GraalVM - Community Edition Short Comings

 I think the GraalVM technology is pretty awesome and it or similar technology probably has a bright future.  The ability to compile down to an optimized native code has lots of positives.

• Startup speed faster
• containerized image sizes reduced
• memory foot print reduced

Given those benefits, what could be a negative?  

Well, what jumps out at me from documentation relates to garbage collection.  If you are using the community edition then you get the Serial GC where as the G1 GC (multi-threaded GC optimized to reduce stop the world GC pauses) is ONLY available with the Enterprise edition.

I find that to be a pretty limiting factor for anyone doing development in a business setting but not wanting to pay fees.  Some indications of cost were found here. 

Being that the community edition is open source, I do wonder whether there is potential for someone to add in a more scalable garbage collector into the open source version or a fork of it?

Have an awesome day!

Scott

Lanai doorway nearly done

I've almost got the lanai door done.. getting close.  Unfortunately, when I took the original trim off around the door I damaged (peeled back) a good chunk of new paint so now I have some paint repairs to make.

Below is after 2 codes of primer and one coat of enamel. The original trim is still in place at this point.  When I took the trim off around the doorway, I found the previous owners had used some newspaper to "block drafts" at the top of the door. I went back and spray foamed around the door frame instead.

I had some paint that I thought would work great - I had used it before on some trim.  When I went to open the can this time, I had a terrible time getting the lid off and when it did come off there was rust around the edges which fell into the paint.. sigh..  Some painters tape was useful to sort of dip and catch the rust pieces.  When I went to stir the paint though, I found that it was "chunky".  Not sure why I bothered but I stirred for about 10 minutes and it was looking better.  I don't think it was that old but I did have a number of cans that I found while organizing the garage so who knows.  I gave it a try after I had 2 coats of primer on already - figured I could sand it off with the orbital sander if it looked too bad.  

Once I had put the initial coat of enamel on, I fought with the lid a bit while trying to get it back on but finally gave up and plan to get rid of that can.  I had another can of enamel paint on hand which had some rust around the lid edge but it wasn't nearly as bad and it wasn't chunky.  I decided that was a better choice for the 2nd coat.  

Below is the door after the 2nd coat and with the trim up (but not the rosettes). 

You can see at the top where I accidentally peeled the paint when taking the original trim off.  I was pulling on the side trim and it was well nailed to the top trim which I had loosened but not taken a knife and cut along the top edge fully. When the edge trim came loose, the top trim popped off while still stuck to the side trim in my hand. It had staples coming out from a bunch of places. I was a bit surprised and lifted the side piece and stepped back as I thought it was going to fall on me.  It didn't fall but it held onto the new paint very well. 

Here is the result with the rosettes in place.  I'll need to do a little bit of caulking and touch up paint but it is better than it started.   Actually, once I get the tape/paper off the glass, I'll probably have quite of bit of touch up work to do..  

There was a roll-up blind on the door which I took down.  I'm thinking about trying to "frost" the glass and see if that is enough to provide privacy and not put a / the blind back.  I've only got a soda blaster right now so it probably won't be enough on its own - even if I do both sides of the glass.  I'll give it try and then figure out what to do next.  Hopefully, I can get the rest of the floor trim done soon as well.

Oh, yes, and I purposely didn't tape around the deadbolt and door handle.  I'm going to replace the hardware to match the rest of the doors.

I also need to get a threshold that will work for this door - it is a bit odd with a small step up from the lanai combined with stucco on the exterior side. The stucco isn't really a problem but the concrete ledge/step combined with the luxury vinyl tile at the door interior is a bit awkward to cover. 

Take care,

Scott

Shortfalls of outside storage containers

 We bought an outdoor storage container to keep the chlorine, pool shock and other miscellaneous pool chemicals outside.  It has done good job for a few years but I had noticed signs of rust due to stains running down it.  I had not taken the time to look at the hinges to see what state they were in - until one day a door basically fell off in my hands.

The steel hinges that came with the container were not stainless steel nor were they coated very well.  The chlorine containers and such appear to allow enough water vapor and chlorine to combine which I think vigorously corroded the hinges faster than normal - see below.

 

Many people have heard the phrase 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade'.  Not exactly lemons but since I have been remodeling rooms I had old door hinges laying around. Not exactly lemonade either but was a reasonably quick fix rather than replacing the entire storage container since I could not find a source for replacement hinges. I did buy some stainless still washers, bolts and nuts with nylon inserts that shouldn't loosen easily.  This was actually my backup plan since initially I planned to try and use some threaded rod through the door hinges and attach to the roof/floor.  I ended up deciding that was too awkward to do so went on to plan B.. which worked but only on the second attempt.

Note, I really didn't want to spend much time on this so I made a quick stab at using some large steel blind rivets to attach the hinges to the doors/walls.  What I didn't check was how much the blind rivets I had would "mushroom" on the backside/inside to prevent them from pulling out.  They did not mushroom enough - early on I went to open the door I was working on and heard and interesting metallic ping sound - which turned out to be a rivet popping out of the plastic and hitting the concrete.

Off to Lowes I went.. got some stainless bolts, washers, etc.  and started the process again. Here is a door hinge installed on the container.

So making progress.  Not exactly pretty but should keep the door from falling off.  Oh, did I mention that I didn't end up with enough washers for all the hinges? Sigh.  I'm sure I'll be at Lowes again soon enough.

Here is the storage container with the "new" door hinges.  Other than needing more washers and maybe slightly better spacing/placement of the hinges, I did make one other mistake which may or may not be noticeable in the 2nd picture - not related to the rivet I left. I'll give a "Well done" to anyone who comments correctly on what the mistake is - it isn't totally obvious at the moment but could provide further humor down the road. I made sure to not repeat the same mistake on the other door.

Thanks for reading!

Scott