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Wednesday 30 November 2011

Final preparation still to go

Part of a long session on the Parishwalk.com site tonight has involved arranging the videos from last year. I continue publishing the site for a week after the big event each year and then drawn a line. Its always a little frustrating when you come back and find things that you thought you had done but haven't.

Its the same with some of the text on the website. I keep finding typos or there have been emails circulating to agree wording on bits of the rules that seem to have been resolved in previous years but hadn't.

There are 12 pages on the website (apart from archive ones) and, subject to final corrections I have now published 9 of them. Still got some detail to add to the archive page, some more videos to link in and to republish the stats (all 20 reports) with the name of the new sponsor rather than last year's.

Oh, and there is that all important link to the entry page which you can visit in 23 hours and 50 minutes. Good night.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Foul day

I republished the Syd Quirk Half Marathon lists before venturing outside this morning. Whilst still in recovery mode from racing on Sunday I was nearly blown to my best time for 100 metres on the promenade such was the strength of the wind. But it really was unpleasant running into the wind.

On my mind whilst I was running was the need to hold up my hands and admit that that I had several women flagged as men on the database - they must have been that way for several years but I noticed the error when correcting something else. And so Linda Kelly had been omitted from the top 30 and now that she is in Dawn Yates drops out. I thought I had been not chicken out of this omission on such a foul day.

First the Syd Quirk

I had an evening on the Parish Walk website last night mainly on the statistics page. I don't think I ever published the split times (prepared by John Shimmin) last year so they will be there on launch of the site tomorrow evening as will a remixed version of the Braddan video (just about to upload that). Lost more than half an hour's work at one point last night when the web editing software hung and also found some errors in the "most improved" cumulative finishers times from last year which I had to republish.

I also had some feedback about the Syd Quirk statistics. In particular Mo Kelly pointed out that I had mixed up her husband Alan with her cousin Allan. So I will start this morning by redoing these lists. Thanks to Peter Bradley for the video - I also have a link to  some of his photos which I need to add although he had a problem when his lens misted up.

Its good that everyone is finding the site again. 381 visitors on Sunday, 341 yesterday and 10 already since midnight.

Sunday 27 November 2011

SQ database

More about the Haldane Fisher Syd Quirk Half Marathon tomorrow but in case you have not seen it on the front page here are the links for the database:

All runners: by fastest time   by year   by name   All women: by fastest time


And here is a bonus showing the people with 10 or more finishes (name, number and average time):



Alan Pilling
30
01:43:04
Murray Lambden
15
01:19:06
Steve Kelly
14
01:13:17
Alan Kelly
13
01:33:53
Mitch Joughin
13
01:30:01
John Wright
12
01:27:03
Ian Callister
12
01:29:14
Peter Cooper
11
01:27:08
Ian Crawford
11
01:26:04
Martin Bell
11
01:35:04
Alan Postlethwaite
10
01:21:53
Paul Curphey
10
01:22:20
Robbie Callister
10
01:18:30
John Grimson
10
01:30:58
Bill Hooke
10
01:32:43




Saturday 26 November 2011

209 days until the Parish Walk

I wouldn't have known that only one of next year's bloggers has a countdown clock.

www.parishwalk.com will be re-launched about 4 days from now.

Progress with the Parish Walk website

Only four days left to complete the site and I have spent a few hours on it today.

I have completed the first of this year's special features which I started earlier in the week and got a couple of other pages ready.

Still a long way to go but with a bit of luck I will also do a remix of the main Parish Walk video from Braddan last year. I compressed it a bit too much in the rush to get it published and then it was removed by YouTube because of a copyright problem. It would be nice to get it visible before the relaunch. Sleep will be the deciding factor. I'm falling asleep now and will probably be the same after the half marathon tomorrow.

Its got to be done


Anyone who reads the stuff I put on this site will know that I am proud of anything I might achieved as an athlete. But I like to commit the races to memory and if my own fails revert to computer memory - websites, databases and scanned documents.

The boxes of things I have won over the last 15 years or so (since I did the same thing) lying in the attic do nothing for the memory so they are being recycled tomorrow.

Friday 25 November 2011

Not quite a labour of love

One of the ways I get my pleasure from doing the websites is that I am not tied down by the content. The feature I did on Boundary Harriers the night before last was a good example. After Steve Partington had tipped me off about the 50th anniversary I had a plan to show the records from the late Willie Turnbull's book but the rest flowed from there. It was fun.

