Basset Hound Club Championship Show

The Midland Branch Fun Day and the Basset Hound Club Championship Show take place this weekend at Bickenhill, near Birmingham Airport. Readers of LOWDOWN will have read of and seen pictures of branch members enjoying this event last year in the Winter 2008/2009 issue. For those who havn't seen it, the LOWDOWN article is now on the website, here. For those who have seen it the photos are in colour on the web version, so maybe you would like a second look. Why not come along to the event itself? The emphasis on Saturday is on fun, things get more serious for the competitors on Sunday although I hope they are enjoying themselves too. For those, like me who are just there to watch and enjoy, well where else can you get to see so many Basset Hounds all at once.

Derek 'Dusty' Miller

It is with sadness that I have just heard the news that Dusty died this morning, a fellow member of the committee, as kind and welcoming a man as could be. He will be greatly missed.

addendum:

Dusty's funeral will take place at Eastbourne Crematorium on the 10th June at 2.30. Jean has requested that no one send flowers, and that should people wish to send a donation this should benefit The Stroke Association. Donations can be sent to: Adela Funeral Homes, 44 South Street, Eastbourne, BN21 4UT.

A bit more on Crufts 2009

This is just a footnote to Crufts 2009 (the view from home) or rather a link to a view from Sweden.

Crufts 2009 (the view from home)

Ironically it was Cocoa, our basset, that caused our decision not to attend Crufts this year. She is on a wait and see bed rest regime following unspecified yelps of pain a few weeks ago.

Such is the power of television, Crufts began this year under a cloud. The BBC having withdrawn its coverage following a controversial Panorama broadcast in 2008. Crufts launched its own television coverage, Crufts TV, broadcast via the Internet with live coverage throughout the whole of the show, far more than in prior years, and, another irony, a potential worldwide audience far greater than that cut off by the BBC. From what I saw on the first day the coverage was excellent, although you may not be surprised that I would have preferred to see a move away from the arena to coverage of the breed judging, obviously that is because I wanted to see how our Bassets progressed and, well, obedience and agility competitions are simply not part of my hound life. There is even a Video on Demand service where for a small sum, £1.99 for a day or £9.99 for a month, a recording of the coverage may be watched at a later time.

KCLovesDogs The Kennel Club Mar 08, 09:29 AM The Crufts channel isnow THE MOST VIEWED CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE!!! WE ARE NUMBER ONE!!!

If you follow The Kennel Club on Twitter you will have seen the Tweet reproduced above. So maybe it's, thank you Panorama, you have launched Crufts from its previous national TV slot into its rightful place, as the worlds greatest celebration of all things canine, as a worldwide Internet TV phenomenon!

Not being able to attend and no coverage of the judging meant that I could not follow the progress of Nico, Barnaby and Cassius instead having to wait until the results appeared on Crufts' website. So fingers crossed, was delighted when eventually the success of two was posted to the net, although naturally disappointed not to find Barnaby amongst them. Have posted the results of all our members, congratulations to them all, to the SHOW RESULTS page on our website.

In case you don't know: Nico is Culdaws Bayleaf, Barnaby is Malrich Voodoo and Cassius is Durins Dain Ironfoot of Eastmill. Our other successes, no less important I should stress my bias is only linked to my personal acquaintance, were Balmacara Orange Blossom forKithalined and Durins Flame of the West

A triumph for the Internet and freedom!

What's that I hear?

What's that I hear? Baby patter? Baby elephant patter more like it.

No Ginsberg but a snippet of fellow Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "Dog" currently accompanies the Webmaster's page*, but that's not the point. Users of Microsoft Internet Explorer will, assuming they have working speakers and have not clicked the mute button, have noticed sound accompanying some of our pages, whereas users of Apple's Safari will not - some may well say lucky Safari users.


Some like my correspondent, whose main query related to "problem on the fist newwsletter on WBarrow. Just comes. goes comes goes. What can it be?" although I had no idea quite what he meant the problem was probably solved by the same method noted in "Is the page up to date" (I say probably because he came back with "Hi. Just tried that. There is improvement, now it bleeps four or five times then the page stays there. Well at least an improvment. Cheer & thanks,..." I was foolish enough to wonder momentarily from what malaise his computer suffered but suspect now that it was a comment on the musical accompaniment).

If you hear sound and don't like it I have provided a toggle switch at the top right on some pages to turn it off, or just click on mute, it will probably be at the bottom right of your screen.


