After many months of phantom favicons floating around on my Firefox bookmarks, I set out to find a solution. Well it turns out to be nothing more than a good ole database corruption.

Since Firefox 3.0 and later uses SQLLite as its bookmarks and browsing history, its corruption/damage can result in this “feature”. However after a little Mozilla research the solution is pretty easy.

Since the history is all stored in the places.sqlite files under your profiles you can clean up the mess. So under Windows the steps are something like this:

1. Make sure Firefox is close and not running!
2. Locate your Firefox profile directory.  (Mozilla explains it very well here.)
3. Delete or rename all files named:
   • places.sqlite
   • places.sqlite-journal
   • places.sqlite.corrupt

This will result in your browsing history being purged, but should clear up the mysterious changing / wrong favicons on your bookmarks now.  Each time you visit a bookmark, the bookmark favicon in the menu should be repopulated with the correct favicon image now.

It was kind of silly to worry about it, but it became very annoying to me personally and I wanted the solution since it was happening on multiple machines now!

At least it was an easy fix.  Of course your mileage may vary and your a deleting files, so be careful.

So when is 120G not enough?  When it can be 500G.

Since Sony is nice enough to allow PS3 owners upgrade their systems with newer and more importantly, larger drives we ventured down the path.  A Western Digital WD500BEVT showed up at our door step.  From all the Sony docs and blog entries, the process should be a piece of cake.

Well….

All we had to do was (oh ya, this is going to be a wild ride Mr Toad!):

1. Got a external USB drive that could hold our 40G+ of current data.  No problem had a 320G laying around.
2. Clean off external 320G since it was formatted NTFS and PS3 not playing that game.  No problem dropped stuff on one of our 1T drives.
3. Wait, no NTFS, need FAT32.  Wait, Windows 7, Vista and XP don’t format FAT32 above 32G.  Never would of thought I would run into that issue.
4. In comes FAT32 Formatter (http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm) command-line if you like that or Windows GUI version (http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.htm).
5. Formatted 320G to FAT32.  All good to go.
6. In PS3 XMB, went to Settings -> System Settings -> Backup Utility -> Back Up.
7. Selected our external drive, away it started chugging.  An hour an half later it was done.  Everything looked fine.
8. Drive Swap!  Sony describes this along with about a million other sites.  Slim is VERY easy to do and no problem with a torqued to heck screw for us.  This definitely sounded like more of an issue on the PHAT model.
9. Slid in new WD500G.  Closed up the drive cover.  Ready to restore.
10. Forgot to put firmware update on external drive in a PS3/UPDATE folder like it said to… fail.
11. Get firmware file, put in proper directory, do over.
12. PS3 found firmware on external drive this time.
13. Installed new firmware with the brand new bare drive.
14. Formatted new drive, all is good.  Can taste 500G just over the hill now.
15. Got blank slate and now back to Settings -> System Settings -> Backup Utility -> Back Up, select Restore.
16. Select external drive, yep!
17. Select only backup we had on drive, yes sir!
18. Restore, restoring, restoring, sleep, restoring.  1 hour 40 minutes later, 98%, 99%, FAIL!!!!!!!!
19. What, how, where, why oh why? Truly epic fail.
20. Go back to 6 and start over thinking something was bad with original backup.  Has to be right!? right?  What else could it be.  Following Sony’s rules.  It’s not like this is that other company that make RedRing machines?
21. FAIL! Again. Oh woe is me.
22. Maybe something to do with files its backing up… maybe a little house cleaning of original drive will make it all right Will Robinson.  Dump vids, photos, demos, that should be better, heck that is less to backup.
23. Go back to 6 and do this AGAIN. Another hour and 20 minutes or so fly by, not really.  But hey that is 15 less than last time.
24. FAIL! AGAIN.   NO NO NO NOOOOOOOoooooo ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh
25. So we finally realize a good old error code right in front of our face 80010029.  Corrupt data file basically.  Come to find out this has been around for years, thank you very much Sony!
26. Finally figured it out after reading way too many sob stories about people losing saved game data and starting their games over, yada yada yada.  Living with bare really big drives, it wasn’t going to happen to me!
27. One thing to know about FAT32 is that it has a max file size limit of 4G – 1 byte.  It led me to wondering in the now slimmed down 32G worth of data I am backing up if there was a file size limit of some of the files still left.
28. So slap back in the original Toshiba 120 in our Slim.
29. Here goes the last area to clean on the original drive before doing my final backup AGAIN (and final time).  It was the Game Data section, you know all the Installed Games (Devil May Cry 4, MGS4 as a couple examples) and patches.  Well there was some in there passing 4G in size.  Hmmmm wonder if that just happens to be by chance or we are something.  Who cares at this point.
30. Well we PURGE every Game Data (FIOS will get them for me again <G>), backup last time around.
31. One positive note, it only took 10 minutes to backup this time around since we purged 31G+ worth of Game data and patches.  Scary!
32. Swap in the new drive (last time please), button the slim back up and hook it all back and lets do some restoring!
33. Start restore, 12 minutes later….. Success
34. Yep it was either size of those Game Data files (one or more) or a corrupt one (which I doubt otherwise the game would not of worked).  Needless to say, Slim is sportin a new 500G!  Actually 416G clean.

