Comments on: My 18 Random Friends http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/ leahculver.com Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:09:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Guilherme http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-698 Guilherme Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:37:57 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-698 I don't think I like the Idea of random friends. Maybe you should use other criteria, like in Orkut (which is very popular here in Brazil), it lists the friends with the most recent login (at least I think that's how they do). Other idea would be to rank your friends by number of interactions, those who leaves more messages, or something like that. Great work! Still waiting for my invitation ;) I don’t think I like the Idea of random friends. Maybe you should use other criteria, like in Orkut (which is very popular here in Brazil), it lists the friends with the most recent login (at least I think that’s how they do). Other idea would be to rank your friends by number of interactions, those who leaves more messages, or something like that.

Great work!

Still waiting for my invitation ;)

]]> By: Zelnox http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-697 Zelnox Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:39:42 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-697 That's a nice font for code. What is it called? That’s a nice font for code. What is it called?

]]> By: wes http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-696 wes Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:50:52 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-696 Leah -- as of yesterday, it appears that anyone with less than 18 friends isn't having their friends list show up at all. Just an FYI! :) Leah — as of yesterday, it appears that anyone with less than 18 friends isn’t having their friends list show up at all. Just an FYI! :)

]]> By: Mike Malone http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-695 Mike Malone Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:28:00 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-695 "If you want to sort randomly, you can also use this in mysql: SELECT … FROM … ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 18;" Bad idea if you have a large dataset. Doing an order by rand() in MySQL will force the SQL engine to generate a random number for ever item in your result set, then do a sort based on those numbers... which is fine if you have a small result set, but gets very icky when you get into thousands of rows (or hundreds of thousands). “If you want to sort randomly, you can also use this in mysql: SELECT … FROM … ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 18;”

Bad idea if you have a large dataset. Doing an order by rand() in MySQL will force the SQL engine to generate a random number for ever item in your result set, then do a sort based on those numbers… which is fine if you have a small result set, but gets very icky when you get into thousands of rows (or hundreds of thousands).

]]> By: Joe Stump http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-694 Joe Stump Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:33:55 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-694 Just wanted to echo the "SELECT * FROM foo WHERE userID = 5 ORDER BY RAND LIMIT 0,18" statement. Since you're doing a (presumably) primary key lookup on userID it'll be highly optimized so, considering most users have less than a few hundred friends, ordering by RAND() isn't horrible. That all being said, ordering by RAND() is normally not a good thing because MySQL selects out the entire set and then randomly selects rows until your LIMIT is fulfilled. Just wanted to echo the “SELECT * FROM foo WHERE userID = 5 ORDER BY RAND LIMIT 0,18″ statement. Since you’re doing a (presumably) primary key lookup on userID it’ll be highly optimized so, considering most users have less than a few hundred friends, ordering by RAND() isn’t horrible.

That all being said, ordering by RAND() is normally not a good thing because MySQL selects out the entire set and then randomly selects rows until your LIMIT is fulfilled.

]]> By: Leah Culver http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-693 Leah Culver Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:47:49 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-693 Matt - I love dpaste, however it deletes stuff after 30 days if not viewed by anyone. Sorry about the images. I'm pretty lazy. Matt - I love dpaste, however it deletes stuff after 30 days if not viewed by anyone.

Sorry about the images. I’m pretty lazy.

]]> By: matt http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-692 matt Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:18:36 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-692 When you post Django code could you post a link to dpaste (http://dpaste.com) so we (I...) don't have have to retype everything? Thanks. Later. When you post Django code could you post a link to dpaste (http://dpaste.com) so we (I…) don’t have have to retype everything? Thanks. Later.

]]> By: Cameron http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-691 Cameron Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:31:57 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-691 Leah, I know you don't like Ruby, so I had to show you a nice solution... m.friends.values_at(*(0..m.length-1).to_a.sort_by{rand}[0..17]) This generates 18 random indices and selects those friends. Leah,

I know you don’t like Ruby, so I had to show you a nice solution…

m.friends.values_at(*(0..m.length-1).to_a.sort_by{rand}[0..17])

This generates 18 random indices and selects those friends.

]]> By: qubitz http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-690 qubitz Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:07:54 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-690 m.friends.sort_by{rand}[1..18] m.friends.sort_by{rand}[1..18]

]]> By: emad http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-689 emad Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:10:36 +0000 http://leahculver.com/2007/08/05/my-18-random-friends/#comment-689 Leah, At YellowBot, we sort based on when your friends were last logged in...a way for you to know that activity (i.e. they wrote a review or tagged a location) may have just happened with those you want to keep track of. If you want to sort randomly, you can also use this in mysql: SELECT ... FROM ... ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 18; :-) Leah,

At YellowBot, we sort based on when your friends were last logged in…a way for you to know that activity (i.e. they wrote a review or tagged a location) may have just happened with those you want to keep track of.

If you want to sort randomly, you can also use this in mysql: SELECT … FROM … ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 18;
:-)

]]>