The purple.

July 2, 2012 11:15 AM

Make it stop. Please, pb, make it stop!

When I scroll slowly through MeFi, the background slowly changes from blue to purple. With careful scroll wheel manipulation I can isolate a specific block of grape text, or construct a nice mauvey gradient in the middle of the screen. After highlighting, the text reverts back to blue, resulting in pleasing stripes.

This only happens on the blue, when I scroll very slowly. Perhaps it has something to do with this? Unfortunately, there is no longer a "make it stop" link.

I'm using Chrome on OSX 10.5.

posted by googly to Bugs at 11:15 AM (72 comments total)

Mine's fine!
posted by iamkimiam at 11:18 AM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think the gradient looks nice, like a sunset.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:19 AM on July 2, 2012

Mine is awesome as per usual
posted by elizardbits at 11:19 AM on July 2, 2012

Mine looks white, as it should.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:21 AM on July 2, 2012 [14 favorites]

That is super duper weird. Congratulations! That's not how the crazy color-changing thing even worked, so it's not that.

Do you have any weird extensions, maybe?
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:22 AM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

No, the code for the changing background color trick has been completely removed from the site.

Are you running any MetaFilter-related Greasemonkey scripts or Stylish styles. That's the only thing I think of offhand that might be causing problems.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:23 AM on July 2, 2012

also mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together, &c.
posted by elizardbits at 11:24 AM on July 2, 2012 [8 favorites]

Are you going so incredibly insane that your hallucinations are bleeding into your screenshots?
posted by brundlefly at 11:25 AM on July 2, 2012 [16 favorites]

I can't be the only one who thought this post was going to be along the lines of stop pooping.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 11:27 AM on July 2, 2012

Reboot.
posted by cjorgensen at 11:27 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

My master plan is coming to fruition! The LSD I've released into the world's water supply is finally reaching the masses!

Soon, the planet will be mine! Either that or Neil Young solos will just start to sound extra groovy.
posted by item at 11:28 AM on July 2, 2012 [6 favorites]

Well, that was easy. I'm running AdBlock and Evernote Web Clipper extensions. Just disabled them, quit and restarted Chrome, and the bug has disappeared.

Though I did for more than a moment think I had been transported into some alternate, Phillip K. Dickian reality in which my hallucinations showed up on screencaps...
posted by googly at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Your computer is located near a weak point in space time, allowing another dimension to bleed through. Another dimension where Matt's favorite color is purple.
posted by dortmunder at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

also mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together, &c.

dammit now mine's on the fritz too
posted by griphus at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

What this website needs is a nice professional eggplant background.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

they are called aubergines, check your new world colonialist baggage okay
posted by elizardbits at 11:36 AM on July 2, 2012 [6 favorites]

COLOR IMPERIALIST
posted by shakespeherian at 11:36 AM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Neil Young solos will just start to sound extra groovy

such massive quantities of LSD simply do not exist in the universe.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 11:49 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

Styropod is a name we can all agree on.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:49 AM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I thought this was going to be about the rash of OKCupid posts on the green.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:50 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

Can you also list what medications you're on currently? I thought we asked you to switch to 25 mg of Faderall each day.
posted by special-k at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2012

Apply ointment as needed.
posted by elizardbits at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't understand this, yet I find it funny.
posted by trip and a half at 12:00 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Apply ointment as needed.

There really should be a generic skin product called "Necessary Ointment"
posted by The Whelk at 12:02 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

There really should be a generic skin product called "Necessary Ointment"

Tou mean this?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:05 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

You. You mean this. I think I'm turning Romanesque, or maybe Quaker.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:07 PM on July 2, 2012

You know I'm surprised the word Tincture hasn't made a retro-ironic come back what with people being all into complex cocktails and homebrewing and such
posted by The Whelk at 12:12 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

The only common use left of the word tincture I've heard has been tincture of ipecac, and that is sure as hell not a connotation you want in a cocktail!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:16 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I used the word "poultice" in conversation the other day. I was promptly called out for using the word "poultice" just as an excuse to say it aloud.
posted by griphus at 12:17 PM on July 2, 2012 [4 favorites]

Well there is tincture of cannabis but that goes by ...other names.
posted by The Whelk at 12:23 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

During a trip to Amsterdam in my teens, I hung out with a Bavarian who would always refer to his stash as zee mik-styah.
posted by griphus at 12:28 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

the world needs more people compelling you to try potions.
posted by The Whelk at 12:31 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Vee haff veys off making you high!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:31 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

I really haven't been doing as much quaffing as I'd prefer.
posted by griphus at 12:33 PM on July 2, 2012

It's about priorities griphus. You have to make the time.
posted by Think_Long at 12:34 PM on July 2, 2012

Try health food stores for tinctures. A friend who belongs to the Park Slope Co-op found me something like this there when I broke my foot.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:35 PM on July 2, 2012

I always imagine quaffing as involving a certain amount of festive spillage, and I just cannot in good faith condone such things.
posted by elizardbits at 12:35 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Don't worry, what the mouth and beard don't catch, the Warhammer saves for later days.
posted by griphus at 12:36 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wait crap wrong thread.
posted by griphus at 12:37 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

CONTEXT
posted by griphus at 12:37 PM on July 2, 2012

"What is it?"

"A tonic ...a potion, a bit of magic in a world obsessed with science"

"..."

