Friday, December 22, 2017

What?

(Source)
So I spent some time at lunch today, starting the next installment of my wee tank story. My computer at work uses Firefox as a browser, my computer at home, where I tried (note that word, "tried") to finish the post, uses Google Chrome.

Round about 2300 local, that is 11:00 PM, rather past my bedtime, I started noticing strange stuff in the post. Different font sizes, different fonts, spacing of graphics was completely messed up.

Usually I can pop open the HTML editor and fix whatever weird characters got mixed in, which happens sometimes when one uses multiple browsers. Here's what I found, literally throughout the post...
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , &quot;utopia&quot; , &quot;palatino linotype&quot; , &quot;palatino&quot; , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Head north, you see here on the map? Take that road down to Houffalize. The rest of the battalion should be there by now."</span></span><br />
Basically Firefox, maybe Chrome, decided that it needed to set the color of the font, then define the font, then change the font, change it again, again, and again, then set the background color and...

Okay, this crap is everywhere, it happens sometimes, it's Blogger's revenge for me trying to use multiple languages in a post (the next installment has French in addition to German and English). Blogger will sometimes note in the HTML, "Hey, that's German." Well, no scheisse Sherlock, it sure is. Are you going to display it differently?

No.

I didn't think so.

So I start to fix this mess. Okay, I need to go to bed sometime, while I start my Christmas vacation tomorrow, I have things to do, people to see, before flying down to D.C. for to visit The Nuke. In other words, I have to un-fire truck this tomorrow. Like the man said...



So you get this post instead, not the post with tanks and snow and fighting.

Maybe you needed a break from that anyway. So, the next installment of my little winter adventure will continue Saturday, the Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

My apologies, but I got nothing!



There are days that I hate computers. Never mix browsers, trust me.





34 comments:

  1. Hmmm...not knowing any other languages but pussycatese, I've never had a prob like that one.
    I use Mozilla's Firefox too, but whenever I have a sitch like the Live Eagle Cam at http://dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed.html had with their camera working with Firefox for a short period, I used what used to be Windows Explorer, now called Microsoft Edge.

    Much prefer Firefox...(Netscape)

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    1. Firefox is okay, I just like Chrome better. As Blogger and Chrome are both Google products, they are more simpatico than Firefox and Blogger. Every now and then Firefox's HTML gets, well, confused is the best description I can think of.

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  2. I use Firefox and Internet Explorer at work (I know, but there are some work programs which will run on IE only). Firefox and Chrome at home. Same issues. Oh, and it could be worse: ever try importing the text of a Word document into Blogger? Two pages of that on, off, color, size, off, on HTML text before you can find the first word of the imported text.

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    1. We are required to use IE for work purposes, I have permission to use Firefox when something really needs finding, IE is lame, though its successor, Edge isn't bad, though unlike Chrome it insists on showing "news" on its home page.

      As I use Word at work (extensively) I avoid using it on the blog like the plague. If I have to, then I copy everything into Notepad, then into Blogger. (Notepad strips off most, if not all, of the special characters so beloved of Word.)

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  3. There are times when we all rain curses on our computers. You seem to be strongly in the grasp of the Gods of Inanimate Objects at the moment. Doctor Dave prescribes copious amounts of Jack Daniels over ice, repeat as necessary.

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    1. In truth, it's not the hardware, it's the software which infuriates me. Having spent the bulk of my working career designing, writing, evaluating, and testing software I know its perils. Most bad software comes from managers who don't know how, telling you how. Or trying to hurry the process, or accepting bad (often very bad) requirements as "good enough."

      I could go on for hours, a bit of Tennessee Whiskey would go down just fine right now. (Reference to my other story intended, I need to go repair that first!)

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  4. Huh. I'm actually a professional text-document un-firetrucker (have gotten paid to do it in at least two of my jobs). Notepad++ and regex covereth a multitude of sins.

    Let me know if you'd like me to take a poke at it, I'm off work thisafternoon/evening.

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    1. Thanks for the offer, I just need to strip the bogus HTML out. I do this by grabbing the text and putting it in Notepad (which doesn't use HTML) and then reconstructing things. Shouldn't take more than an hour. Probably only 15 minutes. But at 2330, I was in no mood to do that.

      Ah, regex, a tool we abused, er, used on one of my projects at work. People were singing its praises at parsing data files, for which it is eminently suited.

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    2. I'm going to second a bear's suggestion. Most of the time I write the verbiage for my posts in Notepad ++ go through my first few edits there then paste that into blogger. Then I add pictures and links and only make any further edits if they are REALLY required. Still gets screwed up at times though.

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    3. Well, I wasn't sure whether it was a "just don't wanna deal with this now" issue or a "this will take forever to fix" issue, so I thought I'd offer :)

      Back around Y2K I was involved in converting electronic books down a chain from "this device does spiffy complex formatting" to "this device supports, uh, bold text, on a good day." Fun times, eBooks before eBooks were a common thing. Rocket eBook and Softbook were fun, but Microsoft Reader .lit on a Casio Cassiopeia E-115 - that's where it was at. :D

      (Well, if it wasn't sunny. LCD display tech was... Not so awesome.)

