Upgrading FreeBSD 6.1 to 6.2

Posted on January 20, 2007 by Titus Barik

Last year, I upgraded FreeBSD from version 6.0 to 6.1 through the use of an upgrade script from Daemonology. This year, the same procedure was followed, with similarly good results. First read this post for instructions on upgrading from 6.1 to 6.2-RC1, then read this post which provides the minor modifications needed for 6.2-RELEASE.

FreeBSD ziggy.multifx.net 6.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE #0: 
Fri Jan 12 10:40:27 UTC 2007    
root@dessler.cse.buffalo[email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

The upgrade will require a reboot, which reset my 180 days of continuous uptime on ziggy (the last time the machine required a reboot was also during an upgrade — from 6.0 to 6.1).

FreeBSD 6.2 was officially released on January 15th. Visit the 6.2R announcement page for more information.

inchoate

Posted on January 18, 2007 by Titus Barik

Definition of inchoate:

not organized; lacking order: an inchoate mass of ideas on the subject.

Context: Teachout, Terry. “A Challenge to Martin Scorsese”, Wall Street Journal, Oct 28 2006:

The reason for this is that all great art is ruthlessly selective. It imposes order on the natural world. That’s why sonnets have 14 lines and string quartets are played by four musicians. An art without rules is nothing more than a willful, inchoate stew of random impulses.

GetData to Procedure return failed

Posted on January 11, 2007 by Titus Barik

When attempting to call a stored procedure from a SQL Data Block (SQD/SQT) within the proprietary GE iFIX HMI 4.0 application, I obtain the following error:

Error executing SQL cmd: GetData to Procedure return failed.

Since the application is proprietary, obtaining debugging information about this error was difficult. Still, by enabling the CommLog under advanced OPC options for the PostgreSQL ANSI ODBC 8.02.02.00 driver, I was able to obtain more detailed, though cryptic, log information from the CommLog file.

The stored procedure in question has nothing of particular of interest: it takes in a VARCHAR, an INTEGER, and returns a VARCHAR.

I am using PostgreSQL 8.2.1 on i686-pc-mingw32, compiled by GCC. At this time, I have been unable to find a resolution for this issue. I am not certain, but I do not believe that this issue occurred under PostgreSQL 7.x.

xenophobic

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Titus Barik

Definition of xenophobic:

an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

Context: West, Bing and Cohen, Eliot. “Our Only Hope”, Wall Street Journal, Jan 8 2007:

Stripped of their dominance but otherwise untouched by the war, the Sunnis supported an insurgency led by Saddam loyalists and fueled by xenophobic religiosity.

Project Management and IPECC

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Titus Barik

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines five processes in a project that compose the project management life cycle. They are:

Initiation
Planning
Execution
Control
Closure

and can be mnemonically remembered as IPECC (“syrup of ipecac”). The five processes interact with one another and allow the project manager to gauge the success or failure of a project.

Petulant

Posted on January 1, 2007 by Titus Barik

Definition of petulant:

moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, esp. over some trifling annoyance: a petulant toss of the head.

Context: Blumenthal, Sidney. “The Petulant President”, The Guardian, Sep 16 2005:

The press disclosed a petulant, vacillating president they had not noticed before. Time magazine described a “rigid and top-down” White House where aides are petrified to deliver bad news to a “yelling” president.

Titus Barik

I hack software.

Monthly Archives: January 2007