tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68785000086955731732024-02-08T04:56:06.751-06:00The Nazg SpeakethThe Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-30492437235339378052015-07-01T16:27:00.000-05:002015-07-01T16:28:02.782-05:00Corrupted .git/config Files and JenkinsFor an as-yet-undetermined reason, many job workspaces in my Jenkins server had corrupted config files in their Git clones. The files weren't piles of binary trash... they were just missing most of their content. Many of the files just looked like this:
url = ssh://git@myserver.mydomain.com/myproject/myproject.git
[remote The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-61504942721444921802014-02-21T11:54:00.000-06:002014-02-21T11:54:03.827-06:00When Every Other Connection Consistently Fails...$ nslookup mybox.mydomain.com
Server: 192.168.0.100
Address: 192.168.0.100#53
Name: mybox.mydomain.com
Address: 192.168.0.2
Name: mybox.mydomain.com
Address: 192.168.0.7
One address is the correct one, the other is bogus. So, every other DNS lookup gives the good address, and every other gives the bad address. Thus, consistently connecting everyThe Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-22921283824049376802013-12-30T11:55:00.000-06:002013-12-30T11:55:05.954-06:00"Why Does E = mc²?" by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw
Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?) was another recommendation from Dan Satterfield. I happened to read it after the two Frank Close books, which was serendipitous for me -- learning stuff in the first two seemed to help me ease through this one just fine. I learned the simple basics of the E=mc2 equation years ago, even though I wasn't taught why it meant what it did, The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-75000433727446612352013-12-23T11:33:00.000-06:002013-12-23T11:33:49.945-06:00"Neutrino" by Frank Close
On a recommendation from Dan Satterfield, I picked up "Neutrino" by Frank Close, hoping to get an idea of what a neutrino actually is. I was not disappointed.
I always enjoy a historical narrative of what leads to a given discovery. Most of the book is that story as it unfolded for the neutrino particle, from its imagined existence to its discovery to its acceptance.
I never quite The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-52086924623466969332013-12-16T12:02:00.000-06:002013-12-16T12:02:33.391-06:00"Antimatter" by Frank Close
As I was looking for Frank Close's "Neutrino", based on a recommendation from Dan Satterfield, I found his other book "Antimatter", so I picked up both. As Antimatter was published first, I tackled it first.
Seeing a sequence of discoveries, and how one step steers into another step, is something that I enjoy. Frank's history on the process that discovered the positron fits this The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-61285746405101856002013-12-09T14:38:00.001-06:002023-11-27T08:04:51.628-06:00Running in 2013
I spent my summer and fall of 2013 generally devoted to one long term goal -- run the Huntsville Half-Marathon. This was not overly ambitious, as I'd run it before in 2010, leading up to the full Rocket City Marathon a month later. My true goal was simply fitness... I wanted to feel better, and thought I'd likely drop some weight if I succeeded. The race goal was a more The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-60844202086404948702013-04-16T16:23:00.000-05:002013-04-16T16:23:34.718-05:00Using TKPROF? Don't Rename Your Trace Files!Note to self: an Oracle trace file must still be named its original name if you want TKPROF to accept it for processing.
I received two Oracle trace files, after both had been renamed to be more meaningful in the current troubleshooting context. I then churned butter for 30 minutes, trying to understand why TKPROF would not do anything except say "could not open trace file". The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-66107601798038521862012-10-31T12:23:00.002-05:002012-10-31T12:23:45.950-05:00Turn Those IF Branches AroundWhen I find a conditional structure of IF-ELSEIF-ELSE or bigger, in most cases I've noticed that the first things being checked for are the exceptional conditions, the exclusionary conditions, and then the expected follow-the-rules condition will be the last piece. In effect, the branch that gets chosen the most is the last one reached.
