Richy's Random Ramblings – Page 166 – Random ramblings and ravings of Richy B

Techy: Server Downtime and Time

January 30, 2003

Sorry if you were visiting my blog between 7:45pm and 8:05pm today – I was performing a small server upgrade (to be specific, applying a patch to the Apache webserver) when something went wrong. It took me around 10 minutes to notice that Apache hadn’t properly restarted (I was doing some other maintenance tasks at the time so I hadn’t got round to checking it had came back alive correctly), than around another ten minutes to find out why it wouldn’t restart.

The problem I was getting was [crit] (98)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to port 80 whenever I tried to restart Apache. I disabled the Tomcat Jakarta server (as that was what I was patching as the previous version I was running had a security hole) as I don’t do anything important with Java on my server at the moment and attempted to restart Apache. Still no joy and the same error message. I do a netstat -lpn to try and find out which process is running on port 80 so I can kill it…. Nothing is. Aaargh! I then have a brain wave and think that perhaps when Apache was restarted it failed to shutdown properly. So I go into the Apache config file and change the “Port” number from 80 to 81. Start the server and success! (this also proves there was nothing wrong with the Apache configuration file). Change the port number back to “80”, restart the server and the flibblepenguin is alive!

Snippet: Sleeping…

January 30, 2003

Leave a Comment

*snippet* Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday, I got home, checked my email and was fast asleep (still in my clothes) by 8pm! Woke up at 10pm in time for “Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned” (that I want to watch), but before it came on at 10.30pm, I had got properly ready for bed and fallen back asleep. Woke up again at 4.30am, asleep 10 minutes later. Finally at 7.30am, I’ve managed to drag myself out of bed on this cold and snowy day…

Guess That Movie: XVIII: From Dusk Till Dawn

January 30, 2003

8 Comments

[Guess That Movie 18] Ooh, it seems round 17 was quite difficult, but new contestant “Dr G” managed to correctly recognise Sam Neill as Dr.Weir in a scene near the end of the 1997 sci-fi horror “Event Horizon” .

Sorry it took me so long to yes/no the guess (around 8 hours), but I was sleeping…

Have a go at the image though and see if, in round 18 of Guess That Movie, you can increase your scores! Go on – guess away!

A: From Dusk Till Dawn Correctly guessed by Ph33r_m3

Games: Cat-a-pult

January 29, 2003

Leave a Comment

[Catapulting cats] Yes, I am still listing any fun games I come across on the internet here – I just haven’t found that many recently! If you come across one, please let me know so it can be announced to a wider population!

This link is NOT catlover-safe. After all, with a title of Cat-A-Pult and instructions to move the catapult/sling-shot left and right to aim, click+hold the mouse button to increase power and then release to fire and shoot the poor kitty kats through the doorways and windows isn’t exactly destined to go down well with animal rights supporters is it? Especially with the fact that if you miss the doorways and windows, the cats end up as big red blood marks on the wall!

Don’t try this at home kids! (Well, the game you can try, but don’t try it with Tiddles!)

My first time, I managed to get 500 points – then 0,0, 100, 150, 0, 0 and finally 700.

Joke: When I get old and losing my hair…

January 28, 2003

Leave a Comment

Have you ever noticed that when you’re of a certain age, everything seems uphill from where you are? Stairs are steeper. Your shopping bags are heavier…

And, everything is farther away. Yesterday I walked to the corner and I was astonished to discover how long my street had become! And, you know, people are less considerate now, especially the young ones. They speak in whispers all the time! If you ask them to speak up they just keep repeating themselves, endlessly mouthing the same silent message until they’re red in the face! What do they think I am, a lip reader?

I also think they are much younger than I was at the same age. On the other hand, people my own age are so much older than I am. I ran into an old friend the other day and she has aged so much that she didn’t even recognise me!

I got to thinking about the poor dear while I was combing my hair this morning, and in doing so, I glanced at my own refection …Well, REALLY NOW ……… even mirrors are not made the way they used to be!

Another thing, everyone drives so fast today! You’re risking life and limb if you just happen to pull onto the motorway in front of them. All I can say is, their brakes must wear out awfully fast, the way I see them screech and swerve in my rear view mirror.

Clothing manufacturers are less civilised these days. Why else would they suddenly start labelling a size 36″ or 38″ waist pair of trousers as 44″ or 46″? Do they think no one notices that these things no longer fit around the waist? And why the instance on making clothes a lot longer then they used to be?

The people who make bathroom scales are pulling the same prank, but in reverse. Do they think I actually “believe” the number I see on that display? HA! I would never let myself weigh that much! Just who do these people think they’re fooling?

I’d like to call up someone in authority to report what’s going on – but the telephone company is in on the conspiracy too: they’ve printed the phone books in such small type that no one could ever find a number in here – and, not only that, but they’ve made all telephones to use those fiddly little buttons instead of the good old reliable rotary dials.

All I can do is pass along this warning: Maturity is under attack! Unless something drastic happens, pretty soon “everyone” will have to suffer these awful indignities.