Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I build high-craft software and the teams that build it. I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Software Engineering

Crude remote server availabity checking

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 21 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

I was having problems reaching a web server and I wanted to make sure the problem wasn’t on my end. Even though I could reach other Web servers without any problems, it seemed odd to me that this one was down. What I needed was a way of checking if some other system located elsewhere in the world was able to see the errant server.

The first thing that might come to mind in this situation is to use some service like NetMechanic. These services will take a look at your server periodically and make sure it is still running. That’s great if you need to check your server on a pre-scheduled basis, but in my case, I only needed to see if the server was up right this second.

There are a number of third-party services out there that will download a web page, process it in some way, and show you the result. Google Translate, Babelfish, Visicheck, and many others are designed to translate a page, show you what it looks like to someone with color blindness, or a million other things.

So to see if a server is online, simply use one of these services. If they can’t get to the server, then the problem most likely isn’t your fault.

Recently Written

Your Policies Aren’t Your Culture
Dec 13: Policies guide behavior, but culture is the lived norms and values of your team. Policies reflect culture -- they don’t define it. Netflix’s parental leave shift didn’t change its culture of freedom and responsibility. It clarified how to live it.
Lighten Your Process Burden
Dec 7: Everyone hates oppressive processes, but somehow we keep managing to create them.
Product Add-Ons Are An Expansion Myth
Dec 1: Add-ons can enhance your product’s appeal but won’t drive significant market growth. To expand your customer base, focus on developing standalone products.
Protecting your Product Soul when the Same Product meets New People.
Nov 23: Expand into new markets while preserving your product’s core value. Discover how to adapt and grow without losing your product’s soul.
Building the Next Big Thing: A Framework for Your Second Product
Nov 19: You need a first product sooner than you think. Here's a framework for helping you identify a winner.
A Framework for Scaling product teams
Oct 9: The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
My Networked Webcam Setup
Sep 25: A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.
Roadmap Outcomes, not Features
Sep 4: Drive success by roadmapping the outcomes you'll create instead of the features you'll deliver.

Older...

What I'm Reading