I'm a sucker for punishment unfortunately. I will still most likely write up a new template for the site in the next week or so. Same look and feel but no mistakes.

What amazes me is that whatever the issue is, it hid itself for so long. Though at times that can happen. This is assuming I've bypassed the issue of course. It'll be another few days before I am completely convinced and till then I will leave things alone here.

If anyone had trouble looking at member profiles, this has now been fixed.

(there won't be a Windows 9)

And there may never be a Windows 11, and I don't really care.

It's been reported that the Windows 8 fiasco almost killed sales of new PCs and boosted Apple sales noticeably. Talk about a spectacular own goal, but that's what arrogance generates.

Microsoft is now an aging dinosaur. I remember reading an article years ago which pointed out that most popular computer operating systems don't last past the 7th version (meaning 7 major releases regardless of the nonsense ways software companies try to disguise the version numbers) and it postulated that the reason for this is that major upgrades historically come every 3 or 4 years and after 7 x 4 = 28 years of such releases the founding people of the company are now approaching 50 years old and are well "past it" in terms of paradigm shift, etc. In fact most of them have long gone before a true version 7 appears anyway. Entropy then takes its natural course.

I believe that start-ups beavering away today will eventually replace the Microsoft paradigm with its reliance on the 'Microsoft Tax' --- having to upgrade and/or replace application software every X years because Microsoft deems it.

Personally I'm ready to make the jump to a flavour of Unix which is stable and rugged and has everything I need anyway.

I have a win 3.11 box at work, as well as a win98 machine in the workshop.
The office computers are a mix of XP & Vista
I run XP on both computers here at home and I still have a win98 laptop. The daughters laptop is Vista, but its pretty much dead.

They will drag me kicking and screaming from Win XP.

Personally I'm ready to make the jump to a flavour of Unix which is stable and rugged and has everything I need anyway.

I used to run a FreeBSD server for a chat service and an OpenBSD name server. The trouble for me was that I needed Windows for a few other things on the server rack so I ended up just migrating everything to Windows 2000 at the time. Server versions of Windows are just as stable as Unix. Desktops are more variable because stability will depend on what software gets installed on them, how often patches and updates are applied and system security. The two Unix boxes were command line only though - definitely not the environment for a desktop. You'll need to install a desktop like Gnome or KDE to get the versatility of Windows or even OSX or use a Linux package with these included.

The office computers are a mix of XP & Vista

XP was good and probably still is for most things. The biggest issue with it now is that it is no longer supported and as far as I am aware, Microsoft no longer issues updates for it.

I think a compelling reason to stick with Windows is price - Windows 8.1 is cheaper than Windows 95 was when it was released, in real terms and in dollar terms. There is talk that the days of paying for Windows may soon end, though I am left wondering how Microsoft will make money with one of their two bread and butter revenue streams cut.

GTV: the 'Microsoft Tax' --- having to upgrade and/or replace application software every X years because Microsoft deems it.

I use Linux, Mac OSX, and also maintain a collection of "vintage" PCs all the way from CP/M through every major version of Windows up to XP. I'll only move my main desktop off XP when hardware fails. A major reason is the huge collection of effective and familiar third-party software that would be made obsolete if I upgraded. With Linux, you can be fairly sure that all software is regularly upgraded, and replacement if needed will be FREE.

This week I was infuriated to find that Sony no longer offer XP driver downloads for their gadgets. I needed one for an elderly DV/Firewire camera that won't respond to generic software connections. I suppose that is the "Sony tax" to make their older products obsolete, hoping to force replacement purchases.

As a vintage tech restorer, I reject the idea that a manufacturer has the right to enforce a limited life on a product that a customer has bought. When the light-bulb manufacturers agreed to limit the lifetime of incandescent globes, it was deemed to be an anti-competitive conspiracy (illegal in Australia, but very difficult to prove to judges who instinctively favour private interests over public interests).

Maven

This week I was infuriated to find that Sony no longer offer XP driver downloads for their gadgets.

That's the problem with OS support terminations -- all OEMs, immediately drop support, too. I guess they can argue that if they find a software problem then they cannot get OS support either, but by OS end of life, such things as device drivers are well and truly debugged. In the end it's all about selling the latest thing and who cares about the older stuff.

I guess you've probably tried this route, but sometimes you can find "obsolete" drivers on websites managed by people who want to help keep such gadgets operational for as long as possible. I have sometimes found old drivers via associated forums.

Has anyone struck trouble with accessing the site in the last couple of days? If not I may shift this copy of the site back to the main server at the weekend and then see how that goes.

Following that, and assuming all is good, I will go ahead with writing a new wide template (same look as the last one) from scratch.

I have reported the issue I am having with win 8.1 ( Still to much don't need it add on: I can see why Linux is gaining ground).

I have to switch over& update win / linux computer, to fix another, so I will find out if the bug is confined to the OS.

I could not access the site briefly at about 12:10 today and websitedown.info said the site was down.

Marc, can you please send me a screenshot (of what appears in your browser window) next time you have that issue?

I am also going to run some checks on the connection and modem, even though they both seem fine at the moment.

It might be useful to have a script that pings the server on a regular basis and emails you if the ping fails. A log file of the ping results might also be useful.

2nd attempt: I cannot using the normal method, get the page into an image file. Just imagine the complete page, minus the text in the pinkish section that I am writing this in.

Hmm. I've tried in IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome and can't replicate the issue. Can you try in IE and let me know if the same thing happens? If IE displays the page correctly then the issue is likely to be a page cache glitch in Firefox - if this is the case then clearing temporary internet files in Firefox followed by restarting the browser should then correct it.

Is anyone else getting an error like Marc's?

##############################################

One thing I may try tomorrow is rebuilding the database and load everything into a fresh file. If I take the site offline to do this I will upload a message to let everyone know whilst it is happening.

Is anyone else getting an error like Marc's?

Nope. I'm using FF v33.1 on XP without those symptoms. Is Marcc using the latest FF version?

The problem I experience occasionally is a timeout or similar.