This two code blocks apparently killed my RSS Feed! I didn’t know about this, until I visited my LinkedIn page. LinkedIn page was prompting me to enter my WordPress blog URL address. Hmm.. that’s weird. I remember I have done that immediately when I created my LinkedIn account. I squinted my eyes to find any error messages. Below the WordPress form, I saw broken red lines with varying degree of thickness. Apparently the error message was outside the DIV’s visible area. The error message reads “Error in parsing http://sodeve.net?feed=rss2″.

Here’s the offending inline codes:

<script type="text/javascript">
		var swfVersionStr = "10.2.0"; var xiSwfUrlStr = "/swf/playerProductInstall.swf";
		var flashvars = {}; var params = {};
		params.quality = "high"; params.bgcolor = "#3a3737";
		params.allowscriptaccess = "always"; params.allowfullscreen = "true";
		var attributes = {}; attributes.id = "SertifikasiDownloader";
		attributes.name = "SertifikasiDownloader"; attributes.align = "left";
		swfobject.embedSWF("/swf/Downloader.swf", "flashSertifikasiDownloader", "493", "332", swfVersionStr, xiSwfUrlStr, flashvars, params, attributes);
		swfobject.createCSS("#flashSertifikasiDownloader", "display:block;text-align:left;");
</script>

And

<script type="text/javascript">
		var pageHost = ((document.location.protocol == "https:") ? "https://" : "http://");
		document.write("<a href='http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer'><img src='"
			+ pageHost + "www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_buttons/get_flash_player.gif' alt='Get Adobe Flash player' /></a>" );
</script>

Btw, please note that I made the JavaScript codes in multiple lines to make it readable. In its original form, each code block will be merged into a single line.

When I opened up this blog’s RSS Feed URL using Google Chrome, it spitted back red rectangle error message back at me. I opened the same URL with Safari, and it simply give up without even telling what’s the source of the error. Still not satisfied, I launched both IE9 and Firefox to the same URL.

Surprise surprise, these two browsers didn’t report any error. IE9 incompletely renderred the XML as a full-page of words without any arrangement. But it actually stopped rendering the content half-way. Perhaps it saw the error, got depressed, then perhaps go hiding somewhere trying to get high. Great, IE9, your act is just like Towelie.

If IE9 is like Towelie, I think Firefox is like Eddie Mora from Limitless. Although there’s error in the feed, it is still showing everything perfectly. And by perfectly, I mean everything. The FeedBurner’s favicon, the layout, the form to subscribe to the feed.

Last but not least, Opera. I think Opera is the most informative among all. It prompted the error, described what kind of error is it, which location the error was triggered from, and it even shown the part of the XML code where the error is originated.

Based on this razor-sharp information from Opera, I look into the XML file. I found out that the second JavaScript code block was auto-encapsulated inside CDATA section. But why only the second code block was auto-encapsulated? What makes the first code block so special (or not so special, depending on your today’s mood) that it wasn’t auto-encapsulated?

Anyway, I solved this issue by taking out both code blocks, and put them into two separate external .js file. Yes, this is actually the recommended practice should you ever need to include JavaScript code in your WordPress blog post. Why didn’t I do it in the first place? In my defense, the inline JavaScript code did work. As long as you make them in one single line.

What I did’t realize was that I accidentally depended on a ‘hack’, deprecated-method, or whatever it is that now WordPress (or W3 Total Cache) doesn’t support. I am not sure whether I should call this a bug. What do you think?

Moral of the story, use the recommended best practice when doing something, but don’t stop yourself from hacking Show me your hand if your’re agree!

Cheers!

The screenshots from the browsers:

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Over at his blog, I mostly skim through between post titles and excerpts. I’m not to say that I’m not interested, but I think I will find it hard to digest. Considering that I never programmed in F# yet. Anyway, one post caught my eyes, Job at MSR Cambridge: Infer.NET. Don’t ask why this post got caught in my eyes (Nudge..Nudge..Wink..Wink..Say No More).

Anyway here’s excerpt of his post:

Microsoft Research Cambridge is seeking talented software developers to work on the Infer.NET project (http://research.microsoft.com/infernet).

Infer.NET is a framework for developing and deploying machine learning and inference solutions. It has been developed within the Machine Learning and Perception group, which has an excellent track record of incorporating leading edge research into bestselling products including the body part recognition technology in Kinect for Xbox 360 and the advertising prediction algorithm used in Bing. Be a part of the next of wave of the data driven computing revolution!

