Brewster Rockit (![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
brewserrockit_feed) wrote2025-06-10 12:00 am
brewserrockit_feed) wrote2025-06-10 12:00 am
YOU'RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK (myjetpack_feed) wrote2025-06-10 04:24 pm
myjetpack_feed) wrote2025-06-10 04:24 pmMy next book of science cartoons Physics for Cats is available to preorder. Links here:…
ALTMy next book of science cartoons Physics for Cats is available to preorder. Links here: www.tomgauld.com
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 03:07 pm
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 03:07 pmHow Sauber’s hard work on upgrades paid off in Spain
Kick Sauber’s aggressive development programme for their C45 continued in Barcelona, where an all-new floor brought a significant performance upgrade, one which was rewarded in the race by an official fifth place (sixth across the line) for Nico Hulkenberg.
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 02:35 pm
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 02:35 pmHamilton responds to speculation over relationship with engineer Adami
Lewis Hamilton has played down any suggestions of tension between himself and his race engineer Riccardo Adami, with the Ferrari driver stating that the speculation is “just noise” which “doesn't make any difference to the job that we're trying to do”.
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 02:05 pm
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 02:05 pmRed Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad has Super Licence approved
The FIA World Motor Sport Council has confirmed that a request to grant F2 driver and Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad a Super Licence prior to his 18th birthday has been granted.
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 02:05 pm
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 02:05 pmF1 and KitKat to launch partnership in Mexico
KitKat will make its debut as the Official Chocolate Bar of Formula 1 at this year’s Mexico City Grand Prix in October, giving fans the chance to win exclusive merchandise and F1 tickets.
The Daily WTF (the_daily_wtf_feed) wrote2025-06-10 06:30 am
the_daily_wtf_feed) wrote2025-06-10 06:30 amCodeSOD: The Pirate's Code
We've talked about ASP .Net WebForms in the past. In this style of development, everything was event driven: click a button, and the browser sends an HTTP request to the server which triggers a series of events, including a "Button Click" event, and renders a new page.
When ASP .Net launched, one of the "features" was a lazy repaint in browsers which supported it (aka, Internet Explorer), where you'd click the button, the page would render on the server, download, and then the browser would repaint only the changed areas, making it feel more like a desktop application, albeit a laggy one.
This model didn't translate super naturally to AJAX style calls, where JavaScript updated only portions of the page. The .Net team added some hooks for it- special "AJAX enabled" controls, as well as helper functions, like __doPostBack, in the UI to generate URLs for "postbacks" to trigger server side execution. A postback is just a POST request with .NET specific state data in the body.
All this said, Chris maintains a booking system for a boat rental company. Specifically, he's a developer at a company which the boat rental company hires to maintain their site. The original developer left behind a barnacle covered mess of tangled lines and rotting hull.
Let's start with the view ASPX definition:
<script>
function btnSave_Click()
{
if (someCondition)
{
//Trimmed for your own sanity
//PostBack to Save Data into the Database.
javascript:<%#getPostBack()%>;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
</script>
<html>
<body>
<input type="button" value=" Save Booking " id="btnSave" class="button" title="Save [Alt]" onclick="btnSave_Click()" />
</body>
</html>
__doPostBack is the .NET method for generating URLs for performing postbacks, and specifically, it populates two request fields: __EVENTTARGET (the ID of the UI element triggering the event) and __EVENTARGUMENT, an arbitrary field for your use. I assume getPostBack() is a helper method which calls that. The code in btnSave_Click is as submitted, and I think our submitter may have mangled it a bit in "trimming", but I can see the goal is to ensure than when the onclick event fires, we perform a "postback" operation with some hard-coded values for __EVENTTARGET and __EVENTELEMENT.
Or maybe it isn't mangled, and this code just doesn't work?
I enjoy that the tool-tip "title" field specifies that it's "[Alt]" text, and that the name of the button includes extra whitespace to ensure that it's padded out to a good rendering size, instead of using CSS.
But we can skip past this into the real meat. How this gets handled on the server side:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
'// Trimmed more garbage
If Page.IsPostBack Then
'Check if save button has been Clicked.
Dim eventArg As String = Request("__EVENTARGUMENT")
Dim offset As Integer = eventArg.IndexOf("@@@@@")
If (offset > -1) Then
'this is an event that we raised. so do whatever you need to here.
