via devopsreactions.tumblr.com

by @moo9000

via dtrace.org

Response time – or latency – is crucial to understand in detail, but many of the common presentations of this data hide important details and patterns. Latency heat maps are an effective way to reveal these. I often use tools that provide heat maps directly, but sometimes I have separate trace output that I’d like to convert into a heat map. To answer this need, I just wrote trace2heatmap.pl, which generates interactive SVGs.

I explained how latency heat maps work in the 2010 article “Visualizing System Latency” (ACMQ, CACM). I’ve previously shared interesting examples in: Rainbow Pterodactyl, Icy Lake, ZFS L2ARC.

Problem

I whipped up a simple example to explain this, using disk I/O latency (I have plenty of real-world examples, but explaining them can get sidetracked). This is a single disk system, with a single process performing a sequential synchronous write workload.

Using iostat(1M) to examine average latency (asvc_t):

$ iostat -xnz 1
[...]
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0  220.0    0.0 9635.8  0.0  1.0    0.0    4.6   0  99 c1d0
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0  203.0    0.0 8976.2  0.0  1.0    0.0    5.1   0  99 c1d0

I could plot average latency (as many monitoring products do), but the average is seriously misleading, and doesn’t explain what’s really happening. And since latency is so important for performance, I want to know exactly what is happening.

I had “iosnoop -Dots” running, which collected two minutes of per-I/O latency and other details:

# iosnoop -Dots > out.iosnoop
^C
# more out.iosnoop
STIME(us)   TIME(us)    DELTA(us) DTIME(us) UID   PID D    BLOCK   SIZE      COMM PATHNAME
9339835115  9339835827  712       730       100 23885 W 253757952 131072    odsync <none>
9339835157  9339836008  850       180       100 23885 W 252168272   4096    odsync <none>
9339926948  9339927672  723       731       100 23885 W 251696640 131072    odsync <none>
[...15,000 lines truncated...]

I/O latency is the “DELTA(us)” column. This file was thousands of lines long – too much to read.

Latency Histogram: With Outliers

The latency distribution can be examined as a histogram (using R, and a subset of the trace file):

This shows that the average has been dragged up by latency outliers: I/O with very high latency.

This is a fairly common occurrence, and it’s very useful to know when it has occurred. Those outliers may be individually causing problems, and can be easily be plucked from the trace file for further analysis; eg:

# awk '$3 > 50000' out.iosnoop_marssync01
STIME(us)   TIME(us)    DELTA(us) DTIME(us) UID   PID D    BLOCK   SIZE      COMM PATHNAME
9343218579  9343276502  57922     57398      0      0 W 142876112  4096      sched <none>
9343218595  9343276605  58010     103        0      0 W 195581749  5632      sched <none>
9343278072  9343328860  50788     50091      0      0 W 195581794  4608      sched <none>
[...]

Most of the I/O in the histogram was in a single column on the left.

Latency Histogram: Zoomed

Zooming in, by generating a histogram of the 0 – 2 ms range:

The I/O distribution is bimodal. This also commonly occurs for latency or response time in different subsystems. Eg, the application has a “fast path” and a “slow path”, or a resource has cache hits vs cache misses, etc.

But there is still more hidden here. The average latency reported by iostat hinted that there was per-second variance. This histogram is reporting the entire two minutes of iosnoop output.

Latency Histogram: Animation

I rendered the iosnoop output as per-second histograms, and generated the following animation (a subset of the frames):

Not only is this bimodal, but the modes move over time. This had been obscured by rendering all data as a single histogram.

Heat Map

Using trace2heatmap.pl to generate a heat map from the iosnoop output.

Click for an interactive SVG version, and compare to the animation above.

The command used was:

$ awk '{ print $2, $3 }' out.iosnoop | ./trace2heatmap.pl --unitstime=us \
    --unitslatency=us --maxlat=2000 --grid > heatmap.svg

Without “–grid”, the grid lines are not drawn (making it more Tufte-friendly); see the example.

trace2heatmap.pl gets the job done, but it’s probably a bit buggy – I spent three hours writing it (and more than three hours writing this post about it!), really for just the trace files I don’t already have heat maps for.

Heat Maps Explained

It may already be obvious how these work. Each frame of the histogram animation becomes a column in a latency heat map, with the histogram bar height represented as a color:

Click for higher resolution.

Production Use

If you want to add heat maps to your monitoring solution, then great! However, note that tracing per-event latency can be expensive to perform. DTrace minimizes the overheads as much as possible using per-CPU buffers and asynchronous kernel-user transfers; other tools (eg, strace, tcpdump) are expected to have higher overhead. This can cause problems for production use: you want to understand the overhead, including when using DTrace, before tracing events.

Heat maps have been used successfully in production – and recorded at a one-second granularity 24x7x365 – by some products built upon DTrace. These use the DTrace aggregating feature to pass a quantized summary of latency, instead of every event, to user-level, reducing the data transfer by a large factor (eg, 1000x). This summary may consist of a per-second array with about 200 elements for different latency ranges, each containing the count of events, and is from the DTrace aggregating actions @quantize, @lquantize, or @llquantize (best). This array is then resampled (downsampled) to the resolution desired for the heat map (usually down to 30 or so levels).

Examples of products that can generate heat maps in a production-efficient way, are the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance, Joyent Cloud Analytics, and Circonus.

There is also Tracelytics, although I can’t comment on its efficiency, as I don’t know its internals yet.

Other Uses

Heat maps (and trace2heatmap.pl) can be used to examine metrics other than latency, such as offset, I/O size, and utilization. For examples, see the heat maps in Visualizing Device Utilization, and Subsecond Offset Heat Maps.

Background

Bryan and I developed latency heat maps in 2008 for the ZFS Storage Appliance. For more background, see Visualizing System Latency.

