Errors on the C.I.A Website

[vitinho444]

Hehe i just figured to know more about the C.I.A and as soon as i opened their website i checked the javascript console and got some errors.

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) https://www.cia.gov/portal_css/Agency%2 ... Slider.css
Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) https://www.cia.gov/portal_css/Agency%2 ... ortlet.css
Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) https://www.cia.gov/images/youtube-noscript.jpg
Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) https://www.cia.gov/images/flickr-noscript.jpg
Blocked a frame with origin "https://www.youtube.com" from accessing a frame with origin "https://www.cia.gov". Protocols, domains, and ports must match.

I know it's hard to have a error-free page, but till now my pages are all clean..

Funny how the "best" intel agency has simple 404 errors on their page

[Jackolantern]

It is actually crazy how many errors you get on major pages. I get several warnings just on the standard Google white screen.

[a_bertrand]

Issues are the following:
- The bigger the website, the more work it is to keep it running
- Some times you need to just make things work, and to make then work you may need to add dirty fixes which may issue warnings for a browser or another
- Big companies usually uses people for their website content which are hardly experts, and are basically more content writers without much tech skills.

Honestly, all the "W3 standard", or "XHTML valid" or whatever is not important to me. What's important is that the look of the website is ok, and works with all major browsers: IE, FF and Chrome. Also I prefer a resizable design instead of something which stick in the middle with side bands. If this is reached, I could not care less about table design, wrong HTML or whatever.

[Jackolantern]

- Some times you need to just make things work, and to make then work you may need to add dirty fixes which may issue warnings for a browser or another

This is the big one. Huge companies that deal in some way with almost the entire population can't let any browser go. A 0.01% browser market share is tiny to us, but it could be $1 million in sales to Amazon over time. If their shareholders found out that they were losing a million dollars because their devs didn't add a hack to make their site work in IE 5.5 or something like that, heads would roll. So oftentimes there is some crazy code in there to make it work with ancient or unpopular browsers.

Also, when it comes to government websites like the CIA website, they are under strict accessibility laws. If someone goes to a .gov website with a disability and can't use the site, they have a potential lawsuit. For typical websites, accessibility can be quite simple and transparent, but because of laws, the government websites have to go 100% accessible, which stacks even more hacks and things on it, thus with the potential for more non-critical errors.

[vitinho444]

Issues are the following:
- The bigger the website, the more work it is to keep it running
- Some times you need to just make things work, and to make then work you may need to add dirty fixes which may issue warnings for a browser or another
- Big companies usually uses people for their website content which are hardly experts, and are basically more content writers without much tech skills.

Honestly, all the "W3 standard", or "XHTML valid" or whatever is not important to me. What's important is that the look of the website is ok, and works with all major browsers: IE, FF and Chrome. Also I prefer a resizable design instead of something which stick in the middle with side bands. If this is reached, I could not care less about table design, wrong HTML or whatever.

Yes i know a big site is hard to manage to get all things working 100%.

I do use those resizable designs, i got used doing a big div (or section :$ still dont know the difference between the two) that has width and height 100%, then inside that i have all the elements like the header, nav, content, footer that are resizable with the screen-width and screen-height. But the most popular screensize is 1024x768 and some people that don't have bigger screens might create their websites just for that resolution, well if works on that it works on everyone's but with those sidebars xD

- Some times you need to just make things work, and to make then work you may need to add dirty fixes which may issue warnings for a browser or another

This is the big one. Huge companies that deal in some way with almost the entire population can't let any browser go. A 0.01% browser market share is tiny to us, but it could be $1 million in sales to Amazon over time. If their shareholders found out that they were losing a million dollars because their devs didn't add a hack to make their site work in IE 5.5 or something like that, heads would roll. So oftentimes there is some crazy code in there to make it work with ancient or unpopular browsers.

It makes sense Is there still people using IE 5? WTF? Windows should force the update to at least IE 7 or 8

[Jackolantern]

It makes sense Is there still people using IE 5? WTF? Windows should force the update to at least IE 7 or 8

A tiny, tiny amount. Nothing for us to worry about, though lol. It is definitely sub-1%, probably somewhere around 0.0001%. I was actually tasked just a few years ago (in the later IE 8 days) with setting up a VoIP phone system at a guy's house that had Windows 95 and IE 5.5. He was actually talking about the stuff he does online, and acted like nothing was off about his computer. Beyond the ancient hardware and software, his computer was a mess. I was having a hard time making clicks on form buttons work, even though the mouse was working lol. No idea if this was IE5, a virus, or who knows what else causing the problem, but I eventually had to tell him we couldn't do it until he got a new computer lol.

No browser will ever truly go extinct. There will always be a tiny amount floating around out there. I can assure you there is at least one person who occasionally tries to log on with IE3. It probably belongs to someone who bought a computer at the flea market, knows nothing about them, couldn't even tell you what operating system they run, and had their kids show them about 15 years ago how to get online on their dial-up. Their thinking is that their computer still turns on and works, so just like how they don't replace or upgrade their toaster, which also turns on and works, its not going anywhere.

[vitinho444]

A tiny, tiny amount. Nothing for us to worry about, though lol. It is definitely sub-1%, probably somewhere around 0.0001%. I was actually tasked just a few years ago (in the later IE 8 days) with setting up a VoIP phone system at a guy's house that had Windows 95 and IE 5.5. He was actually talking about the stuff he does online, and acted like nothing was off about his computer. Beyond the ancient hardware and software, his computer was a mess. I was having a hard time making clicks on form buttons work, even though the mouse was working lol. No idea if this was IE5, a virus, or who knows what else causing the problem, but I eventually had to tell him we couldn't do it until he got a new computer lol.

Hehe noobs...

No browser will ever truly go extinct. There will always be a tiny amount floating around out there. I can assure you there is at least one person who occasionally tries to log on with IE3. It probably belongs to someone who bought a computer at the flea market, knows nothing about them, couldn't even tell you what operating system they run, and had their kids show them about 15 years ago how to get online on their dial-up. Their thinking is that their computer still turns on and works, so just like how they don't replace or upgrade their toaster, which also turns on and works, its not going anywhere.

It's stupid.. Like google chrome, you get one version, and you can auto-update it. You should actually. Why didn't microsoft did that with IE?
My dad is just like those guys, they want things to turn on and just use them (go to email in IE).
But it's my job to keep things updated I do a cleaning from time to time, i delete all toolbars, all those system checkup scams, all fake antivirus etc.

They should learn on schools how to use computers, not only MS Word and Excel, they should teach what is a Browser, a OS, how to keep things clean, updated etc etc.

[hallsofvallhalla]

Windows should force the update to at least IE 7 or 8

No Windows should fire their entire IE developer group and get out of the business all together. Load Chrome on all Windows installs and call it done.

[vitinho444]

Windows should force the update to at least IE 7 or 8

No Windows should fire their entire IE developer group and get out of the business all together. Load Chrome on all Windows installs and call it done.

Hehehe true, I think that not even the IE developers use IE
My only "pro" towards IE is that it was the first browser... It's a legacy, but it's time to end..

[Lord Rahl]

IE is still a widely used browser. The fact is it's not going anywhere for many years to come.

I don't understand developers that don't care if there website is IE compatible or not. I know no one has said that here, but honestly why give up such a large user base? Seems odd...... standards are odd anyway, staying "acceptable" to some developers makes work twice as hard. I don't mind a few html errors.