Huntsville Swing Dance Society

If you try (or have tried) to email any address @huntsvilleswingdance.org in the last week or so, you may have gotten a notice that the email was rejected. We recently set up a spam filtering service and locked down the mail server to prevent email from avoiding the spam filter. Until all ISPs up date their records, some emails may still go to the old mail server (and be rejected). If you get a rejection, simply wait a few days and try resending. You can also leave us a voicemail at our phone number 256-369-9543. Everything should be back to normal in a week or two.

Gabe

Just a minor update: We've corrected a small mistake in the website that was causing the ical feed on the calendar to display no entries. This should allow you to import the HSDS calendar of events into whatever calendar you use (google, outlook, etc). The best way to access the ical feed for the year is to visit The Yearly Calendar and click the little calendar icon in the lower left. As always, let us know at swing@huntsvilleswingdance.org.

We knew from last October that Microwave Dave and the Nukes knew how to throw down and move us on the dance floor, but it's easy to forget just how incredible a mastery of the music he has. He's like the pied piper of blues. He plays and everyone hits the floor!

We had a great turnout with a HUGE blues lesson. Tabitha and Huy put together a fantastic class for everyone and Microwave Dave moved it from the stage.

Ok, we should now be back with the full website. Even though, from the web, it seems like the site is down or up, on the back end I build HSDS servers 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Five was the one in use from Saturday to today. Nine is the one in use now. 4, 6, 7, and 8 were duds. This one should have all the content from HSDS 3 (the one we were using before last Saturday) w/o the internal errors I was getting on HSDS 5.

I think I'm going to keep server HSDS5 running as a hot spair so that, if HSDS9 goes down, I can point the domain to HSDS5 while I fix 9.

Since I had the trouble with the website this weekend, I've got a version up and running. However, I'm not happy with some of the configuration issues it has. As such, I'm going to put off posting much on the site. I'm hoping to restore the original image I took before backup to a working Amazon cloud image. If I can get that working, I will switch the HSDS site over to point to it and use this as a backup site.

In the mean time, I'm going to have to put off updating the calendar, issuing the newsletter, and updating some of the HSDS events and graphics.

I'm soooo sorry. I tried to do a regular software upgrade to the server and it crashed half way through. I've spent the entire day rebuilding on a new server. We are back up and running (though missing about a weeks' worth of content. I promise I will never patch the server the day of a dance ever again!

Gabe

We have some new additions to the HSDS family. Thats right. New speakers! Gabe and Huy both bought new speakers in the last week as well as associated paraphernalia. Gabe picked up a pair of Behringer 208D speakers as well a Behringer x1204usb mixer to power them. Huy picked up the bigger set, a pair of Behringer 212d speakers with a Behringer 1204usb mixer to run them from. They also split multiple Behringer Mics between them.

If you've ever looked at the Local Events list, you'll have noticed that some events had huge lists of the dates/times they recurred on. It's annoying and I've finally taken the time to fix it. Now, only the next four upcoming recurrences will be listed. If there are more than the four, the rule for recurrences will show as well. Hopefully this minor tweak improves people's experience on the site =). You'll still be able to see all dates by looking at the full event (click the title or the "read more" link).

--Gabe