Reid Burke

Reid Burke

  • NeDB: SQLite for Node

    I’ve been using the Node Embedded Database in a project and its MongoDB-compatible API has been a joy to use. DailyJS has a short and sweet writeup of NeDB and how it works. While my current project has outgrown it, I’m considering using NeDB for Yeti since it’s pure Node and can even be used in browsers.

  • Stream Concat Anti-Pattern

    NodeConf 2013 was great. You should go. I learned a lot of new stuff. Yesterday, I applied things I learned there for the first time.

    I often write code that looks like something like this:

    var stdout = "",
    child = cp.spawn(process.execPath, args);

child.stdout.setEncoding("utf8");
child.stdout.on("data", function (chunk) {
    stdout += chunk;
});
child.on("close", function () {
    cb(null, stdout);
});

    I want to buffer stdout data that comes from the child process until it exits. Typically, I do this by appending data as it comes in (chunk) to a string variable (stdout).

    This is an anti-pattern. There’s no need for the data I’m accumulating in stdout to be a string. When I convert Buffers into strings with setEncoding("utf8"), and then append them to create an even bigger string, I’m needlessly copying data into V8 when it’s more efficient to keep it outside.

    We want to keep as much data as we can inside of Buffers, which corresponds to memory outside of the V8 heap. Node makes this easy. Since I’m collecting a lot of data here, I could do this better by rewriting that code to the following:

    var stdout = [],
    child = cp.spawn(process.execPath, args);

child.stdout.on("data", function (chunk) {
    stdout.push(chunk);
});
child.on("close", function () {
    if (Buffer.isBuffer(stdout[0])) {
        cb(null, Buffer.concat(stdout));
        return;
     }
     cb(null);
});

    Instead of taking large strings and appending them to enlarge another larger string, I can simply gather all of the Buffer chunks in an array until I’m ready to concat them all into a single large Buffer.

    If I needed to read part of the output, perhaps the last few characters, I can use the Buffer’s slice method to convert a small part of the total results to a string for inspection.

    A smart way to do this easily is to use the concat-stream module, which does this all for you.

    If you liked this, you’ll love going on substack’s stream-adventure. You’re guaranteed to learn something, so give it a try.

  • Do For One

    Sometimes I cruise around on my Tikit. Yesterday I didn’t fare too well.

    San Thomas El Camino Intersection

    While making a left turn, my tiny 16″ wheel sank into the ground at 15 mph. The pothole blended in nicely with years of oil stains from years of cars waiting to turn left. I couldn’t keep the bike under control with one hand signaling left. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground.

    I banged up my knee and had some scrapes. Nothing too bad. But what surprised me was that the driver of the car next to me immediately got out and helped me off the ground. He insisted on giving me a bottled water. He made sure I was okay before taking off. Another woman who saw me limping away stopped her car to give me bandages. I was stoked to see these strangers help me out. But as an introverted guy, inside my car driving by, would I do the same?

    Cars, phones, earbuds, the iPad I’m typing on: All of these things can be world-canceling devices. That isn’t always bad, of course. But it’s easier to miss the opportunity for better use of our time. Jonathan Safran Foer, in his NYT article How Not to Be Alone, shared his experience using a phone to avoid a difficult moment with another person:

    The phone didn’t make me avoid the human connection, but it did make ignoring her easier in that moment, and more likely, by comfortably encouraging me to forget my choice to do so. My daily use of technological communication has been shaping me into someone more likely to forget others. The flow of water carves rock, a little bit at a time. And our personhood is carved, too, by the flow of our habits.

    …everyone is always in need of something that another person can give, be it undivided attention, a kind word or deep empathy. There is no better use of a life than to be attentive to such needs. There are as many ways to do this as there are kinds of loneliness, but all of them require attentiveness, all of them require the hard work of emotional computation and corporeal compassion.

    While we must balance the time we spend on others with time we spend on ourselves, the best parts of my life are those spent helping others. I find myself leveraging modern tools to ignore others, almost by habit, missing the best use of my life.

    The nice strangers who took time out of their day to help me, garnering ire from the traffic behind them, are inspirations to a life-long introvert like me who would struggle to decide to open my car door.

    We’re carved by our habits. Our big decisions are made by all of the little choices we make. Nobody will ever see most of these choices, but that’s okay. Deciding to engage with a messy world in small things will carve out an attitude of compassion that can make a big difference over time.

    You can’t help everyone, but why not do for one what you wish you could do for all?

  • I’m Going to Zimbabwe

    Important update, May 9, 2013: Due to political unrest, this trip will not be happening this year and is tentatively rescheduled for 2014. All funds raised will be put toward a future trip. The original post is below.

    I am going to Zimbabwe for two weeks this July to serve alongside Hands of Hope Africa as they care for orphans and children at risk.

    Zimbabwe has more orphans per capita than any other country in the world. There are 1.4 million kids under the age of 17 who are orphaned.

    I’ll be working at the WestGate Haven Home, which is home to 12 school-aged girls who lost their parents and other close family members to AIDS.

    Girls at WestGate Haven

    I’m going to be with about a dozen other people traveling from San Jose, CA. It’s a huge privilege to be able to go and experience the world in a totally different context.

    After I visited Peru last year, the trip left a lasting impression that made a difference in my life back home. We took deserving kids on a countryside retreat for 3 days—swimming, wheelchair races, horseback riding—which left a lasting impression on the kids and staff too. That makes me excited to serve again.

    Learn more about my trip and why I’m going. Since announcing the trip yesterday on Twitter, I’ve already received a few donations toward the trip’s $4,000 cost, which is fantastic! Thank you.

  • The Real Meaning of Friendship

    Douglas Gresham remembers the friendships of C.S. Lewis in the 1920s:

    Now friendship in those days was a bit different from what it is today; friends did not have to agree on everything and often agreed on practically nothing. They were people with whom you could argue all day and yet never get irritated or angry at all. In today’s world we seem to have lost the real meaning of friendship. If someone disagrees with us, it is fashionable today to dislike them for it. This is silly and robs us of the best kind of friends we could find, for if we are always agreed with, we can never really have a serious conversation; we cannot learn from someone who agrees with what we say.

    Don’t filter bubble your friends.

    Fediverse Reactions