- Welcome to Brian's Corner.
Recent posts
#1
Site News / Large Language Modeling
Last post by brian - Mar 28, 2026, 10:29 pmI do not consider AI to be Artificial Intelligence. It is a very clever algorithm, one that calculates advanced pattern matching results on massive data sets without much prompting. At quick glance, it feels like it is thinking. It is not, it is a Large Language Model (LLM). This does not mean it is not useful.
LLMs have done reviews of this web site and other sites I am working on. They are able to pull apart the pieces and determine, with relatively high accuracy, my intent. They have fixed dozens of bugs, many that would have gone unnoticed for months. I always appreciate performance tweaks. They found quite a few.
Most important are the security fixes. They found vulnerabilities in my code. Malicious LLMs used by hackers could have found the same holes and exploited them (they do not have my source code, but still...). If we are not using the same caliber of tools to protect ourselves as are available to malicious actors, we are essentially allowing them to come in.
My opinion: LLMs can do a lot of heavy lifting, saving us a lot of time and helping to fill the gaps we missed. They should not be given free reign on our tools or systems. Only someone who truly understands the work they are doing can safely and effectively keep the LLMs in line and on track.
Use LLMs (AI). Learn from them. Check everything they do. This is a new class of tool, we must learn how to safely and effectively use it.
LLMs have done reviews of this web site and other sites I am working on. They are able to pull apart the pieces and determine, with relatively high accuracy, my intent. They have fixed dozens of bugs, many that would have gone unnoticed for months. I always appreciate performance tweaks. They found quite a few.
Most important are the security fixes. They found vulnerabilities in my code. Malicious LLMs used by hackers could have found the same holes and exploited them (they do not have my source code, but still...). If we are not using the same caliber of tools to protect ourselves as are available to malicious actors, we are essentially allowing them to come in.
My opinion: LLMs can do a lot of heavy lifting, saving us a lot of time and helping to fill the gaps we missed. They should not be given free reign on our tools or systems. Only someone who truly understands the work they are doing can safely and effectively keep the LLMs in line and on track.
Use LLMs (AI). Learn from them. Check everything they do. This is a new class of tool, we must learn how to safely and effectively use it.
#2
Site News / Dark Mode / Theming Consistenc...
Last post by brian - Sep 2, 2024, 5:22 pmDark mode support has been added. It follows your browser's setting. The support has been added across the site. With the implementation, more of the site aligns with a consistent theme. Most of the changes are in Links on mobile and the menus and buttons for the Forum and Gallery.
Weather location code has been rewritten. I am using lookup-only APIs and wrote a very compact UI. Overall, the code size for the previous Google Maps API is over 300 KB. My code is less than 15 KB. Smaller, faster, and easier to change. Session-based local caching and rate limiting on the queries are built-in for efficiency and performance. If you had previously set your location, no need to update it.
Air Quality Index has been added to the weather display, providing more information to help you plan your day.
Weather location code has been rewritten. I am using lookup-only APIs and wrote a very compact UI. Overall, the code size for the previous Google Maps API is over 300 KB. My code is less than 15 KB. Smaller, faster, and easier to change. Session-based local caching and rate limiting on the queries are built-in for efficiency and performance. If you had previously set your location, no need to update it.
Air Quality Index has been added to the weather display, providing more information to help you plan your day.
#3
Site News / Iconification, Design, and Wea...
Last post by brian - Jun 4, 2024, 1:54 pmI've added the Font Awesome library to the site. This enables better icons throughout. New icons for logon, lock, news categories, settings, location, and icons on the menu buttons. This change also solves the issue where browsers may convert some symbols into emoticons. The menu received a redesign with the icon addition.
The weather system has received updates...
New graphing options: toggle between rain percentage and amount, wind speed and gusts, and humidity and dew point. The wind speed graph always shows speed and gusts, with one represented by a dotted line.
Enhanced radar: added image time using OCR on the browser to parse the radar time (10 images take about 1.5 seconds to parse), better cache-busting and sequence order assurance (using animated GIF loop and extracting the frames), speed control for animation, pause with hover over dots to switch images, pinch to zoom on touch screen devices, double-click and mouse drag to zoom with a mouse, cropped image for a cleaner look.
New loading code: optimized load efficiency for faster load, removed duplicate radar image load (originally to improve performance, but no longer needed).
The weather system has received updates...
New graphing options: toggle between rain percentage and amount, wind speed and gusts, and humidity and dew point. The wind speed graph always shows speed and gusts, with one represented by a dotted line.
Enhanced radar: added image time using OCR on the browser to parse the radar time (10 images take about 1.5 seconds to parse), better cache-busting and sequence order assurance (using animated GIF loop and extracting the frames), speed control for animation, pause with hover over dots to switch images, pinch to zoom on touch screen devices, double-click and mouse drag to zoom with a mouse, cropped image for a cleaner look.
