I usually use a photo of Henry for these hodgepodge posts, but this time we have a new addition to the pie filter from Avalune, so we get Henry and Eeyore.
You might be hard pressed to decide which is more adorable!
Okay, so let’s see what I can fill you in on.
2020 Fundraising
We changed out what’s in the special blue box up top – top right. That is now a link to DougJ’s All 2020 Fundraising post. So that will be your quickest route to seeing all the BJ thermometers in one place. I also added that to the hamburger menu for all you mobile peeps. You can still easily find the previous posts that have more detail about who and where and why we’re fundraising for various groups and candidates in the sidebar under Election Action!
Election Action!
I’m not sure you guys ever look at the sidebar, but there is an Election Action! area which is probably worth looking at if you want to get involved for the next 60 days. It has a link to all the individual fundraising threads, to MazeDancer’s voting plan illustrations for BJ peeps, and to the list of 100 things you can do to get involved in trying to save, well everything.
Team Claire, and Family
In the hopes that we will be able to do some things to help Dave’s niece and family on an on-going basis, we changed the name to make it more inclusive of Paige and the parents. Amazon wishlists for both girls, and for the parents, have been suggested. Waiting to hear yay or nay from Dave on that, but in the meantime, keep an eye on that area if you’re inclined to want to stay involved. That’s where we’ll add links when there are updates, so everyone can see them even if they miss a post from Dave in real time.
Recent Comments
I’ve seen reports from 2 or 3 people that Recent Comments aren’t always the most recent comments, even when you have refreshed the thread. So chime in below if you have experienced that.
Balloon Juice Calendar
Beth and I have talked about getting started way earlier on the BJ calendar this year – and wrapping it up way earlier. So unless you want your pets to be wearing their Halloween gear for their photos, please start collecting your photos. There will be more info once Beth and I have a chance to talk about this again, but figured a heads up in advance is always good!
Links in the Footer
I have to confess that I dropped the ball on updates to the Blogroll, the BJ Author and Artist lists, and the new Twitter-roll. The pandemic has left me with less heart and productivity than usual, but I plan to pick up where I left off on all those things. You guys had a lot of great suggestions for Twitter Feeds to add, so look for a link to that to show up in the Footer in the near future.
Pie Filter
Eeyore, pictured above, has been added to the pie filter. Note the fallen cupcake next to Eeyore, which allows him entry to the pie filter. Avalune is so talented – we are lucky to have her!
Mobile Menu
I try to remember to add new items to the hamburger menu on mobile, but I can’t add everything or the list would be longer than my arm. So if there’s something in sidebar that you would like to see on the hamburger menu, please chime in below. Also, if there’s something in the hamburger menu that seems old or out-of-date, let me know that, too.
Featured Image and Twitter
We’re trying out a new default featured image for the sidebar and John’s twitter feed. Its maiden voyage is tonight, in this post, and if it works, it could possibly replace Tunch as the featured image, so that at least people wouldn’t wonder why there is a gorgeous, and beloved (!) cat next to a post on healthcare or Black Lives Matter. If a front-pager selects a featured image, the image they selected will show up, so what we are changing is what shows up if a featured image hasn’t been selected. Feedback welcome, as always.
That’s all I can think of at the moment; I’m sure you’ll let me know what I’ve missed – in the comments.
Alison Rose
Okay, I had just accidentally clicked the link for the BJ store instead of the next post link, and then was like, “Oh hmm, I wonder if they’ll be doing another pet calendar” and then I came back to this post and was like…………….I am psychic.
I don’t have professional quality pics but I’d be interested in submitting. My kitty isn’t doing so well these days, but I’ve been begging her and praying to God (who is def a cat person) that she makes it until Biden’s inauguration.
NotMax
Chime. Yes, but not experienced consistently. Sometimes they keep up, other times they don’t. No pattern so far as I can discern.
debbie
Love Eeyore, but I noticed this morning that those I had pied were no longer pied. I didn’t do it, either.
Avalune
Henry is more adorable – no contest.
artem1s
I’m a dummy, could someone explain how to use the pie filter?
WaterGirl
@debbie: Hmm. Did you clear your cache? Or use a new device? Or come to the site in private browsing?
Those are the only reasons you should lose your pied peeps. Let me know if it is or is not one of those.
FelonyGovt
Click on the picture of the pie above the number of posts. Select the commenter you want to add. @WaterGirl:
WaterGirl
@artem1s: Do you see the cherry pie that’s just below the circle with the number of comments in it?
If so, click on it.
