So I have returned from the holidays, but I have still a ton of stuff to organize before I get my mojo back. I will probably start writing entries from next monday, featuring the holiday to Greece, books I've read, TV series that I am watching and, hopefully, something related to programming, too :)

However, I have amassed a few small things that I wanted to say and are minute enough to not deserve their own blog post, so here are some of them:

• I have watched the British TV mini series called The Deep. It stars lovely Minnie Driver, but the show is utter crap! I couldn't believe how bad it was. So, don't watch it!
• Internet Explorer 9 beta was released and it is downloadable. However, when trying to install it at home it said I cannot install IE9 on a Windows XP machine and I must upgrade the operating system. Verboten! Here is a hearty Fuck you! from me, Microsoft. When are you going to get that no one prefers Windows 7 to XP?
• I've finally watched The Expendables. Imagine one of those really low budget TV movies with heroes killing faceless bad guys in huge explosions, only with known people in the underdevelopped and badly written roles. Fail!

I started using a script that shows me what javascript errors occur in my blog. I soon found out that there were about 10-20 errors each day, intermittently, the vast majority of them being '_WidgetManager is undefined'. I googled it, of course, only to discover that a lot of people had it, some fix was applied by Google and thus most of the articles on the web were completely unuseful.

Well, what seemed to happen is that some code was added at the end of the blog page, loading a js file, and if the js file was (for some weird reason) not loaded, the script following would throw an error. So I added my own script to create a fake _WidgetManager class just in case the script did not load.

Hoping it might help others, here is the script:

_WidgetInfo=function(){};
_WidgetManager={
 _Init:function() {},
 _SetPageActionUrl:function() {},
 _SetDataContext:function() {},
 _SetSystemMarkup:function() {},
 _RegisterWidget:function() {}
};

As you may have noticed, I am now working on a new interface for communicating with my blog reader. It features the old Plugoo chat, a whiteboard like interface and a public chat along with administrative news. In the future I will probably also Google Wave.

That allows for the main blog to get simpler and more information friendly, while the other would serve for interaction with my friends and people that need my help.

Please leave a comment on any improvements you might want. It is important to me to get this right.

I know it is not the very best method of implementation, but I had to make due with the "client only" Blogger solution. There is a link in the left bar called 'Low band version'. Click on it and it will set a cookie for 30 days and then refresh the page. Then you should be able to see the backgroundless, barless, label-cloudless blog version. You can also add a #lowBand hash at the end of any blog link to force a low band. Something like this: https://siderite.dev/2009/06/low-band-version-of-blog.html#lowBand.

Keep in mind that this relies heavily on javascript and cookies. If you have either one disabled, you're in a world of trouble. It seems that the blog will appear in low band mode all the time if you have javascript disabled and always normal mode if you have cookies disabled and you have not used the hashed solution for the low band.

Please tell me if anything causes problems so I can fix it. As far as I know it works on latest IE7, FireFox3 and Chrome.

Update: after a ton of searching, I found people that had the same problem as I did. It seems the culprit was Google Friends Connect. So sorry if you cannot "Follow me" anymore, I just removed the offending widget. Now the chat and the feedjit list and the shareit button work on IE8 as well. Maybe I can fix it somehow, but until then...

Today, out of the blue, without me changing anything in the blog or making any update, I started to get a lot of weird browser errors when viewing the blog with Internet Explorer 8. Things like 'Could not complete the operation due to error 800a03e8' and 'Unable to modify the parent container element before the child element is closed (KB927917)'.

Due to this (as yet unexplained issue) I have disabled the "share it" button on each post and the Jabbify and Feedjit widgets for anything that implements document.documentMode (i.e. Internet Explorer 8). I am sorry for the inconvenience. I will try to solve the issue, somehow.

I have determined that these weird errors are caused by trying to inject through javascript elements in the page before the page has finished loading. I have tried to delay the loading of these scripts until the page has rendered completely, but since they are external js files from various third parties, I have been unsuccesful. I will contact the various parties maybe they can change their js code, although I am not hopeful.

