COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Tizer]

Or horse dung!

[Tripps]

They're a joy digital devices aren't they? Late last night my wonderful Roberts Stream83i wouldn't connect to the web. Every other mode worked OK, problem with just the internet connection.

Did all the usual easy things - switch off and on again - radio and wifi. Put it back to factory settings and started again. It connected to the wifi but did not retrieve any data. Checked the Roberts website, which is good, but that fault was not included. Gave up - and found that they would fix any fault for about £43 plus postage . That seemed just about bearable.

Tried again this morning and what do you know - everything now works.

Welcome back radio WDVX, and Oldham Community radio.

[Stanley]

Bit like my BG energy bill, I get the email it is available, Hang on a minute, site 'temporarily unavailable'. Do they start doing maintenance on the server as soon as I get up?

[plaques]

One of my long term, (on / off), projects has been photographing what I term as 'lumps of stone'. These include everything from terrace plaques, date stones, carvings and anything that normal people are not remotely interested in. Having amassed over 2,000 pictures the only way of indexing in any logical manor was to write a number of cheap and cheerful HTML programmes so that you can bounce in and out at will. The even longer term aim was to raise a website so that everybody could look at them. I am now looking for someone who would review what I have done and tell me what they think. Unfortunately I've only 3 flash drives that I can loan out. (about 5Gb) It would make it easier if those interested were all in Barlick so the logistics of getting the sticks over would be much easier. Could you please let me know if you are interested.
PS. Anyone who wants to make their own copy is free to do so.

[Whyperion]

I suppose you could upload to here.

One thing about stone plaques is that where they have say a terrace name on them, I have seen census reports take that as the entire street name- sometimes is unclear if they refer to one, two , four or more cottages for example. Found interesting one (google street view screen captures would help), near to Battersea in an estate I have never knowingly been to till about a month ago, interesting as the dates of the house builds were on the two storey terraces and the dates increment as obviously more were built over time , they cover quite a large area and I suspect were leasehold from something like British Land (I suppose I should look at their website !)

[Stanley]

P, best archiving I have found is to spread the material to different locations. When I was looking for ways to get the LTP out into the wild many years ago I sent copies on DVD to every major library in the world (almost) on the grounds they can't resist data. Since then, with the help of Ian and the site it has been made downloadable and put on the site, we've lost track of the number of times it has been downloaded in its entirety but every now and then a reference pops up in strange places including at least one doctorate..... It was doing this that earned it a national award from the AIA.

[plaques]

I suppose you could upload to here.
One thing about stone plaques is that where they have say a terrace name on them,

OG doesn't accept HTML. and its far too big for casual viewing. The package covers Burnley and ALL the towns in Pendle. Indexed so that you can move within a town using street names or subjects to access what you want. Pages of images have the <...> function so that you are not going back to the main index table.
The older terrace names were often the postal addresses before we got the joined up main roads.

All this started when I saw some terraces being demolished in Burnley and found that nobody had a record of them, from there it just grew like topsy. As I have said I'm asking for general comment not technical expertise although this would be more than welcome.
PS. another 3 flash drives on order.

[PanBiker]

OG doesn't accept HTML. and its far too big for casual viewing.

So was the LTP in it's original form. The key was to build as HTML then rip the code into a complete mirror which is what you see on the site now. It would be perfectly possible to repeat that with your data and shove it on here in its own sub forum or whatever structure was suitable.

LTP2013 sits in its own directory up on the server and the link to it is just a URL on here.

Could be a plan. The mined code becomes a read only file and can be ported much more easily than raw HTML.

In what exact form does it exist now, is the HTML structure on your computer or a dedicated box or some other arrangement?

We documented the conversion of the LTP in it's own thread on here over the 9 months or so that it took to rebuild it but that included reviewing and updating all the text and incorporating all the images within the transcripts. Sounds like you are already past that stage.

The thread is in the Admins and Moderators section on the site but you cant see it unless you are and admin or a moderator. I could move it to an accessible thread if you want to read up.

[plaques]

In what exact form does it exist now, is the HTML structure on your computer or a dedicated box or some other arrangement?

Sorry Ian but I'm not a computer buff and 90% of the terminology is way above my head. A quick résumé of what I've done looks like this...

1 All the folders holding the pictures and the programmes to run them are sat within the root directory.
2 The programmes have a HTML framework defining the page format where the images or indexes sit.
3 There are some elements of Java and CSS? plus keyframes to shuffle the images about.
4 The images themselves are low resolution to keep the overall volume down in size.
5 Using a chrome browser in windows clicking on the opening programme starts up the viewing and off you go.

Using the flashdrive it would simply be plug in and open up but any copies from this would also have to root directory based.
It would be no trouble to get a copy over to you. I never envisaged modifying its format for the simple reason I wouldn't know how to do it.

[PanBiker]

A copy to look at would be a good start.

