Stormlizard's favorite articles

[EN] Dear members and friends of ipernity! 1) A few days ago, ipernity was exposed to a massive attack by Russian spam bots, who managed to overcome the Google Captcha authentication. Despite immediate countermeasures, some intruders managed to open accounts from which iper mails with links to pornographic content were sent to members. But at no time was any personal data or private contents compromised by this bot attack . Please delete any messages delivered to your personal address wi…

After the initial euphoria of seeing family and my friend, my health took a downward spiral. Nothing major, really, however I suspect I’m suffering some mild withdrawal. At my request my meds were halved; I’m not happy with their reclassification in the UK, and I really don’t like one or two of the side-effects, so I determined to come off them which has to be done gradually. Within days of halving the medication I came down with a bad cold that I’m still not over, and anything I eat, and I mean…

[EN] Dear members and friends of ipernity! 1) In addition to the language options in the main menu, we have enabled Esperanto for group management again . This allows our Esperanto speaking members to continue editing the descriptions and rules of existing groups. 2) The seed capital for the reprogramming of ipernity has grown gross to 19,740 EUR meanwhile. Of this, 3,389 EUR are donations and 16,351 EUR are bonds from the community. After deducting 700 EUR bank fees, this brings the…

People often wonder how the images become picked to ipernity Explore . And here I try to figure it out and explain, as well as I can. The very first thing one needs to understand is that Explore is more or less an overview on what is popular during last few days. However, popularity is a tricky concept. One should keep in mind that what is popular may not match with any subjective or shared understanding on what is quality . If number of ipernity members like images of fences, or more p…

It’s Monday, and I’m back home after a whirlwind visit to Wales. I’d set off on Saturday, a little before 8am, and had a good journey down with no incidents and not too much traffic. I barely got above 60mph, had a brief ‘comfort’ break, and had a comfortable journey of just under 3 hours. I stopped for petrol and texted my friend that I was almost at the designated meeting place. We’d had a falling-out prior to my move, however in recent times he’s exonerated himself and things are much better…

I saw this rather interesting news shared on social media, and thought it may interest also peeps around here: ➽ Camera sales are falling sharply by Om Malik So, supposedly phone cameras are taking over. Whether this is a bad or good thing depends on the point of view. Someone could call that as a "progress", and some may see it as a "paradigm shift". Or it can be even a "philosophical revolution". We all can't be masters of photography and professionals, but that should not stop…

Ok, I’ll start by making a ‘sweeping generalisation’ here, in that woman, mostly, are more fussy than men about their hair and who cuts it. I’ve lived here 15 months now, and in that time, I’ve had 3 haircuts which I think is a record, at least in recent times. The first hairdresser, whilst a very good price, left one side of my hair longer than the other; it annoyed me to the point that I took a pair of scissors and cut the longer side to match the other shorter side. I then tried a different h…

Prior to 2019, July 2016 was Anchorage, Alaska's warmest month on record. Summer 2019 as a whole was even warmer than July 2016. The duration of the excessive warmth and extreme temperatures recorded during the summer would have been very unlikely, if not improbable, without human-induced climate change.

Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

The three good days I enjoyed in the garden are now gone and we are back to cold,rainy and windy days. By the time this lot blows through I will yet again be wrestling the garden back to something like. The dry dpells have,t been long enough to continue round the side of the house and nice strolls in the summer sun a distant memory replaced by days cabined up. I did manage to get my shopping done without getting too battered by the wind and rain but now it's a day of watching rain hammering to…

Life is made up of moments: Moments when we’re troubled – when a loved one drops a bombshell. Moments when we’re ecstatically happy – the birth of a child. Moments when we’re sad – the death of a loved one. Moments when we’re blissful – when the world just is. Moments of anguish – a cross word at the wrong time. Moments of frustration – when people don’t do their job correctly. Moments when we’re content – cosied up in a chair with a warm drink, watching the world through the window. Moments of…

[EN] Dear members and friends of ipernity! 1) The number of new club accounts created in the first 8 months of 2019, now +74, already exceeds the total number of new club accounts created in 2018 (+62). The number of active club accounts even increased by +82 from 1,298 to 1,380 since the beginning of the year. This makes us very optimistic. 2) In addition, members of the VIEW Fotocommunity are currently interested in finding a new home for their photo hobby due to the closure of…

Last night, just after I spoke to Mickey - around 10pm, I was sitting on my couch, with Pippin determined to lie right across my keyboard!! when he suddenly sat up and stared out of the lounge window! Now when a cat suddenly stops what they're doing and just stares at something you can't see or hear - it really spooks you. I looked at the lounge window, which was partly open so Pippin could come and go as he likes as well as letting in some lovely fresh air, when I was suddenly aware of a sha…

[EN] Dear members and friends of ipernity! 1) The removal of more than 200 abandoned member accounts with group administrator functions, mentioned in the discussion about the last Newsflash, caused many administrations to be automatically reassigned by the ipernity software. If you don't want to take over such a task, you can leave the group and join it again immediately. 2) This action, as well as our offer to reorganize abandoned groups, which has already been claimed more than thirt…

The rain has gone, for now at least, and surprisingly for a Bank Holiday weekend (UK), it’s forecast to be very warm and sunny. I popped out Saturday around 10am, and it was already 19C. The next few days are set to be sunny, as mentioned, though by Tuesday we could have more rain. By then, I think we’ll need some, just not copious amounts thank you very much. After providing my financial details, I had a small reduction in my Council Tax. Not much, but anything helps. I have £20 in grocery v…

Okay, that’s something they suggest on a shampoo bottle; however, this seems to be my sleep (or not) pattern as of late. Falling asleep to the neighbour’s TV (how did I manage before?) then being woken by them at stupid O’clock (just for you Gracie) leaving their house and chatting loudly outside whilst they wait for their taxi. Then I fall asleep again, only to be woken around 4:45 by awful pins and needles in my hands. By this time, I’m so p*ssed off I can’t then get back to sleep. Good grief!…

now that summers here. When those words were written I don't think a day like this was expected We are 4 hours into a storm with winds up to 50 mph and torrential rain. A lot of the island is under water,luckily I am on top of a hill but I do wish the storm would go and annoy somebody else.

Despite the promise of warmer temperatures, and sunnier days, it’s starting to feel very autumnal here. I don’t know if it’s the wildly swinging temperature, or the heavy rainfall and high winds, but this morning, whilst walking the dog, I was kicking through leaves as if it were autumn already. Having said that, in the UK, it will be autumn soon it just seems to have come around quickly this year. The weather made me think of my Grandparents. For a time, we lived with them during the breaku…

Well maybe I'm being a tad over excited, but for years now I've just kept being with the same insurance company for house and contents. I suppose it was because I was being lazy, in that I kept forgetting to seek out cheaper options. Well this morning I had a couple of letters, one was from another company saying they had taken over my old insurance company (which is a well known and trusted company) and the other one was from my insurance company informing me of next year's cost for the hous…

After almost a month, I finally have the decision on whether I qualify for any financial assistance. They’ve had me attend numerous appointments, provide 2 months’ worth of bank statements, asked why I paid a lot of money to a certain group – it’s my credit card bill, asked details of what was on it, asked about my pension – all details I had given T at our initial interview. I has been passed onto J as T was going on holiday, and it seems he was so focussed on his holiday that he neglected to c…