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I don’t like all these negative posts, but… The “destruction” left by SoftRAID is still surfacing. Like the spill in the Gulf, this just doesn’t go away, even when you think things are getting better. I’ve been adding some albums each night this week. The next day, iTunes was back where it started. Hey, what happened to my new tracks?!?! I started to suspect my backup routine had gotten screwed up in the SoftRAID debacle. Today, I decided to really dig in to this. Well, while not directly attributable to the SoftRAID “mess”, I did have issues from when I moved my library to the “new” SoftRAID. In the end, I found that numerous aliases I had created were pointing to the wrong drives and directories. Slowly, one by one, I fixed them as I uncovered them. When I did, I made sure to fire up SuperDuper and run backups. I now believe I have everything corrected. I added a few albums to iTunes and they seems to have remained, even after a reboot. Time will tell, but I certainly hope I am over this “mess”. I don’t usually have a negative opinion… but in this case, SoftRAID 4 definitely SUCKS! I only had minor issues in the past with SoftRAID 3. It just seemed to ‘work’ and you never had to think about it. When the upgrade (and 30-day trial) for version 4 was offered, I jumped. It seemed like a worthwhile upgrade, and there was real value in being able to try the new features for 30 days. It was going along fine, until I had six days remaining. That was when I had troubles beyond belief. The drives in the RAID array started to go away. Then, I couldn’t rebuild the set. Then, I was informed there was an unrecoverable error. Then, I was told there was a problem with the partition data, and I should contact SoftRAID support to assist in fixing this “major” problem. It went downhill from there… I had troubles, but was able to reformat the drives that were involved. It should be noted there was NO hardware failure of any kind, in any of the drives. It was all due to SoftRAID ‘losing it’s mind’ and not being able to recover. I had a good backup, so knew I could restore. The only problem, it took forever to restore, then rebuild my iTunes Library. It isn’t *that* big, but around 65K tracks. Way more than I could ever dream to recover from scratch. Anyway, thought all was well, after hours of restore, and rebuilding iTunes. And then I come to find I was really trashed. The library I thought was back, was really in a state of disarray. So, now in the process of recovery from my “back up of the back up…” Hopefully I will soon see how much SoftRAID really cost me. —–
I was running fine previously. I know the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But that never stopped me in the past, and I wasn’t going to let it stand in the way this time either. So I utilized the (actually pretty cool) automatic upgrade feature of WP. That has worked in the past for minor upgrades, so had confidence it would work now. The first step is always, make a back-up. Sure, I’m sure I have a back-up, so I don’t want to waste time on that now. I probably didn’t skim the instructions since it is all “automatic”, why bother. I can always read them later if I have trouble. Trouble I did have, too… The upgrade sputtered and stalled. I kept forging ahead, and trying a few times. Finally it seemed to work. Then there was the matter of plugins. There was some overlooked instruction (probably right after the ‘back-up first’ statement) that I failed to notice. Mind you, I don’t know if that was the culprit, but I think caching and other nuances may have been involved. I struggled to upgrade the plugins, with the same spit and sputter as the core modules. Finally I gave in and closed the admin window, and attempted to start the blog. It was then I realized that I messed up, big time! The blog was just a white screen when opened. There were no errors, but there was not a speck of content either. I pondered what could have gone wrong and struggled to back out. Finally I gave up in defeat and headed for bed. This morning, I decided to try again. There was no way to login, no way to access administration or configuration pages. No errors, but nothing was displayed. I logged on remotely to the server. The files “looked” fine, but looks can be deceiving. I finally stopped wasting time, and decided to restore from my backup that I was sure would make everything whole. I restored from a point, yesterday at 18:00. That was before I started monkeying around. Still no blog. I continued back in time to noon. Still nothing. I went back to midnight of the day before; absolutely nothing. Sure the files were there, but there was some deep underlying issue. I then attempted to use my SQL database backup that gets mailed to me every 12 hours. I went back to the morning before my upgrade (since nothing would have changed) and it still wouldn’t work after importing the DB. After reading and looking for others who may have suffered the same as me (I found none, of course) I read detailed instructions for the installation / upgrade. I decided to take some drastic measures and deleted all WP files on the server, short of my content, files, photos, etc. I then SFTP’d the new software to the server. After playing with and adjusting permissions, it “seems” to work now. The version has been upgraded, and all the plugins as well. I’m going to run a backup now. At least I have a site that appears to be functioning at the moment. I might run into an issue here and there, but for the most part, it seems to be running fine. Leave a comment and let me know if you stumble on any broken parts or pieces. So, Dad helped me to finally get logged back on to Spymac. I first found Spymac in the early days, in 2004. Then it grew wildly, and collapsed in on itself. Friends and acquaintances scattered to the four corners of the Internet, as they fled the demise of the Community. Some appeared on Open Salon, photos on Flickr, or other hangouts.
