Tuesday
We are still stamping on bugs which a minority of people have reported due to the major Samizdata.net re-design.
Some of the 'hard to reproduce' bugs people have reported in some OS/browser combinations are proving a tad challenging to hunt down but we are still persevering.
I am using:
Netscape 7.01
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01
No comments appear on your main page. I am using the "printer friendly" version to make comments.
Simon
Posted by M. Simon at January 27, 2004 02:08 AM
hmmm... I am leaving this comment via Netscape 7.01 (XP pro rather than Win98 howver), using print/B&W mode... and I see your comment just fine. How odd.
Posted by Perry de Havilland at January 27, 2004 04:18 AM
A few people were seeing GIANT TEXT... hopefully that is now cured. We are still trying to get the Mozilla strangeness fixed which causes the main column to get rendered off the page to one side for some folks (that can be fixed by just refreshing but we are seeking a perminant fix).
Posted by Perry de Havilland at January 27, 2004 04:24 AM
Damn the Bugs Full Speed Ahead
Great design, keep it up
Posted by gmroper at January 27, 2004 05:17 AM
I'm using IE 5.0 on Win98SE, 800x600 resolution, and I'm still having the GIANT TEXT problem for blog entries. Comments are fine though.
Posted by Andy Danger at January 27, 2004 06:02 AM
Just to let you know that Firebird on XP hasn't given me any of the grief that's been described by some with it on previous threads.
Great new look!
Posted by David Mercer at January 27, 2004 07:19 AM
A bit more detail on the one I mailed you about yesterday: I'm using Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 on Windows 2000.
The centre column - the one with the stuff I actually want to read - appears squashed to the right, an inch or two wide,
with a big blue void to its left
The rest of my browser collection on this Windows 200 machine: IE 6 is fine. Netscape 4.7 shows a completely blank blue page (but who gives a shit?)
Posted by Alan Little at January 27, 2004 09:25 AM
Now working ok in Moz Firebird; quick work.
If you have time, and if you don't thinkit would be too boring for most of your readers, I for one would be interested in a blow-by-blow of what the problems were and how you fixed them
Posted by Alan Little at January 27, 2004 10:58 AM
Now working ok in Moz Firebird;
I cannot confirm that already. If you are one of the few who encountered that behavior in Firebird, note that a reload of the page usually fix(ed) it - so that may still be just that.
On the other hand, the Big Text Bug in IE 5 - that we formerly believed was fixed and that I eventually reproduced this morning on my oldest PC running W2000 with IE 5 - is squashed now (fingers crossed and other parts... sorry).
Make really sure you empty your cache though.
Now I am back to fix a problem in Firebird that I can't actually see. A bit like building a house of cards in the dark.
I'm five minutes next to bomb something big or strangle little fluffy animals with big imploring eyes. See you on the news.
And I always wanted to be lumberjack, to begin with.
Posted by the dissident frogman at January 27, 2004 11:43 AM
Are you aware of BrowserCam? It will generate a screen shot of a given URL in your specified OS/Broswer combination.
It's a pay-for service. I seem to remember there being a free version of the same thing. But we're all capitalists here, we don't mind paying for things.
Posted by Rob at January 27, 2004 12:08 PM
IE55 on NT, getting giant text, if I use the tools option to reduce text size then the comments become miniscule, far too hard on my poor old eyes.
What was wrong with the old design anyway?
This is making it very hard work to read your stuff. What a pity.
Does anyone here remember Hutber's Law? "Improvement means deterioration"?
imho this is a prime example.
Posted by Andrew Duffin at January 27, 2004 12:14 PM
The irony of course, considering Perry's venomous post about Safari, is that this blog looks wonderful in the latest version of Apple's browser.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at January 27, 2004 01:17 PM
Andrew the 1st:
IE55 on NT, getting giant text, if I use the tools option to reduce text size then ...
...Then it means you are actually loading the previous version.
Please make sure you emptied your browser cache (once is enough). Simply hitting "Reload" or F5 will not do it.
Andrew the 2nd:
As far as I am informed, and unless the world suddenly rises to contradict me on this, the bugs are only affecting a minority of people, some of them with similar configurations as those who are not.
This is actually the puzzling bit of the story.
Posted by the dissident frogman at January 27, 2004 01:35 PM
Nope, definitely fine for me now in Firebird without a refresh, and definitely wasn't before
Posted by Alan Little at January 27, 2004 04:05 PM
Actually, I quite liked the old style...
One thing I really would like to have seen fixed before messing with the style was to move that list of links over on the left. I am on dialup and it often takes a *long* time for that list to be loaded before the main blog starts coming in. And Mozilla can display pages before they are fully loaded so sending the blog stuff first would be a *big* win. At least put the links in an iframe or something so they can be cached.
Rich
Posted by Richard Thomas at January 27, 2004 04:10 PM
GIANT TEXT is now gone for me. Thanks guys.
One more niggling suggestion though: maybe use text justification instead of standard left-alignment? It just looks more attractive that way, IMO.
Posted by Andy Danger at January 27, 2004 06:15 PM
Well, since my post above, things are now all wonked up in Firebird 0.6 on XP. All of the main text is now squished over in the right hand side, off screen, visible only if you scroll right.
