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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  October 12, 200812:07 pm| 40 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Dog Blogging, Site Maintenance

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Another thread since it appears we are now getting Black Screens of Death in the comments earlier and earlier. I have no idea what is going on, and we are still waiting to hear from Mozilla to see if they know. It is just weird, I have never seen anything like it.

Claim your pets.

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Previous Post: « The Palin Effect
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40Comments

  1. 1.

    Capelza Gradenko

    October 12, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    I never get the "black screens". I have Safari on a Mac.

    Love the pet pictures. What a bunch of sweethearts!

  2. 2.

    kommrade jakevich

    October 12, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    Dogs and cats, living together. A sure sign of the Obamacalypse.

  3. 3.

    TheFountainHead

    October 12, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    I never get the BSoD either, but I’m on a Mac using Firefox.

  4. 4.

    Liberaltarian

    October 12, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Shoot. I did spend a lot of time on a comment. Oh well, it was (as usual) cursorily related to the topic at hand.

    I will repeat one part though ….

    I let my freak-asshole-flag fly here. It has been tremendously liberating. But, there is a difference between the rude asshole and the bigoted asshole.

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    October 12, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    Another thread since it appears we are now getting Black Screens of Death in the comments earlier and earlier.

    3 words: Internet Explorer, bitches.

    The Black Screen of Death sounds like something Karl Malone invented.

  6. 6.

    Jess

    October 12, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    The actual conservatives I know would tell you that it is not the job of conservatives to propose laws, their job is to preserve and defend the status quo.

    John, I just wanted to reply to your comment from the other thread. I think if the status quo goes against the spirit of the Constitution and curtails the civil rights of citizens in a harmful way, then conservatives with a moral conscience (like yourself) will and must support necessary changes. Anyone of any political or religious creed who allows ideology to trump humanity is well on the way to becoming not only an asshole, but an evil dictator or a supporter of one.

    If you’re saying that being a conservative or good Christian DEMANDS putting ideology first, despite the harm to others, then why on earth would anyone who wasn’t an asshole choose be a conservative or Christian? I ask this in all sincerity, since I’ve always found this puzzling whenever I debated issues with my conservative, devoutly Catholic, but good-hearted, stepfather.

  7. 7.

    TheFountainHead

    October 12, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    Hey, speaking of software glitches, I’m trying to teach myself C++, can anyone recommend some good books I should have?

  8. 8.

    John Cole

    October 12, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    It only shows up for me in Firefox.

    I wish I liked the Opera interface more.

  9. 9.

    Doonhamer

    October 12, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    I use both a MacBook with Opera and Firefox and a PC running XP with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera (I rotate among the browsers depending on my needs at the time as each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses).

    I wonder whether out-of-date OS/browser/video driver software on people’s machines might cause it? I’m pretty retentive about keeping everything up-to-date on my computers and I have never seen these black screens on either machine running any browser.

  10. 10.

    JGabriel

    October 12, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    Capelza Gradenko:

    I never get the "black screens". I have Safari on a Mac.

    I’ve never seen it either. Opera on XP.

    Sounds like it’s a Mozilla/IE specific problem.

    Or maybe it’s related to Clear Type, which I keep turned off.

    .

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    October 12, 2008 at 12:33 pm

    Liberaltarian:

    Shoot. I did spend a lot of time on a comment.

    If it’s any consolation, those of us who don’t get the Black SoD were able to read it just fine.

    .

  12. 12.

    Joshua Norton

    October 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    I’ve installed Firefox "View in IE" add-on for situations like this. Right click, select "view this page in IE" and The Black Screen of Death goes away. Some HTML coding just doesn’t play well in Firefox. It’s still way better that IE.

  13. 13.

    John Cole

    October 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    @Jess: Look, I think they are wrong, and I think religion is a complete waste of time. That having been said, I know a lot of people believe in it, and I don’t think that people who have honestly held religious beliefs are assholes because of it.

    Now, the obvious counter is “What about Fred Phelps? Don’t they claim to have religious beliefs? Don’t they count as assholes?”

    To which I would respond that there is a difference, to me at least, to folks who want to keep marriage between a man and a woman and unrepentant bigots who run around villainizing homosexuals.

