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Instrumentation changes - 5/28/2011 3:26:03 PM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		I am about to make some instrumentation changes in preparation for a switch to a new ad network (Palate Press). The changes should only impact unregistered (or not logged in) users and unpaid users. Since paid users do not see ads I am not tweaking the instrumentation there. I have also been working with a vendor on the integration of a framework to deter and defeat scrapers. Sorry Snooth et al. The first phases of that code may kick into gear shortly.

Nothing visible should change on any web pages, but I have seen some cases in the past where some browsers (BlackBerry) struggle with QuantCast etc. So, there is a chance we will see more of that. Please let me know if you see anything unusual.


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-Eric LeVine

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Post #: 1
RE: Instrumentation changes - 5/30/2011 2:47:42 PM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		OK, we are starting to turn on some anti-scraping sanctions for bots. In concept this could block some legitimate activity, especially if you are browsing on the site without allowing cookies or script (neither of which is really supported). Please do let me know if you see any issues.


_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 2
RE: Instrumentation changes - 6/3/2011 7:20:50 PM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		A few people have seen the occasional CAPTCHA which is by design. Just a hint, if you are seeing a CAPCTHA there is a very good chance that you have some spyware on your computer that is browsing all of your websites right alongside you. Or maybe you have script turned off in your browser. Someone else has a firewall (SonicWALL) that is complaining about obfuscated script on my site. Sorry, that is part of the new regime. The scripts are benign but necessary.

Just a reminder, this is all a response to this horrible incident: http://www.cellartracker.com/newsletter/1-31-2011.htm


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Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 3
RE: Instrumentation changes - 6/18/2011 8:14:12 AM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		I have had twp people complaining of excessively frequent CAPTCHA when browsing from work VPN or firewalls. It could be that your work is blocking some essential scripts, so you are seen as a bot. If you are hitting this, pretty please, browse to http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/ and email me your IP address, eric@cellartracker.com. We will take a closer look at why the system is feeding you too many CAPTCHA's.


_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 4
RE: Instrumentation changes - 7/6/2011 9:39:08 AM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		In the last day I have had two people complain of occasional or even frequent BLANK screens with nothing rendered. If you see this please browse to www.whatismyipaddress.com and email your IP address to eric@cellartracker.com. Also, if you can, on the blank screen, try a VIEW HTML SOURCE in your browser and see if there is anything rendered. Please email all of the info to eric@cellartracker.com.

_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 5
RE: Instrumentation changes - 7/6/2011 9:59:14 AM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		OK, a 3rd person just hit blank screens. I rebooted the web server in case it was ill, but if this issue is related to the anti-scraping it will not fix thing. Please, please, please, I need someone who is hitting this to reply right away (within the first hour) with the current IP address and any HTML source details on the blank screens.

_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 6
RE: Instrumentation changes - 7/6/2011 4:02:14 PM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		OK, with one of the three users we were able to detect an incompatibility with Norton Internet Security which seems to be corrupting some very key things on the page. My anti-scraping developer in Israel is looking into this ASAP.

If you anyone is running Norton Internet Security and seeing blank screens, then you should be able to work around this by whitelisting www.cellartracker.com in Norton.

_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 7
RE: Instrumentation changes - 7/7/2011 2:38:22 PM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		Well NORTON may have been a false flag. However all three people hitting problems are primarily using Chrome. And in two cases the systems appear to not be allowing script even though the users say that script is enabled. This is quite a mystery, although what we know is that in all three cases the HTML we are sending to the browser is getting partially corrupted/deleted by something, whether firewall, browser, ISP or something else that is trying to be clever.


_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 8
RE: Instrumentation changes - 7/11/2011 3:48:48 PM   
Eric

 

Posts: 17321
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		OK, so we figured out what wascorrupting the HTML (by deleting some important HTML comments). Some ISP's take it upon themselves to "compress" HTML by deleting comments, swapping in their own compressed images etc. Googling will find you HUNDREDS of cases of website owners complaining about being broken by this cheesy stuff. It seems as if there are many ISP's using a similar codebase to do this.

As of Sunday morning we have posted a fix to workaround this behavior. I have emailed the three users who complained of blank screens and as yet have not heard of anyone having any further issues.

_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Eric)
Post #: 9
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