I followed the Sitemeter instructions for Movable Type and created a special template for the code. However I notice on the template page, this new sitemeter template has nothing in the Output File field. And every time I rebuild I get the following notice: "Template 'SiteMeter' does not have an Output File".

How do I fix this?

Posted by: Gary at 07:50 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Oops, somehow I got my old URL stuck in that post.

Posted by: Gary @ at August 29, 2005 08:42 PM

2 Give it an output file. It doesn't need one, but it doesn't know that.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 29, 2005 11:32 PM

3 Ah. Of course. Now I feel like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" when he finds out his carnival job earned him $14.50.

Okay I'll name it Doug.txt after Chris Griffin's zit on "Family Guy".

Posted by: Gary @ at August 30, 2005 12:19 AM

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My left menu is an include file called using PHP rather than an MT module. This lets me change it on the fly without any rebuild necessary. Only problem. If I put MT tags into it, they don't work correctly. Has anyone tried doing what I'm doing, and if you have, have you run into this and solved it? If so, let me know the trick, please?

Eric

Posted by: EricC at 12:33 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The swapout of the second hard disk failed, and they had to put the drive back in.

And then the server decided that now was a good time to do a full filesystem check, which took another hour.

Sorry about that, everyone. We'll have to schedule another outage, probably next weekend or the following one, but things should go a bit quicker next time.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:48 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The server will be down for about an hour beginning 5AM CST while the other hell demon disk drive is exorcised replaced.

Hopefully that will fix all of our present problems, so we can get on with creating new and better problems.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:00 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

You may not have seen it, but at least one MSM outlet actually was aware that MuNu was down and provided coverage of the catastrophe. The National Journal's Blogometer talked about the MuNu outage, the Life, Liberty, Property community and the Carnival of Liberty, which I am the admin and owner of, respectively. I thought that was pretty cool, so I've been giving William Beutler, the author of Blogometer, some links and nice comments.

Posted by: EricC at 03:58 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hello! I am so excited to be a Munuvian. It is like sitting at the cool table!!!

Help! Has anyone ever imported entries from Blog City into Movable Type? From what I can tell, I can do a find and replace from a backup xml file that I get from Blog City.

Hints! Anyone have any other tips on importing? Any hints would be appreciated!!!

Posted by: ProcheinAmy at 03:43 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Yay!11!!!!

Don't know anything about Blog City, but there should be instructions somewhere on the admin part to tell you how to export posts... on this end, Pixy has to set up a switch or two, then you can import after his confirmation e-mail (anyone correct me if I'm wrong)...

Posted by: Madfish Willie @ at August 27, 2005 06:42 AM

2 Um.

Jen also came from Blog City, and I never quite got the import to work.

However, I know a lot more about XML and Movable Type import formats now than I did then (mostly due to painful experience), so I can probably hack something together. Or maybe someone has already written a converter program.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 27, 2005 01:53 PM

3 Don't put to much work into it, I think I can do it semi-manually... Just wanted to know if anyone had anything already done...

Posted by: Amy @ at August 27, 2005 04:23 PM

4 Madfish Willie, you're wrong!

I finally did away with the need for me to fiddle, and importing now Just Works!™

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 28, 2005 08:30 AM

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A post about spam gets spammed.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:23 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

I have a trackback that appeared this morning on an old post of mine. The link leads to wuzzadem, who I don't think is a lowlife scumbag spamming slimeball. But his page doesn't show a link to me, and it doesn't show up in the trackback section when I go to the individual article to edit it.

Weird.

Posted by: Ted at 11:09 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 I just got a whole lot of trackback spam on old posts...

Posted by: David Boxenhorn @ at August 26, 2005 01:47 PM

2 I've had that happen before, but by a friend I know i not a spammer. He just wanted a free link from a related post from a bigger blogger. That maybe the case here?

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at August 26, 2005 02:02 PM

3 Maybe I don't understand the mechanism. This is sending a ping without the link? And why wouldn't it show up on either post?

It's random, because the posts at either end are in no way related. I'm really hesitant to fuss at this point, but if it's intentional, it's a slimy way to do things.

Posted by: Ted @ at August 26, 2005 02:09 PM

4 David, I think we all get the trackback spam. Every time I get hit, I turn off trackbacks to that old post when I delete the spam. It's really helped as more and more old posts deny pings.

