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Web Site News and Information


David McLaughlin
David McLaughlin

This where you can come for the latest information on improvements we will be making to the website, any scheduled maintenance outages, and other helpful information.

How to get the most from our site

Frequently Asked Questions



2008-June-29  —  We've updated 'Meet the Experts'

We're hoping that you'll take a few minutes this month to get to know the members of our Living at Lake Chapala writing team. We've recently updated the "Meet the Experts" column and have now added the photos and bios of several of our newest writers.   ... read more

2008-June-11  —  Site Information Notice Feature

We've changed our web site information notices so it's easier for you. You'll see the latest notice—right here the first time you visit after a new notice is published—the next time it will be available, along with all previous notices, under the 'Site News and Info' link on the front page.   ... read more

2008-May-11  —  Printing with the FireFox Browser

If you use the Firefox web browser, and went to print an article, there might have been an occasion when the article only partially printed. This problem has been corrected—with a bit of a twist.   ... read more

2008-February-29  —  Updated instructions for new features

The instructions for the new features ("Remember Me" and "Password Recovery") have been revised (the Password Recovery activation instructions were added) — you can find the revised instructions in the original post from February 26, 2008 below — or in the Getting the most from our site page.   ... read more

2008-February-26  —  New Features for Login

We have implemented a couple of new features... you can use them – or not – your choice. First is a "Remember Me" login function, and the second is a "Password Recovery" process.   ... read more

2007-December-11  —  Important Reminder

On January 1, 2008, when the new issue of Living at Lake Chapala is published, we will be removing some of the older articles from our internet site.   ... read more

2007-August-28  —  SITE MAINTENANCE #2 -- August 29th

Our website will be unavailable for 1 hour (hopefully less) on Wednesday, August 29, from 9:00am - 10:00am Eastern. We will be doing a second part of some website changes. Also, the ability to update your account information will not be available until after that time. You can still subscribe or renew your subscription.   ... read more

2007-August-23  —  SITE MAINTENANCE!

Our website will be unavailable for 1 hour (hopefully less) on Friday, August 24, from 8:00am - 9:00am Eastern. We will be doing some database maintenance and minor layout changes.   ... read more

2007-June-20  —  Judy's New Blog is Alive!

For those of you who may not have checked for a while, Judy has restarted her blog -- and she's been going at it like gang-busters. Click on the "Judy's Blog" link in the left column, and see the additional articles that are free for all.   ... read more

2007-May-18  —  Broaden your experience with Mexico-Insights

OK ? The title may be a little cheesy, but we hope you like the newest feature for our subscribers.  We give you the web page equivalent of wide screen TV at the click of a button.   ... read more

2007-Apr-30  —  New Login page, FAQs, and 'Getting the Most'

If you made it here, you've noticed that we added a few new pages for your reading pleasure.   ... read more

2007-Apr-01  —  Website Upgrade will take place on April 3

We're making a number of changes on Tuesday morning, April 3rd. While there are a number of cosmetic changes, there are also a number of usability enhancements.   ... read more


2008-June-29  —  We've updated 'Meet the Experts'

We're hoping that you'll take a few minutes this month to get to know the members of our Living at Lake Chapala writing team. We've recently updated the "Meet the Experts" column and have now added the photos and bios of several of our newest writers.

We're continually impressed by the quality work produced by these folks, and while we pass on any congratulatory emails you send to us, we'd like for you to be able to recognize your favorites so you can thank them in person when you see them on the streets of Lakeside.

Meanwhile, keep those letters coming that outline your favorite articles and don't forget to include any ideas you have for articles you'd like us to research and write. Just click here to drop us an email at judy@mexico-insights.com

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2008-June-11  —  Site Information Notice Feature

We've changed our web site information notices so it's easier for you. You'll see the latest notice—right here the first time you visit after a new notice is published—the next time it will be available, along with all previous notices, under the 'Site News and Info' link on the front page.

When there are NEW notices (since the last time you visited our site) you'll see the notice introduction instead of the usual words "Go to the Current Issue...". If there're no new notices, it will be business as usual and the "Go to the Current Issue..." banner link will be visible.

You can clear the notice introduction by either clicking the "Hide" button to return to the normal banner, or using the "Read" link to read the complete notice. In any case, you'll only see the notices in the banner area once.

