Those counters will be the death of me...

[jfulcer]

Is it just me, or everyone else too - posts that have the nifty neato keen counter don't have the closing 'line' on the right side of the 'screen'. Of course, I'm computer literate and can't really describe it. If I had to say, it's the right edge of the table definition getting blown away.


Anyway, when I'm reading the post since that line isn't there my eyes fall off the screen at the end of a line all the time, hence the problems. What gives?

 

[Cricket2]

I thought you had said something about this before and I couldn't see it then and I can't see it now.

If I could see it I could try to find out what it is that is causing it (other than just saying "those counters")

Netscape? IE?

JC

 

[Cricket2]

I'm adding this in case it makes it easier to explain for you.


<Script language='Javascript'>var rndNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10000);eval("var CDTDate" + rndNum + " = 'december 31, 2003 1:00:00 AM EST';");document.writeln("<form name='CDTform" + rndNum + "' action='Javascript:void(0);'>");document.writeln('<font size=2 color=fuchia>When jfulcer explodes!</font><br>');document.writeln("<input type=text value='' size=40 name='WrittenByJamesMVenglarikII'>");document.writeln("</form>");if (theFunction) theFunction += "var d = new Date();";else var theFunction = "var d = new Date();";theFunction += "var c = new Date('" + eval("CDTDate" + rndNum) + "');";theFunction += "var tzo = (c.getTimezoneOffset() - d.getTimezoneOffset()) * 60;";theFunction += "var diff = ((c - d)/1000) + tzo;";theFunction += "var days = Math.floor(diff / 86400);";theFunction += "var rem = diff - (days * 86400);";theFunction += "var hours = Math.floor(rem / 3600);";theFunction += "rem = rem - (hours * 3600);";theFunction += "var minutes = Math.floor(rem / 60);";theFunction += "rem = rem - (minutes * 60);";theFunction += "var seconds = Math.floor(rem);";theFunction += "if ((days < 0) | (hours < 0) | (minutes < 0) | (seconds < 0)) ";theFunction += "var out = '!!!!!Boom!!!!!';";theFunction += "else ";theFunction += "var out = ' ' + days + ' days ' + hours + ' hrs. ' + minutes + ' mins. ' + seconds + ' secs.';";theFunction += "document.forms.CDTform" + rndNum + ".elements.WrittenByJamesMVenglarikII.value = out;";setInterval(theFunction, 1000);</Script>

 

[albiats]

Mr J Cricket -

I think I saw what jfulcer is trying to describe when he says that the post doesn't have the closing line on the right side of the post, I saw one post in a thread that is here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=208406

It doesn't seem to be a consistent problem but more like an occasional one. I noticed it before, but can't remember for sure if it was strictly 'pre countdown' or 'post countdown'.

It is much more obvious if you change the size of the window with that thread in it to about half of the full screen size. The post that doesn't have the right side edge will not resize correctly like the other ones.

The obvious thing about that post is that they had one of Psiklop's earlier versions of the countdown timer and it has the word 'code' and the grey lines above and below the timer.

hope that helps

 

[albiats]

OK, I just saw another post that appeared the same way as the one I referred to in my previous post. It was also from someone using one of the earlier versions of Psiklop's timers with the 'code' and the two lines displayed. Then I did a search on all posts from that user and looked in other threads and the same characteristics showed up.

I didn't think it looked very prominent before, but now I believe it was camouflaged by the way the boards show posts within a thread. To enhance readability, every other post is shown in white and the ones in between have a shaded effect. The shaded effect creates a visual border that appears to be 'the' border along the right edge, but really isn't. If you make the size of your Internet Explorer half screen again, you'll see that the post does not resize correctly.