Posted by: Ted @ at August 26, 2005 02:11 PM

5 John from Wuzzadem sent me a TB like that once. He's good people, just not necessarily in on the etiquette thing.

Posted by: Rusty @ at August 26, 2005 02:20 PM

6 My point being that I thought that Pixy automatically turned off trackbacks to my old posts... just wondering what's going on?

Posted by: David Boxenhorn @ at August 26, 2005 02:58 PM

7 Ted,

I have no idea what you're talking about. I never sent a trackback to the post you reference.

Posted by: John from WuzzaDem @ at August 26, 2005 04:49 PM

8 Yeah, I automatically turned of trackbacks to old posts. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to actually work. Bah.

I'm not sure what's up with Ted's trackback. It could be weirdness related to the database issues we've had. That would be bad.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 26, 2005 06:10 PM

9 Yep, and we all know computers never do odd things randomly.

Like I said, this one is really weird. Two unrelated posts at two unrelated sites (no reciprical links, at least I've never linked to WuzzaDem), and it shows up on my main editing menu as a trackback, but not on either post.

Damn that Rove.

Posted by: Ted @ at August 26, 2005 06:32 PM

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This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up at my place. Thanks to all the MuNus (and everyone else) who contributed!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 08:52 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

I've turned trackbacks back on. So far, so good.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:02 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Testing twice daily MySQL backups now. Test test...

Splut. Bugger.

Update: Fix fix. Better.

Update: Another full backup done and sent offsite. I'm also sending the offsite backups off to another offsite site, because I'm feeling extra-paranoid right now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:58 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hello out there.

Can somebody tell me what this means?

Can't call method "id" without a package or object reference at /home/blog/public_html/cgi/lib/MT.pm line 381.

It happens when I try to publish my entry.

Did I break it?

Posted by: Alex at 11:13 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Aaargh!

No, you didn't break it. It broke all by itself.

Working on it.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 11:28 PM

2 Alex - did you have monthly and category archive templates before? Because, um, you don't any more. The template table in the database got screwed up, and it might have taken a couple of your templates with it.

I've switched those archives off for your blog, so at least it will work until I can recover those templates from the backup.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 11:43 PM

3 Yeah, there are your archive links. Okay, I'll get those templates back for you.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 11:46 PM

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In an unprecedented move in the wake of serious attacks on Tuesday, the tiny nation of Munuvia has sealed its borders and begun plans for “The Wall,” a barricade similar to one already being constructed in Israel.

Prime Minister Pixy Misa made the announcement today from an undisclosed location in Outer Mongolia where he had been vacationing with cabinet members and their families.

“The persons responsible for these attacks are cowards of the worst order,” stated the PM. The use of illegal Spam-bomb technology, the timing of the most recent attack, the pattern of attack, each of these leads us to believe that these attacks are not the work of disgruntled individuals or insurgents organized by Blogsnotistanian, but are well funded and well orchestrated attacks by organized mercenary Spammers.”

Casualties were heavy on Tuesday when the latest attack occurred. Hospitals in the capitol city of Ambia filled quickly, as the wounded were moved in from the outlying regions of Munuviana and Ellis Island.

“I don’t believe any were killed in the most recent attack, but there is not a single citizen untouched by the events of the last several weeks,” observed Misa. “They have found their families under attack, their businesses cut off from traffic, and their constitutionally protected rights violated by these terrorists.”

These attacks have caused residents to demand work be sped up on the wall, known in adminstrative circles as Project Firewall. In spite of the obvious benefits provided by such a barrier, however, there have been some problems getting it built.

"The project to construct a wall between the more vulnerable regions of Munuvia and known Spammer hangouts has been in the works for years," stated an undentified bar owner and IT guru involved in Operation Firewall. "But in spite of the safety it would afford our small nation, UN officials and Amnesty International have already denounced it and are calling for a tribunal of nations spearheaded by Nigeria to study it. Can you believe that? Nigeria, of all places. Spamming is the greatest part of their GNP."

"Next thing you know," added a patron seated at the bar, "we'll be forced to give these terrorists land for a homeland within our own borders. And we know how well that works. Look at Gaza."

The Cotillion, a think tank of conservative women with offices located in the green zone in central Munuvia City, suffered extensive damage during the attack on Tuesday, but was able to rebound quickly. Workers from several private US and Pan Pacific defense contractors were onsite within hours, securing the perimeter and providing a much needed visual respite for the women in the facility.