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    4. Juvat, I only experience this problem occasionally, seldom with Chrome, often with Firefox. Blogger has a "mind" of its own at times.

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    5. a bear - Yeah, it was the end of a rather long, rather frustrating day. Just didn't want to deal with it.

      Didn't much care for that tech at that time. I knew it was in its infancy and would get better. I just waited. Same for the flat screen TVs, you wouldn't believe how long I kept the old tubed monster. Thing easily weighed 200 pounds, nearly crippled a couple of sons-in-law moving it to the basement.

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    6. I only use Chrome. I don't use Firefox and I get it frequently enough to have moved to the procedures described above. As a side note, I only use Chrome for the blog, for browsing I use Brave with every filter in place. If something doesn't show there and I'm comfortable with the site, I turn off whatever filter I believe to be causing the problem then turn it back on when I'm finished with that site.

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    7. Interesting, I seldom have this problem with Chrome.

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    8. Maybe it's because you use the default font. I use Helvetica and I frequently have to reset it to that, especially when I insert pictures, the default font is applied to the caption and I have to change it back which when I look at the HTML produces the code you've described above. A div with the default and no content, then my div with Helvetica. No science behind that, just an observation as I thought I was the only one with this problem.

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    9. Actually I changed the default font in the browser to Georgia, which I prefer, I don't remember what it was before. I too used to have the problem of resetting the font after a picture insert, now I don't.

      I have Firefox set to the same default font as Chrome, but occasionally Blogger confuses itself switching between browsers. Might also be related to the OS, Windows 7 at work, Windows 10 at home.

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  5. Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

    I am positive that I use Word to only a fraction of what it can do, but it certainly beats that manual typewriter that I started with many years ago.

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    1. For documents it's the cat's meow.

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    2. Cat's meow? Only one of my cats meows, the other just puts his paw on me and tries to look pettable.

      (I use Word 2000 on my home machine. If it can't do it, I don't need it!)

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    3. My cats do both.

      Roger that on the " If it can't do it, I don't need it!"

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  6. Take a break. The 'trons will work themselves out and clear out all the line lice that have been giving you all these issues. Enjoy Christmas with your family. We will, it'll be hard, survive until you return. My best to you and your family at this Christmas season. Safe travels.

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    1. Thanks SoCal. At least The Nuke has internet, if it was over the river and through the woods, not so much. (And yes, Mom is a bit irked that I'm not going to NH for Christmas.)

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  7. Firefox is my browser of choice, though the other options are there.
    I liked Blogger much better before they started improving it.
    Yesterday it stole a video that made up the entirety of the post.
    Which reminds me, I should go make sure it hasn’t vanished again.

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    1. Yeah, I noticed that. Hence my comment "Than?" It's there today.

      I don't use Blogger's built in "post a video" tool because, it sucks. I used to then noticed that after a week or two the video would vanish.

      Ah, well.

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  8. Must be something in the air. I've had this computer now for about a year complete with Windows 10. Windows 10 likes to update, alto it can't for some reason on my computer. Rather, I click on a white box and it restores my previous version, and I go on.

    Like I said, something more than this much needed rain is in the air this morning. Time after time after time, I click the white box, attempt to restore doesn't happen, it cycles back to the white box. Even got brave and turned it off a couple of times. White box returns.

    Began banging on the F11 key. Screen flashes too fast for me to read. Finally got it. Press the ESP key. I do, blue screen telling me frankly, it's dead.

    Seems HP can do a restore, but I lose everything. Currently backing up everything, hoping this works. This is not the season for me to have a big expenditure to fix or replace this box filled with lots of funny looking widgets inside. And no, HP didn't send me a Windows 10 disk. My life nor my livelihood doesn't depend on this computer, but my entertainment does. Merry Christmas and thanks Santa.

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    1. Some hardware set-ups don't like Windows. Microsoft needs to do a better job with their updates. If I don't want it, don't even ask.

      My old computer was very happy with Vista, then Microsoft decided my computer should be updated. I said no, MS insisted. Killed my computer that update did. You'd think the software pukes would check the target hardware to see if it's compatible. Then again, MS management probably wants your computer to die if it won't run their latest crap. And it often is crap.

      All software is faulty, it's the nature of the beast. If you have something that works, you just haven't pushed it hard enough.

      That's what I do for a living. Pushing a system until it breaks. No, software developers don't like me. Go figure.

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    2. Thanks Sarge... brought computer in May and Windows 10 and I have fought everyday. And having worked for a software company.... I know of the "push."

      Late afternoon, if anyone is interested,somehow screen presented troubleshooting. That took a couple of hours and now working. And the hours I spent using HP's backup didn't work.

      Not having wine with this cry, but having a stiff scotch.

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    3. Have another, I think you've earned it!

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  9. Thanks for the post. Not up to your usual standards, but you knew/know that. What is up to usual standard ( or perhaps setting new heights ) are the comments.

    My take on electrons is: no one I know has ever seen one, so I don't trust them. They are sneaky scoundrels and desert you when you need them most. If it ain't on paper, it ain't real.

    Paul L. Quandt

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  10. BTW:

    How in the blue eyed world did I miss your first years of blogging? Ok, I've bookmarked your first post and, as time/life permits, I will go back to read all of them.

    Paul L. Quandt

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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