Gremlin Gripes

Posted on 27th September 2024 by IanP

If you have looked at flightsim.to recently, you’ll have seen that I have updated HMS Tern/ RNAS Twatt to fix a couple of problems and reesolve some of the changes required from the recently MSFS UK and Ireland World Update.

Unfortunately, I can’t get into the back end of the website to upload it here at this point in time. It – and the other files that need updated – are still intended to be uploaded via here. In the interim, however, they can be downloaded here: https://flightsim.to/profile/Amarillon/uploads.

As soon as the Gremlin in the security system has been vanquished with a can of digital WD40 and a pointy screwdriver, I’ll put them here, as well.

Blimey. It’s a post.

Posted on 5th April 2023 by IanP

Right. You might have seen the Tweet, you might not, but this place is now showing no red alerts and no yellow “issues” again on the dashboard panels. That took some minor fiddling in the background to achieve.

Apologies for the new Cookie Permissions / Personal Data bar – as if trying to keep track of US and EU law wasn’t hard enough, a couple of US states have decided that if I want to exist, I have to obey their law as well, or else. It just means you need to accept a new pop-up. Sorry.

Now I guess that I can go back to trying to convert my entire objects library to PBR-like materials for MSFS, which is what I’ve been doing. 140 down, far too many more to go.

Minor Oops. No Significant Injuries.

Posted on 27th February 2021 by IanP

Thanks to Brian for pointing out to me that I had messed up the County which is home to RAF Middle Wallop, both on here and in the readme for the scenery.

It’s actually correct in the scenery itself, as I know full well that Middle Wallop is in Hampshire, not Surrey. Fixed it on the website and updated the readme file – that correction will roll out with the next scenery update (which means I need to do one now).

Sorry about that!

3rd Time Lucky?

Posted on 18th October 2020 by IanP

I guess, with one scenery pretty much done and another one on the back burner simmering away and awaiting some custom models, I should ask the question again…

…does anyone even care whether I do them or not any more and, if so, for which sim should they be compiled? 😉

70 Green ticks, No red crosses.

Posted on 23rd May 2019 by IanP

So. Finally. No more false positives. No more battling AV companies over the fact that they (read: Bitdefender) are reporting something to be present when it never was…

https://www.virustotal.com/#/url/1ab88755c13a056e01f314f13b0182b41390fd4d294dcdf5997eb05ca766ee80/detection

Can I go back to releasing scenery now, pretty please?

Nope. It’s a Bitsillythis.

Posted on 22nd May 2019 by IanP

OK. So. Apparently every single service that can scan a website says that mine is clean… Except Bitdefender. Only Bitdefender.

https://www.virustotal.com/#/url/1ab88755c13a056e01f314f13b0182b41390fd4d294dcdf5997eb05ca766ee80/detection

I’ve reported it to them and their automated system says they’ll do ‘something’ within the next 72 hours. Guess we wait and see what that is…

Problem solved?

Posted on 22nd May 2019 by IanP

So, yesterday, this entire site, the mail server and everything else did a quick hop, skip and jump from its home on a piece of very old hardware to a shiny new(er) server, giving much more control over what can and can’t happen – including the fact that it now has its own, personal, not shared in the slightest, SSL certificate. No more “Not Secure” logo at the top left of you browser window. No more warnings about “invalid certificates and messages that I’m trying to “steal your information” (that you shouldn’t be trying to enter anyway…)

Just need to test it against Bitdefender now, then maybe I can release the other scenery I have waiting to go?

Going Nowhere, Slowly.

Posted on 15th January 201915th January 2019 by IanP

So, after a lot of poking, prodding, cajoling and peeking, it appears that ALL the internal WordPress links are already relative, rather than full, links. As a result, it appears that there’s nothing I can do to actually fix this problem. I’m passing it on to local Tech Support (also known as “Mrs. P”) to contact the domain host and ask them to remove the bleeping redirect. I don’t need this site to be SSL and their implementation of the certificate has caused hours of problems for absolutely no benefit whatsoever.

Net result: FAIL.

So I did this.

And this.

Yes, I’m aware that the field boundaries and roads don’t quite line up… I had a choice between making the airfield remains match the historical photograph or making the surrounding area match the historical photograph, so I went for the airfield option. If you take off the old photo, the airfield sits perfectly on the modern day imagery beneath it. Lens effect maybe? Not sure. Whatever. I now need to try and find a Aerodrome Reference Plan or something to place all the buildings, because while they are clearly visible on the old photo, they’re far from identifiable on it, unfortunately.

Or I could just guess!

Found the answer…

Posted on 8th January 20198th January 2019 by IanP

“Please also note that you must link to images and files on your website using a relative link e.g. images/test.jpg rather than using an absolute link e.g. https://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/images/test.jpg. Using the latter will result in a security warning. “

You don’t say, webhost. You could also have asked me if I wanted this before just doing it, perhaps?

Where’s the “uncontrollable sobbing” emoticon when you need it? If anyone needs me, I’ll be deep in the innards of WordPress trying to convert every URL anywhere in my posting and page creation history. Or sitting in an even darker corner(tm!), rocking gently and hugging a Build-a-Bear borrowed from Youngest P.

Transparency Solidified

Posted on 7th January 20197th January 2019 by IanP

OK, so it may not look that pretty, but I’ve solved the unreadable menus problem, using the “Additional CSS” tab, significant amounts of poking and prodding, plus a lot of scrolling through lists of colour names that browsers will recognise and display, then trial and error to find a combination that works.

Next up? Trying to fix the fact that certain AV programs still keep giving a “fail safe” false positive and insisting that my website is unsafe. I do actually have scenery to publish, but I have to get the site working, first!

Ian P's Dark Corner

Category: Site News