Thanks to Deirdre for helping with another post!

via www.nj.com

It was a sight the likes of which may never have ever occurred before in all of recorded history. At the front of this room, being feted for their longevity, sat 40 men and women, all of whom were at least 100 years old

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP — Flashes popped and iPhones bobbed up and down for position. Small children pushed their way past taller adults to get a better view. Gasps of admiration escaped from wide-eyed spectators as “You Make Me Feel So Young” played in the background.

It was a sight the likes of which may never have ever occurred before in all of recorded history. At the front of the room, being feted for their longevity, sat 40 men and women, all of whom were at least 100 years old.

They came from all over New Jersey, from Bernardsville Jersey: from Bernardsvile to Denville, from Hazlet to Highland Park, Park in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most centenarians ever assembled in one room. The record had been set in the United Kingdom in 2009 when 28 super-seniors gathered at a tea party. Today, the Regency Jewish Heritage Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Somerset section of Franklin Township hosted 38 women and two men.

Taken together, these centenarians have a combined 4,000 years of wisdom, equal to about the entire span of western civilization. Taken individually, their stories show how much has changed in the last century, and how human beings can triumph over almost unimaginable hardships. These men and women survived wars, hunger, unemployment, the Great Depression.

There is Il N. Kim Chae, 102, who walked 100 miles with her nine children to escape the violence of the Korean War.

There is Mary Andiorio, 101, a Mendham native, who remembers her school principal jumping and shouting, “The war is over! The war is over!” That would be World War I.
Andiorio lives in Bernardsville and still does her own taxes; she does her neighbor’s as well.

There is Kurt Steiner, a refugee from Hitler’s Europe, walking briskly back to his table and looking dapper in a gray suit. He’s been living in the same Cranford home for the last 60 years. After looking at the assembled crowd, Steiner, somewhat surprised, noted he was one of only two men.

“And I’m the only one with some hair left,” he said.

Women in the United States live an average of 81 years while men live an average of 76 years, according to government data. No one is exactly sure why. The most recent hypothesis comes from Japan. In an article published last week in the Journal of Aging and Immunology, Japanese scientists posited womens’ immune systems hold up better in old age.

“These findings, indicating a slower rate of decline in these immunological parameters in women than in men, are consistent with the fact that women live longer than men,” the authors wrote.

The 2010 Census counted 53,364 centenarians in the United States and 1,769 in New Jersey.

Marie Barnes, public relations director at the Regency, coordinated the program, hoping to break the world record. It appears she has though it needs to be officially certified, which could take a couple weeks.

She admitted she was a bit surprised by her guests’ vitality.

“Their total mindset is so sharp,” she said.

Most of the centenarians needed to be wheeled in, but not all.

Catherine Carlin, Carter, wearing a bright pink top with a yellow flower pinned to her chest, flashed a wide smile as she walked toward the front of the room. She carries a cane in her left arm but does not use it.

Carlin Carter is the oldest member of the group. She is 107 and looks like she might still be asked for ID if she requested the senior discount.

“I don’t feel (107),” she said.

Carlin immigrated from Scotland to Kearny in 1929 and has been in the Garden State ever since. She ate lunch at the same table as Josephine Patterson, who turned 100 last week, which makes her the baby of the group. Patterson grew up in Jersey City and moved to Lodi in 1950, buying her 3-bedroom home for $7,500 with help from the GI Bill. She still has her first property tax bill. She paid $100 that year. She smiled a bit when she said that she now pays about $7,000.

Every day, she said, she reads the obituaries to make sure she isn’t there.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she shouted defiantly. “I’m staying because I have to aggravate a lot more people. And when I leave I’m going to have the last word.”

What will the last word be?

“Beautiful,” Patterson said. “Beautiful. It’s been a great ride.”

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via ridgewood.patch.com

More than six months after superstorm Sandy caused unprecedented damage to the Jersey Shore, the beaches will be open in time for Memorial Day weekend.

However, certain access points and facilities may be closed as municipalities continue to work on restoration.

So as you prepare to stick your toes in the sand, are you wondering what will be accessible after Sandy? Need to know how much it will cost to buy badges to your favorite beach? Curious on where to park, if your dog is allowed on the boards, if you have to head back to the car for food and drink? All the answers are right here.

Just click on the beach names below or on the right for full information on the Jersey Shore’s beaches.

OCEAN COUNTY

Barnegat Light

Barnegat Light sustained much less damage to the beaches during Sandy than other Long Beach Island towns. The home to ‘Old Barney’ can offer the relaxation of a classic day at the beach with maybe a pinch of history when the sunbathing is done.

Seasonal beach badges are available for $25 until June 15, and after that the price is $35. Senior citizens can purchase a seasonal pass for $10. Weekly badges $20 while the daily rate is $5 per person. Children under 12 are admitted for free. There is also a $1 per badge charge for any badges that are purchased on the beach.

Badges are currently on sale at Borough Hall, located at 10 East 7th Street. The municipal building is open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Beach badges can also be purchased at a booth on West 11th Street.

For more information call the park office at 609-494-2016.

Bay Head

Plans are in the works for full restoration to the “country village by the sea.” As construction progresses, there may be days where there is not full access to every beach access point.

Bay Head offers active and passive recreation, swimming, watersports and shopping.

Seasonal beach badges are $70, with a half-season priced at $45. Beach-goers 12 and older are charged $7 for daily passes while those 12 and younger are free.

Badges can be purchased by contacting Bay Head Improvement Associates, Mount Street (next to Scow Ditch), P.O. Box 42, Bay Head, NJ 08742.

For more information, call 732-892-4179.

Beach Haven

Although much work remains to be done, months of rebuilding efforts following Sandy have helped bring many popular attractions in Long Beach Island’s Queen City back to life.

Beach Haven is one of the most popular locations on Long Beach Island, with the Fantasy Island arcade and Thundering Surf Water Park in addition to beach and restaurants.

