Rainer Gerhards

2007-10-14

not finished with packing…

Well, I wanted to pack my luggage yesterday. But then the weather turned out to be really nice and so I ended up doing some other “pre-flight” activity: I prepared my garden for the coming cold temperatures. Where I live, it can become well below 32°F in November. Of course, it can also stay much warmer. But with me being absent, I need to prepare for the cold temperatures, just to be on the safe side. And, of course, there were a lot of other things that needed to be done in the garden. Thankfully, most of this is done now and I can begin to re-focus on packing (but the sun is already shining very nicely…).

As far as the space shuttle is concerned, there were no news yesterday. Workflow is is slow over the weekend, so I do not expect anything before Monday.

2007-10-13

What is a large bag?

What is a large bag — that’s the question if you pack to view a launch …

I received a sheet of instructions together with my launch viewing tickets. On the first pages, It is recommended that I bring a couple of things with me:

What should I bring with me?
The launch viewing area is an open field that is standing room only. You are free to bring blankets and compact “umbrella-style” folding chairs that are carried in shoulder bags, but flat folding chairs, lawn chairs and large beach umbrellas are not permitted. For muggy summer launches, you should bring insect repellant and sunscreen. Don’t forget your camera; a shuttle launch is the ultimate photo opportunity. The viewing area is 6 miles away from the shuttle launch pad. Some people bring binoculars, telescopes and tripods, cameras and long-range lenses. Because sound travels slower than light, you will SEE the shuttle launch before you hear it, so watch!

Obviously, that’s a lot to carry. But then, the security section of the instructions document reads as follows:

The following items are NOT permitted at the Visitor Complex

Firearms of any type (with or without a permit)

Ammunition (live or spent)

Pepper/mace sprays

Knives of any size

Box cutters or like items

Nail clippers with knife blades

Any other sharp/pointed items, including pointed scissors or nail files

Backpacks, coolers, luggage or other large bags

Outside food items

Large Beach umbrellas

Lawn or folding chairs (blankets are permitted)

All bags, purses and other items will be opened and inspected at the Visitor Complex. If any of the above items are discovered, you will be required to return them to your vehicle. If the items are confiscated for security reasons, they will not be returned.

OK, so I am not permitted to use my backpack to bring things in. But what is a “large bag”? I neither like to end up with my belongings in paper bags nor do I like to be not allowed to bring them in into KSC. To me, it currently is a mystery (maybe a language issue not being a native English speaker – is “large bag” well defined? It all boils down to “what do I need to pack today”?

I’ll inquire at KSC and hope to get an answer. I’ll also try some forums. If you happen to know it, I would also be very grateful if you let me know. This is really a distracting question for me, even though it probably looks funny. And look at my picture above — I have even photographed my bags, so that size can be know. Are they “large bags”? Or is it OK to enter KSC with them on launch day (you may want to click on the picture for a higher resolution one …).

As I have said — feedback is deeply appreciated … When I find something out, I’ll let you know.

2007-10-13

time to pack the bags…

Next Friday, I will be flying over to Orlando, from where I will go to the Kennedy Space Center on October, 22nd (with the shuttle launch still scheduled for the 23rd). I’ve yesterday read that space shuttle Discovery’s payload bay doors have been closed for flight (at least I think this was the case).

Today, I’ll hopefully do a similar thing, that is close my luggage “doors”. Next week will be quite busy with all these late-minute things I need to finish up so that I can travel in relative peace of mind. So it is packing time today … Let’s gather all the things needed together. I’ll start with the electronics, which are always a major headache…

2007-10-12

rsyslog 1.19.9 released

I have just released rsyslog 1.19.9. It is now two weeks since the last release. I have taken some extra time to make sure that the release system (source tarball) now fits the packagers’ and user’s needs. Also, some time went into hunting the segfault, though this was still quite fruitless. However, mildew has identified that the segfault seems to occur only on 64 bit machines, which is a very good hint.

I’ll now watch for comments on the 1.19.9 release and then see if I myself can do anything against the segfault early next week (I am setting up another x64 machine for testing). Later the week, I’ll be heading for my space shuttle launch viewing trip, which will unfortunately mean that my focus will not be on rsyslog (by my co-workers will keep it up).

2007-10-12

Soyuz Spacecraft has docked to ISS

Right at this moment, the Soyuz spacecraft with the expedition 16 crew has successfully docked to the international space station. This is a very important milestone, as proper crew exchange is a vital perquisite for a successful STS-120 mission and thus needed before space shuttle Discovery can launch.

2007-10-12

worklog for the past days…

Work on rsyslog was focussed on the new packaging and bug fixing. Most importantly, people had problems with the new tarball introduced in 1.19.8 and we have made sure that 1.19.9 will again meet the expectations. We’ve done a round of pre-releases on the mailing list and managed to get down to something that seems to be quite acceptable. The official 1.19.9 release will most probably be released later today.