In looking for refactoring opportunities to simplify The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-5446988004122150882012-10-31T10:17:00.000-05:002012-11-03T16:54:24.327-05:00Improving My Use of Database Lookup Tables in PHP<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
<![endif]-->
When you're deep in code and realize that each item of a batch needs to check some other info from somewhere else, the most straightfoward way to get the info you The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-62728129976942483992012-08-15T16:47:00.000-05:002012-08-15T16:49:40.385-05:00Overcoming LDAP "Size Limit Exceeded" Query Limitations in PHPMy experience with large LDAP query result sets left me looking for a good workaround for the server-side Size Limit setting, which can't be overridden from the query client. I found several examples online that basically just split one large query into alphabet-based individual queries that aggregated results. I've modified this approach into something I think is more elegant, and inThe Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-47659896379465949042012-03-16T08:10:00.001-05:002012-03-16T08:12:19.473-05:00DocBlox Is Unmasked ... It Is Really phpDocumentor 2 !Announcing phpDocumentor 2 -- the merging of the old (phpDocumentor) and the new (DocBlox).
With the first alpha release of phpDocumentor (2.0.0a1), the new "Responsive" default template sports a new page layout, along with the useful layout improvements that the original DocBlox templates provided (which remain available) over the old phpDocumentor templates (which will retire with old The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-28014737565212624072009-09-30T13:17:00.014-05:002009-10-01T20:30:45.907-05:00CodeWorks '09 - AtlantaI was lucky enough to hit the Atlanta stop of the 2009 CodeWorks conference tour earlier this week. It was great seeing faces I'd not seen since php|works nearly a year ago, and I greatly enjoyed the sessions I was able to attend. In particular, I've learned about several PHPUnit features that I was unaware of which will come in handy with the varied continuous integration work I'm involved in The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-82857814268533707332009-02-04T08:00:00.000-06:002009-02-04T08:32:47.336-06:00Configuring Builds for PEAR Packages in phpUnderControlAs my key goal for 2009, getting my own phpUnderControl (hereafter referred to as "pUC") instance up and running was very satisfying. This was made much easier by having Matthew Turland's post about his experience setting up an instance on Debian, since my setup on Ubuntu Hardy LTS was architecturally nearly identical.Following the "Getting Started" instructions at pUC's site was easily enough The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-41447368564360088632009-01-05T13:03:00.023-06:002009-01-10T23:57:08.824-06:00Looking Ahead... 2009My retrospective on 2008 naturally led me to pondering what goals I hope to achieve in the coming year.Professional goals:Setting up my own continuous integration box specifically for my PEAR development is an open item I've had for myself for a good long time. One thing that's complicated this dream of mine is that since I want it specifically for my PhpDocumentor development work, I want to The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-63412067143534905672009-01-05T13:02:00.048-06:002009-01-09T08:08:33.043-06:00Looking Back... 2008After first entering the PHP world in 2006, then getting involved with PEAR via PhpDocumentor in 2007, I'd say 2008 was my big PHP year, though I hope to go farther in 2009.Big stepsI was elected to the 2008-2009 PEAR Group during the summer.I became a technical reviewer for Travis' Git book over the fall. While not technically a "PHP moment", the experience has infected me with a "get publishedThe Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-79881354242086534372009-01-03T22:50:00.053-06:002009-01-04T02:45:30.623-06:00Seven Things - Tagged By Jeff JonesWhoa, someone actually did tag me. And there I was thinking I'd managed to get myself shunned by the #phpapp/#works crowd as punishment for not getting an talk idea in for #tek ;-P So then, my Seven Deadly(-to-my-rep) Nazgbits:Due to being a "Jr" named for a middle-named "Richard" that goes by "Dick", I had the memorable experience of my dad proclaiming to my extended family right after my highThe Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-80320128819231591012008-12-02T07:34:00.016-06:002009-09-30T13:12:39.477-05:00Remote CLI Debugging via Eclipse PDTAbout a month ago, I finally sat