Save()
End If
End If
End Sub
From this, I conclude that getPostBack populates the __EVENTARGUMENT field with a pile of "@", and we use that to recognize that the save button was clicked. Except, and this is the important thing, if they populated the ID property with btnSave, then ASP .Net would automatically call btnSave_Click. The entire point of the __doPostBack functionality is that it hooks into the event handling pattern and acts just like any other postback, but lets you have JavaScript execute as part of sending the request.
The entire application is a boat with multiple holes in it; it's taking on water and going down, and like a good captain, Chris is absolutely not going down with it and looking for a lifeboat.
Chris writes:
The thing in its entirety is probably one of the biggest WTFs I've ever had to work with.
I've held off submitting because nothing was ever straight forward enough to be understood without posting the entire website.
Honestly, I'm still not sure I understand it, but I do hate it.
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BBC Sport (bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-08 03:59 pm
bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-08 03:59 pmAlexander Armstrong explores Rome's underground treasures
Alexander uncovers a world that helped build and run the world's first metropolis and its empire
BBC Sport (bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-07 10:15 am
bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-07 10:15 amTommy Steele's rise to fame as a rock 'n' roll teen idol
Dramatisation of Tommy Steele's rise to fame as a rock 'n' roll teen idol in the 1950s.
BBC Sport (bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-10 10:00 am
bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-10 10:00 amShould McLaren focus on one driver in title battle?
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions before the Canadian Grand Prix.
Oh Joy Sex Toy (ohjoysextoy_feed) wrote2025-06-10 07:02 am
ohjoysextoy_feed) wrote2025-06-10 07:02 amSide Effects by Bea Tormo
BBC Sport (bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-10 09:06 am
bbc_f1_feed) wrote2025-06-10 09:06 amMadrid makes debut as Imola dropped from 2026
The new Madrid Grand Prix will be held as the final race of an uninterrupted European section of the Formula 1 season next year.
ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
common_nature2025-06-10 01:52 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote in common_nature2025-06-10 01:52 am
Futility Closet (futilitycloset_feed) wrote2025-06-10 06:03 am
futilitycloset_feed) wrote2025-06-10 06:03 amSide Business
Notable allusions to unrecorded cases of Sherlock Holmes:
- “‘Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square furniture van. That is quite cleared up now — though, indeed, it was obvious from the first.'” (“The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor”)
- “‘Farintosh,’ said he. ‘Ah, yes, I recall the case; it was concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, Watson.'” (“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”)
- “‘Here’s the record of the Tarleton murders and the case of Vamberry, the wine merchant, and the adventure of the old Russian woman, and the singular affair of the aluminium crutch, as well as a full account of Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife.'” (“The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual”)
- “‘He is a big, powerful chap, clean-shaven, and very swarthy — something like Aldridge, who helped us in the bogus laundry affair.'” (The Adventure of the Cardboard Box”)
- “‘You know that I am preoccupied with this case of the two Coptic Patriarchs, which should come to a head to-day.'” (“The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”)
- “‘We have not forgotten your successful action in the case of Matilda Briggs.’ ‘Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson,’ said Holmes, in a reminiscent voice. ‘It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.'” (“The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire”)
- “A third case worthy of note is that of Isadora Persano, the well-known journalist and duellist, who was found stark staring mad with a matchbox in front of him which contained a remarkable worm, said to be unknown to science.” (“The Problem of Thor Bridge”)
- “‘This is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The husband was a teetotaller, there was no other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at his wife, which you will allow is not an action likely to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller.'” (“A Case of Identity”)
- “‘And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. You remember the woman at Margate whom I suspected for the same reason. No powder on her nose – that proved to be the correct solution.'” (“The Adventure of the Second Stain”)
- “‘I must thank you’, said Sherlock Holmes, ‘for calling my attention to a case which certainly presents some features of interest. I had observed some newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost touch with several interesting English cases.'” (The Hound of the Baskervilles)
- “Our months of partnership had not been so uneventful as he had stated, for I find, on looking over my notes, that this period includes the case of the papers of ex-President Murillo, and also the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, which so nearly cost us both our lives.” (“The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”)
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 06:27 am
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 06:27 amFormula 2 and Formula 3 unveil their 2026 calendars
Formula 2 and Formula 3 have today revealed their 2026 calendars. F2 is set to continue supporting Formula 1 during 14 rounds next season, while F3 will join both at 10 events.