There are 3 tabs. The one on the left lets you select who to pie. The middle one shows who IS pied, and if you click on them they get un-pied. The third tab lets you choose between the default (dessert images) or dessert-related sayings, or nothing except for the pied commenter name.
As soon as you close the box, your changes are automatically saved and your pied people are pied.
FelonyGovt
@artem1s: Click on the picture of the pie above the number of posts. Select the commenter you want to pie.
ETA Or what Water Girl explained much better.
geg6
IT ALL SUCKS AND I HATE IT. MAKE IT LIKE IT ALWAYS WAS!
/s
You’re the best, WG. Simply the best.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&source=hp&ei=-XVVX874NLuKytMPrZyoqAY&q=video+of+tina+turner+singing+simply+the+best&gs_ssp=eJzj4tFP1zcsNjAty8nKrjJg9NIpy0xJzVfIT1MoycxLVCgpLcpLLVIozsxLByIgnVuQU6lQkpGqkJRaXAIAblwVUQ&oq=video+of+tina+turner+singing+&gs_lcp=ChFtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1ocBABGAMyAggAMgIILjICCAAyAgguMgIILjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjoCCCk6BQgpEJMCOgsIKRCxAxCDARCTAjoFCCkQsQM6BAgpEAo6BAgpEEM6CAgpELEDEIMBOggIKRCxAxCTAjoFCAAQsQM6CAgAELEDEIMBOgUILhCxAzoECAAQAzoFCCEQoAE6CAghEBYQHRAeOgQIABANOgQILhANOggIABAIEA0QHlDLFFjWpwFggrkBaANwAHgAgAHNBYgBkS2SAQ4xNi40LjcuMi4xLjEuMZgBAKABAbABDw&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp
TaMara (HFG)
Would it be possible for each FPer to have a set image if they don’t choose a featured image? she asks because she has Proud Nasty Woman image she uses when she remembers. ?
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I’ve done all of those things on my iPad, but not on my MacBook. Would that disappear them from both?
WaterGirl
@geg6: I’ve never had that many people clap for me before!!! :-)
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: (The world’s largest cherries are in that pie. – https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-cherry )
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): I wish! You can get a plugin that would add a featured image, but that would add the same one for everyone.
edit: unless something has changed since I looked into it last, which was many months ago.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I would say that two devices keep separate lists, but since they are both apple, I wonder if they talk to one another.
It would be easy enough to test. Pie person A on the iPad. Give it a day and see if person A shows up pied on the MacBook. Then add person B on the MacBook, and see what happens with the iPad.
I have both of those devices, too, so let me know whether you want to do the test or if I should.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Holy cow, that’s a big cherry!
lahke
Thank you, very clear on how to apply a pie filter, but I’m in the dark on what it does, and Mr. Google only shows me flux capacitors or some such. May I infer some kind of personal ban, or is something more active produced?
Baud
Chiming.
SiubhanDuinne
I love that picture of Tunch! It sounds to me that he will still be the default image if a Front-Pager doesn’t choose a Featured Image of their own. Is that right?
Another Scott
@Baud: Ding ding.
It seems to be a server-side caching issue.
WG’s instructions to (roughly) “click here to refresh if you don’t see the tabs above the comment entry box” works to give an accurate and up-to-date listing of Recent Comments when it’s being cranky.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Always, sometimes or rarely?
Baud
@WaterGirl: Sometimes.
ETA: Especially when I’m in a prior thread.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I love the picture of Tunch, too, but there are complaints about wanting to share on twitter and there’s Tunch, who we love, but it makes no sense to other people who aren’t BJ peeps to have a cat with a story about COVID, or whatever.
I will mark that down as one mark against the idea of going to the new image. It will be up to John, of course, and he’ll tell me I’m a fool for asking for input, but that’s okay.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Yeah, and that’s what I’m trying to discern. If it happens to 5 people, very occasionally, then a workaround seems okay.
But if it’s a bunch of people, frequently, that’s a whole different ballgame.
WaterGirl
@Baud: So you’re in the 3rd thread down
on the front page, and 1 and 2 are higher up on the front page. You are in thread 3 and even if you refresh, you don’t get the latest comments.
But if you are in thread 1 or 2, and you refresh, you do get the latest comments.
When this happens, are you reading from the front page, or from within threads?
Is that correct?
Baud
@WaterGirl:
When I click on this link, the top comment in Recent Comments is your comment in this thread at #24.
Black cats rule
@WaterGirl: WaterGirl, I wish I had half your energy. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and dedication to this blog.
WaterGirl
It works perfectly for me on my Mac, using Safari or using Chrome.
Scott and Baud, are you using Firefox or Chrome or some other browser when that happens?