“We were not terribly concerned about being overrun during this wave of attacks,” stated Cotillian spokesman e-clair, blogger with a penchant for witty remarks at the end of each group post. “We’re well armed, both literally and metaphorically. And unlike other think tanks, we actually are able to defend our statements. That one fact seems to attract the sort of situation we saw here in Munuvia on Tuesday. We hate to think that it was our recent move to this lovely country that precipitated these attacks, but it certainly would appear to have been a factor.”

Affected Munuvians spent the night in temporary shelters, anxiously awaiting the end of the attack and the return of service to their stricken nation. Members of the USAir Force Security Force, under the watchful eye of Slaglerock, provided security for both the shelters and the affected sites.

Working with local law enforcement, Slaglerock’s contingent also kept the local morale up by providing a temporary beach volleyball court and several teams for pairs play with residents, who were appreciative of the vast improvement in scenery.

“There’s just something to be said for the men providing security here,” commented Anika, a longtime resident of Munuvia. “They work hard, they apparently play hard, and they look great doing it. And just because the women of Munuvia are intelligent and discerning doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the human form.”

Posted by: Mamamontezz at 07:56 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

I don't swear very often. In fact, the only two things that can make me say rude words these days are flaky disk drives and database corruption. Oh, and anything that takes my munu off the air can generate some ripe expletives too.

At least we weren't losing $2000 a minute while the system was down - I've been there, don't want to repeat it.

On the other hand, to lose $2000 a minute you'd have to have actual revenues in the first place...

One other thing: Trackbacks and searches (the Movable Type search function) are turned off for now. I'll turn them back on in the morning (my morning - about six hours from now) when I'll be around to keep an eye on things. They were using excessive amounts of memory - hundreds of megs - which would be a problem even if the server wasn't all flaky.

I've just taken a full database backup and shipped it off to the backup server just in case.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:23 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 You know, I just now realized why my deferred posts were appearing late to me. Darn time zones.

Posted by: Ogre @ at August 25, 2005 06:34 PM

2 Shame! SHAME!

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at August 25, 2005 07:23 PM

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We have had two more instances of database corruption, both fortunately minor. We lost one template from one blog, and some posts from one of the forums. That seems to be it so far, but if you are missing anything, or get strange errors that keep coming up, post here and I'll look into it ASAP.

We do have backups off-site, so if anything critical is lost (and it's more than 24 hours old) we'll be able to get it back.

After repairing two databases, I was able to do a full SQL dump of everything, so I don't think there's anything else lurking at the bottom of the swamp, but do let me know if you run across anything.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:19 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Swamp lurkers beware! Pixy is on duty!

Posted by: Susie @ at August 27, 2005 05:54 PM

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Pardon me.

We're getting the same error as yesterday, but on the other drive.

This sucks.

Note: Trackbacks are turned off, because every little bit helps, and they're 98% spam anyway.

I'm just re-updating the backups, and then I'm going to reboot. We'll be down for about five minutes, and we'll see if that helps at all.

Update: Rebooting didn't do anything useful. I've logged a support ticket. We should be getting the drive replaced on Sunday morning, unless the problem gets worse, in which case we'll just shut down and do it right away.

It's a really strange problem. The server is using the same brand of RAID controller - 3Ware - that I use in all the servers at work, and in four years I've never seen anything like this. On the other hand, the disk performance of this system has always been a bit sluggish, so maybe there was something wrong all along.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:41 PM | Comments (50) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Is this due to the blog spammers? Munuviana Expeditionary Unit, line up!

Where to General?

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at August 25, 2005 02:45 PM

2 Not spammers, it's a hardware problem. Though it's a very strange one.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 02:47 PM

3 Strangely suspicious. I wonder if the problem is contagious? I've never heard of such a thing, but a-holes are inventing new ways to intentionally screw up computers all the time.

Hopefully it's just an odd coincidence, as so often seems to happen with hardware.

Posted by: Ogre @ at August 25, 2005 03:21 PM

4 Fess up, Munuvians--who broke a mirror??

Posted by: Susie @ at August 25, 2005 03:22 PM

5 I can't see my templates anymore. Is this related?

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at August 25, 2005 04:14 PM

6 Yikes! That's bad! Let me look.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 04:43 PM

7 Darn. Really wanted to drive spammers before us amongst the lamentations of their women. Now I'm bored.

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at August 25, 2005 04:47 PM

8 Angry in T.O. - Your templates are gone. Crap. Do you have a backup of them, or should I restore them from the database backup?

