This is the page for all those annoying, niggly questions that frequently (or not so frequently) pop up. Maybe the answers are here too.
Mainly with a text editor, and a few other tools. The older graphics were produced using Paint Shop Pro, although this has now been switched to a new system with Kate, Gimp, Hugin and Inkscape running on Mandriva linux. The photos are a mixture of standard 35mm, Lomo 4-way 35mm and digital. There are also some custom tools using perl and java used to ease the administration but nothing runs on the server side. The site should be viewable by any recent, standards-compliant browser, although any bug reports would be gratefully received.
The java bits (in the puzzles and games section) were created originally with a text editor and JDK1.3, and more recently with eclipse with JDK1.4, and should run in most modern browsers. It may help to install a Java Plug-in (available from Sun) rather than using the default java implementation supplied in the browser. Again, if you have problems please tell us.
There are 3d plots both for hikes and for ski resorts, and are all made in the same way. First of all a handheld GPS (from Garmin) is used to record the route. Then the route is read in to the PC with either Gartrip, or more recently garble, to make a text file. Then, the program Prune is used to edit and process the data, before displaying with Java 3D. Finally, a still image is grabbed (again using the Gimp) and annotated to make the final jpg. The resort plots in the snowboarding section are made in exactly the same way, and the slope charts for each resort are made by reading in the same text file but outputting to standard java AWT classes instead of Java 3D.
The Kmz files for Google Earth are made from the same data, again using the program Prune. This exports the GPS data as a Kml file, which can then be loaded into Google Earth, the snapshots are recorded along with descriptions and then the file is saved from there as a Kmz.
The icon on the home page 
offers a small text file for download called an RSS feed. This contains snippets of information about updates to the Activity Workshop and lets you see at a glance what's new, just by refreshing this small file. You can use a variety of applications to use this file, for example Mozilla Thunderbird, or you can use online services like bloglines or Google Reader. You can subscribe to many other website feeds in the same way. Then you can quickly get an overview of new features here and get linked right to the new stuff.
A cookie is a small bit of text which is stored on your computer by the web page. Depending on your browser's settings, the browser may first ask your permission before doing this, so you may receive a warning message. If you wish, you can change the settings so that cookies are automatically accepted or automatically refused, so avoiding the warning messages.
The Activity Workshop uses cookies in two places, but in both cases, the cookie is only used by your computer, and is not tracked or monitored by the web server. The first cookie stores which news items you have already seen on the home page. This way, when you visit the same page again, it can show you only the stuff which is new since your last visit. The second cookie is stored when you complete a nonogram puzzle, so that your computer can remember which ones you have solved and which ones you haven't. Again, this information is not used by any computer other than your own. Also note that if you have disabled javascript in your browser, the pages will not be able to store or read the cookies.
Easy. Write an email and send it to mail@activityworkshop.net. It would help if the subject line has something to do with the website though, to help your mail stand out from the mountain of spam.
The ActivityWorkshop can be found online at activityworkshop.net. If you're viewing an offline copy of this website, it's of course possible that the online version has moved - if so, and if you're not redirected from the above URL, then use whichever search engine is currently most fashionable to hunt for "Activity Workshop".
Thanks to the our hosting facilities (thanks birchmania!), the adverts are now gone, along with the popups and the sidebars. We hope you enjoy the enhanced web experience.
Because you didn't come here for funny links, did you? And anyway, you probably know where stuff like the Onion, the Register, rathergood and xkcd are already.
First of all, these virus emails fake the sender adress, so the email did not really come from the ActivityWorkshop. Somewhere a computer has been infected with a virus or worm (and variants of the Netsky worm seem prevalent at the moment), and that computer has the ActivityWorkshop email address stored on the machine, maybe on a stored web page or in an email. So when the virus or worm transmits itself by email, it picks an address from those stored on the infected machine, and that can possibly be the ActivityWorkshop address. That doesn't mean that the ActivityWorkshop machines have a virus, or that they sent the email.
