I’ve received two emails from readers over the last few days saying they can’t comment elsewhere on FTB nor on this site. My guess is this is yet another in the endless series of obscure technical glitches plaguing this medium, having something to do with the fact that we use computers, computers suck beyond words by themselves, and add to that they have to try to operate on an Internet well into the process of being utterly ruined by thieves, scammers and spammers.

I apologize for any frustration this may have caused. FWIW I have not messed with comment permissions or banned anyone, ever. And I’ll see what I can find out about this. For now, let’s get techy with it!

Now, I’m more than happy to commiserate with you about the dismal state of digital devices. They glitch, crash, reset, and fail. None of which was too big a deal when they were high tecvh toys to play on a glemaing new World Wide Web, but fail to an new standard in epic when we now depend on them for our livilohood. But I’d rather light a candle that curse your darkness!

If you are going to send me a bug report, and you are on a Windows machine, there is some useful info you can include and knowing how to get it is kinda cool and damn useful. 

First, what kind of security software, or AV, are you running?

One easy way to find out is to 1) click on the start menu in the lower left corner, 2) click on my computer in the menu, 3) click on add or remove programs in the right margin of the window tha t appears. This will show you all the programs on your PC. If you see Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, Malware Bytes, Microsoft Security Essentials, or anything with the word security in it. Another thing to check is the tool bar below, usually there are icons on the left side of it, and sometimes an arrow up close to where the time displays. If you click on that arrow and wave your mouse cursor through the icons on that side of the toolbar, you may find security software.

Another thing that’s important is your Operating System or OS.

Look down at your keyboard, there’s probably a key left of the space bar that has a flag symbol on it. 1) Hold that key down and press and release the “R” key 2) a little box will pop up in the lower left corner that says “Run,” 3) Type in that box without the quotes ” dxdiag “, 4) hit OK. If another window pops up asking you something about signing something, say no. Whatever it says after Operating System is what you have. BTW if you click on “Display” it will show you what your video hardware is all about; if you look to the left on that video info page you’ll see something that says “Date.” That’s the last time your video chip set or graphics card was updated with drivers. If that date is more than a few months out you need to check with the manufacturer. EG:, I have an annoying issue where my edit screen would pitch and scroll when I was editing long posts. It turned out my mouse drivers needed to be updated. Once I did that single, simple thing, half of it went away.

Lastly, it helps to know what Browser you are using.

The most common are Internet Explorer aka I/E, FireFox, or Chrome. They have versions, especially Firefox, like 3.3 or 4.2, that’s useful if you can include it. Other things that are good to know, does the issue persist no matter what kind of device you are logged into, another PC, a Mac, a phone?

So to sum it up, I’m interested in any issue that interferes with your ability to connect, read, link out, and/or participate here at FTB. If you report an issue, and can include a through description, your OS, your AV software including any pop up blockers or firewalls operating, the Browser, and any info on how it works when logged into other machines, devices, and locations, that is most helpful but it is not requisite.