Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

Tags: bugs, csi wii, fck, lj_cares, lj_photophile, notes, rte, writer's block

EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

Tags: flash fiction, sixwordstories

dailyfoodie
Delicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian.

Tags: dailyfoodie, food, photography

I finished my 4 mid-terms a week ago and results are slowly coming in. For the one I feared most failing (Macroeconomics), I got 83.5%.

I just got my grade for "Fiscalité 1" (taxation) which I never had time to finish (I left a question blank that counted for 20 points out of 100). The group average is 69% and I got 73%! Whew!! That means if I remove the unfinished part, I got 91% on what I answered! Squeee!!

It's nice to see hard work pay off once in a while! :D

Tags: mid-terms happy hec
Current Mood: jubilant

The men's college basketball season begins today. Last year's season was capped off with Michigan State making an improbable run to the Final Four in their own backyard, only to fall and fall hard to heavily favored North Carolina in one of the most lopsided championship games of all time.

This year's preseason favorite is head and shoulders above the pack. But the real interest lays with the number of new names in the Top 25. Can some of these football schools and mid-majors make some noise in March or will the traditional powers rise up and continue the college basketball landscape for one more year?

Below are my personal Top 25 heading into the 2009-10 college basketball season:

#	School	Comments
1	Kansas	With 2 preseason All-Americans, the Jayhawks are the consensus #1 in November.
2	North Carolina	Don't forget that last year's Heels had the best bench players in college basketball history.
3	Michigan State	Tournament darling, Kalin Lucas, should lead Sparty to another Big Ten title and another Final Four berth.
4	Tennessee	Bruce Pearl has turned this former SEC doormat into a Final Four contender in no time. What's next?
5	Purdue	Speaking of turnarounds, Purdue is back to their oldselves just 3 years into the Painter era.
6	Duke	Still the clear #2 in the ACC, this is Duke's best chance in years to outshine their Tobacco Road rival.
7	West Virginia	With Bob Huggins, WVU has as good of a chance as ever to win a very top-heavy Big East Conference.
8	Louisville	If the Cards can ignore the never-ending drama surrounding Pitino, they will turn heads in the Big East title race.
9	Butler	Returning everybody, including the bench, from last year, how can you not like Butler playing into the second weekend of the tourney?
10	Texas	Yes, they're the 2nd best team in the Big 12. No, they're nowhere near as good as KU.
11	Ohio State	If they can avoid chemistry issues that pledge them annually, the Bucks are a threat to win a very tough Big Ten Conference.
12	Memphis	With Calipari at UK and UAB and Tulsa catching up quick in Conference USA, this will be the Tigers' most challenging season since the "Big East exodus".
13	Villanova	Scottie Reynolds is an amazing talent, too bad his supporting cast is mediocre at best.
14	Connecticut	The talent just isn't there for a national title run for UConn. But, then again, it is UConn.
15	Wisconsin	The Badgers' slow-down, defense-first style of play will keep them in games against the Big Ten's best and the Summit League's worst.
16	Pittsburgh	With a team attitude and depth on the bench, Pittsburgh has all the tools to shock the nay-sayers in the Big East.
17	Missouri	Traditonally a football rivalry, Mizzou has the talent to add some spice to basketball's Border War in 2009-10.
18	California	A weak Pac-10 means the Golden Bears could win their first conference title in nearly 50 years.
19	UCLA	But, when you talk about the Pac-10 title race, you can never leave out UCLA. This year is no exception.
20	Xavier	Once again, the experienced Muskies, with inexperienced coach, Chris Mack, lead an ever-improving Atlantic-10 Conference.
21	BYU	The Cougars lead what will be a very crowded race at the top of the Mountain West.
22	Mississippi State	The Bulldogs should dominate the SEC West. But they'll get a real test when both Kentucky and Tennessee make late-season trips to Starkville.
23	Georgetown	While this young bunch may not be much this year, if they buy into Thompson basketball, the Hoyas will be a national title threat in 2010-11.
24	Texas A&M	No, Acie Law did not return. But, when Donald Sloan is out on the court, you will think he did.
25	Minnesota	Tubby Smith's team showed massive improvements during the season in his first year. Heaven knows what a whole offseason will do to the Gophers.

Among all the craziness in my life recently, I still have my school life keeping me busy. Yesterday was when my window opened to schedule classes for next winter. I decided to be crazy and schedule 17 credit hours worth of classes. The biggest difference between this quarter and past quarters: 2 of my 4 classes will count toward my major GPA. Those classes are Math 254 and CSE 201. Also, I will begin work on my Statistics minor this winter by taking Stat 528.

The only downside to this schedule is that I'm on the waitlist for Physics 112, 2nd in line to get in, at the moment. This is because when my window opened, all of the Physics 112 options were waitlisted.

