I accidentally deleted the database. It is restored it but the topic and board references are jumbled up a bit. I will fix it. Nothing is actually lost but clicking on some other messages will not go to the referenced message until I fix it.
The database remains quirky. I fixed some of it by hand. I am creating a tool to manage the confusion, as doing the job manually is very error prone. There is a lot of juggling.
Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 01, 2025, 03:10 PMThe database remains quirky. I fixed some of it by hand. I am creating a tool to manage the confusion, as doing the job manually is very error prone. There is a lot of juggling.
In the modern world, what does a "quirky" database mean? Once upon a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth I wrote basic DOS stuff, because it was cool. I began with Ashton Tate and dbase III programming on PCs. I migrated from there to Access 2.0 and underlying VB programming upon its introduction, and then inline programming in Access to Oracle serves, whereby I wrote SQL code (which looks just like dbase code), ran it inside of Access, to do whatever needed done with the Oracel tables, and to get around MS Access issues with file size and whatnot.
I can't recall my databases ever having decided to just....become unstable....just because. Is this a size limitation in some weird way that when violated decides to just start changing things for fun, surely the Diner can't be so large with mostly text stuff...if we were talking stored log raster rastor files I could see things getting big, but ASCII?
Code works generally until it hits some weird other limit, I get that, and I imagine the code sits on someone elses server, but are modern server rentals so shitty they can't run little websites and keep all the things pointed at the right stuff?
Isn't an instruction required somehow of some sort to begin a randomization process that can deep six all the internal connections?
Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is the database/forum software the Diner runs on. It's a very old, open source piece of software that has evolved over the years as a HUGE number of independent developers contributed their time to create a variety of modules that increased its functionality as well as addressed a variety of security issues that have cropped up over the years. Not all the modules are of equal quality because all the developers who added stuff weren't equally proficient, nor did they generally go through all the source code to look for places where one module might interfere with or trip over the code in another one.
As a result, the final product isn't always altogether stable, particularly if it gets interfered with from outside, as this one periodically does. Sometimes this is the MIB poking around, sometimes the SMF folks issue updated versions, and sometimes Kdog himself who likes to tinker and tweak things makes a change which have unanticipated consequences. The current version is v2.1.4
This version is pretty good , but it does have weaknesses I don't like, a major one is very old which is how threads get tied together. They default to the topic of the OP as reference, and if that gets changed or disturbed later, it can orphan all the subsequent posts made in the thread. They are still there, but they don't appear in the thread when you don't address it directly.
Anyhow, overall we don't lose too many postsand since Forums have gone out of style in favor of social media, there's nothing available FOR FREE that's better than SMF for running a forum. It has a lot of functionality with levels and controls and for the most part operates quickly and has a good search engine. It's not perfect though, so you gotta live with a few problems.
RE
Quote from: RE on Feb 02, 2025, 10:52 AMSimple Machines Forum (SMF) is the database/forum software the Diner runs on. It's a very old, open source piece of software that has evolved over the years as a HUGE number of independent developers contributed their time to create a variety of modules that increased its functionality as well as addressed a variety of security issues that have cropped up over the years. Not all the modules are of equal quality because all the developers who added stuff weren't equally proficient, nor did they generally go through all the source code to look for places where one module might interfere with or trip over the code in another one.
As a result, the final product isn't always altogether stable, particularly if it gets interfered with from outside, as this one periodically does. Sometimes this is the MIB poking around, sometimes the SMF folks issue updated versions, and sometimes Kdog himself who likes to tinker and tweak things makes a change which have unanticipated consequences. The current version is v2.1.4
This version is pretty good , but it does have weaknesses I don't like, a major one is very old which is how threads get tied together. They default to the topic of the OP as reference, and if that gets changed or disturbed later, it can orphan all the subsequent posts made in the thread. They are still there, but they don't appear in the thread when you don't address it directly.
