Disqus - Latest Comments for Cumbrowski

Re: Setting Up Custom Error Pages on Windows Servers

Cumbrowski — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 17:27:44 -0000

IIS 7 provides 3 options for custom error pages

1. Insert Custom Static Content (HTML) into the standard error page ... e.g. c:\inetpub\www\errorpages\404.html

2. 302 Redirect to a specific URL (absolute URL, including HTTP://) ... e.g. http://myotherdomain.com/

3. Execute URL on the current Site (absolute URL Path WITHOUT http://) e.g. /error/500.asp

The 3rd option is the important one, which I am unable to make work here. The "Execute" passes to the error script in the Query String the triggered Error Code and the original URL which triggered the error e.g. http://www.mydomain.com/err...

More important, it also passes along the original referrer and post data; server variables are fully accessible as well as site cookies and session variables. For trouble-shooting of script errors, the ASP Error Object is provided, which returns the line number and column in the script where the error (typically a 500.xxx error) occurred (if enabled).
With all this, there is a whole lot of possibilities of what to do in various cases. Depending on the error, detailed information might be logged in a database and/or an email notification is triggered to the developer or site admin. Known misspelled URLs or URLs that changed for any reason which cannot that easily redirected properly with an ISAPI filer or URL Rewrite can be properly 301 (NOT 302!!) redirected to the new and correct URL (important for search engines! and SEO). I also use it to replace missing images with a fitting place-holder image and even for the detection of hack attempts if an attacker tries something funny via tempered URLs. Depending on what was done in each case, I write my own response header (301, 302, 404, 500 etc.) that I deem to be the appropriate one. If I would not do that, a 200 Response would be rendered by the web server, which isn't nice, but the price of doing your own error handling.
All this is nothing new to IIS 7+.. IIS 6 when classic .ASP was still fully supported, provided the same functionality via similar, but slightly different settings.
I tried everything I could think of to enter some path or URL, absolute and relative, without the http:// and it never accepted any of it. No chance at all if URL was selected as option and in case of the FILE option, only the script file names in the shell root folder "error_docs" (where I do not have any write permissions) are being accepted. At the moment If I use the HTTP:// in the address, a 302 redirect is performed. What is even worse is the fact that the whole construct runs in an endless loop, if I am setting my own Non-200 response header in the final error page. What Microsoft is doing in the case of the Execute option is a simple SERVER.TRANSFER. Is there any way to get this to work here with this tools panel? Any suggestions or comments are appreciated. Thanks.

Re: GeekCast 39: Don’t Call It a Comeback

Cumbrowski — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:39:30 -0000

Jim was not correct about the abilities of Camtasia Studio. Specifically about the part about adding a video recording of the speaker in real-time within the screen cast recording.

Here is a quick and dirty screen cast recording, which demonstrates it :)
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

However, there are many other reasons for switching to a MAC, but that is not the one mentioned :)

Re: maybe there is still hope for this world

Cumbrowski — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:35:55 -0000

Yeah, came across this one several weeks ago.. pretty nice. He got now around quite a bit and has a sponsor who pays for his travel expenses :)

Re: death of a platform

Cumbrowski — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:56:56 -0000

Who was their last client that left the platform on June 15th (or shortly before that day)?
Barnes & Noble? That would be interesting to know.

It is a little bit sad.. a quiet "death".. well, maybe it can be compared with dying in your sleep, without pain. You just do not wake up the next morning anymore, that's it. |-(

Re: Lessons learned - starting a blog

Cumbrowski — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:33:19 -0000

Hex Means that instead on using 0-9 (decimal), you are using 0-F where A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14 and F = 15. HTML Colors are actually three hex digits pairs that can range from 00 to FF each (where FF = 255 = 15 (F) x 15 (F)). The # simply means that the value is hex and not something else, eg. decimal. Colors are defined by RGB = Red, Green and Blue. The First hex pair of the HTML color represents the Red value, the second the Green and the third the Blue.

Every modern paint program supports showing the R, G and B values for a specific color, including Microsoft Paint, which comes with Windows (Start/Run, enter "mspaint.exe", Enter).

The programs show the decimal value (0 - 255) for R, G and B and you must convert it to hex to use it with HTML. If a color value is lower than 16 (lower than F), then you have to add a leading 0 to keep the three "pairs" intact and the color value always 6 characters long.

You can use the Windows calculator in scientific mode to convert from decimal to hex values and vice versa.

Or you are a lazy bastard and just use an online color picker that not only shows you the selected color, but its HTML value and RGB values as well, such as this one

http://gtools.org/tool/colo...

8-D

I should have just posted the link, eh? For next time, if you want to change colors around. hehe.

mspaint.exe

Re: Gas Prices

Cumbrowski — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:06:53 -0000

When I got to the U.S. in 2000 I remember gas being $1.50 and less per gallon. If it makes you feel better, $4 per gallon is still cheaper than the price of gasoline in Germany in 2000 when gas was "cheap" and much cheaper than it was in Switzerland or Denmark around the same time. They pay now at least $8 per gallon and if I consider the low dollar into the equation its more like $10+ per Gallon.

I now see "Smarts" and other cars in the streets of Fresno (which is a "truck" town, the bigger the better). "Better gas mileage because of proper air pressure in the tire.", wow, Its good to see that native "Californians" are still able to learn those things (just teasing you). Next thing you know, they will realize that the lights on a car are NOT only serving the purpose that THEY can better see when its getting dark outside hehe.

Re: More content coming soon!

Cumbrowski — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:51:06 -0000

Luck! :)

funny comment "snake" for the first post. I guess it is a good sign hehe.

Re: Niche is Pronounced as “Nitch” or “Neesh”?

Cumbrowski — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:05:31 -0000

You are German too? You are kidding, right?

Re: Niche is Pronounced as “Nitch” or “Neesh”?

Cumbrowski — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:04:46 -0000

"Nitch" is the proper U.S. English pronunciation (duno about the Brit's or Ausies hehe), NeechE (short "e" like in thE or hElp ) is the German pronunciation. Gee, there has to come a foreigner along to explain the Americans their own language. It's like my Hungarian girlfriend who was correcting my German ;).

Re: Elevator Pitch: Cumbrowski.com

Cumbrowski — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:35:01 -0000

No Shawn, the hazy appearance is related to my 4 years old web cam that was designed for old web conferencing purposes AND the poor lighting at my place. It's cosy, but not so perfect for shooting video (or taking pictures). I thought that I had to make up for the not so perfect video quality with some special effects to distract the viewer from the haziness. It only had limited effect, obviously :)