The banner area will only show you the introduction of the most recent notice – to read the complete notice, or if there have been more than one notice since the last time you logged in, you'll need to visit the 'Site News and Info' page.

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2008-May-11  —  Printing with the FireFox Browser

If you use the Firefox web browser, and went to print an article, there might have been an occasion when the article only partially printed. This problem has been corrected—with a bit of a twist.

The "twist" is that to correct the problem, we can NOT wrap, or "float," the text around the pictures in the articles when printing. This will cause the articles to be a bit longer printing from FireFox – and some other web browsers – Internet Explorer is not affected.

If you have a crazy "need to know" why—and like somewhat technical jargon—a short explanation follows, otherwise it's probably best to tune out now.

There is a "bug" in the Gecko layout engine that formats the web pages in FireFox. The problem occurs in a web page that has one or more block elements (e.g., a paragraph of text or an image) that are "floated," or wrapped, into their position. Then, when that page is sent to be printed—and a "floated" element just happens to cross a page boundary—the rendering engine gets confused and causes the printing to get "clipped."

The only way to reliably have the articles print in full from FireFox (and other web browsers that use the Gecko layout engine) is to turn off the "floating" function for printing – so we did.

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2008-February-29  —  Updated instructions for new features

The instructions for the new features ("Remember Me" and "Password Recovery") have been revised (the Password Recovery activation instructions were added) — you can find the revised instructions in the original post from February 26, 2008 below — or in the Getting the most from our site page.

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2008-February-26  —  New Features for Login

We have implemented a couple of new features... you can use them – or not – your choice. First is a "Remember Me" login function, and the second is a "Password Recovery" process.

"Remember me"

If you want to "auto-magically" log-in to the site whenever you visit, you can do this by clicking in the "Remember me" check-box the next time you log-in to our site. After that when you visit our site, you will be automatically logged-in. This will continue to be the case unless you use the "Log Out" button to manually log out of the site – if you just close your browser or visit another site the "Remember me" stays in effect. To accomplish the auto-login, a securely encrypted cookie is placed on your computer's hard-drive that will remain there for, oh – about 10 years or so – or until you manually log-out or delete the cookie. If you are accessing our website in an internet café, or by using someone else's computer, you should NOT use the "Remember me" check-box.

The only requirement is that your computer and browser allow the use of "cookies" – which they do as the "normal" way computers are setup by default. If you ever delete your cookies, you'll have to log-in manually the next time you visit us.

Password Recovery

Of course, if you don't have to use your password very often, when you do need it you might have a hard time remembering what it is – so we added a "password recovery" feature.

For new subscribers after August 20, 2007 the good news is that you are already "activated" for password recovery – so you don't need to do a thing – unless you have forgotten your password of course. Long-time subscribers will need to setup a Security Question and Answer to activate this feature.

On a side note, if you try to login with an invalid password too many times (5 times within 10 minutes) your account will be locked. This is a prevention against hackers. If that happens, send Judy an email to get your account unlocked.

Recovery Setup

You only have to activate password recovery one time. You may later change your security information through the account maintenance feature if you wish.

The setup can be done one of two ways, depending on whether you are currently logged-in to your account or not.

Not logged-in

  1. Go to the log-in page by clicking on the "LOG IN" button in the right-hand column.
  2. Click the link below the log-in box that says, "Activate Password Recovery" to be taken to the page where you fill in your information.
  3. There are instructions on the form on how to proceed, but basically it's a matter of filling in your login name, password, and the security question and answer that you have decided upon.
  4. Clicking the "Save Information" button will save the security question and answer information, automatically log-in to the site for you, and return you to our home page
  5. That's it – you're done!

Already logged-in

  1. Click the link in the right-hand column that says, "View / Update your account information" – it's right below the "Log Out" button. You will be taken to the "Review Account Information" page.
  2. On your "Review Account Information" page there is normally one link at the top, below your account number and name — "Click here to make changes." If you have not yet activated password recovery, there will be a second link, "Activate Password Recovery." Click that link.
  3. There are instructions on the form on how to proceed, but basically it's a matter of filling in your information – your login name and password are already filled in for you. Just add the security question and answer that you have decided upon.
  4. Clicking the "Save Information" button will save the security question and answer information, and return you to our home page
  5. That's it – you're done!

