Wikitech-l September 2005

wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org

126 participants
160 discussions

How to be careful
by Tim Starling 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

I thought I might add to my analysis of the accidental reboot earlier, with a few opinions about the nature of mistakes. Jeronim's mistake, if there was one, was relying on "being careful", usually pictured as a furrowing of the eyebrows and some sort of commitment to double-checking. The problem is, you can only keep your eyebrows furrowed for so long. When a task becomes routine, mistakes are inevitable. For example, when you say a tongue-twister, you can often get it right the first time. But say it 10 times quickly, and mistakes are almost impossible to avoid. In general, it's impossible to maintain concentration when performing a routine task. Add fatigue to the mix, and mistakes become inevitable. The objective, then, is not to avoid mistakes. It is to analyse the task at hand to determine the mistakes that might be made. If you can see a potential for a dangerous, damaging mistake, change your work practices to avoid the possibility altogether. Recognising the potential for mistakes requires experience -- unfortunately we often have to make a mistake before we realise the dangerous situation we were in. But after we make a mistake, we're in a position to think of ways to avoid it in the future, and that does NOT mean resolving to furrow your eyebrows more often. For example, I once attempted to run this on geoffrin: % chmod -R wikidev . but I made a typo and did this instead: % chmod -R wikidev / I was being careful at the time, it's unreasonable to expect yourself to pause for a few seconds every time you want to press enter. I resolved to never again perform a recursive write operation on "." -- I now make a habit of using * instead. There are no dangerous keys near *. Another example of a mistake mitigating device is the automatic syntax check in sync-file and scap. Coloured bash prompts are a third type -- I started using them myself so that I would know the difference between my home computer and a remote computer. Colours and movement aid in fast recognition. They require less concentration than reading, at a time when concentration is at a premium. So in summary, there are three types of mistake mitigation which I use on a regular basis: * Good habits -- adopt work practices where common mistakes are not harmful * Automated double-checking * Cognitive aids, such as colours and movement Finally, remember to consider your mental state. Avoid logging in when fatigued. Take regular rest breaks. *Never* log in when drunk. Also at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tim_Starling/Mistakes -- Tim Starling

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Announcement: Proposed CheckUser Policy
by Dariusz Siedlecki 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

Hey everyone, Some time ago I've wrote a proposed CheckUser Policy (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposed_CheckUser_Policy), and since I can't find anyway to improve it, I'm posting it to Meta. I hope to get some feedback from everyone on this. If someone could also fix the grammar on that page, I'd be very grateful. Of course, [[CheckUser]] will get changed in time, after the policy will be established. I think that's all, hope to see some comments from the community. -- Pozdrawiam, Dariusz "Datrio" Siedlecki

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Search broken
by Magnus Manske 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

On de.wikipedia, repeatedly: Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/LuceneSearch.php on line 400

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Apache config rearrangement
by Brion Vibber 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

Notice to Wikimedia server admins: I've rearranged the Apache configuration files in the pmtpa cluster. First, the master files have moved from /h/w/conf to /h/w/conf/httpd to keep things more distinct from the other programs' files we have in there. Additionally, instead of symlinking the NFS-shared directory into /usr/local/apache/conf, each Apache now has a local copy of the config files, which should be more robust. If you need to change the apache config files, run the sync-apache script to rsync the files out before restarting the daemons. Also, I've switched over from RewriteRule+ampescape patch to an Alias for the /wiki/Foo aliasing. This should make it easier for us to use standard Apache packages in the future. -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)

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Getting Fatal error by all missed searches
by Sascha Brockmeyer 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

Hello, i ve one big problem with my MediaWiki. I ve installed it @ my localhost (an IIS from Microsoft, with PHP and MySQL) and it works fine. But even when i search for an title that doesnt exist i get the Fatal Error: "Fatal error: Only variables can be passed by reference in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\includes\SearchEngine.php on line 36" What must i do to get an page like "Nothing where found with this text." e.g. I havnŽt changed this dokument. LG Sascha Brockmeyer

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Adler's dead again
by Brion Vibber 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

Adler crashed this evening; I had the colo reboot it, but it crashed again within a couple hours. We're running on samuel plus the smaller servers for now, but some of the smaller boxes also seem a bit flaky as well (suda's been responding oddly, ariel is out). -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)

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Approved requests for new languages page listing Ladino
by ilooy 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

Hi, Now that on Meta the Approved requests for new languages page includes the Ladino language I'd like to request the help of one of our developers in setting up the subdomains: http://lad.wikipedia.org/ and http://lad.wiktionary.org/ I'd also like to request admin access as things get underway in those wikis. Could someone help out with these tasks. With much appreciation and many thanks, Jay B. [[meta:User:ILVI]] ilooy.gaon(a)gmail.com

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How to implement an [edit] for {{:subpages}} ?
by topi 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

I often use subpages in my wiki. Therefor the subpages shall be edited by clicking [edit]. This works for pages with enough headings but not for pages without them.. I also know solutions, using a template like "edit subpage". But the next problem the [edit]-buttons are hidden and the [edit-subpage] buttons are still visible when a user is not logged in. So i'm looking for a php-solution when using the {{:subpage}} syntax. Any ideas? Thanks Heinz

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RE: [Wikitech-l] I need to defeat the cache
by Bass, Joshua L 20 Sep '05

20 Sep '05

I ran across this code after looking for a way to force certain pages to not cache: global $wgTitle; if ($wgTitle) { $ts = mktime(); $now = gmdate("YmdHis", $ts + 60); $ns = $wgTitle->getNamespace(); $ti = wfStrencode($wgTitle->getDBkey()); $sql = "UPDATE cur SET cur_touched='$now' WHERE cur_namespace=$ns AND cur_title='$ti'"; wfQuery($sql, DB_WRITE); } Where do I put this code? In the extension I am needing it for? (dynamicpages2)

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My Watchlist RSS Feed
by John Anthony Hartman 19 Sep '05

19 Sep '05

Hello ye of the Wiki I am trying to solve a problem and hope that someone might have already considered or actually done this already. I was wondering if any one had created any code that would collect My Watchlist data and published it as an RSS feed. If no one has can someone please point me in the right direction in the code to accomplish this myself? Thank you, ___________________________________________________ John Anthony Hartman website: http://www.websage.org personal media outlet: Multi-Media Me- http://pmo.websage.org "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. " --Arthur C. Clarke

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Wikitech-l September 2005