Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??

Subject: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 10:01 AM

I am suddenly out of nowhere getting this message before each time I open my emails:-

"In new BT Yahoo! Classic, changing browser's encoding may corrupt the message while sending. Its recommended, that your browser's encoding (usually under the browsers View Menu) is set to UTF-8"

I also now have a 'funny' looking capital letter A which has a downward curve over the top, appearing against any numbers and mixed up in various text, and in front of £ signs and login boxes.

As far as I know I haven't done anything different recently or pushed any "strange" buttons.

When I first got the message I went to the View Menu and changed it to UTF-8 but it didn't seem to make any difference and next time I went to email the same message appeared, went back into View Menu and it was back on what it was originally (western European) again.

Although it doesn't seem to be having any adverse effect, it's just getting to be a pain having to delete it every time I want to get to my email account.

I'm running Win XP if anyone can help please!

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 10:16 AM

I get pound signs displayed that way on my browser all the time (I'm using iCab 2.9.9 on MacOS 9). The real reason for it is that the site designer is a lazy fuckwit who can't be arsed getting the HTML right, and they're using raw Windows characters instead of encoding special symbols properly, so their code won't display correctly on other systems which are even slightly different. The worst offender I visit regularly is footstompin.com. I will never buy anything on-line from a site like that - if they can't fix such a simple bug, do you want to trust them with your credit card details?

Bet this works on your setup: £ . I did that by encoding the pound sign as £

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 10:48 AM

If the funny characters appear only in messages you receive, is it possible that someone sending you the messages didn't change their browser to a proper encoding and is sending you "corrupted messages?" If you receive junk it's likely you'll see junk, and there's not much to be done about it at your end.

Posts here sometimes show similar corrupted characters, and I've been specutlating (talking to myself in the HTML practice thread) that it may be due to "curly quotes" creeping into html codes and/or URLs, but the common "funnies" I've been seeing are Ò Ó Ô Õ Ð and Ñ, and seem to come almost exclusively from "the person using a Mac."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 10:51 AM

Cross posted with Jack, and maybe it should be noted that he's not the "person using a Mac" who's most famous for corrupted posts here - or at least not the one I was referring to.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 10:57 AM

It's not in messages I'm receiving, it is with me all the time now. When I go to log in there is this letter in front of the title "username" same when I log into Ebay, plus it is in front of the £ signs wherever I go, it definitely seems to be with my computer.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 11:22 AM

Some older versions of Internet Explorer didn't handle "high number" characters well, regardless of encoding selection. If you're using an older IE, I'd suggest you'd like IE7. With WinXP I'd avoid IE8 until they shake a few more bugs out, although quite a few XP people seem to like it.

If you happen to be using the "Yahoo browser" there may be an update that you need - (say to something not Yahoo, according to my friends who've tried it). You don't really have to use their browser to use their site, I'm told.

You might also check what "language(s)" you have selected, and make sure that your display font in the browser isn't something unusual. Some of the older "short fonts" occasionally have difficulty with links and coded stuff.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 01:44 PM

Thanks John, I was wondering if I might have accidently changed a language thing.

Can someone please tell me how to check the languages.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 02:19 PM

In IE the "Tools" button, general tab, has a button for Languages. In IE7 the default is to not show the old useful toolbar so there may not be a "Tools" showing; but you can click the little "gear" icon at the far right end of the toolbar and click "menu bar" get it visible.

Generally, in Office programs, the settings you make in Word control all the other Office programs (although IE isn't considered "Office" and can be set independently). My recollection is that in earlier Word versions it's somewhere in the Tools | Preferences or Word Options area. In Word 2007 that I'm using now it's at the cow splat, Word Options down at the bottom, with a button for Languages at the "Popular" menu.

I'd suggest checking them both, but the one in your browser should control the browser. (I can't help with other browsers.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 03:55 PM

I think I'm just going to have to live with it, can't find any Preferences or Word Options in tools.

I give up.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: GUEST,giovanni
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:53 AM

re your initial post, whenever you change a setting, be sure to restart your computer otherwise it will simply revert to your original setting. FWIW.

g

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 06:22 AM

wilbyhillbilly, which browser are you using, and which version (look at "Help->Info" or "Help->About")? Have we understood correctly that you are talking about web (HTML) pages? Is that letter an  (Â)? Does anything change when you select another encoding (codepage) for the current page? Are you sure UTF-8 is selectable and unsuccessful nevertheless?