One last note. There are a few requirements for the security question and answer values;

  1. They both must be at least 6 characters in length.
  2. Both must be different from your login name or password.
  3. The question and answer cannot be the same value.

Hope this helps!

Recovery Process

You start the password recovery process from the log-in page, which you get to by clicking on the "Log In" button on the right-hand column.

At the bottom of the box that is titled, "Please Login Here," there is a link that says, Forgot your password? – Click that link.

You will go to a new page that begins the process by asking for your user login name. There are instructions on that page on how to proceed, but basically you are asked for your login name, then your security question is displayed and you are asked to provide the answer.

If you answer correctly, your password will be sent to you via email. There will be a confirmation page indicating that the password was sent to you. Once you receive our email, you can go to the login page as normal.

The email address we use is the one that is in your account record – if it's not current, please update it. We will send you the password information from our email address, info@mexico-insights.com, which should be added to your "approved senders" list.

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2007-December-11  —  Important Reminder

On January 1, 2008, when the new issue of Living at Lake Chapala is published, we will be removing some of the older articles from our internet site.

In order to ensure accuracy, we will be removing access to all articles published prior to January 2004. As we go forward into our seventh year, we need to keep clearing older, out of date articles, so we will continue maintaining articles for the current calendar year, plus the preceding four calendar years.

If you want to read (or print) the articles prior to 2004 before they disappear from your view, the links can be found by clicking on the "Archived Issues" link in the black bar at the top of the page, and then going to the bottom of the archived issues page. Articles from August 2003 and the previous 20 months are found under the "Old Archived Issues" link at the bottom of the page or in the left hand margin of every page.

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2007-August-28  —  SITE MAINTENANCE #2 -- August 29th

Our website will be unavailable for 1 hour (hopefully less) on Wednesday, August 29, from 9:00am - 10:00am Eastern. We will be doing a second part of some website changes. Also, the ability to update your account information will not be available until after that time. You can still subscribe or renew your subscription.

Putting these changes in place will allow us to provide further services and ease-of-use features to our website. As always, enjoy the magazine and let us know if there is anything we can help you with.

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2007-August-23  —  SITE MAINTENANCE!

Our website will be unavailable for 1 hour (hopefully less) on Friday, August 24, from 8:00am - 9:00am Eastern. We will be doing some database maintenance and minor layout changes. There will be a "maintenance" page that will be shown in place of the normal front page while we are making the changes. If you see the normal front page, you may enter the site as usual.

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2007-June-20  —  Judy's New Blog is Alive!

For those of you who may not have checked for a while, Judy has restarted her blog -- and she's been going at it like gang-busters. Click on the "Judy's Blog" link in the left column, and see the additional articles that are free for all.

Top of Page

2007-May-18  —  Broaden your experience with Mexico-Insights

OK ? The title may be a little cheesy, but we hope you like the newest feature for our subscribers. We give you the web page equivalent of wide screen TV at the click of a button.

After you login with your user name and password, a new “button” will appear towards the top of the left hand column with the text – “Hide Right Col.”

When you click on the button, the right hand column will “hide” and the width of the article text will expand to fill the space the right-hand column previously took.  The button will also now show the text – “Show Right Col.” If you click the button again, the right-hand column will reappear. You can “toggle” back and forth between showing or hiding the right hand column as often as you wish.

The “Show/Hide” button setting will remain in effect until you either close the browser window, or logoff, and affects all pages with the exception of the "old articles."

As always, please let us know what you think about our new features, and if you have any suggestions or questions please let us know.

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2007-Apr-30  —  New Login page, FAQs, and 'Getting the Most'

If you made it here, you've noticed that we added a few new pages for your reading pleasure: “Getting the Most from Living at Lake Chapala,” “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs),” and a new “Log In” page.

We have also made the “Site News and Info” page available in the links in the left column, and will show the latest few “headlines” on the new Log In page.

The “Getting the Most from Living at Lake Chapala” will have a series of topics related to getting around our web site, how to do things such as update your account information, and more. Since I am writing the articles, I may sometimes get loose from Judy’s watchful eye and slip in a few technical terms, but not to worry – there are only a few and you can just skip by them – just don’t skip the articles. I’ve got one done, and already have three more planned.

