Archive for Frustrations
July 25, 2008 at 2:43 pm · Filed under Broken on IE7, Frustrations, ie6, ie7
Today we ran into a very fun error and by fun I mean stupid on the part of IE and probably because we had some fun trying to make it work. As it turns out, IE doesn’t like it when you use the lightbox script and the swfobject on the same page. I understand that this two scripts are not made to work together but the cool part is that they do work together without any problem on Firefox.
The problem is simple but it is quite annoying since it makes our website useless since IE decides to close the page giving the following error: “Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://<Web site>.com. Operation aborted.” Their excuse is simple: “This problem occurs because a child container HTML element contains script code that tries to modify the parent container element of the child container. The script code tries to modify the parent container element by using either the innerHTML method or the appendChild method.” and they give a simple workaround that involves placing the script on a closed div or something of that sort which we tried with no luck.
What we ended up doing was implementing a mootools domready type function for prototype to initialize both the lightbox and the swfobject once the DOM is fully loaded. Of course this fixed the problem but, when we tested on IE7, the lightbox overlay doesn’t cover the whole screen (I think this bug is unrelated to our issue but it is still an annoying bug that happens only in IE7). So, we decided to take the overlay out so the image now appears floating in the middle of the website with no backdrop.
As we usually say here on Stupid IE: Thanks IE for making our lives a little better.
July 18, 2008 at 9:44 am · Filed under Frustrations, Other Microsoft Nightmares
Thanks to Wacky Archives for compiling this list of the 25 worse Windows Fail. Maybe we should start relaying more on Mac or Linux to develop kiosks and displays. I don’t know, just a thought.
http://www.wackyarchives.com/featured/25-worst-moments-when-windows-fail.html
July 9, 2008 at 8:39 am · Filed under Broken on IE7, Frustrations
I know iframes are not that great because of accessibility issues etc but they are a great solution when clients want to white label applications or information from other Websites which in case is what I had to do on this occasion and what triggered this post.
To make a long story short, I have a client that wanted to offer the reservation system I created for them to other websites who in turn didn’t want to have clients go away from their own websites or see my client’s logo and contact information. My client’s system was tied in with their internal Database and server and for security everything needed to be ran on their servers without any external connections so the easiest way was to create a stripped down version of the reservation process, in other words just the forms, which could be placed on an iframe.
Everything worked perfectly on Firefox of course but when we go to IE, we get an error because the sessions are not set correctly so the whole system fails.
So here I am, once again trying to figure out a workaround to have something as simple as a form, that uses PHP sessions set on an iframe, work on IE the way it flawlessly work on Firefox. Seriously people, we should sue Microsoft for damages in all the time and effort wasted getting our websites to work on their crappy monopolized browsers.
* Update
Apparently by adding this: header(’P3P: CP=”CAO PSA OUR”‘); to the page involved in setting the sessions will make IE work correctly. Just thought I add this for everybody that’s having the same problem,
June 26, 2008 at 1:31 pm · Filed under Frustrations, General, Other Microsoft Nightmares, Plain Evil
This is a letter from Bill Gates to his staff back in 2003, where he is feeling what it takes to use his P.O.S. products.
—- Original Message —-
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame
I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn’t in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.
These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.
They are not filtered by the system … and so many of the things are strange.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?
So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.
Doesn’t Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?
Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.
This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.
So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn’t use it for anything else during this time.
What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.
Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?
So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.
So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.
So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.
What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.
So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.
At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.
So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like “Open” or “Save”. No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.
The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.
It is not there.
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
Moviemaker is just not there at all.
So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.
I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.
I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.
I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don’t you just love that root certificate message?)
When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
Courtesy of seattlepi
I had to laugh, honestly…….
Even more when i read a few comments that user left on that page:
Looks like Bill got bit by his own monster.
I would have thought his job was to ensure these things get fixed, not just complain about them like the rest of us!
Now he knows why I run Linux. It just works.
The fact that his rant was emailed in early 2003 and the company has continued to make these same mistakes over and over since then is a great indicator of the direction Microsoft is headed: obsolescence. Yes, Microsoft keeps raking in the billions, but not for much longer.
Well, at least they fixed all those problems with Vista…ha, ha, yes, that was a joke!!!
Get a Mac.
The Steve Jobs version:
“If the MovieMaker download site isn’t working by tomorrow at 6 am I will come down there at 6:01 am an choke the living ___ out of all of you.”
This is why I have been using a mac for over twenty years.
This is the reason I gave up on Vista and bought a MacBook. I couldn’t be happier.
Dear Bill,
that’s the job we have to do. Every day …….
Thanks a lot
Someone should tell Billy you can DL it directly from piratebay.org 
What can i say……. it made my day.
June 11, 2008 at 8:26 am · Filed under Frustrations, General, ie8
It’s been quiet for a while here on Stupid IE since we’ve been busy doing some better things than worrying about IE and also because we are waiting for the next release of IE8 to see what surprises it yields.
But today, we have been hit with this piece, directly from the Microsoft Blog and we wanted to leave our two cents.
It seems that Microsoft didn’t have enough with creating their Meta Tag but now they’ve decided to create another one which does the same thing but in a different way or something in between. Yes, I don’t understand either but this is Microsoft we are talking about people, nothing is supposed to be understood.