Protecting yourself against such infections is straightforward:
Again, these abusive emails are not coming from the ActivityWorkshop. We never send unsolicited bulk emails and certainly do not have any interest in promoting stock purchases. Believe me, the bounced replies from failed emails are just as annoying for us as for the unhappy recipient. The spammers appear to be simply faking the sender address, currently random four- or five-character user names at this domain. Unfortunately there's very little we can do about it, because the mails don't come from here.
It depends a little bit on the season, but the puzzles, in particular the nonograms, tend to dominate. Hiking, especially in Switzerland, is also popular, especially in the summer. You can see the charts graphically for a few selected months below thanks to webalizer, filelight and Gimp.
As shown in the June charts, the hiking gets a noticeable boost in the summer, at the expense of the indoor puzzles and the snowboarding. Obviously in the Winter, snowboarding is more popular, reaching 9% in December 2006 but sinking back to below 5% in the summer months. The clear favourites are still the Swiss day hikes (24%) and the APR (13%), and the nonograms (15%), with the sudokus on a decline. Together, puzzles & games and hiking make up around two thirds of the total hits. The big change in 2008 is the explosion of Prune, from 1% in 2007 to 8% in March 2008.
During March and April 2003, most of the world was sickened by the wanton display of terrorism, brutality and greed by several prominent world leaders. Even worse, this state-sponsored piracy was being conducted in our names. At that time, it was not considered appropriate for the Activity Workshop to be recommending light-hearted fun activities, when it was vitally important to be questioning the events at that time, and holding the deceitful politicians to account. Therefore this website was suspended.
After the official end of the "war", the site was brought back online, even though the destruction, subjugation and wholesale murder by the occupying forces is still (over three years later) continuing to terrorise the local population. Thankfully, public attention and media attention is increasingly being drawn to the criminal behaviour of the politicians during this episode, and with luck it won't be too long before they are sacked, impeached or imprisoned.
No, they weren't. It was utterly unjustifiable, as every single reason given for the invasion has since been shown to be based on nothing more than deliberate deceit. Perhaps a paraphrasing of the statements will help to expose the absurdity - let's listen to the politicians who wanted the war, the trusting public who believed what the politicians said, and the skeptical public who began to see the twisted logic being employed.
Politician: Iraq has ignored the UN, we must get a second resolution to authorise force to make Iraq comply with the UN.
Trusting Public: Yes, we agree, we must get a second resolution. It is unacceptable that Iraq ignores the UN.
Skeptical Public: Yes, we agree. Everyone is subject to the UN and its democratic process.
P: The UN won't give us what we want, but Iraq has vast stocks of dangerous chemical and biological weapons,
which threaten us. We must ignore the UN and attack Iraq.
TP: Yes yes, we have to ignore the UN to protect ourselves from the immediate threat.
SP: We can't ignore the UN, that's exactly what we accused Iraq of doing. What is this urgent threat, exactly?
P: We have proof that Iraq has attempted to buy materials for nuclear weapons, we must invade and stop them.
TP: Yes, we must definitely send our troops to invade, we must defend ourselves.
SP: Well, if you have definite proof, then that's a clear violation of the UN. You do have definite proof, don't you?
Proof that isn't obviously and amateurishly forged?
P: We must secure the oil reserves, and assassinate their leader.
TP: Yes, we must rescue the Iraqi people from their evil dictator and give them their wealth back.
SP: Err hang on, wasn't this about the weapons?
P: We must invade Iraq to take revenge for the September 11th attacks.
TP: Saddam was behind the World Trade Center attacks? Send our troops in NOW!
SP: But there's absolutely nothing to tie Saddam or Iraq to the World Trade Center. Nothing at all! Where's the evidence?
P: Iraq has proven links with Al Qaeda, we must invade to prevent more terrorist attacks.
TP: Wow, in that case we must remove him NOW for our own safety!
SP: Proven links? You haven't shown us a shred of proof. Or the proof about the weapons? Why are you showing us photos of
"mobile chemical laboratories" when you know that they're actually just equipment for filling weather balloons? When you
know that they were sold to Iraq by Britain? And why is your "dossier" so completely worthless? Why don't you show your
proof to the UN and get a resolution passed by the whole international community?
P: The threat from Saddam's chemical and biological weapons is imminent. We must act now. We know where the weapons are.