To see a lot of these posts in one place, you can look at the thread on the Cruise Board where the Countdown Timers were first introduced. Unfortunately, the thread was very popular and it has more than a hundred pages. The timers started around page number 42, but if you look around page 89, you'll see several examples of the early scripts.
Here's a link to that thread, on page 89: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=133650&perpage=15&pagenumber=89


hope that helps

 

[jfulcer]

It just may be an older version of the code causing problems. here is what the new one looks like:

<B>New Version:</B>
<Script language='Javascript'>var rndNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10000);eval("var CDTDate" + rndNum + " = 'Dec 14, 2002 12:00:00 AM EST';");document.writeln("<form name='CDTform" + rndNum + "' action='Javascript:void(0);'>");document.writeln('<font size=2 color=black> Family Reunion Magic Cruise Dec 14, 2002 <img src="images/smilies/sunny.gif" border="0" alt=""></font><br>');document.writeln("<input type=text value='' size=40 name='WrittenByJamesMVenglarikII'>");document.writeln("</form>");if (theFunction) theFunction += "var d = new Date();";else var theFunction = "var d = new Date();";theFunction += "var c = new Date('" + eval("CDTDate" + rndNum) + "');";theFunction += "var tzo = (c.getTimezoneOffset() - d.getTimezoneOffset()) * 60;";theFunction += "var diff = ((c - d)/1000) + tzo;";theFunction += "var days = Math.floor(diff / 86400);";theFunction += "var rem = diff - (days * 86400);";theFunction += "var hours = Math.floor(rem / 3600);";theFunction += "rem = rem - (hours * 3600);";theFunction += "var minutes = Math.floor(rem / 60);";theFunction += "rem = rem - (minutes * 60);";theFunction += "var seconds = Math.floor(rem);";theFunction += "if ((days < 0) | (hours < 0) | (minutes < 0) | (seconds < 0)) ";theFunction += "var out = '';";theFunction += "else ";theFunction += "var out = ' ' + days + ' days ' + hours + ' hrs. ' + minutes + ' mins. ' + seconds + ' secs.';";theFunction += "document.forms.CDTform" + rndNum + ".elements.WrittenByJamesMVenglarikII.value = out;";setInterval(theFunction, 1000);</Script>


Oh, Oh Oh, look at the post after this one. I posted some text after the code snippet and look what it does! See!

 

[jfulcer]

old counter:


Now I don't know why the counter doesn't display, but it's causing the problem nonetheless. Look just to the right of the word "logged" There normally is a vertical line running the length of the post that matches with the same right hand border on all posts. It's not there on my screen. It's just missing on this reply. Now it could just be me and IE 5.5, but I dunno... It is weird.

 

[LisaTx]

We deleted all of the old countdown timers that we could find. If you see any, please give us the user names and we'll be glad to fix them.

 

[Cricket2]

Lisa's right, if you find another one, let us know and we will try to fix them on a case by case basis.

 

[jfulcer]

Ok, just a quick search of the boards for CODE: turns up these:

lanshark
puffkin
fortwilderness
BillfromPA
jennymouse
luvdzny
Swan
tess
ruvidu
LisaF
froggy12


Of course, this is a self solving problem and I was too lazy to go through the pages of posts it returned, so those are the list that I made. I would think that you guys also have better things to do with your time than listen to me whine anyway..

 

[Psiklops]

I'm not exactly certain of the problem, but I'll take a shot at it...

Is it when you resize the width of the page down that the "right line" disappears? If so, are you getting the horizontal scroll bar on the bottom of the page?

This would happen with the current Countdown Timer as well. The reason being that text wraps, so it just moves down to the next line when you shrink the width. A form control (the box where the actual time appears) cannot wrap, so this sets a minimum width for the page. That is why the horizontal scroll bar appears.

The "old" countdown timers indented the form control, so the minimum width for a page that contained them is greater than the minimum width for the "new" ones that are not indented.

So, in summary, the controls cannot wrap and therefore you will get the horizontal scroll bar (no matter which version of the Countdown Timer used) when you reduce the browser's width less than the minimum page width.

Does this make sense?

- Jim

 

[StormAlongBay]

jfulcer is just describing what is seen when a user is using the old method of the countdowns. Once I removed the &#91CODE] tag in my testing, that problem disappeared.
There just seems to be members that are still using the old method.


jfulcer,
Is what you are seeing in this link ?

Edit: Typo

 

[Cricket2]

I don't have tons of time right now, but I will check every one of them shortly. You can just keep giving names as you find them if you want.