“NOTE: The X-UA-Compatible tag and header override any existing DOCTYPE. Also, the mode specified by the page takes precedent over the HTTP header. For example, you could add the EmulateIE7 HTTP header to a site, and set specific pages to display in IE8 mode (by using the meta-tag with content=”IE8”).
Using the IE=EmulateIE7 compatibility tag is a simple way for users to continue their current experience when browsing your site until you can update with more standards-compliant content. Although adding this tag will prevent most display issues, you may also need to update your site to properly detect IE8. ”
So I can have the tag on the website but have another one on the pages and then this will prevent some, not all, of the issues until my content is more compliant???? So the fact that your browser was not compliant to begin with means I know have to do more work than before??
We are checking into a mental hospital pretty soon. Anyone care to join?
June 1, 2008 at 1:21 pm · Filed under Frustrations, Plain Evil, ie8
“We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers,”
And I guess Micrososft is going to pay me for the time needed to make this change to all the Websites I have developed for my clients? Screw that, let’s just hope the Meta Tag works as expected since I’m know using it on any new Website since I can’t relay on the Beta version of IE8 and I rather keep working as I used to until Microsoft gets the point and drops IE8 and focuses on making a decent OS in the first place.
May 24, 2008 at 9:55 am · Filed under Broken on IE8, CSS Disasters, Frustrations
Yesterday Microsoft posted on it’s support page a solution for the following problem: “Your Web site may not display correctly in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1,” which has the following symptoms:
- Misaligned Web page layout
- Overlapping text or images
- JavaScript functionality issues and errors
There solution is simple. First, you need to verify that this is a IE8 specific problem by:
- Opening IE8
- Clicking the emulate IE7 button (which is not that great of an IE7 emulator)
- Close IE8
- Open IE8 back up.
- Verify that the emulate IE7 button is checked
- Navigate to the Website in question
- Check to see if the problems are gone.
- Click the emulate IE7 button
- Close IE8
- Open IE8
- Verify that the emulate IE7 button is not checked
- Navigate to the Website in question
- Check to see if the problems are there again
In as little as 13 easy steps you can be certain that IE8 sucks and is the cause of your Websites not displaying correctly.
I know Microsoft only posts 6 steps but if you read carefully they cram two, three or four in one line to make it seem as 6 when it is really 13.
But, that’s ok. The steps are simple enough and at least they offer us a way to test in two of their browsers with out the need of different computers or the Multiple IE program. The problem is the solution they give for this issue: “To resolve these issues, Web site owners and administrators can add a meta-tag that tells Internet Explorer 8 to display an entire site or a specific page like Internet Explorer 7.” In other words: “Call your Web Developer and ask for a quote for adding a Meta Tag to all the pages in your Website. Please remember that your Web Developer may be going insane with several similar requests by all his clients who are experiencing the same problem.”
Some may say that I shouldn’t be complaining since this may result in more money thrown my way just to add a simple meta tag in a bunch of pages. Although I won’t argue that some more money may come my way, I already made clear the scenario most likely to happen on this post: More on the Meta Nightmare. So you don’t have to click on the link I’ll summarize it here for you: Some clients might understand and be ok with paying to get their websites updated for IE8 although they might not understand why a newer browser doesn’t work with their current website. Others, may need a little bit more time (time = money) for us to explain why this needs to happen and why they need to pay us and may decide to do it, keep the website as it is or, the one I’m scared about, go somewhere else thinking that their web developer doesn’t know what he’s doing since Microsoft is a Multi Billion dollar company and they must know what they are doing.
But let’s end the post in an optimistic mode. If this happens, if I loose a client because of this meta tag I’m pretty sure I could sue Microsoft for damages and then a lot of money may be thrown my way. Maybe I should revise my posts and praise the meta tag. Who knows, right?
May 8, 2008 at 9:39 am · Filed under Frustrations, General
As it turns out, is not only IE8 Beta who’s having a problem with the update. IE7 has join it as well. Yes, I know is not a mayor issue and all that will happen, at least until now, is that you won’t be able to uninstall Ie7 or Ie8 to revert back to IE6.
I have to say that this may have been a good thing and if I were Microsoft I wouldn’t say anything to Ie7 users, this way, I would’ve force them to stay on IE7 and dump the crappy IE6. As a matter of fact I would’ve included IE7 by default on the update so that people started loosing the crappy IE6. But I’m not Microsoft so I’m not that smart.
May 7, 2008 at 10:49 am · Filed under Frustrations, Other Microsoft Nightmares, Plain Evil
Seriously, WTF? Apparently the new XP Update is out which should fix some stuff, and hopefully don’t break others. But, if you installed IE8 Beta then you will not get this update because apparently Microsoft is not compatible with Microsoft (crazy Vista error anyone?).
It appears that if you install this update, which you won’t get automatically if you have IE8 installed, you won’t be able to uninstall IE8. It seems you need to uninstall IE8 first, then get the update and then install IE8 Beta again.
I mean, how hard is it to make your products compatible with, well… your products??
April 29, 2008 at 4:05 pm · Filed under Frustrations, General
I ran into this quote today: “There are no significant bugs in our released software that any significant number of users want fixed.” (Bill Gates)
Maybe is time we start counting?
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