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[94ssd]

So, "goodman" was appropriate to say to a woman?

Dull is a male character. Sorry for the confusion.

[Masterpiece]

Is it possible for a university network to screw up a web browser? Every time I join my university network with my laptop, Internet Explorer just fucks up. I repeatedly lose session info on this site, The Verge looks like a screwed up print and basecamp insists I use an unsupported browser.

Does anyone of you have a similar problem? Or do you know how to fix this? I don't want to use Firefox.

[GarandMarine]

Your first problem is using internet explorer.

Download ANY of the following and never look back: Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Krom, the list goes on.

[Masterpiece]

Ever used any of those on a Windows 8 tablet? If you have, you'd know why I am using Internet Explorer.

It's

• The fastest browser by a landslide on this machine
• The only one that supports touch gestures as of this moment

so why don't we stick to constructive tips instead of hating based on outdated information

[ChaoSera]

Then next time I suggest you say "tablet" instead of "laptop" when you describe your problem.

[snalin]

Windows 8 tablet?

See, we keep coming up with fixable problems here.


No, but seriously, all university websites I've been by has been horrendous. Run it with dev tools open (F12 for iexplorer, I think?), and check if it fires some error messages. That might help you figure out what's happening. Not saying it will fix anything, but you might find out something interesting.

[Masterpiece]

It doesn't make a difference, from a software standpoint, but I didn't want to cause confusion by mentioning it was a tablet, because most people don't realize how Windows 8 seems to work and there's no IE on Android or iOS.

Can we get back to my original question? I feel like someone brought politics into the gunsmithing thread.


Warning - while you were typing someone didn't care what browser you used and answered your question.

Stalin, it's not the university websites but rather every website that decides to act weirdly. I've used F12 developer tools and switched to a different browser profile, but that didn't seem to work.
Could it be a matter of the network router simply not liking IE? I could talk to some admins in that case.

[snalin]

I am Stalin, the Red Danger. Fear me!

Also I totally read "university website" instead of "university network", not sure how that happened.

Have you tried using another browser on the same pages, just to check if it's actually an IExplorer problem, and not a university network problem? University networks has a tendency to use dynamic IPs all over the place, and might be refreshing your IP way too often. That would explain dropped sessions. It might also mask the information you send out through clever use of proxies or whatever, which might explain why the layout of pages are weird.

Check out http://browserspy.dk/browser.php while on the university network. The appVersion and userAgent are the interesting ones - they should say something like IExplorer somewhere. Don't worry about appName or appCodeName, they will always be Netscape and Mozilla.

[Masterpiece]

Firefox works, but like I said, I really don't like using it. I mean, this is the keyboard I'm writing this post in:

(click to show/hide)

and Firefox doesn't open it by itself, even when there's no keyboard attached to the PC. I have to force it open here, I don't on IE.

[pwhodges]

Your first problem is using internet explorer.

Yawn - that's sooo last decade.  The main problem with the current version of IE is the sites that don't realise how standards-complaint it is and still send it all the quirks stuff that the older versions required!  I know about this because I have to deal with it frequently; the fix is to go to developer tools (again) and tell IE to emulate an older version, at which point it will correctly handle the rubbish that the sites are sending it.

In case you think I'm a fanboy, I hate IE, for its interface - I use Opera 12 (not the new Chrome knock-off) and FireFox for special purposes.

Is it possible for a university network to screw up a web browser?

Quite easily, if it's using a so-called transparent proxy.

[94ssd]

So I went to a dance performance tonight to support some of my friends who are in it. One of the pieces had someone I recognized but couldn't recall the name of, and the thought "hey, it's that one guy" popped into my head. I then spent the next minute (since the piece wasn't terribly interesting, but one of the songs was a Florence + The Machine cover of Addicted to Love) thinking about how the expression "that one guy" doesn't really make sense.

[GarandMarine]

Oh! The one guy! Yeah! Who does the stuff! With the things!

[Method of Madness]

It makes sense, it's just redundant.