Never think something that is suppose to be easy, is going to be easy.  However, working through the problem all things are possible, even with bad software!   I should know, I have written some and definitely seen plenty from the other side.

Thanks Sony, love you too.

So since I have posted the following over on the xbox forums and seem to get back quite a bit of feedback that it has solved several others RROD August 11 System Update deaths, I figured I would post it here as well before MS decides to pull the whole thread to make sure they don’t admit that they had anything to do with everyone’s consoles dying!

So my console was completely dead after working with MS support related to the Aug 11 update failure on my 3 year old Pro console. They basically wanted me to send it in saying I had a hardware failure (even though initially didn’t have RROD) and wanted the 100 bucks to repair since it was long past its warranty.

Since I wasn’t going to pay for any old hardware to be fixed that was broken by their software, I figured I would find a solution on my own since their support was pretty useless on the phone.

Since the console was working fine before the update I started to see what options to clear the system of the update. Since mine was not even getting past the 360 startup logo before it completely froze and then showed RROD recently, I had nothing to lose. It was going to meet the dumpster at this point!

First thing I did was use the sync clear method stated early on in the post and several others places in the forums and web:

1. Held the sync button (on the console to the right of the 2nd memory module port).
2. Pressed the power button (still holding down sync button the whole time) until it was at the dashboard.

Mine didn’t say anything, but oddly enough it got me past the logo and I actually could see the NXE dash now. I have not seen this for days (say the last 8 tries of starting the console). That was positive.

---

Next I used the 360 Clear Cache method (the new method, since the August 11 update was still in place at this point apparently). Not the long (X,X,LB,RB,X,X) combo.

I quickly navigated to the system blade (thinking I had less than 30 seconds before it RROD on me):

1. Selected Memory.
2. Selected Hard Drive.
3. Selected Y for device options.
4. Selected Clear Cache (3rd Choice).

In my case it freed up about 5 gigs worth of disk space by clearing out the “cache”. Dang all those software updates for games!

Restarted the console to be safe and see if everything still worked. Sure enough it started up, the lag I noticed after the August 11 update was not there and I actually was able to play two XBL games and even some Fable II. All of which was impossible the previous days.

Does this solve all my problems, probably not, but things are working again until the next failure or RROD. I find it interesting that MS doesn’t force these kinds of clearing of the cache if they can be problems with system updates.

Since both of these steps together has currently (and maybe only temporarily) fixed my RROD. This leads me to believe it is really not hardware failure! Does anyone else see something wrong with this if my console lives on and MS was going to take my 100 bucks to just clear the cache on my box and send it back to me!!! Or is there really changes to the latest system code that is taking a border line stable console and sending it over the edge?

This was the first time I ever had any failures on my 360, which would lead one to believe something not right with this system update. I wonder if these steps works for anyone else out there with the Aug 11 failures!?”

I have verified that this has worked on my console (still working many gaming sessions later) and at least 8 reported instances of others consoles (ranging from 3+ years old to not even a month old elite) being fixed by these steps above. Even with complete RROD’s. Of course I can’t guarantee this will work for anyone else’s 360 or that it will last, but it has worked on ours at this point.
Thanks for nothing Microsoft, maybe you would like to test your stuff before releasing. All for new avatar and netflix junk!? Dang, what happens come fall with the Twitter and Fackebook stuff piled on top of this… I smell smoke in them there hills?

So the console gets updated with the fabulous new August 11 auto update on XBL.  Cause I need new avatar clothes right! NOT

Installs, reboots, gets to the “new” NXE updates and you notice everything is jerky and slow.  Think to one’s self, must be that everyone and their dog is on and updating so the tubes are full (right Mr Gore).  Tried to watch a vid or two, locks up each time at different points.  Forced shutdown each time.  Not real happy with the “new” features yet MS.

Try to play a little Fable II… don’t even get past the menu when the whole console locks again.  Still no ROR either.

Try it several more times over the course of several days each time it actually seems to get worse and worse.  Taking less and less time from startup for it to lock up.

Figure I would see what the fanboys and XBOX forums say… what do you know, top of the XBOX forums general discussion list:

Installed the latest Aug. 11 Update and 360 has stopped working

Entry after entry sounds similar to mine.  Figured, heck I am out of warranty so lets call MS support and see what line they sale me.  “I have a hardware failure.”  Really, I would of never guessed.

Since I am out of warranty, that would be 99 to fix broken hardware that you have been making money off of for years and the public/media knows!

Needless to say since it wasn’t a RROD, I was years past my warranty period and MS is currently ignoring the issue and not an issue.  So good customer service.

The best part of the story is that after getting off the support call, and the console is down to mere seconds before freezing now, it RROD the last time I cycle it.

I should just sale everything 360 related and go to the horrible PS3 or worse yet a Weeeeeee!

