’d have to drive down to the Potrero location to grab an HD box since they couldn’t guarantee that they’d be able to deliver a new HD box to our address.

It was the week before the Superbowl so the service center was packed. My room mates waited over an hour for an HD box…that ended up being defective. A second trip out resulted in an older and refurbished box, but we were happy to finally watch HD content.

Then I received our first bill with the new plan. It was more than I expected – roughly $145 instead of the ~$100 I was quoted. My call was escalated to Judy (the supervisor), who met me in the middle. While I wasn’t able to get the promised price, I was happy to have her hear what I had to say and meet me halfway with the price difference. I also asked her about transferring the account over to my name, and she confirmed that I unfortunately needed to go down to the service center. I also asked if my promotional deals that we’d worked out would be carried over and was assured they would.

Today’s experience…

Today (April 18th, 2009) I made my first trip (my room mate’s third) to the Potrero service location. The wait was relatively short at around 20 minutes. While I unfortunately didn’t grab the CS rep’s name, I believe her employee number was 50190 (scribbled on my work order form). There were a number of issues I had with my experience at this location.

Credited amount. My existing account (and all the promo pricing that had been worked out) was cancelled, and a pro-rated amount for the rest of this month was credited by check to the original account owner. The check (I was told) should arrive in 4-6 weeks. She said there was no way to transfer this credit to our new account. We’ll have to now deal with getting the check to our ex-room mate and have him write us a separate check for the same amount.

Completely different service. She also downgraded our service to 6Mbits (from 16Mbits “Blast”) and added the Digital Classic package to our cable service. After seeing these differences, I asked if it was possible to just keep my existing promotions (which I was told would transfer over). She told me it wasn’t possible, and I’d been given bad information. At this point I asked to downgrade my service to 1Mbit internet and basic cable and I’d deal with this later since she wasn’t able to transfer the promo. She said to downgrade my service would require a technician to come out to my residence (and a service fee), so I said to leave the service as she’d set it up.

For clarity’s sake. I asked once again if it was at all possible to get the same promotion that I had prior to transferring over the name. I also expressed my frustration that if I’d known that I’d lose all my promotional pricing, I would have left the account in the previous account holder’s name. She said there was no way she could meet my request since it wasn’t possible to “customize” a promotion for my account, so I left.

Call center hell…

This is getting long, so I’ll summarize:

Called in, walked through internet reactivation / installation (download installer guide)
Call got disconnected and didn’t receive a call back (as the CS rep promised to do if disconnected)
Called back, requested supervisor, put on hold to discuss previous service transfer, hung up again.
Called back again, requested supervisor

Waited 25 minutes for a supervisor
Told there’s nothing he could do for me (Guadalajara Mexico call center supervisor)
Said I’d like to be transferred to a call center in the US instead to see if there was anyone else that could help me
Said “no way to transfer out” – Said ok, I’ll call back
He said “Thank you for calling comcast”, muttered “Have a good day” then promptly hung up)

Called back again, spoke to “Michelle”

Michelle, like Judy, was an extremely helpful anomaly of the typical Comcast customer service I’d experienced. I sincerely appreciate everything that these two did to resolve my issues, and hope Comcast realizes that they’re the only reason I didn’t cancel my service on the spot.

Michelle was able to transfer over the previous promotional pricing I’d agreed on with Judy with the exception of Starz. She also stressed that the promos should have been transferred over at the service center without question. I thanked her for her help but am honestly still slightly irked that simply changing the name on my account meant I lost a year of the free premium programming that convinced me to stay with Comcast instead of DirectTV.

For now I’m now back at my promotional package, but come October, 2009 I’ll re-evaluate whether I want to continue going through this hassle every 3-4 months (calling, arguing, explaining, getting frustrated, etc.)

If any Comcast representatives would like to contact me, my twitter account is probably the best way to do so (just @reply me).

