Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

Monthly Archives

01/09/2008 - 30/09/2008 01/08/2008 - 31/08/2008 01/07/2008 - 31/07/2008 01/06/2008 - 30/06/2008 01/05/2008 - 31/05/2008 01/04/2008 - 30/04/2008 01/03/2008 - 31/03/2008 01/02/2008 - 29/02/2008 01/01/2008 - 31/01/2008 01/12/2007 - 31/12/2007 01/11/2007 - 30/11/2007 01/09/2007 - 30/09/2007 01/08/2007 - 31/08/2007 01/07/2007 - 31/07/2007 01/06/2007 - 30/06/2007 01/05/2007 - 31/05/2007 01/04/2007 - 30/04/2007 01/03/2007 - 31/03/2007 01/02/2007 - 28/02/2007 01/01/2007 - 31/01/2007 01/12/2006 - 31/12/2006 01/11/2006 - 30/11/2006 01/10/2006 - 31/10/2006 01/09/2006 - 30/09/2006 01/08/2006 - 31/08/2006 01/07/2006 - 31/07/2006 01/06/2006 - 30/06/2006 01/05/2006 - 31/05/2006 01/04/2006 - 30/04/2006 01/03/2006 - 31/03/2006 01/02/2006 - 28/02/2006 01/01/2006 - 31/01/2006 01/12/2005 - 31/12/2005 01/11/2005 - 30/11/2005 01/10/2005 - 31/10/2005 01/09/2005 - 30/09/2005 01/08/2005 - 31/08/2005 01/07/2005 - 31/07/2005 01/06/2005 - 30/06/2005 01/05/2005 - 31/05/2005 01/04/2005 - 30/04/2005 01/03/2005 - 31/03/2005 01/02/2005 - 28/02/2005 01/01/2005 - 31/01/2005 01/12/2004 - 31/12/2004 01/11/2004 - 30/11/2004 01/10/2004 - 31/10/2004 01/09/2004 - 30/09/2004 01/08/2004 - 31/08/2004 01/07/2004 - 31/07/2004 01/06/2004 - 30/06/2004 01/05/2004 - 31/05/2004 01/04/2004 - 30/04/2004 01/03/2004 - 31/03/2004 01/02/2004 - 29/02/2004

 

Photos

I really need to rejig this site, specifically the photos. Compression screws things over something chronic, and option are the order of the day.

Perhaps its time to start with a clean slate.

Moved

Whilst to me it seems an absolute age that we moved, looking back at the calendar it was only six weeks ago. It seems strange to think in that time, we have seen the start and end of the Rugby World Cup 2007, and erm, other important stuff.

The move itself began promising. Unlike when we moved into the flat we a) didnt sleep through the alarm*; and b) weren't hungover. Vans were collected, porters (read Smully and Dan) turned up on time and the labour (of necessity) began.

Heavier items and large scale furniture was first. Most went quickly and quietly.... the sofa being the obvious exception. Necessity meant doors and hinges were seperated after many years of happy unison, much like our respective vertebrae would be come nightfall. It wasn't so much that the individual seats of our sofa were difficult (although they were cumbersome) it was that the inconveniently ever present gravity meant the sofa bed kept catapulting out much like an air bag in a car crash, just without the space to expand fully or any regard for our safety/welfare**.

Sofas aside, there were few troublesome objects. The main problem was the sheer number and volume of boxes. I am sure better physicists and mathematicians than I could work out the correct formula based on the number of people, the nuber of rooms and length of stay. In fact I am almost certain they could, because, lets be frank, my estimation was 'somewhat' off. Four hours after completion we finally left the flat, dropped off the keys and slammed straight into rush hour on the North Circular, via Burger King in Park Royal - an alternate definition of 'Fast Food'. 2 hours later and one family member to pick up the keys we were in. Unloading took a bit less than two hours, even after we lost a pair of hands (not literally). Dropping the van back and then hopping on both the last tube and the last train saw me walking home from the station, to a new home, at 2am. :)

To be continued.

Moving

As moving day approaches, our lives are packed in varying sized boxes about us. Every sentence now begins 'After we have moved...' which is a reflection of our life on hold. There isn't any point starting anything, and we couldn't anyway since everything is packed, and we can't begin to think about the new place because it has been over 5 months since we saw it and, well were not quite there yet.

Part of me wishes that we could have moved in any other the accumulated 8 weeks we had off to move, whether it be the move at the end of July that was aborted or any of the last 4 weeks, not three days after we go back to work. Saying that at least we will be in and we can get our lives back to normalcy. In the interim, the site archives will be offline until I get broadband again, although the front page, as you may realise will be being hosted somewhere else for reference, probably Smully, which reminds me, I must ask him...

Although I am glad to be moving (would be silly to voluntarily do so otherwise) I will miss the flat, more so than Acton itself. As the missus just said, the flat has been good to us, and although we have had our differences over the years, the flat has always been there for us and we there for it. I hope the next owners/occupiers look after her*.

Therefore, I guess all that is left to say is have fun and see you soon.

Fubar (2)

Ok, so maybe I didn't break it that badly... Will try a further upgrade over the next couple of weeks which should be interesting...that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger and all that.. and might try and tie it in with some changes to how the site works...

