I lead a wild life, running my own server.

I hit a disk full problem due to some monster SQL transactions that were being logged (figured out how to deal with that, turning of the logging in my.cnf). But the disk full problem lead to a corruption of the “seen” db file in the mail server, cyrus IMAP.

After a bit of digging, I found the solution:

UAL 870 got us home about lunch time Friday…

And so after unpacking and etc we were just in time for the Obama announcement re Biden; was that a fake by Biden earlier in the week with that “I’m not the guy line”? Its a reasonably safe choice, and imho signals that electoral expediency isn’t the be all and end all for the Obama campaign: the Biden pick won’t sway any particular state.

Being back means catching the NBC Olympics coverage. I love the NBC medal tally that looks at the total number of medals won, a metric that puts the USA at the number 1 position.

NBC was also teasing its made-for-the-USA remake of Kath and Kim, to launch in the Fall. I’ll go out on a limb and predict it won’t make it through an entire 1st season. I love anything with John Michael Higgins in it (even his DirectTV ads), but I’ll stick to my guns on this prediction.

I heard Chuck Todd (NBC Political Unit) on MSNBC’s Countdown discussing some movement towards McCain in recent national polling. Todd highlighted that there are a reasonable number of Dems and Independents who were Clinton supporters during the primary that are not supporting Obama. While most Clinton supporters have broken for Obama, Todd thought that it was vital that Obama reach out to these 10-15% of Clinton supporters that are either supporting McCain or are undecided.

Yes, but if these voters are the sort that can’t/won’t support a black candidate, then thats going to be very hard work. Todd didn’t link racial attitudes with Obama/McCain/Clinton support, but there were one or two hints: these voters that Obama needs to pick up tend to live in small towns, “places Obama didn’t visit during the primary campaign…”.

Race hasn’t been talked about much in the general election thus far, despite the huge amount of talk about race in the Clinton/Obama primary contest. If race was a motivating factor in the primary, for a Dem or an Indep choosing between two Dems, race just doesn’t disappear when the choice is between a Dem (Obama) and a Rep (McCain).

All of which suggests that the Clintons could have a very important role to play in the general, and in the Democratic convention next week.

Over the weekend I travelled on an A380 from SIN to LHR with Singapore. I was in coach, lower deck, window seat, so I don’t have a C-class report (I wish). Some reactions.

• seemed slightly wider than a 747-400. I was right around mid-plane (row 37), and SQ is running a 3-4-3 configuration there. Wiki says the A380 is 6.58m wide on the main deck, while the 747-400 is 6.1m.
• small external windows open to large internal windows, not aligned with seating rows, gives the illusion of much more daylight and space.
• the wings are massive. When the aircraft is on the ground the wings arc up such that (at least from the from the lower deck) you don’t see the ends of the wings, just the winglets sticking up over the artificial horizon of the massive wing structure.
• In flight the wings flex up and the whole structure is visible.
• Very smooth/gentle take-off roll, no real sense that you are in an absolutely massive aircraft, considerably quieter than most 747 take off rolls I’ve been on.
• Groovy cabin lighting, even vaguely groovy muted purples and pastel hues at times. Restroom lighting was also interesting.
• SQ has awesome in-flight entertainment: e.g., roughly 30 channels of on-demand video content. Even the flight tracking maps look better than what you get on UA. A huge LCD screen in the seat-back, actually gave off a non-trivial amount of heat. I also spotted RCA, Ethernet and USB jacks on the right -hand side of the screen, not sure what they are for.
• Huge boarding area at SIN, gate A2 in Terminal 3. Wide passage way leading down to the jetways per se: I think they were running 3 jetways that night (2 lower and 1 upper deck). On push back I think I saw 2 other A380s parked at SIN.
• SQ service slightly better than UA in Y class. I am Star Alliance Gold, and got C-class boarding privs and the priority luggage thing actually worked (I was about the 3 person to have collected bags at LHR and hence out of LHR very quickly).
• Flight path was initially north from SIN, then westerly crossing the Indian subcontinent, up into the Gulf over Kuwait, skirting the Iraqi border, a kink to the north around Israel/Jordan, up into Turkey and then an arc up through Eastern Europe, over Frankfurt and into LHR.
• Emirates appears to be doing some demo/promo flights of an A380 at SFO today: see the following grab from flightaware.com.