PriusChat Software Update May 2014

The auto-play, videos appear to the biggest problem I run into. Google linked news stories, especially the LA Times, have become functionally useless. This is not PriusChat specific but afflicts multiple browsers. The symptom:

• page appears to be rendering while initial video is loading
• once video starts playing, browser(s) 'weird out' with locking being too common

If I am fast enough, I can hit 'stop' on the video ad and the rendering completes. In effect, the auto-start video has become a negative sales message, a barrier to the original web page. The ads software is killing the goose by trying to lay a too big, 'golden' egg.

Bob Wilson

FYI, I am seeing more of these scrambled, renderings:
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But I run an older browser, Safari 5.0.6, on an older OS, 10.5.8, on an earlier processor, 1GHz PowerPC G4. So I'm not complaining, just sharing how it is.

Bob Wilson

 

Safari on iOS 6 and 7.

It seems that "jump to newest" is working now, except for old threads. This is just like on the desktop, but the lack of a "jump to first unread" makes it more painful.

I only reproduce this on my phone. The iPad shows everything ok since there's more space.

 

Download the Chrome app and try it out. I use it on my iPhone 5 (ios 7) and get the jump to first unread.

 

Thanks for the offer but I became suspicious when trying to read the "Tesla Hollywood" crash stories and had multiple Safari crashes and hangs. Then I remembered Steve Jobs advocating HTML5 once said 'flash had security issues' so on a hunch, I've removed:

• "Flash Player.plugin"
• "Siverlight.plugin"

Suddenly I can read the "Tesla Hollywood" crash articles without Safari hanging and crashing. This doesn't mean the rendering problem is resolved but it sure suggests my browser and system is in better shape than before.

Bob Wilson

FYI, I found the XGAUGEs tables had been converted from old to new format. To whomever, THANKS!

Bob Wilson

 

Testing ad generated links:

• A rear bumper. # Ad based link showed up in the text in another post
• bumper # Just checking, no link.
• bumper. # Just checking, no link.
• back bumper # Another test, no link.
• back bumper. # no link.

The problem with these stealth links is it suggests the original poster meant the link to be there. It in effect 'borrows' the poster's standing and reputation to assert this is a link that has merit. Also, they don't show up instantly so the original poster might not know the link showed up.

Suggestion, let the ad based, links show up as they do now but by default, let the original poster link be something different. Perhaps a default, color difference.

In the world of problems, this is a gnat but sometimes gnats are there. Here is an image of what my browser shows:
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Bob Wilson

 

Thank You!

I appreciate the 'upper line' for the advertiser-generated links. I'm not adverse to such links but just wanted someway to identify the author or in this case 'the not-author.'

Bob Wilson

 

Well that was interesting:

IMG]ettp://priuschat.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/hiwaay.net__bzwilson_prius_dash_170.jpg /IMG]
versus:
IMG]ettp://priuschat.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/hiwaay.net__bzwilson_prius_dash_1409_021.jpg /IMG]

I was changing the scale on a graph in the monthly dashboard report only to discover one stopped updating:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/dash_1409_020.jpg

Normally if an image is wrong, doing a browser "reload" causes a fresh download of the image to the browser cache and the problem is solved. But it didn't work. Then I noticed the PriusChat server has its own cache and I had no clue how to refresh it with a new image.

As a workaround, I made a second copy of the image on my server with a slight modification of the filename. I'm not really complaining as much as curious why cache images on the PriusChat server?

From my point of view, it looks like additional disk space is needed on the PriusChat server for the image cache. Depending upon the size, that could be substantial. It also increases the network load on the PriusChat server as it uploads and shares out more images. It isn't clear what advantages this provides but then I'm not hosting PriusChat.

The advantage, depending upon the retention period, is parts of the internet that some network providers who like PriusChat but hate other servers are 'fooled' into displaying images hosted from the other servers. For example, if AOL has a mechanism for serving images but other providers think AOL is populated by 1200 baud, AOL newbies, well voila, the PriusChat image cache solves the problem . . . until the image ages out.

I know everyone is busy but I am curious about the technical details of the PriusChat, image cache.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

ps. I often re-read my posts, after a brief break, to edit what I didn't see in the original. In this case it was the image of a graph that I was trying to fix. . . . then my changes stopped showing up.

 

If you think ads when you say images, caching makes a lot of sense, the responsiveness of PC is not dependent on some other site.

 

An update: I disabled AdBlock today, since it seems to use a lot of resources, and the site's still working fine, apart from additional ads. This is contrary to it locking up, per my postings in the previous few pages.

 

Well someone associated with the site DID post a message or two on here that the worst offenders had been found and eliminated; just about the same time you started using AB, I think.

 

Well, AdBlock off lasted about 36 hours for me. Sorry, but the site is close to unusable with my pc setup, Win7 and IE11: as often as not the site locks, and locks IE as well, has to be shut down and restarted.

If enough people are needing to do this, begs the question: are the advertisers getting value...

 

This is most likely IE, not the site nor AdBlock. I have the same setup as you, but I'm using Firefox with no problems.

 

Ran into a 'Catch-22':

• To change e-mail address, the original e-mail account has to work.
• If the original e-mail account is KAPUT, the bad e-mail address can not be used.

I have a few computers with cookies that let the 'bwilson4web' account work. But I can not change my e-mail account from the dead '[email protected]' because . . . I have to be able to hit the confirmation link sent via e-mail to the dead '[email protected]'.

Understand, I am OK with making a new account and abandoning this account . . . after 9 years of postings. But my request to "Moderator" remains pending. I'll send a separate e-mail to Danny. Just I'm suggesting perhaps an alternate mechanism is needed or allow the e-mail address to be changed without dependency on the old e-mail account.

The reason for this post is I've forgotten my PriusChat password and it can not be changed without a valid e-mail. Then a year or so ago, Microsoft forced a change in Hotmail and the '[email protected]' account got 'lost.'

Bob Wilson

 

^^ Yep, I ran into the same problem some time ago. Neither the mods or Danny were helpful so I opened a new account.

 

And I have evidence to the contrary.
I went BACK to IE from Chrome, for this site only, because of some other compatibility issues and it is working just fine.......with AB.

 

Browser problems with PriusChat is one big whack-a-mole.
For now, at least, Safari on a Mac with OS 10.10 is working wonderfully.

I switched to Safari* because Chrome is an energy hog, but PriusChat performance is an added bonus.

*My MacBook Air uses about 5 watts these days. Pretty damn awesome.

 

I have been a member here for some time, but only have time to visit the site when I am having trouble with my Gen II (2004 130k). I do think the look and feel of the new site. But I do not seem to be able to get the search function to work worth a crap. I have tried in IE and Chrome. Am I doing something wrong? As a test I tried to search for my past posts and that returns with no search results. ?? Yes and I have tried the advanced search. I am well versed in search strategies, so I am not an idiot. What am I doing wrong?

Probably this is not the best thread for this post, but I would need to search for it....

 

As a result of this week's database meltdown the search does not find any posts between early June and yesterday at the moment. However, a Google site search will find all posts.
The format is:
site colon priuschat.com "search term"
Put an actual colon between site and priuschat.com, without any spaces. Can't show it that way here as it gets translated into a smiley.

 

Like this?


Bob Wilson