Posted by robert maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t on 02/19/07 18:22

> From: "Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.m...@example.invalid>
> Isn't is funny what one simple error can do? <lol!>
> .. ReSpam2002Jan08</a\>.

Oops, fixed now. Thank you very much for spotting that typo and
bringing it to my attention. I have no idea how that extra
character could have gotten in there, because the \ key is nowhere
near either the previous or following character on the keyboard.

By the way, I'm curious: Which Web browser were you using that got
tricked by that typo? Lynx here is apparently sloppy enough that I
didn't notice it myself. I usually notice non-completed anchors
because they show as a huge chunk of BOLD text in lynx, but not in
this case.

I wonder how long ago I made that mistake, and nobody before you
had the kindness to tell me about it? Months is my guess, sigh.
There are disadvantages to being a high-volume site, that one tiny
mistake and your phone line is flooded with complaints, but this is
a case of a disadvantage to being a low-volume site, nobody
noticing a mistake for a very very long time.

I ran the validator over the file now, found two cases where I had
a bare ampersand character within a quoted string. Honestly I
didn't know that was not allowed. I thought you could put anything
in a quoted string, even ampersands. Oh well, learn something new
every day... So I fixed those two.

That left only one validation error:
1. Error Line 57 column 23: character "?" not allowed in end tag.
username <em>guest1</em?>, password <em>free</em>.<br />

Oops! And that *does* have a ready explanation as a keyboard typo,
since the ? key is right next to the > key so I probably bumped the
? key on the way to reach for the > key and failed to notice it.
Fixing that now ... done:
Result: Passed validation
Address: http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/WAP/ContactMe.html
Phew! (sound of relief)

Thanks a second time, this time for alerting me to that file in
general so I'd try the validator and find the three other errors
that had also crept in.

And thanks to whoever told me about the validator for the very
first time a year or so ago.

<TMI>A few days ago I decided that the validators were sufficiently
urgent for my current project that I set up links to them from my
local home page, so now instead of spending five minutes looking
for where I put the URLs, I just start a new instance of lynx and
follow the links to the validators lickedy split.</TMI>

I'm sure glad I'm working on innocent CGI applications and Web
pages, not on military software for missile control systems. I'd
hate to have to say "Oops" after a teensy little typo caused an
unauthorized launch, with faulty targeting too, causing (for
example) Paris and adjoining region to be vaporized.

[Back to original message]