Picture problems... my solution

With regard to the software flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer that manifests itself here on DG from various pictures...

1. No, I never actually spoke against IE (although I have personal feelings on the topic, I try not to let them cloud my judgement).

2. I don't recommend to people to switch browsers, as long as they are happy with their current setup. I understand that at least 80% of our users use IE all the time, and thus I have motivation to provide workarounds for Microsoft's bugs. It will definitely not be the first time since starting DG that I've had to do this. I have lots of code that checks to see if the person is using IE, and, if yes, do something special to avoid crashing their browser. Most sites won't even do this courtesy (as anyone using Netscape knows...)

3. I have isolated the problem that you've all been experiencing, and it is indeed embedded within the jpeg images that certain people are uploading to the site. My guess is they are using some kind of software to generate these images, and the images contain some kind of code that triggers the image display component of internet explorer to crash, thus only repairing it via (as usual) a reboot of your system.

I have written a program to run on my server side to take EVERY SINGLE IMAGE on this site (that's well over 4 gigabytes worth of pictures) and process it through my program. The program takes out the junk put in there by various programs. I have verified that my program effectively cleans up the images, and pictures that once crashed my test box are no longer crashing it post-processing.

Thus, my program is running right now. It will likely run all day long and the system may be slower than usual today. But with each image processed, it's one less image that has the potential to crash your browser.

Once the processing is all complete, I will make it so that my program is run on each image, at the moment that it is uploaded. This should effectively kill the problem once and for all.

Dave

dave, sorry it was a lot of work for you. thanks so much!!!

You're my HERO Dave!

We knew you could fix it ,you puter wizard you!

and it works!!!!!!!!! thanks again dave

Thanks so much Dave. You're the best!!!!

Thank You for your hard work!! :)

-Jennifer

Great! No problems for me thus far. It'd be interesting to see if the pictures that caused problems were all edited using the same software. What a detective story!

Dave, thank you. You are really responsive to subscribers and so knowledgeable about software and hardware, it flabbergasts me.

Am having a lot of problems now with thumbnails not appearing, blacked-out and out-of-alignment columns, that I have never, ever had before -- this is what Zany was describing to me in yesterday's posts, I believe. Seemingly, the problem has been corrected on some browsers and computers, and exacerbated on others.

This message was edited Monday, Apr 21st 12:23 PM

You da man :)

Thankyou for fixing this mess Dave.

The column problem should now be corrected. If anyone sees column problems (with black squares) please post here.

Dave

Brilliant Dave, thanks SO much!

It looks good again here, Dave. Thank you so much!

Thanks Dave:) Great job; sorry about all the extra work.


GW: I don't think I edited the photos containing problems (http://davesgarden.com/t/379100/); I think I uploaded them as large files and Dave's program resized them. It must be the camera (Fujifilm Finepix) that attach information. Is this what's called Progressive JPEG (pjpeg)?

Thanks, Dave. Pictures are popping up faster now. I'm on a very slow dial-up so don't expect much, but this is great now!
ßernie

Amazing that you found found a way to fix it Dave. Everything is working perfect!

Thank you so much Dave.

Thank you Dave, you shurely have had much work with it.

Dave, this is very good news. Thanks so much for thinking enough of us all to make it work for everyone. You truly are one heck of a guy!! Now, go take a break and rest up.

Shirley

Thanks Dave.

Dave et al,

Guys I just read through the 'photos and logos...' thread and I must say that I feel pretty much attacked. I had no intention of screwing up your computers. These images were either scanned and saved via jpg by my hubby on his mac then saved to zip and uploaded by me on my pc. He SWEARS this shouldn't do anything weird. Or, they were uploaded directly by me from a photocd from cvs or walgreens. Since I have been singled out I will ask Dave to please remove all my images and/or posts and I will not post any further pictures in the future. So very sorry for the inconvience.

angie

Angie,I did not have problems with you pictures,I had most of mine going into the PDB :0)
Bob

Angie, everything worked fine for me using Netscape. It isn't your fault. Gosh darn, don't stop posting pictures. Dave has the problem fixed. Just happened that the set-up picked you to pick on when things went south. Please hang in there with us. All is well and we would miss your pictures.

angie, noone ever thought this was intentional or in any way your fault - just one of those things. Now it's fixed anyway, so no more problem
Please keep on posting your great photos, we'd really miss it if you didn't.

Ditto

Angie, I never thought anyone was singling you out when I read the various posts about this problem. Yours were just a few of the threads/posts which were problematic. Finding a commonality in the various threads was the goal, not to single you out at all! Please don't quit posting, okay?

ditto gardenwife.

Arsenic, all of my pictures are from a Fujifilm Finepix.

ecobioangie, I said it befor and I'll say it again...I am sorry if my mention of your posts offended you! I knew it was not something you were doing but just a glich that made your photos hang up on the IE browser. Now that Dave has tweaked his filters or whatever other computer language stuff he does they are working fine. So please leave your photos here and add more! Especially of that ferocious red eyed dog!

I never intended it to be an attack upon you but merely a way to focus the problem so that it would simplify the process for Dave to correct. It could have just as easily decided it didn't like the code in my photo shop program or ifranview that a lot of others here use. Such is the www where all types of systems meet and interface...and sometimes fail to communicate as in this instance!

Some sites, when a problem like this arise, simply state on the home page that it can only be properly viewed with a certain browser, But here at DG Dave has thus far managed to make it work for all of us with whatever browser we are comfortable with. This is one of many reasons the site has been so sucessful and why it will continue to grow.

It is unfortunate that your posts were singled out but with the fix Dave has accomplished you should not experience a repeat and we can hopefully all put this behind us!

'put this behind us'

I agree. Thanks ya'll, I'm fine. It just read bad when reading it all at once. Kind of a lot to swallow seeing your name (and your innocent puppy's) ALL OVER a post about a problem like that. I thought I was becoming INfamous! lol

You should have been around when the 'current events' forum was still live...lol Talk about getting your feathers ruffled. That was a daily event. And that's why that forum is gone :)

Yep! I put my two cents worth into that forum too! Still miss it, but under the circumstances it is probably best gone for the peace of the community.

HAH...I remember once when I got "singled out"! I had put too many "......." in a post and it made everyone's screen go so wide they had to scroll back and forth, back and forth to read the thread! Oh my mercy me! I was in hot water that week! (But then again, people love to pick on little ol' me!) Po po 'Shoe...! ;>)

Shoe, I remember that, it was ages ago!! I didn't know what had happened to my screen. Boy, we've come a long way since then!

Angie sure good to see you are sticking with us. I missed ya in chat . Hope to see ya next week.

Yes, Angie has been a good sport and forgiven me but I may have to send Bizmark a bone to get off the hook there!

ditto, ditto, ditto - can't say much different than what others have. I'm truly sorry if any of our posts (including mine) made you feel like we painted a target on you, but it sure wasn't personal - it was just your luck that an image you posted seemed to be a common denominator (along with some other links and images) and we were trying to help Dave get to the root cause of the problem by giving him a clear idea of where the hiccup seemed to start :) Glad you and the puppy are planning to stay put!

Angie, I'm so glad you are staying and continuing to post pictures. I would have missed my new-found friends pictures of her beautiful house plants.

Hugs,
Joan

I am happy we have found a solution, I only wish I knew which programs did this because I have four separate photo programs to choice from on my computer, and I if I knew which ones were better for Daves then I would use only those programs.

As always, I'm a bit late, but wanted to say thanks for finding and fixing the problem. It sure was getting frustrating :o)