Tuesday, 3 June 2014

I hate bad caching

I've successfully pushed an update to the Raspi build of pixra. Unfortunately, I can't test the Windows build because the client keeps grabbing outdated files. I've rebuilt the installer 3 or 4 times already and it still refuses to give me what I want.

From experience, this is usually because my ISP does really, really stupid things. So stupid, that every now and then I have to use Tor just to get stuff working.

So some actual cases:
  • From time to time an image or animation on mspaintadventures would only partially load. I stop it, and refresh. Reloads exactly up to the point where it gets stuck.
  • On some people's websites, I have to get updated .zip files. I have to either download them via a shell server, or get them to rename the file so I can get an updated version.
  • Not really caching related, but sometimes I end up with weird routing loops while trying to access obscure websites such as Google. (In reality, it's almost always something like Cloudflare or Akamai.) This is when I resort to using Tor.
However, it's only the Windows client that's giving me the weird caching issues - Firefox is fine, and Pi Store is fine. So it may actually be a clash between the Windows client and Wine.

Anyway, if you're running Windows, or can run Windows programs, mind doing me a favour?
  • Install the IndieCity Client.
  • Create an account.
  • On the Explore tab, filter by "In-progress", then select the "Dev Tools" subtab.
  • Select pixra, and install it.
  • Run it.
  • Enter in some random filename like "butt.tga" and hit Enter.
There should be a message up the top saying something like "Welcome to pixra! Press F1 for quick help at any time." If there isn't, IndieCity is giving you the old files, so please tell me about that. If there is, please tell me about that too so I can put it forward for approval.

My twitter account is @fanzyflani (oddly enough) if you want to get in touch. And of course, there's a comments box down there (I think), and a few on IndieCity.

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