Category: Random

TNS-12157 TNS:internal network communication error

It’s getting difficult and a little depressing trying to make a blog comment or forum post these days. It seems every time you do you risk offending someone.

Tag me stupid, baby! seemed more than a little relevant.

The comments associated with some high-profile blogs only serve to depress me more. It’s like the pedants and PC freaks have come out in force lately. I don’t know what the answer is and I’m sure, like everyone else, I am part of the problem, but I think everyone should take a step back from the keyboard and chill out!

I’m not sure how I’m going to approach my next posts as my enthusiasm has died a little due to all this.

Remember, this post is not about you, it’s not a criticism of you and if you take it that way you are merely proving my point.

Cheers

Tim…

It’s clobbering time!

I went to see “The Fantastic 4” at the cinema over the weekend. I though it was pretty cool, but it did suffer from the usual problem of spending half the film telling you how they became superheros. Why anyone would want to make Jessica Alba invisible is beyond me 🙂

I think I’m going to buy my one nephew (3.5 years old) a “Thing” action figure if I see one. Just before the film was released in the UK he saw a picture of Thing in a magazine and the following exchange happened.

James: What’s that?
Me: It’s a man called Thing.
James: What’s wrong with his skin? Is he poorly?
Me: No.
James: Is he made of rock?
Me: Yes.
James: Why has he got big boots on?
Me: Because he’s got big feet.
James: Why? …. Repeat to infinity.

Still makes me laugh thinking of the thought process. Kids brains are cool!

On the subject of James, while I was visiting him this weekend he took my Ganesha figure that I always carry in my pocket and hid it in one of his wellington boots. Needless to say that got found after I left, so I’m without him for a whole week. He’s been with me for a few months now, so I’m feeling a little lost without him.

Cheers

Tim…

The calm after the storm…

Things are just starting to return to normal… I hope 🙂

The disruption associated with the production hardware reconfiguration seems to have calmed down now. Of course, not all of the problems were associated directly with the hardware changes, but the time you spend on one problem distracts you from other jobs you should be doing, which in turn creates new issues.

We have finally moved all the database backups over to RMAN against HP Data Protector, rather than the disk-based RMAN backups we were doing before. The software seems to work fine, but the physical processes are taking some time to get used to. Rather than having a tape labeled “Monday night application X backup”, we now have a bank of tapes in a media pool that can hold portions of several backups. It’s not rocket science, but it can be a bit of a culture shock when you start changing processes that have been in place for years. It takes a while for people to get used to the idea that you don’t know which tapes must be removed and taken offsite until the software tells you.

Fun, fun, fun 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Life is funny!

My osteopath just told me two funny stories today.

Fireworks
He treated a guy this week who had been drafted in as part of a team to organize a large firework display in Birmingham. The fireworks were all stored safely, but the guys took their homemade detonators back to the hotel with them. A cleaner walked in, saw all the gear, flipped and called the police. Next thing you know the police storm in arrest the guys and evacuate the center of Birmingham. The papers claim local businesses (mostly pubs) lost more than 1 million pounds of business as a result of the evacutation. If this sounds familiar see Welcome to my world!

You can imagine the scene down at the police station.

Firework guy: We’re not linked to Al Qaeda! We’re just preparing for Fireworks Fantasia!
Police: Now listen here sonny Jim, we weren’t born yesterday…

I know it’s not a funny subject, but it made me laugh.

Penguin
One of his patients took their 20 year old Down’s Syndrome son to a local zoo & theme park recently. Whilst there he repeatedly asked to go on the log flume ride, which they refused because they didn’t want him to get wet. At one point he went off on his own and when he returned he was soaked through. Naturally they assumed he had gone on the log flume ride, which he denied. When they got home the boy went to his room leaving his mother to unpack the bags. When she opened her son’s rucksack she found a penguin staring at her!

She rang the zoo, who said, “We’ll check if it’s one of ours!”, to which she replied, “Where else would he get a penguin from in Birmingham?”. Anyway, they fed the penguin pilchards until a man from the zoo came to pick it up.

I can only assume that the guy has seriously quick reflexes or it was one tame penguin!

I cannot guarantee that either of these stories are true, but they had me in stitches between blood-curdling crunches of my spine!

Cheers

Tim…

PS. My back feels good now! I reckon I’ll be OK to go to Karate tomorrow 🙂

Welcome to my world!

I went to watch “War of the Worlds” at the cinema on Saturday. Visually fantastic, but a rather so-so film in all, and Tom Cruise is seriously lightweight in it. When I came out I found the roads blocked by police and lots of people walking away from the city center. It turns out there was a bomb scare in the center of Birmingham so they were evacuating everyone. I guess the events in London last week have made everyone a little jumpy. Straight out of a disaster movie and into a real life disaster…. almost.

So that’s the state of play in my world, but let’s not forget the really important news, Harry Potter’s ‘Half Blood Prince’ Leaked.

Now consider the following words carefully. IT’S A CHILDREN’S BOOK!!!!!

Who gives a monkies if a few copies are sold early! If this were a piece of software it would have been released two years ago and bug-fixed to it’s current level with several service packs.

Every now and then events happen that bring a certain clarity with them. All I can think is that if the early release of a kids book is that important, we are doomed.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. The rather grumpy tone of this post is in part due to a lack of sleep caused by a dodgy back. I’m going to hit the pain killers later, which should improve my mood 🙂

My Back Hurts!

OK. The pattern usually goes something like this:

  1. I injure my back doing something stupid, like Karate.
  2. The osteopath cracks it back into position.
  3. Yoga keeps my back flexible, strong and happy.
  4. Everything goes well for a few months.
  5. Goto 1.

Wow. That’s the first time I’ve used a goto statement since I was a kid programming on a ZX81 🙂

Anyway, on Friday one of the girls at Karate asked me if my back was OK. She said I wasn’t moving well and thought my back might have gone out again. Everything felt good so I thought nothing more of it.

Next day, bang. My back felt nasty. Added to that, I had promised to teach two Yoga classes for a friend who was away for his wedding anniversary. I managed to muddle through the classes OK, but my sciatic nerve was firing like crazy making my left leg freak out.

I’ve just got to survive a day of playing with my nephews today before a hasty trip to the oeseopath so I can start the cycle again.

You gotta laugh…

Cheers

Tim…

Star Wars, Lego and a Webcam…

I’ll start this post by stating the few facts:

  • I’m not a major Star Wars fan. I’ve watched all the films, but I’m certainly not a geek about them.
  • I played with Lego as a kid, but it’s not my thing now, unless I’m playing with my nephew.
  • I don’t own a webcam. Actually I can’t think of anything worse than seeing moving pictures of myself on the net.

That said, I think this link is really cool: Lego Start Destroyer

I just think it’s really funny. Imagine the scene, it’s midnight and you decide to build an enormous Lego model of a star destroyer that takes you 10 hours to complete. On top of that you decide to film it using your webcam to create a time-lapse recording of the event for the world to see. Fantastic!

I love technology 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Robert Freeman’s Blog…

I’ve just noticed that Robert Freeman has removed the ability to add comments to his blog and may stop blogging altogether, see his post entitled Removal of comments…

I hope he’s able to carry on blogging. I think it’s good to hear a variety of opinions and I like to read peoples off-topic posts as they give an idea of the personality behind the blog.

Cheers

Tim…