going postal

Life, Logic

The cost of a first class stamp is going up, when, Monday? So I made my usual trip to the post office (not the one in Gloucester; another one which shall remain anonymous) to exchange the two unopened rolls of 39? stamps I have, and pick up another 60 2? stamps for the open roll of stamps I have.

Now let me digress for a moment to state that we rarely use stamps. I have so many because I have a rule (we OCDers have lots of rules) that once I open the last of something, I must get more immediately so I don’t run out. Well, if you order stamps online, shipping costs the same regardless of whether you order one or two rolls of stamps, so to save the 50? and the time spent ordering, I usually order two rolls.

Anyway, so I’m at the aforementioned post office and ask to exchange/return my old stamps. Despite having done this before at this exact post office, I was told that they cannot take back stamps, and if I’ve ever looked at my receipts, I’d have noticed that “all [stamp] sales are final.” So being the constant questioning person I am, I asked WHY won’t take stamps back. The response (in the words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up)?

“Because all sales are final.” WOW! I’m glad I got that cleared up!

I purchased 260 two-cent stamps and left.

installing apache2 and the “WSASocket failed to open the inherited socket” error

Computers

I have finally got around to installing Apache/PHP/MySQL on one of my computers. It’s not that I didn’t want to install A/P/M before, I just never saw the need. I have a VPS server at a great host, and can configure my own php.ini file, and with cable internet access, it’s just as simple to upload and test as it is to test locally. Also, if I’m developing on someone else’s host, I’d rather know how their server operates as I’m developing, not after I’ve completed a site.

However, my grandmother does not have internet access, and I am at her condo every weekend taking care of her. I bring my laptop to work on in the few spare moments I have (it’s not that she’s terribly sick at this point, thank goodness, it’s just I don’t want to be rude). Since it doesn’t look like she’ll be getting internet anytime soon, and I haven’t quite figured out how to hack into anyone else’s network, I decided it was time for local testing.

I used the great tutorials at http://www.ricocheting.com/server/apache.html. For some reason that I cannot recall, it was recommended that I install verson 2.0 (http://www.ricocheting.com/server/apache2.0.html) instead of v2.2, which I did. When I got to step 4, however, which is to open a browser and load either http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/, the browser hung. Nothing loaded. Clearly, I thought I had done something wrong, even though the instructions up to this point were simple and clear. Unfortunately, that great tutorial did not give any hints about what to do if the Apache test page did not show up. Fortunately, I had a PHP/Dreamweaver book with me, and it did: check the log files!

Once I did that, it was a matter of googling my error message to find a solution. It turned out to be not quite as straightforward as I was hoping, so I am putting all the steps to the solution here in the hopes of making someone else’s life easier down the road.

Here’s how to fix an Apache 2.0.x installation on a Windows XP SP2 machine with the same error I had. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer and go to the directory you installed Apache2 into (for example, “C:Apache2”). Open the folder “logs” and the file “error.log” in Textpad or Notepad. Scroll to the very bottom to see the last error lines. I had the following lines (which were repeated over and over about a thousand times as I kept trying to connect):

[Mon Apr 30 22:18:44 2007] [notice] Child 9692: Child process is running

[Mon Apr 30 22:18:44 2007] [crit] (OS 10022)An invalid argument was supplied. : Child 9692: setup_inherited_listeners(), WSASocket failed to open the inherited socket.

[Mon Apr 30 22:18:45 2007] [error] Parent: child process exited with status 3 -- Aborting.

[Mon Apr 30 22:18:45 2007] [notice] Apache/2.0.59 (Win32) PHP/5.2.1 configured -- resuming normal operations

[Mon Apr 30 22:18:45 2007] [notice] Server built: Jul 27 2006 15:55:03

[Mon Apr 30 22:18:45 2007] [notice] Parent: Created child process 8104

A google search of the “WSASocket failed to open the inherited socket" showed quite a few results that led me to understand that Apache2 would not run on Windows XP SP2 by default. But where was the solution? There seemed to be one, but every link from google linked to the same solution page, which was now a dead page (well, maybe not every link, but it sure seemed like it). Fortunately, someone on a foreign board (Danish, maybe) copied the solution and posted it in English! I’m not even sure how I found this page, or why I scrolled down, but I’m glad I did.

The very simple solution is to uncheck the “Enable LMHOSTS Lookup” box in the TCP/IP protocol setup (under WINS setting). Here are the steps to do this:

  1. Open “Control Panel” then “Network Connections.”
  2. Right-click on “Local Area Connection” and select “Properties.”
  3. Double-click on the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” line to open the “Properties.”
  4. On the “General” tab, click the “Advanced” button.
  5. Select the “WINS” tab and uncheck the “Enable LMHOSTS Lookup” box.”

Now, check the Apache test page at http://localhost/. This time, it should work!

car rental review of a dodge stratus and chevy cobalt

Family, Reviews

Now that I’m spending weekends in Connecticut caring for my grandmother, I’ll be renting a car every weekend. I can’t really take my Saturn SUV because Vin needs it for his trips to Home Depot, and there’s no way our 1997 Saturn sedan will last another 3 or 4 years (until the SUV is paid off) if I’m driving it 350 extra miles a week. So, off to the car rental place. I will try to review the car I drive each week. Mind you, though, I’m not much into cars, so my reviews might be a bit…unusual?…useless?…

The first car I rented was a Dodge Stratus. I don’t recall the color (my receipt says it was “magnesium”), but it had 4 doors, electronic locks and controls, and rode very nicely. It also had a CD player, and the indoor temperature of the car was very easy to control and keep me either warm or cool, depending on whether my body was acting normal or being terribly hot. Also, I had no problem finding the window controls as I approached my first tool booth on the Mass Pike (don’t laugh! with our new SUV, I had to open the car door the first time I drove it and needed to use the window quickly).

The next weekend I received a Chevy Cobalt. I always thought cobalt was a color, and was pleased when the car turned out to be blue. Of course, that was from a distance. Up close it looked more of a purple, and indeed the car’s key tag also identified it as purple. This car wasn’t quite as spiffy as the Dodge. The windows and locks were manual (on the other hand, no confusion at the toll), but the lights had an option to be either manual or automatic. I couldn’t figure out what setting I had on, so I ended up just turning them on and off manually. One major annoying thing about the Cobalt is that every time I used my blinker, I’d turn my bright lights on. But the CD player was great, the temperature controls perfect, and I always knew the outside temperature when I looked at the speedometer.

Oh, and speaking of the speedometer, I not only saw it turn over to 11,000, but I saw 11,111! I’ll post the photo of it as soon as I figure out how to get the picture off my cell phone.