There are plenty of upsides. First, I don't have any classes before 11:30am. Talk about getting to stay up late and sleep in EVERYDAY! Second, I'm out of class by 3:18pm everyday except Thursday. Also, unlike this quarter, my classes are condensed. No more spending 8 hours on campus for only 3 classes like I do Wednesdays this quarter. All-in-all, these 17 creidt hours will keep me busy, but help with my time management, which has been an issue this quarter :)

Schedule for Winter Quarter 2010

Dept-Course	Title	Component	Crdt Hrs	Days	Time	Location
CSE 201	Elementary Computer Programming	Laboratory	4	T	11:30am-12:18pm	Caldwell Lab 112A
-	-	Lecture	-	MWF	11:30am-12:18pm	Dreese Lab 305
Math 254.01	Calculus & Analytic Geometry 4	Lecture	5	MWF	12:30pm-1:18pm	Boyd Lab 205
-	-	Recitation	-	TR	12:30apm-1:18pm	209 W 18th Ave 295
Physics 112	Electricity, Magnetism & Light	Lecture	5	TR	2:30pm-3:18pm	Smith Lab 1153
-	-	Laboratory	-	R	6:30pm-8:18pm	Smith Lab 2036
-	-	Recitation	-	TR	2:30pm-3:18pm	Baker Systems 130
Stat 528	Data Analysis 1	Lecture	3	MWF	1:30pm-2:18pm	Cockins Hall 312

CSE 201 - Introduction to computer programming and to problem solving techinques using computer programs with applications in engineering and the physical sciences; algorithm development; programming lab experience. (saerak and tosdragon, I expect your help with this ^_-)

Math 254.01 - Partial differentiation, Lagrange multipliers, multiple integrals, line integrals, and Green's theorem.

Physics 112 - (nbowa, I expect your help with this ^_-)

Stat 528 - Non-calculus treatment of descriptive statistics, statistical inference, goodness of fit, use of t, X2 in one sample situation.

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Tags: csi, photos of the week, postcards, rss, spam, writer's block

As several of you have now heard, I was involved in an auto accident yesterday evening. Let me go over the events of last night.

I had left my apartment on my way to a local basketball rules meeting in Bexley. I stopped for a snack, then headed north on Olentangy River Road to North Broadway Street. Now, this is a weird intersection. If you're looking to get onto State Route 315, you have to do it from two different roads. If you want to go south, you go straight. If you want to go north, you turn right. Well, I got into the wrong lane and had to make a right turn. I thought to myself, "I'll just jump on 315 North, and get to Bexley some other way."

I got to the intersection of the on-ramp and North Broadway. I had to make a left turn to get onto the ramp. Both myself and on-coming traffic had right lights. It was a busy night so I was waiting for a while. I saw an opening when the only vehicle, a white SUV, had its turn signal on to take a different ramp onto the same highway. I started to make my left turn onto the ramp, I had turned a full 90 degrees, when I heard a horn...

I didn't black out, but it all happened so fast, that I can't recall details. I was in shock. The airbags were deployed. The engine was still running. The passenger side window exploded on impact. I shiver with fear whenever I think about what could've happened if I had a friend riding shotgun with me. My front driver's side tire was wrapped around a pole. There was smoke, there was a lot of smoke. Finally, I saw that driver of the SUV in front of me. She was just as shaken as I was.

My accident on Google Maps

I got out of the car, a million emotions and questions running through my head. How was I going to make the meeting? How was I going to get home this weekend? What if a friend had been riding with me? How am I going to get to MFF? How am I going to afford a new car? There were several people there who stopped to call for help, to check to make sure we were okay. They were angels in disguise, absolutely wonderful people.

I never said a word to the other driver. I called my mom to tell her what happened. I called my dear friend, robypanther and asked if he could give me a ride. Over the course of the following hour or two, I turned off my car's engine, retrieved all my important belongings from my car, called AAA to get my car towed, filed a claim with my insurance company, and watched my car get towed away.

After all of that, robypanther went to his place where we watched Game 6 and I slowly recovered from the ordeal. I am truly blessed to have the best friends a guy could ever ask for. He finally took me home after the game, where I spent way too much time pondering how much different life is going to be in the coming months.

At the scene, the officer cited me for failure to yield on a left turn. I have a court date set and plan on fighting this. Though, I don't like my chances. Have already talked with my claim adjuster. Now, it's just time to take things as they come to me.

I already miss my 99 Dodge Stratus. I bought that car back in June 2003 when it only had 61,000 miles on it. I paid it off in 2006. It was the first car that I had ever truly owned and that car was mine for 6 1/2 years, for 145,000 miles. That car had been with me longer than I've known most of the people who will read this. It had truly become a part of me. And that car, that part of me, will be gone forever.

Current Mood: crushed

aiyatheydidnt
The Chinese version of ONTD, AIYA is a dynamic international community that welcomes users who share a love of contemporary Chinese pop culture. Dedicated to celebrity gossip and entertainment news, you'll enjoy gorgeous photos and breaking stories featuring the glitterati of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Tags: aiyatheydidnt, chinese entertaining, chinese pop culture