Folks,

I am sure that you have now seen the announcement for our SMS system, a system, which allows you to exchange short text messages, while you are browsing the site.

If you haven't read about this functionality, please visit this thread.

Today, I made that system even more flexible. Until now, the reception of the SMS messages, was only possible, if you were browsing our site. If you closed your browser window, the messages were no longer delivered to you. Well, this is no longer true.

If you check the site out today, you will notice that (for those who have activated the SMS feature) there is a new link in the NavBar, just above the Sponsors Panel, called SMS Watcher. When you want to leave from the Forums Site, but you still want to receive the messages that are send to you, click on that link. A small window will open, together with the main forums page. Leave that window open and shut the Forums window. As long as that small window is open, new messages send to you, will be delivered to your computer.

You can leave that window open, or you can minimize it at your task bar, no matter what is its condition, if it is still active in your computer, you will receive the SMS messages, other members are sending you.

If you close that small window, you messages will not be lost of course, you will receive them the next time you log in your favorite Forums Site.

Finally one word of caution. When closing the other browser window (the one in which you were browsing the forums), do not log out from the forums site. Obviously, if you log out, the cookies are cleared and the system can't tell who you are, so no messages are delivered. Just close the browser window, in which you were viewing the forums.

Please use this thread, if you have problems with this new feature and want to discuss those problems.

Rgds

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

John,
When I logged on this morning, it showed where you sent me an SMS back but nothing in it, so I closed it, and when I would go back to the page everytime it would say that I had sent myself a message with nothing in it.

Am I doing something wrong?

John, I just want to say "You're swell", just like you told me to.

No, seriously, this SMS thing is pretty cool. I got the little pop-up sitting out there, and will test it out.

You do good work, John. BZ

__________________
"I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid, and ... I went ahead anyway." - Crow T. Robot
Tom - Resident Computer Geek
Have a computer or Forum question? Visit our very own M1911.ORG Help Desk and ask!

The empty messages, without a sender and without a text, are appearing some times, because another window have captured that SMS first, and when that happens, the SMS gets erased. So the next window which opens, has no SMS to display. It happens some times, I know, and I'll try to correct it, but it is nothing to worry about, you haven't lost an SMS.

You see, SMS are erased, the moment they are displayed, so if two windows try to fetch the same SMS, only the first one will succeed. Unfortunatelly, the window and its contents are two different things, the one is pure presentation, the other comes from the database, so some times, the window opens, but it has no contents to show.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Well, the report from Joe Blstvszk here (remember the little guy in the L'il Abner comic strip, the guy whose name had no vowels and who always had a black cloud over his head?) is that I turned on SMS a couple of days ago, as instructed by our fearless leader, I have just fired up the computer this moring ... and I do not have any little pop-up box. I have two windows open -- the home page for m1911.org, which I use to click to the forums, and the forum window.

That's all I have.

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Hawkmoon
On a good day, can hit the broad side of a barn ... from the inside

Just shot you an SMS message.

__________________
"I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid, and ... I went ahead anyway." - Crow T. Robot
Tom - Resident Computer Geek
Have a computer or Forum question? Visit our very own M1911.ORG Help Desk and ask!

You probably turned the SMS on, while it was under tests. At that time, the default behaviour was for all to receive SMS's. But I changed that, so that you have to turn it on yourself, or else, people would go crazy here. Turn it on, and the next time you go to the Forums Home, you will see the little window.

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John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

John --

No, I turned it on manually in the User CP, after your post telling us to do so. I checked this morning to be sure that it was still turned on, and it is. But I have no little window.

IslanderFan --

No window, no message.

Both of you --

I am running Netscape 7.2 (or Netscrape for you, Tom) under Windows 98 on a Dell computer.

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Hawkmoon
On a good day, can hit the broad side of a barn ... from the inside

It's indeed turned on, now you have to tell your Netscape to allow pop-ups from M1911.ORG, is there such an option? Also, do you have Javascript enabled? Make sure it is.

Come on man, use Firefox, I do not even remember the options of Netscape 7.2.

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John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Firefox doesn't have an application for MAC.

__________________
If it isn't durable, it isn't reliable.