I also get a lot of pleasure from the Parish Walk website because so many people enjoy it. But at this time of the year with a deadline approaching it becomes just a bit too much like hard work. Something that has to be done rather than something I feel like doing. I am already behind with my schedule but I am meeting the featured walker this evening and completing the feature page is always one of the biggest challenges.

A good part of my weekend is earmarked for the PW site. No long runs tomorrow though with the half marathon on Sunday.

If I finish the race on Sunday I will have done 15 of the Syd Quirk Half Marathon. Only one person has run more. In fact Alan Pilling will be aiming to finish number 30. Hopefully its still a labour of love for him.

Moving into 21st century

I've just entered the Lancs Cross Country online - it was see easy and just an extra 80p. I did decide to retire from this event last year but if my latest comeback continues it makes it even easier to enter in the future as all the data is stored. This is the sort of system I have been advocating for years. I shall dig out some of my previous jottings on this subject.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Howler, growler and fouler

For anyone reading this away from the Isle of Man, I should tell you its really windy here today. Quite hard to train the morning.

There is a great entry for the Haldane Fisher Syd Quirk Half Marathon on Sunday (see links on front page) and, although the date has changed for the first time in its long history from the first Sunday of November to the last, it looks like we may have some of the wind that I traditionally associate with the event. I can remember battling into the wind by the airport a few times over the years.

Of course, you also get some advantage when you get to the point where the wind is on your back. I had just got to this point on the NSC roadway this morning when some idiot in a van came the other way with a dog following him. Its bad enough that dog owners can be so lazy, worse that he was breaking the rules by bringing a dog onto the NSC and even worse that he chose to drive tight to the inside of the corner leaving me to take action to avoid a collision with the dog.

The language was a little foul. I just hope that the dog didn't foul.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Behind me?

"That's all behind me now" I wrote a few minutes ago describing the web hosting problems of the past week. So I went to set up my email accounts at the new host and my router was down. More swearing! It been happening at least once a day since we have been on the new super fast broadband and much more often if I connect up all the gear we have. We've already had the router replaced but I have ordered my own - a type which is still not available. It wasn't cheap as it is powerful enough for a SME business but its not good enough at the moment.

There are usually as many people ahead of me as behind when I race these days but I am hoping these technical problems really will be behind me soon.

I'm going to do some more scanning. I welcome the numbness of it this time.

You can contact me on murray@manxathletics.com but I do have rather a lot of outstanding emails again.

Murray

Light at the end of the tunnel?

The question mark is all important. I have just looked at the site that records the details of all the domains and the manxathletics.com has been updated today as follows:


Domain Name: MANXATHLETICS.COM
   Registrar: TUCOWS.COM CO.
   Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
   Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
   Name Server: NS.MAINNAMESERVER.COM
   Name Server: NS2.MAINNAMESERVER.COM
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Status: clientUpdateProhibited
   Updated Date: 22-nov-2011
   Creation Date: 08-dec-2000
   Expiration Date: 08-dec-2012
I'm not keen on seeing the word prohibited though. Fingers crossed that we are only a few hours away from regaining control of the website.

Monday 21 November 2011

FW: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Lambden - personal mail [mailto:murray@murrayandmarie.com]
Sent: 21 November 2011 22:32
To: 'support@1and1.co.uk'
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Hi, I've waited for another 7 hours. The domain has not been transferred, nor is it forwarding or even pointing to the root directory. This is getting oneandone a bad name. Hopefully this will be finalised in the next few hours to prevent the considerable disruption continuing for a further week.
Thank you.
-----Original Message-----
From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
Sent: 21 November 2011 15:36
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)
Thank you for contacting us.
We do appreciate your prompt reply and do apologize for the inconvenience that this has brought to you. We are going to forward your case to our back end administrators for further checking and proper advises. Please do wait for an update coming from them. It is our pleasure to assist you and your understanding is very much appreciated.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
--
Sincerely,
Elsie Estrera
Technical Support
1&1 Internet Limited
� Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom


Thanks but still this latest fix is not working. Please could you complete the domain transfer as a matter of urgency and then this forwarding solution will no longer be necessary. The service has been disrupted for almost a week now.

FW: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Lambden - personal mail [mailto:murray@murrayandmarie.com]
Sent: 21 November 2011 13:39
To: 'support@1and1.co.uk'
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Thanks but still this latest fix is not working. Please could you complete the domain transfer as a matter of urgency and then this forwarding solution will no longer be necessary. The service has been disrupted for almost a week now.

