Category: Donations

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Donations for replacement geophone hardware needed

I have been having some issues with one of my new geophone station. This is the geophone station at Skeiðflöt. That geophone station monitors the activity in Katla volcano. So if anything happens in Katla volcano. I am going to see it first and best on that geophone station. My web page with all my geophone stations can be found here.

The problem seems to be hardware (failure in the hardware), or at least hardware incompatibility over USB port. This has resulted in that Skeiðflöt geophone station is always freezing. This happens every 2 to 4 days. I have to reboot the computer to get it working again (suggesting hardware incompatibility rather then anything else). But I cannot have this geophone station working like this. As frozen station means lost data from it. I do not know why the station is failing as it is doing. But

The cost of new replacement station (that is going to be serial, not USB) is $405 (2457 DKK) at current time. I do not know what the customs duties are for this in Iceland. But I do think they are none into Denmark (EU) on this type of electronics. I am going to replace the hardware in December 2012. As then I am going to Iceland over Christmas. At the same time I hope to install backup power at Skeiðflöt geophone station. But cheap backup power (650VA/360W) costs 10950 ISK (547 DKK, 73€, $90).

At current time I cannot pay for the replacement station, even if I wanted to. For that reason I am asking for donations to help fix this issue. I have already done a lot and spent some money on this issue. But I did move Skeiðflöt geophone station to 3G connection few weeks ago in order to improve connection stability. But that had been a issue for some time, as at first the station was connected over WLAN and ADSL.

Thanks for the support!

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Donations and advertisements

As many have seen during past few weeks. I have been cutting down advertisements on this blog. The reason is simple. The ads that I am cutting down do not work. I get little pay from them. For that reason I have removed them. The only one left to remove is infolinks. But I am going to remove them soon as I get there payment threshold. But that is $50. At current time I only lack around $5 until I reach that threshold. It should be in the next few days to weeks I hope.

Donations

I do not know at current time if I keep the donations open up longer. As I do not get so much donations at current time. I wold like to hear from people on that before I remove that options completely. But at any rate. I am planning on changing the money aspect of this blog. Since current trial and error approach is not something that I want to continue in the long term.

For those how have been donating directly via bank it is important that you update your information. As I have moved to a new bank in Denmark, called Sydbank from Nordea. The new IBAN and SWIFT code can be found here, on the donation web page.

If I stop accepting donations. I am going to remove all the links. For those how I have promised a ebook for a donation. Don’t worry. I still remember my promise in that regard.

Future direction

As I say here above. I am planning a change on this blog. Not on what I cover. I have already tested that, and failed. I am rather changing how this blog can help me make a slightly better living then I am currently having. But I not expect this blog to become super-popular any time soon. So I do not know how that is going to work out in the long term. But one thing is clear. I am going to keep covering volcanoes and earthquakes in Iceland for many years to come.

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Donations for Skeiðflöt geophone station needed

I have been having issues with Skeiðflöt geophone stations for the past few months. The problems is that I use WLAN (Wireless Network) to get the data from the geophone to the internet, and soon to my main earthquake computer. However, I have been having connection issues. This is because the wireless signal where the computer is located is quite bad. The signal is only 11dB according to the planet wireless hardware that I am using, I think that is quite poor signal. I have already tried to increase the gain by sending and bigger antenna to the people how are hosting the hardware for me. But it did not work as I hoped for.

Two new AP points (one acting as a repeater for the signal) would solve this issue permanently. But they cost 529DKK (current exchange rate), €71, $93, 58GBP (+1 Ethernet cable). Currently I am moving and bit short on cash because of that, at least I want to spend the little money that I have carefully at the moment. I am not sure if I can buy this at the moment my self. I would have to check my bank account first. But any donations to help me solving this issue are welcomed.

Thanks for the help!

Moving

I am currently moving to Denmark in next few days. So updates might bit lacking or late of anything happens in Iceland because of that. I will do my best to keep this blog updated if anything happens. My laptop hard drive is dying due to old age. There nothing I can do to fix it at the moment (it costs money that I do not have).

