Admin

I am sure we all have some resolutions left over from last year that seam to stay on our list and keep rolling over and over each year...I know I do. But here are my New Year's Resolutions...what's yours?

 

1. Redo this site into an even more incredible resource for everyone

 

2. Increase the user membership here by 20%

 

3. Lose 17kg to end up at 90kg

 

4. Go on a family holiday to Qld

 

5. Reduce Credit Card debt (remove wife...carry over resolution!)

 

6. Fix the house up

 

7. FLY!

 

 

Guys, this site has been there and done that with vBulletin. Many users here on Rec Flying will know the trials and tribulations that has been with vb and the work loads that it has to maintain it plus the higher costs in hosting needed to run its very old code.

 

At one stage when we were using vb v4 there was an update every 2 weeks to fix bugs, which caused more bugs, which caused another update...etc, this went on for about a year and ended up basically a full time job fixing things. The code in vb is extremely bloated requiring many more resources ram and processor power to run it. There is also the law suits between vb and Xenforo, vb and Wikipedia plus many others and vb is destined to lose them. vBulletin is owned by Internet Brands which owns Pprune and Internet Brands has been passed from one financier to another since it went bad about 2 years ago. The best version of vb was v3.8 many years ago and it has gone down hill ever since and their latest offering which is v5 is a complete dogs breakfast...it is up to Beta v21...with thousands of bugs still listed.

 

What you guys are seeing is simply just a front end and not from a forum administrator's view, unless you are managing web site forums all day every day. Take it from me, having used vb for many years, to recommend vb would be setting a person up for failure unless they are an IT professional with extensive knowledge in web development and html/php coding.

 

 

I find it funny that a few years ago everyone jumped up and down about the "Australia Card"...the civil liberties people shouted it down however what do you think the "Medicare" card is? How many people in Australia don't have a Medicare card...at a guess not many. Plus, the way the Government is with cross matching of Social Security, Tax, Medicare, Workcover etc etc etc...you are recorded even down to your electricity bill.

 

A great movie that I have in my collection is called Echelon Conspiracy (also known as "The Gift")...if you can get your hands on a copy from the video library or so then watch it, it will really show you what the internet is capable of when it comes down to who you are:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124039/

 

 

It does depend on many different things like age group of your audience, features that are required or like to have, your ability to create the extras that you want etc etc etc.

 

Many of the free software versions become popular simply because they are free and therefore become the focus of hacking attacks...paid for software less often.

 

Forum software is a business and the internet is littered with failed sites, empty forums or forums full of spam and crap. To do it properly you need to be aware of the forum software industry, know what is getting developed, what is up and coming and why, trends in technology, hosting administration, html/php coding conventions etc OR you can install a forum software app and hope for the best. For example many many many of these forums that are installed by non-IT people are continually hit with spam driven by the X Rumer forum attack software, software that even beats the Google recaptcha simply because they install a forum software app without knowing that running a forum is extremely hard work in ensuring that it runs properly. Note, I developed our own anti spam system here on Recreational Flying which is why we have never been attacked by X Rumer however many other sites are attacked on a daily basis.

 

The point I am making is the first part of installing a forum software app is making sure you select the right one and 99.9% of the time the right one WILL cost you money, and secondly, once you have installed the forum software app the work you need to do is only just beginning.

 

(don't forget the legal aspects of having a user integrated site...I spent a lot of money getting all this right not only in site rules but also the makeup of the behind the scenes ownership etc)

 

Ring me on 03 9444-8025 if I can help

 

 

This is very scary at the end when you realise how he does it:

 

 

WOW, this is one incredible camera...pity it's not a phone as well but I guess, give it time:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SYMXxTNbUc!

 

 

Well it's Melbourne Cup Day...a public holiday for suburban Melbourne and there are barby's galore going on...so who's a bit tipsy at the moment from a day on Champaign I know I am

 

 

It's also incredible spatial awareness

 

 

Here is an even better one...imagine doing this and then turning around and having to know where they all are or spinning around getting dizzy...these guys are talented:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUXaYCkv-A!

 

 

This is not to do with aviation but deserves airing in my opinion...this guy is so freaking talented:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8f8drk5Urw

 

 

Rugby...when the ball is thrown to you and you catch it, you either run into someone that is like a brick wall because your brain has been made into mash from doing that so often OR you finally get a spark in the brain of some kind of thought process that says to you..."Crap, I don't want it" and throw it to one of the others that you think are your team mates...or they have led you to believe they are, but their brain has also been made into mash because they are likely to just go and run into another brick wall type of person any way. Then after about 5 times of this, a non brick wall type of person comes up and tries to save his mashed brain team mates and kicks the ball as far as he can to try and save his team mates from further brain bashing of banging bodies into brick walls.