-----Original Message-----
From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
Sent: 21 November 2011 04:50
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)
Thank you for contacting us.
As we check, the status of the recent changes made is still ongoing. Please allow it a couple of hours to propagate. Once it has completed, it should be forwarded to http://79.170.44.78/manxathletics.com/index.html.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
--
Sincerely,
Karen Becillote
Technical Support
1&1 Internet Limited
� Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom
> Thanks for your latest email. My point was that although I had removed the link to the Website creator, the domain manxathletics.com is still not accessing the root directory. The file Capture3.jpg shows a folder number whereas the file Capture5.jpg (my other account with you) makes a direct reference to the root folder. I have since tried to forward the manxathletics.com domain to a new site (not at oneandone) but still I get the error message as per the attachment Capture4.jpg. The impression I get is no matter where the domain manager indicates the domain should be directed to, the command is not working. Could it be that because I have applied to move the domain to another host that any changes I try to make are being blocked? This shouldn't happen because I am still paying for a service.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
> Sent: 20 November 2011 14:05
> To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
> Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
>
> Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)
>
> Thank you for contacting us.
>
> Would be able to provide us the domain name in concern for further checking here on our end? We have checked you two contracts earlier and could not see any domain that is pointing to any application like website creator. Your patience is highly appreciated.
>
> If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
>
> --
> Sincerely,
> Leslie Ancajas
> Technical Support
> 1&1 Internet Limited
>
> ? Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
> Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom
>
> > Thank you but domain has not yet reverted to the root directory.
> >
> > Murray

Sunday 20 November 2011

This would test a saint

I've been sending messages on and off all day to oneandone who keep apologising for the problems with the website and suggest something else that doesn't work. I'm afraid that under the circumstances I have very little enthusiasm for updating the site at its new home when so few people are finding it. Things always seem worse when I am knackered, which I am, so I shall try and build up some enthusiasm for websites sometime tomorrow.

FW: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

-----Original Message-----
From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
Sent: 20 November 2011 10:38
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)
Thank you for contacting us.
As we have further checked here, none of your domains now is pointing to website creator application. It might be a temporary glitch on our system that the update did not reflect immediately. Apologies for this inconvenience again. Please recheck on your end if you still have the same concern. You can also try using another web browser to review it.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
--
Sincerely,
Leslie Ancajas
Technical Support
1&1 Internet Limited
� Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom
> Thank you. I have unassigned the domain (following your instructions) but on the domain list the domain list still appears to be pointing to the Web Creator - is that just something that is going to change in time?
>
> Murray

FW: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Lambden - personal mail [mailto:murray@murrayandmarie.com]
Sent: 20 November 2011 06:46
To: 'support@1and1.co.uk'
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Thank you for recognising the inconvenience. The domain should have remained assigned to the root directory (webspace/webfiles?) - what I find difficult to understand is how you identified an error several days ago (that my account had been changed by you to a web site creator) and yet the problem was not resolved. I emphasise again that I have been a customer for 11 years and have always uploaded files to the same directory using the same FTP process until your ill fated upgrade.

-----Original Message-----
From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
Sent: 20 November 2011 00:42
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)
Thank you for contacting us.
We really do sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this have caused you. As we checked your domain manxathletics.com is assigned to the website creator application. May we ask if this is the correct application where your webiste files are created or they are on your webfiles area? Please specify to us where should be the domain be pointed for we can check further. Again we do sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this have caused you.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
--
Sincerely,
Mary Arn Malapitan
Technical Support
1&1 Internet Limited
� Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom
> Another 10 hours have elapsed without you either giving me the capacity to publish my files or move to another host. It was changes instigated by your company that brought about the problem - i didn't change anything. I refer you to my previous email, however, and note that the domain was assigned to website creator by you. Please allow me to publish files to the root directory as i have been for the past 11 years or speed up the very slow domain transfer process.

Saturday 19 November 2011

Good job its not a business

The graph shows the rapid decline in visitors whilst I strive to get the website problems sorted out - see previous post.

I'm continuing to build a huge library of scanned documents. I've found loads of results and programmes for events that I didn't realise I had. They will keep the website fuelled for years to come even if there weren't multiple events every week.

FW: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Lambden - personal mail [mailto:murray@murrayandmarie.com]
Sent: 19 November 2011 22:18
To: 'support@1and1.co.uk'
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

Another 10 hours have elapsed without you either giving me the capacity to publish my files or move to another host. It was changes instigated by your company that brought about the problem - i didn't change anything. I refer you to my previous email, however, and note that the domain was assigned to website creator by you. Please allow me to publish files to the root directory as i have been for the past 11 years or speed up the very slow domain transfer process.


