WYSI’sntalwaysWYG – Part 2

The Webernets0 comment

Continuing on from the last few post’s about how the layout of this site appears in Internet Explorer, as opposed to every other browser, both obscure and popular, David from Digital Raindrops suggested I run the sites code through the W3C Validator to see if there are any errors.

W3C Markup ValidatorAnd sure enough, I had simply forgotten to close a Center tag on an image, which in true IE fashioned, spilled over and ruined the entire site layout, where every other browser was able to deal with it. In the end it was my fault, but I did learn some interesting stuff along the way. Adobe have a feature online now called “Cs Live Services”. As yet, I haven’t had time to explore them completely. What I did find is that Adobe have their own equivalent to Browser Shots, called Adobe Browser Lab.

Adobe Browser Lab Logo

It is free until April 2012, after which time I expect it will be quiet expensive, and part of a much broader package of software, as Adobe seems to me to be wanting to move us all to using their products online instead of locally on our computers, in an effort to thwart piracy of their programs. Like most Adobe stuff, it looks great!

Browser Lab InterfaceAs you can see, it has considerably less choices than Browser Shots, but it has more than 90% of the world’s computer users covered, which also makes it faster. The drawback for me is that the default size setting for the results is 100%, meaning its a one for view, it shows your site EXACTLY, size and all. In the options, you can reduce the size to only 75%. If you want to view two browser views side by side in a 2-up configurations you had better have a BIG screen.

Browser Lab 2 up Side by Side viewA very useful tool, and my suggestion is to use and enjoy it while you can!

WYSIsn’talwaysWYG – Browser Incompatibilites

The Webernets3 Comments

Browser Shots LogoSince I have building sites, I more often than not run my creations through browsershots.org to see how they look on multiple browsers. Browser Shots presents to you a screen capture of how your site will look on dozens and dozens of different browser and operating system combinations.

Browser Shots main interfaceIt’s a very handy tool. I am using it myself right now to troubleshoot this very site! As you will see from the capture below, this site looks right in most browsers, most except all variants of Internet Explorer of course!

The Webernets as viewed using Browsershots.org

FreeNAS re0 Watchdog Timeout Error

The Webernets1 Comment

FreeNAS re0 Watchdog Timeout ErrorLike most FreeNAS errors, this one just appeared out of nowhere, on a system that has been untouched, and running trouble free for some months. Once the error showed up on the screen, I was unable to connect to my shares, or the Web GUI to trouble shoot it. The term “RE0” was a giveaway, because I remember when I assigned the NIC it was given this label. My first thought was that the NIC card died, and I replaced it with an identical card I have here which I know is good. This didn’t change anything unfortunately.

After a short search through my files and found a backup of the FreeNAS configuration XML file I had made recently (A habit I have gotten into with this system). With this in hand, I selected option 4, and reset the system to Factory Defaults. After rebooting and re-assigning the interfaces, to my surprise everything came back up. After logging in through the Web GUI and being able to access things again, I tried to restore the settings from the configuration.xml file. This failed badly. The system would not boot from the hard drive now, and even though all the data is backed up, I still got that sinking feeling in my stomach.

After inserting the Freenas Disc in the drive and setting the boot order in bios, I was able to boot the system from the Live CD. Knowing I had my raid configuration in the XML file, I  re-installed the FreeNAS operating System onto the hard drive, re-assigned the interfaces, and was again back to factory defaults. I again logged in through the Web GUI and backed up the clean install XML file, and then opened it in text editor. I also opened my original backup file from when things were good, and compared the two. I did find the problem.

Freenas Tuning

When I compared the two files together I noticed dozens of additional lines in the backup XML file, that weren’t in the fresh one. They looked like these:

System Code Freenas Watchdog Timeout Error

Then it struck me that what must have happened, is that FreeNAS was tweaking itself, and I guess it must have made a mistake somewhere along the way. I unchecked the box in the Advanced settings panel, removed all of the extra lines of code that contained “System tuning” from the backup XML file, and restored it into FreeNAS, and VOILA! It was all back online, my Raid 5 was in tact, and everything was back to normal.