Seasonal badges are $30 until June 22 and $40 starting June 23. Weekly badges are $20; daily badges are $5. Children 12 and under, adults 65 and over and active duty military personnel can use the beach for free. Those 65 and older must get a special permanent badge by visiting the Beach Badge Office; military personnel must show ID.

The order form isavailable online.

Brick

Brick boasts three family-friendly beaches on the Barnegat Peninsula, with one set aside for fishing. All of the township’s public beaches have reopened after suffering damage from Superstorm Sandy, though the oceanfront area south of Beach III remains off-limits to beachgoers.

Seasonal badges are $25 before June 15 and $30 after June 15 and are good for Brick Township’s three ocean beaches along Route 35 and the bathing area at Windward Beach Park on Princeton Avenue. A daily wristband is $5. There are no weekly badges sold. Children under 12 are admitted free.

Badges and parking stickers can be purchased at the township recreation office at Civic Plaza, 270 Chambers Bridge Road.

Harvey Cedars

Between early June and August, 1,000 feet of beachfront along Harvey Cedars will be closed for a replenishment project following Superstorm Sandy.

Tucked away on the northern end of Long Beach Island, the small town of Harvey Cedars can provide a relaxing and quiet beach experience with both bay and ocean beaches to choose from.

Seasonal passes are $30 in the preseason and $40 after June 15. Senior citizens, ages 65 and older, may get a seasonal pass for $9. Weekly badges also are offered at a rate of $20. There is a day rate of $6. Badges are currently on sale at Borough Hall, which is located at 7606 Long Beach Blvd.

More information call 609-361-6000 or 609-361-9733.

Island Beach State Park

Superstorm Sandy may have walloped Island Beach State Park last fall, but lifeguards will be on duty at Bathing Beach 2 in time for Memorial Day weekend.

The 3,003-acre Island Beach State Park has two ocean beaches, surfishing, hiking, kayaking on Barnegat Bay and the nearby Sedge Islands and much more.

Island Beach State Park charges a per vehicle daily fee rather than beach badges. New Jersey residents pay $6 on weekdays and $10 on weekends for park access from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Visitors from out of state pay $10 on weekdays and $20 on weekends.

Call 732-793-0506 for more information.

Lacey Township

While not oceanfront, Lacey boasts four beaches that will open Sunday, June 16: Cedar Creek Beach on Forrest Avenue in Lanoka Harbor, Bamber Lake Beach in Bamber Lake, Deerhead Lake Beach on Deerhead Lake Drive in Forked River and Lake Barnegat Beach on Lakeside Drive in Forked River.

Beach badges are $5 and are required for those older than 7. Badges will be available starting June 1 in the Recreation Office. Proof of residency is required. Badges will be required starting Saturday, June 25. Call 609-693-1100, ext. 2203 for more information.

Lavallette

Lavallette was not as badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy compared to some surrounding municipalities. The borough has both an active ocean beach and bay scene. Activities on the beach include swimming, surfing and ocean kayaking.

Pre-season badges are available through June 17 for $35. Starting June 18, seasonal passes are $45 per person, $7 daily. Visitors 65 and older, disabled and military personnel are offered passes at $14 per season. Badges are free for children younger than 12.

For more information, call 732-793-2566.

Long Beach

Long Beach Township’s 12 miles of oceanfront makes up much of LBI. Whether you are taking part in Brant Beach’s post-Sandy reopening festival, the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts in Loveladies, frequenting the township’s many boutiques, mini-golf courses and restaurants, there is always something to do here.

Beach badges are $30 for the season when purchased before June 15; $40 when purchased June 15 and later. Weekly badge is $20 and daily badge $5. Children younger than 12 are free. Senior citizen badge is $5. Badges can be purchased at the Beach Badge Office on 68^thStreet in Brant Beach, next to town hall.

For more information, call the town hall at 609-361-1000.

Mantoloking

Mantoloking’s beaches remain off limits to the public following Superstorm Sandy. Officials have not set a date as to when the beach may reopen, though they have acknowledged that they will attempt to open it at some point this summer.

Ortley Beach

Though ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, Toms River officials said that only a section of Ortley Beach will be restored and open for recreation this summer.

This year, beach badges will remain $35 all season — they will not increase to $50 as in years past. Seasonal passes to Ortley Beach are $35 in the pre-season. The price increases to $50 on May 29. Daily badges cost $7 and $8 on the weekends, and are available at beach entrances. Children under 12 are free. Toms River residents age 62 and older are entitled to a lifetime senior beach pass for free.

Only Seasonal and senior passes can be purchased now at the Toms River Recreation Administration Building, 1810 Warren Point Road. Seasonal and daily badges Badges will be available
for sale only at the beach.

For more information, call 732-341-1000 Ext. 8415.

Point Pleasant

The private entities that own the most popular beaches in Point Pleasant Beach are assuring the public that the beaches and the ocean are safe and clean.

The ever-popular Point Pleasant Beach offers five bathing beaches, with boardwalk, shops and restaurants to be found throughout the Beach and Point Borough.

For specific beach badge prices at the five beaches — Jenkinson’s, Risden’s, Martell’s, Bradshaw’s and the Maryland Avenue beach — click the link above.

Seaside Heights

Following Superstorm Sandy, the borough became known for its destroyed boardwalk, the iconic photo of the Jet Star roller coaster sitting in the ocean and a visit from Britain’s Prince Harry.

The borough’s entire boardwalk will be rebuilt by Memorial Day, the beaches are open, essentially all of the boardwalk attractions are back, and even Casino Pier’s rides are returning one-by-one as the pier is rebuilt.

Seasonal beach passes are $50. Daily passes cost $6, and children younger than 12 are always free.

Lifetime beach badges for seniors 65 and older are available for $10 and must be purchased at Borough Hall. Borough Hall is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It’s located at 901 Boulevard.

For additional questions, contact Borough Hall at (732) 793-9100.

