I know some of you have been looking forward to the Nottingham pt. 2 post. It’s on its way, but I’m fighting a few issues with the sites’ databases at the moment. Comments were broken for a while but it looks like they’re up and running. Now I just have to find out how to fix “Cannot proceed because system tables used by Event Scheduler were found damaged at server start”…

That sounds healthy. If the site disappears off the face of the interweb, you’ll know why.

Apparently Virginmedia are taking a rapid change of direction when it comes to supplying equipment to their customers. Instead of a modem, it would appear I’ve been given a dialysis machine.

All it’s done for the past 12 hours is sit at the end of the bed, flashing its lights and taking the piss.

Sigh.

UPDATE: Internet is still off. The reason is that the junction box near to Mercuryvapour Towers burst into flames…

UPDATE THE SECOND: The internet downtime has now eaten into the 2nd day. We are also still without a house phone.

UPDATE THE THIRD: This lack of internet thing rumbles on. It’s been over 48 hours. No internet, and no phone. Oddly, I never, ever use the house phone, but am feeling uneasy at the fact it’s not there. It’s nice to be not disturbed by cold callers.

The engineers have been there for two days, with no resolution. Grrrr.

UPDATE THE FOURTH: Rather a pointless update this one if you’ve read the above post, but I had internet access again after 68 long smut-free hours.

Unfortunately, for the first time in years, Mercuryvapour towers is without internet. The lights on the modem are flashing, but there’s nobody home. Hopefully just a temporary issue as they prepare to upgrade. Still feels like I’ve lost a limb though. I’m passing the time watching weightlifting. Joy.

Update: Still down, commonwealth games numbing the boredom slightly. Not much, mind. Come on, Virgin. I have stuff to do…

Update: Back up. Yay. Using a proper keyboard again.

Looks like the site is having database issues at the moment. Might have to restore from the last backup, which was yesterday. I’ll investiage shortly when I’ve got the tools for the job. It might just need a repair, it might need more.

Or I might just stick it on the “Can’t be arsed” pile.

Edit: From what I can gather, the server restarted about 6 hours ago and the stats table was goosed since then. The repair on the database took longer than expected, mainly due to the size of this stats table, but it appears to have survived with only a tiny amount of data being written off, certainly not enough to warrant restoring from a backup.

The site lives to fight another day! I bet you can’t wait for my next installation of shit music and lamp posts.

Oh, I can’t believe this has just happened. In fact, I have a little lump in my throat as I type this, but I have broken my trusty little Acer camera, which has been the stalwart of my photography since winter 2006. Over those 4 years, it’s not been far from my pocket, capturing the entirety of my trips to Edinburgh, Paris and Berlin over those past 4 years, along with many thousands of other images which have resided mainly on my flickr account since then.It’s even seen uses in situations where my main camera is a bit too bulky to carry around

Unfortunately, as quickly as it came into my life, and filled it full of wonderment, it exited, and has already left a gaping hole. I was taking some random photos earlier, mainly of a delicious curry I’d made, complete with incredibly undercooked chillies, when the batteries ran out. “Gah”, I thought as the lens retracted, and the power went off.

I slapped it in my trouser pocket, and proceeded to take the charger upstairs with me. As I bent over, to plug it in, I heard a shuddering crack. Knowing that there was only one thing my pocket, except for my keys, I knew something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

And, indeed it had. My faithful little Acer, had, for some reason, switched itself back on and the lens had fully extended while in my pocket. I’d say that I’d accidentally switched it on with my massive penis, but these jeans are quite thick and the “on” button is quite small, meaning that any accidental button pushing with my enormous phallus is highly unlikely.

I removed it from my pocket to find the lens jammed in partially, After switching it off and back on, the lens motor sounded particularly unhealthy, and the lens got stuck halfway. I was presented with a “lens error”, and the camera switched itself off.

I’ve enjoyed using it, and have put it through probably more than it was designed for. The case is scratched to hell and back. The lens cover itself would occasionally get stuck when opening, The screen’s cracked, and there’s dirt on the sensor, as shown here…

The dirt is that little dark patch on the left, in case you didn’t know, or are thick. As can be seen in that photo, however, is that even after that amount of time, it still takes a good picture.

The batteries are on charge, so hopefully after a small amount of charge, it’ll be good to go again. It’ll be a sad day when it finally enters that little bit of drawer space in the sky.