still long enough to get "PHP Web Page" debugging via Xdebug figured out in Eclipse PDT. As far as my Eclipse setup went, this involved installing PHP itself locally with xdebug added, and telling Eclipse where I put it all. From the very first remote PHP file I ran through the debug session, I could tell I've been missing out on a very useful tool. The only The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-63748892833268865352008-11-15T16:02:00.023-06:002008-11-16T11:33:31.940-06:00php|works 2008After attending my very first PHP conference in October (php|appalachia), this past week I attended my first "has the open bar switched to cash bar yet"-level conference, php|works... what a great experience it was.With the huge lineup of sessions available, I found myself torn between choices more than once. I enjoyed a nice mix of new concepts (traits, map-filter-reduce), improvement The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-16062717962829702332008-08-20T10:05:00.002-05:002008-08-20T10:05:52.153-05:00Next Bug Triage Days for PEARPEAR's next Bug Triage days are this weekend:Saturday 4 PM - 9 PM UTC (that's 11a - 4p for me on US Central time)Sunday 4 PM - 10 PM UTC (11a - 5p for me)The agenda is posted on the wiki. Join us on EFNet's #pear-bugs IRC channel if you can help out!The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-56131125326199692772008-08-01T08:59:00.004-05:002008-08-01T09:33:45.746-05:00Next Bug Triage Days for PEARPEAR's next Bug Triage days are this weekend:Saturday 4 PM - 9 PM UTC (that's 11a - 4p for me on US Central time)Sunday 4 PM - 10 PM UTC (11a - 5p for me)The agenda is posted on the wiki. Join us on EFNet's #pear-bugs IRC channel if you can help out!The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-57219890059411981462008-06-19T07:29:00.003-05:002008-06-19T07:49:04.361-05:00Polyphasic: FAILFamily responsibilities over the last few days trumped my nap times, especially yesterday when I had to bring my youngest son with me to the office... try telling your energetic seven year old "Daddy has to turn out all the lights in the room and sleep for 30 minutes... you just sit there and do nothing, ok?" My babysitter informed me at 10p the night before she wouldn't make it, so I planned The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-18108136362510989092008-06-09T08:31:00.015-05:002008-06-09T09:44:13.123-05:00Faltered: Polyphasic, the Events of Week #3My week at the beach was a great vacation, though it unexpectedly put a temporary halt on my polyphasic pattern halfway through. Now that I'm back home, I'll recover my pattern... but what led to such failure?Preparing for the drive down to the beach was slightly tricky, in that I needed to plan around my naps. With six people traveling together across two vehicles, I didn't want to impose any The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-80896591348095932422008-05-27T23:36:00.004-05:002008-05-28T00:04:58.881-05:00Update: Polyphasic, Night #12The past week has seen some triumphs and some failures, though I must concede that I have not yet reached the true polyphasic rhythm. In preparation for an overnight visit from my mother on Thursday, I did an excellent job keeping myself busy all night Wednesday night cleaning the house. Then on Thursday, I let myself miss my 5:30p and 9:30p naps, to get in more visiting time while she was hereThe Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-37510433437717321182008-05-20T23:07:00.005-05:002008-05-20T23:58:21.506-05:00Update: Polyphasic, Night #5So, tonight begins my 5th night following the polyphasic sleep pattern I'd mapped out. Staying awake between naps during the overnight hours is definitely proving to be the hardest part. My brain is in enough of a fog during those hours that I come really close to dozing off, thinking "it's perfectly normal to doze off when I feel this sleepy"... i.e. I'm forgetting about my experiment! To The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6878500008695573173.post-19231573597004532102008-05-16T09:17:00.017-05:002008-05-16T10:30:13.650-05:0020 Hour Days, Here I Come !!!Thanks to seeing Travis' post earlier this week, I discovered this oddity called "polyphasic sleep". After reading Steve Pavlina's entire journey he blogged back in 2005 and the success he found, I can't help but give this a shot. The only thing higher than "more time!!" on my "want want want" list is "hit the lottery" :-PIn comparing Steve's lifestyle with my own (based on other postings on The Nazghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17911812320307426426noreply@blogger.com0