Gord Barentsen

The major software changes (starting today actually) will affect everyone using the site - it's just that the changes will be initially geared towards Tutor Clients. These changes come in the form of a social groups app which allows for the creation and maintenance of clubs/groups, which are sort of like mini communities in the site. A group still uses all of the site apps like forums, blogs, galleries etc., but they are constellated around a private Learning Space where Clients can pool their materials and research. It's also where I will be offering my online assistance to Clients from now on. As a Client you'll be made the owner of your Space, and you can invite people in (or give them the boot ) as needed. So first thing, I will set up private Spaces for Clients (which will be pretty much everything you already have privately, only shifted into a "Space" environment with better permission handling, so Clients can make their own blogs, galleries, etc. for their project). After that infrastructure is set up, we can make social groups for other ideas. I will also (I promise!) write some brief tutorials on how to use some of this site's many cool functions, in a more structured way than posting tips in this blog. I'll obviously also be providing some instructions on how to operate your Learning Space (or social group). That's the collaborative app. Then there's the site software upgrade, which will have a whole bunch of improvements to site-wide apps: the Calendar, Media Centre, and more will have improved functionality for everyone. Stay tuned!

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is well. Just to let you know, there will be several exciting developments in the site software in the coming months. There will be a major software upgrade which will make the site experience a lot slicker, and which will add several new features to the main site to make gallery media easier to browse, Also, an update specifically for Tutoring Clients: I'm installing comprehensive new collaborative software which will see your material shifted into private, customisable Spaces in which I can offer you more personalised assistance and feedback. As we speak, I am backing up our current site in preparation for installing this software, so you may not find some of your site resources where they should be. As a result, things on the site may change and you might encounter some errors while I complete the structural upgrade. Please be patient and don't freak out: things will fall into place very soon, and I will be on hand to field any questions and concerns you might have (I'm hoping that since this is the slow season re: essay help that the disturbance won't be too significant, barring online customers). I'd also like to remind you to please back up your material before uploading to the site just in case. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know via PM. If you have any suggestions, post them in the Suggestions forum.

Something else you can try: open the Command Prompt in Admin mode and enter the following two commands: ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew These commands flush out your computer's cache of IP addresses and other DNS data and get rid of potentially corrupt information.

You'll see....in the works. It's part of a software upgrade, but I'm also fixing up a new theme for the site

Dog fail:

Hi everyone, My apologies for the site's downtime - I was switching over the database language from mySQL to MariaDB, and a minor software upgrade caused a bit of a crash. Nothing too dire, as you can see. In other news, I am going to add a significant new feature to the site in the next couple of days...hope you like it!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to recognize International Women's Day 2017 as an important day for recognizing the inequality between men and women which still prevails in Western (and other) cultures: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ I'm not too political (on this site...ahem), but I want to take this opportunity to voice my complete support for gender equality in the workforce (and elsewhere), as well as my utter disgust with the phenomenon of domestic violence against women which seems to have some sort of foothold in Australia and elsewhere. Women have it tough in this world - they have an unruly physiology which is far more complex than the male body, they have to deal with a stigma of being weaker and more emotionally vulnerable than men, and they make less per year on average than men. Bullshit.

hahahahaha! It's dated 2000, but it's shocking how relevant it still is. I especially like the Mensa Troll, since I know several people in Mensa and love to make fun of them.

Apparently there are studies which suggest your name may have some impact on your criminal potential. Click below and you can enter your name to view its criminal statistics in the Australia criminal database. Apparently, "Gordon is 42nd most criminal name in our rankings, with 714 criminals per 100,000 people with that name." The most common crime is assault. Let that be a lesson to all of you! Click the image to open the full interactive version (via Gototcourt).

Hello, My apologies to anyone who might be looking to register on the site, but email addresses with mail.com will not be allowed on the site, as their servers are set up to automatically reject SMTP emails, which is what this server uses. So Members or Tutor Clients with mail.com email addresses wouldn't be able to receive any notifications or updates via email. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it's easy enough to get an email account with Outlook or Gmail.

Yeah, the upgrade was fine...just a very small (and somewhat inane) error gave the server a schizoid embolism. All is well now, but if there are any problems do let me know.

Hi everybody, I know that with the hot weather coming those of you in the Melbourne area will have nothing more important to do than converse on the site (!), but this is just to let you know that I'll be upgrading PHP on the site in the near future, so there may be some brief downtime and/or delayed page responses.

@stimmung79 I couldn't agree more...the only thing worse than Microsoft's browsers is their <ahem> "technical support," which has never once helped me when I've been bashing my head against the wall wondering "why is this happening?" Every single Windows related problem I've had I've Google-solved.

Just as a followup: I'm logged in to the site using IE 11 on a Windows 8.1 laptop and have no difficulties viewing icons or dropdown menus. Maybe it's a Windows 10 thing?

chacheng, this is interesting. I'm posting this response using IE 11 on Windows 7, and I'm not experiencing any of the image issues you're describing. In fact, IE here is working pretty much like the other browsers. Given your comments I would suggest using something other than Microsoft browsers to use the site (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi). I've never seen any issues with those browsers. Microsoft, on the other hand, has a longstanding tradition of trying to conceive the Internet in its own image, which differs from pretty much the rest of the world.

Hi everyone, I have recently switched LiquidFractal over from a normal http connection to a secured https connection. There are several reasons for this. Recent web trends are shifting toward all websites securing themselves as much as possible. I've read that Google is taking this route, and that future updates of Google will warn users whenever they are accessing an insecure website (e.g., a website which uses a normal http connection). While it doesn't affect the site's operations one way or another, warnings might look suspect or make users distrust the site on principle. What does this mean for you as Members? Nothing, really. In your browsers, you'll notice that the web address is now https://www.liquidfractal.org..., and a green lock icon will give you security certificate details. All it means is that the site is what it says it is, and that your data isn't being secretly channeled off elsewhere. When I first implemented this security, I had problems with some site images rendering. If you any problems viewing or using the site please let me know.

Just click the date below the latest poster information in the right-most column of the listing. This works in either forums view or topic view.

What are you all doing enjoying summer weather instead of being stuck to your computers?

Happy New Year to you as well, and once again to everyone here! My wife and I had a very low-key New Year's (or, since we were watching Vikings, one might call it "Loki"?). We don't go in much for the celebrations, so we contented ourselves with hearing some fireworks in the distance. So sorry to hear that you were sick though, chacheng. What happened?