Hazard's stuff

We had an issue with a database server running Greenplum (commercial Postgresql for large-scale datawarehousing). Greenplum was starting, but attempts to do anything in the database were resulting in the following errors:

INFO: Crash recovery broadcast of the distributed transaction 'Commit Prepared' broadcast succeeded for gid = 1265880453-0032866370.
INFO: Crash recovery broadcast of the distributed transaction 'Abort Prepared' broadcast succeeded for gid = 1265880453-0032866371��C
psql: FATAL: DTM Log recovery failed. There are still unresolved in-doubt transactions on some of the segment databaes that were not able to be resolved for an unknown reason. (cdbtm.c:2829)
DETAIL: Here is a list of in-doubt transactions in the system: List of In-doubt transactions remaining across the segdbs: ("1265880453-0032866371��C" , )
HINT: Try restarting the Greenplum Database array. If the problem persists an Administrator will need to resolve these transactions manually.

Of course, manuals/forums/Google did not provide any useful ideas as regards to how 'to resolve these transactions manually'. Morever there was no backup handy (and the db was huge). I didn't care about two lost transactions, I just wanted to start the database. After an hour of attempts, eventually I succeeded. The trick was to delete files from pg_twophase/ subdirectories.

I'm blogging this in the hope that when somebody else faces this problem, he would be able to find this post through Google, saving his nerves. :-)

Great music but a boo for customer service. I don't like being told "I don't give a shit" by supervisors. Having spent there a few hundred euros in a week, the least I want is to be handled politely. Fix yourself or you'll end up only with drunken kids. The atmosphere has been degrading ever since the move to a new place.

It's been a while I posted something here, so as well it might be a rant.

TODAY:

• Confortel Atrium hotel in Madrid tried to put 60 EUR worth of bar/restaurant charges on me, ignoring the fact that they were dated BEFORE the date I arrived.
• Aegean airlines screwed up web check-in Madrid-Athens-Larnaca. I managed to check in for Madrid-Athens, but then the system would not let me check-in to Larnaca.
• Aegean airlines did not manage to register me to Larnaca even in Madrid airport registration desk. "We use different systems". It should be mentioned that my transfer time in Athens was planned to be just one hour, which is already tight, without having to obtain a boarding pass...
• ... and then the flight to Athens was delayed.
• The duty-free in Madrid didn't put the bottle of wine I purchased in a sealed bag. So the bottle was happily confiscated by Athens airport security.
• My passport got damaged (peeled off) just on the place where my photo is.
• It seems I caught a cold.

Well, it could be worse, right ??

In case someone wants to run a recent Linux kernel on an FC8 box, I have made an RPM for 2.6.28.7 and you can download it here. Should also install on CentOS 5/RHEL 5 if you use --force.

This breathtaking photo was taken next to a space communication facility near Ussuriysk, Russia. The biggest RT-70 radiotelescope has a 70m diameter antenna with an area of 2500 sq. m! The telescope stands over 100m high, can rotate 360 degrees and weights over 24 thousand tons [1] [2]. Impressive gadget :) Sadly, not used nowadays, due to lack of financing and deep space missions.

Just finished watching Waltz with Bashir. Emotional, original and very beautiful. Not for the faint of heart.

I hope that it will get the well-deserved Oscar in the best foreign movie category.

Shutdown of a single ISP, McColo, has reduced world spam levels by 70%. Check the full story here. Amazing.

At last I received my Karcher RC 3000 RoboCleaner. My carpet already looks more vibrant than ever :) The thing goes around the apartment collecting the dust, finds the base, dumps the dust into a bag in the base, and then starts again from the beginning... until you stop it. Perfect. As long as it can find the base ;)

I caught a glimpse of MAD Video Music Awards 2008 and I must say I was impressed. Greeks managed to stage a world-class show, with a vivid scene setup and excellent camera work.

It was the first time I saw a live production of such quality from Greece. Eurovision 2006 doesn't count as it was supported by European Broadcasting Union.

I recently purchased HP F4180 printer/scanner/copier for 50 EUR. It is amazing how inexpensive these things are nowadays.

As regards to Linux compatibility, I must say that it is very good and everything worked from the first attempt. Simply download HPLIP and all configuration is done automatically (at least on FC8). Printing works using CUPS, scanning using xsane. Thumbs up to HP!

PrimeTel is building its own submarine fiber cable landing station and will bring one of the biggest international submarine cable systems to Cyprus. If you think that your connection is slow compared to what people in rest of the Europe get, wait until 2009 :)

Reliance Globalcom to land undersea NGN on PrimeTel station

If I'm asked about my favourite movie, my current answer would be "Knocking' On The Heaven's Door". Great script with excellent combination of drama, humour and action. Plus a soundtrack which perfectly fits the picture. 10/10.

My colleague received an IBM-Lenovo X61 laptop, and we found that built-in Intel 4965 wireless is very slow when connected to 802.11b access point. Same problem persisted both with Fedora Core 8 and Ubuntu (iwlwifi driver).

Usual tweaking of ACPI and APIC parameters didn't help. Googling around showed a lot of people suffering from the same problem with Intel 4965 wireless cards. Eventually I resolved the problem by removing iwlwifi driver files from /lib/modules, and installing ndiswrapper (allows to use Windows network drivers) + Intel 4965 driver for Windows XP.

Europe's space cargo carrier, ATV, after many years of work is finally in orbit. It has a problem with some of the engines, but that shouldn't stop it from reaching International Space Station.

One thing I don't like about Russian Space Agency press releases is that everything has "unique characteristics" and is "superior than western alternatives". Well, it seems European Space Agency suffers from the same problem as well. From ESA's article about successful ATV launch:

"The ATV is also the very first spacecraft in the world designed to conduct automated docking in full compliance with the very tight safety constraints imposed by human spaceflight operations. It features high accuracy navigation systems and a flight software far more complex than that used on Ariane 5."

Well, Russia has been flying Progress spacecraft in fully automatic mode since 1970s. And ESA perfectly knows that. They even have a video of Progress docking on their website. :)