-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Lambden - personal mail [mailto:murray@murrayandmarie.com]
Sent: 19 November 2011 12:09
To: 'support@1and1.co.uk'
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

Thank you. I now (finally) have access to my files again but this still doesn't resolve the original problem that I get the attached message when accessing the website.

Is it something to do with one of several separate faults that you have admitted to such as this sent by one of your staff 4 day ago which has not been fixed:

"We sincerely apologize for the mess up .

We checked this domain name which is manxathletics.com and this domain name is pointing to WebsiteCreator."

-----Original Message-----
From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
Sent: 19 November 2011 06:02
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: RE: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)

Thank you for contacting us.

We checked the issues on webfiles already been fixed.
Please try to double check on your end and try to launch webfiles if you still encounter the same issue.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

--
Sincerely,
Jennifer Bringuela
Technical Support
1&1 Internet Limited

Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027 Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom

> Dear Jefferson
>
> Nearly two further days have passed since you provided this update. It has been almost 4 days since a "10-15 minute" break in service resulted in the removal of all my files accumulated over an 11 year period (and no access to replace them). Had you cared about customer service surely it would have been possible to have provided a temporary solution for your customers. If you reflect on the initial advice I was given I was told that I should attend to the problem! I have now resolved to move most of my business to another host because I have, in the past, threatened to make such a move but after a period of time problems like this have returned. As an act of good faith perhaps you could speed up the unnecessarily slow transfer of my domain to a new host as it is something I am only doing because of your company's failure to provide good service.
>
> Your sincerely
>
> Murray
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
> Sent: 17 November 2011 02:43
> To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
> Subject: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support
>
> Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)
>
> Thank you for contacting us.
>
> This email pertains to the issue you have with regards to the error
> you have received after your have accessed 'Webfiles' application from
> the 1&1 Control Panel. Our admins have already verified that this is a
> bug on the system that is already known and reported to our
> developers. At the moment, we do not have an estimated time frame for
> the fix however rest assured that we are currently working on a
> resolution. Once we have the fix, it will be implemented to all
> affected customers. To ensure that your case will be taken cared of, I
> will be adding the details of your case to the list of affected
> customers. We understand that you might be anxious to have this
> resolved as soon as possible so thank you so much for your patience
> while we work on the resolution
>
> If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
>
> --
> Sincerely,
> Jefferson Quijano
> Technical Support
> 1&1 Internet Limited
>
> ? Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
> Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United
> Kingdom
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.1869 / Virus Database: 2092/4620 - Release Date:
> 11/16/11
>
>
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1872 / Virus Database: 2092/4624 - Release Date: 11/18/11

Friday 18 November 2011

He used to be free

I can only remember ever watching one cabaret in the Isle of Man and it was free. It was probably about 1985 or 1986 and the headline act was starting a summer season at the Palace Hotel and tickets were not moving fast.   He had a couple of top 20 singles but they were a dozen or so years earlier and a few tickets to workers at Ronaldsway Aircraft Company, where I worked at the time, helped to swell the numbers.

The name of the singer was Tony Christie. 25 years later, thanks to Peter Kay, we are paying twenty quid each to see him tonight!

I can only remember watching two acts in the Isle of Man where I have been desperate to leave before the end. One was the Russian Ballet on Ice and the other was Will Young. I hope tonight's concert is not going to fall into this category. The price I pay for dragging Marie to some of the acts I like.

The scanner will be switched off in ten minutes. Still no sign of the domain switch or even the old website being switch on.

Off the floor

I've taken today off work (and every other Friday until Christmas); using my leave from work to work on a number of projects, particularly scanning but also websites. I am hoping to do a few hours on the parishwalk website when I can leave this scanner alone.

After an hour or two of Manx Radio the adverts drove me crazy - particularly one about floors. Listening to that when your scanner has just jammed would drive anyone crazy. The BBC iPlayer has come to my rescue - an old episode of Dad's Army and suddenly I'm off the floor and scanning is fun again!

Proof that I took the right decision

After three days I still cannot access my account (which I have paid for regardless of the planned switch) to www.oneandone.co.uk.

And why it takes them 5-7 days to transfer a domain when it can be done by other people in 24 hours is not something I can write about in public.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Website has to continue


Despite the frustrations of this week I have to keep going with the website as I have discovered hordes of things in the attic which I had forgotten I had. The scanner has been going full belt on Easter Festival stuff tonight.

I might have got the job done faster if, when stopping to make a cup of tea when Marie came in, I didn't go and scan the same programme for a second time! 1990 was a good year but you'll have to wait for that. Above is a taster of 1976.

