HTTP/1.0 Is Dead

Update - it seems the pesky problem we were having for HTTP/1.1 is actually still relevant to us. The problem is we cannot force .NET framework to properly close a response stream within the HttpWebResponse - the thread just waits forever. Sucks, but it appears we have to use HTTP/1.0 for the time being, at least until we manage to hack it someway (understand how the class works internally and hack it away).

Working for the Diggers team in a search engine, a large chunk of our tasks is writing sophisticated web crawlers.

We were using HTTP/1.0 because we didn’t need any features in 1.0, and to circumvent a problem we thought we had with 1.1. On such a crawl mission, I discovered today that MSN’s site does not support HTTP/1.0.

After another check we found that the above problem does not affect us, because it is only relevant the Microsoft Compact Framework. But it’s still a rather shock to find a large site (even though it’s Microsoft) that utterly does not support HTTP/1.0.

Try it yourself – go to about:config in Firefox and set network.http.version to 1.0, and then surf to MSN. You’ll get a blank page. What actually happens is MSN assumes you’re using HTTP/1.1, and sends you a chunked response. Your web browser will not parse a chunked response, and rightly so.

(Needless to say that HTTP is supposed to be backward compatible).

Cool GreaseMonkey Scripts

After Eran sent me this funny video today explaining GreeseMonkey (I knew it before, but it's still funny), I looked up a few user scripts from this list. These are the ones that look most useful to me:

• LookItUp - look up stuff in Wikipeida by highlighting text and pressing 'w'.


• Google Account Multi-Login - Change "Logout" button in Gmail to "Switch Users". Didn't work for me and some other recent users, but seems cool if it works.


• Google Image Relinker - Google Images search results now has links to the images themselves, instead of to the containing webpage. Very useful.


• Script Updater - Auto Update your scripts
  

Firefox Saved Passwords

For those who don't know or forgot this, Shlomo posted how in 3 easy steps you can view all stored usernames & passwords on Firefox.

Not that scary, because you should only save password on a computer you trust. But still, I would have removed that feature or at least have a master password to access it.