Messages

1

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Soon - New website design

« on: August 01, 2022, 11:44:56 AM »

This website seems to be having major issues with spam replies, comments and posts as of late. Is this something IT intend to address?

Also, I got another 504 trying to post this, but the post succeeded, so something with your success message is mis-configured.

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Site related news, functions and modules / Unable to report comments?

« on: July 28, 2022, 02:59:10 PM »

I've noticed a few spam comments, posts etc. recently which I've tried to report on the forum. Unfortunately the report generates a 503 / Gateway timeout error.

I'm pretty sure this isn't my end...

3

Shipping News and information / Re: Where is the crew?

« on: December 12, 2020, 04:37:18 PM »

It depends on the vessel type and how long they're in port for.

Usually if it's only a short port call everyone will stay on watches, so those off watch will either sleep, go ashore or catch up on maintenance/other tasks - which is why you can't see anyone on deck.
If it's a longer port call then more deckhands will get called up for mooring, or alternatively they'll stay on watches until late that evening, when the nightwatchman will come on duty, and everyone else will switch to daywork.

When at anchor everyone will usually stay on watches, the deck officers certainly.

Ships don't have a lot of crew, either. My last ship had a total crew of 13 including myself, so you haven't got a huge amount of people to start with!

4

Shipping News and information / Re: Royal Caribbean and Pullmantur disposals

« on: September 26, 2020, 12:46:25 PM »

Interesting the same virus that caused their early demise is also prolonging it - There's apparently an oxygen shortage at a number of yards due to COVID which is slowing down demolition work.

5

Shipping News and information / Re: Online Shipping Courses

« on: August 05, 2020, 08:17:13 PM »

It depends what your background is.

From what I've seen, your best bet is likely to be in HR or crewing - Once COVID has stopped causing issues for the industry. ATM a LOT of shoreside staff are facing layoffs/redundancies (Carnival UK let a considerable number of people go recently...)

Ports or infrastructure management are also a good bed, or ship chandling.

6

Shipping News and information / Re: Should the vessels in Aliaga be used temporary in Beruit?

« on: August 05, 2020, 07:48:16 PM »

While the idea is a good one, I don't think it'll work. Cruise ships need a lot of money to keep them going - Even bunkers alone can be eye-wateringly expensive. When you then add onto that the cost of food/rations, berthing, crew to sail the ships from their current location to where they're needed... It gets real expensive real fast.

On top of that, you have to factor in that Beiruts port has a very sizeable hole in it, so it'll be very difficult or near impossible to moor the ship alongside the berth. You can't use the container terminal etc., as these facilities are desperately needed to bring in relief and to keep the economy moving. All of this assumes that Beirut is deep enough to accommodate the ships in the first place...

I'd also  argue that anything that's already sitting on the beach is a lost cause - Otherwise there's going to be even more costs involved hiring tugs etc. to pull the ships off the beach, then dry docking or at the least an underwater survey to find out what damage the beaching has done to the bottom plates, propellers, rudders, thrusters, etc.

And all of this is without thinking about what to do with all the stuff a cruise ship produces like sewerage etc.!

Personally I'd prefer to see other countries mobilising assistance in the form of aid, both financial and  physical, although given the current economic and political climate, plus COVID, I'm doubtful that Beirut will get anywhere near the amount of aid it needs.

7

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Server migration

« on: July 24, 2020, 02:33:00 PM »

Seems to be an issue with DB query times - It took 32 seconds to perform the 30~ queries needed to load this page.

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Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Is there a site problem?

« on: June 18, 2020, 05:04:58 PM »

I've lost a reply (to this thread, ironically).

Are IT saying the loss of comments and the extremely slow running was caused by a lack of disk space? If so, perhaps it's time someone looked into moving image hosting over to an S3 or something similar? Or at the very least putting the database in it's own separate bubble to stop it being partly overwritten in future.. Or adding a catch ($e) exception so it doesn't plough on regardless of how much space it has to use...

9

Shipping News and information / Re: Resolute cruise ship attacked by navy

« on: April 03, 2020, 03:41:53 PM »

From what I've heard;

The Resolute - on a repositioning voyage - was drifting off the coast carrying out repairs to one of her main engines, the other being kept at immediate readiness.

The Navy vessel approached, and ordered the resolute to alter course to an island in Venezuelan waters, presumably to be searched. Because this would be a significant deviation from the ships planned passage, and because the Resolute was in international waters at the time, the master telephoned the DPA to discuss the matter.