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 04:51 PM

9 Well my site still seems to be up today, but I'm having trouble getting into my email (Neomail)...but that could be because of the work computer I'm using too, so not sure if it's related.

Once is a pain in the arse. Twice is highly suspect.

Posted by: Simon @ at August 25, 2005 05:00 PM

10 I only finished them yesterday at 1am. I have a backup of the old ones. And I've got the new ones, but not in their final form (about 80% done).

I can go ahead and probably restore them myself (or get defaults from the MT website) unless you can restore them lickedy-split.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at August 25, 2005 05:00 PM

11 Angry in T.O. - Your templates are back! There were database corruptions in the template table, possibly because you were changing your templates while the system was playing up. It seems to be fixed now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:01 PM

12 Oh. Not all of them made it. Sorry about that, I don't know if I can retrieve them.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:03 PM

13 Simon - not sure about email; it should be working, and I'm getting my email (via POP3, not webmail).

Give it another try and see how you go.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:07 PM

14 Wow! They're back. Except for ComponentQuotes...but I can recreate that one myself.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at August 25, 2005 05:09 PM

15 90% are there. I'll take it the rest of the way.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at August 25, 2005 05:09 PM

16 Thanks! Now I can go to bed.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:10 PM

17 Or not. Crap.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:12 PM

18 Everything's fine except for the same bugs I had yesterday, which I'm certain have nothing to do with you. For instance, when I press the "Search" button, my paypal tip window comes up. What the hell?

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at August 25, 2005 05:20 PM

19 Uh...

I've disabled search and trackbacks for now. Trackbacks because they're mostly spam anyway, and search because I was seeing multiple searches running at once, each using about 160MB of memory. Not good.

I'll turn them back on in the morning when I'll be around to keep an eye on things.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:26 PM

20 Oh, that would explain it. I'll yank that component from my sidebar (as you've seen, I've modularized my blog template).

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at August 25, 2005 05:30 PM

21 Pixy - I tried again via a different computer but still cannot get into webmail...it says it cannot find the server. I'm using http://simonworld.mu.nu:2095 as the URL, which has always worked before....any ideas?

Posted by: Simon @ at August 27, 2005 08:04 AM

22 I tried it, and it worked first time. Maybe your firewall people have done something bad? I'll poke around a bit more and see if I can find anything.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 27, 2005 01:55 PM

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I think Pixy deserves a round of applause for his efforts at restoring our sites.
Thanks for all the hard work!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Old Cloots at 02:32 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Yay!

Posted by: Ogre @ at August 25, 2005 02:34 AM

2 *claps*

Posted by: mookie @ at August 25, 2005 02:37 AM

3 WOO HOO!!!

Posted by: Tuning Spork @ at August 25, 2005 03:11 AM

4 Pixy's the greatest benevolent leader ever.
I don’t get why you guys want to give him the clap.


Oh you meant to applaud him; I’ll go along with that.

Posted by: phin @ at August 25, 2005 03:12 AM

5 Really grateful for bringing this site back to life , many thanks

Posted by: the letter b @ at August 25, 2005 05:30 AM

6 First I have to find some nice metal bleachers... now
***Clapping madly****
***Stomping feet***
****YAY****

Is that enough noise - y'all hop up here with me and will deafen the world!

Posted by: Teresa @ at August 25, 2005 05:30 AM

7 Thanks guys!

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 05:58 AM

8 Pixy,

Thanks for working so hard; for creating the emergency message site @blogspot; for posting the info messages on our site so that our readers could realize what was wrong and providing a link so that we could find out what was going on. But most especially, THANKS because throughout it all you helped us stay connected and kept us as one big happy family in a time of crisis.

I say it was pretty damn good Disaster Recovery Effort. Don't know if you had a plan in place, but I just think you created one.

Yay! & Hip Hip Hooray for Pixy! The Munuvian Overlord who defeated those evil Farkers'

Posted by: Michele @ at August 25, 2005 06:19 AM

9 Yay Pixy!

Posted by: Tilesey @ at August 25, 2005 07:57 AM

10 Pixy is a god amongst men, and deserves all the cheese in the world for his extreme... uh... fixations.
Yes, I said ALL.
Hand it over, I'll take care of it for him.
Trust me.

