I found this rather amusing. In an email thread at work about a new "feature" someone wanted to introduce, I said:
... In other words, it sounds like we're trying to solve a solved problem.
A coworker responded privately with:
But solving solved problems is *so* much easier than solving unsolved problems! :-)
Well said.
Even more amusing is that I could see his facial expression as I pictured him saying that in my head.
The current solution, in case you're wondering, is mod_rewrite.
Posted by jzawodn at April 05, 2005 08:50 PM
I use mod_rewrite from time to time and it always does what I want it to. I have always wondered if it is resource intensive or not.
I once saw the same situation, and the problem was solved by the lesser-known "tac" command.
One problem that isn't solved for Firefox: in Yahoo! Mail, when I'm in my Inbox (or any folder for that matter), when I click Refresh, I am taken away from that folder and to the post-login "Greeting" page. I complained through the proper channels and got a generic "Download IE or Netscape and make sure JavaScript is enabled" form email in return.... even though my browser was clearly available (it was listed at the bottom of the e-mail, along with my complaint). This has got to be one of the more frustrating web bugs I've experienced (because I refresh my inbox so damn frequently), and I can't imagine I'm the only one having this problem.
Isn't that what refactoring is, on some level -- solving problems that have already been solved?
Per some Email, this is a test trying to post and being sure to send an http_referrer ...
Ummmmm ... yep, looks like you MUST send an http_referrer in order to post - so here's my words of wisdom/suggestion that I was going to say! ;-)
mod_rewrite is cool stuff - I only scratch the surface, but it is truly the swiss army knife Apache Module.
On an almost related topic (since mod_rewrite can be used to rewrite URL's on the web server side, so it's a stretch), when is search.yahoo.com going to fix the displayed results so they don't drop the trailing pathname "/" in URL's that should have 'em? For instance, the first two entry's for this Yahoo Search - http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=christmas+hoax&ei=UTF-8&fr=sfp&fl=0&x=wrt - have the trailing "/'s" missing. Now the web server redirects for 'ya so it all works transparent for the user (this is built-in to Apache, so mod_rewrite not needed for this BTW), but Yahoo really should be displaying the correct URL, and this is one of those "polish" things that has set Google apart. MSN still makes this "mistake" and both search engines generate a buncha redirects in the web server log analysis which are mildy annoying.
I've been reading about how "Yahoo has the mojo back" (I agree BTW - nice to see the "Big G" get some competition) so how 'bout suggesting this to the Search gang - might be an easy fix (?)
Search was a 'solved problem' before Google. I'm obviously not making any accusations about your judgement in this case, but such statements can also indicate a lack of understanding about the status quo.
Guess what, anon: search still isn't a solved problem. It's early days, yet.