It seems that your browser does not display UTF-8 at all or does not recognize it correctly. The pound sign £ = £ is mapped by UTF-8 to the two bytes C2A3. If your codepage coincides with Unicode there, you will see £ = £. This is a funny conincidence which also applies to some characters including ¢, ¥, §, ©, and ®.

It may be a good idea to update your browser.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 08:35 AM

Grishka, It is Internet Explorer 8

The letter A you have put is exactly the one that shows.

I tried to change to UTF-8 again and do a restart but it still goes back to "Auto Select" and "Western European (Windows)"

User IDÂ Â
Password This is what it shows beside the login boxes at Ebay.

Thanks for your input, but I don't think I completely understand it, I am a bit thick when it comes to computers, so any explanations have to be idiot proof, lol.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 10:04 AM

The real reason for it is that the site designer is a lazy fuckwit who can't be arsed getting the HTML right, and they're using raw Windows characters instead of encoding special symbols properly,

Funny that, but I find the most likely culprit is a Mac user sending me e-mails. Or my ISP!!!!!

As they say - the number of Mac programmers to change a light bulb is one, and the rest of the universe has to revolve around him............

But then you can point the finger at broadband users for a lot of stupidity, like 10Mb e-mails of PDFs &/or .docs that say no more than a plain text e-mail can. Or they have the latest Word app and you get a .docx! But it works on their machine, it must be you!

Or my bette noir. Webmasters who change their pages by giving them new names. And they don't understand when I tell them that my links are now broken BUT the more significant broken links are all those saved favourites they worked hard to cultivate. Surfers have to look again and may not find them, but someone better! All I get for thanks is silence or the "It works on my machine" idiocy.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum!

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 10:23 AM

wilbyhillbilly, you did well giving precise information.

In IE, you can change the encoding for the page currently displayed by right-clicking on it and selecting the appropriate items in the popup menu. After left-clicking for selection, the change takes effect immediately, only for that page, and only while it is kept open. I assume this will work for you and solve the most urgent problem.

Ebay pages quite clearly say in their headers (not visible, but legible for the browser): charset=UTF-8. Same with Yahoo. This must override any default encoding you may have chosen for your browser.

In other words: Your browser is mistaken, whereas my IE8 works correctly. Some googling shows that vaguely similar bugs have been reported and declared fixed by now. Update your IE. If this does not work, I'm afraid you'll have to ask a real expert ;-). A virus/trojan-horse plugin may be at work. Fingers crossed.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 11:24 AM

I think!!! I might have found the problem with your help, after messing around with various combinations I switched the "auto select" off in the encoding box and changed it to UTF-8 all by itself, then re-booted, and it looks as though the annoying "change code" box has gone. So have the A's in the Ebay login boxes.

At the moment anyway,

Fingers crossed!

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 02:43 PM

"Auto select" means that if no "charset" statement is found in a page, IE shall try to guess the encoding by the contents, the country of origin etc. It seems that for parts of those websites, loaded in separate acts, your buggy IE version forgets the "charset" statement and starts guessing (the English content providing poor hints only).

If your trick works and you don't need "Auto select" for other sites, your problem seems solved. Consider updating your IE anyway (e.g. by the Windows automatic update option), since every month new security holes are discovered and hopefully fixed.

BTW: Most websites nowadays issue "charset" statements, Mudcat being a notable exception. In particular, I have never seen a UTF-8 page without "charset=UTF-8".

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 05:07 AM

It seems to be ok so far, and I'm set up for Windows automatic updates so hopefully it will continue.

Thanks to everyone that contributed, what a great place this is.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 06:24 AM

At least you didn't have This

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 06:29 AM

Oops... wrong link...

At least you didn't have This

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 06:15 AM

Great stuff Foolestroupe, at least if I did have that I might have been able to escape:-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 02:22 AM

Ah! This was your problem !!!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 04:06 AM

Damn! foiled again. That "Guest" by the way was me, don't know what happened, but it looks like my cookie escaped temporarily.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 08:11 AM

Unless you have an Office Keyboard ?

Subject: RE: Tech: Help please, strange letter 'A' ??
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 05:11 AM

Great Stuff.