While on the phone to the DPA, the Venezuelan navy vessel apparently opened fire on the Resolute, before ramming her bow to (I guess) force the Resolute to change course towards Venezuela. The Navy vessel rubbed up against the Resolutes 1A super ice strengthened bulbous bow, which caused the Navy vessel to take on water, eventually sinking.

The Resolute offered assistance to the navy vessel, which didn't respond, then contacted the nearest MRCC. She was released by the MRCC after approximately an hour, to continue passage to Cura

10

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Members suggestions for improvement of the website

« on: February 27, 2020, 05:55:52 PM »

Would it be possible for members to preview the changes, to give feedback on the re-design? Through say beta.shipspotting.com or something similar? Might be easier to give feedback if we can see what's changing!

11

Shipping News and information / Re: Oil tanker museum.

« on: February 07, 2020, 04:32:43 PM »

SS Shieldhall might be worth a look?

12

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Encrypted password stolen

« on: February 01, 2020, 08:32:12 PM »

Not a word still from server-side Admin.
I am emailing the site-owner directly.

Whether wholesale changes of changes of passwords are wise/necessary I do not know.
In particular, whether alleged site vulnerabilities make the entry of new passwords of value nor not.  As it happens, I asked IT yesterday how "all members" can be contacted.

I'll keep pressing.  I'm reluctant to make any specific recommendations on something where my knowledge level is so low.

@smithyy166 - I will reply to your email shortly.

David

Noted David - I'll keep an eye on my inbox.

Personally, in this situation, I'd say resetting everyones password is a very, VERY good idea. From what's been reported, ShipSpotting.com encrypts passwords with MD5, without a salt. This basically means that the encryption is pretty easy to break; less than 10 seconds on an old fashioned clunky laptop. See (https://medium.com/@svanas/why-an-unsalted-md5-hash-is-bad-practice-6a0d7d017856)
[Note - Their advice about using a password manager of some sort is a SUPER good idea]...

This means it's sadly only a matter of time before the passwords are broken into. I doubt they'd be used on here though; they'd either be used to try and get into someone's social media, paypal/banking etc., or the passwords would be ignored altogether and the e-mail addresses dumped into a spam-mailer. I would suggest the moderators, admins etc. change their passwords if they can.

What can everyone do? Well, until the site owner/IT get back to David, there's not a *huge* amount anyone can do about shipspotting.com, BUT you can;

• Use a password manager (Most antiviruses come with one, if not there's some good free ones around for chrome, firefox, android etc. )
• Never use the same password twice, ESPECIALLY not for banking, paypal etc.,
• Change your password here (if that's working...),
• Change your password on any other site that uses the same e-mail address that you use for shipspotting, ESPECIALLY if the password is the same.
• Use two factor authentication whenever you can,
• Don't using words from the dictionary in your passwords - Replace "o" with "0", "s" with "5" etc,
• Follow the advice here -> https://www.howtogeek.com/195430/how-to-create-a-strong-password-and-remember-it/

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Site related news, functions and modules / Re: "error 28 from storage engine" message

« on: February 01, 2020, 04:43:55 PM »

I'm getting the same error.

It means the MySQL database is out of diskspace somewhere

14

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Encrypted password stolen

« on: February 01, 2020, 04:19:05 PM »

As an FYI to all, incl. Webmasters and management : https://breachaware.com/breaches/780bbaf3-d79f-4d81-b7de-4ff9039e13b0

"In early March 2019, the ship enthusiast website ShipSpotting was compromised leaking over 100,000 user email addresses and unsalted MD5 passwords. The validity of the breach has been independently verified."

A total of 106,642 user accounts have been compromised, with the hack taking place on or around the 5th of march 2019.

I'd suggest everyone change their passwords on both shipspotting and any other site that uses the same/similar password as the one they use for shipspotting, and the webmasters & site owners force reset all users passwords.

Further, due to the size of the breach, the site owners may be required to report the matter to the ICO.

15

Shipping News and information / Re: FSRU

« on: January 09, 2019, 04:12:37 PM »

My understanding is that an FSRU (Floating Storage Re-gasification Unit) functions in the exact same way as an LNG/LPG tanker, only with a final step that converts the liquefied gas back into a gas to be fed into the grid. This final step is usually accomplished by bolting a re-gasification unit on deck, whilst leaving all of the tanker related equipment intact.

In theory you could convert the FSRU back to a tanker fairly easily, probably in a matter of weeks. The biggest issue you'll find will probably not be the LNG/LPG tanker plant, but rather the propulsion machinery.