Techie Friday

As it's close season on itsagoal, I thought I'd get all techie on you. Just yesterday, I added an RSS button to this blog. There it is under the 'Subscribe To Manta Banta' section of the sidebar -->.

Briefly, RSS enables you to subscribe to a website's content. Whenever new content is added, the RSS feed will update. This means that if, for instance, you visit many different websites that add new content, whether that be daily, or as infrequently as once a month or even less, you can simply check the RSS feeds for those sites.

There are a few ways in which you can employ the feed. One, your browser may have RSS built in, so, you can add the feed to your bookmarks folder, or bookmarks toolbar and access it from there. Two, you could use a web based RSS reader such as Google Reader. This requires copying the feed address and adding it into the reader. The third way is to use an actual RSS application on your machine. This works in much the same way as the web based kind.

I'm using the RSS function built into the browser; for me, that's Firefox 3. I know that IE7 has support for RSS, as does Safari. They all work in slightly different ways to achieve the same result. Note: IE6 doesn't work with RSS.

To learn how to use RSS in Firefox, there's a simple tutorial here.

More...

I've been using Firefox 3 a bit recently. IE6 is the default browser on the machines where I work and they won't let us install IE7 because our HR websites are incompatible with it!

So anyway, using FF3; impressed. I like how you can tag bookmarks. Save a bookmark, give it a tag or 3. Easier to find 2 months down the line.

Another thing I like about FF is the add-ons it has. I'm writing this post, and I'm not even logged into my blog. I'm using an add-on called Scribefire. I access it from the bottom right of the browser and up pops a text entry window. From there I can write and publish directly to my blog. Brilliant. It's easier to use than the text entry box within blogger itself, so if you're a Manta Banta author and you're using Firefox, take a look at Scribefire.

Well, I think that's enough techie stuff for now. Have a good weekend chaps. See you in the new season.

All is Well

After the dramatic events of the last couple of days, I'm happy to say that everything appears to be back to normal with itsagoal.

I don't know what the official cause of the problems were but I'm sure we'll hear soon enough on the site itself.

There was a workaround for the issue though, and for that we thank Grezz. It worked for most but not for some though. It appears that the fix didn't work for those operating behind a proxy server, for example, from a PC at work.

I'd also like to thank fellow mac user Bearing for posting detailed instructions for applying the fix in mac os x. I then posted those instructions in the Facebook group. Not all of us use windoze ya know!

I think that this site was only known to a handful of people but somehow people found their way here. The community spirit and efforts of those that were able to help has been brilliant, so thanks to everyone who contributed to this blog yesterday. I think mantabanta may have found it's way into a few new Favourites and Bookmark folders.

itsagoal down

Just thought I'd put some keywords up here to aid google searches. Dunno if it'll work.

Can't connect to iag
Can't connect to itsagoal
Can't access itsagoal
Can't access iag
itsagoal site down
Can't login to itsagoal
Problems
Issue

p.s. itsagoal isn't down, there is just an access issue preventing people from getting to the site.

IAG access fix (works for some)

Now, now. Don't get too excited! I just thought I'd pull the instructions out from the lengthy comments of the previous thread and put them here.

It has been noted that this fix works for some, and not for others. So here goes:

Windows:

Go to C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

Open up your file called hosts with notepad

Add this line:

87.117.198.158 (and then hit tab, and then type) www.itsagoal.com

Save the change

Start a new browser session

Type www.itsagoal.com in the address bar

If your PC does not save this then you need to do the following first.....

Right click on "hosts" and then click on properties, go to security tab, click "edit" to change permissions, highlight your username and then click on all the buttons below where it says permissions for users, and then "apply" the changes. This will enable you to save the changes Grezz has suggested making. You then should be able to access the site.

Good luck.

IAG Connection Problems

If someone reads this anytime soon, please ask around IAG what I can do to connect to the site. It just refuses to load and I think there was a problem like this a while back. Another manager dio1 also can't open it, while I asked a buddy of mine from another city some 300 miles from here and he said he can open it.