It had been years, literally, since my last login. At least three, from what I can tell… It almost seems so simple, just go direct to the login link, as opposed to the “Login” button on any page. (http://classic.spymac.com/login.php)
Been poking around the old stomping grounds. It’s really good to see the embers are still glowing. Gadget Don (and/or others) seem to be doing a good job keeping the Community from fading off in to eternity. It certainly must be a labor of love.
Of course, I never found a place quite like SM. After I departed, I wandered aimlessly. Facebook was the up and comer, and I finally had signed up. Now, seeing the SM Community once again, FB doesn’t hold a candle. SM allowed real discussions (and arguments) on a wealth of topics; hardware, software, trivia, nonsense, or news of the day. You could actually have a “conversation” on just about any topic. You could ask for help, or just babble. New friends almost always seemed like “real” friends. There was a great bunch of people who “lived” in SM.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Not that my FB friends are not great folks, but you (or maybe it’s just me) don’t get to know most of them like you did on SM. (Of course, there are a surprising number of those old SM friends who are now on FB, too. It’s a small world… ) My early FB quest for friends mostly involved building a gang, or Mafia, or something… And I do certainly have a large number of family, real-life friends and colleagues on FB.
Then there is FB in general. I liken it to a Twitter machine on full volume, pumping out an endless stream of noise, spam, and an occasional nugget of news or interesting event in a friend’s life. The problem, unless of course I really don’t know how to control that “noise”, is that you can never really keep up with anyone or anything. Not, at least from a ‘friends’ perspective. It seems like it’s all or nothing. You visit their “wall” and it’s snippets of life at that moment. I don’t take the time to scroll back, and thus likely miss an awful lot. And there is no real “mingling”, it’s just separate silos of information.
Anymore, FB is just my Farmville playground… Yep, I contribute to the spam I complain about. Oh well, when in Rome…
But in the end, it sure would be great if the Spymac Community can rise from the ashes with TLC from some devoted folks behind the curtain. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed to a new beginning.
I just stumbled upon this app for the new iPad. I guess it works with the iPhone as well, and is supposed to work with both. I’ll have to give that a try later… But, in any event, it really seems to work. At least to create the blog entry. We’ll have to see if it will post to my personal blog. The other item of note is that this post is from my new iPad. I’ve had the device since Monday, and really haven’t played with it that much. I did try to get it setup, added or upgraded a few apps, watched a movie via Netflix, and looked around for tips and tricks as well as productivity apps. Still have a ways to go, but I will admit now that this on-screen keyboard (in portrait mode here) really works quite well. Lots more to explore, but two thumbs up (and maybe a high-five if this posts!). I’m sure I’ll post more thoughts as time goes on. – Posted from my iPad… After playing games with the shipping information, I followed along earlier today. Really didn’t have my hopes up before this morning. When I saw the iPad in Anchorage, I thought I might have a chance to snag it today. My fear was I would try to out guess UPS and sit at the office all day waiting, when they had no intention of showing because they “knew” the office was closed on Saturday. However, I watched closely, looking for “news” that it was on the truck for delivery, just like (my favorite) FedEx does. Well, when it didn’t show for a few hours I stood down from making a quick run to the office. I really quit watching the status and settled back to read reviews and get ready for Monday. Well, wouldn’t you know it, there was an attempt today! No word it was on the truck or anything. That was at 13:29…  Missed my iPad, since the office was closed. So, after about ten minutes trying to find a phone number (they really don’t want you to call) I finally found one. Surprisingly it answered right away and there was no hold. (I guess it is Saturday, and they really make it difficult to even find a number, so that probably isn’t surprising after