Pixy, you really are a great person. Thanks for being.

Posted by: LeeAnn @ at August 25, 2005 01:41 PM

11 Yay Pixy!

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at August 25, 2005 02:42 PM

12 Pixy for President!

Posted by: Mark @ at August 26, 2005 02:15 AM

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One database did get corrupted during the outage, and it has now been fixed.

I'm looking at setting up twice-daily backups, so that if we ever go down again I can just say "hell with it" and switch to the other server.

I'm also looking at moving to a cluster, instead of a single server. More on this soon.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:47 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 So I guess this isn't the best time to ask if mu.nu users have access to mysql databases, huh?

Posted by: Ogre @ at August 25, 2005 02:35 AM

2 Sure! Yes, you have access to MySQL databases! You might have only a starter CPanel account, which doesn't have everything, but we can fix that.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 02:41 AM

3 I just went to http://mu.nu/ and the chat room is gone(?)!

I was sure there'd be a halelujah chorus going on there.

Posted by: Tuning Spork @ at August 25, 2005 03:14 AM

4 The Chat Room thingy only shows up if you log in. It tends to be pretty quiet anyway.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 25, 2005 03:20 AM

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Update: All better! It will be a bit slow for the first few hours, because it is still rebuilding the RAID array, but we haven't lost any data and everything is working just as it was.

Update: It's a hardware problem. One of the disks in the server has gone mad, causing all sorts of nasty problems. We are getting lots of spam and other crap, but the reason the system can't cope any more is due to the failing disk drive.

Sorry about that everyone.

A combination of blog-spam and denial of service attacks overloaded the server to the point where I couldn't log in to fix it. This happened while I was asleep, unfortunately, so it was a few hours before I found out.

We are still getting bombed with trackback and comment spam. I've turned comments back on, but trackbacks are still off and will be for the next few hours.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:17 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Hey, who told you that you were allowed to sleep?

Posted by: Susie @ at August 23, 2005 10:39 PM

2 Pixy:

I have no idea if the server could handle the load for this (or if you could even trigger the necessary rebuilds) but renaming the comments and trackbacks scripts puts an immediate stop to the flood, then you can turn the functionality back on. But I don't know if the rebuilding of all the MuNu blogs would cripple the server worse than the attack.

Works like a charm on smaller installations (I find I have to rename about once a week) but no idea if it could scale to MuNu.

P.

Posted by: Light & Dark @ at August 24, 2005 12:58 AM

3 I've heard rumors that Harvey and Susie are working on wiring your bed so that you are awakened when the server is down, but I told them I wanted no part of it, as I appreciated the massive efforts you already put into the server. Thanks!

Posted by: Ogre @ at August 24, 2005 01:33 AM

4 Test test.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at August 24, 2005 07:48 PM

5 So, you were taking your monthly nap and everything went to hell in a handbasket?... figures.

Yay for Pixy! We're back!

Posted by: Teresa @ at August 24, 2005 07:51 PM

6 Yay Pixy! Last night--no blog. Then, today, automagically--blog!

Posted by: ensie @ at August 24, 2005 10:03 PM

7 Thank u Pixy!

Posted by: Mark @ at August 24, 2005 10:25 PM

8 Hooray for Pixy!

Posted by: Jordana @ at August 24, 2005 10:46 PM

9 Thanks so much for everything you do.

Now, about that tip jar...

Posted by: Ted @ at August 24, 2005 11:41 PM

10 Yay!... Many thanks for your perpetual work keeping us afloat!

Posted by: Tim @ at August 24, 2005 11:41 PM

11 Thank you, Pixy!

Posted by: nic @ at August 25, 2005 12:01 AM

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All happy now! The problem was the log files once again. I don't know why it suddenly became such a terrible issue, but once I cleared them out, everything became extremely zippy.

You may end up with a small gap in your Awstats graphs. Sorry about that. We do still have the raw logs, so I may be able to patch it up.

I still need to investigate why the log files aren't getting cleared as the are supposed to. 20GB of logs is apparently a no-no. Before, the server fell over when we reached 7GB, so I made some more space, which led to other problems.

Moofle... At least it's happy now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:45 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)