Whew! That was a frightening day.

I don't know how many of you were lucky enough to try to view the site this morning and this afternoon, but...it wasn't there!

My hosting provider did a php upgrade last night, going from version 4 to version 5. Little did I know, but my Drupal backend was not compatible with version 5 of php (I'm using a pretty old version of Drupal for this site).

Lots and lots of googling later, I finally managed to upgrade the drupal install using a backup of the mysql tables I made earlier.

What I've learned from all this, though, is that I have my base install of Drupal done in precisely the wrong way. I really need to change how I have it set up on the server. Maybe I'll start on that tomorrow...but until I get that migration underway, at least the site is back up and seems to be in working order.

Just wanted to post another holla over at Ed's War Log. He's gotten the chance to update a bit. And let me tell you...it's pretty exciting reading.

If you do head over and read some of his posts, be awesome and post a comment. As someone who's been blogging for a while, it really makes a difference when people leave a quick comment, and I think that will be doubly true when you're stuck in a combat zone, risking your life.

So leave him something to know you took the time to drop in. Even something as simple as, "Hi, Ed." would be great.

I really hope everyone who visits Felix.Ruina will support Ed's work. I'm guessing his internet time is hard to come by, so I really want it to be worth his while to continue writing.

Thanks!

Okay, I know the whole "I got this spam in my inbox today" has been done and done again. But, this one seemed so time inappropriate (or appropriate, depending on how you look at it), that I just had to share it.

Roberta Numbers (ReneeabsorptiveBingham@eclipse.org) writes:

SUBJECT: Your order of a Degree

Bachelors, Masters and PhD's available in your field!

U N I V E R S I T Y D I P L O M A S

Get the prestige that you deserve today!

+1 501_634_6717

Man. I really must seem desperate.

Edit--Just got another one. This one hit even closer to home!

From Riley Ellison (UlyssestuttleRandolph@outsidein.org):

SUBJECT: Clickthrough to achieve recoginition

Bachelors, masters, MBA, and doctorate (PhD) diplomas available in the field of your choice - that's right, you can become a Doctor and receive all the benefits and admiration that comes with it!

NO ONE is turned down.

F A S T T R A C K D E G R E E P R O G R A M

1_501_634_6717

Is recognition all that I'm after? I suppose the benefits and admiration would be nice, too. But I think there might be a bit more to it than that.

Okay, probably not the coolest thing to publicize all over the internet, but since it's all I can think about right now, up it goes.

For some reason I've developed a really itchy rash on my right hand (right at the knuckles). I have no idea where it came from. I haven't been doing any strange outdoor activities (and it's not exactly poison ivy season right now anyway). I haven't started taking any new medicines. Although, I did use some icy hot last weak when I was first starting my workout routine. But, I didn't really put any of it on my knuckles. So, I don't think that would be it.

Anyone else get a strange, itchy, kinda bumpy rash like this and know what it is?

Hopefully that didn't gross everyone out too much. Don't worry. I'm pretty sure it's not internet contagious.

Here's a really interesting interview of Miguel de Icaza by a Microsoft production house. For those of you who aren't open source nerds, Miguel de Icaza is a big name in open source. He was one of the co-founders of GNOME, a key programmer for Novell (after they bought Ximian, which was Miguel's company). He actually reverse engineered and wrote his own implementation of Microsoft's .NET programming environment called Mono, which made it possible for Linux, BSD, or just about any other operating system to run and develop .NET programs. And now he is doing the same thing with Microsoft's Silverlight technology. His version is called Moonlight.

In other words, Miguel de Icaza is an open source superstar. Most interesting to me, though, are his thoughts about open source as a philosophy. He's not your typical Richard Stallman type (thank goodness!), and he does a good job in this interview of speaking about the advantages of open source without coming across as "holier-than-thou."

You can catch the link for the movie here.

Or, you can download the mp3 from me here.