I’m trying to download Open Office 3.0, now native for Mac, this morning, and when I finally get the site to come up, I get the above error that reads:

Forbidden

You don’t have permission to access /servlets/ContentHelmNoodle on this server.

Anything the reads “Content Helm Noodle” is worth blogging.

This is bizarre. I’ve been hitting the refresh quite frequently on Google Finance lately and the above screengrab popped up. I can’t get it to go away in Firefox. No issues in Opera or Safari. Guess I’ll have to try clearing my cache.

Chromium

Slashdot has word of Chromium, a port of the Google Chrome browser for Linux and Mac from Codeweavers.

I’m using it on my Mac as I type this post.  Chromium let me insert images via the “Add media” feature in WordPress, which is more than what Firefox and Safari let me do the other day (i.e., Firefox and Safari were not allowing the inserting of images.  I had to use the Opera browser for this to work.)

Chromium appears to be using X11 and is not Mac native, yet.  A Q and A from the Codeweavers site:

Q. Are there native Linux and Mac versions of Chromium available?

A. Not yet. Google has announced plans to support native Mac and Linux versions of Chromium, but they have yet to be released. CrossOver Chromium, however, runs the Windows version of Chromium natively on both Mac and Linux.

It doesn’t appear to be rock solid either.  It won’t copy URLs out of the address bar for me; when clicking on the top bar of Chromium from another window, the whole window wants to move instead of just selecting Chromium; and it will crash every time I open a new tab, try clicking in the unusable search box, then try typing and going anywhere in the address bar.  And this all happened when I was in the process of typing this post.  If I may be so brash as to use an Internet cliche: epic fail.

But hey, at least it’s a start, right?

I know, I know, I bitch and bitch about my iPhone here all the time, but I really do love it.  For the most part.  Until shit like the above screen grab happens.

I’m pretty sure, when I sync my iPhone to iTunes, all my apps are properly updated and transferred between computer and device and vice versa, but I get the “unknown error” pictured above every time.  I check the version number of the apps on the phone and computer and both say I have the latest version. Still this error message pops up on every sync.

Simplify Media is an awesome application.  It allows you to listen to music from your iTunes library remotely.  If installed on your home computer, you can basically leave that computer running and then access all the music on it from your work computer, your iPhone, wherever Simplify Media is installed.

But when I went to install version 1.1.1 for the iphone an epic fail occurred.  Not only does the icon appear with a non-functioning status bar (as pictured above), the app store still shows I have one update to install, and the phone throws the following message:

“You’ve already purchased this item but it hasn’t been downloaded.  If you’re having trouble downloading it, open iTunes on your computer, select Check for Purchases, then sync your device to your computer.”

What the hell am I doing wrong here people?

Hopefully, the iPhone 2.1 software will do away with both of these issues.

Please click the above screen grab to actually see the red lines.

Google Reader in Internet Explorer jumbles the bottom options and cuts off the time stamp when zooming.

So I’ve been getting these red lines between stories in Google Reader ever since the beta testing of Firefox 3.  And they still appear in the latest updated version of Firefox 3.

It seems to happen only when I increase the zoom level.  Any idea why this happens?

This seems like a Google Reader issue, not a browser one because Google Reader has it’s own issue(s) in Internet Explorer.  When I zoom in, the options on the bottom of each post become jumbled together (as seen above) and the time stamp thing on the right becomes partially cut off.

However, I also tested the zoom level in the Opera browser.  The only thing to possibly complain about is the blocky, slightly distorted text of certain posts that use FeedBurner.  But this is somewhat understandable.

So this happened when the power went out.  Upon rebooting, I restored my previous Firefox session and low and behold: no “x” on two of the tabs to close them out.  Very strange.

The front page of Staples.com loaded fine for me, but when I try to log in or search, I get the following error message (read it after the jump):

Error page exception

The server cannot use the error page specified for your application to handle the Original Exception printed below. Please see the Error Page Exception below for a description of the problem with the specified error page.

