Author: Mark Watts

Nerdy type who enjoys mathematics, computer programming and web programming (including this site). Avid collector of degrees. Other interests are music, especially opera and choral, cryptic crosswords (only The Times Quick Cryptic, not the 15X15), sailing, skiing (cross country and downhill), hiking and biking. Used to also love running until poor knees let me down.

Skiing, Champery, Jan 17, 2018

First annual Dave Knewstubb ski outing

First downhill trip of the season. Not the best weather forecast so only Mervyn and Mark. Initialy looked like there may be no skiing but the lifts opened just after this photo.

Then interesting skiing with initially lousy visibility but gradually getting better. Great powder and a fabulous lunch. Then had to put chains on to get out of Champery.

The GIN ski group was first introduced to this area by Dave Knewstubb so we have named this event the first annual Dave Knewstubb ski outing. Already looking forward to the second.

Opportunity for Welsh members

Walking Morges, Dec 12, 2017

It had rained/snowed for 4 days without any respite. That did not stop 4 brave Walking Group members from tramping along the Morges lakefront on 12 December, observing local birdlife and absorbing Ian Cappin’s most interesting stories about some of the old and newer local properties facing Lac Leman. We may have influenced the weather, as the rain soon stopped. Thereafter, we repaired to the Morges Tennis Club Restaurant, were joined by 2 other group members and enjoyed an excellent plat du jour. Fortunately, we had pre-booked a table in this extremely popular location.

Several group members have already proposed a range of walks to be taken after this dreary winter has passed. Active group membership is open to anyone in GIN, so perhaps we may expect large groups to share in our basically “flat” walks and wide-ranging chats during the coming year.

Alan  Baker (Walking Group Coordinator).

Bike ride, Tuesday October 17, 2017

Fine weather saw Steve, Peter D and myself start from Arnex and wend our way up via Borex to Cheserex, Gingins, Givrins, Genolier, Bassins, Le Vaud, Burtigny and up and over to Gimel, returning back down the Routes des Vins : Tartegnin etc. with the essential lunch at Gilly (set menu chf 23) outside in the sunshine on the terrace. Returning via Signy. Wonderful colours, warm with a touch of damp on the higher shaded forest roads. Memorable.

Great ride and lunch. Steve did well, considering his lack of practice. Peter D was uncatchable out front.

Hike, Les Rochers de Naye

Hi .. looks like we will 8 for friday.

I suggest that I , Peter D , Peter T (if confirmed ) , Mark and David meet at Peter D’s at 07:30 … take 2 cars and pick up the others en route … then rdv at the motorway service station in Gland before proceeding in convoy to Caux.

.. there is a restaurant at the top and the possibility of a train ride down.
Glion (1000) – Dent de Jaman – Rochers de Naye (2000) – 10 km

Testing plan for conversion to WordPress

This is the plan I outlined in today’s email. As I said then, the reality will probably be very different.

  1. I install WordPress with links to the existing website
  2. You check that you can still access the site and get to the calendar plus the member information. You should still need to use gin-fizz to see the member information. Please check. Also confirm that there is a small link at bottom right of the front page, under ‘META’, entitled ‘Log in’. You will not be able to use this link at present.
  3. I enter your email addresses into WordPress and set you all up as ‘subscribers’. The system should send you an email. Not sure whether it creates and sends a default password. We’ll find out.
  4. You let me know how it has handled passwords. Somehow you should be asked to enter your own password. Then Log in. Your browser should remember the login details so you don’t need to enter this every time in future.
  5. You should see the WordPress dashboard. There will be a menu on the left. Chose ‘Users’ / ‘All Users’. Confirm that you can see your name, with role of ‘subscriber’, and none other. If you have another email address, try changing it and see what happens – how do you now log in? You should be able to change this by clicking on ‘Your Profile’ in the menu on the left. But make sure that you change the email address back after this testing since that’s currently the link to the stuff in the existing website. Now click ‘Users’ / ‘Users Extended’ and try changing Home phone, Mobile phone or address. Again you will probably want to change them back after testing you can change them.
  6. You may also want to try forgetting your password on logging in to see how WordPress handles this.
  7. That should have completed the subscriber testing.
  8. I now set you all up as ‘authors’. I believe you will receive another email from WordPress to advise of this status change, you may need to reset your passwords, I’m not sure. Let me know.
  9. Log in again and click ‘Posts’ / ‘Add New’. Try entering a post and see what happens. Select a category for the post, I will set up a list of categories which are just our activities. At any time you can see the results of what you’ve entered by clicking on ‘Gentlemen in Nyon’ in the top bar. Then click on ‘Edit Page’ to get back to the editor. Creating a post may seem a bit daunting at first but I’ll provide some guidelines when we get to that part. The important part is to remember to click ‘Publish’. You will be able to include photos etc in the posts. I would also like you to test changing a post you have created. You should be able to view, but not change, all posts created by others.
  10. I’ll later provide links so that you can change what activities you subscribe to and also so that you can enter your own calendar entries – and edit those you’ve created.
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