Bugs? Problems? Report them here!

[geckzilla]

It's not Windows 8.1 that's the problem. It's PEBCAK. There is no known fix.

[chriserickson]

The RSS feed doesn't make use of GUID's so when the feed is updated each day with a new permalink to the last days entry, many RSS aggregators will show them as two entries. The result is that every day you will get two new entries - yesterdays picture with a good permalink and todays image without a permalink. This means that if having two entries isn't annoying enough, one of them will link you to the homepage.

Best practice would be to link to each image with their permalink (even 'todays' image), and give each entry a GUID so that if corrections are made, RSS aggregators will just update the content and not display another entry.

A report indicating this, and a few other (minor) issues are noted here: http://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi? ... 2Fapod.rss

[Beyond]

It's not Windows 8.1 that's the problem. It's PEBCAK. There is no known fix.

What the heck is PEBCAK ??

[bystander]

I would suggest you look it up, but then ... PEBCAK

[Beyond]

It's not Windows 8.1 that's the problem. It's PEBCAK. There is no known fix.

Yes, it is Windows 8.1 that is the problem. The built-in PDF opener just isn't up to the task, as you would have found out with a modicum of research. So this time, the PEBCAK wasn't mine.

[Beyond]

Unfortunately, my windows 8.1 still doesn't speak Plutonian well enough to be able open the pdf.

You need Adobe Reader

Thanks bystander. My Windows 8.1 speaks Plutonian just fine now. I can see that there is nothing new in the PDF.
But I'm wondering how long Adobe has had it's Reader available for Windows 8.1. According to an August (2014) web post from a guy who was having problems with his 8.1 not being able to open PDF's, he couldn't use Adobe Reader with his 8.1 because it was 64 bit and a 32 bit was needed for Adobe reader, so he had to use Fire Fox, even though he really wanted to use his IE11.

[geckzilla]

Yes, I should research problems that someone else who has already proven that he will either ignore or not understand advice given to him. It's my fault and your computer's fault that you don't know how to use your own computer.

[Beyond]

Actually it's Microsoft's fault for not telling me it's PDF opener is inferior. But then, i don't use a computer for much anyway, so it stands to reason that i wouldn't know much about what i don't do with it. As for the rest of what you said, as you have said to people in the past, if you have a problem with someone, take it to PM. The forums aren't the places for such discussions.

[geckzilla]

Can it. This isn't an administration or moderation issue. The issue here is that post off topic things and want us to help you fix even the most simple problems. It's not that you don't use computers very often. It's that when you do, you don't think for more than a short moment after you encounter a problem. If you want me to ding you every time you do this, fine. Enjoy the trip.

[Dave_Fox]

Still loving Astropix and my daily fix of awe and wonder. In the last year or two, however, I've found myself skimming the description of the photograph, and reading it less and less carefully.

It's not that the writing has deteriorated -- far from it. I think it's because the layout hasn't kept pace with the increase in monitor size over the last couple of decades. When I started visiting the page I was probably using a square monitor, about 14" in size. Now it's a rectangular one about 22" across (still not all that big by today's standards).

Because of the layout, I'm forced to read a description with a line-length of about 18". These days you're not likely to see a popular page on the web with that sort of line-length. People tend to skim anyway, on the web, so you need to do all you can to counter that tendency and make it easy for people to read fully. A line-length of more than about 80 characters is starting to make life hard for the reader.

I suggest you redesign the main AstroPic page -- image on the right, description down the left. This will also give you the chance to split the description into paragraphs and even increase the type size a little. Over time you could change the other pages, but this is less urgent I think because you've obviously captured someone's interest anyway for them to want to follow your internal links.

It would be a bit of a culture shock! I'm sure we've all got used to that familiar page loading on our screens. But it would be a positive step in the long run.

best wishes

Dave

[owlice]

You're not forced to read a line-length of about 18"; you can easily resize the browser window to whatever you want it to be. This allows APOD to be read comfortably on all size screens, including laptops and tablets.

[chriserickson]

Anyone here who might be able to address this? Or point me to someone who can? I don't have high hopes for a fix but from my uninformed vantage point, the technical solution seems simple.

The RSS feed doesn't make use of GUID's so when the feed is updated each day with a new permalink to the last days entry, many RSS aggregators will show them as two entries. The result is that every day you will get two new entries - yesterdays picture with a good permalink and todays image without a permalink. This means that if having two entries isn't annoying enough, one of them will link you to the homepage.

Best practice would be to link to each image with their permalink (even 'todays' image), and give each entry a GUID so that if corrections are made, RSS aggregators will just update the content and not display another entry.