"It'll make you trip balls okay?"
posted by The Whelk at 12:39 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

you have linked back to this very thread though

OR WAS THAT THE POINT
posted by elizardbits at 12:40 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

We're Sorry — A Server Error Occurred
The details of this error have been sent to a site administrator and we'll try to fix the problem quickly. This might be a one-time thing, but if you consistently have this problem, please contact the MeFi Admins with a description of your problem and the following information:
Date and Time: 7/2/12 12:40 PM
Your Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_4) AppleWebKit/534.57.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.7 Safari/534.57.2
Your Location: 65.162.99.34
Including the information above with a bug report can help us diagnose the problem, thanks.

All I tried to do was post!
posted by cjorgensen at 12:41 PM on July 2, 2012

So if I try to make the same comment a second time in a tread you can't? That's funny.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:42 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Thanks for the heads up cjorgensen. It will now take you back to the thread with a duplicate comment instead of dying like that.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:58 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

the bug has disappeared.

I am curious about this. On my planet a bug is something that is broken that needs repair [or aggressive ignoring] but what do you call this collision of overlapping systems where they create buglike output but there's no actual bug? Or is this a bug? I mean I'm familiar with the jokey wetware problem and I have read this, but what is this sort of thing called?

So if I try to make the same comment a second time in a tread you can't? That's funny.

We've got some duplicate comment checking in place just in case a server error produces multiple copies of the same comment, so yeah. But also yeah it shouldn't error. Fortunately pb fixed this before I could even explain it.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:00 PM on July 2, 2012

but what is this sort of thing called?

a dybbuk?
posted by elizardbits at 1:02 PM on July 2, 2012

I was going to be stupid and post "Reboot." again after one of the above comments and it wouldn't let me. There isn't a hole in my life that I wasn't able to.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:07 PM on July 2, 2012

Reminds me of the time when we put a pair of relatively powerful and unshielded speakers next to a CRT monitor. The results were quite similar to your screenshots and pretty psychedelic. Fortunately, the damage was easily fixed with a magnet. So obviously, you should try using a magnet.
posted by daniel_charms at 1:15 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

what do you call this collision of overlapping systems where they create buglike output but there's no actual bug?

A glitch.
posted by grouse at 1:27 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

So obviously, you should try using a magnet.

Or a degaussing coil. If you've never degaussed a CRT your life is incomplete. Or hit a powered on tube TV. What fun that will never be had again.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:31 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

what do you call this collision of overlapping systems where they create buglike output but there's no actual bug?

It's a bird.
posted by vidur at 1:32 PM on July 2, 2012

> There isn't a hole in my life that I wasn't able to.

Clearly, it happened again while you were typing.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:33 PM on July 2, 2012

what do you call this collision of overlapping systems where they create buglike output but there's no actual bug?

The other guy's fault.
posted by dirigibleman at 2:00 PM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

No, the code for the changing background color trick has been completely removed from the site.

*cry*
posted by Melismata at 2:11 PM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

What we need is a great big melting pot.
posted by Decani at 2:19 PM on July 2, 2012

We have to get a stew going
posted by The Whelk at 2:28 PM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]

Huh. The "Make It Stop" color change is from April Fools 2008, and it didn't use gradients. The link hung around, snaring the unwitting, until August 2009, when pb removed it from the site. boo_radley saved the functionality in some Greasemonkey scripts.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:42 PM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bugs will ......find a way.
posted by The Whelk at 2:44 PM on July 2, 2012

Deguassing is the only thing I miss about CRTs, but I miss it an awful lot it turns out.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:16 PM on July 2, 2012 [5 favorites]

I can send you a 24 inch CRT if you pay shipping.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:13 PM on July 2, 2012

I was going to post a degaussing simulator for you but it turns out there isn't one.

HALP LAZYWEB
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:22 PM on July 2, 2012 [4 favorites]

Seriously, degaussmyflatscreen.com would be the best single-serving site ever. Do that shit with an HTML5 canvas and you'll win the actual entire internet.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:23 PM on July 2, 2012 [11 favorites]

It wouldn't be able to mimic that satisfying whacking sound, though.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:26 PM on July 2, 2012

>> what do you call this collision of overlapping systems where they create buglike output but there's no actual bug?

It's something almost like a heisenbug.
posted by JohnFredra at 7:26 PM on July 2, 2012

If you pay airfare, I'll come around and slap your LCD.
posted by arcticseal at 7:28 PM on July 2, 2012

kink warning!
posted by elizardbits at 8:33 AM on July 3, 2012

heck, if you're willing to pay MY airfare, I'll come around and slap you AND your LCD!
posted by easily confused at 8:36 AM on July 3, 2012

I made a tincture the other day. I was brewing a large batch of wheat beer, and I wanted one of the carboys to be Belgian wit. So I steeped coriander and orange peel in a few ounces of vodka overnight, then added it to the carboy before pitching the yeast. It's still fermenting, so I cannot yet report how this unorthodox technique turned out.
posted by slogger at 12:00 PM on July 3, 2012

The only common use left of the word tincture I've heard has been tincture of ipecac, and that is sure as hell not a connotation you want in a cocktail!

Have you tried using tincture of opium as bitters?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:04 PM on July 3, 2012

but that goes by ...other names.

Namblytizers!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:15 PM on July 3, 2012

If you pay my airfare, I'll come around and let you slap me!
posted by dg at 8:13 PM on July 4, 2012