This weekend I sat down and tackled the RAM problem: the amount of memory it takes the server to generate a single page of a website.

For Backboard, we have our server set up to allocate just 16 MB of RAM to PHP for the execution of each request. This allows us maximize the number of Apache processes we can run on a single server and thus maximize the number of users we support. To do this, though, means that the site has to be pretty light on its memory requirements.

Backboard, as a CakePHP application, has a theoretical minimum requirement for RAM: namely, the amount needed to execute a base installation of Cake. In our testing, this falls between 4 and 6 MB. The goal, of course, is to minimize anything above and beyond this.

Here are some concrete steps you can take to limit the RAM needs of your site:

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As you’re perusing Increo on Ideas, you might notice references to the OIT (Official Increo Tablecloth), our recent order of OIFs (Official Increo Fleeces) or a mention of the OIVP (Official Increo Vacation Policy).  Walking through the office you’ll see the OIPS, the OIS, and the OIP (Official Increo Paper Shredder, Official Increo Scissors, and Official Increo Projector, respectively).

Adding OI to everything is fun, silly and pokes at the dynamism of a startup.  If being “Official” is nothing more than dubbing it so, we have tremendous flexibility in the way we do things.  Adopting new tools, frameworks and processes, latching onto those that work, and discarding those that don’t has allowed us to find the optimal arrangement.

With that, I’ll pop the tab on an OISD (Official Increo Soft Drink) and return to the OITDL (Official Increo To-Do List).

• Today’s office skill: trigonometry! #
• Comparison of farming and entrepreneurship in the economic downturn, what we can learn from Iowa: http://is.gd/6en7 #
• YouTube’s interface, turned in to art: http://bit.ly/2EofCx #
• More great stories, courtesy of Stack Overflow: http://bit.ly/2nXSHd #
• Telling stories of bad UIs: http://bit.ly/37pIK8 #

Last Tuesday, Increo was excited to be able to take part in the ROCKSTAR Startup Fair hosted by DLA Piper and Social Walla. A fun experience, to be sure, and useful to boot, but we took away some very intriguing insights.

Our “booth” was a desk in a small room; there were perhaps a dozen other companies with other desks, all ringing the perimeter of the room.

Lesson #1

Covering your table makes you look good.

When you have no idea what kind of situation you’ll be in, this is a variable you can control. Distracting wood grain? Cheap plastic? No place to stow your stuff? A cheap table cover takes care of all of those problems. The Official Increo Tablecloth isn’t even expensive; it’s just a couple yards of inexpensive suit fabric.

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