Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: ClaireBear
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 01:07 PM

Indeed. Profound thanks to our hero Max, who has bested the dragon yet again!

C

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: michaelr
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 12:35 PM

Whatever it was, it seems to have fixed itself.

(Fixed itself? Things don't fix themselves!?)

Thank you, Max.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: ClaireBear
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 02:54 PM

Turns out it's still happening to me too -- I was just luck this morning I guess.

I didn't say warlier, but my work computer runs WinXP and IE7, which sounds like it shouldn't be provoking this problem. And it's a work computer, so I am stuck with the versions (and the browser) I'm using.

Guess I could wait til I get home to 'Cat around, but I spend almost all of my life here at work.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: michaelr
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 02:06 PM

Very helpful, Greg.

Yes, it's still happening.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Greg F.
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 01:52 PM

And, more importantly, what can be done to STOP IT!

Easy.

1. Stop throwing a hissy fit

2. Complain to Micro$oft

3. Switch browsers to one that actually works, instead of Micro$hit.

4. Don't log into Mudcat, if you refuse to do 1 thru 3.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: ClaireBear
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 01:22 PM

Michael, still happening today? It was to me yesterday, but so far not today.

C

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: michaelr
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:56 PM

And, more importantly, what can be done to STOP IT!

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: michaelr
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:55 PM

None of this explains why my browser keeps shutting down randomly when viewing Mudcat, and nowhere else.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:50 PM

A warning - Microsoft is now downloading the update to IE9 to Vista and Win7 usersas an "automatic update" and shows it as an "important" update similar to security patches. Sort of a "forced" (or is the term extorted?) update.

Since I recently found that "page saves" from sites that are, or appear to be, adding the newer HTML5 "features" were not producing openable files, I've yielded to their extortion and let them install it. (I haven't yet confirmed whether the saves are consistently more reliable.)

Things noticed in the default setup:

No Help Button. Almost useless since Vista appeared, but on rare occasions it found something.

No "View" location. That's where IE changes fonts.

No way to access my rather extensive list of "Favorites" without modifying the setup.

Internet Options is now hidden at the little "gear" icon, but you have to remember to left-click to find it. Right click almost anywhere on any bar to find and add toolbars & such.

Tabs are different colors for diffent sites, but if I have two tabs up for the same site it's almost impossible to tell which one I'm looking at. There's a very slight difference in "brightness" but not really distiguishable, and the color hides the slight linework change (lighter weight bar across the bottom of the tab that's open).

The "Tab Bar" is sort of lost in the middle of stuff, and I haven't found a way as yet to move it.

Since IE9 now recognizes the JScript stuff, printing direct from the web pages usually is blocked or fails. (The "printable" versions drop all the link indicators, so that's not really as useful. I generally print to PDF, so the excess of trash doesn't waste paper and ink, and can be edited out if necessary. I see lots more copy/paste to Word ahead, instead of just print to file.)

IE9 does seem to have fewer instabilities at the few sites I've hit (including mudcat). It's still too new to me to be sure.

The toolbars are smaller and harder to read, but actually take more of the screen than before.

The installation wiped out several of my Google toolbar icons, although it left more than half of the better ones.

The "cosmetic" changes are a mess. Perhaps the "functional" ones do something I'll discover as I try it out.

The "Reply to Thread" box shows a lot of "broken chars," somewhat as you'd expect on a very low resolution display or on a printer that's running out of ink; although once posted they come through okay. Changing font size might help, and size changes work as expected in the threads, but don't change the size of what I'm typing in the "Reply" box.

I've corrected some of the immediate annoyances; but there are still many mysteries.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: DrugCrazed
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 03:22 AM

I remember the time when you could fix half of your security holes by switching browsers.

Windows 7 I can recommend btw, and this is coming from someone currently booted into Linux. Had no problems whatsoever, and it worked on release.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: michaelr
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 01:02 AM

The status bar is flipping out on me, too: every 2 seconds it flickers between "Done" and "Waiting for javascript: false".

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:39 AM

"I'm sure I saved the links to several recent reports"

There was a drop down list to previous months on that page John.

