January 25th, 2018 ~ JRG ~
2 Comments 
Update
As you can see, our Home page is now running as it should. The site is stable and hopefully you can see a small improvement in responsiveness. The latter is a small silver lining in a very dark cloud.
Anecdote
Yesterday evening we were invited over to our daughter’s for an early dinner (we got home to St. John’s two days ago). After supper and after the little ones were packed off to bed, we were chatting and my daughter asked the usual, “What are you up to?”.
Hmmm, what to say. So I explained a bit about the problem with our website (she has built a couple of websites of her own). I explained to her how with experience and knowledge of computer systems, one can often solve problems by making a couple of guesses and checking them out.
However, I said the most powerful tool I’ve ever come across for solving the problem of a system (of any kind) that has stopped working properly, is to concentrate on what has changed. This is especially true when one is convinced that nothing has changed — that will simply not be true if the system was working and stopped working.
I apply that simple strategy whenever I do problem solving. I’ve been using it while recovering this website.
When I went to bed last night, I was mulling the strategy over and realized there was one change that I made while recovering the website — because of the other problems I had wanted to post updates. Because of the other problems, when I posted a blog using my “blog site”, it didn’t show up on the Home page. So I simply posted them on the main blog site. That broke the Home page!
Fixing this was trivial. I simply removed those posts and voila, back to normal!
January 21st, 2018 ~ JRG ~
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Looks like I have the “permalinks” problem resolved. For what it is worth, it was an issue involving hosting multiple websites on one account (a technical issue that it took me longer than it should have to figure out).
I’m not quite ready to declare the website stable (there is an issue with recent blog posts showing up on the home page), but at least I now feel very close.
I’ll work on the above issue. If it starts to take too long, I’ll take time out to begin restoring the Aces on Bridge columns that so many loyal visitors enjoy so much.
…John
January 21st, 2018 ~ JRG ~
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I have enabled error logging on our hosting provider. However, it will be 24 hours before I can see any log files (I suspect they save and start a new log file once every 24 hours).
In the meanwhile, I’ll continue going over every type of configuration file and settings to see if I can spot/guess what the “permalink problem” is (it causes an “internal server error”, which gives me a small clue).
…John
March 6th, 2016 ~ JRG ~
2 Comments
Some of you are fans of Windows Live Writer, a Microsoft blogging tool. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer supports this product. However what they have done, is made the source code available under an open source license through a group called the .NET Foundation. This group have created an independent version of Windows Live Writer which they call Open Live Writer. Read the rest of this entry »
December 2nd, 2015 ~ JRG ~
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It seems I fell into the trap of talking “programmer-ese”, so I’ve re-written this post.
We recently made some programming changes to address various issues. There is a doctored picture of the bridgeblogging.com Home page below. I’m a lousy artist, but it should illustrate the two changes that have been made (discussed below the picture). Read the rest of this entry »
May 18th, 2015 ~ JRG ~
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Over the past few days, I spent some time watching the USBF Team Trials to choose USA-2. As expected, pairs bid aggressively and, in general, played and defended very well. Also, as expected, there were some disasters. Read the rest of this entry »
September 28th, 2014 ~ JRG ~
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You may have noticed the excerpts that we display on the bridgeblogging.com Home page sometimes look a little weird, or even mess-up the layout somewhat. We have improved things a little. Read the rest of this entry »
September 27th, 2014 ~ JRG ~
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PLEASE IGNORE — Just S/W Testing.
Ingberman
This is a bidding convention created by the university professor, mathematician Monroe Ingberman. It addresses a problem encountered after opener reverses. Read the rest of this entry »
March 7th, 2014 ~ JRG ~
3 Comments
I stopped doing cryptic crosswords several years ago — I did sudoku puzzles for a while. Recently I started doing them again and the enjoyment of the challenge came back.
So I thought I’d try creating one of my own — with bridge as the theme. If you try this one, let me know whether you enjoyed it. All constructive criticism is welcome!
You can download this as a PDF file and print it so you can use pencil and eraser on it.
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Across
1 Ben has one too, but only one zero! (7)
4 Modified ruses result in adherents. (5)
7 The Laws say they are not allowed, even in paid sessions. (4)
8 & 16 down Rocky foothold on way to stranded one, gained with pressure. (8,5)
10 Blood usen’t to upset balanced nature. (10)
12 Went down with cry of anguish. (6)
13 UI uses is causing troubles. (6)
15 Spades and hearts cheering on the game? (10)
18 Rod’s ABC’s are about a top one. (4,4)
19 Bobby Wolff has done a lot of this work in his pro career. (4)
20 His leads have tranformed them. (5)
21 Sport that is conducive to quick retort. (7)
Down
1 A drug stops opponents’ suit. (5)
2 Bolder move E.U. is response to insult. (8)
3 Multiple pairs of Teams of Four? (6)
4 I shun Ed’s pun, it’s about undoubled sacrifice. (10)
5 Leave, don’t give anything away. (4)
6 Does giving lass gin send messages? (7)
9 Regular stipends made for beginner’s mistakes. (10)
11 Cautions apply to these sequences. (8)
12 Gratis attempt to compete? (4,3)
14 Sounds like the wine server but not as well off. (6)
16 See 8 across. (5)
17 Area Siam is in. (4)
September 28th, 2013 ~ JRG ~
8 Comments
I thought of commenting on Judy Kay-Wolff’s post, Abiding by, and Knowing, the Rules, but decided on a post of my own. The particular issue involves the “good of the game” versus “pragmatic, don’t lose players to another club”.
Read the rest of this entry »
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