Author: Gabriel

Sunshine

may232007_sunshine.jpgSunshine is a story about a group of scientists and astronauts sent out to space 50 years from now to fix the sun via exploding a bomb into it. First they have to get there of course, and no they don’t resort to doing it at night, so let’s get that old, old joke over with before you even start thinking it, and to those who wouldn’t have thought of it, my apologies, but consider my getting it over with as a favor to you just the same.

At any rate, the drama here is the actual getting there and ‘delivering the payload’, which we hear very often throughout the film. Cillian Murphy, the guy I suspect who’s gonna play the Joker in the next Batman series, plays a Physicist who has to decide if they should check out whatever happened to the first attempt 8 years before them, a similar ship named Icarus (theirs is Icarus II), whom they happen to discover mysteriously floating around in space – completely functional – along the way. These being the practical scientists that they are, they decide that two chances at exploding a bomb into the sun are better than one, and proceed to variate their mission into fetching it. But of course it turns out, as it often does, the mystery ship isn’t as innocent as they think, and it proceeds thereon to make their path that much harder as they go along their way.

Continue reading Sunshine

OpenDNS Rocks the Mike Right

John Roberts of OpenDNS was kind enough to drop by to educate my behind on OpenDNS’ ability to refresh their cache, and consequently pointed me to cache.opendns.com, where I found the culprit!

I cleared that out, and apparently only Kikay had that problem. Mom, Basketball, Movie and the rest were ok. After checking them all out, this is the page that says everything’s ok:

I gotta tell ya deleting that record had the same effect as stamping out a cockroach! Or deleting a virus that had a chance to propagate again once accessed.

Continue reading OpenDNS Rocks the Mike Right

Just a few quick thoughts before I hie off to ZZZ land

Day 2 of the big server move is highlighted by three issues.

  1. Turns out php’s default 8mb allocation was the culprit when I was doing stuff like accessing wp-admin’s pages and it was returning white empty pages. I bumped it up to 16mb. and immediately, that wasn’t enough too. So I bumped it up to 24mb. and I haven’t heard a peep since.
  2. Around this afternoon all the sites suddenly got MySQL errors of the highest order. Stuff I’ve never seen before, like tables loading but not fetching data (“mysql disappeared” messages) or the default “I cannot connect to the WP db are you sure your password / username is correct” sort of stuff, aside from getting bog slow after initially being lightning fast early on. After a quick support email it turned out the installed 160mb. RAM wasn’t enough to handle the load, and they offered me a 96mb. upgrade for a discounted extra $10.00 a month. I said YeeaAAayyy aLLelujaaaaAhh and they set it forth onto the server posthaste. Looks ok so far although I’ve received some complaints of slowness, so we’ll see.
  3. Finally the biggest issue of all is DNS. And I mean 3rd party DNS and not my server DNS (thank God). After an hour or so of working on my sites, I try again and get 404 errors. After delving into it I realized I’ve been pointed back to my old server (!?!?!!). Yet another support email, and cause for alarm was raised, and they started asking me to check out stuff. After some settling down we both realized it was probably OpenDNS (which I use on my PC) maintaining an old record which pops up from time to time. Although I’m not particularly sure how and why that is, since I am dependent on that server it suddenly fetches the wrong record after the requisite 10 minute rotation. Now that is just plain weird. At any rate, the only solution is to just wait it out. I initially thought that it was some sort of failback issue, where it serves up a ‘second best’ record should the first one fail for some reason, but the tech support guys said DNS doesn’t work that way so that’s not it. I’m glad (although I was initially freaked) that it turns out the problem is confined to me. Which is freaky still in a way considering I’m it’s admin, and I’m the one having probs accessing it. Figures, right?

Anyway that’s it. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Tiring day, and the promise of another again tomorrow. Later then.

Today’s the Big Day

wish me luck!
update: as of 17:46 I’ve managed to upload everything, and finally changed the DNS entries to point to my new host. Although the recommended waiting period is 12 hours it should probably be ok before midnight. Meanwhile I’m gonna get a beer and rest a bit. That was a solid 8+ hours of work (off and on since 8am), delayed mostly by the length of time it takes to back up, transfer and activate my gargantuan databases. Crossing fingers.
update: woke up to work on it at 2am and at 4am, and finally 6am. By now, 835am, everything seems to be working normally. There were some issues with too little RAM allocated by php.ini. This did not allow some internal wp-admin pages to load, resulting in a white screen. I upped it to 16 which still wasn’t enough, and now to 24 and is now pending observation. LFTP’s mirroring was also not recursive, and did not migrate the directories write permissions, which is a drag, but not a complete disaster as there are only a few specific dirs that need tweaking. I needed to reload and re-cache my browser several times and reboot, and even removed the OpenDNS IPs which I use, then put them back again, and now finally I can see all the sites. Apparently I should have used rsync, but they (my host) put LFTP there for me so I thought that was the SOP. Anyway..

I’m really tired now. The sites look ok so far so I think I’ll go to sleep, after which I need to finish an article for SME Insight and get it in before lunch. I hope my editor doesn’t read this.

The last command I’ll enter, hopefully for awhile is:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Manila /etc/localtime, which results in: Mon May 21 08:55:09 PHT 2007. Now to zzzz.

How I Moved Everything to Lefthandedlayup.com

If you entered Pisces-iscariot on your browser, or otherwise clicked a link going to Pisces-iscariot, please don’t adjust your sets. This is now my new blog, which I’ve moved to partly to separate my personal blog from the Exchange.ph domain and partly to practice the eventual migration of the Exchange.ph domain and subsequent websites to a new host.