"Those who have their own websites, and perhaps even those with "pages" on sites like FaceBook etc., may find it necessary to update their postings, to accomodate HTML5, as the "new features" become more widely used."

This is why I ASS-U-ME that the Castle Age on Farcebook now breaks older browsers than Chrome? Funny enough the Myspace version has not been updated and still works on the older browsers.

With HTML5, is it an ASS-U-MEption to expect HTML 4 or 3 code to still work?

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:32 AM

"yesterday's brain"

There's a song in that somewhere ...

Baby, I'll be loving you long after the rain
Has washed away your memory and watered down the pain
I know that I've been playing in the streets a little late
I've done some foolish shit, I know I've made a few mistakes

But I don't wanna be your Yesterday Brain
Baby, could you let me back in

I'm so lonely
Not only when you leave me, Oh Oh
I'm so lonely

sigh ...

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:00 AM

Something seems to have changed in the last few hours, and I think I like it.

Max is on the job.

For about a day, my browser opened the index (Lyrics & Knowledge) page just fine, but nearly all the individual pages showed attempts to reload "something else" at about 2 or 3 second intervals, and it was a "locked loop" that didn't quit. The status bar showed it running through links to geocities, FaceBook, and a bunch of others, but they flipped past so fast I couldn't get good idents.

Earlier today I was seeing the same sort of looping, but it appeared that the 'cat was mostly trying to reload the same thread about every 3 or 4 seconds. (You wouldn't notice what was happening if you didn't have a Status Bar turned on; but it made everything very slow and erratic.)

It now looks just fine (to me) - at least on this thread, althoug the tab icon is still winking at me, indicating "activity" that's puzzling.

This is NOT JUST A MUDCAT THING although at other sites that are experiencing problems it may not be quite as obvious.

At W3C most recent (March 2011) statistics for Web Browsers:
1 Internet Explorer 8 25.96%
2 Firefox 3.6 23.46%
3 Chrome 10 11.28%
4 Internet Explorer 7 9.07%
5 Safari 5 5.15%
6 Firefox 4 3.47%
7 Chrome 9 3.43%
8 Internet Explorer 6 3.23%
9 Firefox 3.5 2.07%
10 Opera 11 1.23%

This appears to be a mid-month report, and end of month reports show a very substantial growth in IE9 share.

Combined percentage of users for IE, including all versions, were reported in "end-of-month" stats for March 2011 showed IE at about 39%, although some surveys continue to show it above 50%. IE5 is still in fairly widespread use, not included in the W4C report, although that version is mostly "outside the civilized world" in "underdeveloped countries and maybe Australia.

(I'm sure I saved the links to several recent reports, but haven't found them where my current brain thinks yesterday's brain would have put them.)

In all likelihood, IE9 can be blamed for the flurry of recent annoyances. IE9 is the first version from the most widely used "browser family" to attempt to move fully into HTML5, and a whole bunch of site operators are trying to "catch up and be compliant."

A month ago, Firefox was reportedly losing users - mostly to IE, but their losses were nearly all to IE6. IE6 is the last version that was really compatible with WinXP. IE7 apparently works pretty well and has features that some like, and IE8 can be used but with "difficulties" on XP.

IE9 CANNOT be installed on any Windows earlier than Vista and Win7, but the Microsoft deluge of advertising has encourage those who can to all move to IE9, and lots of people are doing it.

(People here have been reporting problems with other browsers that may be the result of incorporating more HTML5 features in the new ones(?), although I can't be sure since few report details of how they fixed them.)

Those who have their own websites, and perhaps even those with "pages" on sites like FaceBook etc., may find it necessary to update their postings, to accomodate HTML5, as the "new features" become more widely used.

Even though HTML5 is not a standard as yet, it is creeping onto the web and all indications are that its penetration well rapidly become more invasive.

The "best feature" that I see claimed is that HTML5 can eliminate the need for FLASH, which IMO is a VGT (very good thing); but I'm probably a little biased.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 10:41 PM

I remember him in the earlier days...

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Bert
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 10:20 PM

Win 7 is much better than Vista.

