The Joel on Software Discussion Group

I've tried to access Joel Inc magazine's articles for a while now, and everytime I access the site from my current location (Spain), all I get is an blank 1x1 GIF file.

When using an open US based proxy, I can get the content. So that's a solution.

Just leaving this note for the next interested person who has tried to access Joel's columns, finding a blank instead.

Although I cannot stop wondering WHY is this so, so if anybody can shed a light there it would be appreciated.

I can access to Inc normally, and I'm in Spain too.

This link works for me from the UK:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080401/fire-and-motion.html

I have no problem accessing Inc.com from Portugal, so it's not closed to outside the US.

I get the 1x1 GIF problem, UK based.

Brian

I meni radi iz Hrvatske. ;)

Okay, so the problem isn't related to location. But we have people with and without the problem, so, what else could it be? I doubt the browser is the culprit as I've tried IE, Chrome and FF. Maybe it's an ISP in the route?

Well, in any case I take this is a matter to take to Inc Magazine's admins. Thanks for confirming that it's not location based.

I bet it's to do with your computer OS windows. I remember a couple of years of ago, my IE browser will not load hotmail.com for some odd reason, no matter what I tried. I checked the IE settings for blocked websites but there was nothing in it. Finally, I re-installed IE but it didn't fix it either. I don't even remember what I did to fix it now.

If you re-installed your OS, I am more than sure that you will be able to access the site just fine.

A bit overkilling, no? I'll first try installing another browser, if he is using IE.

I'm using FF, by the way.

Hi folks -- this is Paul Maiorana, I run the technology operations at Inc.com.

I hadn't heard of any problems like this before, but I will investigate and we'll report our findings back here.

Vinko, could you do me a favor and try loading Inc.com with Javascript turned off? Also, set your cookies to "accept all cookies" or whatever the equivalent is in your browser.

Third, please confirm that you're not using an ad blocker like Ad Blocker Plus or something similar.

Also, in case this wasn't already obvious, we're not intentionally blocking traffic to Inc.com from outside the US. This is most definitely a technology bug.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for looking into this.  As UK user who gets the 1x1 GIF problem:

- problem manifests in Firefox 3.5.5 regardless of cookie and Javascript settings (always accept cookies; Javascript on/off makes no difference)

- also happens in IE6 (before I get grief: I never use IE so no reason to upgrade it)

Cheers

Brian

Hi Paul,

Here's the HTML returned. Javascript/Cookie settings make no difference in all of FF (3.0.X), Chrome and IE8.

The returned HTML, to see if you can find it on your servers, is  located at http://pastebin.com/f33260677

BG, are you per chance a France Telecom user (Orange?), I do have an Orange ADSL connection. I, guessing wildly, blame an intermediate ISP/route.

This is because:
a) when using an open proxy all my browsers show the content without problems.
b) when accessing via a different ISP, I can access it from Spain (it didn't occur to me that test before, sorry for the alarmist title)

Hope this helps.

I can offer some time to try accessing while you monitor your logs or whatever to help debugging, if you feel it could help.

Thanks for taking an interest.

V.

Not sure about our company's ISP, doubt it's Orange though, and definitely not France Telecom.

Cheers

Brian

Strangely enough, I have this problem on and off the past couple of months. Previously I am able to browse inc.com website with no problems at all. My guess is somebody at inc is tweaking their javascript?