Another "oh no" moment

I've just updated the front page for the first time since the hosting problem began and it decided to it was time to remove the many links at the the bottom of the page to the features page. This is in a disorganised state, I know, but the full tidy up will have to wait well into 2012.

After updating I tested one of the links and quickly realised that about 20 of them were all linked to the feature a few weeks ago about saving the Easter Festival. When trying to copy the formatting I must have also copied the link. It only took 15 minutes to rectify thank goodness.
 

FW: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

Two days after they told me that I should fix the problem, One&One have admitted that they have a known problem but have not realised that I have already started the process to move the domain to another company!

-----Original Message-----
From: support@1and1.co.uk [mailto:support@1and1.co.uk]
Sent: 17 November 2011 02:43
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: C251016445 - 1&1 Internet Support

Dear Murray Lambden, (Customer ID: 2384892)

Thank you for contacting us.

This email pertains to the issue you have with regards to the error you have received after your have accessed 'Webfiles' application from the 1&1 Control Panel. Our admins have already verified that this is a bug on the system that is already known and reported to our developers. At the moment, we do not have an estimated time frame for the fix however rest assured that we are currently working on a resolution. Once we have the fix, it will be implemented to all affected customers. To ensure that your case will be taken cared of, I will be adding the details of your case to the list of affected customers. We understand that you might be anxious to have this resolved as soon as possible so thank you so much for your patience while we work on the resolution

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

--
Sincerely,
Jefferson Quijano
Technical Support
1&1 Internet Limited

� Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 - VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1869 / Virus Database: 2092/4620 - Release Date: 11/16/11

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Listen up


I remember the late Geoff Cannell filing his Commonwealth Games reports from the team office at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and he even reported on the Manx Grand Prix practices from Victoria!

But I had forgotten about this little story until I came upon it in the press cuttings.

Insulated but wet

After a couple of cold winters we finally took the plunge and had cavity wall insulation fitted last week. We're finishing the job off tomorrow with extra loft insulation which had implications for the website.

Even though I have scanned so many athletic and personal papers over the past couple of years and disposed of these and a lot more beside,  there was still too much stuff in the way so down came loads more boxes, including a few treasures.

So after going beyond the call of duty yesterday to get the website back online, and not really being sure how many people have found it at its temporary name, I thought I would get back to some scanning tonight. I have got masses of Commonwealth Games stuff alone. I've also got the car loaded up for the amenity site tomorrow morning.

And in the spirit of "the website can take second place tonight" we went out for a walk for an hour or so - and chose the one time in the evening when it rained.

I keep checking to see if the www.manxathletics.com domain has been moved yet but it is like watching a pan.

Domain request being processed

The process has been started to move the www.manxathletics.com domain to the new host but it could take several days.

If you need to contact me, please do not use my murray@manxathletics.com email address until further notice but use murray@murrayandmarie.com

I'm going to move that domain too when this is all over.

www.manxathletics.com

QUICK VERSION – go to http://79.170.44.78/manxathletics.com/index.html for now to see the site until further notice.


Hi all

I am sending this to a few of the people I think may be interested from my address book (if you are not ignore the email – there are also a lot of people I know who are not in my address book).

For the past 11 years I have used www.oneandone.co.uk to host the www.manxathletics.com website. I’ve had a few “issues” over the years but it has always been too much hassle to move the site to another host.

I had been advised that they were to upgrade their operating system and servers overnight (last night) and that the site would be offline for “10-15” minutes. Not long enough to worry about.

When I checked at 6.30 this morning it was “down”. I waited for a few hours and the reply at lunchtime was that a certain file was corrupt and I should fix it. This was difficult when I could not access the control panel and it was one of their files not mine! My stern response brought an apology this evening and I was told that they had incorrectly classified my account type and thereby deleted all my files. “All” I had to do was to reload my files (that is 11 years of my files and all of Paul Jackson’s at www.manxharriers.com and www.easterfestival.info ) via a control panel which still returned an error message which prevented my use. Three further exchange of emails have brought no joy.

I had begun to hedge my bets and I contacted http://www.warewelchwebhosting.co.uk/ where I host the www.parishwalk.com  site. The customer service here was such a contrast and I had a temporary account set up in no time at all and I have now uploaded all the files I had backed up (thank goodness for Manx Telecom’s Ultima Service this time).

I have now redirected www.manxharriers.com and www.easterfestival.info to this new location so these should be visible again.

It will take longer to move the www.manxathletics.com domain (I will not predict how long) because it is linked to the full hosting package at www.oneandone.co.uk Although I am going to write off the remaining term there are problems with moving it to the new host. I’ll update you on this another day but in the meantime if you wish to find the site as it was last night go to:


and perhaps spread the word through email, Facebook etc. By all means quote the above text and advise people to steer clear of my former host. I have a number of other accounts which will also be moved.

