Association News
If you are a webmaster in the UK, or in a District directly regulated by the UGLE, you will know that all websites in your Province have to be approved by the Provincial Office and by UGLE, which issues a Charter Mark to show that the website has been checked and approved as to its content. Most Provinces also issue an appropriate logo to display on each Lodge website.
Until recently, the UGLE approval process was under the control of Martin Byas; he is no longer involved and all requests from Provincial webmasters should now be sent to John Hamill.
Lodge webmasters please note: The request for UGLE approval should be made to your Provincial Webmaster who will ask on your behalf. Please do not contact John direct. posted 26 August 2009
The AMW can be useful in a variety of ways. We don't want to restrict ourselves to technical issues. The fact that we are Masonic Webmasters slightly differentiates us from other webmasters. If anyone has any concerns about what can or cannot be posted then this is a good place to come for an opinion.
Communications is always a bit of an issue in every walk of life. Not many folk can say they have never suffered from bad or poor communications. It is always on the agenda in Management circles. Hopefully, the AMW can help improve our communications.
For example, have you made sure people can contact you as webmaster? Have you added a 'Contact Webmaster' email link to your site?
I hope every Masonic webmaster is now aware of the new role of "Provincial Information Officer" (PIO). The occupant of this new position is someone who will (should) be working very closely with the webmaster. If you have not yet been in touch with him in your area then now is the time to make contact. posted 1 June 2009
We are very excited about our new association and look forward to its growth throughout our community. We all enjoy our Freemasonry and we all want to do more. As we are all Webmasters of Masonic Websites we have a particular role to play in making Freemasonry more accessible to our fellow Masons. We want to report on events happening in our region, advertise forthcoming events, record our appreciation of those giving excellent service and note our charitable endeavours.
Websites are a natural home for all these things and many more. By sharing what we do on our own sites we can possibly improve the richness of all our many and varied sites.
Our Websites are available to the general public and I know we are all conscious of that. We want them to look as good as we can. We want them to be fresh and modern. By sharing ideas we can help each other in that aim.
We look forward to lots of Masonic Webmasters clicking on the "Join Us" button and sharing their knowledge with us. posted 1 June 2009
General News
The new UGLE website is certainly dramatic and easy on the eye as well as easy to use. There are still a few pages that are 'unfinished' as it were; the list of Provinces does not yet have links to the Provincial sites, for example. You'll just have to use our links page for now, I suppose. :-))
Despite a few missing items that we had become used to, the new site is a refreshing change and we compliment the webmaster, designers and co-ordinating body on a superb new site.25 October 2009
The latest AVG Anti-Virus 9 is out now and is much faster than previous versions, plus it comes with an improved anti-virus scanner and anti-phishing support. Trouble is it costs $34.99 for a 1 year license. Maybe they will come out with a version 9 free version? 10 October 2009
Microsoft will release the full version of Windows 7 on 22 October.
Interesting facts:
- Vista managed to gain only 19% market share in its entire history. Windows XP, the eight-year old OS, accounted for 71.5% of all operating systems that connected to servers monitored by Net Applications last month.
- Windows XP has also been losing ground for two years, but Microsoft still holds 92.8% of the market, according to the figures.
- Apple's Mac OS X climbed by nearly 0.25% over the past month, to end up with a market share of 5% of all machines monitored by Net Applications.
7 October 2009
USB 3.0 products are starting to hit the market. The new USB format, dubbed SuperSpeed, transfers data at about 250MB/s, (Theoretical maximum 600MB/s), or about 10 times faster than USB 2.0 in real-world applications and with full-duplex data transmission rather than half-duplex as with previous versions.
It also has the advantage of consuming less power during normal operation, but can, conversely, supply more power to configured devices that need it when necessary. There are a few incompatibilities between connectors, though, that might make it difficult to plug your memory stick into a USB3.0 equipped PC. 29 September 2009
Since its UK release, anyone looking to purchase an iPhone has been forced to sign a contract with O2, which has had an exclusive deal to sell the phone. Not any more though, as Orange has announced it will also begin selling the device soon.
Vodafone have also got in on the act, and consumers may be the beneficiaries as they go head to head.29 September 2009
Apple have now stated that Snow Leopard (Mac OS X v10.6) will definitely be released on Friday (28th August). It will be available as an upgrade from the Leopard OS for $29 (£17.59).25 August 2009
If anyone has a Virgin.net email address then you should go to http://www.virginmedia.com/ and click the email icon and check your mail account. In particular, check your SPAM folder. We have just discovered that something odd is happening and you may well find you have some missing emails stuck in there.
The same advice may well apply to other ISPs, too ... 2 August 2009
Microsoft has now released Windows 7 to manufacturers. Steve Ballmer signed the gold release DVDs at Microsoft's sales meeting in Atlanta yesterday. Hardware manufacturers will now sell laptops, PCs and netbooks with Windows 7 from October. 24 July 2009
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