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- July 1, 2005
User Agent Strings and Browser Testing
July 1, 2005Read moreI just discovered the reason why my notebook computer isn’t playing nice with certain ASP applications: I had apparently, in a fit of moral outrage over how Internet Explorer pretends to be Mozilla in its user agent string, changed that string to something else.
A little background: The user-agent string is a bit of info that your browser sends back to a webserver to identify its “model”. Since every browser is a little different, web pages are sometimes coded to detect which “make and model” is being used, adjusting what is displayed accordingly. Internet Explorer did this to be compatible with then-king of the hill Netscape Navigator. After Navigator was firmly crushed, IE continued to masquerade itself using the Mozilla monicker, a grisly trophy of the Great Browser War. The doppleganger prevailed, assuming the identity of the original!
That just didn’t seem right, so I changed the name of the browser from “Mozilla/4.0” to “IE6” in the user-agent string using some arcane methodology I have since forgotten. Another injustice righted! Another ghost laid to rest!
But then the haunting began…
- July 1, 2005
Scrollbar Sculpture
July 1, 2005Read more
Saw this on the IxD Mailing List: Scrollbars: An Exhibition by Jan Robert Leegte:
Jan Robert started exploring the sculptural properties of internet browsers and software in general in 1997, using buttons, scrollbars, and table borders in online installations; in earlier sculptural works he used unusual materials, for instance creating walls from sheets of Xerox copy paper or large slabs of brown packing paper. The various elements of the browser window appear to have a striking physical reality, gained through user familiarity, interactivity and animation. […]
The exhibition site links an interview with the artist. Here’s the line that resonated with me:
Peter Luining: You started as a sculptor doing installations. What brought you to the internet? Jan Robert Leegte: The world behind the computer screen has always fascinated me. (Probably since my dad occasionally brought a primal desktop computer home from the office back around 1980, shortly afterwards followed by the inevitable Commodore 64.)
Ah, the world behind the computer screen. For me, glowing pixels seemed alive and wild with possibility. These days we have so many of them that I forget what it was like when every one was precious.
Leegte is also curating a show, The Anatomy of the Now, which looks like an interesting marriage of digital computer concepts and perception.
- June 30, 2005
Feed Validation Woes with WordPress
June 30, 2005Read moreGAH! Feeds not validating in FeedValidator! Feed URL incorrectly listed in syndic8, with no way to change! WP-Cache playing havoc with non-HTML source PHP, and CPU loads are still too high on the server! Techy Notes and bitching follow…you’ve been warned!
- June 30, 2005
Thinking about Hosting
June 30, 2005Read moreAs I’ve added more WordPress functions to this site, I’ve noticed it starting to crawl during peak hours. A lot of it is due to the CPU-hoggy Markdown syntax I use in posts. This has been alleviated to some degree through the use of a cache plugin. Plus, I think this server might be a bit overloaded. So, I’m thinking of moving shop to one of the sites mentioned here. I’m currently using Pair Networks, which has been really great for the 6-7 years I’ve used them.
Here’s what I like about them:
- Shell Access! They’ve always had it, so I can login quick and do a quick
nslookupor test whether my local network is down. It’s come in handy many many times. Reliability! Although I’ve heard some horror stories, I’ve found that the service has stayed up pretty much 100%. It’s only lately that I’m starting to have some problems related to CPU-load, which I found out about when investigating some timeouts of the WordPress scripts.
<
p>That’s really it…in terms of online storage, “control panel” style access to features, extra FTP logins, and so on, it hasn’t been nearly as competitive. So I’m ready to look around.
I know a few people who might want to set up their own blog, so making a move to another host might set the stage for doing some web hosting on a personal, one-to-one relationship basis. Food for thought.
- Shell Access! They’ve always had it, so I can login quick and do a quick
- June 30, 2005
Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage
June 30, 2005Read more
At long last, Jeff and I visited Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage in Harvard Square. It’s right on Mass Ave, near the Hong Kong restaurant. The rumor was that this was where you could get some of the best burgers in Boston, and possibly the best onion rings. Thus began The Burgering, Part II…
