Both VPS servers upgraded and general news

This a quick update to say that both VPS servers have been successfully upgraded to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1. New automation has been in place and refined over the last year, allowing us to failover between the two machines in as little as 15 minutes. This has been a goal for OP-EZY for around a decade.

Quite a lot has been happening behind the scenes at OP-EZY International HQ, including the transition to The Hawdon Group. Currently, we're keeping things under wraps, but expect to see some more news regarding this in the future.

This doesn't mean the OP-EZY name is going away any time soon, however. But we hope to be able to bring some more exciting news soon.

10 years on

OP-EZY is 10 years old this month.
A lot has changed in 10 years, look out for an updated time machine which should be coming later this year.

Welcome home to OP-EZY International

OP-EZY is glad to announce that the new server is well on its way to being functional. We've just finished installing Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS into a virtual machine and it's now hosting a rather basic looking home page (based on the title card ITV (Independent Television)) used after the strike of 1979.

We still have a long way to go yet. We need to recover the databases off the old hard drives, the files for each user and website information, and the configuration files that made our server tick before. And lets not forget, we need to also virtualize our Windows server too!

We hope to be back up and fully operational again very soon!

Service finally restored

The DSL service has finally been restored 8 days after first dropping. OP-EZY are very sorry for the inconvenience which was due to a break in the main phone line cabling supporting the whole village where OP-EZY is based.

OP-EZY Online - 7 Years Today!

On this day, 7 years ago, OP-EZY International Pirate Radio launched, bring OP-EZY into the online world. We'd have done something to commemorate this, but sadly due to the ongoing DSL issue, we are still down.
For more information regarding the DSL saga (which has been going on for a week now, please follow this link): http://status.op-ezy.co.uk/2012/11/known-issues-with-dsl-line.html
Cheers

It all goes dark

So, if you've visited OP-EZY or Robert Ian Hawdon since midnight, you can't fail to notice the messages you're greeted with.

On the 18th January and and 23rd, these two OP-EZY powered services (the two sites with the most hits) will be participating in the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) protest blackouts.

The sites themselves won't be down, and by following the directions on the page, you'll still be able to access all the content.

For more information about SOPA and PIPA, please visit: http://americancensorship.org/

OP-EZY 7.0

It's finally here, to celebrate 6 years since our website launched, OP-EZY's new website, powered by MagicPage has been launched. There are still a few bugs that need ironing out, but the majority of the site either works, or has had a suitable workaround applied.

6.0 will be added to the time machine shortly!

Cheers for the support, and keep watching for future developments.

6 years on...

This Sunday (27th November 2011) will be the 6th year OP-EZY has been online, and to celebrate this, we will be aiming to implement version 7 of our website. Keep your eyes peeled

OP-EZY 7 - Quick Update

Development is still going with OP-EZY 7, the new site will be rolled out as soon as I feel MagicPage is ready enough to host a public website. It doesn't mean that MagicPage itself will be ready for public consumption though.

Once MagicPage is at the stage I want it, the plan is to release it under the GNU Public Licence (GPL), step back a little, and let the world's more experienced hackers, take it into more practical directions. Watch this space!

Anyone interested in seeing the current development of OP-EZY 7 can have have a look in our development area, Sandbox 4. (at the time of writing)

OP-EZY 7 - In development

OP-EZY 6.0 has had a good run, it has been live since early 2009. It was the first incarnation of the OP-EZY site that had a fully table-less layout designed from scratch.

So far, all sites had to be edited manually, either by editing the page files, or editing a database.

Back in the days of OP-EZY 3.0, I had the idea of building an admin area where pages could be easily updated, but didn't know how to make something like that. By OP-EZY 4.0 I had the backend in place, but never took the time to build an interface for the admin area.

Recently, I just finished a project for college where I had to create such a system. This system is called "MagicPage". As we speak, I am currently using MagicPage as the backbone to the new site design. Here is a sneak preview of the new site:

This preview shows how the site renders at night time, the site will adapt for the times of the day, and reflect the weather at OP-EZY HQ. It will also allow you to set the weather to your current location if you so wish.

We hope to roll this site out in a few weeks, where we can finally put MagicPage through it's paces.

Cheers.

New Status Page

Hey there, it's Robert/Ian/Dave from OP-EZY. After the huge power outage that occurred on 27th March 2011, I have resurrected this blog from OP-EZY's early days, which got abandoned and forgotten about for 5 years! (yes, even I'm amazed it's still here!)

It's now at its new location at http://status.op-ezy.co.uk/ which has been set up in a way that doesn't rely on the main server! If OP-EZY is down for an extended period of time, you should check this site for more information.

This new mini-site, will also serve as the hub for the latest OP-EZY news.

Cheers