Seaside Park

Though Jenkinson’s officials have vowed to reopen Casino Pier by this summer, Funtown’s tourist season is likely lost. Ownership has said it would like to welcome visitors back next summer, however.

Seasonal beach badges for Seaside Park are $50 until June 14, $55 as of June 15. Seasonal badges for seniors 65 and older cost $20. Weekly badges are $35 while daily are $10.

Pre-season beach badges can be purchased at the Seaside Park Police Department located at 6th and Central Avenues. Badge sale hours are Monday through Wednesday and Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cash or check only.

Badges can also be purchased at the Bathhouse on the corner of ‘N Street’ and Ocean Avenue Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, call 732-793-3700.

South Seaside Park

Island Beach packed? Seaside Heights just a bit too much for you? Head over to White Sands Beach in South Seaside Park.

Daily badges are $5. Weekend and holiday badges are $6. Weekly badges are $20. Season badges are for sale from May 29 through June 16 at a reduced price of $30. Season badges from June 16 on are $35. Admission for children under 12 is free. New Jersey residents who are 62 and over receive free badges after proof of age and residency are provided.

Ship Bottom

As crews work up and down Long Beach Island to get the beach ready, Ship Bottom, which serves as the island’s gateway - is the hub of it all.

Ship Bottom’s immediate neighbor to the north, Surf City, is billed as one of the Jersey Shore’s most family-friendly destinations. The 25-block-long town on Long Beach Island boasts ocean and bay beaches, noted eateries and (as of summer 2012) two miniature golf courses.

Beach badges are $30 for the season when purchased before May 31; after that it’s $40 for a seasonal badge. Weekly badge is $20 and daily badge $5. Children younger than 12 and seniors 65 and older are free. Badges can be purchased at the town hall, 1621 Long Beach Boulevard.

For more information, call 609-494-3064.

Surf City

Although some repairs - including a planned beach replenishment project - are slated throughout Surf City this summer following, town officials note that the beaches will be open on schedule.

Ship Bottom’s immediate neighbor to the north, Surf City, is billed as one of the Jersey Shore’s most family-friendly destinations. The 25-block-long town on Long Beach Island boasts ocean and bay beaches, noted eateries and (as of summer 2012) two miniature golf courses.

Beach badges are $25 for the season when purchased before May 31; after that it’s $35 for a seasonal badge. Weekly badge is $17 and daily badge $6. Children younger than 12 and seniors 65 and older are free. Badges can be purchased at the town hall, 813 Long Beach Boulevard.

For more information, call 609-494-3064.

MONMOUTH COUNTY

Asbury Park

Its boardwalk fixed and spirits high, Asbury Park is back in business and ready for summer 2013.

Asbury Park offers something for everyone, from the beautiful beach to live music to great restaurants.

Seasonal beach badges cost $70 for adults and $20 for seniors and teens. Weekday passes are $5 with the cost for weekends and holidays going up to $6.

Avon by the Sea

Pavilions were demolished after Hurricane Sandy damage and Avon has rebuilt its boardwalk throughout winter.

A tiny seaside hamlet on the north side of the Shark River Inlet, Avon-By-The-Sea boasts a total land area of just 4/10 of a square mile.

Beach badges for the season cost $90 for adults and $45 for seniors and young adults (12-18). Children under the age of 12 are free, and daily passes can be purchased for $9.

For more information call 732-502-4510.

Belmar

The ever-popular Belmar offers beaches that stretch for more than a mile, attracting locals and tourists alike.

Heavily damaged in Hurricane Sandy, the borough continues to rebuild, and was one of the first to complete its boardwalk months after the storm.

Beach badges are $50 for a seasonal pass; $15 for seniors; $7 daily; free for children 15 and younger and active duty military and their families. Badges are on sale at Borough Hall, 601 Main St., until Memorial Day weekend and at boardwalk ticket booths thereafter.

For more information, call 732-681-3700.

Bradley Beach

A popular location on the shore, Bradley Beach can trace its roots back to the 1600s.

Seasonal beach badges are $70 for adults; $30 seniors (62 and older); $25 juniors (ages 14-15); free for children 13 and younger. Daily passes are $8.

Badges are required on weekends beginning Memorial Day weekend; daily starting June 20, through Labor Day. Badges are on sale at town hall, located at 701 Main St. They can only be purchased with cash or check, and there are no mail transactions. Checks should be made payable to the Borough of Bradley Beach.

Deal

Deal, a small Shore town, offers a public beach and private access at the Deal Casino Bathing Club.

The main, public beach at Conover Pavilion costs $6 on weekdays and $7 on weekdays and holidays. Children under 12 are free. Call 732-531-0404 for more information.

Loch Arbour

Loch Arbour’s beautiful beaches are open.

Seasonal beach badge prices: cost $90 for adults, $50 for seniors and children 12 and younger are free. Daily beach badge prices are $5 on weekdays, $6 on weekends and holidays. Visitwww.locharbournj.usor call 732-531-4740 for more information.

Long Branch

Due to Hurricane Sandy, Long Branch will have no boardwalk south of Pier Village this summer, but there will still be temporary access points.

Visitors to Long Branch can enjoy several beaches while shopping and enjoying restaurants at Pier Village as well as Long Branch’s West End.

Seasonal badge badges are free for kids 13 and younger; $30 for kids 14-17; $45 for adults; and free for seniors. Daily badges are free for those 13 and younger; $3 for children 14-17; $5 for adults on weekdays, $7 on weekends; and free for seniors. For more information, contact the Long Branch Recreation Department at 732-571-6545.

Manasquan

The southernmost beach in Monmouth County, Manasquan is a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. With several miles of beachfront, Manasquan is a great destination for surfers, fishermen or anyone looking for fun in the sun.

