Category: Website

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Name change on 1st January 2012

This is the last day that this website is only going to be Iceland Volcano and Earthquake blog. From 1st January 2012 this blog is going to get a new name.

This name change came about due to plan changes that I have in works. But after about 10 years time I am going to move to Spain or Canary Islands. Most likely Canary Islands as I like volcanoes and earthquakes. But this is in so distant future I am not yet exactly sure where I am going to end up after 10 years.

But this is what I plan for and have set in motion now. I plan to stick with it, as this is what I think is best for me at the moment. But lets wait and see what the future has to offer for me.

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Post schedule during the new year holidays

This is the blog post schedule for the new year holidays. I am not going to write any blog posts on 31. December 2011 and 1. January 2012. Some automatic posting is however going to take place during that period.

I am going to cover any major events soon as I can and with best of what I can do if there are any major events in this two days.

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Days off schedule during Christmas

During this Christmas I am going to take few days off. This means that I am not going to update this blog unless something major happens. The days that I am going to take off are 24, 25 and 26 December. This is according to how Icelandic people hold there Christmas. Some automatic posts are going to appear on the 24th December. But that is about it.

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Reduced information for next few months on this blog

So, the school is out for me. This means that the second phase of my plan is now on. But that means I am going to live with my mom and dad for next several months. This however has that problem that I cannot run my main computers, this means my access to the data that I have collected during the years is limited to none. I also am not able to post high resolution earthquake traces in this time period. As my main earthquake computer is going to remain offline until I move back to Denmark. The earthquake traces are going to remain online as they have been. As the remote stations them self update the images for the moment. This is also going to be case with the new geophones that go up in December (2011) and in January 2012.

My plan is to move back to Denmark sometimes around the time May to July in the year 2012. But I start to look for apartment for an rent (around 3500 DKK) in March of 2012. All suggestions on good apartments in Denmark are welcomed, I prefer renting from an renting companies. Not private individuals. I already have some idea where I might be located when I move back to Denmark. I hopeful that I am going to be just outside Copenhagen. While I am living with mom and dad I am collecting money for the move back to Denmark, as moving from Iceland is not cheap (cost just for my belongings is estimated around 300.000 ISK, or around 14.000 DKK, 1.893€, $2.469 with current exchange rate on ISK). I have already collected some of the money needed for the move back to Denmark. But I need bit more so I can also pay insurance on the apartment + one month in rent ahead of time (at least) + one month with full rent without rental benefits in Denmark (at least). I also want to collect for new television (I do not watch television that much. I just like to figure out what I can get on it. It is one of my hobbies).

This is my current status. It is all moving along for me as I had planned (even bit faster then I had originally planned).

Until I move back to Denmark. I am going to do my best to update this blog properly with pictures and everything. It is also an factor that my mom and dad only have slow 3G internet connection. It can also drop out if there is heavy snow or rain taking place. So I might be out of internet connection suddenly at times. But I hope that does not happen often.

Other: Look what Foo Fighters did in New Zealand. Foo Fighters New Zealand gig causes ‘volcanic tremor’ (BBC News)

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Iceland this morning

I am just testing to see if everything works properly on the new server. That means I am looking for bugs.


This is the town of Sauðárkrókur, where I have been for the past few months in school. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the top bar for more information.

If you see any bugs. Please let me know about them. Thanks!

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Move to a new host complete

If you are reading this blog post. Then you have arrived to my new web host. This host should perform better then the shared hosting that I was on. But it is more expensive, as the cost is now $145 a month (around 800 DKK, depending on exchange rate). But this should also handle better in high load situation (when something major happens). The fact is that this blog alone had outgrown its shared hosting by an large margin since I did start this blog over one year ago.

I hope that you all enjoy better experience with this new web hosting that I now have. Since it makes the web site load faster and be more smooth then it used to be. I want to thank you all for the patience when this host transfer took place.

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Moving to a new host

This blog is moving to a new and bigger host in the next 24 hours. Please be aware that this might mean some loss of comments if you leave a comment between transfers. The total length of this progress should take around 24 hours from from start to finish.

