October 18, 2003

Saved by the backup

Saved by a backup!
Yes, there was a backup made last night, so i only had to re-edit contestant data of the twenty-something pictures i added on thursday.
I must admit, i really love some system administrators :-)
To prevent repetition i've downloaded and installed a back-up script from BizDesign that backups the whole kit and caboodle after building.
It works, but this one also isn't very elegant coded: when you make a backup it compresses (tar.gz) all index files, all keywords, all captions and all thumbnails captions. So far so good, but the next time you make a backup it compresses everything including the compressed backup it has produced the previous time. The result is that every time the backup is growing with the size of the backup. Funny ...

 Posted: October 18, 2003, 07:56 PM | Comments (0) |

October 16, 2003

Shit happens in spades

When shit happens, i get it in spades. Maybe i've been just a little bit too lucky the last months, with only the normal daily computer peeves. We're changing the operating systems on our machines on the newspaper from Windows 98 to XP.

Part of a process that takes months, during which a couple of systems, some of them almost twenty years old, are replaced by brandnew systems and tools. Inevitable part of that process is that a lot of things go wrong, every day. It makes some people crazy, but I like it. I've always liked changes, and i've always liked to solve computer problems. Until one hour ago, when, stupid me, i clicked on a link in Outlook, while my browser was showing the result of a building process on a server. Argh!

Not entirely my fault, but the the result of the fact that imageFolio, the application that holds, indexes and shows the pictures on this site, is not very elegant programmed regarding the building process. I mean it's a process that completely runs on the server, so there is no reason at all to follow it in the browser. What's more: if the browser fails, the index file is corrupt or empty. I'm not talking about my own instance of imageFolio now, but about one from the nine we're running on a heavy dual processor Dell with 2 gigabytes (!) of memory, running Apace 2.0.40 on Red Hat Linux. The imageFolio that went berserk holds almost 5000 pictures. A lot of them wre connected to keywords, all gone. Which means i've lost all e-mail adresses, adresses and telephone numbers of the participants of our summer holiday picture contest. Together they have send in more than 600 pictures so far, so in two weeks the jury will probably choose a winner and we don't know where he or she lives. The last two weeks i've been building the bloody album, resizing pics and thumbnails, enhancing most photographs, and collecting all data of the contestants in the index file. I've deleted all mails after that, because i had all relevant data, and because the mailboxes were full. Some people have professionel cameras, but don't know yet how to resize, and keep sending seven bitmaps of 12 megabytes each!
Shit happens in spades: until the beginning of this month i was root on the server, but under new security rules from the new host - and with good reason, i say - i only have (SSH) access to data files, and not to lower levels and backups anymore.
We're trying to reach someone now in the hope that there is a nightly backup, and that i can retrieve a reasonable fresh index file from that back up. As i have FTP and SSH-access to the file in question this has been the last time that i will forget to download the index, before or after building. Stupid me: this thing happened to me two years ago, after i've been saving the bloody file every day for a while, but after that i became sloppy again.
Having said that: yet another mail to Biz Design, maker of imageFolio. Let the program show, after having pushed the build button, a message that says something like: 'when i'm ready you will receive a mail, and in the meantime the file is locked for all users'. Why not?

 Posted: October 16, 2003, 11:58 PM | Comments (1) |

October 02, 2003

Grab the baton ...

I've found a stick on the web, at Dimitri's place. From Breda Dimitri is running the Breda/Ärhus City Mirror, together with Ingrid who is based in Danmark. I still have to write a review on their beautiful mirror for the newspaper. When i finally wanted to start today and checked out their websites, I lost my way in a few mouse-clicks.

On the first lesson of the English Writing course i've started last tuesday my teacher Graham Hüner has advised me to buy a good dictionary as well as a thesauris. Better: a digital dictionary that can be loaded into my computer memory so i can search for the right words, and lots of new words, while writing. For now i check and old Wolters Dutch-English dictionary. It shows me stick isn't the right word for what i've found at Dimitri's. It's baton, cause it's a baton that i'm taking over, and that i have to hand out to the next runner on the web. The target? Nobody knows. The stick, i mean baton, is a picture of your computer spot. My machine it temporarily on the job, where i'm always busy running, updating and developing the newspaper website where i'm working. My home machine is hosted here for a while because i'm in the middle of renovating our old house. I haven't moved the ADLS connection to our temporary house because that wouldn't be a sensible thing to do. Thanks to our national telco KPN it's apparently easier to tug an iceberg from North to Southpole and back without melting than to move and remove an ADSL.
The box at the wall is the telly, showing a Spanish rider during the last Tour de France. The black machine in the middle is the Dell from the boss, the one on the right is mine and serves as a big jukebox. I'ts running either Windows 2000 with Music Match Jukebox, but sometimes, for fun, i boot Knoppix Linux 3.2 with XMMS as music player. The disk holds a few gigabytes music, all MP3, all legally; downloaded and payed for from Weblisten.com, or rips of music I own on cd. I'm not sharing anything. On top is an external Creative Audigy Sound Card, and a set of Klipsch boxes, so if we want we can blow the roof of the central desk. At the internet desk we're early risers. From 07:00 until 09:00 it's peakhour, but also coffee and party time. After nine lots of serious people walk in and the volume goes down to muzak level. Another day at the office has started...
Grab the baton, pass it on, and let me know where you've parked it. Have fun!
Click here or on the small picture for a bigger pop-up.

 Posted: October 02, 2003, 10:50 PM | Comments (1) |