A report indicating this, and a few other (minor) issues are noted here: http://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi? ... 2Fapod.rss

[geckzilla]

You're not forced to read a line-length of about 18"; you can easily resize the browser window to whatever you want it to be. This allows APOD to be read comfortably on all size screens, including laptops and tablets.

Some simple CSS can be used to set a maximum width so that the paragraph width is flexible for smaller screens up until a certain point but then is constrained once a screen is too large. But it's a moot point because the editors are not open to this change or any change as far as I can tell.

Taking matters into one's own hands is an option. If you use Firefox there is an addon called Stylish that lets you define your own, personal CSS for any page. This style can be used to shrink the paragraph width of an APOD page:

Code: Select all

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("apod.nasa.gov") {

p { max-width: 700px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }
center p { max-width: 100%; }

}

The result looks like this.

[Dave_Fox]

Thanks geckzilla for your positive suggestion. Yes, I suspect it would be easy enough with CSS. Most sites cater for different screen sizes/devices -- I can't think of another site I visit where I have to resize the window to be able to read it comfortably.

[Johnpierce44]

I love APOD and marvel at the beauty of our universe. I get it with an Android app on my Samsung Note 3. It's also my main screen wallpaper. But the current picture of the Crab nebula was not annotated as normal with the "information" icon bringing up the commentary text overlaid to the pictures. Instead it requires a click on a link that doesn't work, making the comments unavailable for me. Are others experiencing the same?

The commentary is an essential part of the APOD experience for me. I hope it has not been deleted in favor of a non-functional replacement.

I used to get Astronomy magazine but prefer APOD.

THANKS FOR THIS AMAZING GIFT OF EDUCATIONAL BEAUTY!
John Pierce

[geckzilla]

Hi John, you'll need to go to apod.com to see the description if your Android app is not showing it. Unfortunately, the editors have no control over how app creators convey APOD's content. I suggest you submit your report to the app developer if that is possible.

[ygmarchi]

I'm currently using APOD as wallpaper on all my devices, phone, laptop, desktop at work.
On the wider devices I must say that the resolution of the pictures is often not adequate.
So, I wish only pictures with high resolution were published.

[Chris Peterson]

I'm currently using APOD as wallpaper on all my devices, phone, laptop, desktop at work.
On the wider devices I must say that the resolution of the pictures is often not adequate.
So, I wish only pictures with high resolution were published.

I don't know where you're getting the image used for wallpaper, but frequently the image used on the main page is lower resolution than the click-through or separately linked image referenced in the caption. The main page typically uses a scaled version of the image.

[geckzilla]

It's also very easy for an image to stretch poorly if it is presented in portrait orientation, such as with today's image and the comet cliffs from two days ago. APOD is pretty good at publishing the highest resolution images available but it does not do so with wallpapers in mind. If you want high quality wallpapers you'll have to curate them yourself.

[ygmarchi]

I like APOD (versus other more wallpaper oriented picture sources) because its pictures are up to date with the latest achievements in astronomy. It's informative before being spectacular. Today's picture (Comet Lovejoy) is 1376x1376 and should be perfect for my laptop display 1366x768, but has a sort of blurred background that spoils it a little bit.

[geckzilla]

I like APOD (versus other more wallpaper oriented picture sources) because its pictures are up to date with the latest achievements in astronomy. It's informative before being spectacular. Today's picture (Comet Lovejoy) is 1376x1376 and should be perfect for my laptop display 1366x768, but has a sort of blurred background that spoils it a little bit.

You can thank the Earth's lovely atmosphere for that. All the resolution in the world can't help it. You'd just be zooming in on blur.

[ygmarchi]

I hadn't thought about it. Today's picture (The Sun in X-rays from NuSTAR ) is a great wallpaper.

[WJShaheen]

I would dearly love to upload attachments (saving BYSTANDER the hassle of having to convert my links). But, there is no Upload Attachment option, as described in the instructions for posting images. In fact, the forum permissions explicitly state, "You cannot post attachments in this forum"

Is it temporarily disabled?

William Shaheen
Gold Canyon, Arizona, USA
http://www.pbase.com/wjshaheen/astro_images_by_subject

[Chris Peterson]

I would dearly love to upload attachments (saving BYSTANDER the hassle of having to convert my links). But, there is no Upload Attachment option, as described in the instructions for posting images. In fact, the forum permissions explicitly state, "You cannot post attachments in this forum"

Is it temporarily disabled?

I think you have to have a minimum number of posts (ten perhaps?) before the system allows uploads. A necessary precaution against spammers. You can either reach that number, or a moderator can flip the bit once it's apparent your intent is fine.

[bystander]

It's been taken care of. Thanks, Chris.