2022 Reunion a Sucess
We had a very successful 85th MVA Reunion on July 2nd 2022 at Pontlins Park.
Over 100 veterans attended, and the feedback is that the food and service was good.
Our President for 2022 is Veteran David Roscoe, ex Software Engineer.
Our Honoured Guest was Tim Wander.
Click here if you want to view some photographs taken at the event.
Click here to view the messages of absent veterans.
Click here to view a list of attendees.
During the last year we have recorded the following veterans who have passed away (click here for list), our thoughts are with them and our sincere condolences go out to their families.
If you did not come but would like to pay your MVA subscription you can still do this from here (but click not-coming).
Our 2023 MVA Reunion is on Saturday 22nd April 2023 - make a note in your diary.
Web Site Update
This Marconi Veterans Association web site has just had a major software update, and the updated version published on 18th July 2022.
The web page layout has however been adjusted to look very similar to the previous version, so you will find the articles etc. in a similar location.
Updating the MVA web site.
Until October 2019 the MVA web site was run on a WordPress server, maintained by Chris Gardiner. This web site was moved to an archive location so you can still view it here for old articles.
In October 2019 a new server was set up by Mark Watson-Lee using Joomla as a Content Management System. Joomla is an 'open source' project, so free to use and maintained by enthusiasts. You can also customise any aspect of the layouts, add many extensions (some free, some paid for).
This web site was using Joomla 3.x, php 7.x and a Protostar template. All this software will be shortly be no longer supported, so this new web site now uses Joomla 4.x, php 8.x and a Cassiopeia template. The new software has a number of improvements for small screens such smartphone users, and many improvements at the back-end (the administration facilities). With this update all the previous articles and menus are all copied over to the new version.
Technical information (if you are interested!).
When the World Wide Web was conceived, it was designed to run on Unix servers, and you would create HTML pages, which are basically text pages, to give instructions to the browser on what to display. The best web browser was Netscape - but Microsoft eventually managed to destroy this company (for which they were sued for anticompetitive practices). Microsoft realised they had to join the world wide web and produced their own web browser and servers to emulate the Unix system.
The HTML pages worked fine when everyone was viewing on desktop PC's with large screens, however today many are viewing on a wide variety of screen sizes with smartphones, tablets etc. Also web pages are far more complex.
The MVA web page runs on a Linux server (modern version of Unix), using Apache software to serve the pages, a database (MySql) to store all the data, and a large number of program files (over 6,000) written in the php language.
So when you connect your device, the software finds out what size of screen you are using, what browser you are using, then it generates a set of HTML instructions for your device to fit your screen as required (eg. Menu layout will change depending on screen width, pictures resized etc.). So HTML data is created as needed, not stored as files on the web server.
To update the web site I firstly backed up the old web site on the normal server, restored it to a different temporary server, ran an update process which migrated all the data to the new version - BUT because the template has changed the 'new' web site was not displaying correctly. Spent a while updating a variety of settings to get the new web site back to working. Backed up the NEW web site on the temporary server, then restored it to the normal server.
Newsletter for 2022
The Marconi Veterans Association Newsletter for 2022 is now published.
The web version which is ideal for viewing on your PC, Smartphone or Tablet is here:
The pdf version is here, which can be viewed (ideally on a large screen) or printed. It is 20 A4 pages long:
Members who are on our Mailing list will be posted a paper copy of this Newsletter when the invitations to the next MVA Reunion are posted.
The next MVA Reunion is planned for July 2nd 2022.
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that we report the death of
- Miss Margaret Hudgell (Polly) who joined in 1955, died in July 2022.
- She worked in Data Prep
- The funeral is on Monday 22nd August at 2.30pm at the crematorium.
Click here for a list of recent (last 12 months) deaths of veterans which have been notified to us.