 

I thought it was ironic this year that the NFL premiership went to Sydney and the NRL premiership went to Melbourne

 

 

Well, as usual every year at this time the good old Ford vs Holden debate sparkles up with what happens at the great Bathurst 1000 car race...this year being the 50th.

 

So, who is going to win?

 

 

You have to ask sometimes why we do the sport that we do...we all know that flying can be dangerous but spare a thought for the dangers in other sports:

 

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You paying income tax Ian? If you have a family you'll get it back via family welfare payments or whatever they call the circular cash scheme (unless you are earning big dosh).

No, got to be earning money first to pay tax but the wife gets her entire tax back...will pay our food bill for a week...she is on a massive $18 per hour for a couple of days a week. Every night on the news here in Melb there is some company or another going broke and shutting their doors

 

 

That explains it...it was just a thought since I had to visit the accountant yesterday for tax time

 

 

A joke about the tax system in the Aviation Laughter forum here started me thinking so I thought I would put an idea up and wonder why this can't be done.

 

Why can't we abolish income tax (leave company tax though) and raise the GST amount to a percentage that will compensate the loss of income tax?

 

• The Tax Dept would be better off with work loads
   
  
• The private individual wouldn't have to do a tax return
   
  
• The poor man would have more cash in his pocket to decide what to spend it on
   
  
• The items that a poor person would by i.e. No Brand Baked Beans wouldn't increase in price as much as Heinz Baked Beans would
   
  
• The rich person would pay more for the higher priced items that they normally would buy i.e. Heinze Baked Beans
   
  
• The worker would be stimulated more to work more instead of knowing that if they work more they just lose it in extra tax so greater enthusiasm to improve ones self
   
  
• The rich can't escape tax as they pay as they purchase i.e. they pay more tax on a BMW then they would on a Holden
   
  

 

Overall the Australian individual would be choosing how much tax they pay by their spending habits and whether they want No Brand Baked Beans or high priced with more GST imported baked beans

 

Wouldn't we be better off?

 

 

Well how about this...remember I am in the IT business...had a phone call from a guy (Indian accent) saying he was from Optus Technical Support. I am with Optus so all ok so far...2 boxes checked (Indian accent and Optus).

 

He said that Optus had been informed from the telecommunications authority that a PC on my IP address had a virus. I asked what virus and he said the ramnit one. My ears pricked up because that is a pretty nasty virus. My mind was ticking over like it was on a dual core processor...2 different thought threads going at the same time...With all the protection that I have on my network how could that in any way be possible and Is this a scam?

 

He said he was ringing me as Optus had the files to disinfect my PCs and he would help me do it. He then asked what anti virus I was using to which I advised him that was my business and until I can verify the authenticity of the phone call I will not tell him. He then said that he advised me that the phone call was being recorded which Optus normally does. I said easy words to say.

 

I then asked him what was my Optus account number...he didn't know as those details were not passed to him and he was only there to help me.

 

I then asked him what is my IP address...he didn't know as that would come out in the disinfection process.

 

I then asked him for his name and phone number which he gave me as Dave and a 1300 number.

 

I then advised him that I was hanging up and would ring Optus Technical Support back using the phone number I have for them.

 

Before I called Optus Technical Support I checked all the devices on my network which has 2xPCs, 2xLaptops, 2xIpods, 1xIpad, 1xNetBook and 3xPhones and everything was clean.

 

I called Optus Technical Support using my normal umber and they have no record of the call to me and they also don't call their users but wait for them to ring Optus if they are having any problems...they did say that there is a bad virus going around today DNS Changer but that was all. I had already checked for the DNS Changer Virus so I knew I was ok with that.

 

So, just be careful out there and it may be just me but I am noticing so many scams around these days that it is getting very nasty out there.

 

Oh, if you want to check for the DNS Changer Virus, go to dns-ok.gov.au and see if you get the OK message...it is a Gov run tool so it is safe.

 

 

I'm nearly as bad off as you Tomo...however if you look on the Members page of the site, in the right column you will see we have the highest and 2nd highest number of posts...so I can only say to you Tomo, it's hard being the greatest and have a look at the top of Australia, you have Gillard and how many friends and likes does she have