Retroactive predictions

Question of the day on the G&M's online sports page: "Will Detroit sweep Pittsburgh?"

Nearby headline: "Penguins make it a series."

What you don't want to hear from your web host

I have a domain parked with Globat, mostly because I have been too lazy to transfer it. (It's one of these deals where it's cheap to sign up, but you would do better renewing with someone else.)

They don't host a site for me -- like I said, the domain is parked -- and, after receiving an email from them this morning, I know that I never will host a site with them either.

Dear Philip,

On Saturday, May 17, 2008 Globat.com experienced a partial disk failure on a storage device attached to two of our web servers.

And you're telling me about it now? Six days later?

Normally a disk failure is not catastrophic.

Right. Because you've backed everything up, and you use best practices when it comes to data redundancy. I assume.

Unlike most home PCs our web servers use a storage technique that allows for a drive to fail without loss of data.
OK. Good.  
The disk failed completely at some point during the night and we switched over to the backup storage device.  After the failure and switching to the backup server, we began to discover that the backup procedure had been corrupted by the earlier partial disk failure and some sites had no backup available.
The backup process "copied" the data from the failed storage server to the backup server and essentially deleted the files on numerous websites before the error was detected.
Not so good.
We think that your website was among these.
Interesting, considering I don't host a site with you. 
Most of the dynamic data including all email files, addresses books and all database files were not affected by this incident.  The server is back online and running normally again and you can restore your website by uploading a backup copy of your website files.  We are extremely sorry for this incident and our Technical Support will try to answer questions related to getting your site back online.
Translation: We don't have a backup, so we sincerely hope you do, otherwise you're screwed.  And "addresses books"?
If by some chance you don't have a current backup copy of your website files handy
.. just like us!

please consider these possible sources:

1. If you originally used a website designer they should have a copy. Most website designers keep copies of the work they have done for clients.
2. You may have a copy on an older computer or stored CD.
3. Your site may be archived on the Internet.
4. You may have an older, non-current backup copy.

But didn't you say at the start that your data is backed up, unlike that on most PCs?
If none of these are possible, we can install a temporary page to explain that the files have been lost. 
Just don't expect it to say it was our fault.
Please contact our Technical Support department and we will see if there is anything we can do to help to get your site back online.
But don't ask for any kind of refund for this screw-up.

Free content and rule-breaking, all in one

Bob Dylan played the Halifax Metro Centre last night. No cameras allowed, they said, and thoroughly searched people on the way in. If you pulled out your phone or other camera, a security guard came along and told you to put it away.

Good on them. Nothing worse than having the LCD display of some moron's camera in your face the whole time you're at a show, just so they can post their crappy video on YouTube the next day.

Our local daily seems to have taken the camera restrictions to heart, because instead of featuring a professional photo on their review's web page, we're treated to one "contributed" by a fan. And below, it, a call for more:

WE WANT YOUR DYLAN PHOTOS!

Did you catch Bob Dylan in concert Wednesday night in Halifax?

Submit your photos to our community site by
clicking here.

Just register or log in and upload your concert shots.

It's definitely easier than blowin' in the wind.

Next time the Chronicle-Herald sponsors an event, let's make sure to flout their rules.

NO SCREAMING ALLOWED

I love this.

Look at the title of the page, in the bar at the top of your browser.

The complexities of sweatshop monitoring

Great story in the Washington Monthly, on something I suspect most of us have rarely thought about: just how companies do try (or not) to ensure goods from their overseas suppliers are produced under acceptable conditions.

The writer, T.A. Frank, used to work for a company that carried out these inspections.

"Now, anyone in the business knows that when inspections uncover safety violations or wage underpayment more than once or twice—let alone five times—it's a sign that bigger problems are lurking beneath. Companies rarely get bamboozled about this sort of thing unless they want to.

"And many prefer to be bamboozled, because it's cheaper. While companies like to boast of having an ethical sourcing program, such programs make it harder to hire the lowest bidder. Because many companies still want to hire the lowest bidder, "ethical sourcing" often becomes a game. The simplest way to play it is by placing an order with a cheap supplier and ending the relationship once the goods have been delivered. In the meantime, inspectors get sent to evaluate the factory—perhaps several times, since they keep finding problems—until the client, seeing no improvement in the labor conditions, severs the bond and moves on to the next low-priced, equally suspect supplier."

How to get on the judge's good side

Sheriff’s deputies dragged a 40-year-old homeless man out of a Halifax courtroom Friday afternoon after he dropped his pants and invited the judge to perform oral sex on him.

Joel David Arseneau... was being arraigned before provincial court Judge Barbara Beach on two charges of breaching probation on court orders when he let his pants fall to the floor, displaying his underwear.

As a pair of deputies were taking Mr. Arseneau downstairs to the holding cells, they received word that Judge Beach was prepared to proceed with the arraignment as long as the accused was willing to keep his pants up.

Link.

Obviously, it is completely pointless to try and keep them out of our bird feeders