...was about time and last chance, the old forum software was about to expire for good (meaning no more security updates).
With this 4.0 version we should be good for another 4 to 5 years and than who knows....
I am also strongly consider to change the whole site to a CMS (custom management system), with about 2.000 hand coded pages no small task, but whatever keeps one busy...
...first encounter, little sister meets new born son for the first time... I think they like each other...
p.s....my genetic contribution to this planet is now over, thanks it was a pleasure
I have to send quite regualry maps to various customers around the world and luckily till about a few months ago the delivery rate was really good. I think one in 100 maps arrived damaged in some form or shape, so nothing to worry about. However...
About a month ago my post office informed me that round tubes are no longer served, i cannot use them anymore, reason beeing they cannot be stacked, they roll, so they are a logistical nightmare. Ok, whats the alternative? I was told that there is a very good alternative that cost the same and is basically a tube with corners , so they can stack..
well i show you how sturdy those bastards are below... (image thanks to a not so happy customer)
As you can see that thing is quite flat, so i learned two things; dont trust anyone, and those parcels are not handled with care...
Conclusion, i invested in better tubes, in fact if they manage to break them than i give up, see below the monther of all tubes... cost three times as much as a normal one but apparently a Boing 747 can roll over it (not really)...
...after 11 years it is time to move on. Worpress served us at times ok but security and spam issues are got so out of hand its no longer sustainable, and that despite the good reputation it has in general. There are just too many hack attacks and spam floods coming with it that i decided the time has come...
To give you an idea, we run wordpress really only for the front page, basically a news window to new content we produce. The forum, gallery, blog and download section is all one softare and integrated. Now the front page will join the party. Its a huge upgrade for us. There is one database driving than all comunity related. Looking really forward to that. The only thing that is left are the internal pages. Those are all hand coded with no database at all, that will be than the final step to have everything from one database.
A beautiful example (hey dont shoot me if you hate chelsea) is this page that uses the full software suite (forum, home page and content)
http://www.talkchelsea.net/
...so dont be surprised to see the home page soon in a bit different look...
...one of the real pain in the ass consequences of having many fake accounts is that email get bounced, ALLOT! Which means the reputation with email providers (Gmail, hotmail, etc..) drops like a stone. Which in the end means almost no emails gets delivered, because everyone in the email-world thinks you really suck!
This happened in 2013 and with most of the internal notification system done via email, hardly anyone ever got a notification that someone replied, or that he got a new message or a post was quoted etc...
Which means we had a considerable drop in engagement as people just did not get notifications... In the end it got so bad i couldn't even send out a single email without having the dreadful "return to sender" mail coming back to me...
Luckily there are companies like Smtp2go. As of September we are using their service and it works like a charm. Not only does everything work again as it should be, now it is even better than before. Their reputation is so good that we can reach now people that had before our mails ending up in their spam folder...
All internal communication (and external for that matter) and notification are now via Smtp2go and you should get now all of them uninterrupted!
cheers viggen
Around 2011 we saw a massive influx of new members, they had wonderful names like xxxcialisforyou, or pokersupergames or even less imaginative like xfgUlkzzio...
They did not post much and the few that did got quickly deleted by the moderators. On the surface they didnt bother anyone. Oh boy were we wrong. Those were little bastards that try to exploit known bugs in the software to get a foothole in the server and that all for one thing only. Use the site to send emails. If anyone remembers the many problems with the site startet around 2011. On top of that my host told me that my site has unusual high traffic (which we didnt) and shut down the site a couple of times without notice. It got so bad at one stage that the site was for months offline. No one could help. The hosting company insisted that it was my fault, but didnt tell us what exactly is the problem.
You must know our host was a very big company, with apparently very smart people but unfortunately not very caring ones, so they basically didnt give a f++++ what happend to our site. By accident i stumpled upon a little canadian company and they managed to quickly identify the problem and fix it.
Internal email and notification should finally work again as usual.
Lesson learned, new members that sign up and dont post within a month are deleted, sorry to lurkers, the spammers spoiled it for you...
Loud, pounding drums; harsh, whispered vocals; unusual instrumentation; and a somewhat catchy tune buried underneath. That old-timey bit at the beginning? That's sampling. Caledonia by Cromagnon has all the staples of modern industrial music (minus the angsty lyrics), and it came out way back in 1969.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPiO_G-DEHs
My hometown in southern austria sucks in any sport except in hockey, thats the only thing we are good at, the only thing that attract crowds... (6 times austrian champion) and we have of course an arch enemy the capital Klagenfurt which is just 40 km to the east... yesterday for the 295th time we played against each other, thanks to the NHL lock out even with three players from the NHL Sam Gagner (Edmonton Oilers) and Tyler Myers (Buffalo Sabres) for the Reds and Michael Grabner (NY Islanders) for my team.