So I’ve been busy practising a big move to a new server, and this is the first of many migrations I’m about to do in the next few days. Everything looks like it’s working fine now, so I’m pretty happy and hella relieved as well. Below is a shortlist of what I’d had to do to transfer Pisces-Iscariot blogposts, comments and pics lock stock and barrel to this brand spanking new one. This is so that I won’t forget when I have to do it again, with some extra details for whoever else might need the same information. Believe me I’d had to do a lot of groping in the dark (ie. searching in forums, sending tons of email to my host’s excellent support team, testing on my practice server, bugging the chief, etc.) to finally be able to do what I did, so if I’d have appeared extra nervous or cranky these past few days, now you know. At any rate this’ll help anyone who’d happen to be in the same boat I’d be happy. Read on:

Continue reading How I Moved Everything to Lefthandedlayup.com

Mom Exchange Chief Mom Jen Tan On ANC Today!

Mom Exchange Chief Editor and Mom Jen C. Tan will be one of the guests at ANC’s ShopTALK hosted by Pia Hontiveros today, May 11, 2007 at 3pm (apparently it doesn’t even have a webpage. Go ABS!).

Please catch her talk about her projects Next9.org, Babywearing, natural parenting, the diapers she sells and maternity wear. Oh and about Mom Exchange too, if she manages to fit that in.

Break A Leg JEN!!!

Where is Jonas Burgos?!

Sometimes I look around the local Internet as I know it and I have to wonder – are any of the things going on around the country of any consequence to these people? Of course it is silly for me to ask anyone to pay attention to anything they don’t want to pay attention to, but I really have to ask anyway.

All around us, our country is drowning in a cesspool of violence, injustice and apathy. I don’t know Mayor Binay from Adam, but I do know harrassment when I see it, and I find myself hoping that he manages to find a way around this inspite of the obviously formidable odds. The Secretary of Justice is an indignant fool whose agenda – to draw attention to himself and away from his boss, is obvious, irritating and effective. He calls a well – loved and well – meaning foreigner careless for taking a walk in the mountains alone, calls a rape victim ‘dreaming’ even as the prosecution had yet to state their case, and allows the Marine responsible for it to escape in the dead of the night, away from the grasp of the country where he committed the crime and which is supposed to prosecute him. In effect, sending the clear message that foreigners are not welcome in the country, and that U.S. Marines are welcome to do anything they want to Filipina women whilst in the Philippines because we owe their country far too much to jeopardize jailing a guilty man.

Continue reading Where is Jonas Burgos?!

Spiderman III

may062006_spiderman.jpgThree words: Too many plots.

Let me explain why I think that’s what did this movie in. See, movies, or all story telling for that matter, has to have a main plot. The chief character struggling to maintain his relationship. Or having to face a formidable enemy. Or needing to keep his job and sanity together whilst hurdle on top of hurdle are forced his way.

In retrospect, that’s what Spiderman I and II were pretty good at. Classic, simple and effective story – telling. A simple, ordinary guy with not a care in the world is thrown into a situation where he needs to deal – and in the process, develop maturity and strength of character in a hurry. THAT is what the drama is about Spiderman (as opposed to out – for – revenge Batman or born – to – be – a – hero Superman). EVERYTHING ELSE, as I’ve said so many times before in other reviews, is secondary to the chief protagonist’s struggles. The subplots, the pretty girl, the effects (MOST ESPECIALLY the effects), and all others are all secondary to the main story.

But the problem is, which plot was the main one? To be honest, until now, many days after I caught the first showing not only can I not discern which is the main story, but neither can I recall the details as well, obviously because there was far too much it wants you to remember.

Read the rest or else Spidey will get you.

Spiderman III

may062006_spiderman.jpgThree words: Too many plots.

Let me explain why I think that’s what did this movie in. See, movies, or all story telling for hat matter, has to have a main plot. The chief character struggling to maintain his relationship. Or having to face a formidable enemy. Or needing to keep his job and sanity together whilst hurdle on top of hurdle are forced his way.

In retrospect, that’s what Spiderman I and II were pretty good at. Classic, simple and effective story – telling. A simple, ordinary guy with not a care in the world is thrown into a situation where he needs to deal – and in the process, develop maturity and strength of character in a hurry. THAT is what the drama is about Spiderman (as opposed to out – for – revenge Batman or born – to – be – a – hero Superman). EVERYTHING ELSE, as I’ve said so many times before in other reviews, is secondary to the chief protagonist’s struggles. The subplots, the pretty girl, the effects (MOST ESPECIALLY the effects), and all others are all secondary to the main story.

But the problem is, which plot was the main one? To be honest, until now, many days after I caught the first showing not only can I not discern which is the main story, but neither can I recall the details as well, obviously because there was far too much it wants you to remember.

Continue reading Spiderman III

Review of Wild Hogs

apr302007_wild_hogs.jpgAs far as I know, people either hate or love John Travolta. And I don’t blame them. This is the direct result of producing a classic like Staying Alive, then dropping off the planet and getting listed in the celebrity ‘whatever happened to..?‘ list for a decade or two. Then you come back with Pulp Fiction, and then produce nonsense like Swordfish or that ghastly Face Off. It’s either – or with this guy. A producer of terrific, culture shaping hits or toilet blockage material, with a deep chasm separating the two.

So when I watched Wild Hogs, and saw him looking like he’s actually having some fun, I realized I was having fun too. Not because it’s got a terrific plot or that it’s amazingly funny or that it changes the world of comedy or any of that. Rather, the movie shows a guy that I can’t figure out having fun. In the process, I am watching a movie of his where I don’t have to figure him out, so I just end up having fun. Does that make sense?

Oooh what do we have here? A hyperlink, leading to the rest of the article! Golly! Click Click Click!