If you are using an Apple and would like to hear the sound files, I can only apologize as I know of no way of overcoming the problem. I believe it is just one of many incompatibility issues between Microsoft and Apple. If anyone has any ideas I would be glad to hear them.

*(The Webmaster's page is no more and all of the web site as it was in March 2009 has been rewritten, however the poem may still be heard on the Dog page.)

Is it up to date?

Some, more than others, are anxious to be up to date. Some may avidly read their daily over breakfast each morning, thinking that somehow doing so keeps them abreast with all that is important in life. Others believing newspapers a medium from a bygone age switch on their TV. A growing number go instead for their daily massage to a desktop, perhaps place a laptop on the breakfast table. There are probably even those who do both. In the cyber-global-village they can ride their mouse to information old and new, google their way through a gamut of knowledge and disinformation, seemingly never ending. But can they be sure they are seeing the most up to date version of their chosen nugget. If they have visited a page before then they cannot.

As both Internet Explorer and Safari save, as "temporary Internet files", copies of previously viewed Internet pages to speed access and decrease Internet traffic, it may sometimes be that what you see on your screen is not the latest version of a given page, but just one surreptitiously stored on your hard drive by your browser when you saw it earlier. If you suspect that what you see is out of date try the following.

First you could simply try refreshing the page, but if this does not work:

In Internet Explorer either click on Tools on the menu bar or Tools in the options given alongside the tabs. Then, from the drop down menu, select Delete Browsing History. A box will appear, there, in Temporary Internet Files click Delete files. Close the box. Once this is complete refresh the screen.

In Safari select Empty Cache from the Edit drop down menu. Click on empty when it asks if you are sure. Again, once done, refresh the screen.

Of course if the page is out of date then there is nothing you can do except to point out its obsolescence by sending its maker a message. Something along the lines of that of Arthur Mow.

CONTACT form

An issue that has been troubling me for some time,

"does the form on the CONTACT page work"?

The first response received from the CONTACT form, I received on the 8th February this year. I am not sure when the form first appeared but the domain name was purchased in June 2008 and the website was online in some form immediately. For many months I wondered if anyone had looked at the site.

It had got back to me that some people had difficulty with the form, their computers not letting them use it. In response I had others test it, some, but not all, found no problem with it. I suspect that where it doesn't work it is being subverted by a zealous firewall. Unfortunately I am not expert enough to offer advice on how this may be overcome. Clearly Wayne, my first responder, had no problem with it. To help those whose systems lock them up tight I have included an email address for use in whatever is the normal way their emails are sent.

Today I had my second response, which read as follows:

Name=Arthur Mow
AppName=Microsoft Internet Explorer
AppVersion=4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; GTB5; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506) Resolution=1280 X 800 Email= amow@wentamowameadow.com Query=Dear Mr Webmaster man,
Am I not too late to partake of the walk that flashes before my eyes on your home sweet home page?
Like me, I suppose you are a creature of some antiquity, who finds this new technology a bit baffling. eh!
There must be some button you can press to update the date of the next date. Am I right, or am I right?
Enough, already. I must go and water the cactus.
Yours in eager anticipation.
Arthur.

Mr. Mow's message was gratefully received. I had forgotten to change the banner headline on our HOME page and set about putting it right as soon as reminded. I cannot promise that I will attend so promptly to everything that is brought to my attention, but please, please let me know of anything else that ought to be adjusted, amended on the site. Mr. Mow hid his identity (not very well) but there was no need, I am very selective of whom I bite (Mr. Mow's head, however, is on the stake on the right).

Back to the point. The CONTACT form does work, but if not for you use the email address. Oh, and I need contact!

Webmaster ban dropped (was this a mistake)

Those who are familiar with our website, http://www.southeastbasset.org.uk/, may know me from there as the Webmaster (grand sounding title which just means: the one mad enough to spend a large amount of his time tweaking web pages). Others may know me as the slightly (somewhat) overweight, fairly quiet (self opinionated, not very sociable), bearded bloke on Basset Hound walks; has a dog called Cocoa (...she's lovely). It occurred to me that using google's blog system might be a simpler than adjusting the Webmaster's Page on our website, so here goes, lets see.

It is true to say that over the last few years my use of the Internet has increased to, what some consider, an unhealthy extent. Apart from involvement in four websites I have become entangled (following a trip to Egypt) in Facebook and latterly in Twitter.

However whilst innocently posting on various Facebook groups set up for basset hound lovers the entirely innocent message "Take a look at www.southeastbasset.org.uk for our take on life and the Basset." Facebook responded with....... (well I won't bore you with all that)