xsamplex

brings recreating test environments, setting up compilers, ODBC links, reinstall of the patch-generator (my own, based on NSIS, which I highly recommend) and particularly, checking out modules, source code and making sure that all the source directories in CVS are actually up-to-date.

Setting up the development environment wasn’t the hardest part: making sure that the Postgres server home normally restarted was harder. I wonder if I missed out on an apt-update bug once again.

Alfons managed to export existing WordPress data, which I imported over here this very morning.

What I basically did was updating (update set…. wp_posts/post2cat etc.) the IDs of posts and post2cat tables with the latest known entry of the dyndns site (select max(id) from wp_posts) and add this number to the IDs of the entries in the hoogervorst.ca database. Then I dumped the hoogervorst.ca database and copied the data from the dyndns site into this dump. That’s it.

I ran into a one minor problem: a dreaded 1064 MySQL error, which I traced back to non-well formed dumps generated by phpMySQLadmin (which more or less has to do with the php_magic_quotes setting): these dumps did not escape characters correctly. I jumped back to plan B (let mysqldump do the dumping), scp-ed it to the laptop, ran the tests and script on an exact copy of this site on Elsie (The Debian serve). I saw it was good and ultimately ran it in a Dreamhost SSH session.

As said, nothing really hard: it’s fun to do it in MySQL, instead of the usual Postgres affairs I do as part of my daily job.

Update 1: Most images should be accessible once again. Also, I did not merge the latest ‘Elsewhere’ links.

Why would my network connection drop (literally the hardware) when I do a simple tracert on my Windows b0xen?

I presume the problem may lay in the router or the cable modem. I have to try it on my Linux server later this afternoon.

A couple of sidenotes on the Veterans hospital visit, earlier today. While I’m not-so obviously Dutch, events where Dutch people appear always put me in a ‘cautious’ mode. For example, for me it was easier to talk to Canadians than actually walking up to a fellow citizen and throw out a typical blunt joke. With the years I’ve been living here, for example, going back to Holland brought up conflicting emotions: of course I was happy to set afoot on the soil I used to live on. How happy I was, to be back in Nova Scotia. ‘Welcome back home’, as a Customs officer once said, last year.

While I was living here, I never considered meeting up with fellow Dutch people, living around town. I’m sure there is a Dutch-Canadian society meetup somewhere. However, at that time, thinking as a Dutchman to the letter so once in a while, I considered meeting up with fellow citizens would hurt my process of integration. I’ll tell you this: I could not have done (or adapted to) the regular stuff people do, like groceries or ordering food in a restaurant at that, if I had been too involved in ‘keeping up the Dutch stuff’. I owe my wife and her mom a lot: sometimes I just needed that push. It was hard, but we did it.

Only after 2002, I came a bit aware of the Dutch people around me, with as highlight (thanks to a Dutch-Canadian from town) a personal one on one conversation with the Dutch ambassador who thought it was silly I had a hard time to speak in Dutch with him. With the years, my Dutch has gone downhill. I particularly noticed this, when I tried to keep up a conversation with the newly immigrants from Holland, yesterday: a of stuttering Dutch and fluid English (mine) vs. muttering (careful selected) English and fluid Dutch (theirs).

My advice to any immigrant is, while savouring your backgrounds is probably understandably, since you immigrated, you might just as well focus on making yourself comfortable with your newly adopted country’s culture and learn about the regular chores Canadians have and do. Stay clear as much as you can from fellow-citizens: you’ll end up disappointing yourself if you keep comparing differences between two cultures: the one you supposed to give up and the one you’re about to lose grip on.

We (wife and me) managed to get to the Veterans’ hospital in Halifax in time, despite of the poor weather conditions: it was pouring rain and visibility was pretty poor.

Upon arrival, The Honourary Consul (Peter McCreath) introduced the chairman of a Dutch association of immigrants, a man who survived the war and eventually decided to move to Canada. There was a speech from a diplomat of the Consulate of Montreal, however, I didn’t recognize him. His acccent was pretty heavy though, and his (improvised?) speech was a mix of English, Dutch and French words. Oh: there was the singing of three national anthems (note: I only remember the first verse of the Dutch national anthem).

After the official ceremony, I had a brief chat with the Honourary Consul about the last encounters (re: my emergency passport, last year), we exchanged commentary on the latest political spats regarding the celebrations and his touring around in Nova Scotia the next coming days. I found out that the Consul had a good beer taste too: he remembered my place of birth and noted that the great Grolsch beer is brewed in that city.

There was a brief conversation with a just-immigrated Dutch couple too, who I (naturally) wished good luck with their recently acquired Permanent Resident status and new life on the American continent.