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STOPzilla - End Annoying Pop-Ups ForeverSTOPzilla - End Annoying Pop-Ups ForeverSTOPzilla - End Annoying Pop-Ups Forever 07/01/2004 10:35 AM Ad - http://www.aboutpeopletechinc.com Jul 1 2004 3:35PM GMT This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)STOPzilla - End Annoying Pop-Ups ForeverGrok Headline matches for STOPzilla - End Annoying Pop-Ups ForeverHow Annoying is This?How Annoying is This? 01/21/2003 10:56 AM How Annoying is This? or Always, Always Blame the Data ! I was just debugging code as part of Mark's new online magazine Tekka. I wrote the login code and the way we wanted it to function was that if you tried to view something you didn't have access to then it would display a preview of the content (we originally were going to have it automatically create the previews based on the source text but we opted to create them manually to make sure that everything looked as good as possible; it made sense since the preview is essentially "marketing" for the article itself). What started happening over the weekend was that the previews worked fine for content I created. Of course as soon as the real content and previews flowed into the "system" (and I use the term "system" loosely; very loosely) then we started to see errors. In specific we saw that the previews were getting arbitrarily clipped. Now the previews I had made were quite short (probably between 1K and 4K of data) and the real ones were much longer. Of course the very first thing I thought of was some kind of byte size limitation. I knew that I was passing a much larger chunk of content into my templating class and perhaps that was it. So I merrily plunged into Google looking for information on string size limits in PHP. Sigh. Since Google seems to treat the extension of a url as a word (at times; it is bizarre) within the url's content it means that searching for PHP content can be difficult at times. I did find a most helpful bit of content on string size limits in BEALogic application servers though. Nothing to do with PHP of course but helpful to someone I guess. So then I delved into the source code for the templating library, FastTemplate. Nothing. Then I stopped reacting and started thinking. Yes that is the hardest part of debugging and one that all of us just plain hate to do. What I did was setup a simpler test case, pulling JUST the display code out of the logic and then taking my own data and making it larger. No problem. Worked fine. ###?*($#*# (fill it in). Hrm... Then I started thinking about the content I was getting from Mark and what I knew about it. Well I know Mark is an all Mac shop so I started to wonder about lower order ASCII characters being hidden in the content. You know -- what about ASCII 17? Or ASCII 3? So I scp'd the content back to my own server Windows box and used a gui editor. Sure enough there turned out to be two ASCII 0s embedded in the content EXACTLY where the content was being truncated. Mark and I hashed it out and I'm still not sure where these came from but it really doesn't matter. He made sure to get rid of them and so did I. What was happening was that the ASCII 0s were acting to truncate the string of preview content as it was passed to the display method. I ended up adding this to the routine before passing the content off for display: $preview = str_replace("\0","",$preview); Moral of the Story? Think before debugging. Simply your test case as much as possible. Check the data; even invisible things can screw you up. Are You Annoying?Are You Annoying? 07/24/2004 01:14 PM BLOX Forever 1.0dBLOX Forever 1.0d 08/11/2004 09:04 PM Challenging and fun logic puzzle solving action! Solitaire Forever 1.0.1Solitaire Forever 1.0.1 06/28/2004 06:25 PM Over 100 solitaire games brought to life in 3D. Do You Want to Work Forever?Do You Want to Work Forever? 08/06/2004 01:20 PM How will you retire if you're not doing enough? No One Lives Forever 2 1.0.0No One Lives Forever 2 1.0.0 02/19/2004 07:23 PM A humorous story-driven first person shooter featuring deadly UNITY operative Cate Archer. Sauron foreverSauron forever 01/22/2004 02:59 AM Joi Ito has snapped photographic evidence that Helsi nki is actually Mordor. Y'know, that would explain all of the orcs ;-). 15 minutes can seem like forever.15 minutes can seem like forever. 08/30/2004 05:14 PM Perhaps you had a one-hit wonder in the '80s, with more people remembering your mohawk and nose chain than your actual music. Fear not, as you can now have your own ponderosa where you don't have to fall in love. Or perhaps you were a backing musician for Prince, known more for your penchant for playing in surgical scrubs. You too can find solace online. The Internet: helping musicians everywhere. Summer ForeverSummer Forever 09/20/2004 10:45 AM Thrill park operators are doing their best to stretch the operating calendar. No One Lives ForeverNo One Lives Forever 03/20/2003 10:40 AM Altogether, Cate stars in an excellent package, full of stylish locations, well-crafted dialogue, splendid voice talent, a strong plot, a campy dose of nostalgia, and wickedly wry humor. (MacAddict via MyAppleMenu) The Boy Who Would Live ForeverThe Boy Who Would Live Forever 12/17/2004 06:41 PM MT and YACCS Not Together Forever?MT and YACCS Not Together Forever? 