    If that is not good enough for you, I do not know what to say. I think they are both wrong, that gay marriage is not a big deal and that gay marriage should be legal, but I think there is a difference between the Phelps clan and the many millions of people who simply oppose gay marriage.

    Sorry, that is the best I can do. If you are looking for rigid consistency, this is the wrong place for you to be.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    October 12, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    John Cole:

    I wish I liked the Opera interface more.

    Perhaps you already know this and have tried it, but Opera’s interface is pretty customizable. You should be able to get it working the way you like.

    Is there any specific function, or set of specific functions, that you can’t implement in Opera, or is it just a general "look and feel" problem that you have with it?

    .

  15. 15.

    ATinNM

    October 12, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    One comment to rule them,
    One comment to obscure them.
    One comment to bring them all.
    And in the darkness hide them.

    The Black Screen of Death, where the shadows lie.

  16. 16.

    Ted

    October 12, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    That having been said, I know a lot of people believe in it, and I don’t think that people who have honestly held religious beliefs are assholes because of it.

    Yes, they are. And for one simple reason: if they have religious beliefs against gay marriage, they’re free to abstain from it. And since that just isn’t enough for their latent authoritarian tendencies, they feel the need to impose that "belief", based entirely in religion, on everyone, they’re assholes.

    I’m not a christian, or any other religionist, and I don’t begrudge them whatever rites, rituals, and arrangements they would like to make so long as they don’t hurt anyone else. That’s what separates the assholes from the non-assholes.

  17. 17.

    Brian J

    October 12, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    John Cole, check your e-mail.

    As I said in it, a bunch of friends and their friends last night said that "Hannity’s America" was the program to watch tonight because of its presentation of Ayers’ relationship with Obama. Hearing this bullshit made me want to bang my head against the wall, particularly since these people are smart guys. I’m pretty confident we are going to win, and win in a very big way, but if there’s one thing that could mess things up even slightly, it’s the lies from Hannity making their way into the public discourse. Maybe I am overreacting. I just…just can’t imagine Hannity having such a significant effect. I’d lose it.

  18. 18.

    Comrade Stuck

    October 12, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    3 words: Internet Explorer, bitches.

    I don’t mind that much switching to IE7 , but the scrolling is a pain and keeps freezing up.

  19. 19.

    QDC

    October 12, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    @TheFountainHead:

    When I was working as a programmer, I used WROX books whenever I needed to learn something new, they have "Beginning" and "Professional" books on most topics and have a nice balance between being rigorous and approachable. I can’t speak to their C++ book, though.
    I learned C++ from C++ for Dummies a very long time ago, and found it manageable, even though I had never programmed before.

    Whatever you settle on as your introductory book, you’ll also want "The C++ Programming Language" by Stroustrup, which is the bible for the language.

    What environment will you be programming in? Sometimes it’s helpful to have something that matches your programming environment so that command lines and screenshots match.

  20. 20.

    Doonhamer

    October 12, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    This helped cheer me out of a gloomy Sunday morning mood.

    My household is active in racing greyhound rescue/adoption, so always happy to stumble across good PR.

    First attempt at posting a link in the new interface.

    Sod it, here’s the URL.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1047417/Lifes-hoot-Shrek-baby-long-eared-owl-adopted-greyhound-called-Torque.html

  21. 21.

    RoonieRoo, dontcha know

    October 12, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    I have just been watching the Palin Thread fun and not commenting as so many others are doing an excellent job of representing all sides.

    But the crew on the couch is mine and Grumpy Code Monkey’s. Gregor the dog and Milo the cat, that loves to be bathed by the dog. Milo is normally covered in dog drool.

    Gregor is the one dog in a five cat household.

  22. 22.

    Liberaltarian

    October 12, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    If it’s any consolation, those of us who don’t get the Black SoD were able to read it just fine.

    Oh thanks J.

    And thanks J Norton … I downloaded the IE View Lite version, going to try it out. :)

  23. 23.

    gbear

    October 12, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    I’ve never seen the black screen of death either. I’m using IE on a Dell computer with XP. Which old posting could we go check to see what the screen of death looks like? Is it on every thread after a certain point?

  24. 24.

    TheFountainHead

    October 12, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    @QDC: Thanks for the recommendations. I’m learning C++ to learn Objective-C and start using Cocoa for OS X. This is really more a hobby for me than anything else, but I’d like to do it right, ya know?

