Being Geek Chic is a blog for stylish geeks, sophisticated nerds and people who enjoy the musings of a complete dork. Join us as we dream of driving the TARDIS, cuddle with our eBooks and test out an iPad sleeve. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi and a team of brilliant lady nerds. Meet the team.
I’m taking a couple days off to hang out with my boyf and be jealous of my brother while he hangs out at Comic-Con. Anyway, day 1 of road trip commences so I thought I’d share a casual look.
Sunglasses are just some piece of crap I picked up at a discount shop. They’re hip though.
Earrings are Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D. ($9.99 at ThinkGeek)
The necklace is something I picked up at a flea market forever ago, but it’s perfect for summer sunning it because there is no metal. I hate metal on my neck when it’s hot out. (Similar at Target, $24.99)
Polka dot crop pants hide my battle wounds. Vacation is a terrible time to get massive gashes in your legs. (AG Jeans, $178)
Best sandals ever. Seriously. Better than Birkies. Better than Keens. I ordered something like 14 pairs of sandals this summer and had to return them all. Trusty Target to the rescue. (Target, $7.48)
So I won’t be around the rest of the week, but I’ve got a couple guest posts lined up. See you next week, lovers!
Many people have been wondering how Target.com could be experiencing such massive failures from their launch of the Missoni collaboration. Budget fashionistas everywhere knew that this collection would be huge, but stores with empty shelves? A site that says nothing but “woof!” for nearly 24 hours?
I asked a developer at work, named Pete (he’s totally awesome!) what he thinks might have contributed to the disaster. Here’s his rundown:
- Too many files to download (161 total).
- 138 images total; images should be combined where possible. … elements like “Save $1” [should use] a single file instead of approaching double the number of images you might actually need.
- 81 http requests to a single host. Even if you’re load-balanced and/or running on a CDN, browsers still (I think) enforce limits on concurrent connections to hosts by name and/or IP, i.e. you can ask for 81 images but your browser will only download or the server might only serve eight at a time.
- There are 14 separate JavaScript files. Even minified, 14 requests is too many. You can reasonably get this down to 2-3 requests for most browsers.
- 1.8MB to download the homepage.
All of this on its own doesn’t mean a site will fail, but they may not have scaled up server capacity when they launched the new site a few weeks back. So how does this compare to other retail websites?
For sake of comparison, the Amazon.com homepage currently downloads 114 files and 859K. … I suspect they’re hitting concurrent connection limits on their server, or noticing a significant enough delay in serving content that they believe it’s better to serve their “woof”/”we’re getting hammered” page than it is to let their actual site load slowly.
So there you have it, some contributing reasons why the site may have failed. The site was redesigned less than a month ago and while the overall visuals and cart process may have improved, it appears they weren’t adequately set up on the back end to handle all those extra visitors.
There are plenty of fashionistas who were counting down the days until Missoni for Target would become available. Now the big day is here and the site is crippled with traffic. Since 8:30AM (CST), I’ve been attempting to access the site with no luck at all. That’s nearly 3 hours of unending site reloads. In fact, the message that continually refreshes is hilariously silly:
We are suddenly extremely popular. You may not be able to access our site momentarily due to unusually high traffic. Please stay here and we’ll try to get you in as soon as we can!
You are very popular, Target! When site’s crash, it’s usually because a forum somewhere is linking uncontrollably or trolls trying to paralyze a site owner, but the fact that budget fashion lovers around the globe could take down a multi-national company is hilarious to me. No savings for us!
Maybe we’ll just have to hit up a store.
EDIT: The mobile site lets you browse! But every time I try to add something to my cart, all I get is reloads. Boo.
The awesome ladies at sogeekchic brought this adorable 8-bit hair accessory to my attention last week and I just knew it had to be our next Geeky at Work challenge.
Accessories are hands-down the easiest way to express your innermost nerd at work, but this hair piece presents a particular challenge because of its size and prominence. It’s very clear that it’s an 8-bit statement, so forget subtlety. Either way, I think it’s a fun one to play with.
Here’s option 1. Whenever I see red accessories, I am automatically think of a purple pairing. Why? I think red has two color lovers (ahem, she gets around): purple and teal. Teal gets its moment in option 2, but for now, let’s focus on option one. I think the bow really is the star of the show in this outfit. The grey striped dress is a nice call back to the geometry of the bow and the necklace gives some nice shine to the whole look. A black blazer goes with practically anything, but it dresses up this outfit to put some authority back into your attire. Plus, the purple flats from Target ($14.99) couldn’t be more affordable or fun.
Here’s option 2. Remember how I said teal was red’s other lover? Well, the subtlety of it in this Kate Spade bag feels so versatile and fresh that I honestly see it working with both options and beyond. The grey and black combination is easy and expected, but it also provides a nice, simple canvas for the bow to truly shine. Once again, I was thinking geometric and a striped sweater with creams, greys and black will work easily into your wardrobe. Once again, I have to give Target props for their fall shoe collections. The black patent flats here ($17.99) are the perfect pair of shoes to stow under your desk for when your heels are just too much trouble.
Special thanks to sogeekchic for bringing the bow to our attention. Bow is available at ThinkGeek for $6.99+s/h.
Do I ever get sick of beautiful accessories for my tech obsessions and needs? Nope. Not ever.
That’s why I’m excited for the new Poketo collaboration at Target. You can see the complete collection on August 10th when the line officially debuts on the Poketo web site and Target, but in the meantime, check out these awesome totes and lap top bags in the slideshow at Unplggd.
The Poketo for Target collection includes designs by:
