Benj’s blog!

Whilst playing around with mod_throttle, I somehow managed to use up all the of the System V semaphores in the Kernel space and as a result could not restart Apache +modSSL (which tries to do a semget(), or so it seems!). I proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes Googling for a way to fix it without rebooting. 10 minutes is a long time to have to Google for something, some people probably give up after the first search!

So the purpose of this blog entry is to say if you’re having trouble with semget() returning No space left on device and you want to clear the active semaphores or reset them or whatever other keyword you might try when searching on Google with BSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD or whatever *BSD you use. The command you want is:

ipcs followed by ipcrm -s ID where ID is the ID of the semaphore you want to nuke!

I hope this helps some lazy person out there who uses Google for everything — when it comes to command line tools remember apropos keyword > Google!

… at least that’s what Michael Meacher thinks, writing in the Guardian on Saturday 6th September 2003. It’s an interesting article and I would have missed it if it wasn’t for the mailing from Richard K Moore’s (rkm) cyberjournal cj mailing list!

I spoke with a few friends today who speculated that the aircraft which “crashed” in Pennsylvania might have actually been shot down. Perhaps the delays that Meacher speaks about were actually the Pentagon or whoever figuring out the best solution. Imagine the uproar if it was made public knowledge that a US fighter shot down a plane full of US citizens? Instead they devised a strategy which made it look like an accident? Plausible, perhaps. Maybe I’ve been sucked in by the conspiracy theorist stuff after reading too much Chomsky.

Either way there is no disputing that Project for the New American Century actually exists, here’s the website. The document that Meacher refers to in his article is called Rebuilding America’s Defenses, and here’s a link to it, in PDF. Since I’m in a linking mood, here’s the letter from co-signed by Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and others to Bill Clinton, written in 1998, asking that he “turn your Administration’s attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam’s regime from power”.

So, you can see it’s not like he’s making this stuff up! I think rkm’s comment at the bottom of the email is particularly apt. “Many thanks to MP Meacher for his courage. I suggest to him that he does not walk his dog alone in the woods.”

That’s what it sounds like when someone crashes into the side of your car — I know that because that’s what happened to me this afternoon. Slowly and cautiously as ever, I drove into Sainsbury’s car park in Castle Retail Park and some young guy went through a give-way junction and BANG!

I sat for a while and gave him and evil look through the window before getting out; at first, whilst the cars were still connected it looked not so bad, I didn’t notice any damage. I asked him to reverse his car and then I saw my the front off-side wheel at a 30degree angle to the normal. My immediate thought was “Damn, this looks expensive!”

After exchanging details with the other driver, I spoke with my insurance company who processed the claim over the phone and sent someone to tow away the car (thanks to Sainsbury’s for letting me use the phone).

I emptied the car, put all my stuff in to bags and waited for the tow guy to appear, which he did within about 20 minutes. He laughed when he saw the damage, if there was a way to inflict maximum damage without blowing up the car and damaging as few panels as possible, this was it! From 3 sides the car looked fine, from the “passenger side” it looks pretty bad!

Safe in the knowledge my car was in good hands, I handed over the key and set off on the 3-mile walk home along the canal with bags in hand. Good job it was a pleasant afternoon. Assuming he keeps to his word and accepts the responsibility I should have a courtesy car to drive within a few days and no repair bill to pay nor should it affect my insurance excess.

Moral of the story? Call in at the petrol station first and drive in to the car park the back way.

Following on from BANG! …

Well, it turns out the guy was NOT insured to be driving his mum’s car and as a result there is no insurance company to claim against. It’s actually illegal to drive without insurance in the UK so I could press charges, but I think the other driver has been reasonable and honest in accepting the blame and agreeing to pay out of his own pocket. In addition, he’s off to University and so I think he has other things to worry about!

The only unfortunate thing is that I don’t get a courtesy car now unless I want to pay and try to charge him for it, hardly worth the effort and hassle, I’m sure I can cope without my car for a few weeks.

On Sunday, 21st September 2003, Channel 4 aired Johan Norberg’s Globalisation is Good. It was a short film in which Johan tries to demonstrate that Globalisation is a good thing; convincing me of that would be no small accomplishment!

Still, it’s great that Channel 4 as part of their ThinkTV series keep showing thought provoking films. I have to wonder is the person who scheduled it the same person who decided to show The Salon or BigBrother?!! As a friend pointed out, they’re offering alternative viewing, but for the masses …

Anyway, I decided to write to Johan with a few criticisms of his arguments, I wonder if he’ll reply?

Update 17th Oct — He replied a few days later.

Continue Reading »

It’s now sitting safely on the drive and seems to run OK. I took a picture of it on the transporter, will maybe upload that later on! The repairers have replaced about 15 items, including the wheel, passenger door shell and shock absorber. Ironically, when I took it out for a test drive I got stuck in 2 traffic jams — I now know that the CD player works!

Inspired by the number of people landing on this page via Google searches for “Gps for Mac” and other related terms, I did a little bit of work on the GPSMap software this evening. I’d forgotten what little bits of Cocoa I’d committed to memory but fortunately self-documenting Objective-C and Apple’s developer documentation make it less painful

I’ve animated a little red dot at the current location and am working on support for waypoints now. I’ve only seen one piece of GPS Software before, so I’m not sure what features are desirable. Will keep hacking away until I’m happy that it’s useful and easy to work with, then I’ll release it here.

Warning: This is one of those rare journal-style entries!

That’s 3 posts to the blog so far in the last 20 minutes, is that a new record? Johan Norberg dropped me a note in response to my email letting me know that he is “very busy for the moment with journeys and lectures” and that he’ll try to reply by the end of next week. I’ll post it here when it arrives. I had better order his book …

Haven’t mentioned music for a while, I’ve not been listening to a great deal of new stuff recently, mainly Paco de Lucia and Pat Metheny. My flamenco guitar is downstairs in the conservatory and I try to play for an hour or so each morning, listening to Paco play on his live albums is a good reason to want to practice. Talking of guitars, I “treated” my A2 students to some Lee Ritenour and Steve Lukather on DVD, I’m not sure if they were impressed?!

One final piece of news, on the 1st October 2003 (if everything goes to plan!) I start a part-time Ph.D. in the EPRG, under the supervision of Professor David Brailsford, I can’t wait to get started! I’ll write about my area(s) of research next week …

This entry was brought to you with the letters DMB and the album Before These Crowded Streets