New loading code: optimized load efficiency for faster load, removed duplicate radar image load (originally to improve performance, but no longer needed).
#4
Site News / Getting Just A Bit More
Last post by brian - Jan 9, 2024, 1:56 amIn my quest for performance... These are the top enhancements I've made recently:
1. New server: my host has KVM servers at a lower price than OpenVZ (what I had). In addition to saving money, I have increased memory, more storage, and a dedicated kernel (Open VZ shares kernels). More memory means better caching configurations, which equals faster sites.
2. Brotli with Cloudflare: I had used Brotli (better compression) on my site in the past. Once I moved to Cloudflare as a proxy, they only accepted gzip inbound (though they sent Brotli). Last year they added Brotli passthrough support. Now enabled here, it eliminates half of the compression steps before pages are delivered.
3. Redis usage increase: I changed default PHP sessions from files to Redis, reducing latency for some pages.
4. New weather data source: I moved to Open-Meteo. The data files are over 80% smaller, for faster loading of the weather forecast.
Researching these improvements, many ask "Why" if only to save a few milliseconds...
Small changes today are the building blocks for great achievement in the future.
1. New server: my host has KVM servers at a lower price than OpenVZ (what I had). In addition to saving money, I have increased memory, more storage, and a dedicated kernel (Open VZ shares kernels). More memory means better caching configurations, which equals faster sites.
2. Brotli with Cloudflare: I had used Brotli (better compression) on my site in the past. Once I moved to Cloudflare as a proxy, they only accepted gzip inbound (though they sent Brotli). Last year they added Brotli passthrough support. Now enabled here, it eliminates half of the compression steps before pages are delivered.
3. Redis usage increase: I changed default PHP sessions from files to Redis, reducing latency for some pages.
4. New weather data source: I moved to Open-Meteo. The data files are over 80% smaller, for faster loading of the weather forecast.
Researching these improvements, many ask "Why" if only to save a few milliseconds...
Small changes today are the building blocks for great achievement in the future.
#5
Site News / News Enhancements
Last post by brian - Aug 30, 2023, 12:10 amThe News System had a significant rewrite on the backend. It looks identical. The technical change was a shift from using PHP to craft an individualized page to having it send a news dump. By reducing the complexity of the PHP code, the page is created faster. Javascript replaces the PHP for drawing the News section. The weather section starts loading sooner. Total page load is about 0.2 seconds faster. May not seem like much: it's 30% faster.
This was the last cookie code on the site. Removing cookies reduces traffic to the server and eliminates a legacy technology. The database schema was flattened as there is no need for the linked tables; reducing load and increasing performance. Feed selection and searching is now processed locally. These features do not talk to the server, making the actions nearly instant. There's a cost for this, but it is minor.
The full news feed creates a larger initial page load. The total page load is 90 KB larger. On a 100 mb/s internet connection, that adds less than 0.01 seconds.
This was the last cookie code on the site. Removing cookies reduces traffic to the server and eliminates a legacy technology. The database schema was flattened as there is no need for the linked tables; reducing load and increasing performance. Feed selection and searching is now processed locally. These features do not talk to the server, making the actions nearly instant. There's a cost for this, but it is minor.
The full news feed creates a larger initial page load. The total page load is 90 KB larger. On a 100 mb/s internet connection, that adds less than 0.01 seconds.
#6
Site News / More Weather
Last post by brian - Jan 30, 2023, 2:42 pmI've created a dedicated weather page. The original weather widget that I built was constrained to fit in the space I allocated on my homepage. By having a dedicated page, I have more options for what to display and how to display it.
To start, I have split the graphs into a "tower" of graphs. One view to show temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, wind speed, humidity, pressure, visibility, UV index, and snow (if it's in the forecast) simultaneously. This uses the same data feed as the weather on the main page, which is cached. Performance should be very good.
Next up, what data do I have that is not being displayed? Are there opportunities to optimize the look and overall performance?
To start, I have split the graphs into a "tower" of graphs. One view to show temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, wind speed, humidity, pressure, visibility, UV index, and snow (if it's in the forecast) simultaneously. This uses the same data feed as the weather on the main page, which is cached. Performance should be very good.
Next up, what data do I have that is not being displayed? Are there opportunities to optimize the look and overall performance?
#7
Site News / Redis and Caching
Last post by brian - Nov 11, 2022, 12:08 pmRedis is an in-memory data structure store, used as a distributed, in-memory key–value database, cache and message broker, with optional durability. What does it mean? By using Redis to hold dynamic values in memory that are typically held in a database or file, the website can access those values faster. Faster access means faster web page delivery.