Well, this is a time of great change in my life. First I had to give my cat away, due to medical reasons. I had him for more than 5 years and I really liked him. Now he is living in the countryside, with my parents in law, trying to get some pussy (sorry, couldn't help it :) ) and getting beat up for it by sturdy country female cats.

A few months after I got the cat, I also got a new job, prompting me to write my first blog entry. I was saying then that I am starting my first real software developer job in an Italian company. Now, after almost five years, I am giving away my cat and also changing jobs.

My new company is (hopefully) a place where I can accelerate the rate of my learning and professional development and I will be working there on a Windows desktop WPF+WCF+WF+Entity Framework application. So expect a lot of blog entries about new (for me) technologies. I will be starting work there on the first of June.

On the other hand I don't know if it would be permitted (or I would have the time) to stay available for chat on the blog, so if I don't answer, it's probably because I can't.

Wish me luck, everybody!

I have hidden the private chat [that's the blue one] by default. In order to access it, you need to click on the "Show private chat" link in the top-left. I did that because I would like people to help each other rather than talk only with me, so I recommend using the Jabbify chat [the slightly annoying orange pop-up one]. Also, when entering your name, use a real looking name or nickname. I will not even answer anymore to people called "asfdd", "sfd", "hi" and "can you help me". People with correct names that start conversations with "adsdfs" will also be ignored.

I have also added a small piece of code to remove unwanted spam comments. If you feel that your comment was not spam and it was flagged as spam, let me know in the chat (or another comment :) ) and I will fix the issue.

I urge you again to tell me if there is anything that is bothering you about the blog in order to facilitate positive change.

Have fun, keep trying and good luck!

Update: I have fixed an issue with the layout and IE making the text disappear, especially when scrolling. Also I added a little something on the left that you can copy paste to your blog. So, if you want to help me spread the knowledge put it into your blogs. I am not making any money out if this, so make Siderite famous!! :)

The new spring heat seems to have brought not only flies out of hibernation, but also some cats! Their behaviour is strangely similar to that of the flies, though, hmm :)

As you have probably noticed, I've decided to replace Talkinator with Jabbify. Hopefully this will solve the problems with IE6 as well as the hour issues (never knowing when people left the last message). Also, this particular type of chat lets me know when people leave messages, so I can actually reply and join blog conversations.

Don't hesitate to leave me messages, although I would prefer them to be smarter than "fgfghhfgf". Thank you!

The previous post was the 500^th post in this blog! And I haven't even noticed. Let's celebrate late with news about the end of the world!

How bored can I be? I've read this article about the asteroid Apophis striking the Earth in 2029 or 2036 and my first thought was "oh man! Why so late?". I was already calculating how unfair it is that I would have to live to be 59 years old before the world ends. So I have to cope with it until then, then, close to my retirement, the pleasant moment when I get money from the state and do nothing while my mind slowly rots away, it all goes away. Then it hit me: I am a complete idiot! What was I thinking? Sheesh!

Anyway, here is a cute animation made by a guy on youtube. I personally prefer the first one, the one that is only graphics and no realism. Again, who wants real? But it wouldn't be in the spirit of the blog :) So watch the second one, the one made to satisfy the critics.

Update: the guy REMOVED (who does that?!) the videos from YouTube. I am putting another ridiculously grand video of a possible asteroid (although this seems more like a dwarf planet :) ) destruction of the Earth to satisfy the ones hungry for obliteration.

[youtube:InPNk44v7uw]

Wow, think how many blog posts I would have written until 2036!

Well, I am alive and blogging. It is a new year, one that brings as much hope and fulfilment as the last one (lots of hope there!), the big 2009. I can vaguely remember a kid that computed his age for the year 2000 and thought "I will be old enough to go to Mars!", but apparently, no human is old enough yet.