MS stinks tonight on the East coast.  I write software for a living and if I developed something that destroyed hardware, boy I would be out of a job!

So now what to do.. maybe it is time to hang up the gaming hat.

I ran into the need to change a project I am working on from keeping a ton of java objects in the air due to real-time calculations and performance.  Didn’t need (or want) full database that would need to be maintained by a database group.

Every time the application was restarted, the entire thing would be reloaded based on other sources (other databases of data — all different db’s, data and transformation needed).  The transformation requires each base source to have different set of transformations and calculations performed on them.  Also since the sources have different real-time intervals there needed to be different levels or transformation going on.

Of course if I was a dba, I would be saying this should all be done in some huge db iron and storing it into some jumbo sized tables and all could be done with scripts, triggers, etc.  But I am not a dba, I like my logic in code, not a database.  That is just who I am.  I love Java and like to see what my code is doing to the data and db are used to store and get things for me, period.   Just wasn’t going down that road.  We can agree to disagree or not.

Ruled out in like 5 seconds that the use of flat files to store the calculated data would just not work.  I had to have the ability to retrieve the data fast (wanted hash maps or trees in memory, but that quickly ran out of steam due to quantity of data).  I also wanted to keep everything in the single app (single deployed war) at the end of the day.  Makes support easier in the long run.  One point to look at instead of 12!

So I came up with a list of what I wanted:

1. Needed to be quick.
2. Needed to be embeddable (not an Oracle, MySQL or anything like that) / memory friendly.
3. Needed to deploy when the web application deployed (all self contained).
4. Needed it to be support by ORM (Apache Cayenne) since already using in the project for other db work.
5. Needed to be open source.
6. Needed to be temporary, last only while web app was up and running and throw everything away when app restarted.

I had narrowed my list down to three choices I was entertaining (your experience might be different):

• Apache Derby aka Sun Java DB
• HSQLDB
• H2

They probably would all get the job down.  But I tried to narrow it down by my criteria by doing a little reading (Google + reviews + blogs + groups complaining about stuff + did I like what I saw):

1. Started reading, it appeared H2, then Derby (latest) and then HSQLDB was the speed arrangement. (YMMV)
2. More reading… All would meet the need, but H2 had some really nice instant up and running features that I liked. (IMO)
3. Same as #2, they all would meet the need more or less.  Just different feature set, but once again H2 was drawing my attention. (IMO)
4. All had native support in Cayenne since I am using 3.0 (H2 was not supported prior to 3.0, but that didn’t matter since I am using 3.0).
5. All met this need and would of been fine.
6. All met this need in some fashion and would of been fine as well.

So it really came down to how easy “did it appear” for me to get this started, embedded and actually working, using it in actual live code all in the same day.  For me it had to be H2.

There were quite a few reasons other than meeting my 6 requirements above.  I also liked that it had an active change log which every month appeared to have forward progress and making the project better.  Open source projects are either constantly evolving and or dead.  Get worried when a project hasn’t had commits or quite a bit of progress in months, 6 months, last year, etc.  Code is never perfect, it can always be better.  Don’t leave it there to just die.

I have to admit that venturing down the H2 path in the first day of use has turned out to be a great choice.

Love the embedded console you get by including 1 (one, yes one) jar in your project which you were going to do anyways since that is the only lib required.  Edit your apps web.xml and bang.  That is supporting your dev project front and back.  I can see it will come in handy trouble shooting the application both during development and even possibly productional since we are talking ever changing live data.

Integrated really quickly with Cayenne.  I have cayenne actually building the schema from its own XML each and every time the app starts up.  Talk about reuse and single place for describing the model.  ORM creates the model, creates the Java classes and now builds me my schema in my temp db.  That is a win, win, win situation folks.  No SQL monkey business, period!

With a little more code (I mean little) I have it dropping everything (entire schema) and db temp files when it shuts down (all through a single listener config in the web.xml).  I love when things are simple and just work.   Kudos to Thomas for creating such a great db that works right out of the gate.  Simplest Java library I think I have ever used.

I plan to write up some of the things I find interesting in the coming month or two (along with some other Wicket and Cayenne stuff I have mocked up, but not typed into here).   Here are some of those ideas I have already worked through turned out beautifully (eluded to above)!

• DB embedded in app config.
• Cayenne used to build H2 schema.
• Purge db on shutdown.
• Performance / usage.

It should be noted that H2 is developed by Thomas Mueller who was the creator of HSQLDB (H2 can be seen as HSQLDB2, just better and it even said that it could merge back into HSQLDB)… anyhow.

H2 +1 in my book.

It’s always interesting to see what other developers use as their real workspace when they have control over it.  (Unlike cubical heck).

Once such sweet space is something Mitch Haile built.  I stumbled across it in one of me RSS feed consumption extravaganas and have to admit the space is really, really nice, but I have to say the screen real estate and mini server room/closet is very nice for a home build.

Just had to share the nerd eye candy for others to consume!

http://www.biscade.com/office/

Snaps on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwa32/sets/72157607284828899/

Very nice work Mitch!  Kudos