Our server is undergoing some thorough testing at the moment to diagnose the stability issue. This will result in downtime occasionally while things are fixed and unplugged.
We’ve not had great periods of uptime since we moved due to a bug, the aim is to get this fixed now to provide us with the months/years of uptime that we should be getting without issue.
I’ll update more as and when I know more.
Update May 3rd: We have had the hardware completely rebuilt and the server is being checked by technicians today to locate the source of the problem and diagnose if it is hardware or software. As soon as there is an update I’ll post more news. Apologies for the downtime folks it is a pain for all concerned but we are currently reliant on the datacentre technicians to sort out the glitch.
May 2nd: It appears that there’s been a recent bad shipment of hard drives from a certain manufacturer and we’ve had two new models installed in our server from the start. These are due to be replaced tonight which should fix the random downtime periods we have experienced over the past few days and bring us back to the 100% uptime that we are aiming for.
The forums are now back thanks to the efforts of the upgrading technicians and the people that wrote the forum software. Things have been massively upgraded so will look completely different. There’s loads for us to do still however the gallery and forum section are live for registered users.
Please have a look and check things out for yourself. Any issues, please leave them in the usual site error section in the forums.
You are on our new server, we’re currently working on upgrading the site as we go. Things won’t work and will gradually kick in and be fixed one by one. As mentioned there’s a lot to do. I’m currently getting our news page back to a familiar look, but I have a bit to do 
At present the forums are offline. The data is safe but the forum techs need to work a bit more before it goes live. They should be returning to have a look at the forums at around 0200GMT. We’re getting there gradually. Sorry it’s been slow but we will get there.
Update 04/04/2010 2107hrs GMT: The forums are upgraded and the software company are busy working out a glitch in the latest version of the forum software and the current mysql version. When there’s more news I’ll let you folks know.
Update 05/04/2010: Invision (the company that make for forum software) are now looking at things to see why the upgrade hasn’t worked.
We’re moving the domain name over this weekend. Unfortunately being Easter weekend out domain registration firm are not able to process the update until Monday (apparently UK tech support go home at weekends).
Our new engine has been upgraded and the forum are just being sorted now. I’ve pointed the old server to the new one so some people may get the new front page popping up (it is slightly different). It depends on what hosting firm etc you use.
As soon as things have pointed across the forums will be poked a couple more time and then reopened to the masses! 
(apologies for the delay).
I won’t give an ETA as no doubt it’ll be wrong whatever I give. It may be sooner or may be later. The Uber techs are being careful in their work as there’s a lot of data and upgrades to mess around with.
Update: If you are seeing this this is the new server. Apologies for any irregularities etc, we are working on getting the site on new software looking like the old one. As soon as the techs get the new database running on the forums we’ll reopen it.
We are now progressing to moving all our data to a new server and updating our service for everyone. So that everyone is aware this will mean some downtime while the data is copied over and the site software is all upgraded/updated.
The projected timeline is as follows:
There’s a whole heap to do in the new move as we are having a 3 year old software set upgraded. The server core software, the hosting software on top of that and the site code on top of that will all be upgraded and updated.
This will mean (fingers crossed) that we have a much faster and efficient setup, set to expand and support the demands of the ever increasing traffic.
News posts: News posts will be added to the server up until everything is locked for backup (the site will be viewable as normal but we won’t update anything). We will then wait for the backup to complete and afterwards continue to update news on the old server and the service posts to let you know how the update is going.
Send in your news as usual to us, we’ll work on what we can when we can at the usual fast pace.
Forums: Forums will only be unlocked once the new server is up and running. Otherwise any posts made will be lost after the move (we can copy news posts over).
Stay tuned for updates folks!
We have a heap of upgrades planned so I’m afraid there may be some bumpy connections to the server over this week. We have a lot of data to copy backup and move around in preparation for some serious upgrades that are long overdue on here.
There may be periods of slower than usual performance while this happens. Apologies but we’re doing quite a lot in the background. I’ll post updates as and when I can during this period.
I’ll post up and give some warning as I’ll have to lock the forums from posting at some point this week so that we can move the forum data live to the new setup.
The end result should be a refreshed site, faster service to everyone and a cleaner site and look.
Update 25/03/2010: Latest mysql dump taken (service taken offline briefly to obtain copy). Last leg of remote backups carrying on at present.
Random post time… It’s interesting what you spot when you’re watching a drama in HD on the TV. The BBC recently aired The Day of the Triffids, a rework of the John Wyndham book.
I thought it’d be worth a quick “seen on the telly” post to point out the Madbull AGX Launcher and other assorted props from a familiar source that appeared throughout the second episode; it’s also a pretty decent drama if you’ve not had a chance to see it. You can grab the episodes on BBC iPlayer here if you are in the UK. If you’re outside the UK IP address range and were looking to watch it then I’m sure a quick search on a somewhere like IsoHunt.com might help…
The production is a two part post-apocalyptic drama based on the original book and stars Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson, Eddie Izzard, Jason Priestley and Brian Cox. The world’s population is blind (well most of them) and there’s large man eating plants out and about.
Strangely in a country where firearms are comparatively rare everyone gets tooled up in a matter of minutes… I’d have gone for some cans of Round Up at the local hardware store myself. ;)
Well it’s 2010, Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to the coming year and thoroughly enjoyed the last.
Thanks go out to everyone that makes this site what it is, and enjoy the bank holiday! ;)
Apologies but the server has had a bad morning for some reason. We’ve asked the hosting firm to take a quick look as it appears that the regular backup process was stalling the site. Hopefully we should be back to speed in a few minutes or so. Enjoy the bank holiday!
