Password retrieval service

There are two technical faults with the password retrieval service and many thanks go to the two members who brought these to my attention tonight.

Due to these faults, the service has been disabled for the time being. Please e-mail me directly if you forget your password in the next few days (e-mail must come from the address you have on file here!) and I will send your password to you.

I'll update this post when the problems have been resolved.

We're stuck on you!

It had to happen eventually. At about 17:36 yesterday all the servers I operate were powered off though I didn't discover this until informed by someone trying to access the chat server on Induced IRC.

I was able to remotely restart all but the web server which took another 24 hours to finally get going again. I am still not sure what is wrong though it appears that the processor is about to die so a replacement server will have to be acquired to keep Vintage Radio online.

By the looks of things, there has been a brownout as there are reports of other electrical failures in neighbouring properties. A brownout is where the mains supply voltage falls well below the nominal supply voltage and causes current flow to rise and thus causing damage to sensitive equipment containing electronics or electric motors. My chances of proving this occurred to our greedy supply authorities are well below average though.

That said, my apologies to everyone for the downtime. The damaged server is operating again but I cannot guarantee for how long. In the meantime I will source a suitable replacement and make sure the data backup regime is still working well.

Notice of changes to AUP

There have been a number of alterations and additions to the Acceptable Use Policy. I would encourage all members to read this document as soon as possible as it governs everyone's continued use of this website. Nothing in the Acceptable Use Policy applies retrospectively however it does apply from this date forward. For example, if your username does not meet the requirements of Section 2 (Becoming a member), Clause 6 it does not need to be changed. New members would be bound by this however. The new AUP comes into effect as of midnight (00:00:00) on Monday, 14th January, 2013.

The Terms of Use document has been discontinued for the present time as it requires a complete re-write. For the time-being, the Acceptable Use Policy will govern the use of the site.

In other changes, the Yahoo!7 search box has been dispensed with. It is pretty much irrelevant now as the site has its own search feature which is accessible from the toolbar at the top of each page.

The links to most recent forum posts in the sidebar have been altered slightly so that long usernames will fit into the static width of the sidebar rather than jump to the next line.

The site has a new masthead for 2013. It is still a fairly plain background but the font used is a little better on the eyes. The links bar underneath the masthead is now 3 pixels higher to allow the links a little more room and visual seperation from the masthead image.

Database preparations for the new website

Over the last couple of months I have been working to get the next version of this website set up so that it can start taking information from the database that feeds the current site.

In order to support some of the new, and much requested, features I will need to make some changes to the database and this will involve the forums being unavailable for a few days.

I've decided that the best time for this to happen is over the Christmas break, namely between the 21st December and 11th January. This is traditionally a quiet time here and will thus mean this necessary work can be done with the smallest possible disruption.

Through most of that period the forums can still be read but members will not be able to post new comments though there will be times when the forums are not available. A holding page will be shown in place of the forums when that happens and a further announcement shown when everything is back to normal.

Update: Work on the database has finished for the time being. More work will be necessary later in the new year however there should be no more disruptions for now.

Upgrades to Vintage Radio and Television

Over the next few weeks there will be a few changes and improvements to this website. The following small list is a guide as to what will happen.

1. A new forum search feature will be added in response to a member request. (Done)
2. A site toolbar is being worked on at present to allow certain member functions to be within easier reach and will show membership status. (Done)
3. The Member's Sidebar will be renamed and become a general purpose links column with member functions being removed. (Done)
4. The theme introduced when the forums were given a new look will spread further around the site and this will include a new-look main links bar with the icons removed. (Done)
5. The bug that has always affected the post-count function will be sorted out. This will unfortunately require that the forums be closed for a day whilst all member's postcounts be recounted and the database updated accordingly. You will all be advised of when this will happen in advance.
6. A small number of site functions were broken when we had a server failure some weeks ago, including the password retrieval service. The whole site will be audited for correct operation and anything that broke at that time will be fixed up. (Done)
7. The site will be given a new masthead image. We've had the current one in place for at least four years and it's time for a new look. (Done, perhaps)
8. A tenth forum will be added. This will be called Historical Features and will pertain to anything of a historical nature that is relevant to what is covered on this website. Links to historical articles, videos, and other content can be included. You can also write your own historical articles. (Done)

Some members have stated that they would prefer to add images to their posts without having to wait for this to be done for them. This website does have an ASP Upload function which allows this to happen though I am not satisfied that the security of this is tight enough.

When images are uploaded to websites a number of factors have to be taken into consideration and all of these play a critical role in how a website operates. Things like the size of the image (in pixels), the weight of the image (in bytes), the format of the image (.jpg, .gif, etc), whether the file being uploaded is a genuine image or a malicious script file disguised as an image, the content of the image (is it G-rated?) are some of the things a site administrator has to consider carefully.

Only some of these issues can be verified by the technology used to power this website with the others requiring third-party applications that cost money. For this reason I am not yet prepared to turn on the current version of ASP Upload. For the time being I am still happy to receive your photos via e-mail which I will resize and upload when time allows (usually within a day) or alternatively there is the option of using an image hosting service and simply linking to photos in your posts. The first option is definitely the easiest.

As a guide, photos should be high-resolution, taken in a well lit area with the camera set to automatic unless you know your camera well. If your shots are blurry you should take them again, considering the above advice. If you have a steady hand but have trouble with sharpness it is better to move the camera further back from the subject and zoom the lens in a little to capture the required portion of the subject. The clearer and sharper your photos are the better they will support your questions or articles. You do not need a high-end camera to get good results and I usually touch up minor imperfections before posting photos anyway.

When the new and revised site functions are finished I plan on rolling them out all in one hit, so expect some big changes in a couple of weeks, along with an explanation of what is what and what is where, etc.