I asked my providers and they said other it's not only them, other providers can't connect either, so it must be something in the site.

God, I hope someone reads this soon!!! I wrote to Guermano vie e-mail, but I haven't got a way to contact anyone else, while he's probably busy at work. And just in case this isn't resolved soon, please tell me who I drew in the Super Cup and how my game with pleasant ended.

Cheers,

A seriously angered chaos

Manta League Cup Quarter Finals

As has become tradition, after the league cup action I try to supply with a somewhat fictional review of the games and of course - the LC stats. Let's see what the Season 9 quarter-finals had to show.

Botev Plovdiv 3-1 Easyfit Walsall
A penalty win in the last round for Botev and a dominant display of scoring power by Easyfit in the previous round suggested a thrilling encounter in the first quarter-final match up. Hristoskov, however, had different ideas and cruised past his opponent with authority. The 13 shots on target the home team got and their 65% possession clearly show who was in control of this match up. Having taken the lead near the end of the first half, the Plovdiv side were put under a little pressure when Walther equalized for Easyfit 15 minutes after the interval. However back to back goals by Kodritz and Lysen gave the hosts a comfortable two goal advantage which sent them into the Semis.

High Plains Drifters 2-0 North London FC
Relatively new Manta manager FooQ keeps his impressive run going by eliminating the underdog sensation of this season's league cup North London FC. The away side, having started in round 1, showed resilience and took advantage of the luck of the draw to get this far, but having to play away against currently 9th placed in the Premiership was too much for them. Despite the Drifters' crushing possession, it took a penalty in the 40th minute to give them the lead, but even at that point the way the home side played made the outcome clear. Berthiaume and Crouch kept firing at Yerbury's goal and it didn't take much longer before the latter got on the score sheet. With that goal, confidence of victory took over the High Plains players and the lapse in concentration at front was probably the reason Berthiaume couldn't score more despite his constant attempts at goal. On the other end, Sumner and Mullen who both had 6 goals so far in the cup were thoroughly marked and could manage a total of 1 shot, before Mullen had to be carried away on a stretcher in the 69th minute.

Rex Mundi 2-1 Inter Milager
In contrast with what is to be expected of this competitive stage of the competition, the closest game of the four didn't even go to extra time. Rex Mundi needed a 91st minute goal to seal their place in the Semis after Inter's star striker Much tied the game in the 88th. And despite the thrilling ending, the game went under the home side's pace and Logan's 47th minute opener could've easily been enough for his team to progress. After the game Grezz probably had some harsh words towards his lone striker for wasting 10 shots which could've made the victory so much easier, but with progression a fact anything more than a quick talk would probably be excessive.

Warlords 0-3 Castle King FC
Castle King FC made club history by advancing to the Semis at the expense of Warlords. Being at home, the division 4 side probably had a slight edge, but their choice of a 5 man defense didn't stop Castle King strikers Vazuez and New from both scoring. It was Vazuez who gave his side a one goal advantage before half-time, but the second half was New's as he got a brace. Warlords central midfielder Bolder got a red card in the 79th, but at that point the game was practically finished.


S T A T S

Teams
Team	Div	GF	GA	ET	Pen	H	A
Botev Plovdiv	Prem	14	6	0	1	2	3
Castle King FC	Prem	14	4	2	0	4	1
High Plains Drifters	Prem	14	5	1	0	2	3
Rex Mundi	Prem	14	2	0	0	2	3

GF = goals for
GA = goals against
ET = games gone into extra time
Pen = games gone into penalties
H = games at home
A = games away

Top scorers
Player	Team	Goals
B Vazuez	Castle King FC	7
M Campagne	High Plains Drifters	7
B Lysen	Botev Plovdiv	6
M New	Castle King FC	6
E Grogan	Easyfit Walsall	6
D Mullen	North London FC	6
A Sumner	North London FC	6

That's all for this article. See you after the Semis.