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.
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.
3. The Member's Sidebar will be renamed and become a general purpose links column with member functions and links to 'last posts' being removed.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.

Update: The Password Retrieval Service has been fixed. The forum search feature is about 80% complete with some testing to come. So far it is working well and should be available in the next week or so. Some lost photos in a couple of the forums have been re-uploaded. Other forums will be inspected for missing photos as time permits and at the end any and all lost photos will once again be in place.

More good news to come soon.

E-mail issues

There is currently a problem with me receiving e-mail and this pretty much means that anything sent in the last week or so will not have arrived in my inbox.

I will try and get things sorted ASAP.

Update: I have installed a new mail server. My normal e-mail address is now live again.

We are back

A hard disc failure seems to have put us out of action again. However we are back online with a new disc and two days ahead of the planned resurrection date.

My apologies to all members.

Network maintenance

On Sunday, 29th January, Vintage Radio and Television will be unavailable between 09:00 and 12:00, NSW time, due to necessary server and network maintenance.

During this time there will be security updates to the server's operating system and the server will also be shifted from its primary Internet connection to the secondary as the primary connection will be transferred to a new provider in the coming weeks.

This work will ensure that this site remains available whilst one of the two connections is unavailable during the transfer to the new provider.

UPDATE: Maintenance work is complete for this week. The shift of the server did not take place as scheduled for technical reasons and will take place at a later date, to be advised.

Welcome to 2012

Last night I spent about fifteen minutes on the Gladesville Bridge in Sydney taking photos of the New Year fireworks on the harbour. I was joined by around 1.5 million other people wanting to see in the new year on the harbour.

Happy New Year everyone.