Un-fix whatever that last fix was since they, please? :-)
Posted by David Mercer at January 27, 2004 08:19 PM
No bug report, but if you're going to use a 3.5k gif on every post, you're killing the people who surf the web on a 56k modem. Either optimize the graphic down to less than 1k, or think about not using it in every post.
Last time I checked a survey, around 45% of surfers are still on modems at home.
Posted by Meryl Yourish at January 27, 2004 08:52 PM
Giant text went away for me, but your DARK on DARK colour scheme is not an improvement.
Most of the graphics are indescipherable or annoying little blotches.
Posted by Fred at January 27, 2004 10:11 PM
Do you have to put so many guns in the design? I know libertarians are supposed to be in favour of gun legalisation, however the style seems to suggest that libertarain=gun nut. Why not have a picture of some cannabis, someone shooting up with heroin, or some gay people getting married?
What I am trying to say here is that there are plenty of images that could be associated with libertarianism, and I don't think pictures of guns, guns, and more guns will create a good impression in the eye of many potential readers who might otherwise be open to your ideas.
Posted by Della at January 27, 2004 10:14 PM
(...) if you're going to use a 3.5k gif on every post, you're killing the people who surf the web on a 56k modem.
If by that you mean the separator graphics, notice that the same .gif is used in every occurrence...
That's the beauty of caching: static resources (picture, whatever) are loaded once from the server, and then stored on your HD. Every other instance will be served from there, no matter how many there is on the page. It only hurts the first time.
I swear I don't kill people who surf the web. Only little fluffy animals with big imploring eyes, and only when the voices are talking.
Posted by the dissident frogman at January 27, 2004 10:23 PM
Ok, now this is really weird. I just realized that the 'main column way to the right' issue in Firebird on XP happens every other time I load the page.
Style sheet weirdness? Theories?
Posted by David Mercer at January 28, 2004 01:48 AM
Della said it much more eloquently than I could. I'm sure most (if not all) of the site's contributors and commentors (myself included) are in favour of the right to bear arms, but all the gun graphics just send a rather abrasive message. If I were coming to this site for the first time and that was the first thing I saw, "gun fetishists" would be my first thought. Believe me, that's not a stigma you want if your goal is to reach out to a wider audience.
And I'm going to repeat myself until told to shut up, because I'm nitpicky like this: 1) Justified text for the centre column would probably look better than left alignment. 2) The two side columns on the left and right could stand to be just a bit narrower to make more room for the centre one. 3) Images at the top could stand to be shrunk about 30%.
What can I say, I value substance over style. This is one of my favourite blogs, so I hate to see the content get smothered, even it the new design is lovely otherwise.
Posted by Andy Danger at January 28, 2004 04:01 AM
"Ok, now this is really weird. I just realized that the 'main column way to the right' issue in Firebird on XP happens every other time I load the page.Style sheet weirdness?"
Nope. Gecko's 'wonderful' engine reserving space for a Javascript string (the very common ASCII email address anti spambots concealment) that it's not supposed to render as such anyway.
This is actually the reason why those who were affected noticed that everything was fine when they turned JS off in Firebird.
I'm looking for another way to embed Samizdata's email contact. In the meantime, I have removed the 'offending' bits of code. As far as they fully clear their cache one last time, the Gecko based browsers' users should be fine.
Posted by the dissident frogman at January 28, 2004 09:10 AM
Oh, good...the GIANT TEXT wasn't intentional! I thought it was a design element. It was like having a pack of angry limeys in my living room shouting at me.
Mmmm...much better.
Posted by S. Weasel at January 28, 2004 11:17 AM
S. Weasel:
Why... But... Pfff...No, I mean... it was intentional at first, really. We, err... We thought that since the last line of the Social responsibility statement could sound a bit insensitive as far as disabled people are concerned, it would be a great idea to counterpoise it by being extra careful for the visually impaired.
What, you don't believe me?
Posted by the dissident frogman at January 28, 2004 01:03 PM
One never knows how to broach these subjects, does one? I mean, "yo, frog dude! this has to be a bug in my browser, because nobody with a working pair of eyeballs would cough up a hairball like this on purpose!" seems a little...I don't know...
Posted by S. Weasel at January 28, 2004 02:14 PM
seems a little...I don't know...
insensitive maybe?
That would have been my first thought as well. But then, I had an exclusive reading of the Social responsibility statement, when battling with the code to set this thing up and I can proudly claim that I understood almost everything.
Consequently, I learned from it the following lesson, a golden key to my emancipation from the chains of political correctness:
Disabled people are homosexuals like whales in the rain forest which is why they should be seen as valued customers of the proxy violence of the state. Thus, go read Popper in a wheelchair.
Knowledge will be freedom, once I'll get the wheelchair.
Posted by the dissident frogman at January 28, 2004 02:41 PM
Mozilla 1.6 final, Win2k SP4 - all the content is squashed up on the extreme right (past the window border, no matter what the size of the window is). This happened yesterday and was fixed with a reload, but it is happening again now...
I like the new design - but then I'm a spoilt broadband brat ;-)
Posted by Dominic at January 29, 2004 04:13 PM
Well worth a few bugs -- the site looks awesome! And works perfectly on my plain vanilla IE6.
Posted by jk at January 31, 2004 08:44 PM
