Guide to pants off living
October 2006
Weird Browser/Servlet behaviour
Tuesday, 31 October 2006
I'm experiencing some strange browser behaviour with my latest JSP/Servlet project. I think it's got something to do with the HttpKeepAlive header property that is set to true by default in Firefox. Mark Pruett describes the Firefox settings well and its relation to the HTTP 1.0/1.1 spec. but my problem, while related, is a little different.
I'm using the servlet controller and command pattern which is nifty, some pages are generated on a GET command, others on a form POST command - you know, usual web page type stuff. Sometimes I like to hit the 'GO' button at the end of the browser address bar to go to the default action of the current url / controller context. By doing this - calling the default url - this should recognise that there is no action present in the request and resolve to call the default action.
Both IE and Firefox are behaving strangely. Firstly, both aren't resolving the default action. Firefox causes a null pointer exeption, related to their not being enough parameters in the post headers. IE doesn't appear to be posting at all! As a result, no such error appears. Out-putting the raw request.getAttribute("action") to the console shows me that IE generates no servlet activity. Firefox fires off a request, and the incoming action is null.
Hang on, I'm investigating this as I write this...
What a dill-pickle! I had a private String action; declared at a class level. Tool. It should of course have been String action = "default_home";in the doPost. Oops.
Mind you the LiveHttpHeaders extension for Firefox is very handy.
Furthermore, this doesn't explain why IE does nothing!
Posting this I realise I need a new category, perhaps 'pants-off programming' since these posts seem (ironically) really off topic from time to time.
Posted by travo at 10:29:05 AM
The Fickle World of Hits
Monday, 30 October 2006
If there is one thing to learn from the long tail it's that hits are dramatic and fleeting. This report suggests that the teen sensation myspace could be experiencing a mass exodus as its fickle market go searching for newer, fresher shores.
Ouch.
I'm not a fan of myspace. But if all the tweens and teens clear out, how will it change the dynamic? The true nature of myspace will be made a whole lot clearer. And it'll be one that owes itself significantly to the ideas which were tossed around in the old tomb - the Cluetrain Manifesto. Yeah, that old chestnut.
I think myspace is really a marketplace and for the most part most of its stall holders are trading in entertainment. Movies, bands, artists, writers, cartoonists, freaks and phonies - all promoting their cultural wares. Sure there is some shonky trading going on, what with vicious teens flogging movies of their spiteful activities and there are some dodgy folk lurking around. Essentially though it's a market trading on creativity. I wonder whether or not it holds up as a mirror of western popular culture... frankly I don't know.
Sure myspace looks like a friends, personals, social networking site, but I really don't think that is its true nature. Not when you see bands promoting their myspace page, or movie posters with the film's myspace url tagged on the bottom (remember when it used to be the AOL keyword?).
The other significant issue raised by the article is what tweens and teens are learning about their own social heirarchy; with 258 'friends' how do you manage your list so that your keep your true buddies at the top. It becomes less about maintaining a webpage - posting photo's, uploading videos and blogging - that it does become about maintaining a relevant (customer facing?) social database where your friends are exposed to how much you care about them.
I can just hear their vapid little voices now; "Like, you must hate me. How can I not be, like, in your top eight! I came to your birthday. *sobs*".
Sheesh.
To complete this sermon; at its core - I don't think that myspace has no real cultural or social capital and I don't think that you can sustain anything that doesn't have a genuine physical social or cultural context. As the fickle teenagers and tweenagers leave myspace and head for their next playground you'll see the real size, purpose and value of myspace.
Posted by travo at 10:15:08 AM
Too many babies? Time to grow up.
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
I love this - it is time to grow up, time to be an adult. I know how much of a great big baby I am; though I wonder about many others and whether or not they've really grown up.
I often catch myself getting drawn into a collective hysteria; like a whole bunch of babies together in a room and one of them starts crying, then the one next to it starts and before you know - the whole room is awash with a siren-like wailing. I often find myself affected by a collective mood. Mel keeps reminding me of how sensitive I am; it's true. And it's hard to manage.
Who knows whether or not this Telegraph article is serious or tongue-in-cheek - none the less, there are themes here which resonate. It was this line though that made me think of SEE, "We have no social sensibilities beyond the tribal".
I'm no advocate for a repressed society. There are many people I know who have the mix right - they know how to behave like adults and they know when it's appropriate to live life with childish joy. Collectively though it's time for the pendulum to swing back...
Posted by travo at 9:14:44 AM
Reskin! Ahem... a re-alignment.
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Despite a lot of recent talk about blogs and feeds making websites, kind of generic and pointless; I've decided to make this website more generic and even more pointless! Well, kind-of.
I love my website, I'd like to think of it as an interesting extension of me, growing and evolving over the years, reflecting my interests, my skills and abilities and the occasional silly things I get up to.
So, please enjoy this new skin as it gets rolled out over the coming days, feel free to let me know what you think. I'm certainly enjoying a new found comfort with grids... don't you agree?
Posted by travo at 10:27:24 PM | Comments (2)
If everyone lived like me...
Monday, 02 October 2006
... we'd need 1.9 earths. Take the Earth Day Footprint Quiz and let me know how you fare.
Posted by travo at 2:55:26 PM