[BrusselSprouts]

I was going to make a comment about how "that one guy" emphasizes that it isn't just any guy, but that ONE guy, but I actually thought about it and realized that in most circumstances, the "one" is actually redundant.

That one guy who won American Idol with a name that repeats itself must have had terrible parents.
That guy who won American Idol with a name that repeats itself must have had terrible parents.

Whenever you're just about done your shift there is always that one guy who comes in at the last second and screws everything up.
Whenever you're just about done your shift there is always that guy who comes in at the last second and screws everything up.

I guess "guy" tends to be more particular than we think it is?

[Method of Madness]

Not really? It's the "that" that identifies. "Guy" doesn't really say anything about the person.

[Method of Madness]

So people call Oedipus the original motherfucker...but wouldn't that be Ouranos?

[Loki]

No, he is a titan or somesuch. That makes it okay.

Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi and all that.
(What is allowed to Jupiter, is not allowed to a bull.)

[Method of Madness]

Who said anything about ok or not ok? He was written about centuries earlier and he fucked his mom.

[Masterpiece]

Is it possible for a university network to screw up a web browser?

Quite easily, if it's using a so-called transparent proxy.

Any way of dealing with that?

[pwhodges]

Not really; if that's what they're doing, then a router is simply diverting your port 80 traffic into their server.  However, I'm not saying it's the only possibility - it's just what came to mind.

[ankhtahr]

I would try and see what happens if you use a VPN. I would recommend using VPN when you're in the university network anyways, but if the behaviour of your browser changes, well, that would be a sign.

[Masterpiece]

I'd have to look into it. My university uses MyConnect VPN by Cisco but I want to install programs that mess with the system as little as possible and I don't think myconnect is one of them

[pwhodges]

My uni uses the Cisco VPN as well, but it is not much liked - indeed, on Macs it's recommended to use the Apple client rather than the Cisco one.  For my department I provide a straightforward MS L2TP VPN directly into our own subnet (which is firewalled from the University core network).

[Masterpiece]

Can't I set up the VPN through Windows' built-in VPN tools?

[pwhodges]

Not to talk to a Cisco VPN server.  But the uni VPN is presumably to make incoming connections; if you want to use a VPN to tunnel out, you need to find a VPN server outside to access, have the right client (the Windows one is commonly fine), and know that the university isn't blocking that kind of VPN access (I've no idea if they would - I can see arguments either way).

[Method of Madness]

Can VPN access be blocked? I thought VPNs were to get around such things.

[pwhodges]

Any port or protocol can be blocked by a simple firewall (even the one in my home ADSL router).  Fancy firewalls can do a lot more - even breaking open encrypted links in some cases (that's done by a controlled form of man-in-the-middle attack, I believe, and so may not be transparent).  The contents of a VPN may be unbreakable - but its encrypted traffic is still carried over a straightforward TCP or UDP link, which is what can be blocked.  Some protocols (not any VPN ones that I know) can search for unblocked ports and move their usage to them - but fancy firewalls can recognise this behaviour as well.

[Masterpiece]

Oh god I've started to tweet regularly I need to delete my twitter now

[Method of Madness]

NO DON'T YOU DARE

[Emoroffle]

I think my dreams for the future are moving on from "supervillain" to "galactic overlord". I have a whole fleet designed. Uniforms too. I just need Hans Zimmer for the national anthem.

[GarandMarine]

I think it's kinda stupid my broken Irish ass has to register for the draft but able bodied women don't have to, and can't even if they want to. I mean drafts are stupid any way, you don't get good soldiers (general concept) out of conscripts* I mean what the hell am I going to do at the enemy? ....uh actually thinking about it I could probably do a lot as long as I can stay off my feet, give me an M2 on a turret, ammo and a convenient evac point I can limp to... regardless any given healthy female would be far more useful in a "Oh fuck we need fresh meat for the grinder" sense. I mean my RE (Re-enlistment) code is basically an alpha numeric expression of mocking laughter at the thought of me EVER serving in the active armed forces again. So why waste a draft doctor's time?