To simplify what I posted before for the revised LTP

We set that up on a development platform as a phpBB website to use the same structure as OneGuy.

When we were happy with the functionality (over quite a few revisions), we used Website Copying software to convert all the dynamic HTML to Static HTML.

I created a new sub-domain in our hosting package to hold the data which was then uploaded via FTP.

What you see on the One Guy site is just a URL link up to the index page for that code.

---------------------------------------------------

From what you say it looks like if your information is already a complete package so to speak, it would only require somewhere to put it. I'm fairly sure we can have unlimited sub domains on here so we may well be able to create you a niche to hold all your stuff. Whether it would need mining from how you have it at the moment remains to be seen. It would only need a sub forum on here for the launcher which we could make pretty with a suitable image and text like the LTP. You could create zip packages to shove up on the server and make them downloadable if you wish.

The software we used was HTTrack which is free to download and use.

HTTrack - Website Copier

I'll check out our sub-domain deal.

[PanBiker]

Just had a look Plaques and we can have up to 10,000 sub domains, we have only used 7 so I reckon we have room.

[Pluggy]

Ian has asked me to look into it. He have a pretty high end package for OGFB, the limit we're closest to is file handles, the storage and pretty much everything else being unlimited. We're using 172,000 odd files from a limit of 262,000 odd. 31,000 of our used file handles are in the old Archive site 50,000 in the present gallery, 32,000 in an archived gallery. you get the idea.

[plaques]

Thanks PanBiker and Pluggy for your interests. It has always been in my mind that these images would help the Family Research people and offer some background detail of what is there to be seen if you only look. I've no problem with 'free to view' by any means possible. I'll send Ian a PM to get the ball rolling. As Stanley would say "Isn't OG marvellous".

[Stanley]

"(over quite a few revisions)"
That was an understatement! Getting the LTP to its present format was 'challenging', not just for me but Ian as well. I couldn't have done it without him.
I keep meaning to mention.... Apart from the scanner Ubuntu V. 18 is like an old pair of slippers now....

[Tizer]

We're happy with Ubuntu v.18 now although Mrs Tiz had a glitch this morning when the printer wouldn't print a document. It kept asking for paper but adding more made no difference. Eventually we found that the printer settings had mysteriously changed from our usual Tray 1 to Manual. Switching it back solved the problem. I can only think that an update had changed the setting.

It looks like Russia is moving further towards it's own internet...
`Russia tightens grip on its national net' LINK

[Stanley]

I think you're right about the upgrades making minor changes like that Tiz. I have noted examples but none that hampered me.

[Tizer]

The ability of manufacturers and service providers to tweak their products after you've bought them without asking permission is one of the irritations of modern life. If I've bought it, I own it. At least when Ubuntu do it I shouldn't complain too much because it's free! (If you look in some T&Cs you'll find that the supplier has a clause saying that they retain ownership even though you've paid for the product.)

[Gloria]

I've had an email today from ee saying my monthly cost is going up by £3. If I don't want to take this then I can cancel at no cost. I'm looking into changing to Vodafone, as we are their mobile customers they are offering Superfast 1 for £21, and Superfast 2 for £26. Does anyone have any experience of these?

[PanBiker]

I'm with Talk Talk Gloria. Remember, all ISP's are using the BT (Open Reach) infrastructure. You are looking for best offers at a given price and not forgetting customer support if anything goes wrong. Have you checked locally (or in your slightly wider area) who other folk are using?

[Pluggy]

I got the same email. I'll be staying put. I've no gripes with EE and I was always a "better the devil you know" man.

[Gloria]

Thanks for the helpful answers. I have had reason to contact ee a couple of times in the past 6 months, and they were so easy to speak to. We rang them on behalf of a friend whose partner had passed away, they were so understanding, they promptly rang him and talked him through everything.
On that premise I think I must agree about "the devil you know" and stay put.
Thankyou all again for your help, that is what makes this site so wonderful.

[Stanley]

I agree with Pluggy, I get offers all the time promising me the earth for less but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The one thing that is certain about all these offers is that they eventually cost more than the original offer.
I agree with you Gloria, how many sources of advice or information are there that are 100% trustworthy...... OG certainly is! (And if Pluggy misleads us we can always go round and let his rabbits out of their pen.....)

[Gloria]

I agree with you Gloria, how many sources of advice or information are there that are 100% trustworthy...... OG certainly is!

100%

[Stanley]

Canonical are very active with security updates of late.... Is something going on?
Good R4 programme at 11:00 yesterday on 'The distributed web' and peer to peer communications. I think it was called 'Ways of seeing'. See THIS article. As I understand it it means you can communicate whilst avoiding servers controlled by the major web data miners. Complicated stuff, listen to the programme for an explanation.....

[Tizer]

Canonical are very active with security updates of late.... Is something going on?

I guess all computer systems and software are under increasing attack by everything from teenagers in their bedrooms to the Russian military. The update I had today was for Firefox.