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Bummer, Basecamp is down for emergency maintenance

Just when I had 10 minutes to review my projects, the project management system is down for emergency maintenance.  With the link going to a description of timezones, I found this error to be pretty weak. 

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The system is down for emergency maintenance

It’ll be back by 3:00PM Central time.

comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

Professional Polls need professional error strings

Got this fairly vague error today at ProProfs.com. It is nice that it says there is an error and provides a link to try again, but pro peeps need better pro errors.

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IPS Driver Error

There appears to be an error with the database.
You can try to refresh the page by clicking here

(1) comments | posted in: 404 News Webdev

Bit.ly has a great “wrong url” screen

It’s been a while since I’ve found a good shot for the collection.  So fun to be back on track with Bit.ly’s hand-drawn “bit.ly couldn’t find a link for the bit.ly URL you clicked” screen.

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Uh oh, bit.ly couldn’t find a link for the bit.ly URL you clicked.

Maybe one of the pufferfish ate it, or maybe there are some extra characters on the end of the URL.

Most bit.ly URLs are 4-6 characters, and only include letters and numbers.

comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

Troubleshooting “Gmail messages not appearing in the Inbox”

I’ve been dealing with an intermittent issue for about a year now where some of my mail messages never appear in the Gmail inbox.  I usually access my Gmail using IMAP and rarely use the web interface. 

Up until now, the only way I’ve had to find them is to search for unread messages and page through listservs and all sorts of junk looking for messages with no labels applied.

Today after waiting for an email that apparently never arrived, I decided to do something about it.  First step, determine how many messages were really affected and find a search string to display them.

That string turned out to be:


is:unread -label:[gmail]-Meetup -label:[gmail]-ListServ-w3 -label:[gmail]-pr -label:[gmail]-listserv-su-alumni -label:inbox

After seeing the results of that query, all I could say was “Wow, this issue with my gmail not going into the inbox is much larger than I’d previously thought.” 

So, I did some digging around in Google Labs and found the “Quick Links” add-on which let me save this search so that it’s never more than one click away.

Then, I spent some time going through hundreds of messages that went back nearly a year and found what I had been missing.  Along the way, I could only think of two reasons this could be happening:

1. I’ve filed certain messages away in the web interface and Gmail has continued the “thread” in a mailbox other than Inbox.

2. I might have an IMAP email client configured incorrectly and it may be filing messages into non-existent mailboxes.

3. There’s some sort of glitch in Gmail.

More testing is required to get to the bottom of this, but at least now I can find the messages that are “missing.”

comment on this | posted in: News Troubleshooting Webdev

A true 404 over at Doug’s

A software update brought me to this nice 404 over at Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes.  I like the “at the very least” portion, because it very much sounds like something Doug would say.

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The area you are attempting to reach in the dougscripts.com domain cannot be found. It may have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Or, at the very least, the link that got you here is incorrect.

Perhaps you can find what you are looking for using the links in the column on the right or by using the menu and search forms at the top of this page.

Consistent errors should be brought to the attention of webmaster AT dougscripts DOT com.

comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

Facebook launches Prototypes

Facebook has launched “Prototypes” which are experimental features and applications built by Facebook engineers.  This is similar to Google Labs in that you can access and even comment on upcoming features.

Prototypes can be managed or removed from the individual Application Settings pages.  And from Facebook: “Please keep in mind they are sometimes buggy. They can also change very rapidly or be taken down without notice.”

comment on this | posted in: News Webdev

Our good ‘ole friend Emma takes a nosedive

The notoriously slow, but heavily used, bulk email service MyEmma took a rather bland nosedive this afternoon.

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The service is temporarily unavailable.
We're sorry, our service is temporarily inaccessible.
We are working hard to remedy the situation and hope to have access restored soon.
(3) comments | posted in: 404 News Webdev

37 Signals says “Eh, it’s down- try again later”

37 Signals takes a low-key approach to their error screen when search files in Basecamp.  My interpretation- “Eh, it’s down- try again later.  Please don’t bug us.”

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Search is temporarily unavailable.
Please try again in 5 minutes.
If this continues for an extended period of time please let us know. Thank you.
comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

URL shortening is like watching TV (to bit.ly)

I got this great error page over at bit.ly today.  Perhaps it is possible to shorten URLs too much?

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Sorry to interrupt your show, but there seems to be a problem.

comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

WolframAlpha has a sense of humor

Some fun WolframAlpha searches:

When were you born?

Wolfram Old

Are you self-aware?

Wolfram Self Aware

Are you Skynet?

Wolfram Skynet

Easter eggs?

Wolfram Easter Eggs

comment on this | posted in: News Tips Webdev
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