Dave’s Ramblings

Occasionally recurring jobs will get hung, especially with jobs fired off from cron that are scheduled to run every minute. In my case there is a job that runs every minute to pick up status files from numerous remote servers, the script gets the files, parses them, and then plugs them into a MySQL database. That data is later parsed on demand by a php page to display different status information about the remote servers. All in all it works quite well, until something gets hung, especially if the NFS mount for the database has a hiccup, once the first database connect hangs it tends to hang the subsequent jobs as well... quickly filling up the available memory and of course crashes or hangs any other web pages trying to access the database.

A quick and dirty way to right things without typing or copy/pasting a bazillion pids to a kill -9

Nothing magical about it, the for loop scans the output from the ps command for the process_name, awk parses out the pid #, the loop performs a kill -9 for each pid returned.
Like I mentioned, nothing magical about it, but a quick efficient method of killing what can be hundreds of processes.

Happy hacking!

Another surprise development by Sun, paying out $1 billion to aquire MySQL, that's reported to be $800K in cash and $200K in options. Rumor had it that Oracle has been trying to aquire MySQL a number of times in the past however they would not sell out to the database holding giant. Likely fearing that it would be squashed or strangled into non-existance or having licensing fees placed on the millions of open source community users.

Sun, having no other real database offering stands to be in a great position in the Open Source community. History shows Sun is willing to stand up for open source projects, MySQL developers should be allowed to continue development to improve the already stable database platform with new funding.

MySQL has a very proven track record with LAMP, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP as the leading webserver platform used all over the world. No other OS platform can match the performance and stability of LAMP proven time and again in native Linux enviroments. It has forever changed the landscape of the internet as a whole, for large web hosting companies and the general developer.

As reported by ComputerWorld and more details can be found here.

In a press release yesterday, ComputerWorld reports that Oracle is slated to buy BEA for $8.5 billion dollars. BEA best known for it's Tuxedo middleware application server and their Weblogic webserver, both heavily used and licensed for another of Oracle's recent purchases, the 800lb gorilla that everyone loves to hate, PeopleSoft, the Flagship of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications.

What does this mean for BEA's products? At this point anyone who knows isn't saying, however another press conference is scheduld for 1/17 where more details should be released.

Dear fellow gun owner:

A very important bill has been quietly making its way through the legislature. In order for it to become law, you need to contact your legislators.

Assembly Bill AB581, authored by Representative Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), would prohibit the state or municipalities from confiscating guns or ammunition during declared states of emergency.

You no doubt recall the events after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, when law-abiding citizens had their guns forcibly taken from them.

Under current law, the governor, as well as other officials, have the authority to exercise emergency powers. AB581 would prohibit the state or municipalities from using such emergency powers to restrict the possession, sale, transfer, transport, storage, display or use of firearms or
ammunition.

While Wisconsin is not in a hurricane zone, our state does experience natural disasters. We have also experienced riots. It is at times such as these when having a firearm for home defense is of paramount importance.

AB581 passed the Assembly by an overwhelming vote of 84 to 13, with two members absent. The next step for the bill is a vote in the state Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Weston) has stated that he favors the bill, and hopes that it will pass in the Senate. Governor Doyle has not said whether he would sign the bill or not. His office has merely indicated that he would review it.

We cannot allow the anti-gun members of the legislature to water down this bill with amendments. And the bill must pass the Senate with such an overwhelming majority that Governor Doyle will have no choice but to sign it.

Following the gun confiscations in New Orleans, over a dozen states passed laws similar to AB581. If you value your right ot keep and bear arms, please take a few minutes to write or call your state senator and ask that he or she support this bill. If you don't know who your state senator is, go to http://waml.legis.state.wi.us.

From The Wisconsin Concealed Carry Association

Yesterday, Governor Doyle proposed a series of anti-gun laws that could
seriously affect you, your friends, and your family.

One proposal is a law to "close the gunshow loophole." This proposal would
ban all private sales of firearms. All sales would have to go through a
licensed dealer, and the buyer would have to undergo a background check. Not
only will this make it more difficult for you to buy or trade guns with your
friends or family, but it will also make it more expensive. Remember that
the governor's budget includes a $22 increase in the background check fee.

Doyle is also proposing to roll back the state's pre-emption law, which was
passed in 1995. The pre-emption law prevents municipalities from enacting
gun laws more strict than those at the state level. Eliminating our
pre-emption law would result in bans on handguns such as the one that
Madison had in the early 1990's, and would open the door for all sorts of
other restrictive laws. Rolling back the pre-emption law would also allow
cities and towns to continue to ban concealed carry once we get our carry
bill passed.

The governor also proposed prohibiting possession or purchase of a firearm
by anyone who had been convicted of a misdemeanor involving a gun. This
would result in denying Second Amendment rights to people who have committed
even the most minor infractions, such as improperly transporting a gun (Or
carring a concealed weapon). It would amount to a lifetime ban on gun
ownership, something that is usually reserved for felonies.

Doyle also proposed a bill requiring "ballistic fingerprinting" on all guns.
Under such a law, manufacturers would be required to make guns that would
imprint a serial number or other distinguishing mark on a bullet. Such a law
was proposed in California, but the manufacturers made it clear that the
manufacturing costs of such legislation would require them to stop selling
guns in California. Also, supporters of so-called "ballistic fingerprinting"
laws ignore the fact that barrels change over time and, thus, so would the
markings. Further, it would be very easy for a criminal to alter the barrel
to change the imprint. A "ballistic fingerprinting" system in Wisconsin
would cost millions of dollars to implement, would likely force gun
manufacturers to stop selling guns in Wisconsin and, ultimately, would have
no effect on crime.

It is vitally important that we stop the governor in his tracks, before his
proposals can be introduced in the legislature.

Please contact your legislator and let him or her know that you oppose
Governor Doyle's proposals. If you don't know who your legislator is, go to
http://waml.legis.state.wi.us/ and enter your street address.

Remember Governor Doyle's promise during last year's campaign that he
wouldn't interfere with the rights of gun owners? Chalk that up to just
another empty campaign promise. Governor Jim Doyle has always been anti-gun,
and always will be.

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