Here's the setup, a blog post which is a review of a new music album, the post has the familiar facebook 'like' button on there.

Here's the problem, my partner finds that people will only click the 'like' button if they 'like' the album, it's not about the post, the site, the quality of the writing in the review. All points to something wrong in the kudos chain.

It's not just like though, let's introduce a simple '5 Star' rating system on the posts, just what are the users rating, the post, or the album?

Now, let's change the example somewhat, scenario: a well write article about a horrific genocide - hundreds of people saying 'I Like this', as humans we can quickly infer (and somewhat hope) that people are saying they like the article, and not the genocide, but what about a machine.

For your consideration, each web page typically includes multiple distinct things, so we need a way to be able provide users with a way to do 'stuff' which each thing, I like this review, I like this author, this topic is worth noting, I like the primary topic, I've read this and so forth - any semantic web readers will quickly say "ahh problem solved! give everything a URI" (I hope) - but the problem isn't solved, it brings up (yet again) the issue that we need a whole new generation of UX/UI improvements, one 'like' button will not do, when you've got 10-100 things on a page, and different actions for each, this is something that's clearly going to have to be abstracted out from the page and handled in a different way - just how I don't know..

Will leave it there, you can see the challenge..

A few months ago I upgraded my pc, part of which included adding an Asus GeForce 9600 GT; shortly after installing, the Fan on the graphics card started to make a most irritating grinding noise. I found that if I knocked and tilted my case a few times I could get it to stop grinding & quieten down (the hit-it fix). Over time this grinding has become more frequent, to the point that it's almost non-stop; and so that it vibrates the case and thus you can hear it all through the house. It's been driving me insane because everytime I get it to stop, the *slightest* of movements starts it going again, which includes me moving, somebody walking past, infact anything. This weekend it's been especially bad, in-fact I've felt like throwing the f'ing thing out the window; finally this morning I had enough and thought I have to get a new fan for this thing.

Searching the internet found me no replacement fans, which meant I was looking at sending the card back to get it fixed (and thus missing out on work), buying a full new cooling set, or buying a new card - the last two options would have led to pc-murder as seriously this noise goes right through you. Thus after running out of options  I tried to fix it.

How to fix a noisy computer fan:

1. Remove the fan from the computer (in my case this meant removing the graphics card and unscrewing the plastic cover and fan).
2. Once you have the fan removed, remove the stickers from it.
3. On one side you'll notice a small recess with the end of a small metal pin on it (the bit that holds the fan together, and which the fan spins on)
4. Take a small, toy plastic soldier and chew off the arm (or rifle butt it if has one).
5. Take the cap off a bottle of Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil and fill said cap approx half full with said olive oil.
6. Dip one end of the plastic arm / rifle in to the olive oil, then dab the smallest of drops on to the small metal pin in the recess of the fan (from step 3)
7. As you do step 6, gently pull the two parts of the fan about 0.5mm apart and turn the fan clockwise and ant-clockwise.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 until you feel the oil has worked its way in and loosened it, "oiled the fan".
9. Be very careful not to swamp the thing with oil, it's an electronic part and you'll break it.
10. Reassemble what you took apart in step 1.

I do believe the specific brand of olive oil, or even the fact it's olive oil isn't of significant importance, likewise the soldier arm / rifle could be anything small that's good for poking.

As an extra bonus, my graphics card is now running 20 degrees cooler when idle :)

Short version:

1. Oil it

Disclaimer:

This worked for me, I'm most pleased, if it doesn't work for you or you break something, don't blame me - but it might be worth a try.

Regards!

from the documentation: "This function returns a unique identifier for the object. This id can be used as a hash key for storing objects or for identifying an object."

spl_object_hash() actually returns an md5 hash of the internal pointer of an object.

PHP efficiently reuses internal pointers; meaning the second you remove an object the pointer is reused.

thus:

<?php
$transaction_ids = array();
for( $i=0; $i<10; $i++ ) {
 $transaction = (object)('transaction ' . $i);
 $hash = spl_object_hash( $transaction );
 $transaction_ids[] = $hash;
}
print_r( $transaction_ids );
?>

will output:

Array
(
[0] => 4b8051a089b9e8352a97af234d4478a7
[1] => 076b44c4ffe009b98c0ba3348459c57a
[2] => 4b8051a089b9e8352a97af234d4478a7
[3] => 076b44c4ffe009b98c0ba3348459c57a
[4] => 4b8051a089b9e8352a97af234d4478a7
[5] => 076b44c4ffe009b98c0ba3348459c57a
[6] => 4b8051a089b9e8352a97af234d4478a7
[7] => 076b44c4ffe009b98c0ba3348459c57a
[8] => 4b8051a089b9e8352a97af234d4478a7
[9] => 076b44c4ffe009b98c0ba3348459c57a
)

not even remotely unique, could lead to serious problems, and simply.. I'd forget using it if I was you.

This weekend "the internet" played it's biggest gotcha on me in 10 years ever; I'll keep it short and it's worth a read just so your a gotcha more aware.

The Problem: Every DNS server at every major ISP on a continent (Europe) decided to throw back a "SERVFAIL" response for one of my domains. Thus the domain was unknown all through europe!

The Weirdness: All DNS for the domain was correct, and moreover with a third party (godaddy), all dns tools online are showing no problem, all your servers show the domain / dns is okay.

The Bigger Problem: DNS is fine on the nameservers, and fine all around the world, but in one continent it's stuffed, the problem isn't at your domain register, with your isp, with your hosting company, on your server - in other words it is completely and totally outwith your control; Who do you phone? It's a case when the "bit in the middle" that thing we call the internet, breaks, there is no one person or company that can fix it.

The Problem Doesn't fix itself: 36 hours on and the problem is still there, it's not getting better.

The (only?) Fix: After trying everything possible, here's the only thing that fixes it - change the nameservers, this forces the dns cache's around the internet to update and within 24 hours the record for your domain is restored world wide. thank fk for that!

Conclusion: This is honestly the strangest and most frustrating "bug" I've ever found in my life, nobody else can help you when a few thousand servers all decide your domain is no good; so a friendly heads up - you may never see this error ever, but if you do - you know what to do!