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Nightly Ramble: the Fallout From the Move, Spring Duty,Mugabe, Ubuntu, WalMart, More

  • I wasn’t exactly goig through withdrawal symptoms over the weekend, while the site servers got moved physically… but damned near that. At least a dozen times I saw something that screamed out to be written up for the blog, and opened an editor only to remember that the blog wasn’t up, and I couldn’t post it anyway.Aside from the idea that they didn’t just build another plant then cut to it, (I know, expensive) the only complaint I have is they changed the database location for the backend of this site without bothering to tell anyone. My first indication we were up was that the site started telling me it coldn’t see the database. (Oh, Great)  I managed to locate it on another server, by doing a little reverse engineering. Cost me about an hour of downtime that wasn’t nessesary..
    The time-base issue as I mentioned yesterday was my own bloody fault; I forgot I made the ‘we’re going down’ post sticky, and so when it showed up at the top, I assumed the database server was hosed. Of course, I was on the phone to them about this when I remembered the problem and fixed it.(Cuss, squirm)I ran a backup on the system last night; Usually takes around 3 hours. Last night went in about 1/3 of that time. Not too bad, given the size of the place. So I guess it was worth it.I noted our hit counts were a bit off; not unexpected after 48 hours or so of downtime. Then, I noticed that site connectivity was going on and offline for a while around 6 eastern, this monring. I suppose they’re still moving stuff around… routers, mostly. I find this a little annoying. I mean, I’m no stranger to server room moves, having run a few server rooms myself and having particiated in several moves involving both those environments and others. I’m sympathetic to the techs, there, trust me. Been there, done that. But they might have made me a bit happier had they informed us connectivity would be a bit spotty for a while. Given my background, I’d have even understood it, though I wonder if most of the rest of their customers would have.

    So, we’re back, but may be up and down a bit for a few days, yet. Pardon our dust, and all that.

  • Thinking about brining the trailer home sometime this week. Still too darned cold to do any prep work, but the ground where it’s stored is kinda soft; I’d just as soon not leave it there much longer.
  • Apparently Mugabe is on his way out [1], based on elections there over the weekend. With any degree of luck, they’ll have him at the end of a rope, shortly.
  • Been playing with Ubuntu 7.10 [2] on one of my older systems, here. Nice, actually, for what it does. Running it on a 700 with 512mb of RAM. Not much, but it was handy. Amazingly enough, it doesn’t do badly in that restrictive environment. I have no doubts about it being a productive system. What I wonder is, if we’ll end up to the point where a similar amount of commercial level software will be available for it. At the moment, I’m trying to connect it to the database that runs this blog. Make my life a lot easier, that would. Ubuntu comes with the Gnome UI. I’m currently wondering what the KDE UI looks like, too, (It’s available in Kubuntu) but I’ll get to that. One of the advantages of having a lot of ‘toasters’ around; You can play like this.
  • I see where the usually liberal-whacko HuffPo is noting [3] that WalMart has dropped something on the order of 45 superstore building plans, and can’t explain it. (Oh, granted, the writer, someone called Al Norman, who proudly mentions he’s working for a group called ‘sprawl-busters’ (Gee, a Democrat, ya think?) takes credit by way of the group.. but the group has been around a long time, and it seems unreasonable to me to assume that their success ratio would suddenly change so rapidly. (Don’t throw your arm outta joint there, AL, OK?) Perhaps a look at the economy is worthwhile. When the economy is down, is when places like WalMart do best, whereas the higher priced places lag. When the economy is poor is when Wal Mart suffers. Obviously, what I’m suggesting is that they’re seeing an improved economy on the horizon.
  • Did you know that today is Gordie Howe’s 80th Birthday? [4] I didn’t. If you have to ask who Gordie Howe is, never mind.
  • I’m with you here [5], Billy, and I have two within shooting distance, you should pardon the pun… though in all honesty, I gave up in their stuff a long time ago. Altogether too greasy. I’m fond of Pontillo’s, myself. [6] Or, Dorians [7], if I’m out Syracuse way.
  • Oh, speaking of Beck,I saw this over at SnuggHarbor. [8]And yes, Guy, I agree, that Connie nails this one. Credit where it’s due, and all of that. Yet I suspect that were Beck to try what she proposes, on some of HER arguments… and he has, in the past, she’d boot ’em off. Oh, wait… she already did. The point I’m making is her targets appear, when looked at in the long term, to be selective at least.
  • Much is being made, just now, of the Vatican admitting [9]there are more Muslims than there are Roman Catholics.  However, there are currently about 38000 denominations of Christianity. The Roman church was the biggest of these, but it’s population has been dropping YOY for a number of years, now, whereas the other denominations have been increasing in population YOY for the last decade or so, at a somewhat faster rate than the Roman churchhas been dropping. It seems logical to conclude that the news from Rome is less than the surface arguments we’re seeing now, make it.
  • Obama in a para, from Boortz [10]:

    Last week, Obama made a speech in New York where he blamed lobbyists, greedy businessmen and complacent Washington politicians for creating “an ethic of greed.” [11] He says that this “greed” of the evil rich has led to today’s “foreclosure crisis.” Then Obama traipsed off to the Manhattan headquarters of Credit Suisse for a fundraiser.

    I mean, you can’t make this stuff up!! 

  • And while we’re on the subject of Obama, I find it amusing he’s straining so hard to get Hillry to quit the primary… which, by the way is the only way he can win without it going to the convention floor.  Look, gang, if Obama can’t stand a little heat from Hilalry Clinton, how do you suppose he and his will fare with, say, Iran?