Anyhow, overall we don't lose too many postsand since Forums have gone out of style in favor of social media, there's nothing available FOR FREE that's better than SMF for running a forum. It has a lot of functionality with levels and controls and for the most part operates quickly and has a good search engine. It's not perfect though, so you gotta live with a few problems.
RE
That is a very good explanation. I have since made modifications to our version, and I did them in the right way to share as mods for others to download. Quite a few hoops have to be jumped through do a mod right, but I learned how to do it. Then I found out the people now behind SMF are a closed shop of total and complete assholes. They are only letting mods happen at defined breakpoints, be that appropriate or not. Fuck that.
Our version is the most stable version, and there are no new plans to create a new release on the existing code base. The SMF mofos are going object-oriented. The upshot is from here on out the Diner rolls it's own.
We have the right to do anything we wish with our version and future modifications will be as custom as I desire. As long as a backup exists everything is fine. (
not to be confused with a database backup).
And concerning the database, Comrade Simba has been restored, his old posts have been linked to his new identity.
Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 07, 2025, 06:34 PMThen I found out the people now behind SMF are a closed shop of total and complete assholes. They are only letting mods happen at defined breakpoints, be that appropriate or not. Fuck that.
Have you ever met a group of folks you didn't think were complete assholes? You seem to be enraged quite a bit at...everyone...except for the teachings of what you've deduced as proper communist behavior....except for the part where you don't like where that shit show arrived in the form of Stalin and Mao and whatnot.
Quote from: K-DogOur version is the most stable version, and there are no new plans to create a new release on the existing code base. The SMF mofos are going object-oriented. The upshot is from here on out the Diner rolls it's own.
Single point of failure internet stuff, always a good decision for longevity, but to be honest, was it ever going to end any other way?
A labor of love indeed, a requirement for something to survive far longer than it normally might. And having begun the disposal of my parents property and collectibles and their "labor of love" spanning some 80+ years, as tenuous as anything can be even when it is family involved in the final disposition.
I presume Mrs. K-Dog is hardly interested in keeping obsolete software functioning post Mr. K-Dog? Or is it in the will, a donation to pay other folk to keep obsolete software running for the 4 other geriatrics who hang out at the club?
Quote from: K-DogWe have the right to do anything we wish with our version and future modifications will be as custom as I desire. As long as a backup exists everything is fine. (not to be confused with a database backup).
An interesting distinction. As long as a backup exists...but don't confuse that with a database backup?
I certainly would make that mistake...how is a backup a backup....but the owner decides it sure doesn't need the database as well? My database backups are....backups. Lock, stock and barrel. Code, forms, instructions, documentation, tables, data, etc etc.
Are you implying that the code backup, of that which currently works, is a different backup than the data itself, rather than one big complete package?
Quote from: TDoS on Feb 08, 2025, 07:13 AMAre you implying that the code backup, of that which currently works, is a different backup than the data itself, rather than one big complete package?
Data can be deleted or altered without any disruption of the code that runs the tables, search functions and I/O interface. Conversely, code running the operation of the software can be deleted or altered without any of the data being disturbed. Troubleshooting, one of the first things you need to do is determine which of these alternatives is the source of the problem. The worst problems are when both data and control software are damaged.
When I managed the back end I paid extra to have my host take automated backups and tech support that could find and fix code issues, which I have limited skills with. Kdog is a code jockeey, so he does that stuff himself rather than pay for support. The monthly fee for being able to message tech support when problems cropped up wasn't too bad. I also tapped friends like Harry periodically to diagnose problems. Whether you do it yourself or pay for it, you do it because it's a labor of love.
At some point SMF may become so antiquated it will be tough to keep it running. If that's the case, it still would be possible to take the data and move to a new platform. Cross that bridge if and when it comes. In any case, the Diner is unlikely to last after Kdog and I kick the bucket, unless Monsta takes over at that time.
RE
QuoteHave you ever met a group of folks you didn't think were complete assholes?
Yes, you would not know that because you were not there.
Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 08, 2025, 02:07 PMQuoteHave you ever met a group of folks you didn't think were complete assholes?
Yes, you would not know that because you were not there.
I thought it was obvious from my question that I didn't know. Hence the question.
So...where did all the non-assholes go? Facebook and Myspace and whatnot, all the cool kids got up and left the rest of us with....other geriatrics and software that without its own 24/7 maintenance is toast?
No wonder we keep talking about collapses that don't occur, turns out, we only see it because it is hapening to us!
I still maintain that for us geriatrics, personal doom is far closer than the MZBs overruning our rich white enclaves, nursing homes or the well fed middle class lifestyles of idle intellectuals.
Personal doom is a different subject.
Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 08, 2025, 05:46 PMPersonal doom is a different subject.
I'm not so sure. I think most doomers, not Planet X, Mayan Calendar types, but the more normie EcoCollapse or Global Warming or Peak Oil or BOE or even just Total Global Thermonuclear War types, some significant fraction are honestly just expressing fears of something else (like personal doom) and the non wackadoodle dooms are a good place to express themselves.
The normal doooms can be argued at the very least, as reasonable, they are open to discussion with others online without someone questioning about the the mind numbing fear you are suffering about your own mortality.
Of course, this isn't one of those out in the open things, the people most likely to follow this path are probably least likely to admit it. Probably because it is some form of psychological displacement, and because no one wants to admit it, it just stays invisible.
It strikes me that worrying about BOE killing me in 3 years according to Dr McPherson (or whatever timeframe he has moved his BOE to now) when I've got terminal cancer is a bit stupid, and far more important than whatever todays "weez all gonna die!" collapse/doom scheme is.
We're all geezers here, and just along for the ride at this point. Unlikely any of the normie dooms are going to get us before old age does. Short of a complete societal meltdown, one of those 0 to MZBs and Mad Max over the course of a summer. Although I'm also a fan of a decent GRB arriving.
Civilization collapses are very rare events, only occuring over millenia. We know historically about a few, the Roman Empire, the Mayans, the Bronze Age. Extinction Level Events are even more rare, only happening over millions of years. Due to the advent of the internet, we are the first generation ever to be able to witness both occuring in real time. We have the opportunity to view, document, discuss and analyze both. I can't think of anything more interesting or more worthwhile to spend my time on.
RE
Quote from: RE on Feb 08, 2025, 07:00 PMCivilization collapses are very rare events, only occuring over millenia. We know historically about a few, the Roman Empire, the Mayans, the Bronze Age. Extinction Level Events are even more rare, only happening over millions of years.
Sure. But educated folks haven't pointed that out prior to A) world collapses within weeks or months because of peak oil (Jan Lunderg, Dr. McPherson, Colin Campbell) B) BOE causes extinction within a decade (Dr "can I grief counsel you young lass?" C) Global Thermonuclear war does it in days D) Yellowstone takes out US in a month, E) Permanent power blackouts by in 2008 leaving humanity in the dark (Duncan).
There generally weren't caveats for "well....while USUALLY civilizations fall across centuries....BUT OURS ARE BETTER!!"
You have to admit, having been around this at least as long as I have, that folks didn't fixate on centuries of collapse, but tomorrow afternoon collapse. You built the Diner which then demostrated exactly which claims were more popular. Jared Diamond is one of the few sources of long term thinking, and his work was referenced, but it was more as background information, no one contorted it into INSTA-DOOM!!! like the references above.
Quote from: REDue to the advent of the internet, we are the first generation ever to be able to witness both occuring in real time. We have the opportunity to view, document, discuss and analyze both. I can't think of anything more interesting or more worthwhile to spend my time on.
RE
Another way of configuring that perspective might be, your physical limitations require it of you. Your most interesting item is quite internet specific, and if you had more options, it might not be. Chasing tail and getting all tuned up seems to have been a popular pasttime of yours....sort of difficult to engage in those activities based on a particular physical reality.