This is going to increase the loading speed of this web page and handle better in high traffic (when something happens).

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Website news for December 2011

Here are the website news for December 2011.

Name change for the blog in the beginning of January 2012

Since I now cover Spain and Canary Islands. A name change is needed for this blog. That name change is going to take place in the beginning of January 2012. The new name is going to reflect the area that I cover daily in this blog. This change is because I plan to move to Canary Islands (hopefully) in about 10 years time or so.

Changes in advertisement setup

I am going to change the display of the Amazon ads that I have here. Since I try to have ads from most of the language areas in Europe (that Amazon supports) there are many ads and they take a lot of space following it. So instead of using large banners. I am going to replace them with smaller banners or just ads boxes. Google Adsense are going to remain in the same size however as they have been on this blog.

Donations

This blog is free, so are all the information that I put forward here (all that is from me is under CC Licence). For that reason I depend on donations to do my work properly. There is also cost of hosting, living, computer hardware that I have to pay. I am not only living on this blog. But I do have social benefits as I am born with Asperger’s syndrome. Before people start to make a stereotype out of me, I must say that this is really mild version of Asperger’s syndrome that I have. But it has its challenges on times in the people department. But as social welfare goes, it is small amount and when I start to rent apartment again and all that. It is not going to last that long over the month.

My plan also to move back to Denmark have created the situation that I am now saving as much money that I can in order to pay for the moving cost to Denmark (more details later on in this blog post). For that reason I am broke so to speak. Thanks to some great donations last month have eased that pressure somewhat. But I am also trying to save the donations up for the move to Denmark. However, it has proven to be difficult trying to save up money with all the hardware failures that I have been having during the past two months. But that should be more or less over now. I at least hope so. I have only delayed one hardware upgrade until I move to Denmark. That is on my server computer. It needs a hard drive replacement. The hard drive is dying in that computer. But because it is going to be turned off after two weeks and is going to remain offline for the next few months until I move back to Denmark. I figured that it should be in good order (at least I hope so).

During the past two months I have had to replace old hardware that was on its last hours. This has both cut into my savings and told the sad story on how I have been avoiding proper hardware maintenance due to lack of money. To this day I have already lost data (nothing that was not able to get again, for most part) due to lack of replacing old hardware. This all comes down to the reason that I have been really broke for a long time, due to lack of proper income for what I want to do. This blog and my other writer work is a way for me to get out of that cycle of problems. But I am going to work hard on that goal to get off social welfare forever. Since I have grown tired of being poor and not to live my life as I want.

I also want to let people know that with growing geophone network the cost of running such network is going to increase. For the long time now I have been able to have that cost close to zero. But I am not sure for how long I can run it close to cost free. For at least one new geophone station that I am planning and hoping to get up and running in the new year I am going to have to buy a mobile modem (GSM/3G) and subscription (around €10 an month) so I can get data from it. As there is no good other connections in the area. There are going to be at least two geohone network stations like that I plan in coming months.

Geophone network

In December I plan to setup and start two new geophone stations. This geophone stations are going to be located in Eyrarbakki (a small village close to SISZ). The second one is going to be located on a farm named Skeiðflöt, it is located south of Mýrdasljökull but is inside the Katla volcano system that extends a little bit to the south in that area. I am not sure when the geophone stations go up. But it is going to be sometimes after 13 December, 2011. At least I hope so. But this is the plan now and I hope that it holds.

The new geophone stations are going to increase the sensitivity from ML1.9 at Hengill volcano (from Hekla volcano geophone) down to ML0.0 (or about that). For Katla volcano. I am going to be able to record earthquakes down to ML0.0, along with tremor spikes and other stuff like that. For the moment I can barely see earthquakes down to ML1.8 in Katla volcano. Overall, this is going to give me a lot better picture on what is going on in Katla volcano, in real time also.

For the year 2012 I am planning a geophone station at my mom and dad farm. Since now there is a mobile signal that I can use. The cost layout of that would be geophone + computer (I have already bought the computer) + GSM/3G modem and the subscription with that. I am going to post more details on that when the time comes.

