COMPUTER CHINCHAT
From Vince Chin
By the time you read this, you probably already know about Call Sign's
new web site available at: http://www.dac-callsign.com
or http://www.dac-callsign.co.uk
They went live in September following some nerve-racking testing in
August...
The Call Sign web site is a library of almost every Internet
version of Call Sign. The problem with hosting a site like this on the
Internet is the amount of data involved. Including web pages and images, the
total so far is 150Mb. This amount of data is very costly to host on an ISP,
which is where my new ADSL service eventually proved itself. When I say
eventually, I mean after BT sorted out the problem I was experiencing with
upload times.
My new ADSL service is great. I can administer my servers
remotely; I can see, hear and type to my kids using the WebCam and Yahoo
Messenger - they have great fun telling me about their day at school and I
can download music to my hearts content... excellent! But even though I was
extremely happy with downloading, I had problems with the speed of
uploading, especially when I'd spent all the time developing the new Call
Sign site. We were testing it from all over the world and it was pitifully
slow - even to the point where it kept timing out.
I phoned BT's ADSL support team who where extremely helpful.
After a few upload tests, we established that there was a problem and they
committed themselves to sorting it out within two days. On the second day, I
noticed a marked improvement in the upload times and I received a call from
BT's support guys informing me that there was no problem, funny that eh?
Firstly there was a problem that they identified and then when it all
appears to work correctly, they tell me there wasn't a problem...!
The Call Sign web site is running on a Web Server located at my
house, protected by my firewall and for those who are interested, it's a
Pentium III with 524Mb RAM. I'll be watching the server closely over the
coming months to ensure that it's up to the job, especially once everyone
knows they can search for any Internet article over the last four years.
It's also the first personal site I've built that has Flash on it! Yes I've
succumbed to the Flash onslaught and included some nice animation on the
site. Have a look and if you have any feedback or comments, please direct
them to Alan or myself.
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Football Sites...
It was my eldest son's birthday on 29th September and since the
whole family support the number one London team, Chelsea, I took us all to
see the game against Middlesborough. Can you guess how much it has cost
for three kids and two adults? £180, yep £180...! I have to keep saying
it twice because I still can't believe it! OK, I know I haven't been for
years, but after this game and its cost, I won't be going again for many
more years. What a rip-off! I pleaded poverty and even said I was a mature
student, but they just don't listen nowadays...
Talking about football, my youngest son has started playing
for his local team again and what a laugh that is. English football is
riding high at the moment and we all benefit from it right down to the
nine year old kids on a Saturday morning. So I thought I'd check out some
national football sites.
First up is the FA at http://www.the-fa.org.uk
The site is nice, a lot of JavaScript navigation and it looks pretty, but
they must do something about the content; it's woefully out of date. I
visited in early September after the Albanian game and the FA site's link
to the next game was still the Germany game, the one we previously won
5-1... I love saying that! Still even though some content is old, the site
still has a lot of excellent material and is worth a visit.
Next site up is http://www.fa-soccerstar.com
This is the FA's Coca Cola Star Challenge site with some great movies
explaining some essential football skills for those up and coming Michael
Owens. It is definitely worth a visit too...
Finally, there's one last site that I feel is really good.
This is http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk
. Friends United is a web site specifically for old school friends to meet
up, the schools include primary, secondary and even University. Just
search for the school name and you may be amazed to see some names you
haven't heard of in years! Funny I was only talking about my old school,
the Sacred Heart, last month. This site is a must so long as you want to
meet old school friends...
Be Lucky and see you next month...
Vince Chin
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