The last weekend of my twenties ahead of me will be filled with drinking and friends, which given thats how they started is all good. The last few days have been relatively heady and I am looking forward to a couple of weekd downtime. Would be better if we had moved already, but its getting there.

Albeit very slowly...

Fubared

Aw crap...

Think I have fubared a large part of the mechanics that drive the site in the last upgrade... I can sense this is going to be tricky to remedy.

Moreso since most of the mechanics required to make the changes are the bits that are notplaying nicely.

Not even sure if this will post...

Site Upgrade MT3.35

Site upgraded to MT3.35. Will get to MT4 eventually.

Server

All (ftp, http, email) upgraded and all shiney and 'new'.

Now lets see if it all plays nicely.

Irony

When trying to do a repair install, nothing beats a non booting windows PC that BSoDs with the in formation code:

0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Now the question is, do I risk a clean install to solve all the odd glitches that have started cropping up, potentially fubaring my install.

Decisions decisions...

Ce Weekend

Its strange, if everything would have gone to plan we would have woken up in our new house, but as it is, were not. Maybe soon if all goes to plan.

As it is, I am trying to upgrade my webserver. Not having much luck. Its like bnging my head against a wall, just less productive.

Thing N Wotnots N Stuff

Has been a long weekend so far.

Most of yesterday was spent at work with various contractors ironing out glitches and omissions in the design of the electrical supply, mainly to do with alterations to our flywheel UPS' to allow syncronisation of supply frequencies across a common bus bar to allow us to alter their respective loadings, but also changes to the cooling system to allow more accurate throttling when the load is transferred to the genset. Whilst his took me a little over 2 minutes to type, it actually took me leaving the house a bit before six in the morning, and then arriving back a little over twelves hours later.

Now I am just playing with technology of my own. Over the past few weeks, the server hardware and software that this site is housed on has been a bit problematic, so I decided to upgrade and rebuild it completely. This has the benefit that I can correct some underlying problems, but I always feel a a clean O/S with new programs is more stable than a heavily upgraded/patched system. I hope to do this out of spares so there should be minimum disruption (fingers crossed).

However, theres going to be on-off server downtime over the next few weeks, whilst inevitable problems are ironed out, but also whilst we move, which will effect this site, others and email, and whilst I will do the best I can to get it up and running, but it will also depend on arranging a new ISP.

All good clean fun.

1000th Post

Its seems probably fitting that as I type these words, that there is quite a lot going on, most good, some mediocre and thankfully nothing really bad. The main one is, subject to all the paperwork/surveys being completed, is the impending house move. Currently the loft is boxed up, with nothing but my PC equipment/junk remaining. The remainder of the flat is mostly small ornaments and chuffing great lumps of furniture, the latter of which will travel as is.

We now have our broadband connection back to its full capacity after two minor problems. The first being that an unlimited service, is apparently still subject to a fair use policy, and 50GB per month is apparently fair use. Interestingly, if that were equated to an uncompressed DVD I purchased from the shop, that would be what, 12, 13 movies. So apparently streaming movies over the Internet as a replacement for my TV isn't quite possible, and being restricted to 128kps is not fun. How did I ever survice on dial up. The second problem was that my adsl router died, and I had to get a new one. If/when we move, I might look to another provider but demon have been pretty good so we'll see.

Work is pootling along, although its becoming increasingly confrontational with other departments. The main Estates department don't seem to grasp it isn't possible to just move fibres and duct work at the click of the fingers. Nor, as we found out last week, think to inform us when either a building is being vacated, or, and this is a great one, that access to a disaster recovery room is being closed as they remove the concrete floor. Even better that they then use pneumatic equipment which not only sets of the motion alarms in the walls, but screws up equipment and don't see why its there fault.

I myself am now fed up with the summer sun streaming through the blinds and waking me up at 5. I look forward to thick curtains. This obviously isn't helped by continually staying up to feed my growing addicition to American shows such as the CSI(s), Law & Order(s), Shark...

And thats about it really. Today I hope to do some tidying, take pics of my finished bathroom, wait for my another 500GB drive to arrive. Perhaps go shopping, and generally relax and try and shake this cold I have. Tomorrow we have a Christening down on the coast and then its playtime in the park with uni people. Monday will be spend wishing the sun wasn't so bright I suspect.

Enjoy yourselves. :)

Glutton

And just to test the karmic powers affecting all things technological in my life, I have decided to turn trackbacks on. No doubt I will regret this when my server falls over.

The processor catching fire and burning my flat down will no doubt compound this.

MySQL

Hmmm. Of late, MySQL has been struggling due to what I think is a rather mountainous accumulation of junk and other unwanted detritus in one of the tables. As such, unknown to me, the table in question had grown to several hundred mb and was being written to numerous times a minute, which was causing the ol'webserver to creak and groan.

Hopefully a little spring cleaning here and a tweaking there will stop my site from falling over.

well, at least for a while.

Test

Fatal error: Call to a member function get_var() on a non-object in D:\www\webroot\scratch\category\site\index.php on line 985