Update: things are back to normal but we are going to have to monitor the backup system to prevent spikes like this in the future.
Mug? Ah yes sorry I should probably expand upon that. Do you feel the need to drink beverages tactically? Does a mug with rails interest you? Have you got 300USD that you really want to burn? You do? Do you own a Hummer H1 (or a ex military spec Humvee) by any chance? Excellent…
Ladies and gents your attention is brought to Battle-Mug (and here) which was kindly pointed out by the chaps in the forums.
As far as I see the carry handle is not included in the price. Although for the price you do get a tactical item to carry your brew in complete with a funky “self defence” shaped base, you know in case someone comes at you when you are drinking your eggnog latte…
I’m lucky enough to have a SOCOMGEAR M9A1 SOF here to test and take some shots of (thanks Simon!).
Once again (for those that missed it) here’s the manufacturer’s specs for the M9A1 SOF:
Features:
Specifications:
Here’s a bunch of photos of the new GBB (I’ve not had a chance to use it outside as it is so darn cold here at the moment). Out of the box the level of detail and finish is impressive. The logos and lines are clean and well cut. I’ve taken some close-ups so you can see how well it has been built.
The fit and finish is what you’d expect and the logos and paint is up to a good standard.
Personally I love the finish and colours, however as you can see in a few shots the downside of a tan finish is that you will get some transfer of paint on the lighter areas such as where the magazine fits and on the slide areas.
This is one heavy pistol coming in at 825g for the pistol itself and 255g for the magazine. That’s a combined weight of 1080g in the holster. Whilst it may seem like a lot, the real M9 clocks in just over 1kg fully loaded so we’re not far off in realism here.
For those of you interested in what the guts look like here’s a few photos.
As you can see from the outer barrel shroud area the parts are painted rather than anodised.
The SOCOMGEAR M9 is compatible with TM parts so I’m told, however I don’t have a TM M9 here to strip and compare at this moment. The magazines should certainly be compatible as with WE magazines. Seeing as WE have just launched the CO2 M9 magazine I can see I may have some fun with this one at the next local game! I’ll get some range and accuracy details up at that point.
SOCOMGEAR’s products continue to impress and the M9A1 is a great addition to anyone’s SOF/operator load out.
I thought a quick update would be suitable after my first game in er… many years? First up to thank First and Only Airsoft for a great day’s gaming and secondly to the Bamako Bampots as the event today at The Mall was an organised charity event.
All proceeds from the event have gone to their charitable outlets. For those that don’t know, First and Only Airsoft have an urban site in the centre of Reading called The Mall. There’s a car park, and if you’re a public transport fan the bus terminal and railway station are minutes away on foot (slightly longer if you carry big arse bags of kit like me). It’s a great site, run by people in the know, ran amazingly well with all mod cons available (hot bogs, brews and charging facilities.. who needs anything else?).
Now the important bit.. Steve and the Bamako Bampots and the Wear the Fox Hat raffle. What’s it all about? Here’s a bit of blurb from their site:
We are a UK registered charity whose mission is to help communities help themselves. By providing emergency vehicles, medical equipment and funding for local personnel we help deliver critical immunisation programs aimed at reducing the infant mortality and increasing the adult life expectancy beyond the current 38 yrs.
Working with Rotary Internation[al] we contacted the Mayor of Bamako. The Mayor was thankful for any aid we could provide and specifically requested any medical aid and ambulances to be used in the Kalaban Coro area of Mail.
We resolved to provide them with two fully functional and equipped ambulances suitable for harsh African environment where they will be used to provide emergency aid to 49,000 people currently residing in the 220sq km area of Kalaban Coro currently without any vehicular or emergency aid.
For more on the work of Bamako Bampots visit www.bamakobampots.org to see the amazing work we are doing.
Raffle tickets are a fiver, and by entering you get a chance to win one of the donated items up for grabs including a Paul Piper minigun. The draw will take place on the 24th of December or sooner if all the tickets are sold. The funds all go to a good cause and you stand a chance of winning some decent Airsoft kit.
So rather than buying a handful of pyros or some extra gas and BBs at your next game please buy a ticket. It’s all for a good cause! If you’re a company and looking to make a charitable write off of some form this year then give do give them a shout.
Oh and please don’t forget Frag Photos. If Frag Photos take photos at your event they’ll appear online at http://www.fragphotos.com, where you can buy individual photos for 5p each (subscriptions are also available). All proceeds go to charity. At the moment there’s shots up there from Elite Action Games, First and Only Airsoft TA Events, South West Wargames and Bamako Bampots.
We are currently having some upgrades done to the server at this time. Do bear with us, there are likely to be small outages tonight whilst this is done.
Apologies for any inconvenience, however we are experiencing higher traffic levels lately and need to do some upgrades that are overdue.
Please be aware that should the forums become overloaded you should receive a message rather than a blank screen from now on. I’m working on curing the cause of the loading now, however this should keep things stable.
I’ll update on here with the latest information as it is available.
Update (in early AM of 12/12): well unfortunately the update didn’t take and left us with the latest PHP and SQL but SQL couldn’t be seen by PHP. End result we’ve rolled back to what we were running. We are going to schedule a complete upgrade probably next week. That’ll involve a new rack and moving all our data across onto the new box, then upgrading the news and forums. It won’t be smooth, this stuff never is, but it’ll mean more room and space. More importantly.. more pooooooower (like Clarkson would say).
Here’s some new videos that have appeared on YouTube in the past 24hours in my subscriptions:
New Videos from militaryblogjp
New Videos from RedwolfAirsoft
New Videos from echo1usa
I would have added the AATV video, but we’ve already covered that in a previous post.