LoadStorm Blog

What’s wrong with ViewState Tokens? ViewState tokens are a common performance issue I come across while helping customers due to the size of these tokens. I’ve found some information about performance improvements, but I have not tested any them. What is a ViewState token? It is ASP.NET’s way to ensure the state of the page elements sent to a browser match what the browser sends back. It is an encoded string sent out to the user which gets sent back to your server in a POST request. The main problem with this kind of token is that it needs to […]

The new Microsoft Edge browser is here This week Windows 10 was released for free downloads. Along with it, the new Microsoft Edge browser, previously codenamed Project Sparta, was finally delivered. Edge features a redesigned interface, the ability to mark up pages, and the Cortana search assistance. Microsoft also announced the Edge supports automated testing through the W3C WebDriver standard, and has a recording option to create HAR files. Preliminary speed tests performed by Microsoft claimed it beat Chrome and Safari at their own JavaScript benchmark tests. The “browser built for getting things done” will be the only browser supported […]

This week in web performance news we saw an uproarious reaction to Amazon’s Prime Day, Google add the ability to purchase on Google, Facebook begin testing e-commerce pages, and Firefox temporarily ban Adobe Flash for security reasons. #PrimeDayFail? Not according to Amazon To celebrate its 20th anniversary this week, Amazon hyped up its first ever Prime Day, a one-day online sales event for Prime members. The sales day of the year, advertised to have more deals than Black Friday, turned out to be what many shoppers considered an overhyped e-garage sale. As many disappointed customers took to Twitter to complain […]

Overview A script is a browser recorded HAR file that you can modify in LoadStorm. Parameterizing scripts for a load test can seem like a daunting task, but we have a few tips on making it go more smoothly. 1. Keep load testing scripts simple. Making the script perform dynamically for each virtual user will depend greatly on the complexity of the application and the recording behavior. Generally we recommend keeping each script as simple as possible because the goal is to test the target server’s scalability, but testing functionality at scale is also good within reason. Sometimes this simple […]

Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter compromised for industrial espionage A number of multinational companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, have been compromised by a group suspected of industrial espionage. Recent reports by Symantec and Kaspersky Lab exposed the hacking collectives as a powerful group that has compromised the billion-dollar companies since 2011. Symantec suspects the highly trained hackers may be independent “hackers for hire”, interested in more than credit card information or customer databases. Instead, they suspect the threat actor is focused on high level corporate information they can profit from, such as insider trading information. Symantec reported that 49 […]

Sidewalk Labs is on a mission to bring free wifi to the world Sidewalk Labs, a startup backed by Google, has begun re-purposing old phone booths in New York City by turning them into free Wi-Fi hotspots. The startup’s initiative to improve city life through tech innovation began last month and started as a winning idea in the city’s Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge, which aimed to find a creative new use for the phone booths. The 10,000 obsolete phone booths will soon be converted into Wi-Fi hotspots and information kiosks that can be used to charge cell phones, make calls, […]

Apple is making Swift open source This week Apple announced that Swift will soon be open source. In the keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Craig Federighi was met with the applause when he stated that Apple thinks “Swift should be everywhere and used by everyone” and stated “Today we’re announcing that Swift will be open source.” Swift will join the growing array of tech that Apple has decided to make open source as a key part of their software strategy. Federighi outlined the additional new changes we could expect for Swift 2.0, including “all new optimization tech” geared […]

Google launches a new hub to streamline security, privacy, and account management This week at Google I/O, Google announced its new center of control for privacy and security, My Account. Google noted that security and privacy are “two sides of the same coin,” and therefore, are giving users the ability to quickly access and control both from one place. My Account brings two new options, the Privacy Checkup and Security Checkup, to simplify and guide users through the array of settings available to them. You can also manage settings normally used to enhance your search history, such as Web/App activity […]

This week in web perf news the IRS website was used to steal over 100,000 tax returns, Google rolled out algorithm adjustments to remove offensive Google Maps results, Bing added how-old.net to its image search, and Google and Bing announced their searches will be indexing apps across multiple devices. Criminals used IRS website to steal massive amount of tax information A sophisticated breach of the IRS website that helped criminals gain access to tax returns of up to 100,000 people this week. The IRS disclosed that they believe the breach originated in Russia. The criminals used the personal information of […]

This week Bing announced it will add its own mobile-friendliness algorithm to its search results, WordPress released a security update, Google added a new Search Analytics report for web developers, and the FCC denied delay of net neutrality rules. Bing will roll out its own mobile-friendly algorithm in the upcoming months This week Bing announced they would be following Google’s lead, but are taking a slightly different approach to mobile-friendly search rankings. Bing announced in November that they were investing in mobile-friendly pages, and have since added “Mobile-friendly” tags to relevant sites, resulting in positive user feedback. However, Bing will […]