is happily being the wheel rather than a rusty old spoke
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Definitely died with his boots on too. I'm glad for that. Seems his popularity was increasing again lately and he was to go on tour soon.
I'll be watching for the date of the St. Louis tribute concert and really hope we can get out there for it.
Too bad my daughter won't be competing for the scholarship out there, as she insists on going to a Christian college, and the nearest one that offers full rides to musicians is TCU. When she told me she had decided against any of the big Eastern music schools and instead was going to go to one with "Christian" in the name, she agreed that whether she got a full ride or not, only schools serious enough about music to offer full rides for it were worthwhile candidates.
I really love most of the articles being written about him. And am learning new things about him. Had no idea his first name was Walter. But I remembered his birthdate at one time and was one of the ones quick to join in singing Happy Birthday to him when he performed at a local church about 5 years or so ago on his birthday.
That concert really stands out in my mind because he performed a piece that I know is on one of his albums but I'd never heard before (I'm not even CLOSE to having all of his albums), but knew from listening it was a deeply religious song to him (I don't remember -- Buddhist?) and expressed in music a deep, loving relationship with his God. One of the few times my eyes have watered at a concert.
Geez, I've seen him perform so many times! But never had the pleasure of meeting him or attending any of his many clinics, despite the fact it was his fault I switched from tuba to trumpet in high school, and (much to my band director's chagrin) focused more on extending my range than increasing my technique.
Interesting timing because we perform Birdland in the Drum and Bugle Corps my daughter and I are part of (I get to screech a bit in it, as 1st Soprano bugle) and I've been digging through my old Maynard albums and CD's in recent weeks looking for a piece for me to arrange for the Corps (so far, "Gospel John" is way in the lead, but the wonderful solo that opens it doesn't fit the Drum Corps model very well, but I still want to arrange it and try it as a standing piece and see if it can become a marching/show piece).
Betcha next season's DCI competitions are going to be FULL of MF pieces!
Progress update.
I've done about all I can software-wise to speed things up. Performance seems acceptable but there's little, if any headroom (spare capacity), and definitely not enough to make full-text search realtime during market hours.
We're tentatively scheduled to take the new database server to the ISP Wednesday evening. There might be very brief interruptions of service as we move all of the database boxes to onto a new gigabit switch with new Cat6 cables, but those should be so brief that few if any will see any outages. The new switch is needed so we can speed up db-to-db file transfers ten-fold to move everything to the new box. The 10/100 mpbs limits we're currently cruising at is more than enough for websever/db communications and will remain at that speed for now.
After Wednesday evening, expect outages of up to an hour or so at a time (only at night) as we do test-moves of the databases onto the new box and test its functionality. The outages should be pretty infrequent until the last one, when we shut off access to the old box, copy the data one last time, then fire everything back up on the new boxes. Definitely the new db box and hopefully the new webserver too. For reasons we have yet to uncover, the new webserver doesn't play well with the current database box. It's making more connections to the database box than the current machine does, and overwhelming it only in quantity of connections; not workload.
Initially only the Investors Hub database will reside on the new box. Eventually, Silicon Investor will be moved and the current Silicon Investor database box will be set up as a "mirror", meaning it'll have a realtime copy of everything the new box has and can seamlessly become the production machine in case of any failure. This will give both sites an added realtime layer of redundancy, which we've never needed, but is always comforting to have.
A sad day. Maynard Ferguson died last night at age 78.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015107.php
As huge a Rush fan as I am, I've seen Maynard in concert far more frequently than I have Rush.
He was the single inspiration that led me into playing the trumpet and I'm sure many current and former trumpet players would say the same, my daughter included, who plans to major in Trumpet Performance.
It's working quite well, albeit it in a VERY limited manner (one cop) on SI. I'm in favor of it if the cops are few and very carefully chosen. Matt and Dave are being overrun, and I'm not EVEN contemplating getting involved in that job again.
I've got some stringent and limiting criteria in mind that I'll discuss with Dave and Matt, though I'm sure they've got the same ones in mind.
A lot! <g>
Edit: Okay, it's about $10k.
Hard to imagine (though I didn't read the links). Those London cabbies are brilliant!
Sometimes I suspect DoS, sometimes I think someone simply screwed up in a script. DoS is comparatively easy now that everyone and their yellow dog has broadband. I haven't seen the log files for the one Dave blocked last night so I don't know if it might be yet another script run amok.
Before I changed the read-tracking (for the Most Read table) so you had to be logged in before the read would count, some were using scripts (and another even easier trick I won't mention so people don't learn how easy it is to do it) to repeatedly ready one or a few posts on the same board over and over again.
And some just hit the homepage repeatedly. We saw one clown (lately they're usually in China) hit the homepage about a dozen times per second.
A future project is automated blocking when this kind of activity is detected.