Here are the details:

2007-10-08
– changed the threading to include one extra thread that runs the
mainloop. This was done to work around a problem with malloc/free. Note
that we are still running on two threads – the startup thread just waits
for the new one to finish. For a description of the problem I try to
work-around, please see:
http://rgerhards.blogspot.com/2007/10/could-i-really-reproduce-bug.html
Note that this is an experimental change, which will only stay if it
proves to fix the segfault issue we are dealing with.
2007-10-10
– changed the build system to use a single source tarball again (but
different makefiles for the main project and ommysql)
thanks to varmojfekoj for the patch
2007-10-11
– applied fixes from Michael Biebl:
1.) fix failing compilation of ommysql plugin (s/ommysql-config.h/config.h/)
2.) fix mysql configure check (although the default is no, we did
check for the mysql devel files)
3.) Create a separate Makefile.am for the doc files. This cleans up
the toplevel Makefile.am considerably and makes it much more readable
and maintainable.
3b) Assign the html doc files to html_DATA. This means, they are
installed to $(hmtdir), which by autoconf standards is
$(prefix)/share/doc/$packagename/.
4.) Reformat the SOURCES line to make it better readable and maintainable.
– integrated patch by varmojfekoj to tweak build system even further
– Peter Vrabec requested doc not to be “stored” in html_DATA – changed that

2007-10-12

Expedition 16 rockets to ISS

I found this nice image of the expedition 16 rocketing into space inside their Soyuz capsule. Look how cramped it is in the Soyuz spacecraft. It’s design is quite old, but it is extremely reliable. The Russian space agency is also considering a new design with more room.

When the space shuttle is retired in 2010, the Soyuz will be the only spacecraft capable of ferrying crew to and from the space station. The US will catch up with that a few years later when the Orion, also a capsule design, but much roomier, has made its maiden flight.

2007-10-12

Shuttle-Level view of RSS re-attachment now available..

I now also have created a video of the shuttle-level view of the rotating service structure re-attachment to the space shuttle. It unfortunately does not offer the same time resolution as the MLP-view, but I think it is still an interesting animation.

2007-10-12

Movie of Rotating Service Structure re-attached to Shuttle

Yesterday, I captured NASA public webcam images and created a small animation from them. It shows how the rotating service structure (RSS) is being reattached to space shuttle Discovery.

The RSS had to be rolled back to carry out the APU hotfire test, which was postponed to yesterday due to bad weather. I have not yet heard of any test results, but assume all went well.

The video is the ground-level MLP view, the actual space shuttle can not be seen. When the video starts, watch the shadows. You will see the RSS shadow before you see the RSS itself.

To watch the video, please go to my personal site – it is too big to fit into this blog’s theme. The link is:

RSS being re-attached to mobile launcher platform

2007-10-11

Launch Tickets have arrived!

Finally my tickets for launch viewing have arrived! Getting hold of these tickets was quite complicated. I knew when the were offered for sale and I knew what I was heading for — but tickets sell out very quickly every time.

What you want to get are “launch transportation tickets” or ltt’s for short. These allow you onto the NASA causeway where you have an unobstructed view of the launch complex. It is also the closest place you can get to without having a VIP pass (and being German, obtaining a VIP pass is more than problematic – aka “forget about it”. US citizens may approach their Senator to obtain them, which is known to work).

I was quick enough to purchase some ltts, but only together with the “breakfast with an astronaut” package. The breakfast is at 5:30am, so this was the least demanded ticket and probably the cause I could get hold of it.

Ever since I purchased them I was eager to get them into my hands. I inquired at Kennedy Space Center when they may be shipped. The answer was October, 8th – and I hoped that they would arrive in time, given that it was international shipment and I intend to leave home on the 19th. The KSC folks assured me that tickets were send via express courier, so there should be no need to worry (besides, of course, the hefty shipping fee).

What should I say – they were absolutely right. Yesterday (!), I received a nice package via UPS containing my full ticket set. That was exactly two days to reach me – well done, folks. I didn’t blog yesterday about it because I was so occupied with Discovery’s leading edge problem.

I have take a picture of the ticket set, just in case you are interested and have not yet seen any. Click the link to obtain a hires version which will get you the details. There, you’ll see the big car placard, which must be placed on your dashboard to gain access to Kennedy Space center. Then, there is a small information page (with the big black bar on it) that covers everything you need to know. And finally, there are three small tickets: one gets you access to KSC at launch day, one is for your breakfast and finally there is the LTT, which gets you to NASA causeway, the public launch viewing spot. And now I have all of them in my hands :).

I am quite happy now: the tickets were more or less the last item on my go/no go list. Also, it again looks like Discovery will launch inside the scheduled launch window. What more can I ask for? Wish me luck that things will remain on this good track …