The forum at www.manxathletics.info has been unaffected as it is part of a separate hosting package at http://www.hostmonster.com/ but I realise that most people don’t have it bookmarked but go via the main site.

Hope that everyone is fit and well and sorry that this is impersonal.

Best wishes

Murray



Tuesday 15 November 2011

iPlayer stopped I playing

I set to work last night to do a good session of scanning but thought I would call it a day at a certain point and publish a few funny stories from the papers I was scanning. With the aid of the BBC iPlayer to keep me distracted from the tedium of scanning, I kept going for longer than the time it takes me to run a marathon these days and didn't have any time for the playing around.

Just had a response from web host

Just received an email from 1&1 so at least I know that someone in looking into the problem. I can't recall any problems with this firm for several years so let's hope it is just "one of those things".

Website down

I suspect that only a few people will see this until the manxathletics.com website is back up running but it (and the manxharriers.com and easterfestival.info sites) are not functioning this morning. Rather than panicking, at this stage I shall just wait to see if the problem resolves.

Monday 14 November 2011

Low technology question

We've all noticed that the Isle of Man has become more crowded over the years. Could I  have discovered one of the reasons? Is the island shrinking?

I mentioned that I went on Manx Telecom's 4G trial last week. You can see their promo film on YouTube now:



At the conclusion of the trip you are asked to partake in a little game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire to test that you have been listening to the download speeds etc. One of the questions is very low tech however. What is the size of the Isle of Man? I immediately challenged the four answers. "None of them are right" I said.

Funnily enough it was a phone number that had sat in my head since I was a kid that lead me to challenge the answer. Our old telephone number in Kirk Michael (it was even my grandparent's number) was 227 and the Isle of Man is 227 square miles.

If you type "Isle of Man 227 sq miles" you get pages and pages of results of other pages that show that the Isle of Man is indeed this size, including the Story of Man and a police site.

Not so says Wikipedia. Not so says Who Wants to be a Millionaire. 221 is the answer they were looking for.

I know from my geography studies at school (and by opening my eyes at Kirk Michael and wondering how long it will be before some of the new houses are in the sea) that we have lost some land to coastal erosion. But 3% of the Manx land?

Which friend did Wikipedia call and who has the right answer?

If you want a quick answer follow this link!

  1. Key Economic Data and Standards - Isle of Man Government Isle of ...

    www.gov.im/iomfinance/about/keyeconomicdata.xml
    Resident Population: 80058 (Isle of Man Census Report 2006); Land Area: 572 sqkm227 square miles; Population Density: 140 people per sq. kilometre or ...

Friday 11 November 2011

This has been my thought all day

I was listening to the "Talking Heads" summary on Manx Radio yesterday evening and the subject was the banning (at he time) of the England football team wearing the poppy. Stu Peters spoke with Norman Butler who reminded us that a thousand people from the Isle of Man lost their lives during the First World War.

That was 2% of the population; nearly one a day for four years. And what is more, they were predominantly young men so much of generation was lost. And I am sure that there were a lot of other people with injuries and dreadful memories that wrecked their lives.

We are often reminded that without those that fought to give us freedom we would not be here to enjoy it. And if it were not for the second world war I would not be here to write this. My father was posted here and met my mother.

Weather forecast for Sunday

"A 30 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 44. West southwest wind between 9 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. "


Don't worry Adrian, I'm not trying to do you out of a job the above forecast is for the Grand Canyon Marathon on Sunday.


Nigel Armstrong and Emma Rogan will be running and were expecting worse weather judging by their reports earlier in the week. 


Judging by the pain they have been putting themselves through this week including jumping from planes and going to Rod Stewart concerts, maybe they were even hoping for something painful!


JC in Enfield

I prefer blogging to jogging but this morning I had to do a bit of the latter to ensure that I preserved some energy for a long run tomorrow and cross country on Sunday.

As I emerged from the shadows of the houses in Cronkbourne Road I was greeted with a "Hi Murray" from John Cannell who announced that he was going away to walk in the Enfield 7 this weekend.

I am not sure how many times he has done it before but it was once when of a number of "Winter 7s" in the London area which attracted fields of several hundred. I only did it once in 1980 when I went to my niece's Christening in North Wales but travelled down by train the day before. I went slower than I hoped after eating too much breakfast.

Callister back for the big walk

If you have noticed that Robbie Callister is back race walking at a different time of year to normal its because he is doing this one in South Africa.

http://www.bigwalk.co.za/

Will he be back for our big walk in June after saying he wouldn't be? I suspect so.

