GoutPal Interactive

Is there any way a login point could be added in on each page-I've posted a few times and lost the post whilst  hunting a page to log in.

Alternatively- could a flag be added to the post box to remind before anything gets typed?

The other thing, is it possible, as on some forums ,to flag ones own posts in one go to access replies- this would be really useful, unless I've missed something on thiis!

PS: I know a lot of work is needed to run a site like this..

Post edited 9:26 am – June 10, 2009 by trev

Q: (did I hear zip2play shout Hooray?).

Shouldn't this be in the Goutist Poetry thread??  

There was a young man from West Side
Loved his liver with everything fried
The doc called him out
Says it’s giving you gout
He was wrong. T’was the doc’s thiazide

So you finally admit it!

Alf  kips with boots fitted

Should Gout sniff his toe

He won't be that slow..

To rip boogers off and cry-

Sh*t It !!  

The short (less than helpful) answer is “serves you right for using Internet Explorer”

More seriously, I haven’t noticed this, but I rarely use the little green arrow. I’ll try to start using it more, and see if I get similar results.

Sometimes, this type of thing can be caused by corrupted cookies or cache files. These can be cleared in IE by going to Tools – Internet Options. On the resulting window, select the General tab and click Delete in the Browsing history section – the first two options (Temporary Internet Files & Cookies) are the prime suspects.

Faster, Friendlier, Firefox users have a similar Clear Private Data option in the Tools menu. Anyone would think I’m browser-biased.

PS: I've noticed that the watched flag keeps re-instating itself after initially clearing- even though I've read the update.

Should it also update for my own post, as it's just done?

Now it's my turn to talk to myself

I've tried to watch this topic, but it hasn't flagged my post as unread – which is logical, as I read it as soon as I saved it.

I have noticed before, when using IE, that certain features in this forum seem to act strangely. This seems to be down to a loooong delay after hitting the Save button. It's as if IE is having a long think, then just gives up.

It explains why a few people (myself included when using IE) do not see that a post has actually been saved, so it gets saved again as a duplicate.

Anyone else having this problem?

I use IE and everything in the website has always worked fine.

I am going to get on my soapbox for am minute though…..

I work in Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA and I can tell you that we go to extreme lengths around here to build the best products we can. Keeping your system fully updated is the most important thing you can do to keep it working in peak condition. I dont know why it works better in one than the other – but I can tell you we are doing our best.

Two interesting facts…..1) Internal research has shown that the number of Firefox specific viruses/malware/adware/etc increased over 300% during 2007 and ~450% during 2008. 2009 is on pace to see another 400% increase at a minimum. 2) Every time a new version of Firefox comes out, we have to issue a bunch of fixes during our monthly patch Tuesday in order to protect against those vulnerabilities introduced by the new Firefox version. Lots of people inside Microsoft use Firefox and it is a good product. I have it installed on my machine though I only use it when I need access to a different proxy server.

While everyone has a great time beating on Microsoft and our products…..Google is quietly aggregating all available information about every person in the world. Microsoft just tries to make your computer run and give you applications like the MSOffice products so you can do your job. Google wants to control every iota of information there is to know about everyone and everything.

Whenever you permanently delete an email in a place like Hotmail it is permanently removed from every system within two weeks including all the backup “tapes” (called tapes but actually portable tera drives) stored at Iron Mountain before being wiped and reused. Google never deletes them from GMail – they are retained forever because they building a system that mines the contents of the email and all other data about you to build a “profile” which will then be sold to anyone who wants to pay. Think about how much info they have about you based on your email (if you use GMail), searches, products bought, every advertisement link you ever click on in other peoples websites that are provided by Google (aka “ads by Google”), every doc/spreadsheet/etc you create with their applications and so forth is all recorded and retained. Google buys more portable tera drives to hold this data than everyone else combined.

 Microsoft has four full time researchers (one is a visiting math prof from MIT for the summer) and 6 interns (all on the 3rd floor right below me) all focused on finding a way to protect a users privacy even when on the Internet.

Bing.com search data tied to individual users is only held for 48 hours and then gone forever (though it may exist in your local cache/browser). After that we only retain a record of what terms were searched in a geographic region (nothing more specific than a large metro area) because of terminology differences. (e.g. locally we say “pop” but other places call it “soda”)

Please don't focus any angst towards Microsoft….we are not the “Evil Empire” we used to be in the 90's. Lawsuits and changing technologies have seen to that. Those of us who look towards the future (i.e. the Research group) see where things are going and we are not liking it one bit. We are trying to do our best to stop it.

Google really doesnt want to create an OS to run computers (as the news said recently) and we are not fearful they are trying. They are trying to draw attention away from what is really gong on and that is their goal of controlling the information on the Internet in such a way as to not appear like a monopoly. They are even quietly funding competitors as part of their plan (anyone remember when Microsoft invested $100 million into Apple?)

A couple weeks ago at the monthly social gathering in the lobby/patio area Rick Rashid (SVP of MS Research) told us Google is two years into their 10 year master plan and that we had better find a way to protect the public in the next version of Windows (mind you, for us the “next version” of Windows is not the one releasing this fall (Windows 7) but the one after that (aka Windows 8)).

Bing.com will never make money for us and we dont care. We are just trying to hold the newest “Evil Empire” at bay for a while longer until we come up with some way to beat them. We all got cheap white cowboy hats (with the MSR logo on the front) recently as a fun freebie because we are working to position ourselves as the “good guys”.

I apologize for this rant. We get pretty stressed out here because we spend more time than we like playing catch up while also trying to analyze what is actually happening. Right now they are winning, but the war isn't over.

Whatever the perceived or imagined flaws in MS , I'm sure glad that they are not a Gov't Dept doing the job. It would never work and cost 10X.

MS have made good money over the years and maybe can afford to take the high stance about competition now.

I hope Tave is right about fighting for privacy in the way described- as with B/Bro sniffing every option -we certainly need aware specialists in post to do this effectively.

So keep up the good work on that one- Oh!- and reduce prices at the same time

PS: I've just sorted out my first IE8 bug- the black tab bar…

[Display,Appearance,Advanced, Menu - toggle colour, did it for me] Some French guy cured it!