My hopes are that someone at Comcast will be able to (at the very least) re-activate my Starz promotion. I’m not looking for 15 years of free service here…but this is also an excellent opportunity to surprise me with excellent customer service.

This has been an honest opinion of my personal experience with Comcast service and Comcast customer support. Everything stated in this post is factual as notes were taken throughout my experience to thoroughly and accurately document my experience.

UPDATE: After posting a tweet to @comcastcares and emailing their customer service email address, I’m pleased to say that (while they weren’t able to reinstate my Starz subscription) they offered to extend my existing promotion beyond the current six months as well as discount my HD DVR. This was a more than acceptable compromise and I’d like to praise them for their excellent customer service. If only the rest of Comcast could perform at the same level as these mavericks!

UPDATE 2: Just spoke to Mary, Executive Customer Relations who was able to re-add my Starz subscription and resolve all my remaining issues. My faith in Comcast has been restored! Thank you Mary

1984jobs (re)launches

Stephen Pontes — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:05:55 +0000

I just recently worked on a redesign of 1984jobs.com – a website that aggregates and has user submitted job postings catering to the Apple community. The postings are for designers, developers and support technicians that want to work with Apple technologies. The old website wasn’t horrible per se, but it was definitely worthy of a facelift.

Changes

I stupidly didn’t take a screenshot of the “before”, but I’ve posted the “after”. It features a Finder inspired design to better relate to the Apple theme which keeps things simple and easy to use while adding a certain level of flair.

I’m biased, but I’m a huge fan of this redesign and feel its a reflection of the progress I’ve made in my overall coding skillset in the past few years. Although the design isn’t completely original, the CSS involved in making the site function the way it does was incredibly hard to pull off. Fortunately, IE users are easy to dismiss with a site like 1984jobs and this is the first site I’ve designed with a very forward “not supported” message for IE users. If you’re looking for a job in Apple technologies, you shouldn’t be on a PC using IE

Let me know what you think of the (re)design!

Form input width resize jump

Stephen Pontes — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:51:44 +0000

The title won’t make sense unless you’re experiencing the issue.

I recently noticed that I had some weird behavior with input boxes in Safari (not sure if this affects other browsers). When horizontally resizing my window, the input box randomly decides to add a ton of padding below itself. We’re talking at least 50px of space here.

The issue boiled down to bad math. See if you can spot my mistake:

form { background-color: #d6dde5; width: 90%; margin: 20px auto; border: 0; text-shadow: #ffffff 0px 1px 1px; border: 1px solid #B7BDC4; padding: 1% 1% 1.5% 1%; } form input { font-size: 1.25em; height: 1.5em; padding: 1%; width: 98%; border: 1px solid #999999; }

Catch it? The input is 98% wide, with 1% padding on all sides (top, right, bottom and left). This does add up to 100% of the space we allocated (98% of the form itself)….but I didn’t take the border of just 1 dang pixel around the inputs into consideration. This 1px border apparently wreaks havoc when dealing in percentages and caused the behavior I experienced.

Changing my css to read border: 0; fixed the issue.

Moral of the story: always double check your math.

100% column height on a floated div

Stephen Pontes — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:01:17 +0000

Nerdy post alert!

I was recently working on a website project and had to create a div with a float:right; attribute. Only problem was, the div needs to be 100% of the height of the parent element. As we all know, floated elements automatically adjust their height to fit their contents.

I did some googling and found a good link to a demonstration of exactly what I needed to do. Their article describing how to implement this, however, was a little hard for me to understand.

So I examined the source directly and found what I needed. Assign the position: relative; attribute to the parent (container) div, and position: absolute; to the floated element (the div you want to be 100% in height).

I then implemented it as such:

/* Hold the floated column */ #container { position: relative; padding-right: 275px; /* Column width + 15 (Use padding-left if the column is on the left) */ } #info_pane { position: absolute; right: 0; /* Use left: 0; if your column is on the left */ padding-left: 15px; /* Adds whitespace for the info pane content */ height: 100%; /* Woohoo! */ width: 250px; /* How wide the column is */ }

Hope this helps out someone else with their own project!