Phone, tablet or desktop?
Wondering if you have another browser on your device or a different browser on the same device if we could narrow it down.
WaterGirl
@Black cats rule: Very kind of you to say, thank you!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
i will tomorrow.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Great! I will be interested to hear the results!
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Firefox on PC.
Samsung browser on phone.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I assume it happens on both or you would have said otherwise.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I think so, although I don’t record when it happens. I just know it happens a lot.
artem1s
@FelonyGovt:
@WaterGirl:
thank you! would have never occurred to me to try clicking on the pie. duh!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: I’m seeing the same behavior as Baud. Win10, MS Edge.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Edge is getting good reviews.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: It seems to be OS and browser independent for me.
E.g. Android phone, using Brave. One thread down, it said the most recent comment was at 8:30 PM (mmp on Dumbkirk) after you’d already posted your 8:33 PM comment here.
I see the same (inaccurate Recent Comments list) behavior on my MBP running Chrome and UBlock Origin (and FF without UBO) as on my Win10 machines running Chrome and UBlock Origin.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I dropped Chrome for Edge, I like it.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: So when it’s happening to you in real time, it happens on all your devices? But it doesn’t happen all the time.
is that a true statement?
Yutsano
Chime. Firefox on both Android and laptop. And the commenting issues I mentioned before on mobile are still happening but it looks like it’s just me.
frosty
@Baud: @?BillinGlendaleCA One flaw I noticed with Edge. If you want to delete your history you need to log into your Microsoft account. Can’t delete it from the browser like Firefox or IE. WTF? Am I understanding this wrong?
ETA: sorry to hijack your post WG. You’re doing a great job for the blog.
NotMax
@Baud
Even though Edge is Chromium-based, in one respect at least it beats Chrome as Edge allows one, after a fashion, to override autoplay videos. Not as consistently not universally as does Firefox, but so it goes. Chrome does not offer an option to squelch autoplaying at all.
Baud
@NotMax: Autoplay is the devil.
NotMax
nor universally, not not universally in #44.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
I’ve always wondered: Can I pie myself*? If so, would that make it impossible to see my own comments?
*By mistake, that is
Baud
@Amir Khalid: Try it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty: I’m on Windows, so I’m always logged into my MS account.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I honestly don’t pay much attention to the Recent Comments. I mostly just use the left/right flyout buttons on the desktop (and the equivalents on mobile) to move up and down the list of threads that seem to be active. So, I can’t say how reproducible the RC behavior is. But, when I do pay attention to it, it seems like it doesn’t get updated consistently.
I rarely look at B-J on my phone because commenting on a phone is a pain no matter how good the mobile version of the site tries to be. :-)
HTH a little. Thanks for your efforts in improving things here and trying to keep us happy!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
If you have an iCloud account and linked them they are linked. Ask me how I know this…..
However my phone and my computer have different pie lists because I spend far more time on my computer than my phone while on BJ and that didn’t change when I did the above. So, I’d say that each device that you read BJ on keeps separate cookies, so they might normally have different lists.
Uncle Cosmo
Back arrow is a hot mess of failure interspersed with occasional successes. One back is usually OK, two or more you could end up going backward, forward, to a different thread or an alternate reality. Kind of an important feature if you want to track back through a discussion, since Our Bloglord of Naked Mopping breaks out in hives the size of tennis balls if anyone even mentions “threaded comments.”
And yes, I have bitched & moaned about this for months, without so much as an acknowledgement that a problem exists. We should not have to memorize the number of the last comment I was at in order to scroll back there after the back arrow dumps us in West Bumfuck.
Avalune
@Amir Khalid: You CAN pie yourself but you have to type your own name in the search box to do it – so it seems unlikely to occur accidentally.
Elizabelle
EeyoreCake!
Thank you, Avalune. Love it.
And, of course, Henry is Just. The. Best. Never tire of that little face.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: IIRC, the pie list is kept in cookies, so they’re different for each device(they’re stored locally).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Uncle Cosmo: I’ve given up on the back button.
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: The problem is well known and has been discussed many times. You’re not being ignored – don’t take the behavior of volunteers here so personally.
Cheers,
Scott.
Avalune
@Elizabelle: hah, glad you like it.
NotMax
@frosty
Too late if you already have one but Edge can be installed and run without creating an account.
As for deleting Edge history, CCleaner will zap it when you run it to clean up stuff (so long as the history option(s) for Edge enabled).
If you’re installing free CCleaner, be alert so you can uncheck other stuff it might want to install at the same time. Believe they’ve cleaned up the installation on newest versions to eliminate such, but never hurts to be on the lookout.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
The “Recent Comments” list malfunctions a lot, especially in any thread that is not the latest one and also when blog traffic is light, e.g., overnight.
