I’ve done some tweaking of the Drupal to WordPress migration SQL script that’s been bouncing around. I’ve put in SQL to migrate the user table. I’ve also used the REPLACE MySQL extension to change old links to my blog, as well as change the ‘–break–‘ tags to ‘–more–‘ tags.

Here’s my copy, where

• wp_ has been replaced by mt_ (for my mt.net database tables)
• mtdotnetMigration is the name of my imported Drupal migration database
• www.markturner.net is my website address (to convert references in the content to mt.net posts)

If you use this script, you should change these values accordingly.
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You know the Stephen Wright joke about the phone with no five on it? I feel the same way. Our cordless phone has ceased to dial 1. That means we can’t dial 911, or enter our bank or answering machine pins (both “1111,” in case you were wondering). Normal people would probably trash it and buy another. Me, I did what any self-respecting geek would do: I took it apart to see if I could fix it.

The electronic parts are fine. It turns out the problem is in the conductive rubber keypad. The 1 key’s pad is missing some conductor, which probably wore off over time. I’ve put in a note to the phone manufacturer to see if a replacement part is available.

In the meantime, don’t think because we don’t call you that we’re avoiding you, especially if your number has a 1 in it . . .

I kicked off the new WordPress version of MT.Net late last night. I didn’t start out with the plan to do it but once I saw how easy it was I got hooked on it and didn’t stop until late last night.

I first began using WordPress back at my last job, where I updated a Lyceum server with news about the company. I like WordPress’s look. Drupal is a bit too complicated for a simple blog like mine.

The real key was the script I found on D’Arcy Norman’s blog. D’Arcy did the migration a few weeks ago and detailed it all on his blog. He made generous use of Panayotis’s detailed instructions, so it was actually a group effort.
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For the past day or so I’ve turned my copious spare time towards moving my blog to WordPress from Drupal. Fortunately, there are plenty of good SQL scripts to move tables from one to another. Unfortunately, most scripts were designed for blogs with few posts to migrate. Thus there were precious few examples of Apache Rewrite rules to point old Drupal links to their WordPress equivalent. Most of the transfer time involved figuring out the proper Rewrite-Fu to make the switch as painless as possible.

I’ll explain all the geek details in another post. Time for dinner!

I spent my copious free time this weekend migrating my webserver machine to a Xen session. It was the first time I’d really taken a look at Xen, so things went a little slowly. Now things seem to be working as they should be.

Xen is pretty slick, I have to admit. Out of the virtualizers I’ve played with, like QEMU, vserver, and others, Xen is fairly straightforward. Performance seems pretty good from first glance. The tools is uses seem to work together well. My biggest stumbling block was getting the proper kernel configured for the guest sessions.

Out of this project I gained a good understanding of Xen and how to configure CentOS and Ubuntu Server guests in it. My next step is to migrate my webserver to a Ubuntu server session, which shouldn’t be too hard.

Damn it feels good to be a geek.

Speaking of Virgin America, the newly-chartered airline aims to have the best in-flight experience possible. Their in-flight entertainment (IFE) system is one of the most advanced of any airline.

Take a look at Red, their cool IFE system, which is running Linux. Virgin America plans to solicit new games from open-source developers to add to their system. Pretty cool!

I got a nervous chuckle when I saw Doom being played on the IFE. I’m not sure I welcome machine guns on a plane, even if they’re virtual.

Also, I wonder if they’ll put the open-source Flightgear on their IFE so that you can fly your own plane. They could send it real GPS coordinates and you could fly a virtual plane alongside the one you’re on.

Hmm. I wonder how many USB ports they’ll have per seat, if any?
[Update:] I should have known Engadget would have the technical 411, yo.

Aw, come on now. Who among us hasn’t wanted to build and test their own rocket motors in their garage?

I took I-540 on the way home yesterday evening. On the pedestrian bridge between the Falls of the Neuse and Capital Boulevard exits, some 733+ h4XORz had spelled out: “PRON?” in what looked like paper cups stuffed into the chain-link fence.

I’m not sure why one would want to display pr0n over a busy interstate, as its very difficult to see the naughty bits when speeding by at 70 MPH. Why one would want to display the word pr0n is even more of a mystery.

I’m kicking myself now for not stopping to snap a picture.