Sleepless in MySQL

It’s not often that you wake up in the middle of the night with the solution to a problem. In this case, the problem was this blog. If you’ve read anything between yesterday and today, you’d have either seen nothing, the out-0f-the-box Wordpress ‘Hello World’ posting, or something from me about Blog Amnesia.

What follows is somewhat geeky, so if you don’t care about databases, domain names or any of that, feel free to skip to the end:

The situation was that in the middle of the move from one ISP to another, the export file I had from the previous copy of the blog refused to be imported by the new copy. I had downloaded a backup of all of the files, graphics, and other data, but all of the posts, comments, categories, blogroll and any other text were still locked up in the MySQL database on the old system. What’s worse, in order to install the new copy, I had edited the DNS records to point loudmurmurs.com to the new ISP, so I had literally lost my connection to the old site.

Then, at 3:51 AM, I awoke with a start. Maybe I could connect to the old site, through its IP address. But where would that be? Of course! The FTP program I had used to upload files when I first set it up at that address! Fortunately I had never bothered to replace the IP with the domain name after the site went live.

So, I crept over to my office, (not wanting to wake Pam) fired up the browser and copied the IP address in: It worked! I connected to the web-based Control Panel for the site on the old ISP, and launched PHPMyAdmin. Through that web interface, I managed to export the database of postings, comments, and other data to a MySQL export file, which I downloaded to my computer.

Then I went to import that file into the new, empty blog: No dice. I kept getting errors. ‘OK, at least I have the data’, I told myself, and went back to bed.

In the morning, as I examined the errors, it became clear that the SQL export file that I was creating needed to overwrite the existing data, even if it had some duplicate entries and needed to create some new tables. Why was I creating new tables? To make matters worse, I discovered that I was moving data from a version 2.25 WordPress database, to v 2.3 and data tables had different names, different relationships, etc. - Oh great…

After about 3 or 4 tries, I succeeded in importing all the data.

Then I looked at my new blog. I was very relieved when I saw the first page, looking pretty much as it should, but then I saw that none of the links worked, and that there were no Categories. So, I brought up the new blog’s Dashboard. ‘You need to upgrade your WordPress Database’, it said. I clicked on Continue. After a minor glitch reported by the upgrade script, I saw the standard blog Dashboard. I gulped, and clicked on the ‘View Site’ link…

This time, everything from the past 2 1/2 years was there, and as far as I can tell, it all seems to be working. My dreams of IP addresses, PHPMyAdmin and MySQL ended up getting back my 265 postings and 419 comments. I guess that it really is true that you continue to work on problems in your sleep. This is first time, however, that I ever awoke with a ‘Eureka’.

The Autumn Semester

For those not familiar with the practice, bloggers sometimes see an interesting idea that they think might stimulate some creativity out in the world, so they invite others (by ‘tagging’ them) to try their hand at the same subject or meme…
So, my friend and fellow blogger Maktaaq, I accept your challenge, which is:

…to describe 5-6 imaginary courses, each intended to ‘fix up something in my life’ (or, as I also interpret it, improve it, given newly acquired knowledge or skills). I get to use at least one course from the tagger, since it’s more fun to go to classes with a friend. Finally, I get to tag 5 others, which I’ll do at the end. So, School is In Session…

First, the courses I’d take with Maktaaq? Let’s start with the obvious:

Arachnid Wrangling 102
On successful completion of the course you will be able to undergo successful removal of spiders and scorpions from your environment, both with utensils and bare hands.
Prerequisite: Insect Squashing 101.

We’ve discovered that while there are relatively few insects to be found in our home here (certainly far fewer than the numbers that we used to deal with back in Boston and in trips to Vermont and New Hampshire), there are a lot of spiders. And by a lot, I mean that every other week I have to kill one in the tub in the morning, and that’s no fun before a shower or even having fully woken up. Pam is very frightened of spiders, and a large one in the kitchen had her wearing shoes for dish washing, since my ineffectual swipe at him caused him to scurry under the stove.
Here’s the other course of Maktaaq’s that I’d also take:

Decorative Flourishes 499
Impress potential lovers and intimidate your minions with a mere pen! This studio course is for anyone who needs a dramatic signature. Using Elizabethan and Medieval European sources, students will learn develop their own exaggerated handwriting through the study of Celtic crosses, curlicues, flourishes and twisty things. Assignments include signing credit cards and spray can tagging. Prerequisite: Scribbling 100.

