Hey Guys, I'm a co-creator/founder of SimpleWorker.com. Can't say enough how appreciative we are of the feedback both good and bad. We've been experiencing pretty strong growth and through this are identifying the sticking points and working through them as fast as we can.
The isolated code issue has been a big issue, and we're addressing this through calls like merge_gem(), and soon merge_mailer(). It's a challenging task, and we see the gaps, but we're improving every day.
Runtime: this is also a top priority. We're working with each and every customer to ensure that their workers execute quickly. 3 seconds vs 30-60 is totally unacceptable and we won't leave you hanging here.
Queue speed: we're prototyping alternatives to http queuing which will dramatically speed up queue times.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for roadmap... Great work on HireFire. I see cases for both. Potentially massive parallelization on SimpleWorker (hundreds if not thousands of concurrent jobs), advanced scheduling needs, etc.
Anyways - we're listening - so any and all feedback is well received. If anybody has needs outside HireFire, in conjunction with, or otherwise, shoot me a line and we'll get you up and running at no cost to start.
Hey Chad, great to hear! I also (despite having created HireFire) still have use-cases for SimpleWorker, however in my case they will likely be for my VPS' rather than on Heroku. On Heroku (even though there isn't a UI, unless you use Resque), it's already a partially managed service to host workers, it runs from the same compiled slug as the dyno's use so all the credentials / env variables are all shared among dyno's and workers, no need to re-apply configuration and such.
I think for me the hardest part was getting it to work the first time, waiting quite a while for the jobs to run to see if I managed to get it to work. The merge_gem is a huge improvement, though, handling credentials and re-connecting databases and other things are quite a hassle to set up (imo). I have to say that once it's all set up, and if the 30-60 start-up issue is gone, that it does seems like a beast for processing a lot of jobs concurrently and is exciting.
I'm definitely still looking forward to seeing future progress of SimpleWorker. So please do keep up the good work!
To be followed up by next post: "San Francisco dating scene, city of 6's." ;)
Oh but what fun it is.
One legit addition is the weather is beautiful, just not in June, July, or August, so be prepared to get out of the city a lot. The peninsula escapes the summer gloom, where it's a steady 80-90 every day for like 6 months straight.
The weather is not dreary. It is beautiful and sunny right now. And it is like this most of the time. I always enjoy the bright view across the bay. The temperature is often on the cool side. This bit you have to get use to. It is actually a great relieve for people escape from sweltering heat elsewhere.
Those are great topics, and I would add: "Choosing your team wisely".
A former college entrepreneur myself, it was easy in the early stages to ignore "feelings" that our founding team didn't mesh well, but as the company grew in size and responsibility, those initial feelings became show stoppers.
The isolated code issue has been a big issue, and we're addressing this through calls like merge_gem(), and soon merge_mailer(). It's a challenging task, and we see the gaps, but we're improving every day.
Runtime: this is also a top priority. We're working with each and every customer to ensure that their workers execute quickly. 3 seconds vs 30-60 is totally unacceptable and we won't leave you hanging here.
Queue speed: we're prototyping alternatives to http queuing which will dramatically speed up queue times.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for roadmap... Great work on HireFire. I see cases for both. Potentially massive parallelization on SimpleWorker (hundreds if not thousands of concurrent jobs), advanced scheduling needs, etc.
Anyways - we're listening - so any and all feedback is well received. If anybody has needs outside HireFire, in conjunction with, or otherwise, shoot me a line and we'll get you up and running at no cost to start.
Chad Arimura chad[at]simpleworker.com
http://www.simpleworker.com