TP: Imminent threat? Invade now!
SP: Then just tell the UN inspection teams where they are, and they'll find them. That's their job. Invading now without a mandate
would be an unprovoked attack and contrary to international law.
P: Well, we invaded, and after months and months of looking for the biological and chemical weapons, we found absolutely nothing.
But it doesn't matter.
TP: No, it doesn't matter. The Iraqi people are now free.
SP: But you said there were huge numbers of these weapons, with factories, and laboratories, and thousands of litres of chemicals,
ready to attack in 45 minutes? You said you knew where they were! Where are they?
P: It seems that some mistakes were made with the intelligence before the war, but that doesn't matter because the Iraqis are free now.
TP: No, it doesn't matter because the Iraqis are free now.
SP: What, the reasons for going to war were falsified and misrepresented, innocent civilians were terrorised, maimed and killed,
the country littered with cluster bombs and depleted uranium, our troops exposed to injury and death, but it *doesn't matter*?
And how free are they now, exactly, with their power plants and public utilities bombed and sabotaged, massive unrest and violence,
daily killings, and a hostile occupying force routinely guilty of a variety of abuses?
P: There were never any chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, no nuclear weapons program, and no links to Al Qaeda
or the World Trade Center attacks at all. Every single one of our stated reasons for going to war were completely wrong.
But we still refuse to apologise. Now, Iran and Syria, on the other hand, do have chemical
and biological weapons, are trying to make nuclear weapons, and have links to Al Qaeda.
TP: We must invade Iran and Syria to protect ourselves from... erm... whatever you say.
SP: You mean, you lied in order to start a war, you've admitted you lied, and now you're lying again?
It has now been shown that there were no "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq (at least until the US started dropping illegal napalm bombs, cluster bombs and depleted uranium there). The Iraqi authorities were complying with the UN regulations, and were agreeing to all the inspections the UN and its member countries requested. There were no links to Al Qaeda, in fact Al Qaeda would have gained little sympathy from such a secular state. There were no links to the World Trade Center attacks, no matter how many times they are still being mentioned in speeches about Iraq.
It has also been shown that all this was known by the war-mongering politicians, even as they were announcing to the world what they knew to be untrue. It has been shown that the decision to attack Iraq dated back well before any of the WMD issues surfaced, and even before the World Trade Center attacks themselves. It has been shown, through the Downing Street memos, that the so-called intelligence was being deliberately "fixed around the policy" to attack Iraq no matter what happened. It has been admitted that the WMD issues were chosen as the reason for the previously-agreed invasion because it was seen as something that "everybody could agree on".
So, either our highly-paid representatives accidentally led our countries into a war of conquest, flouting international law, disregarding public opinion and killing innocent civilians on a massive scale, because they unwittingly missed the obvious and made enormous blunders with their fact-gathering, OR, as now seems apparent from the recently released memos, the deceit and misrepresentation of the facts was deliberate and calculated distortion, to deceive the public into supporting a war which the politicians had long ago decided that they wanted.
Either the politicians we employ to work for us are blitheringly incompetent and dangerously unfit for their jobs, or deceitful and dishonest, and guilty of war crimes as well as treason. In either case, does this make you want to continue to employ these people? Or does this make you want to bring them to justice?
Because it's criminal, and it's being done in our names. It's brutal, dishonest, but most of all totally hypocritical. Look at who is complaining about "compliance with the UN". Look at who is throwing around accusations of "developing nuclear weapons". The people complaining are the worst offenders! Those who are strutting around talking about democracy and freedom, are the very people struggling hard to deny basic democratic rights and free speech at home. Who talks about justice and still maintains detention camps in Cuba with not even Geneva convention rights being given? Detention without trial, without evidence, without limits and without apologies? Those who talk about "rogue states" and "terrorists" are themselves committing the very worst atrocities and terrorist acts, those who preach about civil rights are the ones torturing suspects and beating up innocent civilians, those who indignantly demand their "right to exist" are the ones brutally and systematically denying others exactly the same thing. It's breathtaking.
Erm... maybe. For now at least. Please choose an Activity from the menu to resume normal viewing.