Beach badges are $70 for a seasonal pass; $8 daily. Senior citizen badges for ages 65 and older are $25. Children from 12 to 16 are $35, and children younger than 12 are free (birth certificates required). Required on weekends beginning Memorial Day weekend and daily after June 16. They can be purchased, cash only, at the Beach Office.

For more information, call the Beach Office at 732-223-2514.

Monmouth Beach

Monmouth Beach’s small slice of beachfront took a hard hit from Hurricane Sandy, but the word is that the beach will be open by Memorial Day and ready for visitors.

Referred to by locals as “Little Monmouth,” Monmouth Beach’s public beach has forever been nestled in a spot right on Ocean Avenue between the historic, prestigious and private Monmouth Beach Club and Long Branch’s North End Beach, which is known as a surfer haven.

Season beach passes can be purchased for $75, daily admission is $9 and children, 12 and under, are admitted free. Seasonal passes are available at Borough Hall; and, daily passes can be purchased at the South End Bathing Pavilion.Lifeguards are stationed at the beach from 9:30 a.m to 5:10 p.m.

Ocean Grove

Ocean Grove’s boardwalk and beachfront are set to open on schedule, although damaged sections of the boardwalk have been removed and direct beach access points will be created by Memorial Day.

Daily beach badges are $8. There also is a weekly pass that can be purchased for $40 while a seasonal badge will cost $80. A youth season badge for ages 12 to 17 is $75 while the senior citizen season badge for those 65 and older are $40. Children younger than 12 are free with an adult.

Badges can be purchased at the beach office on the boardwalk across from the fishing pier. More information can be found by going towww.oceangrove.orgor calling 732-988-5533.

Sandy Hook

Part of the National Park System’s Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook was battered badly by Hurricane Sandy. But it’s back and the recipient of a major road repair project and revamped buildings.

Sandy Hook is home to miles of beach and much more. “The Hook,” as it is referred to by locals, also houses vast nature trails and wildlife observatories as well as the historic Fort Hancock and the Sandy Hook Theater at its tip.

While actual admission to the beach at Sandy Hook is free, parking fees are charged per car/carload. Admission fees for the entire season are $75 per car. Daily admission is $15 per car ($25 for oversized vehicles). Seniors are charged 50 perent of the regular seasonal rate of $75. Daily and/or seasonal passes may be purchased at the park’s manned entrance plaza.

Sea Bright

Sea Bright Public Beach, once revamped from Sandy’s devastation, will again offer lifeguards and rescue personnel, outdoor showers and restroom facilities.

The public beach is a short walk away from several downtown restaurants, ranging from from casual to elegant, as well as Donovan’s Reef, a popular beach-goer’s summer hang-out, replete with a beach tiki bar.

Beach fees for the season are $95, $35 for seniors (65 and over). Children are admitted free. Daily entrance fees, including weekends, are $7. Tags may be purchased at the beach entrances or at the small beach badge house in the municipal parking lot on Ocean Avenue.

Sea Girt

Repairs from Hurricane Sandy are well under way and are not expected to impact visitors this season.

Nestled between Spring Lake and Manasquan, Sea Girt has a 1.75-mile stretch of beach featuring a beautiful boardwalk and a historic lighthouse.

Beach badges are $105 for a seasonal pass; $10 daily. Senior citizen badges for ages 65 and older are $55. Children 12 and younger and all active duty military and their immediate family are free. Required on weekends beginning Memorial Day weekend and daily after June 16 through Labor Day.

They can be purchased, cash only, at the Main Pavilion and other designated areas along the beachfront from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 732-449-9335.

Seven Presidents Beach

Known for its ecological habitat, beach badges are available for purchase at Thompson Park in Lincroft and Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park in Long Branch.

Season admission badges are $45 for ages 13-17; $65 for adults 18 to 64; and $25 for adults 65 and older. Season parking passes are $65. (Mid-season rates are available after August 1.)

Spring Lake

For a quiet day at the beach, consider Spring Lake, which features the longest stretch of non-commercial boardwalk in the state.

Beach badges are $105 for a seasonal pass; $65 for late season — Memorial Day Weekend through July 31 and Aug. 1 through Labor Day; $10 daily. Children aged 11 and younger are free.

Call 732-449-0800 ext. 631 for more information.

ATLANTIC COUNTY

Atlantic City

Atlantic City not only boasts casinos and entertainment, it features the exceedingly rare free beach experience.

Surfing, kayaking and windsurfing are allowed on certain beaches in the resort, while there are numerous areas to fish. Click above for more.

Brigantine

Even as Brigantine Beach recovers from the impact of Superstorm Sandy, those visiting the barrier island community won’t notice major damage either on the beach or in their pricing.

Atlantic City visitors looking to escape the city for a nearby beach experience can head to Brigantine, which boasts beautiful beaches and sport activities.

Seasonal beach badges are currently available for $15. The price increases to $18 on June 1. Badges for senior citizens ages 60 to 64 are $8, and senior citizens ages 65 and older are free. Active military personnel also can get beach badges for free. Weekly passes are available for $14, and the daily rate is $8 per person.

Badges are currently on sale at the Brigantine Beach Community Center, 265 42^ndSt., Brigantine. For more information about beach badges, call Beach Patrol Headquarters at609-266-5233or the Beach Fee Office at609-264-7350.

Longport

Repairs continue to be done to bulkheads and beach steps, but with no boardwalk and no amusement rides to become stranded in the water, residents will notice minimal damage to Longport.

Beach badges are currently on sale, and are $15 for adults between the ages of 12 and 64, and $5 for seniors, ages 65 and over. After June 16, all badges are $30.

Margate

Outside of some minor construction, residents will notice minimal damage, the return of virtually all business and prices remain steady in Margate.

Badges can be purchased prior to June 1 for $7 for the season, and $3.50 for Seasonal Senior Citizens badges. After May 31, badges are available at a rate of $15 for the Season. Weekly badges are available for $10.

