I have been using Apache as a web server almost exclusively since it first came out. It has always proved to be the most reliable as well as most flexible and bulletproof of any on the market. The fact that it is open source is an added plus, but I would pay for a product like this one.
Over the years, I have stayed away from the mod_rewrite facility, mostly because of the fact that the documentation sucks. Well, not exactly sucks, but more appropriately puts in very few simplistic examples.
Until today, when I really have an application (one that will pay) for it, did I find this super tutorial. In this article, the one thing that I always seemed to have failed on in the past was pointed out in bold letters.
So, I am off to rewrite my butt off :-) with a new perl backend that won't show up as the usual .cgi module that at times scares off the search engines.
Update: The link at the bottom of the tutorial leading to the next installments do not work properly :-( Here are the links to all four parts of this excellent tutorial.
December 2005 Archives
One of my fun tasks over break is to gather meteorological data from the National Weather Service's MADIS data store. It is a vast collection of diverse weather data collected by a variety of sources. So, for the first piece of work that we are doing, I need to grab all of the METAR (aviation meteorology reports) which gives current conditions by the hour for stations worldwide from 2002 to current.
METAR Data Mining - Historical Data
===================================
Start Date: 1009861200 Tue Jan 1 00:00:00 2002
Stop Date: 1135400400 Sat Dec 24 00:00:00 2005
Number of Days: 1453
Number of Sets: 34872
I started the job running about 20 minutes ago and I am almost done the first month... it is going to be running for quite a while. In the meantime, I am going to start working on the decoding routines since all of the data is in netCDF format. More on that later!
Progress Report:
- +2.5 hours at 2001/05/12
- +27 hours at 2004/12/25 still running!
Happy Boxing Day to all! Yesterday, we had a great day of presents, food, family celebration, food, DVD watching, and, yes, food! I do believe that Santa was very good to all of us, with lots of books and movies, as well as toys (of the adult variety) and a sprinkling of garments.
I even read an entire book last evening, A Man without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I have loved his books through the years (such as Player Piano, Slaughterhouse-Five) and this, his first book after swearing to never write another book, is a very different sort of Vonnegut, very much today, and very much relfective of his nature. If you want to get the observations of an observer of the world we live in, read this book. An added treat is the artwork, done by him in collaboration with Joe Petro III. I only wish that I could afford to buy one of the numbered editions.
So, here I sit in my new sweats (with pockets!), getting ready to get down to some serious keyboard work, watching my Christmas toy, video forwarded to my screen from the TiVo dowstairs via my new Slingbox! Now I can have live TV wherever I roam in the house, at school, just about anywhere there is an Internet connection. Thanks to Mary and Dan and Bill for a wonderful holiday!
Postscript to my old friends... Welcome to those who have stopped by, courtesy of my annual holiday greeting! Yes, I am still alive and well in college! Drop me a note so I can see how each of you is doing as well.
Yes, you read that title correctly. No, I don't want someone from the WWF dressed in a Santa suit to come in and do a bone-crushing wrestling move on me. You have to read the title with the proper cadence and emphasis: Holiday Break [pause] My Butt!
Yes, the fall semester is finally over... well, except for getting my portfolio for Geophysics completed :-). I really do appreciate Hal giving me a few more days to get it done. Fifty-four year old, non-traditional students should realize they cannot take 5 upper division classes in one semester like their twenty-something classmates. Next semester, I'll change... oops, I think I have said just that before. But this is just the first reason that the word "break" doesn't describe the next several weeks. The length of my list of things to do is measured in parsecs!
With Christmas just two days away, I did finally get my shopping started at dawn today and, with a few easy exceptions, it is done. The exceptions I can grab tonight during the dinner time lull in the madness. Funny, if everyone thinks the same thing about that lull, it won't be much of one, will it? I hate getting started so late, but at least I knew what I wanted to get for the family and luckily the wish lists didn't include any exotic items like XBox 360 or Porsches (they are both priced about the same).