  25. 25.

    Ted

    October 12, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    Weird. I just got the Black Screen of Death for the first time, after seeing others mention it several times before. Not sure why it didn’t happen before now, as I’m using FireFox 3.

  26. 26.

    The Moar You Know

    October 12, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    I wish I liked the Opera interface more.

    CUSTOMIZE! You can move any button or panel on the interface, or delete it if you don’t like it.

    That being said, there are some behaviors in 9.5 (with regard to the mail buttons, specifically) that I’m not a big fan of.

  27. 27.

    Robert Sneddon

    October 12, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Firefox 1.5.0.12 on Windows 2000 here.

    I get the "black screen of death" on occasion, when the number of comments gets high. If I use the Firefox option to reduce the text size (CTRL -) then sometimes the black screen goes away revealing the rest of the comments and more importantly the "Leave a Reply" box visible and usable. If I increase the text size again (CTRL +) the black screen sometimes comes back.

    Another effect I’ve noticed is that the page-up and page-down keys don’t let me scroll through the comments if he black screen is present. I have to use the window scroll bar to move down the page in this case.

  28. 28.

    Liberaltarian

    October 12, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Huh. I increase the text size a lot cuz apparently I am becoming a blind old coot. That might explain my BSOD. I did use the IE view tool, and it works, but I had to adjust the text size so that I could read it. The little boxes around the comments gets lost in IE, and I miss them–same old blind coot problems–they help me see what is going on better.

    It’s all good though. Thanks for the tips!

  29. 29.

    Laura W

    October 12, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    I never get the BSoD either, but I’m on a Mac using Firefox.

    Ditto.
    Orange Guys Rule!
    I was going to put that anyway and then I learned his name is MILO.
    I had a long-haired orange Milo for a very brief time. Losing him broke my heart for a very, very long time. The sweetest face, and heart, ever.
    Leah, my dawg, who is forced to be subservient and submissive to four cats send condolences to Gregor.

  30. 30.

    cain

    October 12, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    You guys should save your vitriol about whether the Josh is an asshole or not which is a subjective opinion and instead do something actionable like donate money. I gave 25 bucks to ActBlue to help defeat Prop 8.

    I believe in fairness, and everybody should have the chance to be happily wed. Go out and start giving money. You’re not going to change Josh’s mind, but you can give him a healthy ‘fuck you’ by getting a war chest going and fighting the challenge off. Momon Church vs You. Go. That’s an idea, I think all of us can get behind, amirite?

    cain

  31. 31.

    RoonieRoo, dontcha know

    October 12, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    Milo would definitely agree that orange guys rule. He’s my first tabby. All my others have been tuxedos. Orange marmalades definitely have a different personality.

    He’s almost more like Gregor than he is like the other cats.

  32. 32.

    dj spellchecka

    October 12, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    i heard a mccain spokesman on NPR this moring, defending the behavor of people attending their rallies by saying they were "hard working americans who were angry."

    i have lots of problems with this…

    first, if they are so "hard-working," what are they doing at a rally in the middle of a week day?? do they all work third shirft or somethin???

    second, does this mean that ALL hard working amercians , given the chance will stand in a public place and yell "traitor," "nigger," or "kill him" about someone running for office??? can’t imagine the campaign meant to imply THAT….

    third…what about the NOT hard working americans???? i’m only working part time and I’M not happy [i rarely anger]

    fourth…how about the unemployed??? don’t they come to the rally??
    aren’t they angry???? wtf….

    another indicator that the mccain campaign can’t think ANYTHING through…

    they simply aren’t serious…

    rusty

  33. 33.

    dj spellchecka

    October 12, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    another off topic post but i had to share this…

    found in a comment thread at washingtonmonthly…

    an instant classic…..

    The McCain campaign incoherency explained…

    The Trick is to Keep Making Stuff Up…… that way you Stay in the News!

    If you keep announcing, "I’m going to make something up" You get the press to announce your name.

    Then you make up your idea and the press announces your name, talk more about your idea (without any real analysis because they haven’t had time yet). And you get Good Press.