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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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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

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Website news for November 2011

This is the first official website news for Iceland volcano and earthquake blog for November 2011. The purpose of this web site news is to tell people what is going on with me [Jón Frímann] and this web site that I run. I do not intend this to be a long blog posts unless I have to. This is going to be divide into needed sections of what is going on. I hope that have this every month from now on.

Monitoring changes for earthquakes and volcanoes

The following areas has been added to my personal monitoring system, Spain and Canary Island (part of Spain), Denmark (since February). Following areas are now part of special report system. Azores Islands, Madeira Island. But special reports cover eruptions and major earthquakes for a short time period. I also cover all major earthquakes that happen on the planet Earth. That is earthquakes that are larger then Mw8.0 in size. I have to have limit to what I cover here. As I cannot have good quality if I am cover too much. I rather want to cover less and have better quality of what I cover.

Twitter

I have added a twitter button to this web site. So links can now be shared more easy on twitter. Facebook button is so far not in the picture. As they are just too complex to setup from my point of view (they also appear to track people from what I can gather). So I won’t bother with setting up a Facebook button.

Web site traffic

It took one year to get 1 million page views. But it only took a month or so to get up to 2 million page views. Currently the page load counters stands in this number, 2,142,929 page loads. But this equals to 652,725 visits to this blog during a little bit over the year. For the earthquake pages there have been 3,057,298 page loads since that web site was started back in the year 2006. But that are 696,378 visits to that web sites since I did start it. So far the traffic does not warrant a move to dedicated server. But that might change if the traffic grows even more in the future. So I am watching out for that possibility in the future.

Geophone network

The geophones that I did order are finally in Iceland. I am going to pick them up at the post office tomorrow I hope. I hope that I can install and start both of them in December. But I am not going to have time to install then in November.

Money issues

I became debt free yesterday (finally). The last day of October 2011. But that does not change the fact that I am going to continue to be broke as I have been. Since now I have to spend my money into saving for the move to Denmark (since I was unable to have both options). I am also saving up so that I can buy a new tv, as my old tv is getting tired and bit breaking down in the tube monitor (I also find it better to look at LCD monitors, but I have poor eyesight). The total cost of moving back to Denmark and buying a new tv is estimated about 4.396,00€, 32.697,00DKK, 6.153,00$, 3.843,00GBP, but this is about 700.000 ISK that I need to save up before I can move back to Denmark. But I am saving everywhere that I can. I have placed payments from Google Adsense on hold so I can save that money. I am not getting anything from Amazon ads at this moment, so it does not matter at current time. The saving for the move to Denmark starts tomorrow. It is going to take me until June to get the money that I need to move back to Denmark. I plan to start looking for a apartment in March or maybe earlier. It is a bit unclear at the moment. But it is going to take few months to get apartment in Denmark (I think). But I am in a hurry to move from Iceland for many different reasons.

Update 1: Due to currency restrictions in Iceland I cannot save money on Google Adsense as I had hoped. As I am going to need that income to pay for bills and other things from my danish bank account. I just hope for the best in this regards.

For that reason I am going to have to relay on donations as before. At least until this annoying period in my life goes over. I do not ask for a lot. Just something to make the month in terms of expense that we all have to deal with.

Thanks for reading and the support.

Blog post updated at 13:45 UTC on 1 November, 2011.
Blog post updated at 08:52 UTC on 5 November, 2011.

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Two geophones ordered

Yesterday I did order two new geophones to expand my geophone network. I am not yet sure when they are going to be up and running. But that is going to happen soon (hopefully) after they arrive in Iceland.

I want to thank everyone how did support this effort so that I was able to buy this two new geophones. All that is left now is to get a computer for the geophone station that is going to be close to Katla volcano.

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Money needed for buying two geophones has been reached!

I just want to know that the amount needed to buy two new geophones has been reached. So far total of 7,341.86 DKK has been collected. But I needed 6,731.18 DKK to buy two geophones. This however does not cover the cost of 25,5% VAT and possible customs that I might have to pay. Update 1: I am also missing one of the PC computers that I need to run the software for the data collections from the geophones. How I solve that problem is unclear at the moment. There is a computer ready on the Eyrarbakki geophone location. As the man how is going to house the geophone and the hardware for me there is in computers and had one spare computer at least.

