One challenge that we’ve faced at Electric Cloud is how to verify that our makefile parser correctly emulates GNU Make. We started by generating test cases based on a close reading of the gmake manual. Then we turned to real-world examples: makefiles from dozens of open source projects and from our customers. After several years [Read More →]

One of the problems facing cloud computing is the difficulty in getting data from your local servers to the cloud. My home Internet connection offers me maybe 768 Kbps upstream, on a good day, if I’m standing in the right place and nobody else in my neighborhood is home. Even at the office, we have [Read More →]

In my last blog, I presented some higher level criteria for deciding what kind of machines to pick and how to set them up. This time I will offer some additional concrete tips for machine setup. This is a pretty loose collection of things I have found useful.