The site is still a bit overworked with normal traffic, which is almost a blessing (server-wise) because it's real easy now to spot when something's happening that shouldn't be happening.
I think I mentioned yesterday (but it bears mentioning again because I'm so excited about it) that the new db server arrived yesterday and I'll be installing it as soon as possible (which won't be soon enough for my liking) and it's quite the machine.
I was very disappointed when I went to plug in the mouse and keyboard and found nothing that resembled the mouse and keyboard ports I'm used to. It apparently uses USB for these, which I wasn't even aware existed until yesterday.
It's got a remote management port (which will apparently allow me complete control over the machine at a level you can't get with Remote Desktop -- including starting it when it's shut down) but I can't even use that until I get the machine fired up with mouse and keyboard so I can configure the port so I can use it.
My goal is to get the machine up to the ISP early next week and get us moved over to it that weekend or the following weekend.
My rough estimate is that it's got 2-4 times the horsepower of the current machine thanks to a pair of dual-core Xeons (rather than our current dual plain Xeons), a 6-drive SAS array running at 15k RPM (much faster than SCSI), 64-bit Windoze and the 64-bit version of SQL 2K5, which is supposed to have dramatically improved full-text index/search. Oh, and 8GB of memory and the ability to actually use it. SI's db box has the same amount, but refuses to use more than 4.
Total hard drive capacity is a little over 700GB, which is much more than we'll ever need in this machine's service life, but I had them fill 'er up because apparently an SAS RAID array gets faster as you add hard drives, each drive adding another 300Mbps of throughput to the array. And we've got 6 of them. RAID 5, 146GB each. Since the 6th drive is essentially "wasted" for storing parity (though parity is spread across all drives), 5*146 gives us about 730GB of storage.
One benefit I hope to reap from so much space is by setting the db size to something like 100GB (it's currently about 37GB), it'll be at least a year before it has to grow itself, so it shouldn't get fragmented at the hard-drive level, though we'll still have to defrag the db itself. Just won't have to defrag the hard drive itself.
Defragging has been a real problem. We haven't been able to defrag the current array successfully since the machine was installed 3 years ago because it requires shutting down SQL Server (and the site), and even that hasn't worked when we've tried.
I'll also be sizing the primary partition large enough to store the full-text catalogs (along with Windoze and SQL) so hopefully the secondary partition will only have the actual db file(s), resulting in even less fragmentation of both the db and the catalogs.
And if the new version of Full-Text Search works as advertised, I'll be able to rebuild the catalog in on piece instead of breaking it up by years, although I'd still limit free members to searching only the most recent x number of days, and using Advanced Search to hit the whole thing based on user-specified date ranges or no dates at all.
Just occurred to me I'm going to need to make a gigabit patch cable to go straight from the old machine to the new (our switches are limited at 100mbps) so we can move the data to the new machine in hopefully 1/10th the time it'd currently take.
Doesn't everyone?
He posts here a lot, so it's easy to test Ignore functionality on him.
Ignore is still apparently screwed up. I tried to read one of grubmaster's posts and couldn't. At first it was because I had Ignores toggled on. But when I toggled it off, I still couldn't.
Will look into this tomorrow.
Gotta love the sound of the cars coming into 5 at the highest speed they'll reach on the track, then the loud acceleration up the hill to 6.
I think that was my favorite place to watch from.
Although watching with Tom from the start/finish flag platform was cool, too! It's amazing how much air the cars are pushing upward as they go under that thing! And they're really moving by the time they get there. If they made it up the hill.
Depends. Is Kool-Aid served?
That was the whole (good-natured) intention, but nobody rose to the occasion. I think Tom might've been scared for our safety.
It also could be that they knew we weren't locals since we'd say "Yeah" instead of "Yah".
There's a BMW club doing an event up there in September but I don't know the dates yet. Wasn't planning to go this year, especially with that club since they charge Instructors $400 (local clubs usually charge Instructors little, if anything), but now that I've got the STi, I'm really looking forward to trying it out on a big track. No idea what might be happening at Brainerd that I can still go to. Brainerd's cool in that whatever speed your car can reach, it'll likely reach it there, but it's really boring after just a few laps.
In a conversation with a guy up there, he mentioned "the technical section" and I had to bite my tongue to not say "What technical section?"
Down here, when we talk about Brainerd, we use our fingers to make quote marks when we say "technical section".
RA has the high-speed thrills of BIR, but also the technical charm of our local tracks.
A 2-hour 45-minute race at RA??? I'd never make it.
Not sure what my limit is on RA. My limit is right around 40 minutes on my home tracks. Might be a little longer on RA since you can stretch out and take a nap going up the front straight.
Viper Racing was so realistic, after I'd get done playing it, I'd find my chair all askew from all the leaning into turns I was doing.
The new db server arrived today, way ahead of schedule.