all; they don’t have many callers.) Spoke to a nice agent who offered to look up the tracking info and let me know if the “2nd attempt” would be today (Saturday) or next business day, Monday. The latter was my guess, and that was confirmed. Oh well, back to reading the reviews and finding out what others think of theirs… Looking forward to Monday once again. I will never know for certain… Maybe the previous shipping information and exceptions (before they were scrubbed) really indicated the iPads were being “held” at the main UPS hub in Louisville, Kentucky. Maybe the ANC entry (and hold exception) was on the way through… (Although I don’t think so, based on the date / time of the entries.) But in any event, my iPad is “officially” in Anchorage! According to UPS tracking info, and information from FlightAware, the package was on UPS80, a 747-400 that arrived at PANC at 07:27. I’ve looked at the information, after an hour, and my guess is they won’t even put it on the truck today. However, if I see a change in status, I’ll definitely make a run for the office. It would be worth a gamble, just in case. Here is the UPS information:  UPS tracking info for my iPad  UPS Flight 80 - KSDF to PANC - 2010-04-03 Above is the FlightAware information for UPS80. I received shipping notice from Apple on Monday, March 29, 2010 06:35:22 AM AKDT. I clicked the link in the email and my iPad showed billing information received on Monday. Later in the day, it showed Shenzhen. Early on Tuesday, March 30, it showed an “exception” for Brokerage Services in Louisville, KY. Wednesday morning, it showed another package exception; that it was in the depot in Anchorage and holding. On Wednesday afternoon, I went to show a guy at work my status, and lo-and-behold, the billing information date showed April 1, and that it had not left China. Origin scan still shows 18:11, March 29 in Shenzhen. On Thursday, the information changed to show billing information received April 2, with the origin scan still March 29 at 18:11. Thursday evening, Alaska time, the update shows a departure scan on April 2, 16:10 in Guangzhou. Now, I believe, *someone* is willfully manipulating shipping / tracking data. UPS will depot the iPads, such as in Anchorage, or your local hub, to clear Customs and stage for release on the third. I don’t care mine is sitting; Apple set the expectation of receiving on April 3. The fact that it’s staged doesn’t bother me. UPS, as does FedEx, have the facilities to depot large shipments such as this… What is most disconcerting is the manipulation of the shipping data for whatever reason. The ability to do this makes ALLshipping tracking info suspect in my opinion from this point forward. If they want to “play games” and build the suspense, or for any other reason, manipulation of the data is wrong. The delivery date is out there, live with it. I strongly suspect UPS may have had a hand in this, probably more so than Apple. Can you imagine their hubs and depots being deluged by anxious recipients knowing their iPads where behind closed doors at their local UPS hub, and wanting to pick it up early? In any case, I ordered mine around 05:45 Alaska time on March 12. I guess it was too early and I didn’t realize April 3 was a Saturday. I had it delivered to the office, which isn’t open on Saturday, and so I won’t get mine until the 5th anyhow… I received an email this morning from Apple. It seems that my iPad, pre-ordered early on the morning of March 12 when it was first released, has shipped. Looks like it is coming via UPS, direct from Shenzhen, China. A few of us have speculated if Apple would “pre-ship” to a depot (whether FedEx or UPS in the US) and then distribute from there. Well, my guess was wrong… I have the tracking info, and it was “picked up” at 18:11 on March 29 in Shenzhen. Supposed to be delivered “by April 3.” Unfortunately I had mine delivered to the office along with all of the accessories I ordered. I wasn’t sure how to handle that when I placed the original order. Over this past weekend, I thought of calling Apple today (Monday, the 29th) and having the address changed to the house. At first I didn’t realize that April 3 was on a Saturday. So, when it’s all said and done, I probably won’t have mine until the 5th. Oh well, those sly devils… Oh well, soon enough… But I really can’t wait to see the device. |
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Then they beat me to the punch and shipped before I could call.