The Fooles Troupe, Yes Shambles was someone else.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 07:37 PM

wow... I have not actively used IE for 15 years, and this makes durned sure I will avoid it like the plague.
I WILL use other browsers, and I will probably learn Linux before I go to Win 7...unless I get a bargain PC with it already installed as a spare.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Nick
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 07:35 PM

Kendall

Use 'THAT IS' instead. I'm not keen on abbreviations either

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: ClaireBear
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 07:28 PM

This just started happening today on my work computer (where I have no option to switch browsers). Odd, because there've been no updates or configuration changes since yesterday.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 06:41 PM

Sorry, Bert, I may have misinterpreted who you were talking about... sorry .. :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 06:39 PM

Now Bert,

Just because JiK is a bit like me and a obsessive pedantic who has absorbed a lot of useful knowledge in a wide range of fields that seems to go over the heads of some, there's no need to be rude.

JiK is my single most trusted source of non-BS info, especially after running into brick walls. If he doesn't know it already, or it is outside his field of competence. he will say so straight out, not waffle, lie, and make up rubbish to impress others.

Further, the obsessive pedantic lovable so and so that he is will often then further his own education and research it - and he often knows how and where to look for it faster than I do (that is itself a mark of high intelligence! - knowing WHERE to find something!), then share the results with us in a way that is understandable to the majority of us fellow knowledge obsessives.

:-P

Bert - bite yer bum!

:-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Bernard
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 12:00 PM

I'm running both XP Home and XP Pro (SP3) with IE8 (on different machines!), and find it to be perfectly stable... I'm getting the annoying cross-site scripting message each time I open a thread, but it all works okay.

Maybe it's because I refused to accept any of the bells and whistles (compatibilty, change search provider and such) when I installed it... or I could just be lucky...!

I've looked at the others (Chrome, Firefox etc.) but couldn't see any reason to change... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Bert
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 11:21 AM

Your name isn't Shambles is it?

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 02:17 AM

A quick check indicates that Microsoft thinks that IE8 is okay on XP, although there are a bunch of caveats that I haven't looked at.

Most recent info also says that if you have WinXP SP3 installed, you can't remove IE8 unless you uninstall SP3 first. After removing SP3 you can uninstall IE8, and and then reintall SP3.

IE8 has a "compatibility mode" that you can set to run some individual sites "like an older IE" but instructions for entering a site in the list aren't too clear and it's also vague about what help that would be.

This thread and some others are currently acting like someone/something left an "end marker" off something and it keeps trying to reload the same thread about every 2 seconds. Trying to type in-between the cycles is a bit tedious so I won't make long comments. On the threads that are "looping" Preview also doesn't seem to work consistently so ignore the typos.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 01:25 AM

I have confirmed that IE9 IS NOT APPROVED FOR USE ON WINXP.

Microft admits it won't work on XP.

Haven't confirmed the same advice for IE8, but IE9 is pretty much just a "rollup" of changes introduced Iin E8, so I suspect that IE8's not approved n XP.

IE8 or IE9 wll not appear in your add/remove programs list, but if you click on the "Show Udates" box there, you can UNNSTALL the update that put the new IE on, and you'll go back to your other last good version.

As said, I don't know that IE8 isn't good on XP, but strongly suspect it, so make your own decision.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 10:57 PM

Never mind Geoff, we'll keep it a secret from you ...

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 10:57 PM

Tech: Internet Explorer and Mudcat issue

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: kendall
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 07:31 PM

I hate IE

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 06:10 PM

And I thought it was someone asking how badly you had to behave to get kicked off...
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Lox
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 06:00 PM

I'm on firefox ... never had a problem :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 05:54 PM

Michael: Max had a thread on this a few days back--maybe a week.

Subject: RE: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 05:51 PM

Yep. For months I've been having no end of trouble with IE8 (with Vista in my case) and Mudcat. A few weeks ago I installed Google Chrome, and have been carefree ever since.

Subject: Tech: Getting kicked off Mudcat
From: michaelr
Date: 05 Apr 11 - 05:48 PM

Something weird has been happening the last few days. When reading Mudcat, my browser (IE8 on XP) keeps shutting down. This does not happen when reading other sites, and it appears to happen if I use the scrolling wheel on my mouse. When I use the scroll bars at the right of the screen, it's OK.

Any ideas?