It isn't too clear to those of you using the front-end of /dev/null, but the entire database backend is down. So comments don't work and this post won't actually make it to the site until whenever it is I actually get everything working again.
This is mostly my fault. It started when I tried to make a backup of the entire Movable Type database...and realized that I had forgotten the root password. No worries—I can just restart the server in safe mode and re-grant all access to root with a new password. Except that I somehow managed to kill the server incorrectly, which trashed the InnoDB files.
I've been using MySQL for way too damned long, so I feel safe when my .myi and .myd files are backed up (which they are). But InnoDB doesn't like to restart from just .myi and .myd files, and the InnoDB files were the ones that were torched. I actually can't get MySQL to load the flat .myis and .myds at all...but I've inspected them and all the relevant data is in there (even though InnoDB-engined MySQL doesn't guarantee that they'll have any data in them at all). So in the worst case, I'll just blow away the entire MySQL install and reload the flat .myi and .myd files.
Update: Since you're reading this post, I've gotten this working. I ended up blowing away most of my old installs and dumping the flat .myi and .myd files into a fresh MySQL 5.0 install—which worked fine, because it built the proper InnoDB files as it knew it didn't already have them for that database.
Plus, this gave me the opportunity to install the native x64 copies of MySQL and ActivePerl. They hadn't been released when I built this machine, so it's good to have them now. The possibility exists that I can run Perl as an ISAPI module now (which doesn't work under WOW64) although I haven't yet figured out how to make that happen. That should translate into a big perf gain.
Heyas, I just wanted to let you know that my friend Bob (we went to the VLA with him) just got a job at MS and will be working with the IIS group, so you might see him there.
Whats been going on with you ? Drop me a line sometime.
I don't remember exactly who Bob is. All I seem to recall is that he's either awesome or a total goober—one of the two.
Shoot me a mail at dan.driscoll@hotmail.com when you get a chance. I'm not sure if I've got an address for you on file.
If you can, you might want to upgrade to a real database server. PostgreSQL is the obvious choice, though I'm sure you could get a cheap copy of MSSQL :)
You seem to have lost the "has posted here before" table. At least, I'm hitting the spam filter which claims to work on that.
As I remember, Postgres didn't work with Movable Type waay back when I started using it, and MS SQL still doesn't.
Once Sixapart adds support for MS SQL, I'll switch—but there's not really much of a benefit in moving over in the interim.
Also, I'm requiring my approval for all comments posted—the spam bots had figured a way around the name table with swift-moving IPs.