Thursday 10 November 2011

4G treat

I was privileged this morning to be given a demonstration of Manx Telecom's 4G network trials.

I just wish it was available now and not in 2014. I don't know if I should divulge the upload speeds I was noting as we drove along Douglas Promenade watching HD TV over the mobile network but we'll struggle to get the photos taken fast enough in the 2014 Parish Walk! It was that fast.

Addiction restarted

When I came back from my holiday a couple of months ago I completely forgot about the face tagging project and I've only done the odd few minutes here and there until today - spent 30 minutes at lunchtime back on the job and can't leave it alone tonight. But I must. I have just passed the 1,000 mark in the athletes tagged among my 97,000 photos and Michael George has been identified more than 500 times!

FW: Baildon Boundary Way 2012 - notification to clubs

 

 

From: Baildon Runners [mailto:baildonrunners@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 10 November 2011 12:04
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Baildon Boundary Way 2012 - notification to clubs

 

To club representatives

 

Baildon Runners wish to announce that online entries for the 18th Baildon Boundary Way (a multi-terrain half marathon) that takes place on Sunday, 1 April 2012 will open at 10:00am on Monday, 14 November 2011 at www.runbritain.com/onlineentry.

 

Runners from your club have taken part in the event in the past and we would be very grateful if you would kindly publicise our event within your club.

 

When the online capacity for runners has been reached, we will place a postal entry form on our website www.baildonrunners.tk and will accept a very limited number of entries by post.

 

Apologies if the email address used is directed to the wrong person. If we have not got the correct address, we would be very grateful if you would forward this to the correct person within your club, and if you would kindly send a brief reply advising of the correct email address. This will help to save troubling you again in the future. Equally apologies if you receive this email more than once. In some instances we have more than one contact address for a club. Please let us know your preferred address to use.

 

Many thanks.

 

Baildon Runners


No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1869 / Virus Database: 2092/4607 - Release Date: 11/09/11

Wednesday 9 November 2011

33 years and counting


There are lots of people to whom I have said "must get together for a drink sometime" and it has taken me a long time to do so. I do in the end - just like I always answer my emails in the end.

When Graham Young suggested sooner rather than later last week it was on the basis that it was a long time since we had had a good long chat like an eight hour one when he helped me to victory in the 1978 Parish Walk by walking the first half with me.

When we became rivals a few of the conversations were through gritted teeth and there have been other times when we have worked closely together on projects. But you never forgot a friend even though the chat was only three hours in the Woodie tonight!


And if Graham finds this I know he would have preferred to see photos of another race six weeks or so after the one in the photos above but its tough because I haven't got any!

PS I won't tell you how old Graham is but here is the feature I did about him last year!

http://www.manxathletics.com/OldYoung.htm

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Too many meetings

Its been a long time since I have attended any meetings after work but tonight I had a double header with a professional update meeting and the Manx Harriers AGM.

I've not finished on the Hill League stats yet but with an early morning training session planned I'm not going to start doing anything new now.

Monday 7 November 2011

Start line conversation takes me back to Kirk Michael


I was chatting to Roy Crellin on the start line at the hill race on Saturday and he was telling me how much he enjoyed it when I raided my fathers collection of old Manx transport. It encouraged me to publish more.

So here is a really old one from Kirk Michael. Although the year is unknown it would be from the era I have been thinking about today.

The photo is opposite the Isle of Man Bank and on the other side of the road is the Kirk Michael Church (Ebenezer Chapel) and Sunday School. I can't pretend that I was ever a willing member of the congregation but I used to attend as a child and teenager until I started making myself late home from the milk round I helped on every Saturday, Sunday and school holiday.

The church notices were read every week by Norman Barron. He was good at delivering messages for he was the village postman for many years. Sadly, Mr Barron passed away on Saturday - but only after 42 years of retirement for he lived to be 102.

Latterly a resident of the Corrin Home in  Peel he will be missed by residents of Peel and Kirk Michael. I'll never forgot him reading the notices and announcing that there would be a rally in Waterloo Church the following Saturday. A Methodist rally was rather more sedate than the ones that passed the many other Methodist chapels in the area (Orrisdale, Ballaleigh, Barrowgarrow, Little London etc) although Kevin Vondy would probably be at both.

Saturday 5 November 2011

A long delay


I thoroughly enjoyed my return to the Isle of Man Bank Winter Hill League after a break of 11 years at Glen Helen this afternoon. I was free today because I had completed my long run yesterday during my day off. This left me with more time today which was quite important as we have Ben home with us for the weekend, Apart from one emergency, we hadn't seen him since he resumed his studies in August.