JC

 

[jfulcer]

SAB - that is exactly what I mean. Just based on JC's previous post, I was able to figure out that it was the old countdown counter causing the problem.

And it's not really a BIG problem, just something I noticed. I know how sticky the DIS has been about code in sigs, so I just wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing something that might have been causing trouble.

JC, it doesn't matter if I'm minimized or maximized, it does it all the time.

Just ignore me, I'm complaining again.

 

[Cricket2]

If it wasn't for complaining, we wouldn't get to have fun around here!

 

[Cricket2]

Do me a flavor and tell me if this one does it too:

<Script language='Javascript'><!--
//Countdown Timer v2.0
//Written by: James M. Venglarik, II
//Created on: March 28, 2002
var rndNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10000);
eval("var CDTDate" + rndNum + " = 'June 6, 2002 1:00:00 PM CDT';");
document.writeln("<form name='CDTform" + rndNum + "' action='Javascript:void(0);'>");
document.writeln('<font size=2 color=teal>I\\'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! (JUNE 6)</font><br>');
document.writeln("<input type=text value='' size=40 name='countdown'>");
document.writeln("</form>");
if (theFunction) 
theFunction += "var d = new Date();";
else 
var theFunction = "var d = new Date();";
theFunction += "var c = new Date('" + eval("CDTDate" + rndNum) + "');";
theFunction += "var tzo = (c.getTimezoneOffset() - d.getTimezoneOffset()) * 60;";
theFunction += "var diff = ((c - d)/1000) + tzo;";
theFunction += "var days = Math.floor(diff / 86400);";
theFunction += "var rem = diff - (days * 86400);";
theFunction += "var hours = Math.floor(rem / 3600);";
theFunction += "rem = rem - (hours * 3600);";
theFunction += "var minutes = Math.floor(rem / 60);";
theFunction += "rem = rem - (minutes * 60);";
theFunction += "var seconds = Math.floor(rem);";
theFunction += "if ((days < 0) | (hours < 0) | (minutes < 0) | (seconds < 0)) ";
theFunction += "var out = 'I\\\'M THERE!';";
theFunction += "else ";
theFunction += "var out = ' ' + days + ' days ' + hours + ' hrs. ' + minutes + ' mins. ' + seconds + ' secs.';";
theFunction += "document.forms.CDTform" + rndNum + ".elements.countdown.value = out;";
setInterval(theFunction, 1000);
//--></Script>

 

[Cricket2]

Forget it, I'm going to have to switch them all by hand (tomorrow).

JC

 

[Cricket2]

Ok, here's the scoop.....

There are approximatly 183 of them (Supermods can do much more accurate searches than other users can). We simply just don't have that kind of free time to go through them all and make manual changes. It would take us weeks (a guess). Since they aren't going to last forever (they all do countdown TO something), it is going to have to wait till that # of users drops to a more manageable amount.

I do undersatnd the inconvienence it is causing, but we just can't devote that kind of time to something that isn't completely necessary to the "operation" of the boards.

If you can think of a faster or easier way, I'm all ears !

JC

 

[jfulcer]

JC, those counters will be the death of you too...

Like I said, it's a self-fixing problem, and I'm just a really really big whiner with nothing more to do than to think up jobs to take all your time JC.

At least you've given me back the all boards search.

Now to find some other minor irritating thing to ask for.

hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm

Hey JC, can we revisit writing my sig SWF as a javascript? I know others want the ability, so it'd be cool to offer it as an option also.

 

[Cricket2]

Since I have "MX" now I don't see why not. It can do much more than before.

The problem that we have with Flash embedding (still) is one of the host's reliability. If the host goes down, it can (and does) lock up threads. I am reluctant to allow too many people to use it if we can't determine what the hosting quality will be. You may have noticed that most of the ones I had made are gone because of this reason. Brinkster went from bad to worse and then dropped hot-linking altogether.

What was the situation exactly that you wanted to work on again? I vaguely remember doing something, but I bang my head on things a lot so I forget stuff (like where I live).

BTW, you can load a dynamic image now where you couldn't before (audio too).

JC