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!

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Curtains

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

EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

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.

My boyfriend and I have been fairly obsessed with spaetzle ever since a recent trip to Virginia, where we had the good fortune of coming across a German restaurant that served a vegetarian spaetzle dish. This was further fueled by an episode of Lidia's Italy we saw on PBS this Sunday; Lidia prepared whole wheat spaetzle, and served it with beer-braised beef and gravy. This prompted me to find myself a recipe.

( Click here to see it! )

Here's a picture of the spaetzle on their own, so you can see the nifty little guys:



We smothered it in mushroom gravy, and MAN was it tasty.



Everyone make spaetzle! Fun to say, and even more fun to eat! :o)

Last night, Katie, Bob, Ben, and I went to the Imogen Heap concert at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater. I am no longer equipped to handle standing for 5 hours "for entertainment." Man, I used to be able to stand for as long and dance in heels. I dunno whether this comes from being older, or just out of shape, or because I think I had a drop in blood sugar during the concert causing me to sway a bit. It's the sign of a diabetic not to be able to tell if lower back pain stems from lack of arch support or possible kidney failure. :P

Anyway, lesson learned: any time I procure tickets for a concert that is at a venue that potentially does not have typical stadium or theatre seating (i.e. HoB), I'm going for balcony seats.

For a pro, Imogen's show was kind of "in shambles" (her words, not mine). It started late and she kept apologizing and excusing her inability to remember lyrics by proffering the fact that it was the first night of the tour.

Not to mention that one half of the older lesbian couple that was making out near the front fainted flat on her face right near our group in the middle of the show. That was awkward, worrisome, annoying and kind of funny in a mean way all at the same time. Immi was blissfully oblivious because she misunderstood the guy who was calling out for security and started telling a story and dancing excitedly across the stage. Katie freaked out "like a frightened hamster" and ran (or squeezed her way, rather) to the back of the venue. I myself was torn between wanting to help (since I could have easily been the fainting one if my blood sugar had gotten low enough) and wanting to poke her with my foot (because she and her partner were so obnoxious earlier). It also irritated me that, after the woman regained consciousness, that she was insisting that she was fine and wanted to stay. Um, hello? You fell. FLAT ON YOUR FACE. Fortunately, security escorted her out, presumably to where she could be seen to by a nurse.

I mean, if I thought my emergency candy wasn't going to keep me upright, I would have gone against my sense of hygiene and asked someone to help me to the ladies' room, where there was a fully stocked candy bar.

Yes. There was a fully stocked candy bar in the rest room. I came out of it in a huff and met Bob and Ben in the lobby.

"Can you believe it? There is a candy bar in the bathroom!" I exclaimed incredulously.

"Yeah, isn't it awesome?" Bob replied.

"No, it's disgusting!"

Ben laughed. "I love how you two have completely polar reactions to it."

"Dude, I do not want to buy nuts anywhere near where I sh*t," I said.

To which Ben replied, "Well, I don't have that problem because my nuts are always near where I sh*t."

The show itself was alright, though. I have to say, Imogen is not exactly what I'd call photogenic, but she's very cute in real life. Ben commented that she has a way of talking like Vilmarie (that is, a stream of consciousness type banter with flying tangents and almost only to herself), which is true, not to say that it isn't also endearing.

I bet she could have tacked on at least three more songs and been done on time if she wasn't so loquacious, but she still mostly delivered. I really attended for the showy part of the show. That is, I don't care to listen to much of her recorded stuff, it was seeing her work her magic live that did it for me. Most of the other concerts I've been to have been because I really like the music, but with her it was more because I like the act.

Yeah, the songs are pleasing to the ear, but with her I feel like the magic is mostly in the making. It's like art, like a Happening, birth. I mean, the songs are already written, but the execution is so dynamic, almost organic and very alive and new. She really gets a kick out of doing it, like an alchemist, like a mad scientist.

We still skipped out before the last song and encore, though, because it was already almost midnight and while I was turning into a pumpkin, Katie, Bob, and Ben had work in the morning.

Speaking of work, I should be getting ready for that. After today, I still have a busy week ahead. Yay, weekend of wedding showers!

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.

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.

Friday night I went over to Casa Menorca for musicking with Mike and Robyn. I wish I'd learned how to sight-read when I was younger.. I'm so bad at remembering lyrics. Anyway, a little later Josh came over and we tested out PYC's Six More Weeks of Winter on Rock Band. It's pretty cool seeing a song you helped come into being play in a major video game. Plus being able to play the different parts gives me a greater appreciation for all the arranging that Mike did on the final album track. It's still pretty much my favorite track from the album, even though I think my favorite song over-all is Tug of War. If I were to go back to a place where I felt I thought we could record it again with feeling, without getting sick of it, I would prefer to do it "unplugged." I think I'd like to try it with Robyn, now that she has an acoustic bass.

Anyway, I left pretty early because Ben, Justin, and I had TVs to purchase at the Sony Employee Tent Sale the next day. We got there 45 minutes early and the tent sale itself was running late but still didn't get to buy the *exact* big screens we were hoping for. Justin wound up coming away with an open box 52" Z-series... the last of the available ones. Still a very sweet set, especially at half the MSRP. We got a 46" XBR. I was a little sad not to get the 52" XBR but only because I know this means 4 or 5 years from now, Ben and I will be up at the buttcrack of dawn waiting on another door buster.

Sunday, we visited my parents and sold them Ben's old PS3 after watching WALL-E on Blu Ray on their enormous 61" projection screen. Yes, their TV is gargantuan, but I could still appreciate the picture quality on our new Bravia. It's definitely sharper. Afterward we went and picked up the newer slim PS3.

Tonight is the Imogen Heap concert in LA... according to her Twitter she's giving it a shot despite her voice sounding "like gravel." If she happens to cancel by the time we get to Katie and Bob's, I figure we could still hit the Chik-Fil-A and have a pleasant evening. I'm looking forward to seeing Immi, but I'd rather she be healthy for the rest of her tour. And not... you know, communicate her illness.

That's all for now, folks.

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... )

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.

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.

soldiers_heart
A passionate community for veterans of all ages (mostly American), plus families, friends, and supporters. View poignant snapshots detailing life in combat and back on civilian soil in the form of original artwork, personal narratives, poetry, and photos. Be forewarned that members don't shy away from describing their disappointments, disabilities, and struggles.