Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

Tags: bugs, csi wii, fck, lj_cares, lj_photophile, notes, rte, writer's block

http://www.solidarnost.org/article_new.php?issue=306§ion=159&article=6506

Цитата:

Вирус идиотизма передается бесконтактно: словами, статьями и видеосюжетами. Самые распространенные способы передачи вируса: телевизор, радио и телефон. Единственный барьер, который может оказать сопротивление распространению вируса, - языковой барьер. Но вирус преодолевает его с помощью переводчиков-разносчиков и вскоре охватывает следующее государство.
Прививок от идиотизма не существует. Иммунитет не вырабатывается, а лишь ослабляется. Переболев идиотизмом в одном сезоне, человек заболеет им в следующем сезоне уже с гораздо большей вероятностью. Люди старшего поколения, болевшие идиотизмом всю свою жизнь в СССР, продолжают им болеть сегодня гораздо чаще молодых.

Эффективных лекарств от идиотизма не существует. В аптеках можно найти огромное количество импортных и отечественных препаратов, примочек и биодобавок, но все они предназначены для идиотизма, а не против него. Это существенно. Любое лекарственное средство, которое отпускается без рецепта и имеет высокую цену, лишь усугубляет заболевание, начиная с момента покупки.

Вирусом идиотизма болеют все слои населения. Малообеспеченные - от безысходности, средний класс - за компанию, руководящая элита - с целью получения грантов и увеличения собственного рейтинга.

(...)

Давайте посмотрим, как это нам преподносится. Вот мы видим страшные сообщения: “Согласно оперативным данным Минздрава Украины, по состоянию на 4 ноября в стране зафиксированы более 478 тыс. больных гриппом и ОРВИ. Госпитализированы больше 24 тыс. человек. В результате эпидемии умер уже 81 человек”. Эта новость преподносится в СМИ как неслыханный свиной апокалипсис страны оранжевого сала.

И нам уже страшно, потому что люди-то умерли. И их, конечно, жалко. Но мы включаем мозг. Включаем мозг и берем в руку калькулятор. Калькулятором пользоваться умеем хоть немножко? Рассчитываем процент летальности вируса: 100 / 487 000 * 81 = 0,016%

Получили вот такое любопытное число. Осталось понять, много это или мало. Как это оценить? Видимо, нужно найти норму. Какова норма для обычного сезонного гриппа? Вы знаете эту норму? Я не знаю пока. Так давайте вместе поищем. Интернетом пользоваться умеем хоть немножко?

Читаем на сайте ВОЗ: “При всей трудности оценки предполагается, что во время ежегодных эпидемий гриппа во всем мире происходит от 3 до 5 млн тяжелых случаев заболевания и от 250 тыс. до 500 тыс. смертельных исходов”. Вычисляем: 100 / 5 000 000 * 500 000 = 10%? Ужас-ужас. Как это понимать? Ах да, там речь шла про совсем тяжелые случаи - видимо, которые с госпитализацией. Хорошо, пересчитаем летальность украинского вируса по госпитализированным: 100 / 24 000 * 81 = 0,34%. Как-то получается совсем не смертельный грипп на Украине, верно? Ладно, допустим, на сайте Всемирной организации здравоохранения данные неправильные или мы их поняли неверно. Смотрим в Википедии статьи про летальность гриппа: “Летальность при испанском гриппе (это ссылка на статьи о гриппе 1918 года) составляет более 2,5%, около 0,1% при азиатском и гонконгском гриппах”.

Ясно? А на Украине, напомним, летальность 0,016% - это не я придумал, это по вашей же статистике, которую вы нам с таким ужасом преподнесли в надежде, что у нас не найдется калькулятора. Вы хотите сказать, что на Украине бушует небывало смертельная эпидемия? Тогда либо придумайте страшилку покруче, либо цифры другие публикуйте.

Конец цитаты

Tags: Леонид Каганов, здоровье, образование, общество, сатира, юмор

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

Tags: flash fiction, sixwordstories

dailyfoodie
Delicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian.

Tags: dailyfoodie, food, photography

20 лет со дня падения Берлинской стены.

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Tags: csi, photos of the week, postcards, rss, spam, writer's block

http://www.moskva.fm/share/2104/20091103/fromtime:15:00:05

aiyatheydidnt
The Chinese version of ONTD, AIYA is a dynamic international community that welcomes users who share a love of contemporary Chinese pop culture. Dedicated to celebrity gossip and entertainment news, you'll enjoy gorgeous photos and breaking stories featuring the glitterati of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Tags: aiyatheydidnt, chinese entertaining, chinese pop culture

wendylady2
Designed to rescue fashion victims everywhere, this Brit-based community reads like a rag-ezine. Published once or twice weekly, you'll view bizarre highlights of the global fashion scene through captivating photos and delightfully snarky editorial. Sit tight for a virtual fashion tour from the runways of New York to Milan to Paris and back home again to London in homage to the adage: you can't buy good taste.

Tags: fashion, gossip, wendylady2