I had persevered with my router for three weeks in the hope that Ben might find a solution but he couldn't. But he took the router to the Manx Telecom shop for an exchange which meant that when I came home I was without an internet connection at all.

My word I missed it. For some things you are aware but for others you just think "I'll just check this or that".

Anyway after a long delay we are back on line and I have published some of Paul Sheard's photos including the one of me above to prove I took part.

It was a lot easy than editing video!

Friday 4 November 2011

Long term ambitions

I took the day off work today for a number of reasons but this afternoon's task was to have been redesigning our holiday business website.

In the end that seemed too much like hard work and so I opted for another batch of scanning instead. I've just published the Isle of Man team programme from the 1995 Island Games which should make interesting reading.

I was the team manager and I stated in the questionnaire section that my long term ambition was to beat Alan Postlethwaite in the Peel to Douglas run. I think it should have been to buy a decent pair of glasses judging by the pair that appear in my photo. Well I collected two new pairs today so I hope I won't be laughing at them as much in 16 years time!

Thursday 3 November 2011

Parish Walk on the agenda

All of my athletics time, and there has been quite a bit of it, in the last couple of days has been  devoted to working on the website for the 2012 Manx Telecom website. I also had a meeting last night with race director Raymond Cox and all is going well.

I won't be at the Ramsey Bakery Firemans runs tonight due to a family event but I will be around later in the evening if anyone wants to send me a couple of photo shots or general news. Hopefully the results will be available without too much delay. Although there has been quite a bit of wind lately it will surely be less windy than in round 1.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Replacing scanning with scanning

I had a break from scanning the old newspaper reports last night.

I did some scanning instead!

For 17 year s the results sheets, athlete forms and correspondence from the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada had rested in my attic. Last night, whilst removing something else, I decided it was time they went. I'm about half way through.

Here is the result of the 100 metres in which Danaa Myhill (now Callow) thought that she had run badly (she was drawn in such a tough heat) but went through to the semi final.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

He could train someone to walk 20km whilst we talked

Whilst resident coaches Albert Johnson, Allan Callow and Graham Young should take most of the credit for providing the coaching which established the Isle of Man as such as centre of excellence for race walking, they were never shy to bring UK coaches to the Isle of Man to back up their theories and to help with coach education.

One of the regular visitors in the 70s and 80s (in particular) was Liverpool man Julian Hopkins who held the position of national coach for several years.

He stayed with quite a few Manx hosts including Allan and Graham and also Derek Harrison. I took two or three turns to host him and one of them was in 1983, the year that the English Schools Walking Championships were held in the Isle of Man. To some extent we were in competition as he was doing the public address announcing and I was commentating for the very first time for a video that Graham commissioned and was shown to all the competitors on the return ferry crossing - that is the bits that didn't get wiped when the torrential rain got in the camera.

But we were really very much in partnership in 1983. I had asked Roy Corlett to help plan my training that year but with Julian to oversee it and offer technical assistance. Julian was critical that some of my training was too slow and he planned to help pace me for a sub 2 hour 25km walk on the Sunday of his visit; the day after the schools championships. But first I took him on an early morning Saturday walk on one of my "slow walks" which was probably sub 9 minute miling around Baldwin. He was so stiff from the hills that he could barely move the next day - I think he respected my slow walks more after that and I still achieved my aim of getting under 2 hours the next day.

I've not seen so much of Julian in recent years although he was the announcer for the athletics in the 2001 Island Games here in Douglas. the former physics teacher, continues to announce at meetings on Merseyside. Two years earlier he offered to help when Robbie was at Alder Hey Hospital which is just around the corner from where he lives. You never forget those things. Other than that it has been an exchange of Christmas cards and "contact Julian" in my "to do" list.

Finally I seized the opportunity to arrange a meeting at Liverpool airport on my way back from Amsterdam on 17 October. Well, you know the story about London buses and it is the same in Liverpool. There was no sign of him in the  arrivals hall and when I finally spoke to him a few days later he explained how three buses came along together after a gap of 45 minutes. One had broken down in the garage and the others couldn't move any further than Julian after a walk around Baldwin.

When we did talk on the phone I realised that we had taken just over 80 minutes to fill in the gaps of the last few years. He could rattle the names of a few walkers who could race 20km faster than that although it was pretty apparent during our chat that I couldn't.
      
I planned to add a photo but my router at home seems to have dropped out once again so I can't connect from work.