[Stones] Megalithic Portal: Much improved access to the site

[Andy Burnham]

...another quick update. I have finally moved the Megalithic Portal
server out of my 'bedroom' (home office - no tittering) and we are now
running it on a dedicated 2GHz server with 70GB of hard disc to fill up
and lots of bandwidth.

So no more problems when the broadband lines decide to die. (Hooray!)
Hopefully we can put such unreliability and access problems behind us.
If that has put you off using or contributing in the past then please
give us another try.

Just for fun I will offer a free book, CD-ROM or music CD from our
online shop (your choice) for the five people who add the most new sites
onto the Portal in the next month. (subject to availability,
sensibleness of sites and shipping weight if outside the UK)

...and don't forget the photo competition entries end this Friday

Andy

Andy Burnham wrote:
> Some new features currently under test, including embedded Yahoo Maps
> and GeoRSS.
>
> On any of our site location pages ('site pages'):
> Look for the links about half way down that say
> NEW: View this page with an embedded Yahoo Map
> NEW: Download or link to a GeoRSS feed of these sites
>
> As we add more and more locations based on information gleaned from
> archaeology news feeds I think this is an excellent way to bring to life
> rather dry news items from the other side of the world and give them
> some geographic context. Tracking down the locations of sites in the
> news based on sometimes vague reports is very challenging and fun, and
> more help to do this is always welcome.
>
> What GeoRSS can be made to do is that A.N.Other web sites could have a
> drop-down box saying: 'View the 25 nearest sites on the Megalithic
> Portal'. And vice versa the Portal could have a reciprocal 'View the 25
> nearest sites on A.N.Other'. Also things like 'mashups' of maps become
> possible featuring data from various different sources on the web
> overlaid. There is more on how to use the new GeoRSS and other ways to
> link geographically in the 'Portal Talking Shop' Forum.
>
> I am using Yahoo rather than Google maps as they hook very nicely into
> the GeoRSS, Google maps may be coming in the future although they are
> rather more complex to make work properly. I think these Yahoo maps are
> pretty good.
>
> I have also just now created an international Postcode/Zip code search
> function.
>
> Just enter a UK, German or US zip code into the search box at the
> top-right of any page.
>
> UK post code can be either the two part code (SW1 1NN) or just the first
> part (SW1)
>
> German post codes can be D- or DE- followed by a number, eg. D-01234
>
> US zip code is just a number so just put that in and if it's a valid zip
> code then you'll be transported there straight away! If anyone can point
> me towards postcode to long/lat data for other countries I will add them
> too.
>
> As you will see, the Megalithic Portal is not just European in scope but
> now truly international, with active contributors from the USA, Middle
> East, India and South Korea.
>
> More new developments are coming soon. I will end by sending many thanks
> to the team of volunteer admins who now handle the day to day running of
> the Portal virtually unaided by me, this is what gives me the time to be
> able to take a step back and work on longer term improvements such as
> these.
> Cheers,
> Andy
>
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