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 05:56 am
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 05:56 amAll the key highlights from the 2026 F1 calendar
New team. New race. New regulations. The 2026 Formula 1 campaign, running to 24 Grands Prix, has a bit of everything.
Latest F1 News (formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 05:56 am
formula1_dot_com_feed) wrote2025-06-10 05:56 amFormula 1 reveals calendar for 2026 season
Formula 1 and the FIA have announced the calendar for the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship, with drivers and teams set to embark on another 24-round campaign.
Separated by a Common Language (acommonlanguage_feed) wrote2025-06-10 05:41 am
acommonlanguage_feed) wrote2025-06-10 05:41 ambalk and baulk
Over on Bluesky last month, I was pulled into a conversation that went something like this:
- Someone tweets a screenshot of a comment with the phrase Do you baulk at the film reviews...?
- Someone American asks "how long have y'all been adding a u to balk?"
- And then, predictably, some respondents say it's always been there, Noah Webster took it out.
That's the point where someone (c'est moi!) looked into it and reported back:
The Oxford English Dictionary has it as balk. Since it comes from Old English, it only got a 'u' after French had influenced (I am tempted to say 'infected') the spelling system. The 'u' came into the word in the 1600s and 1700s, and today the spelling is very mixed in BrE. British National Corpus has 21 baulked/13 balked, more recent Corpus of Global Web-Based English has 71 baulked/93 balked in BrE. Cambridge, Chambers & Collins Dictionary all list balk first as does the Guardian Style Guide.
Most u/non-u variations in BrE and AmE involve an o—as in words like colo(u)r and mo(u)ld. The variation can probably be blamed on Samuel Johnson as much as Noah Webster. In the 18th-century, not all British dictionaries put a u in words like colo(u)r, but Johnson did, and his dictionary became far more famous than the others, so the u form eventually became standard in BrE. I write about the ou/o spellings at this old post (and much more and much better in in The Prodigal Tongue). But even Johnson spelled balk without the u.
My attention to the -o(u)- words in the book meant I overlooked balk/baulk—but I used the word balked in chapter 7:
...please seemed inappropriate in the small request situation, and so Americans balked at it.
The British copyeditor did not bat an eyelash—or a blue pencil—at it.
Given the dictionaries' agreement, we can say that balk is the "standard" spelling of the verb in BrE. Given the corpus numbers, we can say that it is the "normal" spelling. Given the word's history, we can say it is the "original" spelling.
But those corpus numbers aren't so distinct, and given the conversation on Bluesky, it seems that some BrE writers really want to spell it with a u (and to believe that that is the "standard/normal/original" way to spell it). This may well be another instance of British spelling changing in recent decades in order to fight against perceptions but not realities of a British/American spelling difference.*
Confusion about its spelling is understandable, though, since there is a noun that is more usually spelled/spelt baulk. It's part of a billiard-type game table, and the term is used in several terms in several such games.
 |
| Illustration from International 8 Ball Referee |
I searched for several of these terms as either balk or baulk in Corpus of Global Web-Based English and got only the u spelling—with none of them in AmE:
(Britannica.com has it as balk. They're owned by the same company as Merriam-Webster. Is the ghost of Noah W. removing U's in the encyclop[a]edia?)
So, in general, if it's a [billiards] noun, it's baulk and if it's a verb it's balk. They both come from the same Old English word, with a Germanic ancestor.
The one other -aulk word in current English is caulk (used much more in AmE than BrE, which tends to say seal/sealant instead)—but that came into English with the u, as it came from French cauquer in the 1500s.
The post-Norman urge to stick a U in balk also affected talk and stalk in the 1600s, but not, apparently walk. For me, the mystery is: why has the urge to stick a U in persisted for baulk and not the others?
----
*I say 'another' instance of spelling change due to perceptions of 'Americanism' because I discuss the main instance of that phenomenon in detail in The Prodigal Tongue:
(And I'm going to leave that complicated situation/history for readers of the book. Or listeners to it!)
Dumbing of Age (dumbingofage_feed) wrote2025-06-10 04:01 am
dumbingofage_feed) wrote2025-06-10 04:01 amSelf-serving
Starting yesterday and for the next nine days, Makeship has begun collecting pledges for a Tricerahoodie Dina plush! If we reach 200 pledges in those 10 days, Dina will be made! That sounds pretty rad, I dunno! Run over there if you want to help make this happen.
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