Archive for November 2005
Nordic Characters in URLs — Part 2
29 November 2005 in Root | Comments (1)
A continuation on Why Don’t Nordic Characters in URLs Work in IE and Opera, But Only in Firefox?
I told you in the last post that URL encoding isn’t working correctly in Internet Explorer 6, and I forgot to provide the proof, which is now neatly presented here:
Well, know what? Pocket Internet Explorer that comes preloaded on Pocket PCs can handle Nordic characters! How strange is that? The following screenshot is from Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Pocket PC:
That is so strange for two similar products coming from the same company. But, IE6 was released sometime around 2001 while the version of PIE that I used was released in 2004 and a lot has happened since. But it seems I need to correct my last post (or rather the title of it): Nordic characters only seem to work in Firefox and Pocket Internet Explorer.
And, while I’m a roll here — Nordic characters isn’t only the few I’ve been mentioning but: á, å, ä, æ, ø, ó and ö. (Might have forgotten something from Iceland and the Faroe Islands.) Å ä and ö are so much easier to use since they are here on my keyboard and I don’t like to use Windows’ charmap too often. 
What Ronald MacDonald Steals Cash From Competitor?
28 November 2005 in Fun | Comments (0)
When I spotted this on my Google Desktop sidepanel, I just thought “What the h…”:
MacDonald charged in Wendy’s heist
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AP) — He works at a Wendy’s, and his name is Ronald MacDonald — but now he may be known as the Hamburglar. Two workers at a Wendy’s in Manchester, New Hampshire, have been charged with taking money from the safe. One of the suspects is Ronald MacDonald.
I’ve heard that McDonalds isn’t doing great financially, but I couldn’t imagine that they are in this desperate need of cash! 
Why Don’t Nordic Characters in URLs Work in IE and Opera, But Only in Firefox?
25 November 2005 in Root | Comments (0)
I noticed a strange thing the other day: I tried to download a file with Nordic (aka. Scandinavian) characters in the name and met an error page. However, when someone else used Mozilla Firefox to download the exact same file, they were able to download it! 
This prompted me to believe that it had something to do with Opera’s IDN whilelist and I henceforth modified it to allow Finnish domains (www.***.fi). But, alas, the result was the same: error 404 [see pic above]. 
Well at home, I tried the same experiement using Firefox, Opera and Microsoft IE but this time while running the requests through Fiddler HTTP debugger proxy. I tested the requests to a file named: åäö.html and this is what I found out:
When I try to open åäö.html in Opera and IE, the browsers encodes filename as %C3%A5%C3%A4%C3%B6.html, which the Linux machine (that my website’s running on) doesn’t identify as an existing file and thus returns the 404 page. On the other hand, in Firefox, åäö.html is encoded as %E5%E4%F6.html which the Linux machine properly identifies as an existing file and returns the correct page.
According to W3schools, the proper URL encoding for å, ä and ö is the one that Firefox produced, whereas the result from Opera and IE is completely off the chart. It is a bit sad to see the Norwegian company behind Opera not noticing this (or have they?), but on Microsoft’s behalf, I could have been expecting it (they are an American corporation nonetheless, which probably doesn’t use Nordic characters much).
I guess this is one point that shows how open source can be a bit ahead of the game (read: corporations). 
UPDATE: See also the continuation “Nordic Characters in URLs — Part 2“
The Devil’s in the Details: Decaffeinated Coffee Can Kill!
17 November 2005 in Root | Comments (0)
All those paranoid about the effects of caffeine in regular, good ol’ coffee should be more worried about their decaf coffee instead. From slashdot.org:
jose parinas writes “Decaffeinated — not caffeinated — coffee may cause an increase in harmful LDL cholesterol by increasing a specific type of blood fat linked to the metabolic syndrome, hints a new study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2005.”
Thank ye gods that I live in a country where decaf is virtually impossible to get, let alone find. Nope, this is the country where we drink a whole lot of coffee and strong coffee, compared to other countries (like the US). I think I’ve heard that we drink in average 3 cups of coffee per day (a cup as in “coffee cup” — volume: ca. 2 dl), which wasn’t the most coffee per day in the world but still a top result.
Any ways, this story remided me of a Garfield strip I saw once upon a time… [Warning: lots of animations on the linked site, Opera users may want to use Quick Preferences to disable plug-in]