I am certain that it is an artifact of the site cache, which has other problems (the 5nn errors). There is no reason for the recent comments list to be cached, since it probably takes more time to do that than to just go to the comments table and get the info for the last five comments.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Microsoft account not required to run or use Windows.
Just sayin’.
WaterGirl
@frosty: What better place to talk about that kind of thing?
Another Scott
@NotMax: True, but they do their best to hide that fact. They’re kinda evil that way.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: What I’m saying is I wouldn’t know since I’m already logged into my MS account when I use Windows.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Yes, you can pie yourself! I did it all the time when I was testing before rollout. :-)
You can always click on TOGGLE to see the pied comment, including your own. The nym still shows up, you just can’t read what they’ve written if they are pied, until/unless you hit TOGGLE on a pied comment.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
I would almost guarantee that it’s happening to a lot of people, if not everybody, but most people don’t notice it. It’s an issue for people who keep a tab open for each thread and want to see where new comments are popping up.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Also what’s passing weird is when, for example the COVID post, timestamped 5:00 a.m. blog time, shows up on the front page at 5:00 but a preceding late night post (if there is one) timestamped 4:55 a.m. doesn’t show up on the front page at all until 5:15 or 5:20.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus:
Yes, that is how I have always expected it to work, but because of debbie’s weirdness with the pie filter, I did wonder if Apple would somehow share it.
I’ll still be interested in the results of her text. If it disappeared, there has to be a reason. Or a bug.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: They are literally stored in cookies on a computer, but on mobile and tablets, they are stores in something “like” cookies. This according to the developers, during the development cycle.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
More often than not have multiple B-J tabs open; in the habit of refreshing the front page only to check Recent Comments, as don’t have to scroll up within another tab to see them.
;)
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Macarons? Zweiback?
:)
Another Scott
@NotMax: Interesting.
I typically have 8 or so tabs on my phone, and about 3 dozen on my play computer, and two windows of about 3 dozen [tabs each] on my work computer. But those are all of different sites. Having multiple tabs for B-J seems, er, excessive.
Now, if Recent Comments were always accurate after a refresh, and could be opened as its own simple page, well that would be worth a separate tab to me!
[eta] – That is, I probably put a lot of unnecessary load on the server and the dB going up and down the list of threads looking for something new. If the Recent Comments list was/could be a simple page, then it would save all that client-side refreshing.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): What I believe I know about the Recent Comments issue, at least until someone else reports disagreement with the patterns so far:
Hopefully that will give the developers something to work with.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: No kidding. I hate Microsoft. Sometimes you go round and round with Microsoft and it seems like the only option is to say,”fine, fuck you, I will sign up for your stupid account even though I shouldn’t need one.”
Ask me how I know.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: #1 is wrong. When I was griping about it months ago, it was on my MacBook Pro (MBP). (It’s on the shelf now, waiting for me to replace the HD cable.)
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Caramel deLites/Samoas !
NotMax
@Another Scott
I always have a tab with the front page. At the moment, 2 additional B-J tabs (one for this thread, one for the previous thread) as well.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I believe that you can connect all of your Apple devices in such a way that they will share cookies. The entire iCloud signing on process is not exactly clear about what that means for each device but it seems that it hooks them together rather strongly. How strongly is I believe dependent on exactly how you answer some questions/procedures. It’s been a bit since I did this and while some things are OK some are of course not and in the end I’m not sure it makes any difference. Maybe it just seems intrusive.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: You sign up for an account since it’s your login and so you’re able to sych across devices. It’s the same with a Google account or an Apple account. You can setup windows to work with a local account..
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
Yeah, that’s a new one that seems to happening more often in just in the past few weeks.
There’s one thing that could explain it, but i am not there to see if that actually is what happened.
The way WordPress handles scheduled posts is STUPID. It doesn’t just post when the clock hits the scheduled time. Someone has to be actually loading a page on the blog at the exact time the post is scheduled to go up.
So On The Road is scheduled for 5:00 am. If no one has loaded a page at the exact right time, it says “Schedule missed” in the Posts page on the back end. You can go in and click on the scheduled time, hit “OK” and it goes from “scheduled” to “Publish”.
Let’s say that Anne Laurie puts up her post at 5:15, and then notices that OTR says “Schedule missed”. She goes into my post, goes thru the process i described above, and hits OK. Unless she changes the time, it publishes at the 5:00 am time that it was originally scheduled for.
So it will slide in front of her 5:15 post, even if she hit OK at 5:30.
