Optmization Complete

I've optimized Linkpad, and hopefully there won't be any more outages. We'll keep an eye on it. You may notice a slight increase in the speed of loading your page. If you have any difficulties, please email support and I'll do my best to help fix any problems.

-Eric

Disclaimer: technical discussion ahead.

The optimization efforts did two things:

1. I reduced the overall number of calls to the GAE datastore. In the code, I noticed several places where I was making redundant data calls. I consolidated them into a single call for each page view. (This should drastically reduce the load on the datastore).
2. I enabled memcache. So, if you view your page without editing it, the results will be cached (and not fetched from the datastore). As soon as you edit your page, the cache is cleared. No stale data here! Introducing memcahce further reduces the load on the datastore, as it caches your page.

I will keep an eye on my datastore load over the next few days. If the load is low enough, I will turn off the premium service, and Linkpad can revert to being a cost-free operation.

EDIT - further optimization:

I implemented further optimizations which solved the root of the issue. Turns out I was blowing the quota for small datastore operations. These operations were being generated by calls to count() all over the code. I was able to work around all of these except those on the /stats page. I had to remove the stats about how many users and pages Linkpad has, as these stats were causing the application to go over it's quota.

Linkpad is now back to being a cost-free operation.

Outage on Nov 29, 2011

Linkpad is hosted on Google App Engine, which recently enabled a new billing policy. As a result, we blew our free quota provided by Google. This resulted in some downtime with an error message. We apologize for the inconvenience. So far, Linkpad has been a free-to-operate, free-to-use service, and we would like to keep it that way. We are going to try to optimize the application so that this doesn't happen again.

UPDATE: We have increased our quota. This will ensure there is no further downtime for the foreseeable future.

Outage on July 30, 2011

Linkpadders,

We would like to apologize if you were affected by the recent outage. As the Linkpad team has their own Linkpads, we quickly noticed the problem. After investigating the problem, we discovered that Google's DNS servers were temporarily down.

While we can't guarantee that Google will never have this problem again, we can give you a  workaround when such outages arise. If Linkpad ever seems unreachable, you can try this alternate URL:

http://linkpadme.appspot.com

This link relies on different DNS servers, so should remain unaffected by most DNS outages.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience.

Happy Linkpadding!

--Eric

New Feature: Color Themes

Now you can select the colors of your page. Click the color wheel icon to change your colors.

• There are two preset color themes: "Default" and "Dark."
• After selecting a theme, click "preview" to view it or "save now" to keep it. 
• You can also customize the colors by clicking on the four boxes to the left.
• Hint: ffffff = white, and 000000 = black.

New Feature: Import

Linkpad now has the ability to import your favorites or bookmarks from any browser!

1. Sign in to Linkpad.
2. Click "Edit" in the upper right to begin editing your page.
3. Click "Import Favorites" in the lower left, and follow the promts.

Happy Linkpadding!

Make your browser open your Linkpad on New Tab

First, make sure your homepage is set to your Linkpad URL. If you don't know how to do this, log in to Linkpad and then click "Edit" in the upper right. Then click the house icon for instructions.

  

Firefox:

1. Install the New Tab Homepage addon
2. Restart Firefox

Chrome:

1. Install the New Tab Redirect extension
2. Drag chrome://extensions to your browser location bar (or type it in manually).
3. Under "New Tab Redirect," click "options"
4. In location enter: "http://www.linkpad.me/mypage"
• replace "mypage" with your URL

Internet Explorer:

1. Click the Gear icon and then click "Internet options"
2. Under "Tabs" click the "Settings" button.
3. Under "When a new tab is opened, open:" select "Your first home page" from the dropdown menu. 

Safari:

1. Click the Gear icon and then click "Preferences..."
2. Under "New tabs open with:" select "Home page" from the dropdown menu.

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Feature Requests

We are happy to create the most-requested features.

Here is the current short-list:

• Ability to drag and drop entire columns
• Import 
• (allows you to export Bookmarks/Favorites to an HTML file, then import to Linkpad)
• Tutorial videos
• Not a feature per-se, but expect to see some videos highlighting how to use Linkpad, and some of its advanced features.

Additional features currently under review:

• Ability to resize columns
• Background color chooser
• pick your own background color! Perhaps link color, too.

When can I expect these features to be available?
We hope to release about 1 feature per week. However, some features turn out to require more technical effort, and may take 2-4 weeks.

If you have other feature requests, or want to vote for one on this list, please comment on this post. Alternatively, you can email support@linkpad.me