Wednesday 22 February 2012

That Anoying Pop-Up Box: What is a 'Favicon'? From Whence does it Come?

Thanks to all who have been in contact for the messages of support! I am not entirely 'back' yet – not yet firing on both barrels – but I think I'm on the road to recovery. At least I have been able to summon up enough enthusiasm to play around with the idea of a redesign for the cover of INSTITUTIONALISED Vol 1. I'll be the first to admit that the layout of these two early offerings are somewhat... how should we say?... crap! (Perhaps 'confused' would be a kind comment) But at least I'm making a start.

In case anyone out there is wondering, by the way: Yes I was on antidepressants many years ago (early 80s and early – mid 90s) but they didn't ever seem to do anything other than give me a dry mouth and, on occasion, an upset stomach. The last time I got really bad -
back in 2001 when my dad was busy dying and I was trying to stagger on with my PhD (I had just lost my gran,too) - I discovered that (apart from beer) the herb, St Johns wort, seemed to help, albeit at several times the recommended dose! I usually fall back on the ale but booze is not really an option this time; indeed, I fear I may have already damaged my nervous system. Certainly there are hints of alcoholic peripheral neuropathy.

Now: If you are finding you are encountering pop-up box popping demanding some sort of password please ignore it. it is not of my making and I don't know where it has come from. You can close the box by clicking on the 'X' in the top right hand corner as you would any other dialogue box and then proceed as normal to read the blog, leave comments or whatever. Unfortunately this 'password box sometimes opens again, but it does so a maximum of 3 times. So if you find yourself obliged to close it again, please have patience and do so in the same manner, while taking comfort in the fact that the third time is always lucky in this case. But I have to admit that it really is annoying nonetheless!

The trouble is, I am at present unsure as to how to get rid of the bloody thing. As far as I can gather it is due to the author of one of the blogs that my blog houses a link to having set up some sort of 'hotlink' to something or other called a 'Favicon' whatever that is – I fervently wish he or she hadn't!

Something similar has happened before. But the last time it occurred it did so immediately following my having added a couple of blogs to my 'bog role' and so was easy to track down. Then it proved to have something to do with certain of the 'Thumbloger' blogs I had added - which is why all the 'Thumbloger' blogs are now listed in their own section of the sidebar, in a manner that allows no direct link back which is why there is no mention of their latest update nor any thumbnail, logo or what have you - as one might ordinarily expect to see in a conventional 'blog role'. On this occasion, though, there are few clues as to this annoyance's origination. This time it just seems to have manifested from thin air;; certainly I have added no new blogs to my blog role for very many
months. Because of the latter I am at a loss as to how to track down the culprit... any ideas out there?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi...

Welcome back....You have been sorely missed.

susan

Orage said...

I think I've found the snag, so this is just a try.

Orage said...

YEEEEEEEESSS!!

With that word verification, just don't click on preview. So now I can add my comment.

The two new covers you posted here are indeed much better than the original one.

The second one is much more sinister than the first one, largely due to the shades of grey. But I think the image is too blurred.

On the other hand the text is quite attractive.

So why not keep the first picture and add the text of the second one right over the nurse's legs?

Anonymous said...

Sincere welcome back, and may your recovery continue.

Anonymous said...

Wo0tness! You're back! Nice to see you updating again.

I totally agree with Orage about the book covers. They're way better than the originals. And use the text. I really think it would help sell the books.

Keep up the recovery.

Signed,

The Non-Victorian Chick

Anonymous said...

And this time my comment actually got published! I figured out why my comments would preview but not actually show up. Yay me!


The Non-Victorian Chick

Anonymous said...

Just did a bit of digging through the page source code and found this:

http://britishspankingmags.sexusblog.com/favicon.ico

Probably the link causing the trouble.

Welcome Back!

Toyntanen said...

Hi Orage, glad you fnaly made it in... and my apologies for blogger having made things so difficult in the first place. I'd turn off the 'facility' if I knew how! But then I guess I'd be hit – or rather my blog would be – by all kinds of robot originated spammy-crap!

Hi too, and welcome, to 'The Non-Victorian Chick' – nice to know some folks that actually have names – and to all the various flavors of 'Anonymous's's's', especially the one that searched through the source code to find the reference to that troublesome 'Favicon' thing!

It seems to be some sort of icon generator or image source by the look of things, utilized and linked to by the blog concerned – which turned out to be 'Britishspankingmags'.

I should have thought of searching the source code myself – it was how I found the culprits last time (all those Thumbloger sites that I quarantined in their own section of the sidebar) – but I'm not yet quite 'all there'.

The icon in the blog role associated with 'Britishspankingmags' seems to have disappeared – and with it the problem – in any case... but I don't want to speak too soon! If the problem recurs I may have to remove that one (and any other blogs that cause similar complications) from the blog listing.

The latter begs the question why the blog owners concerned insist on choosing to utilize these 'Favicon' things if they are capable of messing up any blog that innocently links to them (something most blog authors presumably want and encourage, so as to extend their coverage / readership) and when the likely response is to banish the link to their blog from the blog role or whatever!

And I know from reading around a little that my blog is far from being the only one that has been blighted in this manner. Death to 'Favicons', whatever they are - that's what I say. Other blog authors out there please note: if you want others to link to your blog, Favicon icons cause problems to other folks blogs and may result in the owner being obliged to unlink with you. (And I hate sentences that begin with 'And' - even though I just did just that, twice!!! Oh well!)

Anonymous said...

The nice thing about having a "name", or at least a handle, is that hopefully people remember me.

I'm bad about starting sentences with "And", which I know I'm not supposed to do. I'll try to keep myself in check while I'm here.

The Non Victorian Chick

Anonymous said...

Well, the problem was your link to the site. You had http://britishspankingmags.sexusblog.com/favicon.ico. Your link shouldn't have had anything after the .com.

Favicom wasn't the problem - your blog has a favicom. A favicom is the tiny graphic that appears in the address bar to the left of the URL. On your blogger blog the favicom is bloggers white 'B' in an orange box.

Anyway -- the link is worthless because the site has no content and hasn't been updated since Feb 2011.

Glad you're back Garth

Rex