However, it's just sitting idle in front right now. Why? Because it takes a USB mouse and keyboard. Didn't even know they existed!
So we should have it configured well enough to take to the ISP soon, then hopefully it won't be too long after that that we'll have the database moved to it and have it doing all the work. But it won't happen real fast, either, and there will be (pre-announced) outages as we do the migration.
Nice catch!
Okay, Larry, the problem is that search_results.asp is the back-end of the search routine. Doesn't do anything by itself. You have to go through the regular search, which will take you to search_results.asp, but with the results from the words you entered on the search screen.
We usually cook our own brats at the track, but when we sampled the ones available at RA, we ended up never unpacking the grill, and I think when we grill them down here, there's always an audible sigh from someone who knows they're not as good as they were at RA.
Although at one point we brought a can of Easy-Cheese to the concession area with us and were being pretty obnoxious about putting it on our brats and proclaiming "Now THAT'S some good cheese!".
What's going on at RA this weekend?
I'll be at HPT this weekend. Although it might be a short weekend if my new rotors and pads don't arrive soon. As in today.
We had an unofficial iHubbers racing thing near Vegas a few years back. Tom and I were there. Playing with Factory Five Cobras on the track in Pahrump. Tom was so enamored of the cars he got himself one.
8 gallons. But there was a lot of spillage. Not easy hitting those holes with the tangle of cables all over the place.
Regarding disconnecting negatives, definitely. Fortunately they're hooked up in parallel. Technically. They're not laid out that way, though, hence the tangle of cables.
I'm extremely cautious around these batteries because not only have I had batteries blow up on me twice, I'm always acutely aware of the fact that when I'm messing with these batteries, I'm basically playing with a very strong welder that's always on.
I'm going to take them all out and test them as you suggest, but won't be putting them back in. I'm going with better batteries. And will wire them differently so it's a lot easier to check electrolyte levels. And am seriously considering wiring them for 12-volt input and 48-volt output so I can put a decent Trace inverter in the trailer and be able to run an air conditioner.
The old "Viper Racing" was the best PC-based simulator I've ever seen. I don't think they ever took it past version 1.0, though. And it didn't have any real tracks on it. All made-up ones.
But the handling dynamics were dead-on.
If your search only included real common words ("the", "and", etc), I could see that possibly happening.
What search string are you using?
Edit: Although I don't recall anywhere that I display "The search string is empty". Was pretty sure I just return an empty result set.
The system still should be sending expiration notices via PM. I need to check to see why it isn't.
Matt, can you remind me in the morning?
If it happened when you clicked a message link inside a message, see Susie and Morning Money's discussion as that might be the cause of your problem.
With the new way signatures are being handled, I haven't included dealing with images in them. I'll put that on the list, along with making it handle #msg and #board parsing.
Everyone:
If anyone sees any more of that weirdness where you submit a post and the system tells you that your account's suspended but you know it isn't, please reply directly to this message so I'll know if it's still happening.
I just made a change that should have fixed that. The way the setup was working before, it shouldn't have been causing the problem, but I could imagine various unusual scenarios in which it might, so I put in code that should completely prevent that.
Technical version: I had recently changed to using session variables to determine userlevel so I'd save the database from extra reads. I just put the code back in that makes it do a direct read from the database at post submission time to determine your userlevel.
A Lucas alternator (generator?) stuck on full output. What are the odds? hehe
The Porterfield R4's on the STi right now are definitely a lot better than OEM's and I was pretty happy with the same compound on the WRX, but I really like a lot of initial bite, and that's just not present. They never fade. They just don't grab as hard as I'd like and my braking zones are substantially longer than they were in the WRX. Slightly more weight and quite a bit more speed, but I'd think I'd be braking maybe 50 feet earlier on the same compound; not 150-200 feet earlier.
I was totally disgusted with myself on Sunday when it rained. When it's dry, I rotate the car something fierce. When it rained, I was driving way too timid. I was passing all but one car in the rain, but I should've been passing that one (an old 911 Carrera) and lapping them all. Everyone else was out of their element. The STi was in its element. But I just didn't have the nerve. The slightest little wiggle and I was all out of sorts and was focusing a lot of my mental time on reminding myself to apply the throttle if it got loose. Which is for me as it certainly is for you, a habit you don't even have to think about. But when it rained, it was all I was thinking about.
Just an awful performance in the rain. And I've always enjoyed the rain (for short periods, followed by dry) because it'd put a magnifying glass on any mistakes I was making and let me fix them and result in my being a lot faster in the dry.
I was only half-joking when I said I hoped they didn't combine all the run groups because I'd feel really bad if I, as an instructor, got passed by the first-timer in the Mazda-6.
MO is certainly on my to-drive list. MAM and HPT are the same length and number of turns. 2.25 miles, 14 turns. MAM's flat as a pancake, though. But HPT has nice elevation changes. Sounds like MO's got more, though.
