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The original Sphider was built with the English language in mind. While preparing to store indexed words, a check is performed to ensure the word is composed of alphabetic characters. Knowing that sites other than all English sites might be indexed, this check was modified to accommodate non-English but still Western characters. The function used for this was what eventually was named removeAccents(). It actually worked quite well. Sphider advanced and took on still more languages, particularly those with non-Western alphabets. Surprisingly, Sphider somehow kept chugging along, although just how is a bit of a mystery.

Well, recognizing some of the short comings of removeAccents(),  it was “improved” in Sphider 3.1.0. And it WAS improved… in some instances. Unfortunately, it was discovered (after it had been released!!  🙁  ), that Arabic words would no longer index. Other languages were probably similarly impacted, but just one is enough to raise red flags.

Rather than fix a patch that was originally intended to cover a minor flaw, it seemed logical that the initial check on the word should be updated to conform to the realities of unicode. The check to be sure the word is alphabetic now truly covers the many alphabets rather try to patch the check for an ASCII alphabet.

I had been using a plugin, “Podamibe Custom User Gravatar”, for quite sometime. After a very recent “update” of this plugin, I was locked out of my own account!

My host support investigated and found Podamibe was the cause and disabled it for me. I was then able to log in, at which point I UNINSTALLED this misbehaving piece of software. I found another, less intrusive substitute.

Just thought you would like to know….

The header photo you see is of the Canyon Diablo bridge at Two Guns, AZ. This bridge was built in 1915 and served the National Old Trails Road. In 1926, this section of road became part of Route 66. The bridge was the Canyon Diablo crossing for 66 until 1938 when Route 66 was slightly rerouted in the area. The ruins on the far side of the bridge served as a store for many years.

As Christmas is nearly here, I am sitting and listening to Christmas music. When “The Twelve Days of Christmas” comes around, I can’t help but laugh at an acquaintance of mine some time back. He had just gotten a divorce and came up with NEW words to the old tune.

Now I do not remember the entire thing (this was probably forty years ago), what I DO remember goes like this:

On the eight day of my divorce,
My ex-wife took from me,
Eight place settings,
Seven credit cards.
Six-cylinder Maverick,
FIVE POWER TOOLS!
Four radial tires,
Three bedroom home,
Two little children.
And my stereo and my color tv!

I wish I could remember the rest of it…

Merry Christmas

Do you remember the study that came out about two months ago that basically said, “if your cat was bigger, it would kill you”?

That study is pure rubbish. I have witnessed close up the various personalities of a number of house cats over the last forty years or so. Cats are NOT intimidated by size. I have seen a 9 pound cat face off against a 90 pound doberman. The cat was NOT cornered. It WELCOMED the confrontation. Although it could have very easily gone the other way and ended in disaster, the doberman backed down. I have seen similar instances of cats very willingly face overwhelming odds and either emerging victorious or escaping unscathed. They live for the challenge.

If your cat really wanted you dead, either you or it would already be dead!

One other thing. Although they can be wonderfully graceful, they can also be complete klutzes. If they were bigger, their klutziness COULD possibly kill you by accident. If that were to happen, you would no longer be operating the can opener. The cat then will become hungry. You, being of no possible use dead, would most likely be eaten.

Unless you mistreat your feline, it will not purposely kill you. They are smart enough not to lose their meal ticket.

Worldspaceflight.com has just moved to a new hosting provider. Since the old blog was mainly used to post page updates and changes, it was considered rather pointless to import the old posts. New blog, new posts, new look.

We may not post very frequently, but you are welcome to share comments on any space related subject at any time. Don’t spam. We aren’t kind to spammers.