I’m contemplating arranging a trip to Jersey, to combine 2 days of diving with the spectacle of the Battle of Flowers.

Jersey has some good drift dives and wreck dives - see http://www.h2odiving-jersey.co.uk/why%20jersey.htm for details. Note that many of the dives are for Advanced divers only, though.

The plan would be to fly to Jersey on the evening of Wednesday August 10th, then spend the following day at the Battle of Flowers, with diving on the Friday and Saturday, before flying home on either the Sunday evening or the Monday morning.

Did you know that the FBI keeps tabs on recreational divers?

Idaho Falls locals participate in Scuba Olympics

Hi there,

I’ve just noticed that the LIDS 2005 entry on the Events Page had disappeared - don’t know how!

If you’re going to be turning up next Saturday, and you haven’t already done so, please make sure you click the “Register” button on the Events Page on the appropriate line, so that we know how many to expect! (You need to login to the site first).

Neil.

A fault has been discovered in some Cressi-Sub BCDs sold between January 2003 and September 2004, whereby a slow leak from a shoulder valve could result in slow deflation, impacting the diver’s ability to control buoyancy.

The recalled BCDs have model numbers J107, J113, J115, and J119. The numbers appear on the right shoulder of the BCD.

You can read more from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission Website.

HTM Sport S.p.A., Manufacturer of Dacor Dive Computers, has discovered that during production, a small number of Dacor Darwin Dive Computers were improperly calibrated, resulting in erroneous calculations displayed regarding “No Deco Time”, “Deco Time”, “Air Time”, “Desat Time” and “No Fly” times.

For more information, including details on how to find out whether your own computer is affected, please see the Dacor website.

Scuba 2000 are offering GLUG members a £100 discount on their Red Sea dayboat trip to Hurghada from May 27th - June 3rd. The price for GLUG members is £695, including flights, accommodation and 2 boat dives per day.

This would be an ideal trip for Novice divers, or for those wishing to extend their training, and since the organisers are GLUG members, you can be sure it’ll be gay-friendly!

Please contact Karen via the Scuba 2000 website for more details on the trip.

Registration for DFL (Diving for Life) 2005 is now open. Prices are $1050 for a Lanai Villa, $1300 for a Garden Villa, and $1400 for an Ocean View villa. These prices include 3 meals per day (except Wednesday, when you make your own arrangements for Lunch & Dinner), 2 boat dives per day, unlimited shore diving, transfers, and a DFL T-shirt. Drinks and flights are not included. Please note that the single supplement is only payable if you’re not prepared to share a room.

For more details, and booking forms, see the Diving for Life website.

If you’re planning on going, please register your interest on the Events Page (you need to log in first), so that others know who’s going.

N.B. There are only 140 places available, so reserve your place early, by downloading the booking form, and sending off your deposit of US$300.

The Gay Business Association are holding a Gay Travel Fair at the New Connaught Rooms, 60 Great Queen Street (how appropriate!), from 1pm until 6pm on Sunday March 6th.

Tickets are free, but you need to register in advance.

A six-metre basking shark was drawing in the crowds on Tuesday after being put on display on the fish-counter of a hypermarket outside the French city of Bordeaux.

Weighing in at 700kg, the shark was caught in the Bay of Biscay by a boat operating out of the port of Arcachon.

“We’ve been inundated with orders and we’re going to cut it up tomorrow. I don’t think it’s going to last long on the counter,” said Marcel Laxague of the Leclerc hypermarket at Saint-Eulalie.

There are quite a few GLUG members going to LIDS on Saturday 5th March. We’ve arranged to meet up outside the entrance to the show (i.e. inside the ExCeL centre, but outside the show hall), at 11am.

The food stalls at ExCeL are rather expensive, so last year many people brought food to share - there’s no obligation to do this, but if everyone brings a plentiful supply of one or two items, then it makes for a sociable lunch, as everyone shares everything!

Tickets for LIDS are cheaper in advance - and you can buy them online

Any members who are planning on coming along, please register your interest on the Events Page, to give us an idea of how many to expect.

Divers have two weeks to rescue tsunami-damaged coral.

Microsoft have today unveiled a new Search Engine, which they hope will rival Google.

Out of interest, I typed in “Gay Scuba“, and lo and behold - the GLUG website is top of the list!

A relatively new phenomenon for sites such as GLUG’s, which make use of “Weblogs”, is comment spam. This is the practice of posting comments which advertise products or other websites, rather than being relevant to the original article.

The GLUG website is currently undergoing a fairly sustained attack by one particular Spammer - in the last 3 days, this person has attempted to add the same comment (advertising an online poker site) over 40 times, to various articles.

It’s doubtful whether Spammers actually read the sites they post on, but just in case…

The GLUG website has fairly sophisticated anti-spam protection:

1. Every comment posted is automatically checked against a set of known Spammer IP addresses, email addresses, URL links, keywords, etc., etc. This traps around 90% of the attacks, without any intervention by the webmaster. If Spam is detected at this stage, there is a long delay before the website tells the user that the post has failed - so not only does it prevent the Spam from getting posted, it slows the Spammer down as well.
2. If the comment passes these checks, then the email address supplied by the commenter is checked against a list of “approved” emails. These are typically the email addresses of people who have previously posted genuine comments (these addresses cannot be obtained from the website)
3. If the comment is not from the list of approved emails, then it is sent to the webmaster for approval. At this stage, if it turns out to be Spam, then the IP address, email address, URL links, etc. are added to the list of banned items, so that hopefully next time the Spam will be caught at Stage 1.

So, for anyone considering posting Spam into the website comments - don’t bother. It won’t work.

If you were a GLUG member in 2004, but haven’t yet renewed your membership, you’ll find that you can no longer post messages, or read members-only posts. The website will still accept your login, but you’ll see a message at the top of this page, reminding you that your membership has expired.
There’s an easy remedy - print off a membership form, and send it off with your subscription - we’ll reinstate your web access as soon as we receive your cheque!