Ventnor

Outside of a few minor improvements, residents will notice minimal damage, and prices remain steady in Ventnor, and the island will be ready once the season begins.

Badges can be purchased prior to June 1 for $7 for the season, and $3.50 for Seasonal Senior Citizens badges. After May 31, badges are available at a rate of $15 for the Season. Weekly badges are available for $10.

Badges can be purchased at Ventnor City Hall, Beach Patrol Headquarters, the Ventnor Fishing Pier, or on the Beach by any Beach Badge Inspector.

CAPE MAY COUNTY

Avalon

Beautiful, natural coastline has handicap access, tennis courts and boat ramps. Beach fees for pre-season (beginning May 31) are $21; and a season tag is $26. Weekly beach fees: (Saturday-Saturday) $12; daily $6.

Cape May

Like much of the county, Cape May was largely spared from the bulk of Hurricane Sandy’s wrath with the county proudly exclaiming that it’s not only open for business, but ready to provide visitors with the same experience as years past.

Cape May is known for its Victorian architecture, and it’s a favorite spot for bird watchers. With spots from Higbee Beach to Poverty Beach, Cape May is a beach-lovers’ paradise.

Beach fees: pre-season (thru 3/30) $15; seasonal $28; weekly (Saturday-Saturday) $15; three-day $10; daily $6; children under 12 are free.

Cape May Point

Damage to Point’s beaches from Hurricane Sandy was minimal when compared to other, more northerly beaches and has not negatively impacted the town’s expectations.

Beach fees: pre-season $22 (May 1 thru May 31); seasonal $27 (starting June 1), weekly $17, daily $7.

North Wildwood

Though less popular with tourists than its southern neighbor with its huge beach and amusement piers, North Wildwood is nevertheless a great destination for shore visitors. Beaches are free.

Ocean City

“America’s Greatest Family Resort” features eight miles of beaches and a boardwalk packed with shops and amusements.

Discounted seasonal beach tags are on sale now and cost $20 if purchased by May 31. On June 1, the price goes up to $25. Weekly beach tags are $10, and daily beach tags cost $5.

Beach tags are required for visitors ages 12 and older and will be required June 8 to Sept. 2 this year.

Sea Isle City

Despite suffering some damage during Hurricane Sandy, including flooding, the town has proudly declared itself open for business with the advertising campaign slogan “Summer 2013 We’re Ready.”

Sea Isle is known as a hot spot for fans of night-life activities and natural beaches, but also serves a destination for families with its amusements and rides.

Beach Fees: pre-Season (thru 5/15) $20; seasonal $25, weekly $10, daily $5, children under 12 free. Wednesday is free beach day, with no tags required on Wednesdays.

Stone Harbor

Boasting small town charm, as well as a quaint shopping district and great restaurants - as well as the town’s annual seasfood festival - Stone Harbor is a popular beach destination during the summer season.

Beach fees: seasonal before May 31st - $21; after May 31st - $26; weekly $12, daily $6.

Wildwood

Wildwood, thanks in part to its receding beaches, did not suffer significant flood damage during Hurricane Sandy and has declared itself ready for the season.

Wildwood is one of New Jersey’s most popular shore destinations for families with its huge - and free - beaches, its long, wide boardwalk - as well as its famous tram cars - and its unparalleled amusements, including Morey’s Piers.

Wildwood Crest

Wildwood Crest is a bedroom community to Wildwood, offering a place for tourists who have spilled over from its neighbor or those who are looking for a more serene Wildwood beach experience.

Though light on amusements and attractions when compared to Wildwood, Crest, like Wildwood and North Wildwood, offers free beach access as well as entertainment throughout the summer.

via techblog.netflix.com

Today, we are excited to bring you Pytheas : web resource and rich UI framework. This piece of software is heavily used at Netflix in building quick prototypes and web applications that explore/visualize large data sets.

Pytheas integrates Guice and Jersey frameworks to wire REST web-service endpoints together with dynamic UI controls in a web application. The framework is designed to support the most common web UI  components needed to build data exploration / dashboard style applications. It not only serves as a quick prototyping tool, but also acts as a foundation for integrating multiple data sources in a single application.

UI components bundle

The UI library bundled with Pytheas is based on a number of Javascript Open Source frameworks such as Bootstrap, JQuery-UI, DataTables, D3 etc. It also contains a number of JQuery plugins that we wrote to support specific use cases that we encountered in building Netflix internal applications/ dashboards. Some of the plugins include support for ajax data driven selection boxes with dynamic filter control, pop-over dialog box form templates, inline portlets, breadcrumbs, loading spinner etc.

Modular Design

An application based on Pytheas framework consists of one or more Pytheas modules. Each module is loosely coupled from each other. The module is responsible for supplying its own data resources and in fact can also provide its own rendering mechanism. Each data resource is a Jersey REST endpoint owned by the module. 

By default Pytheas uses FreeMarker as the rendering template engine for each resource. The framework provide a library of reusable FreeMarker macros that can be embedded in a page to allow for rendering commonly used UI components. Each Pytheas module gets access to all the common page building blocks such as page layout containers, header, footer, navbar etc. which gets embedded by the framework.

Although Pytheas provides FreeMarker as the default template engine, the framework allows for plugging in your own template engine for each module. It’ll need to supply its own Jersey Provider with it.

Getting Started

create, share(, and monetize) your own APIs

graphite dashboarding though having to store config data in postgresql and openID state in redis seems a bit overkill to me

via reinout.vanrees.org

via www.coolinfographics.com

Are you a Stephen King fan? Have you yourself made these connections? From TessieGirl, The Stephen King Universe has been updated to include the many connections to the Dark Tower series.

When I was in Grade 5 (guess I was ten), my friend Tarnya Smyth brought her mum’s battered copy of Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ to school. We broke it into about 4 pieces and passed them around, all taking turns reading each battered section. I told mum about it and she FLIPPED HER WIG and told me to ‘Stop reading that book immediately!!’ So I finished it.

