Odd error message

[Frozen_Feet]

When writing a long post to this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200474&page=3), I got this message:


Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /forums/newreply.php on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.giantitp.com Port 80

After fiddling around with the post, I narrowed the source of the message to one paragraph. However, I have no idea what in it caused the message. It was plain text.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Were you talking about a lynx by any chance?

[Saposhiente]

"lynx " and "TO:  " do that. There, I replaced the spaces with " ", which parses to a space in HTML. And to print that I replaced the & with & which parses to & in HTML.

[Zeb The Troll]

Was it the Zanpakuto paragraph in your character concept? Did you perchance have two spaces after the colon because that's what they used to teach us to do in typing class? I'm just spitballing here, but it sounds reasonable at a glance.

[Flame of Anor]

Was it the Zanpakuto paragraph in your character concept? Did you perchance have two spaces after the colon because that's what they used to teach us to do in typing class? I'm just spitballing here, but it sounds reasonable at a glance.

Typography tangent here, but two spaces after a period or colon is an obsolete practice with the advent of computers which use non-monospaced fonts.

[Rawhide]

Typography tangent here, but two spaces after a period or colon is an obsolete practice with the advent of computers which use non-monospaced fonts.

He knows, hence the "used to teach us".

[Zeb The Troll]

Indeed. Believe it or not, there are still some of us alive that learned to type on typewriters* at a time when "computers" were closer to science fiction than ubiquitous household appliance and only the moderately wealthy actually owned one. Several of us even post on these very forums. :smallsigh: :smalltongue:

*mine was even a manual typewriter

[KillianHawkeye]

I learned to type 2 spaces on a computer back in 1994 or so, so that isn't even limited to typewriters. I still do it when I use word processors, just not when I'm typing on the Internet.

[Rawhide]

I learned to type 2 spaces on a computer back in 1994 or so, so that isn't even limited to typewriters. I still do it when I use word processors, just not when I'm typing on the Internet.

It was taught due to it being correct for typewriters, new standards weren't yet developed or passed on to teachers at the time a lot of people were taught word processing on a computer. You should only use double spaces now if you're using an unjustified mono-spaced font or if a style guide specifically requires you to so. Doing it on a modern day word processor can result in so called 'rivers of white' and other visual issues.

[The Rose Dragon]

Indeed. Believe it or not, there are still some of us alive that learned to type on typewriters* at a time when "computers" were closer to science fiction than ubiquitous household appliance and only the moderately wealthy actually owned one. Several of us even post on these very forums. :smallsigh: :smalltongue:

*mine was even a manual typewriter

You don't even have to be that old to learn to type on typewriters (manual ones). I was born in 1990, and I learned how to type on my parents' typewriter. I didn't have a personal computer until I was 10.

[Zeb The Troll]

You don't even have to be that old to learn to type on typewriters (manual ones). I was born in 1990, and I learned how to type on my parents' typewriter. I didn't have a personal computer until I was 10.There was maybe a smidge of hyperbole in that response. :smallcool:

[Zherog]

Only a smidge? (asks the guy who also learned to type on a manual typewriter, before personal computers even existed...)

[Frozen_Feet]

Were you talking about a lynx by any chance?

Yes, I believe this was it. I was using a metaphor about pack of wolves inviting over... well, you know. Switched it to dogs and cats.

...

Why one earth does it do that? o.O

[Zherog]

It's a security feature put in place by the host that GitP can't deactivate. It filters out known vulnerabilities. "Lynx" happens to be the name of a piece of software that's on some servers, and that piece of software is hackable. So the host uses the brute force method of security by simply banning it from appearing in text.

[Rawhide]

It is indeed one of the security measures installed on the server and monitored by the host's security team. It's a final stage measure that should not be needed because the web facing software should not allow a user to invoke other programs arbitrarily. But we all know that sometimes some programs can have unexpected problems, and this is the final 'trap' to prevent it.

Filtering that word is rather pointless though, as it isn't even installed on the server...