For the Bible Tells Me So

Stephen Pontes — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:07:58 +0000

Just finished watching For the Bible Tells Me So, a documentary that “examine[s] the ways in which conservative Christian groups have used — and sometimes exploited — holy Scripture to deny basic human rights to gays and lesbians around the world.” (Netflix summary)

There’s a quote at the end of the movie that sums it up fairly well:

I can’t for the life of me, imagine that god would say:

I will punish you because you are black, you should have been white.

I will punish you because you are a woman, you should have been a man.

I will punish you because you are a homosexual, you should have been heterosexual.

I can’t for the life of me believe that is how God sees things.

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

While the documentary was biased against those that condemn homosexuality, it presented both sides of the story frequently enough that even those opposed to homosexuality could gain something from its viewing. My review continues below…

Perhaps the most interesting points in the documentary highlight the scripture itself and call into question the interpretation of frequently called on verses. Leviticus is often referred to when the question of homosexuality and religion is brought up.

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 18:22

Seems fairly cut and dry, right? Don’t get into bed with another man like you would a woman. It’s immoral. The film argues (by calling on various biblical scholars) that “abomination” as translated from the time in which the Bible was written doesn’t necessarily translate to what we know as “abomination” today. In contrast, “abomination” was used to describe the disobedience or breaking of traditional rules set forth by the religious institutions of the time. Thus, homosexuality isn’t an “abomination” in the sense of an immoral act, but a breaking of the rules of the time, created to forbid any wasted “seed”. Procreation was essential, and wasting seed your seed was an abomination. The film contains many of these examples (six key verses are frequently used to “quote” the bible as saying homosexuality is a sin) but I’ll leave you to hear them for yourself.

All in all For the Bible Tells Me So was definitely a worthwhile viewing whether you’re opposed to or in support of homosexuality in America.

My Rating: 9/10

Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up

Stephen Pontes — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:17:36 +0000

Oh the Ataris.

I’m now two and a half months into my full time job life experience and it’s interesting to say the least. While I’m already missing spring, summer and winter vacations I’ve also grown accustomed to living financially independent. Boy does it feel good.

TuneUp

Admin Interface

Has been a truly awesome experience thus far. I started out as an intern and I’m now doing support, forum management and some web stuff (both public and private).

One of the coolest things I’ve done thus far is a redesign of the internal admin interface (picture attached). You can’t really tell how cool it is, but take my word for it..it’s pretty awesome! I’m also working on some graphics and such that I can’t talk about yet, but I’m pretty excited for!

While it’s definitely challenging, TuneUp’s an awesome experience so far and I plan on enjoying for as long as possible. The work environment is like nothing I’ve experienced anywhere else (in how relaxed and down to earth it is), the perks are great and my pay is more than enough for me to live comfortably here in SF (with a few room mates).

SFSU

Just won’t let me go. Seriously! I find it ridiculous that after paying for tuition all these years, they’ll stick tack on “graduation filing fees”, gown rentals, etc. etc. etc. You really have to jump through hoops just to graduate. The ceremony is on May 23rd, and it can’t happen soon enough. I’m thoroughly excited to walk away from SFSU, degree in hand.

If I ever “make it” in the web design community / industry I’m definitely planning on coming back to SFSU and demanding they let me teach a class on current web design. Even if I learn nothing new in the next 5 years, what Alexis and I could teach would be lightyears ahead of what’s currently being taught. *Sigh*…

Everything else

Kinda just falls in place (sort of). While I’m getting fairly comfortable with my “business” life, my social life has been lacking lately. Think it’s time to hit the bars with the friends on weekends again. All in all, my life is fairly balanced…just needs a few tweaks here and there till I’m fully comfortable. Then again, someone once said, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” so I guess I’ll play that one by ear.

Till next time…