Neowin Site Announcements

Board stats for AUG/SEP/OCT 2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:24:31 -0500

Board Stats for the past 3 months
OCT '09: 1,715 registrations, 5,692 new topics, 68,824 replies, 2,574 PM's sent and 2,166,201 topic views.
SEP '09: 1,246 registrations, 5,080 new topics, 64,237 replies, 2,056 PM's sent and 2,198,670 topic views.
AUG '09: 1,424 registrations, 6,672 new topics, 76,996 replies, 8,759 PM's sent and 3,382,188 topic views.

Pretty much up and down with August standing out well as a good month, well done people!

PS: I'll try to be more frequent again

Chris Carera joins the news team

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:10:53 -0500

Chris has also joined the news staff today. His forum name is RenaissanceMan

Welcome aboard Chris.

Kevin Phllips joins the news team

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:24:54 -0500

Please welcome Kevin. You may know him as Kletheron on the forums.

Kevin owns a software development company, and also does freelance application development and support.

New server ordered

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:47:20 -0500

This is just a heads up that we have ordered another new server to replace the original (single) dedicated server we first bought in Feb 2005 (which is now dying).

Currently we have:
Server 1 - Main SQL (And email ever since the dev server died)
Server 2 - Dev server and uploads (server 3 was running out of disk space) <- this one will be removed from the mix
Server 3 - MySQL backup, Sphinx(search), IRC, Services (will be integrated with ignition), Staff folders
Server 4 - Apache
Server 5 - Apache

New server plan:
Server 1 - Main SQL 1 <- this was added last year
Server 2 - Main SQL 2 <- this will be the new server
Server 3 - Search, IRC, Staff Folders & Dev
Server 4 - Apache
Server 5 - Apache

This comes with our continuing commitment to offer streamlined service and strive for 100% uptime, and give back to the community a portion of our ad revenue to better services here.

The estimated structure change will most likely take place in December, and possibly coincide with the site upgrade to a completely new news content management system and upgrade to IPB3.

The new server is a Poweredge r300 Quad Core Xeon L5410 Processor2x6M Cache, 2.33GHz, 1333MHz FSB, which is the same as the server we bought last year.
Forgot to mention that we've increased the stock 16GB to 24GB RAM and we've ordered larger disks (not sure how big).

[Feedback requested] Atlas take two, who likes black?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:14:55 -0500

We're still tweaking stuff, ignore the "staff bar" at the top.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=243056 http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=243058

Antaris added to Moderator Group

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:45:32 -0500

Please join us in welcoming Antaris to the moderator group at Neowin. He has been a great member as well as a MVC and his mature attitude and willingness to help makes him ideal for this position. Congrats Antaris and well done !

Now Hiring: Neowin Writers

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:42:35 -0500

This autumn, Neowin has several news poster positions available. If you have a passion for writing informative and inspiring news articles, Neowin might be the right place for you.

What are our expectations?

Be active: We require no less than 4 articles a week, but the more the better. We pay our writers per original article depending on the comments/hits. This won't replace your full time job, but is an easy way to earn extra cash for an MP3 player or copy of Windows 7.
We expect all articles to be originally written, we have strict guidelines for approvals. You must be proficient in English and grammar. We understand no one is perfect, but we do have high standards in order for a post to be approved on the main page.
You need to be able to bite your tongue when negative criticism occurs. It happens from time to time, but remember you represent Neowin on and off this site.
Although not mandatory, living near a convention/tech hotspot such as LA, Seattle, New York, or Tokyo would be a plus.

We do not assign people to different areas unlike other established news sources. Our writers will write from a variety of different categories.

Here's a general idea of what we cover here at Neowin:

Microsoft
Apple
Linux
Gaming
Software
Hardware
Gadgets
Mobile Devices
Editorials & Reviews
And anything else that's related to technology

If you feel you have what it takes to be a news reporter here at Neowin please send an application with the following:

Your forum name (if applicable)
Your full name
Your location
Your previous blog you have wrote for, paid or unpaid (If applicable)
A sample of your writing, preferably an article with at least 220 words

All applications should be sent to editors@neowin.net. Please note that due to the volume of applications we receive, we may not be able to reply to you instantly. Please give us at least a week to reply to you.

Thanks and Good luck!

A Humble Request From The Mod Squad.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:53:50 -0400

Hi Folks..

Minifig here.

If you get a strange log on prompt from -ANY- users signature or on any forum pages, please do not follow through with typing in your user name and password.

As such, the Mod Squad has asked the offending site (which will not be named) to be added to filters for automatic URL parsing and filtering, meaning if you use it as a "photo host" or whatever, it will no longer work.

As of posting this, the Dev-Squad has heard our request and this will be implemented immediately, however, if you find any users signatures with a sign in prompt, PLEASE file a !

Thanks!

Minifig.

NeowinCAST In Depth: Mobile Broadband

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:49:56 -0400

Neowin is back with its series of In Depth podcasts, looking behind the news at recent industry developments. In this edition, recorded on October 18 2009, Rob Wright (Rob) reviews the Novatel MiFi� 2352 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot and takes a general look at the current state of mobile broadband. Rob is joined by the following special guests:

Christian Payne (aka Documentally), a Social Technologist from OurManInside.com
Ilicco Elia, Head of Consumer Mobile at Reuters
Kate Day, Telegraph Community Editor

Please note that all opinions expressed on the show are personal and not representative of the views of any organisation. Click play to listen to the show immediately or follow the appropriate links to download the current episode. Enjoy, and remember to leave your comments about the show - RSS feed to be updated soon!

Download: NeowinCAST In Depth, Episode #2 (Right click, Save As)
Subscribe: Via iTunes | Via Zune | Via RSS
Link: More info on the Novatel MiFi� 2352 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot

Would you love Neowin AdBot?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:07:28 -0400

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=240436

The above is not our final theme, it's just an example!

Our new forum design doesn't allow for any ads at all! So we have added an AdBot to place a lucritive square ad (that earns us the most money) to compensate. It would only display after the first post of a topic you create, and there would be no ads anywhere else on the forums.

This is a big change so i want to get some feedback first.

As you may or may not know, Ads pay for staff, servers, bandwidth and expansion which we have achieved at a relatively good pace since 2005 (we went from one server to the current 5 and now pay our news staff for their submisions). we also want to raise money for a server that is dying (the first server we were hosted on with Stardock in 2005 is dying).

So, would this be acceptable or do we have to look at other ways to display the 2 ads we currently serve here on the forums?