While I do have a fairly fancy signature, I’ve always been impressed with calligraphy, etc. Besides, whenever I do actually write anything, it often looks like a bad version of Architect printing.
And what other courses would I take? Let’s see…

Organization for the Neatness-Challenged 4002
Not sure how to get your mess under control? This class will deal with spatial and temporal organizational effectiveness in a variety of spaces and situations. Get some valuable tips for dealing with information and paper overload.
Prerequisite: Paper Shredding 4001

British Columbia Geography 399
Clueless about where all of those places in the Lower Mainland are? Can’t tell Nootka from Bella Coola (or even Bela Lugosi?) This course will get you straightened out, with numerous field trips to various BC geological and cultural landmarks. Students will compare topological maps to actual terrain via helicopter and float-plane fly-overs, and at the end of the semester, the class will pool their newly gained knowledge at a Spa retreat in Tofino.
Prerequisite: None, except for a hefty tuition fee

Speed Reading 205
Using a variety of techniques, students will endeavor to double, triple, and eventually quintuple their reading speed while gaining comprehension and retention of material, with the ultimate goal of ingesting Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov in 23 minutes.
Prerequisite: Reading Glasses for those who are losing their vision. That means you, Drucker.

Efficient Sleep Techniques 102
Are you getting enough sleep? More accurately, is your sleep getting you enough? Learn how to cram 7-8 hours of sleep into a single hour. Through 5 minute ‘power naps’, learn to operate at peak efficiency fort weeks without significant time spent tossing and turning in bed. At the end of the course, students will be graded on the quality and intensity of their snoozing. Extra credit will include napping practice as well as individual projects in directed dreaming.
Prerequisite: Beginning Sleep 101

Now, who do I tag? Let’s see what Isabel, Gene, Nancy, John and Monique can with this…

Good Meal, Weak Greenback

Back West

I know it’s been a week, but I did want to get some stuff in, even if it is just a little stale. Pam asked me where I’d like to go out to celebrate my birthday, and after some thought, I settled on a place we had been before, but it had been quite a while. It was West, which wowed all of us back in June of 2006, when we ate there with my parents, who were visiting.

West is the kind of place where you go for a big-deal meal, the kind where you are celebrating, the food is top-notch in every way, and the service is always attentive and professional. They routinely win all sorts of awards for the food, service and wine (which are framed and hung along the hallway on the way to the rest rooms).

Little had changed from our first visit — and this is a good thing. I started with a Leek soup, which held a delicate sliver of potato in a ring, like the handle of a small basket, arched over a fascinating ‘hour-long cooked egg’ (an egg that had been carefully cooked over low heat until it was somewhere between a solid and a sauce) in the centre of it. Pam had three gorgeous ‘beet sandwiches’, each made of 2 slices of thin crimson beet slices surrounded local goat cheese, topped with a raspberry sauce and lemon shreds. My main course was a duck breast (always my favourite, and after all, it was my birthday dinner) with a rich, brown sauce, served over a small mound of chopped kale and some other ingredient (couldn’t place it) that added flavour and richness. Pam had Arctic Char, served over deep green leaves of barely-cooked baby spinach. We each opted for a glass of different wine, for me a Spanish red (not a Rioja, another favourite, but close). Pam chose a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, a citrusy wine my parents introduced us to years ago.

The kitchen then made a mistake, and sent Pam a dessert that she hadn’t ordered (and with the ‘Happy Birthday’ written on to the plate in chocolate sauce; They assumed it was her having the birthday), and shortly later they brought our regular desserts - for Pam a pineapple tart made with almond frangipani (about which I later learned, “There is an unclear linguistic connection between frangipani the flower; Frangipani, the nobleman perfume maker to King Louis XIII of France and the food product.”). For me, I indulged in 3 cheeses, including a terrific goat camembert called ‘Juliette’ that I had tasted at the food show earlier in the year and had been searching for ever since, and an absolutely phenomenal bleu cheese, a Bleu D’Auvergne. (Now I know that Auvergne is not only good for folk songs but also cheese!). With my cheese, I had a glass of Sauternes, which I’d describe as a bit of concentrated sunshine, and just as powerful. I’ve never had much Sauternes, being a big Port lover, so this was a pleasant surprise. Oddly enough, the wine and cheese were the most memorable part of the meal, despite the duck being very good (but just not as memorable). I think I’ve been missing good wine so much that when I get it I really enjoy it.

