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| Andy |
| Normal Service Will Be Resumed... |
| 2010.02.07 15:54:26 | |
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Many apologies for the lack of updates on the site recently. We've had no internet connection since before Christmas, thanks to the gross incompetence and appalling customer service of the telecomms company Orange. We still have no connnection, and are having to beg time on friends' and relatives' computers, but have changed our ISP and within a week or so - allegedly - we should be reconnected.
I'd like to say a big hello to our new members, and thank you so much for registering. 2010 looks like being another exciting year in science - which year isn't? - so we will keep you up to date with what's going on. Also, don't forget that you can make valuable contributions to Science File yourselves, by submitting an article, a science book review, science website recommendation or a science event for the calendar. All contributions are gratefully received. One effect of the lack of an internet connection has been, sadly, that the series of articles I was planning entitled Field of Dolls, about some amazing recent fossil finds in Catalonia, Spain, has been postponed. But definitely not cancelled - I will post news of the articles as soon as I can. That's about it for now. As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, requests or other feedback, we'd love to hear from you - please mail us at editorial(at)sciencefile.org, inserting a "@" instead of "(at)" of course. And thank you.
Tags: normal service Hits: 16 | Read more... |
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| Bikerman |
| Join |
| 2010.01.28 02:57:26 | |
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Just re-joined - can it be that long since I was last here? Tags:
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| Andy |
| We're There! |
| 2009.11.01 00:46:49 | |
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Three months of work later, and the new Science File is officially open today...the 1st November 2009. Thanks to my wife for her forebearance during this period....and I hope you like the new site. But if not, tell us! If you have any comments, suggestions, moans or gripes we would love you to tell us about them. Simply drop an e-mail to editorial(at)sciencefile.org. Tags: Hits: 1252 | Read more... |
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| Andy |
| Coming Soon......... |
| 2009.10.15 21:15:45 | |
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Problems with software components and integration have meant that the opening of the new site has been delayed, possibly until November. This is most frustrating, but on the other hand it is better to take time to get it right rather than rush it. One feature which needs some more work is SciEarn, the scheme whereby site members can write science articles and get paid for them. The way it will work is that anybody wishing to read an article will be asked to pay a small subscription fee to do so, with various options available. Each month, 50% of the subscription amount gathered will be shared out between the authors of the articles, with the rest going towards site development and maintenance. In this way, I hope to attract more articles and be in a position to give something back to their authors. Also, the money for site development will enable us to add better and more extensive features. The trend for Open Source software is away from free giveaways towards download charges or subscriptions, and Science File will need to pay these fees (which are almost always totally justified, by the way) if we wish to keep up with latest component versions or receive support from the components' authors, so we need some form of cash generator. SciEarn is the plan for achieving this, although it has to be said that SciEarn is an experiment, with no guaranteed results.Onwards.......... Tags: Hits: 60 | Read more... |
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| Andy |
| Welcome! |
| 2009.08.24 14:55:18 | |
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Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm Andy, the owner and publisher of Science File. Here I will be writing about Science File-related things, science in general and anything else which I think you may find interesting. So here we are, possibly less than a month before the launch of the new version of Science File, and progress is being made migrating the old data and site components to the new version of the software. It's a slow, painstaking job because there are regular "surprises": things which don't work as they should have done, or things which don't work at all. Every component has to be tested, every option scrutinised. However, we are getting there, and I am sure that we will end up with a much better website as a result. The rewriting of Science File has become necessary because the old version of the content management system which the site is written in has come to the end of its life and is no longer supported by its authors. This means that there will be no more security patches or updates released for it. A move to the new version, therefore, was necessary and unavoidable. But the move has also given me an opportunity to evaluate where the site is going and what it should be doing. Looking at which features were being used, and which were not, it became obvious that we could afford to lose some features, simply because there is no point maintaining features which nobody uses. But on the plus side, the new version of the software will allow me to provide new some great new features (such as blogging).
Or, to take another example, this morning I was listening to this podcast from 365 Days of Astronomy, about a spacecraft navigator at JPL, Neil Mottinger, who has worked on many famous planetary missions including Mariner, Voyager, the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and many other international missions. He grew up on a farm in the American midwest, and has worked on spacecraft navigation since 1968 - despite, by his own admission, not being academically strong at school. What an example to young people, and how romantic that story is..... the boy on the farm who would one day steer spacecraft to the planets. I immediately wanted to know more about Mr. Mottinger and the story of his life. We will certainly try to interview him here, because I am sure there is a lot more to tell. There are thousands of stories like that out there. All it takes to find them is just to keep your eyes open, with perhaps a little digging to tease them out of the background. What's more, you don't need to be a professional writer to write an article for Science File: if you have an idea for an article, just go ahead and write it - we'll take care of the rest. There's no need to be worried about your writing ability. If a story is worth telling, the rest is cosmetic. That's about it for now. More soon.
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Apart from the feature set, I want to place the emphasis of the new site much more on encouraging members to write their own science articles for publication on the site. There's a whole world full of wonderful science stories out there, and you often don't have to look very far to find them. Just to give you one example, near where I live there is an ongoing archaeological dig, on the site of an ancient volcanic lake, which so far has discovered marine creatures like turtles, fish, oxen and a rhinoceros, all dating from around three million years ago. An artist's impression of how the scene looked is shown to the left.The archaeologists involved have asked me to go along soon to take part in the dig, and I shall be interviewing them and writing it all up here. Who knows what they will discover at the site this year?
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