Part of the Erlang/OTP model is a separate naming server called epmd (protocol info) which is used to keep track of all Erlang nodes local to a machine and the ports to which other nodes may utilize to make direct connections to. A problem with the current design is that epmd stores data in memory only and should it crash all the data related to previously connected nodes is lost. Nodes already connected won’t be effected and new nodes will be able to reach each other but old and new nodes will have no ability to link. epmd is designed to be simple so that crashes are very unlikely but for a system which is supposed to provide nine 9’s reliability I find it odd that a simple retry isn’t even attempted .

http://blog.ulfurinn.net/2009/1/17/emergency-epmd-reanimation

After finding out this I scanned Google to confirm and ran across a few mailing list posts which recommended placing epmd in /etc/inittab so that should it ever die or is killed it will be restarted but this doesn’t solve the problem where the old nodes are no longer registered with epmd. The link above shows how to use the erl_epmd server to reregister the node but one needs to know the name and port which the Erlang instance is listening on. After digging around in lib/kernel/src/erl_epmd.erl I found that the name and port were kept in it’s state and there was an undocumented call which would return them call ‘client_info_req’. So rather than using netstat or lsof and remembering the node name as required above one can automate the process.

Which I’ve done. I through together an OTP app which will poll epmd and scan for an entry for the node. If it’s not found it will reregister itself. Optionally it will also attempt to restart epmd in daemon mode. An event based implementation would be best but I currently don’t know enough to know if that’s even possible. For the time being this will help maintain that nine 9’s uptime.

epmd_monitor-0.1.0.tar.gz

http://www.sons-of-liberty.net/

CHARTARUM is the first feature film by Think Twice Productions. John Shaw – Writer/Director/Co-Producer, Jason Osborne – Producer/Actor

From the insert to the new single from Psychotica “I Will Survive”:

For those who give a shit:

Along my voyage, unexpectedly I met one of my soul mates. Her name was Carrie Louise Hamilton. She was the kind of person who could light up a room upon walking into it… She had pink dreads, tattoos billowing over her shoulder, long legs, a big smile and could diffuse any potentially bad situation immediately. I left my career, my friends and my family to sit by her side and watch her die from cancer. It ripped serveral hearts out and left me a shadow of what most of you once knew.

I spent the next few years shooting a lot of speed and following a spiral downward, throwing my giant temper tantrum. At first I made it all about you/them, then all about me and now I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t know who the fuck its all about but the speed eventually lost its charm and using Carrie’s death as an excuse got old.

Luckily I have some friends that I happen to be in a band with (Ena, and Enrique) and a couple others that I apparently didn’t alienate (Raven O. and Heidi Follin) that are better people than I am and who rescued me and showed me that there were still reason to want to be alive, acted in totally selfless ways completely above and beyond the call of friendship and to them I am very grateful and owe them my life. Thank you guys! I Love you!

It feels good to have my head finally out of my ass and I didn’t write this to make any excuses or apologies for any of my behavior. It’s all part of my life and I have always had an extreme one from the day I was born

It might even happen again cuz life isn’t perfect. I’m somehow dumber than I ever was but it’s kind of refreshing and if anything it all taught me two major things…… 1. If you pull your head out of your ass, you find there are other people in the world to experience and………..2. I WILL SURVIVE. ………..I hope you enjoy “Black Dahlia” and the subsequent music we made as a result and fuck it, now there is nothing to gossip about so let’s not speak of it again!

Pat Briggs.. Live and die rock and roll!

and Psychotica performing a sound check with Little Prince

From http://12rounds.net

• Xocet: FLAC
• Shine On: FLAC

Get it here.

It’s also available on CD with additional tracks at Toxic Shock.

http://www.mudkiss.com/patbriggs.htm

Psychotica were a band that broke into our hearts back in 1996 with their self-titled album, which came across as one of the most original and wild glam-goth oriented rock albums I had listened to for years. It was a pleasant surprise, at last, a new glam-gothic rock band that did not suck ass in the nineties, on the contrary, they were superb, so much so that even non gothic rockers really got into Psychotica. The songs were reminiscent of everything I had ever been listening to during my teenage goth years, all exquisitely mixed up into one big huge dramatic and hypnotic whirlwind, always powerfully lead by that absolutely mesmerizing VOICE, the voice of Pat Briggs. And the man was not only the owner of such a voice ladies and gentlemen, we soon learnt he was quite a piece of an artist with a seemingly endless creative vortex inside that he let all go out during his live performances, which left everyone anything but indifferent. He’d had a long and surprising and extremely interesting life behind him, success had knocked at his door at the very beginning, but being a totally uncompromising artist, he never cared about “selling out”. During the all too brief period Psychotica were active, they released a total of three albums, which you can get by visiting www.toxicshockrecords.com get them all now if you still don’t have them.

It would now be impossible to write a quick list of the many highlights of Pat’s career in the music  business, he has been an actor too, and the owner of the famous Don Hill’s as well as the creator of three legendary glamrocksexdance clubs in America, Squeezebox, Club Makeup and Glitterdome. Amongst many other things.

Please, visit Psychotica’s official website and myspace pages to read about the life and times of this very important band, not to be missed by anyone with a little bit of taste in glamrock music, and something else.

Psychotica left their many fans alone ten years ago, all of a sudden. We had all been wondering what the fuck was going on with our band, reading interviews with Pat every now and then.

Pat got married to Carrie Hamilton and left everything, his wife died and he’s been through a very rough period of his life which seems to have found its end this year. 2009 is the year; the good news is that Psychotica are making their triumphant comeback, with a new album and a live tour to boot.

And even if just for once, Spain gets to be the winner here, because they are starting their tour next Halloween here, so lemme say just for this time, hey, hurrah for fucking Spain goddamit! Hells yeah…

This interview was conducted last August 22nd, on the phone. I was in Barcelona and Pat, Ena and Enrique were recording in New York. For some stupid reason, the phone didn’t work properly, not theirs or mine, and the poor quality of the sound was very irritating and frustrating. So the hour long conversation was pretty hard to endure, even with the help of the wine and a couple of beers in my case, but all in all it turned out to be worth it after all.

Here is the interview, read and enjoy, and most specially, spread the word boys and girls, PSYCHOTICA ARE BACK… and it’s gonna be good.

Read More…

I’m the only person to write a walkthrough/FAQ for this game. I’m a little disappointed he didn’t mention me.

Clip from the filmed performance piece “PørTrait Of ThinKing” Vocals and Acoustic Guitar, Post Performance Production : Kevin Mc Mahon

Visual Artist (The Man Behind The Canvas) Roger von Golling (projected release date/2010)

Kevin McMahon, Lucky Pierre, Prick, Fear of Blue, (sic)

http://luckypierremusic.com