12/28/2004 01:13 AM I'm in the process of reverting to a default Movable Type template because I can't stand the fact that my site is illegible in any Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox browser. No one seems to be able to translate Radio templates into MT ones so I'll lose the cool design Bryan Bell created for TSL, but I'd rather have you able to read the content. I also hate the fact that I can't get my YACCS comments code to display no matter what I do. Based on the MT comments horror stories I've heard, I'm reluctant to go that route. So after a search to resolve the YACCS and MT issue turned up nothing, I'm asking for help from anyone that has successfully gotten the two to play nice together. If you are such a person, HELP! Email or IM links are on the right-hand side of the page. ANY help is much appreciated! A Break From Annoying Ads?A Break From Annoying Ads? 05/25/2004 05:12 AM A high demand for online advertising space coupled with low supply is giving Web publishers the upper hand. It could mean a break from outlandish ads that block the article you're trying to read. By Amit Asaravala. Free to be annoyingFree to be annoying 06/12/2004 12:00 AM USA Today Jun 12 2004 3:06AM GMT Annoying the sharksAnnoying the sharks 07/03/2004 11:43 AM Where I'm staying, the kids have had the Discovery Channel all morning. It's shark show after shark show. The underwater scientists wrestle them, tag them, measure them, and check their teeth for unsightly plaque. Fine, but I plan on swimming in the ocean this summer, so could we please stop annoying the sharks for a while? Thank you.... Over 3,400 Annoying GimmicksOver 3,400 Annoying Gimmicks 03/25/2005 04:09 PM Consolidated B-24 Liberator nose art archive. Signs of the zodiac, dirty jokes, self-fulfilling prophecies, and stumpers. (Some questionable content [NSFW-ish] and site design) When Tech Gets Really AnnoyingWhen Tech Gets Really Annoying 06/24/2005 07:22 PM It's almost lunch time, and I'm driving down the street, not too fast and not too slow. My belly has been reminding me for a while that it's been several hours since I finished my bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats, and just then a Burger King joint comes into view. I'm thinking, "Hmmm. I wonder what their special is today." Apparently reading my mind, the super spiffy gee-whiz Daktronic s Message Center animated sign flashes "SPECIAL" several times in a very special animated sequence that must've taken hours to program. Then the display changes to read
in really big letters, and pauses for a few seconds. As I get closer and closer to the restaurant's driveway, I'm thinking to myself, "That would taste really good about now," but the cheapskate in me is also asking, "How much does it cost?" By this time I'm less than a block away. Next comes
(or something like that) in really big letters. Great. So you've got a SPECIAL on a TENDERCRISP CHICKEN SANDWICH COMBO and it takes you four blocks to tell me that? By the time it's too late for me to turn, in the sign still hasn't flashed the SPECIAL's price, so I drive right on by, looking for another place to buy lunch. Their advertising efforts just lost them a sale. I realize that there are few rocket scientists running Burger King restaurants, but does it take a marketing genius to know that there is a limited amount of time for them to convey a message to passing motorists? With the old-fashioned signage, a Burger King would put up "TNDRCRISP COMBO $3.95" or something like that, which can be read in a glance and gets the message across in a fraction of a second. The galling thing is that with the electronic signage they could do the same thing, but they choose to jazz it up, and end up failing to get their message across. Come to think of it, these electronic marquees suffer from some of the same maladies that make PowerPoint presentations so painful. Deane has written several posts about some of the issues with PowerPoint; if only the people setting these signs up would bone up on Po werPoint etiquette they'd have better success with their streetside advertising. Or at least it wouldn't suck quite so badly. There should be a severe penalties for people who set up messages on electronic marquee boards that span more than two pages. Annoying MousequitoAnnoying Mousequito 08/22/2004 10:40 PM ugh, get away If only webpages lasted forever...If only webpages lasted forever... 09/07/2004 05:41 PM Famous Diamonds [Tripod page, but a really good one] wanna live forever?wanna live forever? 06/23/2004 01:53 PM fable of the dragon-tyrant 'an actual fable with an actual moral.' Star Wars Is Forever Pin At C3Star Wars Is Forever Pin At C3 04/16/2005 06:52 PM Show your Star Wars spirit at C3 by tracking down somebody with these pins... And coming soon... Grandparents Forever!And coming soon... Grandparents Forever! 08/09/2004 08:08 PM Yesterday's really crappy movie is today's reality.< /a> Welcome to RePet. Should optical discs last forever?Should optical discs last forever? 03/29/2005 08:58 PM Standards body of U.S. government, industry group, quiz industry and government on how long discs should last. Moore's Law Relevant But Not ForeverMoore's Law Relevant But Not Forever 04/15/2005 08:57 PM Internet News Apr 16 2005 12:36AM GMT Alien and Predator, Together Forever?Alien and Predator, Together Forever? 08/17/2004 11:22 AM It's scary, scary, scary stuff. A thing of beauty is (now) a joy foreverA thing of beauty is (now) a joy forever 04/19/2005 04:22 AM You may have to watch a brief ad to read the story. “My new heroes are the Brigham Young researchers whose scanners have unveiled ancient fragments of Sophocles, Euripides and the earliest Gospels.” “When I was a high school student studying Latin, my teacher, an owlish woman named Mrs. Hodges, would often ask us to translate on the fly as we were plodding our way through Virgil’s “Aeneid” or Caesar’s “Gallic Commentaries.” Normally, we… Direct and Related Links for 'A thing of beauty is (now) a joy forever' Forever in New York CityForever in New York City 04/09/2004 04:06 PM
Perhaps the most interesting bit for me was actually after the book. My edition contained an interview with the author in which he talked about completing the book on September 10, 2001. And then of course, needing to go back and re-write a good chunk of the end. After all, his protagonist had supposedly experienced all of Manhattan's major events from about 1740 on. I imagine the process must have been difficult for Mr. Hamil. The "present day" world where his novel ended no longer existed, and ceased to exist the morning after he put down his pen. Greed Forever, Shame NeverGreed Forever, Shame Never 04/18/2004 09:50 AM
Apple + HP = iPod ForeverApple + HP = iPod Forever 01/16/2004 11:04 AM Despite critics who decry Apple's proprietary audio format, this deal shows that Steve Jobs's digital-music strategy is a winner. By Alex Salkever (BusinessWeek via MyAppleMenu) Aren't Cellphones Annoying? And What's
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