WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

I think the bank with no money comes under the same heading as a pub with no beer or a chocolate teapot. They seem to be under the impression their customers like them and just visit for the craic.
Happy to day the site is running normally this morning......

[Stanley]

Just popped back in to say that once more the site is running like a three legged camel to quote Kev. I thought I'd post that before it folds.....

[PanBiker]

The site may be erratic for a while, ongoing tests and support from our hosting company is in hand. Waiting for feedback on the issues.

[Stanley]

Thanks for letting us know Ian. Came back on at 11:00 and got nothing but error messages. I shall get off and leave you to it!

[PanBiker]

Yes the server support guy (Will) shut it down to take a snapshot and do some tests. See my post in the admin thread.

[Stanley]

I've posted today's anniversary note from Bob. That will do for today. I shall leave it to mend until tomorrow morning!

[Big Kev]

Seems to behaving at the moment

[Big Kev]

Still behaving

[Stanley]

All seems to be as normal this morning...... (So far so good!)

[Stanley]

I just wanted to flag up that the site has just slowed down.....

[Tizer]

It's working OK for me at the moment.
Unfortunately this grabbed my attention. Our friendly neighbour opposite, a widower in his late 70s and with mobility issues, beckoned me across yesterday and silently pointed to the side of his car. It's a well-cared-for Citroen Picasso, about 7 years old and done 40,000 miles. He'd parked the car in town and when reversing didn't see a low bollard and it scraped right along the side of the car. Dents and scratches and door handles damaged, the front one taken right off. He's been to the local Citroen garage to show them and contacted his insurance company - who tell him it will be a write off. As a retired motor mechanic he was gobsmacked! They seem to write off cars these for minimal damage these days. He's going to take the money but tell the insurers he'll keep the car and get pals he knows to do some body repairs and find him replacement doors.

[PanBiker]

I just wanted to flag up that the site has just slowed down.....

For the record and information. I have just looked at the Cloud Panel which shows CPU usage. Despite half a days work yesterday we are not out of the woods just yet. The CPU is till intermittently ramping to critical levels but for much shorter periods. I may have missed banning an odd IP address or the auto attack servers, if that is the problem may have jumped to a new range themselves. I will have to do further checks to determine whether this is the case.

If it turns out that we can definitely prove that the problem is down to a DDoS attack there are paid extensions that can be installed to counter such methods. Lets not go there just yet though.

I must also add one thing about site usage during the night or very early morning. This is exactly the time that the hosting company chooses to do software and infrastructure maintenance. This is normally transparent to the majority of folk that keep regular hours.

[PanBiker]

Just taken a screenshot of the last 24 hours. You can see the improvement last night which corresponds with when I completed the Firewall installation and excluded the 30 odd IP addresses that were flagged as the worst ones. Also the overall improvement in the hours since. Still peaking odd times which is when it slows down.

24HourCPU.JPG

[Big Kev]

We still have a few bursts of CPU activity but your firewall additions look to have stopped a lot of it. Seven and a half hours on from your CPU screenshot it's looking much better. Grand job Ian.

Screenshot_20230322-180952_Chrome.jpg

[Stanley]

Peter, that's exactly what I did when the man from Zurich told me they would write my Astra off after the bin wagon broke the back light. I told him that if they gave me £500 I would go away. That saved them £250 so they gave it to me. I got a new rear light cluster from the scrap yard and a can of white spray paint and fixed it myself. Then I sold it for £600. Only car I ever made a profit on.

[Stanley]

The nice lady in the Pioneer car park this morning who asked if I would be offended if she offered to lift my shopping up the steps.... As if!
I told her no and she said she'll look out for me at about the same time as she is in the car park at that time.
A bit of help is worth a lot of pity.....
(PS Another thing was the fact that there was no cauliflower or sprouts in the Co-op this morning. I shall survive..... )

[PanBiker]

Invoked the Blue Nurse at Blood Donors and failed my medical screening. I still have my armful for the moment. Full report in the Blood Donor thread.

[Stanley]

The clocks go forward tonight and it becomes summertime......

[Tizer]

I like the little men cracking open the egg! The Peak District millstone photo is attractive but spoilt for me by the foreground distortion - the millstone looks dome-shaped and the hole isn't centred. Caused by a wide angle setting perhaps?
`Your pictures on the theme of 'machinery' LINK

I've been trying to trace a local man who did some woodturning for us and knew he ran courses at Yandles, a long-established and well-known timber yard in Martock, Somerset. Looking at their web site I saw this History page which has some lovely old photos. In the next-to-last-photos look at the size of girth of that tree with two men sat on its trunk, and in the adjoining pic look for Mr Mounstephen standing at the base of the stack...
`The History Of Yandles' Yandles

[Tripps]

Thanks for that link. We used to go nearby, to Over Stratton -to the vicars cottage - (at mates rates, via a friend of a friend) and I like the area a lot. I just had a look on Streetview - looks well and has been extended.
Ironically I learned that after owning it for years preparing for retirement- he changed his mind and sold it.

[Big Kev]

Youngest offspring's basketball went well this year. As player/coach for EBL division 3 Teeside Lions an undefeated season saw them win the league. His under 16 team he coaches at Queen Ethelberga's Collegiate also won their league. He'll be having a rest next season focusing on his business studies teaching role and the QE basketball teams. Wears me out just thinking about all that work

[Stanley]

Not too sure about the identification of the stones in that picture Peter.... I don't think they are mill stones but the stone wheels that run on edge in a mortar grinding pan. (I can give you a complicated explanation if you want..... )

[Tizer]

Or run on the edges for crushing apples? Although apples were probably not abundant in the Peak District.

[Stanley]

I thought cider presses were most likely to be like Olive Oil ones, screw or extended lever and apples in stout hessian bags for filtering.

[Tizer]

It used to be a 2-stage process. Apples were first pulped in a mill then the pulp transferred to a press to squeeze out the juice. Two examples of horse-drawn apple runner mills are shown below. The colour photo was taken where we often stay in Cornwall. The little building on the left is the holiday cottage on the farm. This was a big farm in its time and the circular walled structure was where the apple crushing by horses was carried out. They had many acres of orchards and a lot of cider was needed drunk!