Loonie Power
Unless you’ve been following the exchange rate between the US and Canada as we have (and for most folks in the US it’s not a topic of conversation), you might be surprised to find out that for the first time in 30 years, the Canadian Dollar is on par, and on its way to being worth more than the US Dollar. Thank goodness we didn’t wait longer to move up here, or we’d be a lot poorer. When we first arrived, the exchange rate was roughly 1.25 Canadian to 1.00 in the dollar. That can make a big difference when you’re buying a house or living off savings from converted US dollars while waiting for work permits, etc.

I don’t know how permanent this exchange rate will be, nor do I have a clue how high the Canadian dollar will eventually go. Some say that it will continue to rise, and others say that the Canadian economy (particularly the manufacturing, raw materials and even the local film industry) can’t handle this, as the former weakness of the Canadian currency meant that US business could depend on an automatic ‘discount’ of sorts for comparable goods and services. Nevertheless, as trade with the US is always going to be a big part of the economy here (or at least until Canada can really get its act together regarding trade with China and others), this new world where our dollars are worth the same (or more) as US dollars is going to take some getting used to. The only thing I can add is that it just looks like another failure that Bush, or WPIUSH can claim. There is nothing this man touches that does not end up being lost, be it currency value or human lives.

In the near term, I am sure that we’ll be going shopping ’south of the border’ (and I don’t mean Mexico), more often. Even gasoline via Point Roberts might be worth the distance and the wait.

The Puppet Speaks for Me

I know I’ve blogged in the past about this, but here’s more Canadian iPhone Angst.

It’s so frustrating that Europe is going to buy this before we do. Heck, at this rate, Botswana, East Timor and (yes, iiiss niiice!) Kazakhstan will get the iPhone before we do. Or so it feels that way when taunted this way.

By the way, Apple is not the only one taunting us. I keep getting messages on the TiVo about how we can download free pilots for all of the new shows on the US Networks with the Amazon ‘Unboxed’ feature on our TiVo. Except when I get to the screen to do the download, I get an error message complaining that I don’t have a US billing address, so forget it. Similarly, if I go to nbc.com (who I won’t even dignify with a link), where I’m supposed to be able to see previous episodes of shows like “30 Rock” or “Heroes”, they actually check my IP address and block me from seeing the video, even though we do, in fact get the NBC network here:

Hey, these are old episodes, not even the new stuff. Why don’t they just come out and tell me to go and bittorent the stuff myself. Oh right, I forgot; that would be illegal.

In the words of the puppet frog: “FIX IT!”

So now I’m a Online Advocate?

A couple of weeks ago I got an email and subsequently a quick phone call from a reporter for the Westender newspaper, a local (and when I say local, I mean really local, as in West End of Vancouver). Magda Ibrahim and I had a short chat about the electricity-powered buses around town, in particular, the new ones. She took some quotes from me, and put it into the issue I found in our lobby this afternoon. Of course, it has an online equivalent.

The part where I’m quoted is right near the beginning:

David Drucker, an online advocate for an improved transit system in Vancouver, says his main concern is that the new trolleys appear to have the same flaws as the old ones.

“It’s nice to see the investment, and they’re obviously being well used, but $273 million is a lot of money, and I’d have expected the system to be vastly improved with that,” says Drucker. “The overhead lines themselves are not really bad, but it’s quite a shame that the bus poles lose their connection to them so often. Not a week goes by that I don’t see some driver trudging out with their temporary orange uniform to coax the poles back into their overhead tracks.

“A design that keeps the poles more connected might help the situation, or, at the very least, clear directions and warnings to drivers of the most precarious places — if they don’t know already.”

Drucker adds that he is not impressed with the seating in the new trolleys; they have 30 seats — eight fewer than the old ones — but can hold an extra 12 people in total because of increased standing room. The pull-down seats at the front of the bus have proved to be a struggle for older people.

Not bad, I’d say. The only thing she didn’t include was my comment about that odd seat at the front left of the bus, right behind the driver. It isn’t so much a seat as a strange, cushion that looks like it might be something to lean against, although no one does.

At any rate, here I am, now an expert. (Hardly) I’m just a rider, and these days, it seems I’m riding the diesel ones (the 84 to and from the VCC/Clark Skytrain and the 123 from work to and from the Brentwood Station). Still, I guess those two years or so being car-less in the city gave me the right to 15 minutes of West Ender fame. Or perhaps 5. At least I didn’t sound like an idiot, did I?