Category Archives: Blogs

With any luck, the “Service Unavailable” problem has been resolved

3 Replies

Since sometime early Thursday, anyone trying to leave a comment or use a link to read a previous post got a “Service Unavailable” error message. Many of you emailed to let me know of the issue, and once alerted, I also quickly ran into the error as well. That’s when I noticed that there have been no comments on any post since Thursday. Not normal.

The tech support staff at my hosting company, Hostrocket.com, have been very good in communicating with me as they tried to track down the source of the problem. The error message itself pointed to a server resource issue, and that’s where they started. When that didn’t work, the started tracing possible security settings being out of whack.

I also sought the counsel of Blaine Fergerstrom, a friend from my Star-Bulletin days of a quarter-century ago. He was the genius who got the Star-Bulletin’s website running ahead of the much better resourced folks across the hall at the Honolulu Advertiser, and he has run lots of websites over the years. Earlier today, he sent a link to a document concerning the type of error message (503) and possible ways of fixing it.

Eventually, I hit on the suggestion that a WordPress plugin could have created a conflict that triggered the errors. Following instructions, I deactivated the eight plugins that I’ve been using, then added them back, one by one, check for the frustrating error message after each one was put back into service.

Bingo!
Continue reading →

Disaster narrowly avoided

2 Replies

[This was first posted over on Facebook earlier this morning]

Siri just saved my day, and my week.

The crisis arose early this morning, soon after we were seated in the Trivet restaurant just off the main lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Auckland. We were shown to a table along the window, and were working on our first cup of black coffee as we began thinking through our breakfast options.

I was checking out the morning news on my iPad when disaster hit.

It started when I went to take a look at the Wall Street Journal. A main title page appeared, just white screen with “Wall Street Journal” emblazoned across the center.

And then it the screen froze.

The WSJ page of news headlines never appeared, the iPad stopped responding to anything. It was completely frozen. Nonresponsive. I couldn’t get out of the white WSJ page, and the iPad failed to respond to anything of the usual things.

There’s usually a simple solution to situations like this. Power down and restart. So I pressed the top “on-off” button and a volume button at the same time, and waited. After a few seconds, this combo should lead to a another button that will shut down the iPad.

But this time, nothing happened.

I tried several times, alternating between the up volume and down volume buttons. No effect. The killer WSJ screen continued be displayed with no viable options apparent.

For a few minutes, I was stumped, and began considering the prospect of spending the rest of our time in Auckland without access to my the wonders that the iPad . It wasn’t a pretty picture. Depressing, really, and an indication of how addicted we are to digital communication and maintaining our presence in the digital world.

At this point, I started looking at the screen as kind of an “escape room” challenge. This involved tapping different places on the screen to see whether I could generate any reaction. There was a WSJ logo up in the top left corner, but it went nowhere. I tried taping the usual places, screen corners, etc. I tried swiping up, down, and sideways. One finger, two fingers, multiple fingers. Nothing I did got a reaction.

But then I noticed the horizontal line at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on it seemed to have no effect. Then I tried a “click and hold” on that line, and the edges of the screen started glowing, indicating Siri has been summoned.

Another few seconds, and a query appeared from Siri.

“How can I help you?” Or something to that effect.

I first asked if I had correctly recalled the two-button move as “shut down” command. Siri confirmed this was the correct say to power down.

So I explained my ipad would not power down.

And Siri instantly replied, “Do you want to power down this device?”

Do I ever!! YES!

The screen went black. And I felt a huge rush of relief.

When I rebooted, all was well. The iPad awoke, the frozen WSJ screen was gone, and I was free to share the moment with you.

I should have realized Siri could take control of the iPad like this even though the device seemed to be nonreponsive. And now I wonder whether a “hey, Siri” would have summoned its help earlier despite the frozen screen.

No, I’m not going to try and recreate the issue to test that hypothesis. And I’ll probably avoid rechecking the WSJ anytime soon.

Reposted on Civil Beat

Leave a reply

Civil Beat picked up yesterday’s entry and reposted it this morning with a few slight edits (“Judge Rules Miske’s Mother Can’t Represent Granddaughter’s Interests“).

CB also added two photos shared by one of Miske’s cousins on the Miske side of the family. One of the photos displays a large tattoo on Miske’s right arm of his late son, Caleb, who died in 2016. Also included is the judge’s order denying the motion to appoint Miske’s mother, Maydeen Stancil, as guardian to represent his granddaughter, who is the primary beneficiary of the trust.

In any case, you might want to check out the photos and the court’s order.

Bear with me….

7 Replies

I’m feeling guilty about failing to post anything substantive for several days. It’s not for lack of trying.

I’m still trying to track, report, and explain details of the remaining bits and pieces of the Miske case. Some may have interest on their own, others reflect back and help interpret what’s come before.

But when I sit down to write what should be a straightforward post describing a recent development in the case, I find myself involuntarily adding context and detail based on prior disclosures and the hundreds or thousands of case documents I’ve gathered over the years. Interesting stuff, but then the writing bogs down as I try to pry the recent happenings from the unnecessarily added details. But what details are “unnecessary?” What are useful additions to help explain the events? I’m proceeding by trial and error, and have a bunch of false starts to show for it, definitely not efficient, but the best I’ve come up with for now.

And then there’s another issue. What’s “the story” in these recent sub-plots? Are they primarily of interest in themselves, or because there’s something new that they reveal about Miske or his organization? I’ve tripped over this several times recently as I trying to push a couple of these stories out as blog posts.

Here’s one of the things I’ve tripped over. Miske knew that he had a daughter, a bit younger than his late son, Caleb. Different mothers. I don’t recall seeing any mention of her or her mother in any prior Miske proceedings. She’s a Kaneohe woman raised by her mom and stepfather. I’m not going to use her name here because it’s not clear if she had any knowledge of the criminal activities of her biological father. It appears that Miske made an error in reporting the year she was born. If so, what does that show? Was he trying to conceal her identity, or did he have so little contact that he kind of guessed at the year? I don’t know. But it’s clear that her story would be interesting to hear.

In any case, I’ll try to take a bite-size piece out of these various bits and pieces and get it posted soon.

And so it goes on a cloudy Wednesday morning in Kahala.

Stay tuned.