I have been using it for a bout 5 days now since implementing the fix, and it is back to its old self again. It hasn’t skipped a beat!

Update

11 Aug 2011 – I have just been playing around again with my Freenas and found I can trigger this error immediately by filling in the MTU option. Leaving this field blank works fine, but the second I try to set it for something like Jumbo MTU (9000) it goes into error mode the second I try to remotely access a share.

 

Why does Intenet Explorer see web sites so differently?

The Webernets0 comment

During construction of this site, I have viewed it on Firefox on both Mac and Windows, and Safari on the Mac, and it looks great! For some reason, I just fired up Windows to check it out on Internet Explorer…….

The last thing I expected was to see this:

Webernets screen grab in internet explorerWhy is it that the dominant web browser interprets web site code differently to every other browser? Who’s right and who’s wrong?

If you are viewing this site with IE, I apologise, and will try to sort this out soon.

Some Dog Stuff

The Webernets0 comment

As this site’s header says, “Tech, Web, and a little bit of Dog Stuff” – it is my great pleasure to post a few pictures of the original “Dog with Blog”, Charlie – The Big Dog.

Here’s C-Bux helping me install Freenas on a box we built specifically to be our home media server.

Charlie helping install FreenasAnd here’s Charlie listening to “Who Let The Dogs Out” on my Blackberry 9000 Bold.

Charlie listening to music on Blackberry 9000 BoldI really do miss The Big Dog – Daddy loves you Very Much buddy!

WordPress Plug In SPAM alert – Post Page Associator 1.3.21

The Webernets4 Comments

This is so disappointing. Dennis Hoppe has written a really really good plugin. Post Page Associator allows you to create a “page” in WordPress, and place content from one, or multiple categories on it, and by modifying the associated CSS file (or creating your own template) you can make it look just the way you want. It truly is a great plug in. There is a paid version, and a free version. The free version is where my issue with this plugin begins. Now, WordPress is created and made available for free, not to be sold. Even though some plugins on third party sites are commercial, plugins that appear in the Official WordPress Plugin Repository are also meant to be free. This plugin appears in the repository HERE. On the authors own site, he bills the program as free from the repository:

Dennis Hoppe Site GrabSo imagine my surprise when I activated the plugin and saw this in my Dashboard:

Dashboard Spam Screen Capture from WordPress DashboardNot only did it appear in the Admin dashboard, it also appeared under the “Editor” permissions group as well. Thankfully, I don’t have “subscribers” activated on this particular site, as I expect (but can not confirm) it would appear in the subscriber dashboard panel as well. If this isn’t bad enough, should you choose not to donate to the author, and click the button in the bottom right labelled “No thanks, Remove this box now!”, as expected the box goes away……..and so does the plug in!  It de-activates itself!

RANSOM and ULTIMATUM! Pay up, don’t use it, or live with a very large obtrusive and ugly nag screen in everybody’s dashboard,  that’s your choices.

I believe this is a violation of the spirit and terms of WordPress, and I call this “Dashboard SPAM”. I have no problems with plugin authors including a “Donate” button on their plugins “settings” page, or an advertisement for their plugins paid version, and its benefits over the free version, but I feel what the author has done in this case oversteps the mark. At no point during my selection and installation of this plugin was I asked to accept this term/condition.

I have just been looking to see if the author has made a note anywhere about how to remove the spam part, and I stumbled upon THIS thread. The first thing that caught my attention is that the author does indeed provide a way for you to remove the spam when asked – his answer:

How To Remove Spam GraphicAnother suggestion in the thread states that removal of the “donate.php” file is all that is required to make it go away. This may have been true of previous versions, but in the current 1.3.21 version, no such file exists. In the current version, the author has renamed this file to “contribute.php”, and now, simply deleting this file will crash your entire WordPress install. The author has written it in such a way that there is code in this file that code elsewhere in other files looks for, and if it doesn’t find it, it WordPress crashes.

Post Page Associator is not, and will not be used on this site.