Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Okay all you smart people out there. I get this message from MT when I try to check all the comments on my site:

Can’t use an undefined value as a SCALAR reference at lib/MT/App/CMS.pm line 2030

It is an issue because I’m no longer getting email notification when a comment is posted (since upgrading to 3.0) and it means I don’t know who might have commented on a previous post.

MT is of no help. Their manual pretty much sucks. I’ve reloaded new versions of the CMS.pm script to no avail, so it’s apparently picking up a variable from somewhere else.

I also have to wonder if the SPAM comments I got from the Lithuanian Tourist Bureau had anything to do with it.

I decide to upgrade my MoveableType to 3.0, and had, shall we say, some difficulties. Once I did the upgrade, I couldn’t get back into my blog. It would display, but I couldn’t log in. I fiddled with it for a while, reinstalled my backup of the previous edition, and still couldn’t log in. That all took about an hour last night. With Birdie and his bride-to-be visiting, I really couldn’t devote any more time to it.

This morning I tried again with my work computer to see if maybe there was an issue with the computer at home. No dice. SixApart, developers of the MT program, were of no assistance. I checked their forum, and it appears many people have had the same issue. The response from SixApart? “This is, after all, a Developers Version,” as if that made it okay for there to be a bug that won’t allow you to even get in. A bug, by the way, that didn’t exist in the previous edition.

What I did find after a bit of searching was a handy script called MT-Medic which allows you to get access to the user configuration settings for MT and do things like changing the password. So, if you do the upgrade, be sure to download this script and run it. I doubt you’ll be able to access your site without it any time soon.

Thanks to the programmer who put this script together.

Well, I kinda like the monochrome version that’s been up all day. But there are a few things I need to work on. So, the GREEN is back…for a while, anyway.

by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds…and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of…wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Magee wrote that after a single flight in a Spitfire. Imagine what he’d write after a flight like this one:

SpaceShipOne in space.

Porphyrogenitus has a script for Blogger which prevents spammers from harvesting your email address. Definitely worth a try.

Now, if I can just remember where I put my stuff in the first place….

is important to us because…?

I have followed the space program all my life. It has brought us many benefits. The least of which is direct. Life on Mars means absolutely nothing to me.

What the space program has done is produce the things which make space flight possible. Indirectly, those things have helped us day-to-day. Think Velcro.

The possiblity of water having been on Mars at some time is, in my view, very likely. Water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Under the right pressure and temperature, these two elements combine in an exothermic reaction. I would guess that those two elements, very common here on earth, are probably found on Mars. If so, the chance of water being formed is very high.

Does that mean life? Maybe. Does that mean sentient life? Doubtful.

So, what did we get for the billions invested? Some curiosity satisfied, some really neat pictures, and some advances in technology. Which is most important? I shouldn’t have to ask.

If you are new to this blog, you didn’t notice. Others see a new setup. I just moved to Moveable Type for additional features not provided through Blogger. It took some work, but I think it will be an improvement. It will be even better once the Mulligan web expert, Bogey, finishes updating the style sheet. He does good work, which you can view through his link to the right: Greasy Elbow.