Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with load

Can you guestimate how much weight furniture can support?

drpynchon — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:39:06 -0800

Is there a simple convention about how much weight a piece of furniture can support? I'd like to purchase a bookcase/sidetable that might serve as a stand for a largish fish tank. With water inside, a 30 or 40 gallon tank might weigh 300-400 pounds. Could for example this support such a tank when placed long-side down? Data on the safe limits of load on furniture appears to be generally lacking, and all-in-one tanks with their own base look horribly ugly.

Minor but annoying Firefox problem

N2O1138 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:08:49 -0800

I'm using Firefox 3.5 (on Leopard). Whenever I re-open FF, it remembers my tabs as it should, but there's a catch. All of them will "load" forever without actually doing anything unless I go to the location bar of each and hit enter. Hitting "Reload all tabs" doesn't work, instead it makes them all go blank. Also, until I switch to another tab and back, the URL of the first tab doesn't even appear. At first I thought the Fast Dial extension was causing this, but I disabled it and still have the problem. However, the problem seems to go away when I disable TMP and enable Tab Kit (so it seems it's TMP-related). I would simply use Tab Kit, but there are a few things in TMP that "I just can't live without."

I also just switched from TMP's session restore to the Session Restore extension to fix another minor problem (which it did), but that didn't help this one.

How do I go about finding out how many servers (as a function of number of users) I will need to host my web application?

tomargue — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:33:39 -0800

I'm putting together a business model for my web application. As part of my expenditure, I need to estimate how many servers I need as a function of number of users. What's a good first step to finding this out? Depending on whether my application can support 100 concurrent users or 10,000 concurrent users, this will vastly change my estimates of server costs. I guess, in general, the number of concurrent users per virtual server will change dramatically depending on the type of web application[1], so I was wondering what the steps are to estimate number of servers required (presuming I can make a good guess of how many users will be online at any one time).

The first step I tried was load-testing my application to see how many users a single server can handle. My application is a GWT application (running on a GlassFish server) and I have actually been having a bit of trouble doing a load test due, in part, to the way GWT handles AJAX. That is, I tried jmeter, but ran into problems in the way jmeter encodes Content-Types. I was thinking if there was an easier way.

I was thinking about estimating the session size for each user then dividing Virtual Machine memory by that amount. But then, I'd also need an estimate on the CPU usage, too.

Maybe the numbers of users per virtual server doesn't change too much from web application to web application...and a "rule of thumb" exists: e.g., 1,000 concurrent users per server, or something like that. My gut instinct says such a rule doesn't exist...

[1] For those who are interested in the details, my web application is an online file manager and general life-organizer that uses hierarchical labels. At its most basic level it allows you to make to-do lists quickly: this would mean that the data exchanged between the client and server is minimal: text. But I've made it so you can also upload files, e.g., music files, and play them online: streaming data would be resource-intensive and probably hard to make a theoretical guess. That's why I'm thinking that load testing under a variety of conditions is the only true way to estimate number of concurrent users. In which case, any suggestions on how to load test GWT applications would be highly appreciated.

Am I on the right track? If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear.

Am I overloading my IVAR shelving?

washburn — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:20:25 -0800

How many books can an IVAR bookshelf unit from IKEA hold? So, I've just moved into a smaller apartment, and I've got more books than I can fit onto my shelves. I'm tempted therefore to really load up my new IVAR bookshelves, rather than get rid of books.

I'm hoping to hear experiences with really loading up IVAR shelving with books--have you done this and been fine? Have you tried this and produced a spectacular collapse?

Personally, I've got the 6ft (70.5") shelves (2x35" and 1x17" wide), hooked up together, on a carpeted concrete floor. I want to put in at least seven shelves (including the top and bottom piece), and want to load books two deep on the shelves (I'll just have to sort of remember which books are behind the ones in front).

What are the chances that this sort of loading will break the shelves?

How to spend 25k to reduce debt and increase freedom!

crewshell — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:11:09 -0800

A man has debt, he comes into a little bit of money... how best should he spend it? A man has debt.
6k in student loans (5%)
19750k in credit card debt (ranging from 8-10 % interest)
15500k car loan (car is worth 12k)

Man gets 25k at 2% interest.
Man thinks he could get away with no car for 6 months, saving him 600 a month.

Should man pay off credit cards & student loans and continue to drive his car

or

Should man pay some student loans, sell car (take the lose) and pay off credit cards?

What makes the most financial sense. Ultimately regained financial freedom and the ability to go back to school is the goal. Though eventually another car will be needed.

P.S Current car is a gas hog. 18 MPG

Google won't load in any web browser

MostHolyPorcine — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:26:51 -0800

Anything google related won't load in any web browser A couple of hours ago, google just stopped working on my computer. I can't get to any of the sites, google.com, google.co.jp, mail.google.com, etc. And any website that has a google search engine doesn't work, and sites with google ads take forever to load. I've done a virus scan and a spyware scan, nothing. I've reset the computer and the modem, nothing. I did a system restore, nothing. Cleared out all the cookies and cache files for all browsers, nothing.

I can ping google using command line, ping www.google.com and i can get to google through proxy sites. This is driving me crazy...Anyone have any idea what the problem is?

I'm using Windows XP with IE, firefox and opera. My ISP is just standard Leopalace, the free internet service at my apartment in Japan (there also isn't an Leonet customer service line, so....yea). I've also noticed that about a quarter of websites, mostly forums have slowed down as well, though my download rates are the same.

Thanks!