Funny thing - while I was listening to Ron's Swap Shop on WCOJ, a local AM radio station, a woman called in offering one (XBox, not Porsche) for sale. Price: $850! That's right, price firm, no or best offer added. Hello? It's a game console! Sure, it would be nice to get Dan one for Christmas, but I went over to Froogle and that price is over twice what most are selling for (even though there are none available). My big problem (Warning! Rant in Progress!) is that this woman did not sound like she bought that XBox for her child and (sniff) that child suddenly died. No, it didn't sound like she had bought it for her 10 kids and she needed to sell it to get little Timmy an operation. No, it just sounded like just another WalMart-shopping, SUV-driving, double mocha latte-drinking idiot who figures they can make a few holiday bucks screwing over someone else who's kids would like one for Christmas. Sad thing is that someone has probably already bought it from her. Yes, we should blame Micro$oft for the limited supply to the retailers, etc., etc., etc., but do people need to follow suit and become just as evil as corporate America? I guess so... oh yeah, Happy Holidays! The season for giving turned into the time to screw over your fellow man.
I'll continue with my to do list later since it is time to get into the holiday spirit! Tree needs to be picked up this afternoon, house needs to be decorated, and gifts need to be wrapped.
Do me a favor as you go about your final preparations today for whichever holiday you may be celebrating (was that politically correct enough?). When you see a Salavation Army bellringer, take whatever change you have in your pocket and drop it in the bucket. Folding money is good, too. Just that little gesture will bring you much good karma. Think about those who may not be asking for an XBox or computer for Christmas, but just a hot meal and a roof over their heads. Skip that extra latte (or beer or pastry) and help some of those who are less fortunate. Remember, it is better to give than receive.
I am starting to get to work on some serious code over the semester break (yippee!) and the first step of that process is to make sure that all my perl libraries are in proper order and up-to-date. This would be a time-consuming proposition if it wasn't for CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. Covering a gazillion modules, scraps of code, and other goodies, CPAN is one-stop shopping when you are looking for something to do something without pain. Yes, it is a repository of code written through the ages by other perl programmers and in most cases, you will find a routine that will do just what you need.
So, as I start to work on some web site validation tools, I found some nifty code to do most of the work of spidering through the web site. While it is at it, the CPAN installation routines insure that all of the required modules are in place and up-to-date. A fine way to make your programming day a more enjoyable one. So, off to the races!
I guess I should be resigned to the fact that the higher you go in the academic process, the harder it gets. I should realize by now that I have to slow down a bit, shift down from runaway train into first gear and take it easier. Unfortunately, easier is a word that misses by brain. It is the last day of the exam period for the fall semester. I was hoping to be in better shape by this point, but all the best laid plans never seem to work out perfectly for me. I measure twice and then erase the pencil marks before I cut... or put off cutting until the board is half rotted away.
Oh well, time to shift out of frantic mode, taking it out on Mary, and calm down and get the work done. First, I have to grovel to two of my professors to get yet another extension on work due until Monday morning. I have all the materials I need for all that is due. I just need to get seven or eight hours uninterupted to put it all together. The week just did not go as planned. I did, however, get three A's in my other three classes (note to self: take three classes in the spring - you can handle that).
Well, hopefully they will let me extend to Monday. After I talk to them, I am going home, getting a few hours sleep (something else I have not been doing the past 10 days), make a nice dinner for Mary and Dan, and then lock myself away and get my work completed, no phone, no TV, no fire pager, just me and the work.
Let us hope this works...
Well, my day started very, very early this morning. It was almost like yesterday never ended. I was up late, as usual, working on a paper which I finished around 2 AM. The show on Coast-to-Coast AM last night was an interesting one (about the life and death of John Lennon), so I stayed up until about 4 listening. I had no sooner settled in and fallen asleep that, you guessed it, the pager went off. Half asleep, I figured it was probably an automatic alarm. To the contrary, it was a call just for me, as in Traffic 6 to assist the West Chester fire police in closing Pottstown Pike just north of the borough.
It had been snowing for about three hours at the point so I was not looking forward to sliding up to the fire house and then sliding back to the scene. The car performed quite well since the snow was of the real fluffy variety. My fear was that the traffic unit wouldn't behave as well. Well, I just dropped it in low gear, turned on all the lights, and took it nice and easy. The unit cooperated by negotiating the numerous hills between the fire house and the scene, about three miles away.
Setting up was not too bad, courtesy of my Fire Police Lt, Dan, coming to the scene on his way to work to get me started. The next four hours, though, were not fun at all. Frozen hands and hair, constant snowfall with a touch of sleet, and people in their SUVs and 4x4's thinking that they an do what they like.
