New Mars Forums

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For Calliban....

Thanks for reporting this unwanted behavior of the existing system...

Out of curiosity, please try logging into the clone.The clone is running on Azure, and it has been updated to run on modern PHP with modern MySQL.
The problem you are reporting looks like a PHP problem to me.
I'm definitely interested in knowing if you see the same problem when you log into the clone.
To save you time, here is the link:
http://40.75.112.55/forums/FluxBB/index.php

You also have an account on the new phpBB3 forum. I would be astonished if the problem you've reported occurs there.
However, in a spirit of covering all bases, here is the link to that test forum:
http://40.75.112.55/phpBB3/index.php

Info
Bad CSRF hash. You were referred to this page from an unauthorized source.

This happens almost every time I try and log in.  Any idea what is going wrong here?

***
I've made a (mental) note to look up that error ... it will be somewhere in the forum structure... It is associated with login (of course) but login calls a small army of support elements, so the error probably comes from one of those.

As a side note ... The 98% cleanup of FluxBB 1.5.11 is complete ... the clone is running, and no new errors have been reported by SpaceNut in recent days. However, the package consists of many (ie, 50- < forum > 100) modules, and I have begun a step-by-step inspection/analysis of all of them, using a package called inteliphense.  I'll run into the BAD hash code at some point.  When that happens, assuming my mental note is still holding and working, I'll let you (and everyone) know what I find.

A related issue is trying to defeat hackers... It is possible for a hacker to attempt to run modules of FluxBB 1.5.11 (or any forum) out of turn, so the programmers have built in checks to try to prevent unauthorized activity.  The BAD hash function would be one of those.  Apparently it can be triggered by a legitimate forum member as well as by a hacker.

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

Make a note of the post topic page number as there is a sync issue for the last post that sets the next page that gives this error.

Copying the address bar content will also help.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #3502

Your post does not indicate the recipient ... I have no idea what the post is about or what it means, so it must not have been for me. Please consider identifying the person you are writing to when you send a post like that. 

The post might have been for Calliban?

If so, are you asking Calliban to do something?

it ** sounds ** to me as though have a suggestion for how to diagnose this failure, or what to look for in the source code.

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

Yes, your post got to the data base before mine did. But for all that has seen it would give more data.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re wood burning energy storage topic...

https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 84#p222584

N i c e   r e c o v e r y   f r o m   g o i n g    o f f   t r a c k   b r i e fly. <<== AISE objected to something in this line

I have a question for you, if you have time ...

( I recognize your time is limited)...

What quantity of wood is needed to support a family for a year?

I am able to collect fallen limbs from my trees over the course of a year. In a typical year, the quantity of wood shed by the trees would make a decent wheelbarrow load, or small fire that would last for an hour or so.  If you are contemplating heating and cooling a home with wood, you will need railroad carloads of wood, over the course of a year. 

Can you put some numbers into the topic?  How many railroad carloads of wood will you need to maintain comfortable temperatures in a typical home for a year?

An estimate might be possible, given statistics on hydrocarbon consumption.  Wood is less efficient than hydrocarbon fuels, and there is waste that must be disposed of.

There is probably a good reason why households around the world have dropped wood for heating and cooling, in favor of more energy dense energy carriers.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For all ....

As we continue to have to deal with AISE in our current environment....

My experiment today with Post 3505 above seems to support the working theory that a solution is to copy the entire post to a text editor, delete the proposed post and then add lines back one at a time, using Preview to validate text. Eventually the line that causes the AISE will show up.... just space the letters in that line, and Preview will accept it. Then add the remainder of the post, and perform a final Preview. If that works, Submit.

SearchTerm:AISE solution - procedure to isolate cause and resolve itl.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ...

The color scheme of the clone has been changing to blue when I visit ....

This may be happening without human intervention ... I am shifting back and forth between color schemes on different sites and the browser may have lost track of which color scheme goes where.

I'm just curious to know if you've seen a similar change when you visit the clone?

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

Depending on if you are logged in or in reading mode the display coloration will change to what you have set up in the user profile on the display page. I had mine set to AIR (blue), but I just went into the clone and changed it to earth. Sort of a desert sand color.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ... thanks for the explanation!