So...your interest remains in what it CAN remain in. Fuck global collapse, I'm making sure the batteries are charged and ready to go for nice days on the motorcycles. Checking my current ammo supply for the summer's shooting up in the mountain rifle and pistol ranges, trying to figure out if this is a northern Grand Canyon and southern Utah summer, or a Oregon, Olympic Pennisula and maybe some air and space museums up K-Dogs way.
Watching a century long collapse process is entertainment and a continuing ad-hoc analytic study of the psychology of peak oil/doomers spanning the past half century. Idle hobby time because of a personal curiosity is about the gist of it. Because I am not limited to just what I am stuck picking a topic of personal interest from the internet.
Well, your interests on the internet have no bounds, but based on physical circumstances you have no alternative
Quote from: TDoS on Feb 09, 2025, 07:56 AMWell, your interests on the internet have no bounds, but based on physical circumstances you have no alternative
Actually, my career as an internet discussion moderator predates my interest in collapse, and goes back to the earliest years of the internet. I was an AOL chat room moderator and I ran Groups on both Yahoo and MSN back in the 90s. Prior to AOL I was on IRC chat on the Delphi network. I started chit chatting in cyberspace before the internet on the old Arpanet in college, which hooked together university computer networks in the Jurassic period. I've spent a couple of hours a day on average surfing the net for half a century, even when I was ambulatory. As a habit, it took over for TV, which I watched about 4 hours a day from my toddler years thru high school.
Other topics consumed the time prior to the financial collapse in 2007-8 so I wasn't chatting on any of those early Peak Oil boards like LATOC and that's why Peak Oil is not a focus for me. My interests have always been very diverse, anthropology, sociology, psycholgy, sports and athletics, chess, arcchitecture...all over the place. After 2008, it all coalesced around collapse though.
If I had got the retirement I had planned, I would still be on the net writing about collapse, just not from an old folks gulag. I would have been doing it from the cabin of a sailing yacht. Actually, for 7 years while trucking I ran my Yahoo groups from the cabin of my Freightliner. My current physical condition isn't the reason I spend so much time on the net. It's been part of my life as long as it has been in existence.
RE
Quote from: RE on Feb 09, 2025, 11:01 AMQuote from: TDoS on Feb 09, 2025, 07:56 AMWell, your interests on the internet have no bounds, but based on physical circumstances you have no alternative
Actually, my career as an internet discussion moderator predates my interest in collapse, and goes back to the earliest years of the internet. I was an AOL chat room moderator and I ran Groups on both Yahoo and MSN back in the 90s.
Same here. I was around when ROE was up and running, as well as the alt. forum formats, sort of liked that one myself.
Quote from: REIf I had got the retirement I had planned, I would still be on the net writing about collapse, just not from an old folks gulag. I would have been doing it from the cabin of a sailing yacht.
I remember the discussions you and Eddie had about sail boats. Entertaining speculation for a potential future, but you tended to cast it within the baliwick of doom, similar to your RV and passenger van interests. All of those are just short term delaying tactics, and as you claimed earlier, doom can take generations, so even back when you could plan for a collapse, you weren't buying into anything multi-generational then.
Quote from: REMy current physical condition isn't the reason I spend so much time on the net. It's been part of my life as long as it has been in existence.
RE
Indeed. You have my condolences, the amount of time you spent on the internet in your later years as opposed to IRL explorations, experiences and memories.
My parents retired early, together, and began a new life of travel to other hemispheres of the planet, east and west, north and south,, chasing the grandkids, taking the grandkids places with them in retirement, while maintaining a life with friends, neighbors, more distant relatives, I watched their take on retirement with great interesthe.
My end won't be staked out with nothing left to do but take the internet as a substitute for living. The wife would find that acceptable of course, but that is because she can't handle personal loss, not of her mother, certainly won't be able to do it with me.
