Joke "bugs" in webpage, -or are they ?

[Derek Geldard]

I subscribe to serious medical webpage about diabetes and treatment.

most recent issue was released today and I downloaded it. I was mighty pissed off to find that on one page in the newsletter there was a single tiny insect crawling about on my screen. At first I was duped into thinking it was real and tried to scratch it off - no dice. Then I realised it was moving up and down the screen with the data as I scrolled the screen.

I was mighty pissed off at the time I'd wasted especially as even now i don't know the origin of the bug, and intend to email the authors of the page and give them a piece of my mind but...

How can I be certain the bug is embedded in their code? Stopzilla hasn't found anything.

Derek G

[The Natural Philosopher]

probably there's a hidden link to a JavaScript or flash overlay..look for that in the source.

Probably a hack by someone.

[John Rumm]

Its nothing to do with the site, and is not actually "code" at all. Its simply an animated .gif file that someone has used for their avatar. See it on its own here:

[Andy Burns]

Err, it's an animated avatar icon for the user 'Hobs'

[Tim Watts]

was stuck in a simple pattern (figure-8 IIRC).

[Brian Gaff]

OK, this may sound stupid, but exactly why does one need one of these?

Brian

[Onetap]

Where did you park the outrage bus?

[Andy Burns]

Like so many things, there is no need for them, on the few forums I use, I never use an avatar, but most people seem to have one.

[DerbyBoy]

I can see a sheep eating grass. Is it in my computer?

[John Williamson]

User Hobs is using an animated .gif file as an avatar, instead of the normal static picture. Nothing to worry about.

To view the picture on its own, right click on the area above the name, and select "View image".

[Rob]

I'm curious, just how much time did you waste?

[Geo]

Same reason as "must-have" fluffy dice dangling on car mirror probably.

[Mark]

[Tim Watts]

;->>

[Mike Barnes]

Derek Geldard :

Others have explained.

And now, slightly to your surprise I suspect, you know *exactly* who to send the e-mail containing a piece of your mind to.

Personally I think animated avatars serve no purpose other than to piss ordinary people off and advertise the puerile nature of the owner.

If you want a solution, you could use the Adblock Plus plugin for Firefox, which enables you to right-click on the bug and block it. That plugin blocks lots of other crap as well, mostly automatically.

[The Natural Philosopher]

According to some metaphysical propositions, yes.

[Derek Geldard]

I see I was still at it at 1.22 am. Probably about an hour.

The insect kept disappearing/reappearing as I scrolled up/down. I hadn't associated it with brother hobs posting, if it had been a bug/virus/trojan/javascript exploit or WTF I wouldn't have had the ability to debug it. :-(

Derek G

[Tim Streater]

And you didn't notice Mr Grazer's sheep, in a corresponding position - or Terminator 2's finger?

[Jules Richardson]

It encourages usenet discussion, thus helping to keep an elderly communications mechanism alive. Without it, we'd be limited to such things as stoats and JCBs - a dangerous combination.

[Tim Watts]

Another thing that ought to rejuvinate USENET is that is is actually usable over mobile internet - for just the same reasons it was great when all we had were modems :)

Trying to use a bloody web forum on a phone is right up there with diseyeballing oneself with a teaspoon.

Sadly, the time period has been too great and a whole generation exists that knows not of USENET.