Now, I TOTALLY do not recommend  ten year olds reading Stephen King books (messed me up good), but this was when my life long relationship with Mr King began. My love for his books is based around his characters. They are so full. I love Stephen King dialogue. I love his sense of humour. And I love the links and connections between the books. I am the kind of annoying person who likes to know the ‘In Joke’. So, of course, I MADE A FLOW CHART!!!

This chart is like my fourth child. Be kind to it. It means a lot to me.

I wish they had published a higher-resolution version online.  Some of the text is too small to read, but I think I can follow all of the connections.  A must have for any Stephen King fan!

Also, it’s available for purchase as a poster from the TessieGirl site for $25 plus shipping from Australia.  You can also see the original version.

Thanks to Becky for sending in the link!

via www.tencentticker.com

Note: The New 52 ain’t all bad. Superman artist Kenneth Rocafort has given new life to one of the most memorable (and sometimes derided) DC creations from the 1990s: Cyborg Superman. Moving past the cyborg stereotype perpetrated in the 1990s, Rocafort’s design melds Otomo aesthetics with the segmented armor approach of the New 52, making it actually work. The fact that this also looks like a Bruce Campbell gives this one bonus points. – Chris A.

via highscalability.com

Hey, it’s HighScalability time:

• Nanoscale: Plants IM Using Nanoscale Sound Waves; 100 petabytes: CERN data storage
• Quotable Quotes:
  • Geoff Arnold: Arguably all interesting advances in computer science and software engineering occur when a resource that was previously scarce or expensive becomes cheap and plentiful.
  • @jamesurquhart: “Complexity is a characteristic of the system, not of the parts in it.” -Dekker
  • @louisnorthmore: Scaling down - now that’s scalability!
  • @peakscale: Where distributed systems people retire to forget the madness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipaxos 
  • @dozba: “The Linux Game Database” … Well, at least they will never have scaling problems.
  • Michael Widenius: There is no reason at all to use MySQL
  • @steveloughran: Whenever someone says “unlimited scalability”, ask if that exceeds the berkenstein bound
  • @nationofminds: “I have infinite MIPS. Unlimited scalability. And zero effing patience.” 
  • Endowing cells with logic and memory: Genetic circuits that process and permanently store information are created with recombinases that flip the orientation of DNA cassettes.


• Search Is Eating The World. The long sought after Nirvana of search and database becoming one may be nigh. 


• And you thought scalability didn’t pay: Twitter Acquires Palo Alto-Based Scalable Computing Startup Ubalo


• New Finds: @foodfight is an interesting and informative Chef oriented DevOps podcast you may enjoy if that’s the sort of thing you enjoy, which you probably do. From which I learned from fellow Way of Kings aficionado Brandon Burton about a new deep systems podcast called Real Talk by James Golick and Joe Damato, who want to talk about things concrete, not like that Hacker News BS.


• I’d love to see the API: The idea we live in a simulation isn’t science fiction. Magic anyone?

Don’t miss all that the Internet has to say on Scalability, click below and become eventually consistent with all scalability knowledge…

via g33ktalk.com

Because of NYC startups’ interest in big data technologies we’ve recently launched a brand new data engineering meetup. The meetup is for engineers only and features New York’s top startups presenting their learnings on building real-world data processing architectures.

We are having a talk by bit.ly on their recently open sourced data processing technology next Wednesday, come join us!

May 15th: Realtime Distributed Message Processing at Scale with NSQ
(Matt Reiferson from Bit.ly speaking)
http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Data-Engineering/events/113291272/

via www.perceptualedge.com

Presenting quantitative information is a specialized form of communication. Like all forms of communication, quantitative data presentation is most effective when we follow a few best practices, such as the following seven tenets.

1. Know your data. Until you understand the stories that live in your data, you can’t begin to tell them.
2. Know your audience. Unless you understand what matters to your audience, you won’t know what is of interest and use to them.
3. Determine your message. Every dataset contains multiple stories. You can’t tell them all at once. Before you present quantitative information, you must determine the specific message or messages that you want to communicate. Start by writing a sentence or two or three to express the message before moving on to determine the ideal means of expression.
4. Reduce the data to what’s needed to communicate the message. Pare the data down to the essence of what your audience must see to understand the message. What’s essential usually involves more than a simple set of primary values (e.g., monthly sales figures), for without context in the form of comparisons, numbers mean little. For example, monthly sales figures compared to target values or to values for the same months last year are more meaningful than sales figures alone.
5. Determine the best means of expression. Some quantitative messages are best communicated with words, some with tables of numbers, some with graphs, and some with a combination. Some messages are best displayed in a bar graph, some in a line graph, some in a scatter plot, and so on. Knowing which form of expression works best for the message that you’re trying to present requires a little training into how our eyes and brains process visual information. The principles are easy to learn, but they aren’t intuitive. I wrote the book Show Me the Numbers, in part, to teach these principles.
6. Design the display to communicate simply, clearly, and accurately. Include nothing that isn’t data unless it’s needed to support the data. Unnecessary color variation and visual effects, or even grid lines in a graph when they aren’t needed, will detract from the message. Non-data elements that are needed should only be visible enough to do their job and never so visible that they call attention to themselves. Non-data elements should sit politely in the background so the information stands out clearly in the foreground. If some information is more important to the message than other information, do something visual to feature it. For example, a brighter color or thicker stroke would make a particular line in a line graph stand out more than the others.
7. Suggest a way to respond. Whenever possible, make it easy for your audience to respond with appropriate action by suggesting specific steps. Most quantitative messages aren’t presented merely to inform, but also to motivate a useful response.

Take care,

via www.perceptualedge.com

A “straw man” is a flawed form of argument that occurs when one side attacks a position that isn’t actually held by the other side (the “straw man”) and then acts as though the other side’s position has been refuted. People usually construct straw men when they cannot legitimately refute an opponent’s position. As such, a straw man is a dishonest and fallacious form of argument, but one that can be persuasive when the audience is not aware of the facts.