I gather from your reply that the default setting for the clone is still "Fire" ???

I did not change my user profile, so I wondered if someone had changed the web site default color from "fire" to blue...

It seems quite possible that the cache in my browser is fetching the color scheme for the blue site (phpBB3) because it may be dominant in the cache?

Just curious ... it's not a big deal.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ....the weekend is here....

As a reminder.... Oldfart1939 is offering you (and all of us) a chance to hear his presentation tomorrow.

To the best of my knowledge, you have never tried to use Zoom for anything.  I'd like to (at least TRY) to encourage you to see if you can run Zoom on your computer. You don't have to have a camera.  All you need is the ability to play sound over a loud speaker. If your computer can do that, then you can watch and listen to the the presentation.  Are you at all interested in hearing Olffart1939's presentaiton?  It will be about Dr. Harold Urey, who won the Nobel prize for discovering Deuterium. The talk will  be about his experiments that showed that lightning can stimulate precursor chemicals for life if the right ingredients are present.

If you think you might like to try to listen to the talk, we have plenty of time to help you set up your computer. Since you have Windows 10 you can start by going to Zoom.com and downloading the Zoom player for Windows 10.  You can use our standing Zoom account to try it out.  Just click on the Zoom link at the top of the topic for Zoom Collaboration.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ... I'd like to be able to set the range of search of the Active button....

This capability is currently set as a default. It may be something the Admin can change.

I like the current 24 default, so don't want to change that.

However, I ** would ** like to be able to change the range of the Active command as an ordinary member, upon occasion.

Here is where a new feature would go:

AISE objected to text here...
tahanson43206 - Display
Select your preferred style
Styles

Set your options for viewing posts
If you are on a slow connection, disabling these options, particularly showing images in posts and signatures, will make pages load faster.
Show smilies as graphic icons.
Show user signatures.
Show images in posts.
Enter your pagination options Topics  Posts

<<< a new option might go here: Active List range in hours [...]

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re Oldfart1939 Presentation ....

It appears you are off the hook for this particular presentation, but I'm going to persist in trying to encourage you to let yourself at least listen in on Zoom meetings.  I understand you may prefer to avoid video and microphone input to Zoom meetings, but happily that is quite normal and accepted.  You can use the online Chat to enter questions or comments if you would care to do that.

What I have no way of knowing is whether your computing equipment has the ability to support audio output.  That would make a Zoom meeting more interesting.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re GW Johnson's innovative attempt to provide information to YouTube viewers....

The problem at hand may be of special interest to you ...

30 views  Apr 13, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsCZmEiDOB4&t=67s

This is what GW's first attempt to offer links to his viewers looks like.

I want to emphasize to ALL NewMars readers that this was a SUCCESSFUL test launch, even though the vehicle did not reach orbit.

The booster landed safely back at the launch site, and we are able to diagnose the log of the test at our leisure.

I am hoping the attendees of tonight's Google Meeting will be willing to spend some time on diagnosis of the test results, and (hopefully) suggesting changes to improve performance of the test vehicle at the next test.

For any NewMars member with search skills ... Please see if you can find evidence of anyone else on Earth attempting what GW Johnson has attempted.  I would be surprised if you find anything, but am open to the possibility we are not the first to try this.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

As a follow up to Post #3513

The key problem to be solved appears to be a Verification process that GW Johnson needs to complete, in order to create hot links in the YouTube description field for his videos.

Information I did not have at the time of Post 3513 is that YouTube makes shortened versions of URl's when it displays text entered by the video producer.

GW Johnson appears to have entered the URL's correctly into the description field, but they appear shortened because YouTube shortened them.

The key information for anyone entering a URL into the description field of a YouTube video, is to be sure the URL is entered into the edit window in full, and that no periods are visible in the URL entered into the edit window.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ....

Re new Inactive member group for NewMars Prime.

Thank you (again) for creating the Inactive member group in the Clone.

Now that we have seen the new group works in the Clone, please add it to NewMars Prime.

It is discouraging to our inactive members to find they've been banned.

