It’s a small world, after all. . .
Not too long ago, I gave up on dialup and went to DSL. What a difference. Right after I made the switch, I noticed a popup. I never get popups. I thought that it was weird. I closed it, and didn’t give it much thought. I wasn’t paying attention to when and where it was happening. It was inconsistent. Then here on the blog, a few folks let me know that they were seeing it, too. What the heck?! The damn thing was coming up as my blog loaded. Adding to the strangeness was the content of the popup. It featured a video of a woman speaking about diabetes. My husband was recently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes - so he may have his name changed to the Splenda Baron.
I contacted blogger, my ISP and the company the popup was for. I was going round and round with Red Nova. They seemed to be sincerely trying to help me. We went back and forth with over a dozen emails looking for clues. I am clueless about computers, so it was very much like the Three Stooges - minus two. I was waiting for blogger and my isp to get back to me.
Zen Panda and I were corresponding on Saturday night about it. Then we went off on other tangents.
On Sunday, I called my ISP again. I had just started to explain the mess to the tech. He said, “That’s funny, my wife was telling me last night about a blog that popups were coming up on.” My first though was - “Good, so maybe it’s not just me.” As I was speaking with him, I received a message from Jough, who happens to be Pandora’s son with a fix for the problem. By this time, the tech had also determined the source of the redirect. He had also revealed that his wife was none other than Zen Panda. Is this getting stranger by the minute? It had absolutely nothing to do with the ISP, Blogger, or Red Nova. It was being caused by a counter on the blog. The counter had been on here since 18 Sep 2004. Why this started in October 2005 is best left to those who know what they’re talking about - which does not include me. I just took the link off the template. Hopefully, that will be the last.
I’d like to thank everyone in our blogging community for all their help.
Thank You!
So - if you see anything weird here again - I mean weirder than the usual weird - please let me know.
November 1st, 2005 at 8:20 am
How strange!
November 1st, 2005 at 9:07 am
I saw it too!!! glad that you got it all worked out.
November 1st, 2005 at 9:13 am
That is weird; nothing is ever simple is it? I saw it too and thought maybe it was something following me around. I’ll let you know if I see it again.
November 1st, 2005 at 12:33 pm
I just wanted to say the comment about the 3 stooges minus 2 made me laugh and I have not done much of that lately. You do have a way with words. I am computer dumb too so do not feel special. I am glad you got it fixed. Things so get strange sometimes.
November 1st, 2005 at 7:51 pm
I missed the ‘pop up’ and now I feel like an outcast.
Jay S.
November 2nd, 2005 at 4:07 pm
I saw it a few times too, didnt know what to think…glad its gone!
(splenda Baron…snark!)
November 2nd, 2005 at 5:41 pm
Waddaya know, today I’m a “dedbt”! (So what else is new?)
Trying to deal with tech support is about as enjoyable as having root canal work done without benefit of novaciane or nitrous oxide, and slightly more fun that watching an endless run of repeats of “The Donnie and Marie Show.” (If you didn’t have diabetes before watching those two members of the most famous family to come out of Utah after Brigham Young’s, you’d be in dire need of a large hypo needle of insulin afterwards–preferrably mainlined!)
You have to explain your problem to somebody who speaks a different language than you do. (Geeks are heavy into jargon–even more than politicians and /or farmers. I know this because I had to room with several computer science majors when I went to NAU in the mid-80s.) Probably you’ll get somebody who does speak English, but with an accent so thick that you know he’s located in downtown Mumbai (formerly Bombay), which means not only is he perturbed about your problem (which he doesn’t give a rodent’s behind about anyway), but he’s hacked off that you’ve called him at 3:00 in the morning, his time!
I am in the process of getting DSL from Automatic Towels & Toilets. Here in Mesa, AZ, USofA, you have three choices for land line phone service: Qwest (whose motto–Spirit of Service–translates into the approate acronym–S.O.S.), AT&T or Cox Cable, the local cable TV provider for most of the Phoenix area. Since neither of these companies is noted for quality, AT&T is the lesser of three evils, so to speak.
Recently, my connections (I have two ISPs–PeoplePC, whom I bought the computer from, and which comes with 4 years of internet service, and KOA Konnect which I use most of the time since PeoplePc pissed me off with lousy service) became glacially slow–usually around 19-24 kbps on a 56k modem. (This blog takes nearly five minutes to load, even after I had Firefox AdBlock most of the silly stuff on the side). So I’m biting the bullet and going broadband (since I finally got my car paid off, I can spare the cash) and dropping KOA Konnect (which never bothered to answer my tech support e-mails at all). I’ll keep PeoplePC until the contract runs out (since it’s the address I use when I’m asked for a e-mail address–so all the spam goes there). When the move is finalized, Moos, I’ll send you an e-mail from the new address.
Kirk (who got his T-II diabetes the old fashioned way–cuisine de junque washed down with massive amounts of Pepsi Cola)
November 2nd, 2005 at 8:20 pm
Wow Kirk, that comment was longer than the post itself!
November 3rd, 2005 at 5:27 pm
Jough, brevity is not one of my virtues (if I have any virtues at all, that is…).
Kirk from beautiful downtown Dry Heat, Arizona (which–as everybody knows–is a suburb of Tortilla Flat…)
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:20 pm
Hi Karen - glad to hear you have DSL. You must be loving it! The only downside to broadband is that it just makes blog-reading and Flickring all too easy and hours can melt away!
November 4th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
I love Kirk’s comments!
November 4th, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Moos, I glad somebody does…
DSL update: the line is supposed to be done by Tuesday, whence AT&T will ship out the installation kit. So I’ll be going broadband soon. (And considering the connection that this post is being composed on is 19 kbps, it won’t be a moment too soon.
Kirk–who today is “btdvi”, which sounds like someting you’d look at whiler waiting at a proctoligist’s office
November 5th, 2005 at 4:03 am
I’m glad it all worked out. It gave my household something fun to share.
The Hubby was excited toget toknow oneof my “cyber-friends”too.
:)
November 5th, 2005 at 11:02 pm
I am getting some stuff on mine, too. What kind of counter was it?
November 11th, 2005 at 6:49 pm
Wow…small blogosphere, ain’t it?!