How much dirt can I haul in a Ford Ranger?

worstkidever — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:06:43 -0800

How much dirt can I safely haul in a Ford Ranger? I own a 2002 Ford Ranger Edge supercab truck. It has a 3-liter, v6 engine, and automatic transmission. I need to move a lot of dirt, 1 cubic yard at a time in the truck bed (not on a trailer). I know the weight of the dirt, but I don't know how much my truck can safely haul without causing damage. I have seen a lot of different figures about the truck, but none of them come out and say "don't haul more than this amount". Can anyone shed some light on this?

PS. I will be checking the weight rating on the tires as well.

How do I tell what requests are slamming my Apache server?

judge.mentok.the.mindtaker — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:48:29 -0800

Help my with my Apache Crisis. How do I figure out what requests are responsible for my load? I am a programmer for a small web dev shop. In the past few days our main http server has been getting slammed with traffic, and the load is spiking several times a day.

I need to figure out how to tell what request in my access logs is causing the load spikes. What I mean is, how can I generate a report that tells me how much ram, cpu time, etc is consumed by a given request. If I had this report, I could sort on cpu % or memory size and then start to pare down what is causing the problem.

I'm on a FreeBSD server running Apache 1.whatever.

T.I.A.!!

Screwed up Flash movie loading/unloading

wexford_arts — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:30:36 -0800

Flash newbie: when I unload a movie by clicking a button inside it, and load a new movie in its place, the new movie always opens in a new window instead of the defined movieclip. Feel free to flaunt your superior knowledge and show me the obvious answer! I have a file called page01.swf that has a placeholder movieclip called mcStepHolder. I've attached the following code to mcStepHolder so that the page loads up an external file (page01_step1.swf) on launch. (This works perfectly):

if(this.mcStepHolder == Number(this.mcStepHolder)){
loadMovieNum("page01_step1.swf",this.mcStepHolder);
} else {
this.mcStepHolder.loadMovie("page01_step1.swf");
}

Here's the problem: on clicking a button inside page01_step1.swf, I want the movie to unload itself and swap in page01_step2.swf. The following code does open the correct file, but inside a new window instead of the parent SWF (mcStepHolder movieclip inside the page01.swf) Here is the code attached to the button inside that page01_step1.swf:

on (release){
unloadMovieNum(this._parent.mcStepHolder)
loadMovieNum("page01_step2.swf", this._parent.mcStepHolder)

}

Yes, I am very new, and am probably doing something mindblowingly stupid. I'm getting one of the Beyond the Basics/Hands On Learning books this week (after I get a few bucks).

Load balancing versus robustness

destro — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 08:47:01 -0800

How important is load balancing versus server power for high volume page serving? That is, is it better to have a really robust server, or two load balanced semi-robust servers? Or is load balancing just a precautionary measure in case of hardware failure, and doesn't significantly affect server response otherwise?

What is the smallest Parallels Desktop image of Windows XP that will fit corporate needs?

crazyray — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:11:53 -0800

What is the lightest, meanest, most-secure image of Windows XP Corporate I can install onto my MacBook Pro that will allow me to use Corporate MS Exchange Email, Visio, and IE-only intranet? I have a Macbook Pro that I use in a corporate environment via Parallels desktop. We use Exchange 2k3 for email and groupware. All the software I run is (and must be) legal and licensed. I am looking for the lightest, quickest, legal image of XP SP2 with all hotfixes and NO BLOAT. There are a lot of parallels users here in the green; I ask the hive mind: what image should I use? Bonus points if it won't crash the LinkedIn.com toolbar and is Google Earth Professional friendly.

What's the deal with the "D" on a "wide load" sign?

gwenzel — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:16:37 -0800

A "wide load" vehicle on the highway seems to always have a sign on the back to indicate that it's a "wide load", but the sign doesn't say "wide load". Instead, it has the letter "D" in the middle of it, and red/white vertical bars. Why a "D"? What does the "D" stand for? Why not just have the sign say "WIDE LOAD"? I'm in Canada, if this is something that'd be different in other countries.

Preloading images.

hcastro — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 08:00:29 -0800

How to wait until images being preloaded by JavaScript Image objects are complete? I have X number of thumbnails and I would like to wait until they are all loaded in full before I make the page visible. Each JavaScript Image object comes with a imgObj.complete boolean which becomes true when the entire image is loaded. I cannot simply put this in a while loop and wait because JavaScript is single-threaded. The image objects also come with an onload event that is supposed to be triggered when the entire image has been loaded, however this is not the case. Often the event is triggered without the entire image being loaded. Solutions to this problem are graciously welcome. Thank you.

Why won't amazon.com load in Firefox?

AlisonM — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 10:47:47 -0800

Why won't amazon.com load in Firefox? I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.4 on WinXP. Whenever I try to go to amazon.com (or any page within amazon.com) using Firefox, I get a blank page. The exact same URL works fine in IE. I've tried clearing my cache, and I've checked to make sure that Firefox is up to date (it is, as of about 2 minutes ago).

When I view the page source, I only get this snippet of CSS (you'll have to view large if you actually want to read it), so the page is obviously not loading.

So...what gives?

(Also, no snarky comments about AOL running in my taskbar. I've had that email for ages, and my mom would have a heart attack if I cancelled my account. Also, I'm a sucker for the radio :)

problem with page load delay in safari

vronsky — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 09:46:48 -0800

I am having an annoying problem with Safari. Say I scroll down a webpage and click on a link that takes me to a new page, when I hit the back button, the original page loads from the top and can take up to 5-6 seconds to jump back down to the original place. Do I have a preference set wrong?

Floors - how do they work?

adampsyche — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 08:37:48 -0800

How are floors held up in a typical house? Such as, for instance, a Dutch colonial? How much weight can they support?