Let's change their status from banned to inactive.

The first step is to create the new Member category.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For RGClark re report of web site not responding ...

Thank you for reporting the outage you experienced at midnight today.

Things seem to be back to normal, but I am posting here in hopes that kbd512 might see the report.

(th)

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ...

When you get a spare minute, please replace the incorrect text in the Registration message:
New text:
This forum is accepting new registrations by email. Please see Recruiting topic
End new Text;

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

The register.php is a hard coded message that is not changeable.

I have changed the announcement message and hope that meets with you for what you suggested.

Have changed 5 pages of members to the New InActive status. Still need to change the admin message block on each still and need to set the banned first to unbanned that can be before switching them too InActive.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #3518

Thanks for working on the Inactive member group! 

The message here is NOT hard coded.  I changed it in the Clone.

Update ... SpaceNut... It appears I owe you an apology.... I can't find the Registration text. I may have changed it in the MySQL database.

I'll investigate further.  If a change in MySQL is needed, I can ask kbd512 if he would be willing to make the change.

That message ** should ** be available to the Administrator (in my opinion).

Here is the present text:

This forum is not accepting new registrations.

I'll look for where you can change that message. << Update: I looked and did NOT find it.

What we want it to say is:

This forum is accepting new registrations by email. Please see Recruiting topic

The message is in the Admin section.  I'll look for it.

Update ... the new InActive member group looks good! 

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

That message only appears when you are not logged in. As that is the only time the register button is available to click on.

I also changed the recruiting to a link in the announcement for the recruiting topic with the usual html code.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re 3520

Thank you for the new announcement that appears above the line we need to fix.  I used grep to find the location of the text that appears when a visitor clicks on the Register button ...

sudo grep -Rni "This forum is accepting new registrations"
lang/English/register.php:7:'No new regs'               
=>    'This forum is accepting new registrations via email. Please see Recruiting Topic',

The file to be changed is in register.php,

It has been changed in the clone, so when we upgrade to the clone, the message will be there.

***
This evening, while monitoring the monthly 3D Printer meeting, I completed a review of the remaining files in the forum... most checked out clean.

A very small number have issues, and I'll work on them tomorrow.  Some of the PHP files look to me like extra baggage left over from previous versions.

However, since I don't know which files we need and which not, my present plan is to simply clean up all of them.

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

yes, it's an info section that did not have an entry form place to make changes in the o p t i o n s form.

Since 2002 the php was stepped and then to 2005 phpbb with the fluxbb in 2015. the wayback machine could help in defining how many versions.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #3522...

Just FYI... the version we are updating is 1.5.11 dated 2012.

I am proposing we rename our version as 1.5.12, so it is not mistaken for the version from Github.

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Housekeeping

sounds good and it might give others an option from making it a business for you and kbd512 possibly.

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,435

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #3524 and new inquiry for membership...

Thanks for noting progress in upgrade of FluxBB to run with modern PHP and MySQL.

It would indeed be a surprising outcome, if another group were to decide to try to keep FluxBB running a bit longer.

I would think that any new forum would want to go with phpBB3.  It has many nice features, and is being supported.

***
Our new member application caused me to think about your recent decision to create the InActive member group.

I applaud your decision to implement that group, because it will look a ** lot ** better to any of our formerly active members if they decide to renew participation.

However, ** this ** message is about a category of membership we do not currently offer, but which is feasible.

I'd like to remind you of our test update script http://40.75.112.55/forums/UpdateEdited.php?id=80882

When you click on that link, it updates the Edited field in the post of interest.

That script is currently working with the Clone.

Here is a possibility ... we could create a class of members who can "Like" posts.

That would include all regular members, but the new class would be able to update the like field without being a registered member.

We could implement the idea so that a table contains the ID of the post being updated, and the ID of the member who likes a post.

That way, only one like per member would be accepted, and thus the count of "likes" would be accurate.

Something similar is working at YouTube ... I am able to "like" one of GW Johnson's videos, but the system allows me only to "Like" once.

It seems to me that our regular member authors/contributors might appreciate knowing when real members have read a post, and were motivated to "like" it.

(th)