Schinckel.net

I’ve implemented a Floating Window in JavaScript. I’ve actually had it going for a while, I just hadn’t gotten around to finishing the writeup yet. See it at Floater.

I have come to notice that commenting may not work properly from IE at the moment. I’ve got a JavaScript that does a heap of stuff - one of the things it does is re-enable Comments if JavaScript is turned on. However, since this function is called later than the one that creates the Links List, it doesn’t get called if the latter fails. Which it does under IE’s broken implementation of JavaScript. I’ve updated the script, and I hope this one works. If it doesn’t please email me - if you don’t have access to another browser and can’t leave a comment.

I was testing my site in Opera, and because I have some code in the template that shows the referrer as obtained by the browser down the bottom, I can see where I came from when I visit my site. Imagine my surprise when I came across the following: I haven’t been able to find out anything about this in the Preferences, but it seems so bizarre! Needless to say, I hadn’t been there (this was in fact from a page that was loaded by typing in the address!). A refresh on the page removes this from the referrer, so this value must be generated by Opera when a referrer doesn’t exist. I wonder if it’s a sideline business for them. Not happy, if it is. For the search engines: the address is http://quegu.topcities.com/online-poker-rooms.html I’m not linking it, deliberately.

…but not as much as Internet Explorer. I’ve tried to make my blog, and by definition the template itself, work with every OS/Browser combo I can. And I’ve noticed one big similarity between Opera and Internet Explorer. Stuff that doesn’t work in one tends not to work in the other. That is, Opera is almost as crappy as IE. For example, I wrote a script that creates a list of links in the current post, and it failed in both of these browsers. The worst thing about this is that it’s damn near impossible to test (easily, at least) without making a change, reloading, repeating. With Firefox, you can easily get a JavaScript Bookmarklet that opens a JavaScript Shell, allowing you to experiment with commands, a-la python. Which can then be used to create the final script. At least Opera allows you to see what’s going wrong with JavaScript. IE’s pathetic attempt at error reporting (popping up a dialog box on each error is a real quick way to get yourself turned of, error reporter) is unproductive. Opera can display errors, which quickly enabled me to figure out what was wrong with my script. I think.

I use eBay semi-regularly, but I don’t tend to sell stuff on it, and there’s no way they’d have my credit card number on file, or any sort of regular payment. So the email pictured below was clearly (to me) a Phishing attempt. What makes this one different to most that I have seen is that there aren’t any spelling or grammatical errors, or at least none I picked up on a casual read. And I tend to notice these type of errors. With no intention of putting in my real details, I copied and pasted (Gmail had kindly noticed that it was a Phishing attempt, and had Spam-binned it already) the URL, which clearly wasn’t an ebay address. The site that came up was rather ‘correct’ looking. Even though there is a tipoff here: right at the bottom it says:

Be sure the website address you see above starts with https://signin.ebay.com/

and it clearly doesn’t. It does have that in there, and that might be enough to fool a less experienced user. Knowing full well that this was a phishing attempt, I put in a nonsense username and password combination: adolf.hitler and nazism. Unsurprisingly, it appeared as though I had logged in, and loaded up the next page, which is very scary. Okay, so you want my Credit Card number, and the three digit authorisation code, but also my PIN? Fuck-a-duck. Anyone who puts that in there is just a wanker. Seriously, if the banks say don’t give your PIN to anyone, why would you need to give it to eBay? • I have come up with what perhaps should be the first step in testing to see if a site is a Phishing attempt or not: make up a garbage username/password combination, and see if that works. If it does, it certainly is a fake. I always try to visit Phishing sites, and create several fake usernames and passwords, in order to at least dilute the effectiveness of the attempt. If the owners have to risk noticable behaviour by typing in wrong password/username combinations, it might make the Phish less worthwhile. I’d like even more to automate scripts that hit a Phish server thousands of times, with faked usernames and passwords. One day.

I’ve updated my toolbox.js script, so now it puts in a sidebar item called “Links in Current Post”. As described in the posts:

• Links in this Post (Aside)
• Links in this Post

These links are really only here so you get to see it in action!

Whatever Tomorrow • David Lane • Put Me In A Taxi ★★★★½

This is super cool. While attempting to get back to a ‘normal’ listing of characters, I happened to click on By Radical, and up came a list of characters and their meanings! Thus, it’s possible to create your own meanings, without having to use Google! (I last wrote about the Character Palette in Show Selected Character.)

I’ve written about various songs and their meanings, or at least what I interpret them to be, several times before. I really dig songs that have real meaning, and I think about various song meanings often. Today, while washing the dishes, on came James Blunt’s Goodbye My Lover. This song has had me thinking about what it means for some time now. I’d thought, at various times, that it was about a girl who had left him, or one who had died. Now I’m not so sure. The first verse, which I’m not sure I’d actually listened to in detail before, starts with:

Did I disappoint you or let you down? Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown? ‘Cause I saw the end before we’d begun, Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won. So I took what’s mine by eternal right. Took your soul out into the night.

Which really feels like he’s been the one to end it. However, it continues with a line that sounds like she’s finished it:

It may be over but it won’t stop there, I am here for you if you’d only care.

Pretty much the rest of the song continues in this type of vein:

You touched my heart you touched my soul. You changed my life and all my goals. And love is blind and that I knew when, My heart was blinded by you. I’ve kissed your lips and held your head. Shared your dreams and shared your bed. I know you well, I know your smell. I’ve been addicted to you. Goodbye my lover. Goodbye my friend. You have been the one. You have been the one for me. I am a dreamer but when I wake, You can’t break my spirit - it’s my dreams you take. And as you move on, remember me, Remember us and all we used to be I’ve seen you cry, I’ve seen you smile. I’ve watched you sleeping for a while. I’d be the father of your child. I’d spend a lifetime with you. I know your fears and you know mine. We’ve had our doubts but now we’re fine, And I love you, I swear that’s true. I cannot live without you. Goodbye my lover. Goodbye my friend. You have been the one. You have been the one for me. And I still hold your hand in mine. In mine when I’m asleep. And I will bear my soul in time, When I’m kneeling at your feet. Goodbye my lover. Goodbye my friend. You have been the one. You have been the one for me. I’m so hollow, baby, I’m so hollow. I’m so, I’m so, I’m so hollow.

One line in particular stands out as being about someone leaving him:

I cannot live without you.

But the bit I really don’t get is:

We’ve had our doubts but now we’re fine,

Because they clearly aren’t fine. It’s over, one way or another.

Tears and Rain • James Blunt • Back to Bedlam ★★★★

There’s a thread in the Blogsome Forums called “Sites of the Week”, which has a list of Blogsome blogs that were at one stage or another selected by the admins, and I noticed a new post in that thread today: I figure that if you want to Spam forums, you should at least get the code right so it doesn’t look quite so shite. I also figured that in this thread, any link to a non-blogsome site shouldn’t really be there.

Apparently, it’s one year since I moved permanently to Blogsome. I still love her as much as the day I met her.