Original Exception:

Error Message: Failed to load target servlet [Stores Request Servlet]
Error Code: 500
Target Servlet: Stores Request Servlet
Error Stack:
javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet initialization failed
at com.ibm.commerce.server.RequestServlet.init(RequestServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.ServletWrapper.init(ServletWrapper.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictServletInstance.doInit(StrictServletInstance.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictLifecycleServlet._init(StrictLifecycleServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.PreInitializedServletState.init(StrictLifecycleServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictLifecycleServlet.init(StrictLifecycleServlet.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletInstance.init(ServletInstance.java(Compiled Code))
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppServletManager.addServlet(WebAppServletManager.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppServletManager.loadServlet(WebAppServletManager.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppServletManager.getServletReference(WebAppServletManager.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.getServletReference(WebApp.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcherInfo.calculateInfo(WebAppRequestDispatcherInfo.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcherInfo.<init>(WebAppRequestDispatcherInfo.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.getRequestDispatcher(WebApp.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.getRequestDispatcher(WebApp.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.WebAppInvoker.handleInvocationHook(WebAppInvoker.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.cache.invocation.CachedInvocation.handleInvocation(CachedInvocation.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srp.ServletRequestProcessor.dispatchByURI(ServletRequestProcessor.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.oselistener.OSEListenerDispatcher.service(OSEListener.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.http.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.readAndHandleRequest(HttpConnection.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.run(HttpConnection.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:937)

Error Page Exception:

Error Message: /error.jsp
Error Code: 404
Target Servlet: JSP 1.2 Processor
Error Stack:
com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppErrorReport: /error.jsp
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.SRTServletResponseContext.sendError(SRTServletResponseContext.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.SRTServletResponse.sendError(SRTServletResponse.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.jsp.servlet.JspServlet$JspServletWrapper.service(JspServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.jsp.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.jsp.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictServletInstance.doService(StrictServletInstance.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictLifecycleServlet._service(StrictLifecycleServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.IdleServletState.service(StrictLifecycleServlet.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.StrictLifecycleServlet.service(StrictLifecycleServlet.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletInstance.service(ServletInstance.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ValidServletReferenceState.dispatch(ValidServletReferenceState.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletInstanceReference.dispatch(ServletInstanceReference.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.handleWebAppDispatch(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.dispatch(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleError(WebApp.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.sendError(WebApp.java(Inlined Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.WebAppInvoker.doForward(WebAppInvoker.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.WebAppInvoker.handleInvocationHook(WebAppInvoker.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.cache.invocation.CachedInvocation.handleInvocation(CachedInvocation.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srp.ServletRequestProcessor.dispatchByURI(ServletRequestProcessor.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.oselistener.OSEListenerDispatcher.service(OSEListener.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.http.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.readAndHandleRequest(HttpConnection.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.run(HttpConnection.java(Compiled Code))
at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:937)

I’ve pulled this error a few times now from Twitter.  

It reads: Twitter is over capacity.  Too many tweets!  Please wait a moment and try again.  

I guess Twitter is notorious for its outages. 

I recently switched IM software from Trillian to Pidgin because of a strange issue.   Trillian is a great product but for some reason, if you didn’t happen to be on my AIM buddy list and tried to IM me, all I got was a beep, but no message.  After I added someone to my buddy list, no problems.

Well this error was probably a blessing in disguise.  As soon as I switched to the open source Pidgin the IM spam started.  But so far it’s only from my MSN messenger account.

If you haven’t used Pidgin or Trillian (or Meebo for that matter) before, they are IM clients that allow all-in-one access to all the major IM protocols like MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk and AIM.

Right now about 2-3 pieces of IM spam grace my screen a day.  It kind of takes me back to the days of Windows Messenger Spam before Microsoft fixed it.  Thankfully, no text message spam for my phone yet, but I get plenty of robocalls to make up for it.

I need to test out a new buddy attempting to contact me.  This way I can determine if Trillian is somehow to blame for the issue.  If I can get messages with Pidgin from someone not on my buddy list then it is most likely something with Trillian.  If I can’t then I’m screwed no matter what IM software I use.

Here is a completely random error I received one day while probably running Songbird?