Hi everyone,

I’ve discovered that due to a problem with the configuration of the GLUG server, some people have not been receiving emails from the website, when new Posts are made.

I believe that I’ve now fixed this, so you should receive notifications of future posts, but you may want to go and check out the GLUG Website for any Posts you might have missed over the last few weeks.

The website displays the most recent 15 posts on the main page - to go back further, scroll down to the bottom and click on the “Previous entries” link.

You can also display all of the Posts for a specific Month, by selecting the month you want in the “Archives” list in the left hand column.

Apologies if you haven’t been receiving the Posts you’ve subscribed to, but this should now be fixed.

(BTW, If you want to change the Categories of Posts you’re subscribed to, log into the members area of the website, and click on the link in the Dashboard, or the “Profile” link in the top right corner. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you can tick or untick the Categories you’re interested in.)

Neil.

I received an email from a new dive & spa resort called UTOPIA VILLAGE, on Utila, The Bay Islands, ?Honduras.

They are presently planning a Gay & ?Lesbian Week with special prices.

Check out the website for more information and contact details.

NCRD (Northern California Rainbow Divers) have asked me to pass on to GLUG members, information about a liveaboard trip they’re running to the Galapagos in September 2009.

Currently the trip is half-full, with 7 of the available 14 spaces reserved. Approximate cost is £1850, excluding airfares and marine park fees.

For more information, see the NCRD Website.

Anyone interested should send an email to the trip organiser at galapagos [at-symbol] rainbowdivers [dot] org.

(BTW, Rainbow Divers joined GLUG on a trip to Honduras a couple of years back - they’re a great bunch of people!)

Neil.

Steph and I are running a gay murder/mystery weekend in Penzance, 19-21 April.  Programme starts on Saturday with sight-seeing, shopping etc, culminating in a fiendish murder/mystery dinner compiled by our good selves.  Everyone gets a part and the group works out who dunnit after dinner.  Sunday is more sight-seeing etc, followed by a fancy dress dinner (theme: Pirates).  Monday is going home day.  The hotel is owned by a fellow diver who we met in Egypt - straight, but gay friendly.  Hotel is the Talbert - see their website: www.anicelittlehotel.com.  For roughty/toughty divers, there’s an optional dive on the Friday (18th).  Please contact me if interested and I’ll send more details and a booking form.

GLUG members, and others who subscribe to our mailing list will have noticed that recent emails don’t contain the body of the post - just the title.

I’m aware of the problem (as well as a “404 error” that sometimes occurs when Editing posts), and I’m working to find the cause.  In the meantime, clicking on the Post title in the email will take you to the website to read the whole Post.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Neil.

I would like to be able to visit the GLUG website without being told that I should consider the carbon footprint of my diving holidays.  I understand that environmental issues are very important to some & applaud them for their convictions; I wonder however if the GLUG website is an appropriate place to promote these.  We’ve given a menu tab to carbon offsetting, but we haven’t got any such links to “Save the Whale” or other marine issues. 

Issues such as global warming should be left to the individual consciences of the members & glug should remain neutral on them. 

I appreciate that I’m probably in a minority in my beliefs, however glug members should understand more than most that; just because 90% of the population holds a particular viewpoint, doesn’t make the other 10% wrong!!!

The guys at Wordpress.org have released a new version of the blog software that runs the GLUG website.  It has several enhancements which will make life easier both for me and for others writing posts.

I plan to upgrade the website within the next few days, so you may find that at times you just get a “Website offline” page when you go to the homepage.

Bear with me - I’ll try to get it all back up and running as quickly as possible.

Neil.

I have almost finished transferring all of the old trip reports from the newsletters onto the website. We also have three brand-spanking new, never-seen-before trip reports which you might want to take a look at:
Scapa Flow by Lee Brown
Farne by Aleš
Marsa Alam by Robert Ho and Andy

For when planning your dive trips abroad I found this site to be excellent to save trawling through all the web sites for the cheapest airfares- it’s Martin Lewis’s (he of Radio 2’s money saving expert fame) search engine which will trawl through them all for you.
He has a regular email newsletter which gives good savings on everything from travel to freebies as well!

http://flightchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/

Teletext.co.uk has some fabulous deals as well especially to good dive destinations! They too have a regular newsletter worth subscribing to.

Good hunting! Hope it saves you guys and gals some money to spend on dive gear this year!

Could everybody that is coming to the meeting next Tuesday have a quick look at the new Trip Reports section of the website please (see the top Menu Bar). This is the part of the website that will be replacing the newsletter and if you have any comments or suggestions I’ll be taking feedback on Tuesday.

If you tried to access the GLUG website yesterday afternoon/evening, you would have found it was down. This was apparently due to a cut in the cable between the data centre and the point where it joins the main Internet (in Philadelphia).
(Our server is located in Philadelphia rather than the UK because it’s cheaper that way!).

Anyway, the website is now back online, so apologies for any incovenience.

Neil.

It seems a configuration file got screwed up during the recent website outage, which meant that the links in the emails which are sent out didn’t work.

Hopefully this should now be working again. I’ve also added a note to the email which points out that even if the link within the email doesn’t work, you can always go directly to the GLUG homepage to read the post. (looks like that didn’t work!)

Neil.

If you tried to access the GLUG website on Friday or Saturday, and found that you couldn’t, the reason was that the Server had died. Our Web Hosting provider has had problems replacing the server, and currently they are running with a lower-specification machine, which is quite badly overloaded.

The other problem is that since the server was replaced, many of the scripts which generate the GLUG webpages aren’t working properly. I’ve raised this with them, and modified the script for the home page to work around the problem, but there are around 40 script files which have the same problem, so you’ll find that many of the pages don’t currently work.

If they haven’t cured the problem within 24 hours, I’ll start modifying all the others, but it’s a mammoth task, so please bear with me.

The “Contact Us” page still works correctly, so if there’s something you need to know, please fill in the form, and we’ll respond as soon as possible.

Neil.

UPDATE |(16th Jan):
The Scripts appear to be working properly again now, but the website may still be sluggish. If you find any pages don’t work, please email me (click on the envelope at the top of this post, if there is one, or use the “Contact Us” page).

Another offer from Oonasdivers (Please check out their web site for full details)

The aptly named Coral Queen holds 12 divers and covers some of the most spectacular reefs of the Southern Red Sea.
Leaving on June 22nd for one week, Oonas have offered us this trip at £877 instead of £950. ( part discount, part apportioning of the free place.)

Coral Queen is being presently held for GLUG, but I would need some firm interest shown as soon as possible, to secure the booking.

Yet another good deal; let’s not miss it!

Hi everyone,

Karen Doby of Northern California Rainbow Divers has asked me to invite GLUG members to join their trip to Wakatobi in July next year.

The plan is to take over the whole resort for a week, and places are selling fast.

For those who don’t know, Wakatobi offers fantastic reef diving - Jacques Cousteau described the area as having “the best reefs in the world”. It’s a protected Marine Park, home to a wide range of unique plants and animals found only in Indonesian waters. Photographers - take your Macro Lenses!

For more information, see the trip information page on the NCRD (Northern California Rainbow Divers) website. NCRD are offering GLUG members the same 5% discount on the advertised prices that they’re offering their own members.

Places are filling up fast, so if you’re interested, register for the trip ASAP on the trip webpage, or send Karen an email.