Volcanoforum.eu is up and running

The volcanoforum.eu is now up and running. I am still setting up and looking for bugs. But it is ready for people to start registering on it and take part in the discussions. A volcano and earthquake related sections on the forum are going to appear soon. I am not yet done fine tuning the forum. So be patient on that front. But for the most part, it should be working now without any issue at all. At least I hope so.

Moving back to Denmark

In the year 2012 I am going to move back to Denmark. For the moment I am collecting all my money (that I can spare) for the apartment costs, moving cost and all that needs to be paid when I move between countries. I also plan to buy me a new television when I move to Denmark. So I am also collecting for that. For this reason, I am a bit depended on donations for the moment. I not sure yet when I move back to Denmark. But the search for the apartment starts in the early months of the new year of 2012.

Because of that. I do not have any apartment in Iceland and after December I am not going to have any good internet connection. For that reason my main computers are going to be turned off until I can move back to Denmark. This is going to limit me a little bit on what I can work on. But I am going the best I can with this. At least I have my laptop to work on (I should not fail, I hope anyway).

School is finished

I am now finished with school. All that is left are two tests. After that I move from the dorm where I have been living for the past few months. When that is over I move back to my mom and dad until I can get a apartment in Denmark. This all takes few months from start to finish. I do not think that there is anything else to say in this monthly web site news about this blog.

If there is something that I forgot. I am just going to add it later in a update to this blog post.

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Iceland, Canary Island and Spain volcano and earthquake forum announcement

I was going to announce this for December. But things often change faster then I had planned. But sometimes it is just important to make the jump, as I did originally with this blog. Over the past year the traffic increase on this blog has been large. Way larger then I did expect when I did start this blog. With this type of growth there is a need for different ways to deal with all manners of issues.

No subscription for this blog and forum planned forever

It is my firm believe that science should be free for betterment of mankind everywhere. For that reason I am not going to change this blog into subscription forum. I also believe that access to science data should be free and open to all. As that encourages progress and new ideas. While that I can only do that here and nowhere else, so be it.

Because of this policy I am going to survive on nothing else then donations of good people and advertisements. But after a long consideration I find that to be a better option then a subscription plan for this place.

The forum is on different domain

I am going to have the forum on a different domain that I have already bought (it is not yet active. I am waiting for that now). The reason for this is to prevent confusion between the two. But they are going to be hosted on the same server anyway. But if the forum grows like this blog. I am going to start buying bigger hosting package, as this one is already getting too small when the traffic is at its highest. But with that comes increased hosting cost. This forum is going to support live chat for up to 50 users at the same time. I am going to be using Invasion Power board for this task.

I am going add the domain name here once it becomes active and when I finish setting the forum up properly. It is going to take 1 to 2 days until it is all up and ready.

name-of-the-forum-domain-is-going-to-be-placed-here.eu (it is a .eu domain)

Cost of the forum + domain

The cost of the domain was $15.99 for one year and 179.99$ for the forum for 6 month licence (upgrades). A renewed licence costs $25 every 6 months (I might take it, since updates are important for security of the forum).

Why forum ?

The reason for the forum is simple. There is a need for it. As this blog grows there are dull times that people like to chat about other things then just volcanoes and earthquakes. This blog has limited space for that due to its nature (its a blog). A forum is a way better for that type of chat. This also gives people chance to share pictures, charts and other things more easy then on this blog. The forum is however fully integrated part of this blog, even if it is on a different domain.

It is going to take some to fully set-up and work on. But one thing is clear is that a forum needs a different strategy then a blog. So I am going have to add some moderators to it with time along with Administrators as the time goes on. But it is going to take time and work as everything else.

Thank you all for the patience in this matter. I also want to thank everyone for the support and understanding in all this.

Update 1: Even if I open up forum. This blog is not going anywhere. If you think that, you are wrong. This blog is not going to be part of the forum. But it is going to be part of the same whole thing. But the blog and forum are going to be separated in therms of what is going to be discussed.

I find that some people are to are to quick to judge this. Since the forum has not even opened up yet. But I know from other large web sites that this works and it seems to work well for them.

Blog post updated at 19:46 UTC on 13 November, 2011