After describing all the technical requirements for the candidate, Don Syme closes it with this paragraph:

Interested candidates should contact John Bronskill (firstname.lastname@microsoft.com) with a resume or CV or formally apply using one of the links below:

The hilarious part was on the comment section. I take screenshot here for your viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately, there is no way to delete comment on Don Syme’s blog. But luckily, this “Roman” dude never left his full name. Otherwise, this could be quite embarassing for him

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It’s either this guy is a marketing genius, or he is just crazy. Another proof that there’s only a thin line between genius and crazy

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Try to install it. If you can’t, then I am so sorry to say that you must now settle with Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).

*grin*

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I found out this amazing diagram which is showing that the experience as a honest, paying customer is much worse compared to those who downloaded pirated copy.

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Recently, one of their photographer uncover the sad fact that a person under police detention for corruption charges, can easily bribed his way out and watch a tennis match in Bali. Below is the photo of that infamous detainee:

(taken from Multibrand)

Gayus Tambunan

And last night they captured a photo that made me smile:

(photo courtesy of Kompas)

Nurdin Halid bows down to SBY

The photo was taken last night (16 Dec 2010), at Gelora Bung Karno, after Indonesia beat Philippine in AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 semi-final match. The guy bowing down is Nurdin Halid. He is the head of Indonesian Football Association. People wants him to step down as Nurdin Halid is a convicted corruptor. You can even check this List of Nurdin Halid’s Sins (in Bahasa Indonesia). The way SBY did not even bother to look at Nurdin gave me a chuckle.

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The Beginning

I have this login form created with Ext.NET.

The behavior that I want is that whenever the checkbox is checked, a cookie will be set to remember the username.

The first thing that came to my mind was, “Oh right, let the MVC controller handles it, I remember HttpRequest/HttpResponse has access to cookie”. So I came out with the following code:

ControllersAccountController.cs

public ActionResult Login()
{
	var c = Request.Cookies["chkRememberMe"];
	this.ViewData["chkRememberMe"] = c != null ? "true" : "false";
	c = Request.Cookies["txtUsername"];
	this.ViewData["txtUsername"] = c != null ? c.Value : "";
	return View();
} 

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Login(string txtUsername, string txtPassword, string ReturnUrl, string chkRememberMe)
{
	if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(chkRememberMe)) {
		Response.Cookies.Add(new HttpCookie("chkRememberMe", "true"));
		Response.Cookies.Add(new HttpCookie("txtUsername", txtUsername));
	}
	else {
		Response.Cookies["chkRememberMe"].Value="false";
		Response.Cookies["txtUsername"].Value = "";
	}

	// --- snip --
}

On the View portion, I amended it as follows:

ViewsAccountLogin.aspx

<ext:FormPanel runat="server" FormID="form1"
	Url='<%# Html.AttributeEncode(Url.Action("Login")) %>'
	Border="false" Layout="form" BodyBorder="false"
	BodyStyle="background:transparent;">
	<Items>
		<ext:Container ID="Container1" Layout="column"
			runat="server" Height="25" AnchorHorizontal="100%">
			<Items>
				<ext:TextField ID="txtUsername" runat="server"
					FieldLabel="Username" AllowBlank="false"
					Text='<%# this.ViewData["txtUsername"] %>'
					BlankText="Username is required."  Width="225" />
				<ext:BoxComponent Width="10" runat="server" />
				<ext:Checkbox ID="chkRememberMe"
					Checked='<%# this.ViewData["chkRememberMe"] %>'
					runat="server" />
				<ext:Label runat="server" FieldLabel="Remember Me"
					LabelSeparator=" " />
			</Items>
		</ext:Container>
		<ext:TextField ID="txtPassword" runat="server"
			InputType="Password" FieldLabel="Password"
			AllowBlank="false" BlankText="Password is required."
			AnchorHorizontal="100%" />
	</Items>
</ext:FormPanel>

If you think this will work, you’ll be disappointed. Just like I did. Even after checking that both cookies are set, and properly fed to Login’s ViewData, the Login’s View page doesn’t seem to bother to read its ViewData.

So I came out with another strategy. I will save the ViewData to a hidden input, and use Ext.NET’s DocumentReady event to populate it.

<input type="hidden" id="vwchkRememberMe" value="<%=this.ViewData["chkRememberMe"] %>" />
<input type="hidden" id="vwtxtUsername" value='<%=this.ViewData["txtUsername"] %>' />

<ext:ResourceManager runat="server">
	<Listeners>
		<DocumentReady Handler="
			#{chkRememberMe}.setValue(Ext.get('vwchkRememberMe').getValue());
			#{txtUsername}.setValue(Ext.get('vwtxtUsername').getValue());
		" />
	</Listeners>
</ext:ResourceManager>

It works and I was a happy man.

