BUG in Chat Room??

Subject: BUG in Chat Room??
From:
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 07:39 AM

Just a heads-up to Chat Room users and to the Java developer. This happened both last night and this morning so I am inclined to suspect a correlation:

I entered the chat room and, within a short time, someone else entered. We talked for a while, then we each had to leave.

I moved to another web page and within a minute or so, my system was brought to its knees. I am running Windows NT 4.0 on a P200 with 48MB and it was just *crawling*! I opened the NT task manager and saw that the CPU usage was zooming up to 100% for a couple of seconds, dropping to 10% or so, then zooming back up again in a more-or-less regular pattern. As soon as I shut down Netscape (version 3.01) the usage dropped into the normal 5-10% range.

Hope this doesn't give the developer too big a headache ;-) (I can sympathize -- I do this stuff, too)

Mark

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Jon W.
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 10:22 AM

What about the Java Language Null Pointer Exception? That's got to be a bug too. Joe Offer found a workaround by emptying his folder (for MSIE) but that didn't work for me in Netscape Navigator 4.03. I too can sympathize, and for the same reason as Mr/Ms Anonymous above.

(Anonymous - isn't that the person that wrote all these folk songs in the first place?:-)

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 11:19 AM

That's the problem I have--the null pointer. I haven't been able to solve my problem as Joe Offer did. It's very frustrating to open the chat room and then not to be able to chat.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Earl
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 12:42 PM

Last night I tried to enter the chat room with 3 already there and got the null pointer message. Later, with 0 in the chatroom I got in with no problem.

I can also sympathize with the programmers.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 09:44 PM

Last night I was having a nice chat, and all of a sudden my messages wouldn't post. Companion asked, "Are you still there" I was, but couldn't answer. Next I received message, "This site has committed an illegal act and will be shut down" .. When I clicked on the necessary OK, I was sent back to the original windows screen. Tried again later and the same thing happened.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 09:45 PM

Last night I was having a nice chat, and all of a sudden my messages wouldn't post. Companion asked, "Are you still there" I was, but couldn't answer. Next I received message, "This site has committed an illegal act and will be shut down" .. When I clicked on the necessary OK, I was sent back to the original windows screen. Tried again later and the same thing happened.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 09:45 PM

Last night I was having a nice chat, and all of a sudden my messages wouldn't post. Companion asked, "Are you still there" I was, but couldn't answer. Next I received message, "This site has committed an illegal act and will be shut down" .. When I clicked on the necessary OK, I was sent back to the original windows screen. Tried again later and the same thing happened.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 09:45 PM

Last night I was having a nice chat, and all of a sudden my messages wouldn't post. Companion asked, "Are you still there" I was, but couldn't answer. Next I received message, "This site has committed an illegal act and will be shut down" .. When I clicked on the necessary OK, I was sent back to the original windows screen. Tried again later and the same thing happened.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 09:46 PM

Last night I was having a nice chat, and all of a sudden my messages wouldn't post. Companion asked, "Are you still there" I was, but couldn't answer. Next I received message, "This site has committed an illegal act and will be shut down" .. When I clicked on the necessary OK, I was sent back to the original windows screen. Tried again later and the same thing happened.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 20 Sep 97 - 07:37 AM

Mr Anonymous here,

(can't imagine why the 'from' line goes away like that . . .)

I tried the chat from work yesterday (slow day) and got the same phenomenon. Worse even -- had to shut down and restart.

I suspect the Java applet is still running when you leave the page and it continues to try to connect with the chat server even though it has lost the focus. Maybe all it needs is a "Disconnect" button.

Mark

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 20 Sep 97 - 07:55 AM

Me again,

Just tried another experiment (this is what a programmer does in his spare time -- disgusting, eh?).

I went to the chat and yodeled at the bartender for a while, then went to another page. The memory and CPU went usage went crazy as usual, but this time I looked at the TCP/IP traffic on the Dial-up monitor and saw that there was nothing coming in or going out. So all the action was local to my machine.

I went *back* to the page (i.e, using the Back button) and saw the message "Connection lost. Reload page to reconnect" scrolling endlessly -- and in rhythm with the memory/CPU usage cycles (as a music chat, at least it should have rhythm ;-) Reloading did not fix the problem. I had to shut Netscape down.

Cheers,

Mark

(P.S., I hope that this is not the wrong place to put such info . . .)

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 20 Sep 97 - 08:38 AM

Just turned on the computer. Went directly to chat room and got the nulpoint message and only grey screen. And it says there is one person in there. Wonder how they did it = if there reallly is someone there.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 20 Sep 97 - 08:39 AM

Just turned on the computer. Went directly to chat room and got the nulpoint message and only grey screen. And it says there is one person in there. Wonder how they did it = if there reallly is someone there.

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 20 Sep 97 - 02:08 PM

I just tried again, too. Yes, it's true, someone is in there pointing at Nulls and the bartender is taking exception.

Mark

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Sharon
Date: 20 Sep 97 - 08:08 PM

Wish those Nulls would leave. Tonight is no exception. They are still being pointed at and they must be angry. They won't let me enter

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 21 Sep 97 - 08:48 AM

Omigod!

Three people are trapped in there this morning and the Nulls are getting hostile! Quick, call Java Lang!

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 21 Sep 97 - 12:04 PM

Omigod!

Three people are trapped in there this morning and the Nulls are getting hostile! Quick, call Java Lang!

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 21 Sep 97 - 12:14 PM

Omigod!

Three people are trapped in there this morning and the Nulls are getting hostile! Quick, call Java Lang!

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: John Nolan
Date: 21 Sep 97 - 12:32 PM

I think two of The Trapped might be Barry and me. We were gabbing in there at midnight, and Max, according to the notice board, was pottering around the room with a monkey wrench. Anyway, we just got out before the portcullis came down...but Shula? Anybody seen Shula?

Subject: RE: BUG in Chat Room??
From: Shula
Date: 21 Sep 97 - 12:41 PM

Right-char, fellers. Just encountered thet pesky pointin' null fer th' first time, dang it! What say we sic th' houn's on't en blow th' fool thang from hyar t' kingdom come?!

Shula