Me: Sorry, but the road is closed. Them: But I have to go through! Move out of the way! Me: You have to (describe the detour) Them: But I have to go through! Move out of the way!A little word of advice to all those one way to go to work people: plan. Yes, I know you have to spend time talking on your cell phone, drinking your latte, doing your eye makeup, reading the morning paper, and listening to Howard Stern, but take just a few minutes and look at a map and maybe, just maybe learn how to get from Point A to Point B a few different ways. Just as we in the Fire Service spend countless hours at drills and training, you, too, should challenge yourself to being a little more knowledgable about where you are driving. Oh, and when the snow is coming down and the visibility is so low you can't see the hood ornament on your Jaguar, turn your headlights on, put your freaking coffee cup and cell phone down and pay attention to that two- or three-ton hunk of steel and synthetic materials that you spent so much money on and try not to use my fluorescent green suit as a target. And, when I have to inconvenience you to take a detour because of down wires and utility poles, don't show your thanks for my volunteer effort to protect your safety with a one-finger salute or a hail of words that your mother would wash your mouth out with soap for saying. I did not choose to stand out in sub-freezing temperatures in snow and ice and close the road to make your life miserable - blame the snow plow that rammed the pole or the cell phone talking, latte drinking idiot who had an accident because they were far too busy and far too important to pay attention. Do I regret volunteering? Not for a single moment. It is rewarding to be able to be a first responder. All I am asking is fou you to be my hero by taking care in the area of an accident or fire call. Also, thanks to the plow crews in West Goshen Township for plowing the area where I was stationed. You made my trip back to the station a bit easier!
I find it very distressing. I spent over three decades in the IT profession and it was always my goal to strive to deliver the best service for my customers. When I planned a network outage, I consulted with my clients before pulling the plug to minimize their inconvenience.
Now being in the academic world, I figured that the IT folks would follow the same process, not only to minimize their users' problems, but to show a good example of professionalism to the IT students at the institution. Not! It is more like don't tell anybody and maybe we can get away with it!
Now that I am responsible for a Linux server hosting several key web sites as well as meteorological data resources, I figure that the powers to be would at least have the courtesy to give a few hours if not days notice. No, I just happen to notice that signs appeared all over the department yesterday that all computers had to be shutdown for the weekend. No reason, no just PC's, no nothing. I even called the help desk, but, as usual, I was greeted with voice mail (after five rings), a perfunctory announcement of their office hours, and dropped into a voice mail box that was, you guessed it, full.
Since I was working from home yesterday afternoon, I decided to call around to see what I could find out. No one knew anymore than I did. Then, the outside web site went down, followed by web mail and other academic servers. No notice, no warning, no nothing.
When I got up this morning, I could access the school's web sites so I figured I would jump in the car, go down to campus, and reboot the server. When I got there, I found that the internal network infrastructure was dead, not a ping. So I booted the server (sans network connection) to get the data I needed (via pencil and paper) and shut it down. Since I was already on campus, I figured I would walk over to the IT office area and see if I could find a friendly face who could give me a status, an idea of when things would be back online. What did I find? Dark offices, locked doors, and not a soul to be found. Also, no signs, no notices posted, not even an inkling that the network was down or when it might be again available.
Bottom line is that I am basically screwed. Well, not really, because being a good IT head, I always have a drop back and punt plan. Yes, I keep at least two completely redundant and current copies of all of my web site. One is hosted on a remote Unix box and the other on my laptop (complete with Apache, MySQL, perl, PHP, etc.). I just find it distressing that the school's IT staff cannot have the common decency to act like professionals. I cannot fathom that they would do a full weekend maintenance the last weekend of the semester before finals. Well, that's not true - they did an upgrade of the scheduling system the weekend before the first week of class registration last semester, one that caused the system to be unavailable for over a week.
If I would have pulled stunts like this when I was an IT manager, I would have been told to clean my desk and find a job somewhere else. Go figure...
So, back to work on my alternate server until they get their act together.
Mary had told me about this funny email message she got with the compulsory virus attached to it. I couldn't believe that anyone would believe this was a legit bounced email message. You decide...
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.SMTP_Error []I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message.This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.The full mail-text and header is attached!
