dude

I have checked with the hosting provider and several readers around the world and am assured the DNS hiccups have been cured. Thanks for your patience through some anxious moments. We don't often make major changes like this (last hosting provider change was about ten years ago) and don't anticipate major trauma again until we're all into our (collective) dotage. Hint: Details coming soon on how AD plans to counter a major earthquake (reportedly coming soon) that will benefit Arizona real estate developers' beachfront home sales. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Mike Whoops... time to turn off the snow!

I still believe in Christmas miracles... and I woke up this morning to see that one more has come true! So great to see EleCivil is alive and well. Please don't leave us again , Elecivil, and continue to help us in the fight for good despite the dark turn we're about to make on January 20th! Mike

Whoa... I have NO editorial control over CodeysWorld. Nor would I ever consider deleting anything from Colin's site. As I remember, Nick James' stories were once hosted at AwesomeDude.com but I believe he was asked to leave for picking fights with other authors. Maybe it was criticism of a story like this that sparked it. I only remember that -after he left- not a single reader wrote asking where he had gone. We'll have to ask Colin about this but he's off for a couple of days with family. The only reason I posted was that I was looking for something uplifting to read on Christmas Eve and found this in CW's update. By posting I had hoped to save others from severe disappointment at what should be a joyful time of year. Since you all probably read it.. I guess I failed. Sigh Mike

This is the most depressing Christmas story I've ever read.

Merry Christmas - Happy Chanukkah & Happy New Year to all!

More Christmas Cheer!

I have no explanations except to say that DNS servers along the way update at different rates. Also different browsers handle (update) their caches in different ways. Eventually, however, they all resolve and things are normalized. First time visitors have no problems, usually, the url's are the same but are just now located at different ip addresses. They won't change for the immediate future. We've made a move and sometimes current site users browsers need to update themselves. Anyway, I want to thank Colin for his cooperation in getting the sites moved. All of the @awesomedude.com email forwarding accounts should work. Let me know if you have one that doesn't. It took me all night on Wednesday night to make the moves and Colin most of Thursday to get little bugs that appeared at AD and CW exterminated. All this during a driving rain storm in the Southern California desert. Mike

Straalen McCallum

To mark the winter solstice, AwesomeDude.com and CodeysWorld.com have moved to a new hosting facility. We are sorry if you failed to connect during the hours the DNS servers took to propagate the new information. We're now hosted on servers in Germany. We hope we'll get good results by using the very reliable servers of 1and1.com. Their customer service and technical support is excellent. We'll now move into the New Year with new servers and the Forums with its new look. Thanks for your patience over the past few weeks. Mike

And this is my favorite!

This is basically the old AD Forums color scheme. Orange, black and shades in between set for the Halloween colors ... our community's common holiday. Come on, Gee, Cole and the rest of us in Southern California who grew up elsewhere miss the snow. Turn it off? OK, the day after Christmas. As for the guys 'down undah' this is their only chance for them to have a White Christmas! Listen to AwesomeDude Radio... read the forums... enjoy the holiday season. Mike

Just another reminder to members who appear to be locked out..... use your Display Name not your old Username when you log in. Your password will work! Mike

Excellent story, complicated but fascinating! And the author's comments here are very insightful. Now that it's all posted, I hope that readers - like I will - go back and read it again! It's worth it. Mike

We've provided you with a couple of weeks of the standard Blue title bars since upgrading the AD Forums and acquiring a new theme. Which color title bar and font do you prefer? Mike

Aw, what the heck?

More Daniel?

If you're not yet a member, we invite you to register now to gain access to all of the features at AwesomeDude and CodeysWorld Forums. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to contribute to these Forums by submitting your own content or replying to existing content. You'll be able to customize your profile while also communicating with authors and other members. However, due to the proliferation of sophisticated spam bots we have suspended accepting automated registrations. To sign up and join the fun, just email us your desired Display Name to register@awesomedude.com and we'll issue you a temporary password which you can change once you have signed in. Want more info?, questions to dude@awesomedude.com Thanks, Mike

Guys, I've been monitoring this exchange. I also know from receiving story files from Cole that he sometimes uses a magnification in his version of Windows 7. I am also using about 125% magnification and all 19 buttons run across my screen with space for another 15 (if they existed). Perhaps, Cole, your browser is in less than full screen mode. When I narrow the screen using the button just to the left of the browser top right button (X) that closes the browser, I too see only ten buttons in the reply panel as the browser narrows. But when I click that button again and the screen returns to full screen mode, all 19 buttons appear. I can see only ten buttons also on my tablet while in the vertical position but when I turn it to the horizontal position, all 19 buttons appear. Try that, Cole Mike

The buttons I am looking at as I reply to your posting are (from left) a 'funny button' which is the same function as Source - Source - Font - Size - Underline symbol - background color symbol - Bold - Italics - Underline - Link - Quotes - Emoticons - Bulleted List - Numbered List - Left Align - Center Align - Right Align - Preview - Spoiler. I can add strike-through or a few other obscure buttons, but it would be harder to display on tablets and smart phones. Mike

For all members of the AwesomeDude Forums, including authors and readers, a change has taken place. When upgrading the AD Forums to IPVision 4.1 I had to choose member log-ins as either Username or Display Name. For privacy reasons, I chose Display Name as some members had used personal names as their registered Usernames. So, if you are a member and for some reason have to log in again, please log in with your Display Name instead of your old Username. Note: at log-in for members the system now asks for Display Name, NOT Username. If you use your Display Name (just as it appears on the site -including spaces) and your existing password, you should have no problem logging in. If any of our members have a problem with log-ins, including passwords (forgot yours?) I can work with you on that .. setting a temporary password which you can change in your profile settings. If you need help, or if you are a guest who wants to join up and are having problems with the system, please email me at dude@awesomedude.com. Thanks for your patience and cooperation, Hopefully, we'll have all the tweaks caught up soon - with your help - meanwhile, please keep up with Talon Rider's knowledgeable postings in the Web Wiz Forums. Mike

I've added Font and size selector boxes to the board. This is Tahoma in 12 point This is Tahoma in 14 point This is Tahoma in 16 point This is Tahoma in 18 point This is Tahoma in 24 point

Hi everyone. As you have probably noticed, the AwesomeDude & Codey's World Forums have a new look. This is because of a major software upgrade from the 3.4 to 4.1 versions of the Invision Software that powers our board on November 28th. Last week, we moved our Forums to the Invision Cloud Server to improve the platform to speed up response time and to support the new software. With the upgrade came the necessity to change the Theme (skin) of the Forums. It was decided to veer away from the old Halloween color scheme which more or less matched the AwesomeDude.com story site colors for -we hope- one that is mpre pleasant and easy to read. This color scheme will be carried over to the main site in the near future. With any online changes, the way things operate have changed a bit too. New features... of course are among them. I am opening this thread for all of us to address the changes and to tweak the board to make it work well for the majority of our users. Your input is essential to the ultimate success of process. If you are not yet a member of the site, please join up and make your opinion known. It's never been easier to join. Thanks, Mike

AwesomeDude Forums is overdue for a software upgrade. This upgrade will involve going to a new version of Invision Power Board. After the upgrade is accomplished you will see the generic version of the IPB theme. A new theme is on the way but can only be installed after the upgrade is accomplished. We ask you to be patient during this interval, which we will keep to a minimum. Your posts will remain and nothing should be lost. Thanks for your cooperation! Mike