I did all my traveling around in my youth, there's nowhere I wish to go I haven't already been. My love of sailing yachts comes from their portability, the fact you can take your home with you wherever you go. That's what I liked about trucking also. It's a degree of freedom you can have otherwise unattainable in our society. You just need a way to earn a living wherever you go, which I have always been able to do.
I find plenty to do exploring the world of ideas, I'm not constricted by physical limitations. I can be in a prison cell and just debate myself if need be to stay entertained. This also gives me a degree of freedom otherwise unattainable. The fact I have physical limitations just gives me more time and more freedom to think. In that respect, it's a bonus.
Would I rather have both legs and be living on a sailboat instead of buzzing around the gulag on my EV wheelchair? Of course, but that's not how things worked out. I also could have been dead already, many times over. As things worked out, overall I had a very interesting life without having to compromise my principles too often. Now I have plenty of time to kick back and contemplate the human condition. I don't go hungry and I have a roof over my head. I have no debts and no current crisis hitting me or my neighborhood. I'm in a lot better shape than a lot of USAID workers right now, that's for sure. You can save your pity for them, I don't need it. Life is quite OK here overall.
RE
I'm entertaining myself watching the growth of Russia, China,and ROW as murica disintegrates. "Doomering" is sooo last decade. Focus on the positive, nyuk nyuk nyuk!
Quote from: comrade simba on Feb 09, 2025, 06:18 PMnyuk nyuk nyuk!
Is this supposed to be 3 Stooges humor?
RE
Quote from: RE on Feb 09, 2025, 12:05 PMI did all my traveling around in my youth, there's nowhere I wish to go I haven't already been. My love of sailing yachts comes from their portability, the fact you can take your home with you wherever you go. That's what I liked about trucking also. It's a degree of freedom you can have otherwise unattainable in our society. You just need a way to earn a living wherever you go, which I have always been able to do.
RE
Yeah, and you sure made a well documented and quite fair response to this disappear without the normal gloating. It was a good one wasn't it?
Sorry if it hit that close to home, the proof being in the radio silence response and speed at which it was disappeared. When you opened the door with your honest answer, I couldn't avoid responding in the same way. But with nice historical and personal photography to make my point. You could have left all the cool photos.
Sorry if it hurt your feelings. I'll try and be more discreet about your sensitivities on this matter in the future.
Quote from: TDoS on Feb 12, 2025, 07:39 PMQuote from: RE on Feb 09, 2025, 12:05 PMI did all my traveling around in my youth, there's nowhere I wish to go I haven't already been. My love of sailing yachts comes from their portability, the fact you can take your home with you wherever you go. That's what I liked about trucking also. It's a degree of freedom you can have otherwise unattainable in our society. You just need a way to earn a living wherever you go, which I have always been able to do.
RE
Yeah, and you sure made a well documented and quite fair response to this disappear without the normal gloating. It was a good one wasn't it?
Sorry if it hit that close to home, the proof being in the radio silence response and speed at which it was disappeared. When you opened the door with your honest answer, I couldn't avoid responding in the same way. But with nice historical and personal photography to make my point. You could have left all the cool photos.
Sorry if it hurt your feelings. I'll try and be more discreet about your sensitivities on this matter in the future.
I'll let RE put you in the cooler. I'll just say fuck you. RE lived in Brazil and traveled in Europe. If he figures he has seen enough he has poetic licence for :
QuoteI did all my traveling around in my youth, there's nowhere I wish to go I haven't already been.
Where do you get the idea that either of us has anything to prove to you. You need not answer. I'm being rhetorical.
Is there anything to you besides being a total asshole? That question is not rhetorical. If you can't answer because RE has you in the cooler, that is fine.
Let's not forget Australia, Hawaii, Tahiti, and Moorea. Also Peru and Argentina. ;D
1 post and back in the cooler. ::)
RE
Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 12, 2025, 08:34 PMI'll let RE put you in the cooler. I'll just say fuck you. RE lived in Brazil and traveled in Europe. If he figures he has seen enough he has poetic licence for :
QuoteI am aware of his early years as a young Prince of the Illuminati. And you must not have read what I wrote, because the point wasn't about traveling....it was all about the experience gained in life as opposed to sticking with the theory,and confusing the value of the latter with the former.