This thing here is just a repeat of a comment that I made earlier.
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Finally good news about my financial status.

I am going to get paid a computer job that I was working on for several weeks. That is a good amount that is going to cover my cost on moving back to Denmark. But that is why I am not going to touch that money. But given the circumstance this month I am going to give my self a loan of that money at 0% interest to cover this month and the import of the two new geophones if donations do not cover this on there own. The loan is going to get paid back into that account when I am finished paying up my debt with the bank. I hate to do this. But for the moment it is the only way that I have to make my financial work in reality. I’ve been the other path and I am still cleaning up that mess!

This still however leaves out paying up my debt in the next few months and it is clear that I cannot cut into this money that I am just earning now . As that would just leave me worse off then I already am. I don’t want that.

But at least the worries that I had about the cost of moving to Denmark are over. I am happy about that for a change.
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I want to thank everyone that donated for this. When the time comes there is a e-book about volcano in it for those how donated. Just drop me a email if you want one of the e-book when the time comes (I can register you for the future release, that is no problem). I do not yet know when I finish writing and releasing them. But I hope that is sooner then later. This also goes for people how donate directly into my Danish bank account. But you have to send me email if you do donate that way. As the bank might not let me know if I get a money that way.

Blog post updated at 15:29 UTC.

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Please donate too support me

This is a off-topic blog post.

I feel that I have made too many of this “please donate” blog posts. But my money problems are not over and I am also trying to get enough donations so that I can buy two new geophones so that I can monitor Katla volcano and Reykjanes, Reykjanes Ridge (and all the volcanoes that are on it) and also SISZ. Donations post for that can be found here. So far 4,486.82 DKK have been donated so that I can buy the geophones, so I am not far from the target of 6,731.18 DKK that I need to buy the two geophones (I do not have the customs and VAT number, since I do not have a clue what that is going to be).

However, that is not enough I feel. As I need something to survive this month. Thankfully I spend less on food as I have already paid for it with the school. But there is always something that I need to buy outside of school kitchen. Almost all of my welfare income goes into paying up the debt with the bank. That is what does not go into paying bills that needs to get paid and sending money into my Danish account, so I can pay the bills there too. Today I owe the bank around 3.346,05 Euro, 4.518,96 USD, 24.894,14 DKK (I am going too lower that amount today (3 October 2011) by a good amount.). This month I did get paid from Google Adsense amount of 1,128.77 DKK (but nothing from Amazon, not enough money for a payout). So that improves the situation a little bit for me. But that is not a lot for me too have during a month. I have some savings in my Danish account, but they are being cut by spending. That I am trying to keep in total minimum and I do not allow my self a lot these days. What is also a problem for me is the costly hardware replacement that I had go into in September. As my hard drives where failing (one failed completely) and needed a replacement.

This blog has become a big part of what I do today. When I did start this a little more then one year ago that was not the direction that I had planned for it. The original idea was too just have it like my other Icelandic blog. But this turned out differently and here I am. Working on what I want to do, writing about volcanoes and earthquakes. Alongside that I am trying too write books (not going so well at the moment, but that is up for a change) about fiction, volcanoes, earthquakes and what ever I want to write about. But until that gets going I am rather depended on the income that I get from this web page.

I am not asking for a big donations. Just a little something. Those how do not want to use Paypal too donate can get bank informations here.

So, many of my readers must be wondering when my period of being broke and in debt is going to end. My plan is too end the debt period in December 2011, or in January 2012. Until I move back to Denmark. I am going to be collecting as much money that I can. Both from a computer job that I got with fixing a computer. As I know from experience that it is a expensive too move from Iceland to Denmark. So when am I going back to Denmark. The goal is June 2012, but at no later point then in September 2012. But this depends on when I get apartment in Ringsted (the city I plan moving too in Denmark). My backup plan is too move back to Sønderborg, if Ringsted fails when it comes too getting a apartment. But that is currently a wait and see status on that for the moment. But that is all going to clear up in January 2012.

Why I am telling you all this. I want too do so. So people know 100% + 10% what they are donation for and supporting. Thanks for the support.