So if you look at the time stamps, you wonder why it says OTR published at 5:00 am, but it didn’t show up until later.
Do I know for sure that this is happening? No. But it’s one possibility. If it’s an early morning post on a given day, and you tell me the posts and times that are weird, I can check to see if Anne Laurie did indeed rescue my post.
Since I am sleeping when OTR goes up, and often she is not, we have an agreement that she will fix it if she notices that it has missed the schedule.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
This is true the list is stored in cookies.
However in the Apple system if you have an iCloud account and add all your Apple products to the account, they are linked. I believe that you can limit some of the links between products and I seem to remember doing that when I opened my iCloud account. But I also believe it is possible to link cookies between products so if one did that you could have the same cookies on a desktop and a phone. I’m not digging in to find out if that’s actually the case or not.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, I’m talking about Microsoft related to using a Microsoft product, like Outlook, on a Mac. Sometimes they still back you into a corner and the only way out is to make their fucking account, even though you don’t need one. Have I said that i HATE microsoft? :-)
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl, @Another Scott:
My quick test results:
At 9:28, I went to the thread “There’s no comfort in responsibility,” the last one I had open before I left the computer this afternoon. Latest comment listed: germy at 5:17 p.m.
I refreshed the page (with the browser refresh button). Latest comment listed: WaterGirl at 9:21 p.m. on “Hodgepodge,” seven minutes ago.
I pressed the double-secret “really refresh” button. Five new comments in the list, none older than 9:26.
This was Firefox on Win10. I have duplicated similar results with Edge and with two browsers (Samsung Internet, Chrome) on my Samsung Android phone.
ETA: And, hell, when I just opened this page (9:39) for the first time it had Ruckus at 9:35 as the most recent comment. Hit the double-secret refresh button and immediately got BillinGlendaleCA at 9:37 and gretchen at 9:38. The list is not working right!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl:
Heh, I feel the same way about the fruity company.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Can you see that I am giving you the evil eye? :-)
What browser would you have been using on your MacBook Pro?
I use Safari but have tested it with Chrome and it never has the Recent Comments problem.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Here is an experiment you can perform:
Open a recent post in a separate tab. Leave it open until tomorrow morning. Then refresh it with your browser refresh button and note the recent comment times. Then press the double-secret refresh button and see if the results are still the same.
satby
@TaMara (HFG): That would be wonderful!
raven
RIP Lou Brock
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Well, int he example cited both the COVID post and the belatedly appearing earlier timestamped post are usually both Anne Laurie authored.
Aleta
Amazing work WG. However do you do it? All I know is you’re one of the rare ones.
I recognize this desire is probably not possible given so many other important topics…. but if it ever works out to feature Covid higher up, that would be great. AL’s series excels as a snapshot of the pandemic’s breadth day after day; I can imagine some first time visitors who might decide to keep returning just to check it once they notice. Covid was at the top of many commenters’ priorities post-election, so the posts also reflect a top concern here. + A fateful moment in world history and all that.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
I have been thinking about switching to Edge, or at least giving it a good test, after seeing the reviews and also reading that Firefox’s market share is down to some amazingly low number. (Amazing to me.)
I ran Edge for a bit last week and ran into a few small nits that irked me, e.g., couldn’t find a way to specify exact screen zoom size. (Didn’t pursue that at the time.)
ETA: Oh, dear, this comment is not appearing in the “Recent Comments” list. ?
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I called MS after I had a continuing problem with Netflix. They were using an MS program to play video, which you down loaded for free from Netflix. However the program was always being sidedated. Which means they kept working on it and it had to be replaced to work but it for sure wasn’t an update. One time I could not delete the old program, which you had to do every time, to load the new, sidedated program. Netflix told me I had to call MS. They told me I had to pay them to tell me how to delete their program so I could reload the crappy new one. I told them I had a better fix. I’d take my computer and run it over with a truck so I didn’t have to use any of their crap ever again and go down to the Apple store and by a computer that worked. I did. It was a major improvement and was worth every penny spent. As far as I can tell I have no MS software nor hardware in my possession. And I’m a better person for it.
WaterGirl
@Uncle Cosmo:
It’s fair to say that the back arrow has not been fixed. But it’s not true that I have never acknowledged the problem. I have acknowledged the back arrow issue from the start.
NoraLenderbee
@lahke: It’s the same as an “Ignore” button. When you add someone to the pie filter, their posts are hidden from your view. Other people can still see them.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I use Chrome almost exclusively everywhere, except on my phone (Chrome doesn’t/didn’t allow ad blockers on the mobile version). I tried it with FF (and I think Safari) on the MBP back then as well.
https://balloon-juice.com/2020/07/22/site-update-3/#comment-7787485
That doesn’t mention Safari, and I can’t easily test it right now.