I learned about straw men as an undergraduate majoring in communication studies. I loved the course that I took in argumentation and debate back then because I found the rules of logic elegant, interesting, and easy to understand. I vividly remember, however, that most of my classmates didn’t take so naturally to these principles and frequently struggled to make their case. I’m ashamed to admit that I took far too much pleasure in tying my opponents into logical knots and luring them into logical traps.

Since those bygone days of youth, I have expanded what I learned in college by keeping up with work in the fields of critical thinking and brain science. I am now familiar not only with the rules of rational argument but also with many causes of flawed thinking. I have found, to my great disappointment, that this is not common knowledge, even among scientists and analysts. I am no longer surprised when academics in the field of information visualization—doctoral students and professors—conduct studies that are flawed in obvious ways.

I was prompted to think about straw men recently when I encountered a couple on the Web that were apparently constructed to fault the work of people like me who teach data visualization best practices. The first appeared in a recent series of articles about data visualization on the Harvard Business Review’s (HBR) website. I was invited to contribute an article to this series, but unfortunately didn’t have the time. I wish I could have participated, however, to correct the portrayal of business-related data visualization as skewed toward elaborate infographics rather than the simple uses of quantitative graphics that make up around 99% of the data visualizations created in organizations. The straw man that I noticed was constructed by Amanda Cox of the New York Times. I greatly admire the data graphics of the New York Times, including Amanda’s work in particular. Cox is an articulate spokesperson for journalistic uses of data visualization. For this reason, I was surprised when I read the following interaction in HBR’s interview with Amanda (emphasis mine):

[HBR]: It seems like there’s more focus on trying to get data viz to go viral than to make it “matter.”

[Amanda Cox]: There’s a lot where not much actionable comes out of it. I don’t know if the ratio is different from the ratio of bad writing to good, or bad restaurant openings to good, but I think it’s an important idea to focus on. There’s a strand of the data viz world that argues that everything could be a bar chart. That’s possibly true but also possibly a world without joy.

I appreciated almost everything that Amanda said except the two sentences that I’ve highlighted above, which appear to be a jab at data visualization practitioners who promote the use of simple graphs over some of the elaborate (but often ineffective) infographics that routinely appear on the Web. Amanda’s statement is a straw man. No one “argues that everything could be a bar chart.” Anyone who did would not only be robbing the world of joy but also of meaning. Bar graphs are one effective means of displaying data among several, and they are only appropriate for particular data sets and purposes. I’m not sure why Amanda felt compelled to insert this little goad of a comment in the interview. If she has an actual case to make, she can surely do better than this.

On April 17^th, I encountered a similar straw man constructed by Nathan Yau in his blog (emphasis mine):

Data is an abstraction of something that happened in the real world. How people move. How they spend money. How a computer works. The tendency is to approach data and by default, visualization, as rigid facts stripped of joy, humor, conflict, and sadness—because that makes analysis easier. Visualization is easier when you can strip the data down to unwavering fact and then reduce the process to a set of unwavering rules.

The world is complex though. There are exceptions, limitations, and interactions that aren’t expressed explicitly through data. So we make inferences with uncertainty attached. We make an educated guess and then compare to the actual thing or stuff that was measured to see if the data and our findings make sense.

Data isn’t rigid so neither is visualization.

Are there rules? There are, just like there are in statistics. And you should learn them.

However, in statistics, you eventually learn that there’s more to analysis than hypothesis tests and normal distributions, and in visualization you eventually learn that there’s more to the process than efficient graphical perception and avoidance of all things round. Design matters, no doubt, but your understanding of the data matters much more.

I agree with everything that Nathan says here, but not with what he implies in the text that I’ve highlighted. His comment about “efficient graphical perception and avoidance of all things round” appears to be a direct reaction to my position, but one that he’s morphed into a straw man. No one argues that there isn’t more to data visualization than perceptual efficiency and circle avoidance. (I suspect that Yau’s phrase “all things round” refers to an article that I wrote in 2010, “Our Irresistible Fascination with All Things Circular.”) No one who promotes the importance of efficient and accurate graphical perception argues that design matters more than understanding. In fact, it is our concern that people understand data clearly, accurately, and as fully as possible that leads us to teach people how to present data graphically in ways that work for human perception and cognition. There is indeed much more to data visualization than a rigid set of design rules, which is why, when I teach design principles, I do so in a way that enables my students to understand how and why these principles work so they can apply, bend, and sometimes break the rules intelligently.

What’s ironic about Yau’s claim is that he often features infographics as exemplary that are beautiful or otherwise eye-catching, but yield little understanding. Such examples can easily be found in his lists of the best data visualizations of the year. Given his training as a statistician, I’ve always found this puzzling.

Making data visualizations perceptible is not all there is, but it is certainly an essential requirement if we want people to understand what we’re trying to say. I’m sure that Cox and Yau agree, but they seem willing at times to sacrifice perceptual effectiveness for visual allure. When they do, understanding is diminished. There is no reason why perceptual effectiveness and visual allure cannot coexist. Leaders in the field of data visualization don’t always agree, but when we disagree and wish to state our case, we should build it on solid evidence and sound reason. Dismissive remarks and thinly veiled insinuations that aren’t accurate or backed by evidence don’t qualify as useful discourse.

Take care,

via highscalability.com

I read one of these poignantly humorous comics on Not Invented Here a while back and since I wasn’t sure it was OK to repost I emailed asking for permission. Nada. Then I saw Martijn de Vrieze posted a collection of scalability comics from NIH and decided what the heck (click image to read on site):

Thanks to Martijn for curating the collection and NIH for creating them.

And I agree with Martijn, they do capture an ineffable quality about the entire space.