xiven.com stating the blatantly obvious since 2002

Further casualties

Looks like I'm not the only one who's having problems with PHP's session handling...

Posted: 2002-11-28 07:01:25 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (0) | Comments (0)

Well don't I look silly now...

Apparently there is a way to set a PHP configuration variable using a .htaccess file (thanks Dreamhost). I really wish I'd known about this a little sooner.

So anyway, the problem is now solved. Valid XHTML and sessions working together in perfect harmony (or something like that).

Posted: 2002-11-22 12:34:11 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (1) | Comments (0)

I suck? No, blame PHP!

I received word that my website was producing invalid XHTML. Naturally I went to investigate...

XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://xiven.com/blog.php?start=13&count=1
Line Number 21, Column 59:<h2><a class="stamp" href="?start=13&amp;count=1&PHPSESSID=82...d4">2002-11-13 23:25:55 UTC</a> Can someone please make IE not suck?</h2>

What you are witnessing above is PHP tacking its session ID onto the end of a URI. It does this when it thinks that the client can't use cookies. It is a wonderful new feature added in PHP 4 for making sessions work without needing cookies and without the author needing to add the session IDs to the URIs manually (it sometimes seems to think that the client can't accept cookies even when it can, but that's another issue).

Unfortunately, by default, PHP uses an unescaped ampersand (&) to do this, which is clearly invalid HTML. Since I'm sending this page as XHTML, Mozilla sees this error and quite rightly says "Ey up! Something's not right here!". It is possible to change this behaviour by editing the configuration files, but since I don't have access to these files, this presents a slight problem.

For now, I am disabling the use of sessions on this website. This means that I can't login to add any further posts, but hopefully the e-mail that Hixie sent to our host will get this issue resolved ASAP. Either that or I find another way around the problem.

Posted: 2002-11-22 06:27:37 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (4) | Comments (0)

Turtle power! (well almost)

...and the application of the year award goes to ..... TortoiseCVS!

I was very impressed with this program. Not only is installation and configuration very simple (it has a well-designed UI, it integrates with Pageant seamlessly), but the way it integrates into Windows Explorer is nothing short of genius. It modifies the Explorer icons to be green when the files are unchanged, and red when they have been changed and need to be committed. All CVS operations are done from the right-click menu of explorer.

5 gold stars.

Posted: 2002-11-17 02:10:08 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (0) | Comments (0)

Helpful error messages

cvs [checkout aborted]: end of file from server (consult above messages if any)

This is me trying to get WinCVS to connect via SSH using RSA authentication. As you can see I'm not getting very far thanks to the extremely helpful error message given. And no, there are no "above messages" so no help there.

Posted: 2002-11-16 15:44:50 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (0) | Comments (0)

Can someone please make IE not suck?

When I have a table of width:100% inside a fixed-size div, it would be rather nice if the table took up 100% of the div width and not 100% of the screen width. IE6 makes a feeble attempt at getting it right, but it only works (partly) if I make the table width:99% instead. IE5 makes the table disappear off the edge of the window creating a nice horizontal scrollbar.

This is just one out of my rather large list of complaints (I should write them all down actually - there's a thought) about Internet Explorer which will no doubt remain unfixed even in IE7 (after all, why would Microsoft want to listen to its users?) Now Mozilla is far from perfect, I will acknowledge that, but it's pretty darned good because when a bug is found, people actually try to fix it. I'm also looking forward to version 7 of Opera which, if they get it right, could become a very nice browser that might even be able to cope with Voidwars.

Posted: 2002-11-13 15:25:55 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (2) | Comments (0)

Discussion via IRC topic

So far today, Kam and I have missed each other on IRC at least 3 times. Each time, we've left a message in the topic for the other to read regarding making the signup page of Voidwars work. And each time, we've both thought that the other was completely bonkers. It should be sorted out now though hopefully...

Voidwars is currently undergoing major "surgery", but should hopefully be up-and-running within a week (finally!)

Posted: 2002-11-13 10:08:53 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (0) | Comments (0)

It was only...a matter of time

It looks as if the spammers have finally caught onto the idea of using the Messenger service in Windows XP as the new media for their filth. I received one such piece of spam today (recent-ish install, forgot to disable messenger) and it appears I'm certainly not the only one.

The Messenger service (not to be confused with Windows Messenger) is nothing new, it's been around in versions of Windows NT since about v4 (maybe older). It's intended as a means of sending administrative alerts to other users on a LAN. Unfortunately since it makes no distinction between LAN and Internet, anyone can send a message to anyone who has the Messenger service enabled.

Messenger has been used for evil purposes in the past. Several years ago at an I-LAN which was held not long after Windows 2000 was released much havoc was wreaked by certain people who found it fun to message the entire workgroup (which can cause some games to effectively alt-tab out, much to the frustration of the person who was about to get that last frag to win the match). It was also used more recently to scare people into thinking that Microsoft were tracking their use of illegal software.

Since until recently NT has remained the domain of big companies and the more technically-minded users, no-one has really bothered to try using it for spam until now. Now XP is on the scene and has become widespread, it's a different story. Since there are so many WinXP users who have no idea what the Messenger service is let alone how to disable it, I can see this becoming a much more widespread problem.

The solution of course (under Win2k and WinXP) is to go into "Computer Management" (easiest way is to right-click "My Computer" and click "Manage"), go to "Services and Applications", then to "Services", scroll down to "Messenger" and double-click it. Change the "Startup type" to Manual and click the "Stop" button. Click Ok, and it's disabled. I'm sure you can figure out how to re-enable it for yourselves should you want to.

End public service announcement

Posted: 2002-11-02 17:16:15 UTC by Xiven | Cross-references (0) | Comments (0)