[vox-tech] [OT] MS Windows nice

[Jeff Newmiller]

Harold Lee wrote:
> Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> 
>> 1. Is there a cron for Windows?  I would like to run something like:
>>
>>       cd /path/to/application
>>       ant create.reference.data
>>
>>    before coming into work.
>>
>>   
> 
> Look up the command "at". I think if you run "at help" on the command 
> line, it'll help you out.
> 
>> 2. Is there a nice for Windows?
>>
>>       I don't think the ref data is built any faster when it has full
>>       control of my system.  I really would like to read digg.com while
>>       the data is being built.  Is there a way to nice a process in 
>> Windows?
>>
>>   
> 
> MS discourages people from playing around with process priorities 
> because, in my experience, it is easy for processes to get CPU starved 
> or to hog the CPU - not a lot of subtlety in the scheduler, I think. 
> Better to just run it when you're not around.
> 
> My guess is that you're killing the disk, writing tons of data as fast 
> as you can pull it over a gigabit ethernet - if that's the case, and you 
> need to be able to use the computer meanwhile, you could always add a 
> sleep() call (or Java equivalent) to wait a little while after each 
> write to disk. Also look at how much data you're gathering before each 
> write - maybe it'll help Windows if you build a larger buffer of binary 
> data and do fewer, larger writes... just a thought.

Actually, it does seem odd that an I/O-bound process is starving the CPU...
that is usually due to inefficient code (e.g. memory thrashing or busy-
wait).

Another idea: reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred.
One way is to transfer only data updated since the last sync using
timestamps in the data and queries that limit the data retrieved.
Another is to keep a transaction log and "roll forward" your cached
copies of the data.

If you have the option of running a local copy of Oracle you may be able
to take advantage of an optimized implementation of database
replication that handles these actions internally and saves you from
having to debug yet another database replication strategy.

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