ADMIN Thread - Ideas, Suggestions, SSC/Mods Messages, Thread Title Change Requests, etc

[grewlike topsy]

Hi,
Is there somewhere that is discussing the issues associated with what is looking increasingly likely to be the resignation of Jeremey Hunt as the Minister of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

There is increasing speculation that the DCMS could be scrapped altogether, along with the Arts Council...

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=...9&e=6b0af9efa6

Thank you for your guidance on whereabouts to post views on this subject.

[Newcastle Historian]

Originally Posted by grewlike topsy

Hi,
Is there somewhere that is discussing the issues associated with what is looking increasingly likely to be the resignation of Jeremey Hunt as the Minister of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

There is increasing speculation that the DCMS could be scrapped altogether, along with the Arts Council...

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=...9&e=6b0af9efa6

Thank you for your guidance on whereabouts to post views on this subject.

The "Local Politics" thread is probably the best place for this, here on the Newcastle Forum.

Local Political (etc) issues are discussed on there, but there is occasionally a spill over into "National Politics" discussions, at times . . .

LINK - http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1069999

However, if the discussion is really to be about "Arts Funding" (and related issues) then the "Arts & Culture" thread, is the best one . . .

LINK - http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1073965

.

[grewlike topsy]

Once again many thanks NH. Your assistance is much appreciated.
On second thoughts I think I'll wait for Jeremy Hunt to appear before Leveson this Thursday before expressing my views on the future of the DCMS and ACE.

[Ken O'Heed]

It appears that the Durham Miner Mapping service which is linked into a few other links/sites included in this forum has been deleted from the web and replaced with an alternative.

It looks as if this is the new system http://gis.durham.gov.uk/website/interMAP/viewer.htm

This text from Durham County Council site

Durham County Council's Geographic Information System (GIS) is an interactive mapping service which we have developed to enhance our website.

The GIS allows you to interact with both modern and historical maps of County Durham and the immediate surrounding areas.

© Crown Copyright and database right 2012. Ordnance Survey LA 100049055

Maps are for identification purposes only and must not be used for scaling or formal documentation.


Seems to be near identical to former system with historical maps back to 1856 - 1865 however an addition is "Aerial Photography 2001" ( only for Durham County area)

I have checked and it goes at least up to Widdrington in Northumberland ( and possibly further north)

Like the previous version it is a very useful tool for obtaining historical map information

KEN

[UrbanDoctor]

HI,

Its been a while since i last contributed to any Newcastle forum but its good to see that its as strong as ever.

Anyway, i come asking for help.

Part of my professional life involves aiding on research projects related to planning policy, design methods, etc. For a while now i have had this pondering on non-professional designers ability to contribute to developments within their own city. It seems to be the case that a handful of new developments don't appeal or work in the public eye, due to a lack of communication with the public. It has been shown in the past that those projects that involve the public to a high degree tend to be successful.

I am therefore hoping to carry out some research into the use of public in the design phase of developments. I was therefore wondering if i were to propose a local site, whether the users of this forum would be interested in developing designs, commenting on other designs, developing designs etc, with the aid of some guidance?

If this was of interest, where would such a thread be placed?

Cheers!

[Newcastle Historian]

Originally Posted by UrbanDoctor

HI,

Its been a while since i last contributed to any Newcastle forum but its good to see that its as strong as ever.

Anyway, i come asking for help.

Part of my professional life involves aiding on research projects related to planning policy, design methods, etc. For a while now i have had this pondering on non-professional designers ability to contribute to developments within their own city. It seems to be the case that a handful of new developments don't appeal or work in the public eye, due to a lack of communication with the public. It has been shown in the past that those projects that involve the public to a high degree tend to be successful.

I am therefore hoping to carry out some research into the use of public in the design phase of developments. I was therefore wondering if i were to propose a local site, whether the users of this forum would be interested in developing designs, commenting on other designs, developing designs etc, with the aid of some guidance? If this was of interest, where would such a thread be placed?

Cheers!

Hi U/D,

Good to hear from you again.

We have this thread here where forum members comment (or submit comments to planning) about Planning Applications . .

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1109575

Would this be a suitable location for you to use?

Or, when you say "where would such a thread be placed?" - do you mean, a new thread on this forum - or somewhere else?

Thanks.

[Talisker]

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I was thinking that we should create some sort of secure archive of photos. Over the years I've taken huge numbers of photos of Tyne and Wear. Many of them are complete rubbish, but it's amazing looking back over photos taken just a few years ago how much things have changed. Entire housing estates have gone and new ones built instead. At present, they're just stored on my computer, so if anything happens to either my computer or me, then there's a good chance they'll be lost forever. So I was wondering about how we could store these photos in a way that will be safe, i.e. a central archive. Any thoughts?

[Steve Ellwood]

Originally Posted by Talisker

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I was thinking that we should create some sort of secure archive of photos. Over the years I've taken huge numbers of photos of Tyne and Wear. Many of them are complete rubbish, but it's amazing looking back over photos taken just a few years ago how much things have changed. Entire housing estates have gone and new ones built instead. At present, they're just stored on my computer, so if anything happens to either my computer or me, then there's a good chance they'll be lost forever. So I was wondering about how we could store these photos in a way that will be safe, i.e. a central archive. Any thoughts?

Why not share your collection via Social Networks such as Flickr or Facebook, that way photographs end up being accessible to all via the Net.