    Then the press analyzes your idea, calls it the crappy idea it is. You go, "The Press is Lying about my great idea." The press dutifully reports your idea and how You think it is great, again.

    The people realize your idea is crap and swing more for the other guy.

    And You Announce You have Another Great Idea.

    It’s the fact that you hope the people who are voting won’t recognize that you are planning More Crap that doesn’t really help them that you are praying for.

    It worked for Bush for 8 years, so McCain is hoping that it will work for him.

    Meanwhile, McCain is the news Planning Things.

    Making these Huge Announcements.

    And then proclaiming that Obama has no plans for the future.

    And the McCain fans will tell you this is The Truth.

    ….that Obama has No Plans, No Platform, just a Hidden Agenda of Terrorism and Far Left Extremist Plans…….because Faux News isn’t covering a constant barrage of Bad Plans like McCain is making up or telling you that Obama has a nice fully stated set of plans that have been on his web site since the beginning.

    Oh, and I’ve noticed that while Obama answers everyone that asks him what his plans are on a subject and fills out all those positional questionnaires. McSame doesn’t bother to fill them out; maybe refers to his website- which tells nothing.

    Who has Plans and Ideas?

    Yeah, it gets annoying.

    Posted by: Lisa Harrigan

  34. 34.

    conumbdrum

    October 12, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    I downloaded Google’s new Google Chrome a couple weeks ago (as an alternative to Firefox, should I need it) and the Black Screen of Death does not appear there when I visit the Balloon Juice comments. Check it out.

  35. 35.

    kommrade jakevich

    October 12, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    I only get the BSoD when I use Firefox.

    On IE I get the fricking 403 Error when I try to post. That can be fixed by hitting back but I still must ask why John Cole hates America.

  36. 36.

    Jeff

    October 12, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    Don’t know if this helps but the BSoD doesn’t occur (for me) in Google Chrome, either—I switch over to that if I get it on Firefox, as I do occasionally. (Oops, sorry, didn’t see conunbrum’s comment before I posted.)

  37. 37.

    OriGuy

    October 12, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    I’m learning C++ to learn Objective-C and start using Cocoa for OS X. This is really more a hobby for me than anything else, but I’d like to do it right, ya know?

    Objective C and C++ are really nothing alike. It’s like French and Spanish both used to be Latin.

  38. 38.

    Darkrose

    October 13, 2008 at 1:13 am

    See, John, here’s the thing for me:

    I don’t give a fuck whether G_d, Allah, Buddha, Cthulu or the Flying Spaghetti Monster tells you that marriage should be between a man and a woman (well, maybe the FSM), because I don’t worship any of said deities. My Goddess was pretty clear on the subject, what with "An it harm none, do as ye will" and "All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals." For the Mormons and the Catholics and anyone else to tell me I can’t marry my girlfriend is, from that perspective, as much an infringement on my religious freedom as it would be if state law forced everyone to get married to a person of the same gender. Which, last time I checked, the CA Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t do.

    But that’s not the real reason I think people who vote yes on 8 are assholes. I’m going to think that until someone can explain to me with specific examples how and why my marriage has affected them in any way, shape or form, and why there is a compelling need for them to want me to wake up on my 2-month anniversary to find out that my marriage is no longer valid. Until someone can explain that to me, then the only reason I can see for voting to invalidate my marriage is because you’re a mean-spirited, petty, narrow-minded asshole.

  39. 39.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    October 13, 2008 at 9:30 am

    Objective C and C++ are really nothing alike. It’s like French and Spanish both used to be Latin.

    That’s probably the best way to describe the situation. Both Obj-C and C++ are derived from C, but they’re very little like each other. Obj-C is kind of a bastard cross between C and smalltalk, whereas Bjarne kind of did his own thing for C++.

    If you want a gentle introduction to the Cocoa interface using Obj-C, I found Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X to be an excellent start. I have the 2nd edition, but a 3rd edition has been released.

  40. 40.

    Cris v.3.1

    October 13, 2008 at 10:03 am

    I can get the BSoD to disappear in Firefox 2 by removing the following two declarations in style.css:

    div#container {
    overflow: auto; /* line 55 */
    }
    #page {
    overflow: auto; /* line 192 */
    }

    However, I make no guarantees that removing those two declarations will not have disastrous effects in Internet Explorer 6.

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