I don’t plan to wait until next month to complete them, I’ll write them as quickly as other duties allow and tell you when they’re done in the “News” page – and that’s what the Site News and Info page is for – letting you know what’s going on without having to hunt all over to find out. We’ll have the latest few “headlines” show up on the Log In page with the most recent articles listed first. You can click on the title to read the full article right away, or go ahead and Log In and read other articles first; you can always get to the news articles from the “Site News and Info” link in the left column.

Lastly, we have added a “Frequently Asked Questions” page, often called FAQs. This page will be a list of questions (with answers of course) that we thought other readers will benefit from knowing. If you have a question, feel free to email us—we’re here to help.

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2007-Apr-01  —  Website Upgrade will take place on April 3

We're making a number of changes on Tuesday morning, April 3rd.

Hi folks, we’ve been working on some changes to our website that we think you’re going to like.

While there are a number of cosmetic changes, there are also a number of usability enhancements, and we have laid the foundation for future changes that will make your visit to Mexico-Insights, Living at Lake Chapala even more enjoyable.

Before we get into the changes, let me say that I know that a few of our visitors have noticed during the past few days that they have occasionally been required to re-signin to the system.  We apologize for the inconvenience, but we had to make a hard decision in implementing these changes – accept an annoying but temporary inconvenience to our subscribers during this major conversion, or to actually take our site “off the air” for a couple of days to make the changes.  We decided to chose the former, we hope you agree it was worth it – and the problem will go away after the conversion.  Now about those changes…

  • Cosmetic changes – We think you’ll like the new look.  While many of the changes are subtle, combined they make for a cleaner look and one that will look better on a wider variety of browsers.  Even though most of our visitors each month (92% – 95%)  use either Internet Explorer or Firefox, our other visitors are not forgotten (for the best experience we suggest using the latest versions of either of these browsers).
  • Printer friendly pages – Now when you go to print the articles you will automatically get a printer friendly version of the page.  The side borders are removed, the top border is reduced in size.  In print preview mode, the page can be resized, and printed in either portrait or landscape (depending on the capabilities of your browser) with the page content “floating” to fit.  The printing improvements in Internet Explorer 7 (and Firefox 2) are worth the upgrade if you haven’t already made the change.
  • Site Map (Index) – We have added a Site Map (via a link at the bottom of the new pages).  It can be used as a quick reference to not only the general use pages (Ask Us, Seminar Info, Where are we?, etc.) but also includes links to every article on our site, organized by the section topic and month published.
  • Archived Issues – When we were converting the pages to the new look, we decided that the oldest articles (January 2002 – August 2003) were in a format that was just too time-consuming to change (and as such won’t have the printer friendly version or new look).  So we left them in the old format. They can be accessed either through the site map described above, or with the link that we have added to the left side column towards the bottom.  It has the label of “Old Articles” – go figure.  They are organized by section topic and in published month order (newest first).
  • Free Archived Issues – Oh, did I forget to mention that these "old articles" are FREE TO ALL VISITORS.  These articles, while they may be “dated” in some aspects related to prices, etc., they are still a good read and have great area information. 
  • Keeping upto date – At the end of this year, we will be permanently removing these articles, and we will thereafter keep the website article content to the whatever is the current year plus the previous 4 years (e.g., 2008, plus 2004 – 2007).

Well, that’s the major highlights of the changes – the timing of the changes is currently scheduled to be as follows:

Date: April 3, 2007

Web Site: Unavailable 7 AM Eastern – 9AM Eastern

This is time scheduled to switch everything over to the new pages.  The site may be available sooner – if you see the front page, go ahead and use it – we’ll have a "temporarily unavailable" page showing otherwise.

Subscription and Renewal Order System: Unavailable 7AM – Noon Eastern

Because of security restrictions of our payment provider (rightly so), we cannot do final testing of the order process from our test site – only the live site.  So we need this time for the final testing to make sure all is well.  Again, if all goes well, the order system may be back in place before then – if you see it, you can use it.  Otherwise we’ll have a “temporarily unavailable” page so you know what the status is.

Thanks for your patience.  We hope you enjoy the changes.

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