That should be fixed now.
Fortunately, it was easy. I'd taken out a very large block of code that I really thought was extraneous because an identical block is done again later in read_msg. I put it back in and the problem cleared.
Now to try to figure out why people are being told they're suspended when they're not.
True, but "real NASCAR", as I understand it (and understand I hold it in the highest derision) is on big ovals.
It's a riot to see them running on road courses.
Any update on his condition?
Go see it!!!
Gary and Sheridan and Sheridan's wife, Karyn, and I all went to see it Saturday night.
It's a hoot!
It's definitely more of a "Will Ferrell" <sp?> movie than a "Make fun of NASCAR" movie. But I love his movies. And there was some incredible camera work!!!
And something I hope becomes a trend. The scenes in the trailer and commercials? Either shot from a different angle, or put inside a more whole context, making them funnier. Like the part where he's saying grace. What they used for the commercials isn't even half the gag of that scene. So there weren't those "gaps" you usually encounter where it's just not all that funny because you've seen the scene a hundred times on TV already.
One thing they did that Sheridan and I found funny because we've commented on it before, but I doubt they were quite savvy enough to have done this intentionally...
You know how in any movie where there's racing happening, they'll be in the middle of a race, and something will happen, so "now it's on!"? What do they always do at that moment?
Shift!
Leaving me thinking "Okay, you were racing, but you weren't in the right gear?"
Then again, maybe it was intentional since surely they know that in NASCAR you use the shifter when entering or leaving the pits but nowhere else.
These "shift the load to night-time hours" solutions have a real limited shelf life. For one thing, at least out here, a KwH costs the same no matter what time of day you use it. For another, higher nighttime usage is just around the corner.
My wife's Camry Hybrid would be so wonderful if it could be plugged in at night to recharge the main batteries. I'm sure that'll be a reality soon.
While on the subject of batteries, I've been having problems with the marine batteries in my car hauler. I'd charge them with a regular charger (40 amps across 8 batteries isn't much) and they'd get at least some charge (should be 210 amps, but I don't think that's happening) while driving to the track.
Thursday I finally took a cap off one, put a stick in it, and it came out dry. I ended up pouring 8 gallons of water into them.
And drove it to the track. When I fired up the air compressor the next day, the inverter kicked off quickly because the battery voltage had gotten too low. Fortunately, idling my truck provided enough juice to run the compressor.
I have no choice but to replace these batteries soon. What's holding me back right now is the ones I want are $450 each.
Also time to replace the trailer tires, and I'm suffering a bit of sticker shock there.
But, on a more positive note, I got a lot of 1:51.3 lap times at MAM on Saturday. A little over 2 seconds faster than the stock setup. A full second faster than the very-developed Mustang.
First outing on Kumho Ecsta MX tires and I was pretty pleased with them, as far as street tires go. They seemed just as good as the gForce TA KD's, and were only $101 each. Better still, I was able to get wheels for that car for only $99 each. Need to grab up some more of them while they're still in stock. And will very likely make the move to Hoosier tires.
With Hoosiers, and the new, much more aggressive pads I've ordered, I think that car will very quickly get below 1:50 lap times. It'll be a no-brainer once the suspension pieces and (MAJOR) power adders arrive. I remember when I switched to Hoosiers on the Mustang after my lap times had gotten consistent on street tires, I shaved 4 seconds once I'd gotten used to the Hoosiers.
Tom, if you're reading this, I really am looking forward to hitting RA with this car. You likely remember how underpowered the WRX was going up the front straight and the 5-6 hill. I think that if this car is electronically limited on top speed, it'll hit that limit at RA or BIR. It's doing 120 on the comparatively short straight at MAM. I think it could see 150 or better at BIR.
Funny thing happened when I pulled into valet parking at a casino in Omaha, too. Two valets raced at top speed to get to the car first with the one on the driver's side declaring himself the winner. When I got out, I said "Slow night?" and he replied "Nice car!". <g>
It's really funny to see youngsters go out of their rabbit-assed minds when they see the thing. Just a week ago a kid in his unmuffled Neon was driving squirrely then raced his engine at the stop light next to me, looking over and grinning. He knew he was outgunned. He just wanted to see it happen. I rolled down the window and said "Crackah please!" which got a laugh out of him and his passenger, then took off just fast enough to stay barely ahead of him so he could tell his friends how close he came to beating an STi. hehe
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G'm De! & ya'll! So you like my answer, De!~LOL! No W & Trivia yet this morning. We got some little T-stoms last nite and a tad of rain, nothing BIG, DAMIT!!!
GM ADNLer's
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OT: Sigs. Funny, I'd never thought of my signature in the context of flying; only in the context of driving. But now that you mention it, it's probably funnier in the flying context.