Computers are the craziest people

All of you Cisco Unified Computing System fans are going to like this. I have an 8-blade chassis in the lab with two 6120XP fabric interconnects. I was able to access both of them with UCS Manager, then I took a Java update to 1.7 and my troubles began. I launched UCS Manager and got this message:

At first I thought it meant that Java 1.7 wasn’t considered to be a higher revision than 1.6.x, but then I realized it means that only 1.6 will work. So I uninstalled 1.7 and went back to 1.6. There was no Java error message, but the UCS Manager wouldn’t launch. So I tried going to the other 6120XP and it worked. From there I could see both units, but the first one still refused a direct connection. Which raised the question of what had broken? I updated to 1.7 again, tried getting into UCS Manager on the 6120XP that had worked minutes before, and it failed. Downdating to 1.6 left me with no access to UCS Manager.

What was the fix? Deleting the Java cache. Apparently, it can remember error events and replay them. After clearing the Java cache, this was how the Java console looked when the UCS Manager successfully launched on both 6120XP units.

This is one of my painful, and fortunately infrequent, examples of why I don’t blog about work.

Hit me!

According to Quantcast, more people stop by here than go to K.D. Lang’s official site. I suppose I can accept that. I’m also ahead of Wheaton College’s site? Yeah, sure. But rating higher than hotbareteens.com? Uh, no. I don’t see that as being very likely.

Chris Isaak on tour, on fire

I missed Chris Isaak the last time he was on tour, but I caught him today in Webster, MA, at a place called Indian Ranch. I’m a big fan of this guy, and as always Isaak put on a masterfully entertaining show. Here’s a quick minute of Chris today, doing one of his most popular tunes, Blue Motel.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2012/ChrisIsaak.flv 512 384]

Isaak strolled up into the audience to give the ladies a thrill, and to make us men wish we could be more like him…

… then for his encore he came out wearing his famous mirror suit, which loses some of its effect at an outdoor, daytime show, but was still fun to see.

I hope you caught Isaak on PBS recently. His latest album is Beyond the Sun, and he talks about making it in this video I swiped from Amazon.com.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2012/MemphisRecording.flv 640 360]

Dewey defeats Truman again

In this online age, when a headline can be published instantly, how could CNN get it 100%, 180 degrees wrong, about the Supreme Court’s decision on the health care mandate?

CNN Breaking News BreakingNews@mail.cnn.com via ema3lsv06.turner.com
10:09 AM (28 minutes ago)
The Supreme Court has struck down the individual mandate for health care – the legislation that requires all to have health insurance.

The Scotusblog got it right…

10:08 Amy Howe: The individual mandate survives as a tax.

… and it was another ten minutes before CNN corrected itself.

CNN Breaking News BreakingNews@mail.cnn.com via ema3lsv06.turner.com
10:18 AM (18 minutes ago)
Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama?s signature health care law, including the individual mandate that requires all to have health insurance.

Boomer radio goes boom

The Boston radio landscape continues to undergo upheaval. WODS — aka Oldies 103 — has stuck to its format, more or less, for almost 25 years. Some years back it dropped 50’s songs and added the 80’s, but that must not have been enough to keep the money boys at CBS happy.

Tomorrow, the oldies are being moved to the secondary HD Radio slot, and online, so that 103.3 MHz in Boston will be called AMP and play the latest hits. Let’s face it, Baby Boomers, as the most desirable consumer demographic of all time, our day is done.