*There's some exemptions to this rule. See 'Murrica in WW2, in any conscript force there will be wheat that rises out from the chaff of course.

[Masterpiece]

The best kind of debugging is when you click a thing and a debug text appears that says "YOU DID THE THING" instant gratification right there.

[ChaoSera]

You do some weird debugging.

[Masterpiece]

Sometimes when I'm not sure how Swing is implemented, I create a sandbox of sorts just to test if actions event listeners fire the way I expect them to. In such a case, seeing the "YOU DID THE THING" prompt is a sign I've done everything right.

It's not my fault Swing is not nice.

[Method of Madness]

It don't mean a thing if you don't implement that Swing.

[Masterpiece]

wat

[Method of Madness]

[GarandMarine]

Method wins the thread

[snalin]

Swing

Run for the hills, man. Forget that javax.swing is a part of the Java api, and spare yourself the pain and misery.

[Masterpiece]

I know Java Swing is horrible and am planning on letting it die in the firepit where it belongs, but as long as I am studying it's required reading.

[Loki]

Serious question, what is wrong with swing? (I never did much with it, we were simply introduced to it as a better alternative to java.awt).

[Akima]

Sometimes when I'm not sure how Swing is implemented, I create a sandbox of sorts just to test if actions event listeners fire the way I expect them to. In such a case, seeing the "YOU DID THE THING" prompt is a sign I've done everything right.

I love it when an experimental learning-style comes together. And it's the only answer to crappy ambiguous documentation anyway.

Dancing to the Ellington clip...

[snalin]

Serious question, what is wrong with swing? (I never did much with it, we were simply introduced to it as a better alternative to java.awt).

It's hard to use, and clunky. You get these huge, nested calls to set up simple GUIs. Writing unit tests for the stuff is difficult to say the least. A big thing is also that it's not maintained (as of last time I checked), so bugs won't be fixed.

I think that it's mostly that most developers has written for the web, and making GUI stuff with html/javascript is just a lot easier, so going over to Swing is a pain. There's, sadly, no really good alternatives in Java.

[94ssd]

I don't know what to give up for Lent. Although I have not been Catholic for 4 years, I still like to give something up as a personal challenge. Last year I did soda, but afterwards I still barely drink any.

Buzzfeed thinks I should give up TV. But I don't watch much television, and Lent corresponds with the return of the only two shows I actually do watch regularly, Game of Thrones and The Newsroom, and I'd also have to give up "Internet" to avoid spoilers.

I can't give up social media because I'd get fired (I just signed on to run the social media pages for the student union in addition to my regular shifts there). Although I could just stop using my personal accounts, that would mess with stuff because I'm sound designing a show and social media is how the production team communicates between meetings.

Video games would be a good candidate, but I just spent $50 to reactivate my Live Gold account and I don't want to not use it for over a month after just paying for it.

Maybe I'll give up unhealthy snacks in general (which I think would be better than doing something specific like chocolate, because then I could just substitute) 

[Masterpiece]

Give up the forums?

[Pilchard123]

Noooooooooooooo!

[Grognard]

giving up cigarettes, cigars and the pipe.

[Loki]

You didn't mention anything about joints

[snalin]

Giving up silly traditions? That's a possibility.

[Barmymoo]

I don't think it's a silly tradition, even if you're not Christian (obviously if you are, it's even less silly - although I don't think it's obligatory for Christians and often haven't bothered if there was nothing meaningful for me to give up). 40 days is about the right length of time to successfully give up a bad habit or something you want to cut down on, and during Lent people are more understanding and supportive of people giving stuff up and don't usually respond with "seriously, why would you give up [thing that most people see as essential to life, like chocolate, alcohol or Facebook]?". Having other people around who are also depriving themselves can be motivating and knowing there's an end point makes it easier (even though often after that length of time you don't always miss what you thought you couldn't cope without).