Update: Steve Robbins has modified his widget to use JSON, and I’ve gone back to using it because it works right at any text size.
The Stack Overflow team is sending me emails saying that my use of the Robbins Stack Overflow widget on my blog is putting an “unacceptable” load on their huge 48 Gb RAM, 8 processor box. So I’ve switched over to their preferred solution, which is an iframe containing their own “flair” page. The problem with the iframe option is that it requires me to tell my system exactly how many pixels high and wide it is – and when I change my text size, it starts putting scroll bars on it, and it looks like ass.
Can you please look at my Stack Overflow badge on the right side of my blog, and leave me a comment telling me yes or no if it has scroll bars for you? If you know, tell me what OS/browser and font size you’re using.
I’m getting scrollbars on it, using Firefox 3.5 on OS X 10.5.7. Font size is whatever is default — I typically browse with fonts zoomed quite a bit but hadn’t visited your blog directly in quite a while so Firefox has no memory of settings for it.
yes, scrollbars;
debian x64 lenny
default font size, 14pt; minimum font size 12pt.
No scrollbars on Safari 4.01/10.5.7. My default font is Gill Sans 16, I don’t know if that’s what’s being displayed.
No scrollbars here. OSX 10.5.7, Safari 4.0.1 with what I assume are the default fonts. Times 16 and Courier 13, I believe.
No scrollbars, but it’s cut off at “Paul To”. FF 3.5, XP, Verdana 16, no minimum font size.
Horizontal scroll bar, but no vertical, and it looks like the bottom of the badge is cut off; that’s interesting–when I clicked in the badge, it scrolled up so I could see the bottom of the third line of text. Oh, yeah, Firefox 3.0.11, Mac OS X.5.7, not much in the way of changes in default disply that I can remember. If I scroll all the way to the left in the badge, your name is Tomb or maybe Tombl, and the number beneath your name is 26,27. OK, from Firefox prefs, default font Times, default size 16, allow pages to select their own fonts selected, no minimum font size. I see your comments in a sans serif font which is probably Helvetica.
Yes, horizontal and vertical scrollbars. I’m using Firefox 3.5 on Mac OS X 10.5.7. Have Firefox’s default font set to Optima 16.
It looks like I presume it should, with no scrollbars or truncation or wrapping, which is kind of amazing given that I’m using Opera on Linux with a bunch of font substitutions in ~/.fonts.conf and a couple of CSS overrides relating to text size. The type looks like it’s in the 12pt-14pt range. That said, if I zoom in then the right-hand side gets cut off, but not the bottom; this is probably specific to how Opera implements its zoom feature.
Horizontal scrollbar, no vertical. IE6(.0.2900.5512.gibberish), … and Internet Options doesn’t seem to have a way to specify my own font _size_ for webpages (though it’s got an ‘ignore font sizes given’ under Accessibility that I don’t have checked. Interestingly, composing this reply also has the text going about a letter and a half under the right side of the composing box.
No scrollbars, whole navigation pane truncates a little. Badge visible text is Paul Tom. Selecting badge text scrolls whole navigation pane to the right.
Google Chrome 2.0.172.33 on Windows XP. Default font settings (TNR16/Arial16/CourierNew13).
IE 6 on WinXP (at company – don’t ask) cuts off your name “paul tombl – 26,27” Last row not displayed (scroll bars)
Thinking about trying firefox here at work (*duck*)
Somebody already installed FF3.08 – no scrollbars, first to last row completely displayed.
No scrollbars at default font sizes and settings:
FF3.5 WinXP
Opera 10beta WinXP
Chrome 3.0.190.1 WinXP
IE8.0 WinXP (oh look, I’ve not run that before, how nice, it wants to tell me all about it. SHUT UP STUPID SOFTWARE!)
Only the WinXP laptop is handy this morning.
No scroll bars here. WinXP laptop widescreen [15.4],1280×800,Firefox 3.0.11, default font. If bookmarks sidebar is open [width dependent], your stuff gets truncated a bit on right edge.
Now at home (XP FF3.5): no scrollbars at 100% Zoom. But, i zoom at lot, )because my eyes are not young anymore and I have a 24-inch-screen at home running 1920×1200, so screenspace is not a problem) and i _always_ shows scrollbars if I do zoom.
Me, I do not care about your StackOverflow Status being always high visible, perhaps an extra page would do bettter, you can put more technical stuff on that page, too (like linkedin and stuff). Page Overflow is not something live twitter, right?
No scrollbars, FireFox 3.0.11, default size & font, fullscreen on 1280 x 1024 monitor, WinXP.
Just for the record … the “unacceptable” load was actually referring to *bandwidth* — which has nothing to do with 48 GB of memory or 8 CPUs, or whatever.
Here’s a partial log for one day of what the old widget was pulling down:
1,283 requests to /users/3333
67,023 bytes average
85,990,509 bytes total
(this is because the old widget was pulling down the entire UNCOMPRESSED user page per blog page-load, I guess. Like using a nuclear bomb to drive a nail..)
so yes, we do consider 82 megabytes of data transfer PER DAY for a single widget on a single blog to be a bit “unacceptable”. Bandwidth is arguably the most expensive resource we pay for; the machines are quite cheap in comparison.
Just sayin’. 🙂
At any rate, glad this precipitated a fix, so win-win!! 🙂
Jeff, I still find it amusing that my system, in the cheapest colo facility in the country, can suck down enough bandwidth to even be noticed by you with your billions of users and your high priced bandwidth. I mean, I bet Jon Skeet uses that much bandwidth just answering “fan mail” comments.