[Adrian_Swall]

Just came across this website of Newcastle's Blue Plaques.

http://www.exploreheritage.co.uk/pag...d=5&images=yes

Can't find it listed on our SCC site but could be wrong?

[Talisker]

Originally Posted by Steve Ellwood

Why not share your collection via Social Networks such as Flickr or Facebook, that way photographs end up being accessible to all via the Net.

Flickr maybe, although I'm talking about 1000+ photos. Do you retain copyright with flickr? Just doesn't seam secure enough to me. I can imagine historians in hundreds of years time saying 'if it wasn't for the great flickr hack of 2016 we'd have so much more information'. I seam to remember that CDs aren't all that great in terms of longevity either.

[Newcastle Historian]

Originally Posted by Talisker

Flickr maybe, although I'm talking about 1000+ photos. Do you retain copyright with flickr? Just doesn't seam secure enough to me. I can imagine historians in hundreds of years time saying 'if it wasn't for the great flickr hack of 2016 we'd have so much more information'. I seam to remember that CDs aren't all that great in terms of longevity either.

I have had a fair few conversations about this with "IT people" and what they all end up saying is that all electronic storage is still something of an unknown quantity, in terms of 'longevity' of safe storage.

I remember discussiing 'Memory Sticks', as you can get a lot of photos on them. What I was told by a number of experts is "it is still new technology, nobody yet really knows how long anything kept on them will stay in good condition".

So, I keep storage of photos on CDs, Memory Sticks, and a remote hard drive.

I'm not optimistic about any of them.

All my photos files pre-2001 are printed off . . . wish I had kept on doing that!

[Steve Ellwood]

Originally Posted by Talisker

Flickr maybe, although I'm talking about 1000+ photos. Do you retain copyright with flickr? Just doesn't seam secure enough to me. I can imagine historians in hundreds of years time saying 'if it wasn't for the great flickr hack of 2016 we'd have so much more information'. I seam to remember that CDs aren't all that great in terms of longevity either.

Well if you want to protect your copyright then the simple answer is don't put them anywhere close to the Internet.

If you just want to have a reliable store for yourself then I reckon the best way is to twin save them to two external hard drives. That way if one drive starts to fail, and you can usually tell, you do at least have one full copy protected on the other drive. That's the way I have my photographs stored and I made sure that the external drives were different makes as an extra precaution, i.e. both drives dying at the same time.

Certainly don't bother saving to CD's these days as that is not the way to go as several of my discs from around 1999 no longer play. Probably CD technology back there wasn't at its best?

NH mentioned printing out photographs but even that has its down side as it can be that the inks used on home systems will fade over the years, even when protected from light sources etc.

Personally I have no truck with copyright provided the source is quoted in any use and take the view that by getting them out there on the Net that at least they will be distributed wide and far and hopefully hang around in the cyber ether for a long time to come.

[Newcastle Historian]

Originally Posted by Adrian_Swall

Just came across this website of Newcastle's Blue Plaques.

http://www.exploreheritage.co.uk/pag...d=5&images=yes

Can't find it listed on our SCC site but could be wrong?

Hi,

I have added the above link to Section 09 of our Forum "Websites Listing Thread", thanks.

It is next to a one that was already there for Gateshead Commemorative Plaques . . .

COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUES AROUND GATESHEAD
http://www.bpears.org.uk/Misc/Gateshead_Plaques/

COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUES AROUND NEWCASTLE
http://www.exploreheritage.co.uk/pag...d=5&images=yes
.

I assume that is why you posted the new link?

However, excuse my ignorance, but what does "SCC Site" mean?

[Adrian_Swall]

Originally Posted by Newcastle Historian

Hi,

I have added the above link to Section 09 of our Forum "Websites Listing Thread", thanks.

It is next to a one that was already there for Gateshead Commemorative Plaques . . .



I assume that is why you posted the new link?

However, excuse my ignorance, but what does "SCC Site" mean?

Simple Typo.
SSC obviously!

Thanks for adding link to plaques site.

[Steve Ellwood]

This link might come in handy - its to a site that has a map of Northumberland rivers - http://www.northumberlandscapes.co.u...ries/index.php

[bigchrisfgb]

Just wondering if any of you have been experiencing some problems on the site this morning? Sometimes when I went to click on something it came up with a blank page say "No input file specific".

[battlefieldjohn]

Originally Posted by bigchrisfgb

Just wondering if any of you have been experiencing some problems on the site this morning? Sometimes when I went to click on something it came up with a blank page say "No input file specific".

Yes, the same here.

[Newcastle Historian]

Re

Here is a copy of a post I have just made on the Moderators "Gremlins" thread - where I report (as do other Mods) issues like this . . .

Originally Posted by Newcastle Historian

Here are some messages I received this morning, on the "Admin Thread" on the Newcastle Forum . . .

and yes, I too keep (often, but not always) getting this message . . .

Took me about ten goes to load THIS (reply to thread) page . . .
.

[Newcastle Historian]

In reply to

I have just got this message from our IT Manager . . .

Originally Posted by DaiTengu

working on it.

[DaiTengu]

Originally Posted by Newcastle Historian

In reply to

I have just got this message from our IT Manager . . .

argh, that makes me sound like I wear a collared shirt & tie to some drab office every day!

(the problem should be fixed now!)