HTH. Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
But then, so is Roll-Royce’s.
;)
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
The developers got paid good money to deliver a working blog. The back button (and page navigation) function has not worked right ever since the rollout.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I come by my Microsoft hate through direct experience.
Curious whether you have used the fruity company products yourself?
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
I suspect there are scheduling issues in the back office automation, but that’s not my monkey, not my circus.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I did that test earlier on several tabs that had been open for at least a couple of hours. Recent comments was perfect in multiple threads with just a regular refresh.
But I can try it in the morning after an overnight. It’s on my calendar for tomorrow: “try Steep’s recent comment test”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: I’ve been a MS customer since 1983(PC-DOS), I have a copy of Windows 1.03. I have never and will never own any product manufactured by the fruity company. I do have a couple of Hackentoshes.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
I just hit “Comment” in whatever thread I’m in, then scroll just below the comment box to see the other “Recent Comments” list there. I keep my BJ browser window at less than full screen so I don’t get line spread and see all the flotsam on the right side. (But I know it’s there when I need it, WG!)
I hardly ever go to the front page.
WaterGirl
@satby: Hey satby, I am curious to know if John’s tweet for this particular post shows up reasonably on your Kindle.
Or is it only when you tweet out a thread yourself that you would get the huge Tunch that would look weird and be frustrating?
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Yes, but WG explained why it’s broken long ago. It’s the way they chose to use whatever FYWP parts they’re using and not because WG is ignoring him – she’s not the coder.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Ah, so it sounds like even on your computer, you are running in width that gets you mobile mode.
Is that always the case?
I wonder if that would be true for Scott, also. And for NotMax and Yutsano.
Ruckus
I commented down a couple of posts that it was 115 here and the air is crap. It’s down to 102…..
There is a rapidly growing fire about 5 miles from me up in the hills of the San Gabriel mtns which has grown from 200 acres to 1800 acres and growing, as of an hour ago. So we know why the air is bad here, the smoke can be seen from Long Beach, about 25 miles away. It’s in wilderness area I doubt any homes are threatened and there is a burned out area between the fire and homes, the Ranch and Ranch 2 fires did that.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Mm hm. Have gotten accustomed to it (but don’t have to like it) that if I switch to other tabs from a comment thread tab and afterward again open that comment thread tab, the page position is nowhere near where it was when I left.
If, say, was at comment 121 when left, then when return the page might be at the footer, or comment 103, or 82, or 11. No rhyme or reason to the change of positioning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: It’s a nice cool 98 here. Remember, it’s a dry heat.
ETA: The sun(before it set) was a Trumpian orange.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: Yikes, that’s hot. And bad air is awful. :-(
frosty
@WaterGirl: I am forced to live with Microsoft. I don’t know how many accounts I have. I find it weird and unsettling that the Edge search history is saved in my account on one of their servers instead of my hard drive.
Did I mention that I hate “The Cloud”? Another way of saying that somebody else has your data.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
A lot of your bullet points are suppositions, not facts.
It does seem to happen on Macs, as Another Scott reported. Just because other Mac users have not noticed it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
“Recent Comments always works in Safari and in Chrome on a Mac.” Suppostion. Would love to see some actual testing or observation on this.
“It only seems to happen on PC or android devices.” Not according to Another Scott.
“It seems to happen more overnight or when traffic is light.” Supposition. I (and probably NotMax) notice it more overnight because traffic is light and we’re looking for new stuff.
Also, see my comment at #83. It’s happening in real time right now (at least on my machine—I’m sure not on any Macs in the vicinity!).
dnfree
@WaterGirl: many years ago there was a saying, still true: the only time Microsoft will ever make a product that doesn’t suck will be if they make a vacuum cleaner.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
98 here, sun just set. At the house we hit [checks] 108.7 today. Not the predicted 112, so winning!
WaterGirl
@frosty: Yep. Long ago, everything was saved on mainframes. Then everyone had their own computer, and your stuff could be saved there!
Then we got servers, and your stuff wasn’t on YOUR computer, but it was at least under the control of your organization.
Then they called it “the cloud” and suddenly everyone wanted to put their stuff up there.
It’s all full circle. Over and over again.
It’s like tech support. It should be centralized. No, it should be local. It should be centralized. No, it should be local.
Argh.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
No mobile mode here. Full screen. Any additional compustuff is done on the second monitor.