So what am I planning this year? Getting back on track would be a good idea. Stop wasting time that I don't have and if I have and waste, then I don't deserve. My book? Ahem. Let's hope I get inspired beyond the mere autobiographic. My AI MMORPG WMATCL project? I still have to design an AI that is worthy of its name. My job? Well, it's still there. I find myself wondering why? from time to time, but I guess it is good to have a job in this troubled time. My blog? Well, I intend to spice it up, but I need to actually do interesting stuff for that. I will update it with info gathered from a new Windows Forms application that I am building as well as information about the ReportViewer control that I've finally managed to use and to love/hate. My personal life? I have reached that point that many people find themselves at without really understanding how they got there. I've made the compromises that make one accept their life "as is" and postpone who they are. Sometimes that "myself" I have imprisoned deep inside growls and pulls on the bars. But maybe he's there for life (pun intended). Then again, maybe not. He feels more and more like a stranger now.

Oi! What's with the depressed text!? Forget all that! It's a new year! Happy new year!!! [Party trompet and silly face]

Hi, I am working on a new blog format. As I am lazy and a complete html and CSS noob, it will take a while. Please, feel free to comment on the new look. Actually, feel obligated to do so! :)

I have some things to say that are rather general and I hope people will read. At least I need to get them off my chest.

First of all, I am still working on the blog posts from Greece. Links, updates and pictures will pop up for a week or so. Then some books I've read. Have patience, I am lazy as hell.

Then there is the matter of all the help requests from people who want my stuff in Visual Basic. NOT GONNA HAPPEN! There are free online web translators from C# to VB and (thank heavens!) viceversa. Just Google for it, I don't doooo VB.

And last, but not least, the blog spammers. People that want to use my blog for advertising. They seem to make the effort to look for keywords in blogs, then comment with links to whatever crap scam site they have. These comments will be deleted immediately, so don't bother. I especially hate sites like developmentzone.blogspot.com or asp-net-help.blogspot.com that have two measly articles that are copyied with cut-and-paste from www.sql-server-performance.com or some other site with people that actually work for that stuff. Just so you know, every time I see a comment that links to such a site I first delete the comment, then I warn blogspot of the spam site.

As I was writing in the previous post, because of that law suit they are in, Google is starting to take measures to protect the copyright of videos on YouTube. The result is that all the blogs and sites that embedded video content that is supposed to be copyrighted now have beautiful flash players with a play button in them, but then the nasty surprise of seeing "video not available" when pressing play. At least display the damn message from the beginning instead of forcing me to play every video on my blog to see if there are still available!

But I did that anyway, for music videos for now, and switched to (currently) unaffected French video content site DailyMotion. Of course, lots of YouTube clones are on the net and even YouTube leecher sites. I mean sites showing a wonderful error when trying to play videos that now are removed from YouTube.

So, please folks, if you find some post with missing videos or pictures or anything wrong, really, please comment on it and I will fix it. Thank you and damn all lawyers to hell!

I had this idea to put a chat on the blog, kind of like the old school Bulletin Board System I had once. The fun I had back then, talking nonsense to so many people I didn't know... [rolling eyes].

Anyway, I took the advice of Blogger and used the chat from TagBoard. The other recommended chat was marked as bad by SiteAdvisor. The first thing I noticed is that it was a very simple site as well as a very simple chat: your basic iframe and some text inputs. The second thing I noticed is that most of the features were restricted to payed accounts.

Well, who needs them? Auto-refresh? I can make my own! Ban IP? What for? Filter messages? Why? But soon enough I got a spam message. So I went to the TagBoard interface and deleted it. Next day I got two. I deleted those as well. Then 4 appeared. Deleted. Then 8! I was kindda worried that they would progress geometrically. And maybe they did, but TagBoard has a limit of messages it keeps in memory.

I have no real evidence for this, but I can only think of one reason this spam would occur a few days after I enabled the account, and that is that the spam is perpetrated by TagBoard itself to force you into buying an account. Afterwards you would probably notice that the spam comes from a single IP, you would block it, and be happy. Also, I noticed that the iframe that they served me occasionally tried to open a popup. It fits into the general profile I've associated with them.

Therefore, the chat is gone. I only had like two messages on it anyway. People seem more interested in commenting (yeah right).