Come on K-Dog. I didn't write it to be subtle. Just well documented, the difference between the two.
Quote from: K-DogWhere do you get the idea that either of us has anything to prove to you. You need not answer. I'm being rhetorical.
Of course I can answer. You missed the entire point apparently. This isn't about PROVING anything, it is about the difference between people talking about a thing, and how that is different from the people who actually DO the thing.
Like you, you are highly capable of getting software reconfigured and running and doing things, some of which it was probably never designed for. You have experience in the doing of a thing. And undoubtedly other things. So does RE. He knows how to drive a big truck. I can theorize about that all I'd like, but I don't make the mistake of thinking off of his stories of the road I can jump into the cab and start truckin! RE does not appear to share this idea. He talked to some biker dudes he met in the Big City, and he believes it imbued him with not only the knowledge they had, but knowledge equivalent with the experience.
I just happen to disagree, and happen to have some nice Laguna Seca pictures to demonstrate that wearing leather and talking about riding a motorcycle just might not be the same thing as going hammer down on a international caliber road course.
Quote from: K-DogIs there anything to you besides being a total asshole?
Of course. But I can't talk about professional qualifications and accolades because it makes people feel bad, or the kids, or apparently demonstrate I know how to ride a motorcycle let alone provide the pictures...so what is left? You interpret it as asshole, but that just means you disagree with me mostly. I'm not like you and RE in the least, and we sure haven't ended up at the same place, this late in our lives.
Quote from: K-DogThat question is not rhetorical. If you can't answer because RE has you in the cooler, that is fine.
But of course. Just as RE enunciated, he can happily exist in an echo chamber of his own making. Having been around his forums and web adventures for coming up on 2 decades now, it isn't a surprise that his internet journey is the story of even decreasing audiences and user counts until we arrive...here. Just a couple geriatrics banning other geriatrics who don't tend to fit their model.
Oh yeah, and Cool Hand Luke and Paul Newman is certainly an accolade for someone like me...as my own philosophy is completely opposite of REs, and Paul Newman is just COOL.
Quote from: Tdos...so what is left?
Energy,Economics, the Economy, Politics, Trump. collapse related newz stories, aka the topics this forum is dedicated to. There's a whole list of categories on the homepage Kdog recently reorganized to pick from.
The above post violated at least 2 of the numerous rules I have dropped down on posting etiquette to try and keep the board on topic, but I'm going to give you a little rope here. See if you can keep from hanging yourself for a change.
RE
Quote from: RE on Feb 16, 2025, 10:58 AMQuote from: Tdos...so what is left?
Energy,Economics, the Economy, Politics, Trump. collapse related newz stories, aka the topics this forum is dedicated to. There's a whole list of categories on the homepage Kdog recently reorganized to pick from.
The above post violated at least 2 of the numerous rules I have dropped down on posting etiquette to try and keep the board on topic, but I'm going to give you a little rope here. See if you can keep from hanging yourself for a change.
RE
Sure, let TDos warm his ass by the fire for a while. He spends so much time in the cooler he must be freezing. I agree, at least 2 basic rules of etiquette and basic humanity are violated. But let's see what he does next.
* I have now recovered all the messages in the database. There are a number of topics which were recovered but which can't be seen yet. They are in a staging area waiting to be filed into appropriate boards. They are visible to me and other admins and moderators. It is an interesting situation, while some damage has yet to be repaired things are actually better off here now than they were before I crashed our database.
And, after two days of filing I need a break.
My avatar is of Larry. His jobs is to catch the mice and rats found in 10 Downing Street. He has expanded operations to the Diner. So any rats take heed. You have been warned...
Famous rats disposed off
David Cameron
Theresa May
Boris Johnson
Liz Truss
Rishi Sunak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_(cat)