Redis has been enabled for login (session) caching, which is processed on every page load. The Gallery has a newly implemented caching engine (file-based), speeding it up (and reducing server load).
Over the past year, there have been updates for many of the components and systems running this site. The Zend Optimizer memory allocations have been sized appropriately... ensuring most of the code execution is cached. My custom code has been optimized. By reducing unnecessary code, adjusting execution timing, and simplifying overly complicated code, I have been able to gain even more performance out of the site.
Redis has been enabled for login (session) caching, which is processed on every page load. The Gallery has a newly implemented caching engine (file-based), speeding it up (and reducing server load).
Over the past year, there have been updates for many of the components and systems running this site. The Zend Optimizer memory allocations have been sized appropriately... ensuring most of the code execution is cached. My custom code has been optimized. By reducing unnecessary code, adjusting execution timing, and simplifying overly complicated code, I have been able to gain even more performance out of the site.
#8
Site News / Cookies Lightened
Last post by brian - Oct 3, 2021, 12:48 amNews settings were not sticking very long. Cookies set by JavaScript only stay for a week on Safari. The news feed query is done server side and embedded into the home page. These settings need to be cookies.
Moved the news cookie setting code into PHP to bypass the Safari limitation.
To minimize cookies, which are sent on every HTTP request, the links cookies have been isolated to the links pages.
In other news, button colors needed to be explicitly set for Safari 15. They turned blue if they linked to anything. Problem solved, along with other maintenance and security updates.
Moved the news cookie setting code into PHP to bypass the Safari limitation.
To minimize cookies, which are sent on every HTTP request, the links cookies have been isolated to the links pages.
In other news, button colors needed to be explicitly set for Safari 15. They turned blue if they linked to anything. Problem solved, along with other maintenance and security updates.
#9
Site News / News in the News
Last post by brian - May 18, 2021, 1:59 pmThe News system has been updated. Faster and more consistent display.
Tech Details: Feed links are working. Open articles resize with the browser window and settings options. Time of day is calculated by the browser, eliminating time zone issues. News is updated every 10 minutes (was 20 minutes). News is kept for 48 hours (was 24 hours). Displays updated to reflect keeping the data longer (instead of "34 hours"... "1 day, 10 hours"). New display option (100 articles). When there are multiple feed matches, the top matching feed on the list is always the one displayed. News Javascript processing is asynchronous, allowing weather to load faster. Articles load from files, not the database. This eliminates the large text field, reducing disk-based temp tables, and eliminating PHP processing on request. Articles are cached on the browser page until a news refresh. Article text search is maintained with a 511 character copy of the article with HTML tags removed.
On other fronts... upgrades all around. New versions of Nginx, PHP, MariaDB, Coppermine Gallery. Changed MyISAM tables to Aria (more efficient). Most of the tables are InnoDB.
Tech Details: Feed links are working. Open articles resize with the browser window and settings options. Time of day is calculated by the browser, eliminating time zone issues. News is updated every 10 minutes (was 20 minutes). News is kept for 48 hours (was 24 hours). Displays updated to reflect keeping the data longer (instead of "34 hours"... "1 day, 10 hours"). New display option (100 articles). When there are multiple feed matches, the top matching feed on the list is always the one displayed. News Javascript processing is asynchronous, allowing weather to load faster. Articles load from files, not the database. This eliminates the large text field, reducing disk-based temp tables, and eliminating PHP processing on request. Articles are cached on the browser page until a news refresh. Article text search is maintained with a 511 character copy of the article with HTML tags removed.
On other fronts... upgrades all around. New versions of Nginx, PHP, MariaDB, Coppermine Gallery. Changed MyISAM tables to Aria (more efficient). Most of the tables are InnoDB.
#10
Site News / Optimized. For Speed.
Last post by brian - Feb 19, 2021, 8:21 amThe weather code was expanded to include current conditions, alerts, hourly definition in daily graphs, real feel, precipitation, wind, snow, clouds, humidity, visibility, pressure, and solar graphs. Changed the icons to a weather icon font. Added loading indicator when changing locations. Added buttons to jump through the forecast one day at a time. Significant performance enhancements: Graph loading time was reduced by over 10 times. Graphing library was customized to include only necessary functions (85% reduction).
Elsewhere on the site: Script loading is optimized (header code was in-lined to allow removing main page code from all other pages), images collapsed (reduced image load counts by up to half). Initial news load is in main page request, eliminating the loading delay.
Elsewhere on the site: Script loading is optimized (header code was in-lined to allow removing main page code from all other pages), images collapsed (reduced image load counts by up to half). Initial news load is in main page request, eliminating the loading delay.