BillinGlendaleCA
Come sit by me. Unreservedly an un-fan of anything Apple, techwise.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: Had never heard that, but I laughed out loud just now when I read that.
frosty
@Uncle Cosmo: I’ve been using BillInGlendale’s workaround for months. Click on the timestamp then on the nym. It sends you to the previous comment and the back arrow (sometimes hit it twice) takes you back. Works through a chain of comments too.
The extra click is a PITA but it beats memorizing comment numbers.
FelonyGovt
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Down to 81 here (in the un-air conditioned South Bay) and the air smells smoky.
Leto
@Ruckus: Jeebus… stay safe man!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@FelonyGovt: I went to Malibu last night to shoot the sunset, it was nice and cool. As soon as I hit the hill going up Kanan you could feel the heat increase. It’s down to 97 and smokey outside. It’s 89 here by the window A/C, but 104 in my bedroom(no A/C).
NotMax
@frosty
Uh huh. The name is the giveaway. What do clouds do? Release their contents widely and/or disappear at uncertain times and places.
:)
Redshift
To follow up on a query from MomSense in the previous thread, if there was a Trump boat parade in the DC area today, it wasn’t big enough (or disastrous enough) to make the local news.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack:
Of course they are. But you have to start somewhere, and stating the patterns that seem to be forming That’s why I wrote this.
In troubleshooting, you have to start somewhere. You lay it out and see if you get confirmation of possible patterns, or not.
I have more information now than when I put up the post, which was part of the goal in raising the issue in this post.
That’s helpful.
frosty
@NotMax: Good one!
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
No, no, no! The whole BJ page is there. I can always scroll to the right to see that stuff. I just have it narrowed a bit so I can concentrate on the comments. I’m still in “desktop mode” or whatever it’s called.
Correction to my previous comment: reducing the browser window like this does not change the BJ comment line width.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Sorry. “What I believe I know” sounded more definitive than you explained it here.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
Things are the same, but different. A tax preparer I worked with had all his work backed up on a hard drive that he kept at home, well away from the office. Our tech people convinced him to try the cloud backup feature. He was reluctant, but agreed.
One day a flood ripped through the community and damaged his home and his office. But he was soon able to setup at an alternate site, restore from the cloud and get back to business.
ETA. True stories. When I helped out with customer support, I once had a CPA tell me he had to go because pigs were running through his kitchen.
I once had a manager tell me that mainframes would always be used for tax practice, because PCs could never be up to the task.
Oh well. My weather app tells me it is 105 degrees at 7:42 pm. Time for some hydration.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Got it, no worries. I’ve saved Tunch’s picture to my own photo album, so I’ll just visit him whenever I feel the need.
Ruckus
@dnfree:
I’ve never heard that particular line but I agree with it 100%.
I used MS operating systems since the very early 70s because all of my manufacturing software was written for it. OK except the one that ran on Unix. Which was a freaking disaster – not Unix, the mfg software. I got my money back. My first computer was an Apple II that we used as an editor to create 1 inch punched paper tape. That replaced a teletype machine and was a major improvement. So I was on MS stuff until 2012. I have a burning hate for a number of humans and things and MS is on that list and rates about as high as shitforbrains.
Kay
The postal service hires contractors to pick up mail from each office and take it to larger processing centers, but the contractor in any given area is local- because they’re traveling the same 60 to 100 mile route every day- and their trucks are marked with “US Mail”. So how did a Budget rental truck enter into this?
NoraLenderbee
I really hate the GUI on Chrome, and therefore on anything that looks like Chrome. Plus I don’t want to be one of Google’s “customers” any more than I already have to be. Firefox rulez.
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: Not good. I’m so sorry to see the whole state on fire like this.
We have a fire warning in Western Washington, that includes the regions surrounding our area. It is in effect until at least Wednesday. It’s not terribly hot here but it’s very dry. This evening I caught a faint whiff of smoke, but I don’t know that anything is on fire yet.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
So before the company or software existed?
Ruckus
@FelonyGovt:
Local temp here in the east SG Valley is 102.
Now for those that think 115 is hot, Woodland Hills in the SF Valley, west of me a bit, hit a new high today. The old high was 119, in 2006. One hundred and twenty one degrees. 121. I’ve seen hotter in the middle of the day, in the desert but not by much.
opiejeanne
@dnfree: I worked in Silicon Valley for a few years in a tech startup, and my boss kept doing beta testing on our computers.
