Systematically Tackling Performance Issues in Your Code

“I just got this report from this monitoring service and the new page takes 20 seconds to load!”

Almost all of us in software have had someone complain that a web page or part of a program takes too long. The information thrown at us is not always clear, and someone wants it fixed. And they want it fixed now. Resist the temptation to create a knee-jerk solution and remember to tackle this problem systematically.

Verify The Current State

First, get your hands on the performance report they’re talking about. Continue reading

Allomancy in D20: Soothing

Before I can bring Soothers from the Mistborn series into D20, I need to create a new spell like effect to cover their ability to push down on all of a person’s emotions. We saw the Lord Ruler doing it all the time, and we saw Vin use it with devastating effect when combined with Duralumin. Continue reading