Michael Grabner is a native Villach guy, so it was a question of honor for him to play here. (btw. just a few miles to the south comes a Stanley Cup winner Anze Kopitar [slovenia] from the LA Kings)
...in any case, 1:3 and 2:4 behind and we turned the game in the last 10 minutes to a 5:4 win!
fantastic crowd, full house and very very loud!
Blue and White forever!
here a highlight video of the game
http://www.laola1.tv...28--100364.html
Cro elevated to one of the most promising rappers in Europe, hides behind a panda masks and makes rap hearable...
quite impressive; 27 million views on Youtube...
I contaced (via email) every political party that is represented in austrian parliament! I had one question regarding a specific issue and what there stand is on it, and also if there are any person i could talk about it in my town and maybe (if i am happy with it) join their political party....
8 weeks later i must say it was rather interesting....
2 parties have not responded till today
2 parties have responded with a canned automatic response, not going into the fact that i want to speak with someone in my town
1 party did all i asked, (relatively quick reply, gave me contact person in my town and send me information how to become a member)
1 party i contacted even though they are not in the parliament, but getting lot of press lately here; the pirate party (but it is so chaotic there i couldnt work with them, i guess when you beyond a certain age, you need some sort of structure)
I had a constructive talk with representative of party Nr.5 and after i am back from Rio de Janeiro, i might join them. I am not going to be the next president,but i might change some local stuff that i always wanted to be fixed. What better way to actually try and do something about it than just complain, right?
...so i finally broke through the 110 kg barrier, phew, lot of sweating involved. Since my personal training session, i also noticed that i am a weakling, almost everyone seems to be able to lift twice as heavy weights then me, but i work on it..., so next stop is then breaking through the 240 pound barrier, i keep you posted....
Little update; had the hour with a personal trainer, and he put together a program for the gym. Lots of lifting going on now. Every part of my body has muscles that ache now, but its all for a good cause. Weight drops as slow as ever but i am determined. The nice thing is that the one hour CrossStep improved dramatically. A month ago i would manage in one hour 7 kilometers = 4.34 miles, now i get in on hour 9 kilometers = 5.59 miles. Maybe with my next update i will drop below 110 kg, i keep you up to date....
...little update, shed a bit of weight but nothing to brag about.
The fun part will be tomorrow as i won an hour with a personal trainer at my local gym, i hope he knows what he is doing...
This is hard, much much harder than i thought. I fear with age the ability to loose weight fast disappears....
I tried really hard with exercise and not eating too much, despite all my efforts for a long time i was stuck at around the same weight level. It was as if my body pulled a switch and decided to not loose any weight anymore. Only a few days ago this "threshold" seems to have been broken through and i finally have a new weight to announce, slow very slow but nevertheless the pounds are melting...
i keep you up to date...
...i am way behind my target but at least i am still loosing weight, for some reason my metabolism has slowed down tremendously and no matter how little i eat or how much i exercise i dont loose weight in a rate that i would expect....
in the meantime some food for thoughts, excellent video about why the NON FAT craze that started in the seventies made us all fatter...
(In case you wondered; i am checking my weight every morning just after i get up, before i have eaten or before i had something to drink.) I lost again a pleasing amount of weight, since my last entry (0.4 kilograms = 0.881849049 pounds). Although i had some chocolate attackes i managed to continue to loose weight, mostly because of a technique called Intermittent fasting, i skipped dinner twice the last few days and it really gives you a boost in weight loss. I thought it will be difficult but it wasnt at all, whenever i felt hungry i drank water or started to exercise. This is a really great tool to have more control. It looks like i might break the 110 kilograms = 242.508488 pounds barrier before June ends!
Thanks to one of the greatest film ever made, the austrian Anton Karas become the first austrian music star after the second world war...
"The Third Man Theme" was released as a single in 1949/50 (Decca in the UK, London Records in the US). It became a best-seller
...my road to loose weight will take much longer than i anticipated, however i make it as pleasant as possible and try to make lifestyle changes rather than just a diet and some workout. I started to read up allot on paleo and primal diet, (very low carb, lots of protein and fat), so if you are a vegetarian, this is defenitely not for you...
As with many things in live i rather aproach this with a relaxed attitude and small things can make a difference already. For example I knew one of my problems where my excessive coffee intace (caffeine stimulates insuline production), so i reduced it now to 2 cups in the morning and 2 cups in the afternoon (thats 50% less, so you see there was something i had to work on), of course i dont sweeten the coffee either, but with the spirit of primal eating i use full cream instead of milk (low fat is a total no go for primal eating).
I must say although i am far away from being primal, i do feel already much more energized, i am stronger, healthier and have more endurance, btw. weight is now at 111.8 kilograms = 246.476809 pounds which is compared to two months ago 117.2 kg (258,381771 pounds) so in 8 weeks i lost 5,4 kg (11.9049622 pounds) , thats 0.675 kilograms = 1.48812027 pounds per week which is very pleasing as i built muscle as well in that time, and its a rate that is sustainable for the next couple of months...