For years I had an essay from the back of a big tech magazine, proclaiming that Bill Gates was the devil. It was funny, and true enough that the recent grads (dating one of my daughters) hired by him were offended when they spotted it on my fridge.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Both of those locations are close to the Post Office on San Fernando and Justin. The next main street from San Fernando is Glenoaks
dnfree
@Brachiator: I once took an HP class where the instructor told us about a client who called him in to help recover in some kind of disaster, I don’t remember what. The IT manager (actually it was probably DP manager in those days) showed him where the computer room was and started packing up his briefcase to leave. The consultant asked him where he was going, and the manager said “I’m quitting. I haven’t done a backup in two months.”
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Hey I’m old! Slack please!
OK it was released in 1981 but it was when MS dos was first introduced. At least I knew it was early in the decade it came out…..
dnfree
@opiejeanne: And was the computer magazine Computerworld, or Datamation? Or am I too far back?
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
When I worked in pro sports the parent company was still using a mainframe (OK not a huge one but IBM all the way) and had PCs on every desk, mostly running as a terminal to the main computer. Because IBM told them that was the only way. We did have, in 1995 Lotus software, which worked swell!(ish). Of course few could use it as they did no training whatsoever. Fun times.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: “DOS isn’t done ’till Lotus won’t run.”
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@dnfree:
Oh, man! That hurts. ?
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
That’s not funny. It is true though, even if it wasn’t intended to be. But Lotus was I think, doomed from the start, by trying to do too much within a system that was severely lacking, both MS dos and hardware at the time.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: The DOS/Lotus battle was yet another example of Gates wanting everything and doing everything he could to crush anyone who got in his way.
But, that was long ago and not worth much more than entertaining stories these days. Certainly not worth me recycling rants about OS/2 and so forth…
Grr…
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Ruckus:
Lotus doomed?! Hell, 1-2-3 was one of the most successful apps of the 1980s. It was the first “killer app” for the IBM PC and contributed mightily to its success. I did a lot of sheet-spreading on that program.
Didn’t use any of their later stuff.
The Moar You Know
@WaterGirl: I love Microsoft. Absolutely adore them. Their crap software and catastrophic dev process – which has gotten SO much worse with the move to Azure and 365 – has kept me employed for the last 18 years and will ensure I have a job as long as I want one.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: I never used Lotus Notes, but the way things go in cycles, I wouldn’t be surprised if old Notes users get a feeling of deja vu with what MS is trying to do with Teams.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Lotus Manuscript was my…second word processor immersion (after Wordstar). Missed it when I was shunted to WordPerfect, and then I missed “reveal codes” when I got shunted from that to MS Word, which I’ve been mired in since.
PageMaker to InDesign on the desktop side, but seldom do that anymore.
rikyrah
Henry????
Another Scott
@trollhattan: I wrote my dissertation on WP 4.2 for DOS and used that experience to get my first temp job after graduation (using WP 5.1). My favorite word processor was DeScribe on OS/2. ;-). It’s amazing how much more dynamic and exciting the computing world was back then when so many companies were fighting for customers in their own niches.
The US letting MS crush the industry was something that we’ll all be paying for for a long time. When I’m Benevolent Despot, things will be different!!1
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
I loved WordPerfect 5.1! It took a long time for the Windows-based word processors to overcome the sluggish overhead of the GUI. Agony.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Make it so!
We can all compose on TicToc. :-)
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: It’s getting worse with each iteration of Word. The stupid gigantic Ribbon. The stupid extra step(s) in the File -> Save dialog. It’s so annoying.
But, hey, it’s “new” so we have to keep getting the “new” version…
Something something get off my lawn something something.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
I keep my Word pretty stripped down: draft mode, hide the ribbon, try to remember key combos so that I don’t have to go through the menu, which gets worse with each “improvement.”
Uncle Cosmo
Acknowledged & so stipulated. I got a tad histrionic there.
But it is so aggravating. On a blog without threaded comments it is next to impossible to follow a discussion that’s buried in a thicket of irrelevant posts without a properly functioning back arrow. No one should have to note the number of the comment s/he is leaving in order to find the way back after abandoning most hope to the whims of a feral, not to say rabid, back arrow.
Recognizing that one has a problem is the first step in solving that problem – but without steps 2, 3, … N it is insufficient. Any of those on the horizon?
Uncle Cosmo
@frosty: I’ll try that. Any repetitive stress injury on my clickfinger I will blame on you. You have already lost serious brownie points by abandoning Maryland My Maryland to skulk in Pennsyltucky & have precious few left to squander; be warned. ;^p
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: hahaha
opiejeanne
@dnfree: It would have been about 1994-95. It was a magazine that they just dropped big bundles of everywhere, but it was well-produced and fairly thick. Could have been Computer World, but I’m not sure. There were so many that we had floating around the office.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: Might have been PC World.