How it ended

I was reading the Ext.JS documentation when I saw this:

Oh Gawd… I can easily set/read cookies using Ext.JS built in methods!!!
The final changes

<!-- snip --->

<ext:ResourceManager runat="server">
	<Listeners>
		<DocumentReady Handler="
			#{chkRememberMe}.setValue(Ext.util.Cookies.get('vwchkRememberMe'));
			#{txtUsername}.setValue(Ext.util.Cookies.get('vwtxtUsername'));
		" />
	</Listeners>
</ext:ResourceManager>

<!-- snip --->

<ext:Button runat="server" Text="Login" Icon="Accept">
	<DirectEvents>
		<Click Url="/Account/Login"
			Timeout="60000" FormID="form1"
			CleanRequest="true" Method="POST"
			Before="
				Ext.Msg.wait('Verifying...', 'Authentication');
				Ext.util.Cookies.set('vwchkRememberMe', #{chkRememberMe}.getValue());
				Ext.util.Cookies.set('vwtxtUsername', #{txtUsername}.getValue());
			"
			Failure="Ext.Msg.show({
			   title:   'Login Error',
			   msg:     result.errorMessage,
			   buttons: Ext.Msg.OK,
			   icon:    Ext.MessageBox.ERROR
			});">
			<EventMask MinDelay="250" />
			<ExtraParams>
				<ext:Parameter Name="ReturnUrl"
					Value="Ext.urlDecode(String(document.location).split('?')[1]).r || '/'"
					Mode="Raw" />
			</ExtraParams>
		</Click>
	</DirectEvents>
</ext:Button>

<!-- snip --->

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The plan was to fly to Jogjakarta, continued by taking train to Jombang. Have the wedding ceremony and visit relatives in Jombang and Surabaya. We then take train/bus back to Jogjakarta, check in to a hotel and left our luggage at there, take bus or train to visit Purwokerto, visit relatives, return to Jogjakarta. And finally fly back to Singapore.

Anyway, my hair was a bit untidy that time. I did planned to get haircut in Singapore, but due to some reason–mainly forgetful and laziness, it did not happen. It was important to get my hair tidy before we have the wedding ceremony.

While waiting for Sancaka–the train that will take us from Jogjakarta to Jombang, I decided to take a haircut. It was 2.30 PM and Sancaka will depart at 4 PM. I need to find barbershop nearest to the railway station.

The nearest barbershop from Tugu Railway Station is located in Malioboro Street, next to Ramayana Department Store. The barbershop was buried behind many street-vendors selling batiks and handicrafts which Malioboro street famous for. It was quiet inside. No one is queuing to get their haircut. There are many seats and mirrors with slight dust covering them. The wall was yellowish signifies that this place was a famous barbershop years ago.

The barber was an old folk called Pak Dar (Darminto?). I greeted him and asked him to tidy up my hair. He agreed and asked me to get seated, while taking out his equipments. One of the equipments was a manual hair clipper, which reminds me my childhood where every haircut was done using this traditional manual hair clipper.

To cut the story short, it was a nightmare. No offense to Pak Dar–he is a polite folk just like any normal Javanese folks do, but the haircut was a torture. It was a combination between hair-cut and hair-pluck. Not able to withstand the torture, I politely requested him to stop, stating that my hair is short and tidy enough. Another haircut in Jombang was already planned in my mind.

I paid him Rp. 9000 then proceed to accompany my wife who was already busy picking and bargaining all kinds of Batik clothes for herself and my sister-in-law.

When Sancaka reached Jombang Railway Station at 8.30 PM, my cousin (Mas Aan) was already there sitting at the bench next to the tracks. After greeting him, I requested him to send me to the nearest barbershop.

The nearest barber shop was located at the opposite of Geneng Gang 2, near Mas Aan’s mother house. The barber was slightly the same age as me. He was using electric hair-clipper, which was a great relief for me. I was very much satisfied with his meticulous and tidy work. I paid the fee of Rp. 5000 as it written on the mirror.

Later in the car Mas Aan ask whether I remember the boy I used to pick a fight whenever I visited his house 20 years ago. I said I forgot the boy, but I remember the fights. He then said that that boy is the barber that just cut my hair. Ha-ha… what a relief that the barber did not recognize me; it could have been another episode of Sweeney Todd

Haircut in Singapore …. SGD 7-10
Haircut in Jogjakarta …. IDR 9000
Haircut in Jombang … IDR 5000
Getting the best and cheapest haircut without having your throat slit …. Priceless

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I think this could be the best example of when things go wrong. I saw it on my LinkedIn page:

Names are hidden to protect the innocent(s)

A simple check to the truncated string, whether it ends with a face-blushing word or not, should be sufficient.

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