I just downloaded the latest version of Spybot Search & Destroy, with all the latest updates, on one of the Windows machines. When I ran it, it found quite a few problems (mostly cookies). Whenever I try to actually fix them, the program hangs, and has to be killed with the Task Manager. Anyone know what might be up?

[Evening update]

As some in comments suggested, I tried CCleaner. It was a martyr for the cause, dying before exiting. But it seemed to do the job. I ran Spybot afterward (two or three times) and it finally cleaned up all the issues. Or at least it said it did. We’ll see how it goes.

I am busy, getting some proposals done that are due at 6 AM tomorrow. Why do you ask?

It looks like the lonely Kerry story was bogus. Guess it was “fake, but accurate.”

We were cleaning up the house and having a party last night, and today we drove over to the Gulf Coast, and had a sunset dinner on Captiva Island. We just got back. Serious blogging will likely not commence until Tuesday, but as for tomorrow, Go Blue!

I just tried to do an upgrade from 2.661 to 3.333 (or whatever the latest version is), and I got the following error:

Error during upgrade: failed to execute statement create table mt_log ( log_id integer not null primary key auto_increment, log_author_id integer default 0, log_blog_id integer default 0, log_category varchar(255), log_class varchar(255) default ‘system’, log_ip varchar(16), log_level integer default 1, log_message varchar(255), log_metadata varchar(255), log_created_on datetime, log_created_by integer, log_modified_on timestamp not null, log_modified_by integer ): Table ‘mt_log’ already exists at /usr/home/simberg/domains/transterrestrial.com/lib/MT/Upgrade.pm line 1190.

Anyone know what the problem is, and how to fix?

(Good thing I backed up my installation and database…)

I’m (finally) upgrading from MT 2.661 to 3.3. In the manual, it says to be sure that no one is using the software during the upgrade process.

How do I do that? What if someone comments while the upgrade occurs?

Now that I’ve been named Time’s Person of the Year, I expect my readership to go up considerably.

John Kerry is appropriately (and uncharacteristically) humble about it, of course.

Does anyone have any idea why the words “de-vice” and “st0ck” (spelled properly) break the script? It’s hard to even debug a broken script.

We didn’t drive up. The launch was scrubbed.

Maybe Saturday or Sunday. I’ll decide then.

I’ve never seen a night launch of the Shuttle (or any large launch vehicle–the biggest I’ve ever seen was a Delta II out of Vandenberg, from a motel in Lompoc). But there’s only a forty percent chance of flying tonight, due to concerns about low-level clouds with a front moving in. I have to decide by six or so if it’s worth the drive up to the Cape, or risk having to watch from a hundred fifty miles away on the beach down here. If it doesn’t go tonight, the next most likely success would be on Sunday night, due to forecast of high winds on Friday and Saturday. Of course, if it slips long enough (well into next week) the window will have slid backward enough that it’s no longer a night launch.

[Update at 2:30 PM EST]

Weather’s getting worse:

Kennedy Space Center already is overcast and getting worse by the hour. The satellite imagery indicates that the cloud cover that was feared as a potential launch show-stopper is going to intensify.

All three of the Transoceanic Abort Landing sites in Spain and France are experiencing unacceptable weather conditions in case an unprecedented emergency landing were attempted because of some problem during the early stages of flight.

There are low clouds and showers within 20 miles of the landing sites in Zaragosa and Moron in Spain. At the French emergency site in Istris, winds are forecast to be too strong to land.

No probability of launch update, though. I have to think it’s dropping below forty percent. This is the MMT’s bane–having to make a decision to send the crew out to lie on their backs for a couple hours, and hoping for the best against long odds. It’s looking less and less likely that we’ll make the drive up.

[3:15 PM Update]

They’re still saying a sixty percent chance of clouds preventing launch. But what’s the joint probability of having good weather at the Cape, and at all the abort landing sites? I have to think it’s a lot less than forty percent at this point. It’s going to be really hard to motivate myself to make the drive.