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Intel Web Site Challenges

JNichols
New Contributor I
2,962 Views

I was looking at the post placed this week by INTEL on automatic variables.  I did a google search on automatic variables, just to read a bit of background.

I got the following search return from google, 

https://software.intel.com › develop › articles › fdiag6754 

 

But when I click on the link I get a generic introduction page for Intel Software.  

 

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
618 Views

The error was that the logon attempts stopped once I entered the password, the password screen did not disappear, it merely stayed there. 

I was using EDGE and Opera.

Yes, I cleaned out everything at least twice. 

Yes I tried from a different computer and the same thing happened. 

I have been attempting to log in about every hour since I worked out it had stopped letting me in.  (Except at night of course)

Mine was the last message on the site on 20th at 10:31 and it then did not allow another message until this morning, about 2 days give or take a few seconds.  

 

Given the volume of messages on this site, two days without messages is just statistically unlikely, it might happen, but I would be surprised. 

 

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AlHill
Super User
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I use Firefox and am on the forum constantly (I have no other life), and I experienced no problems.  If I had, I would have informed forum management.  I am on US eastcoast, but I have seen spotty outages affect other geographical areas.  Perhaps Intel was doing something that disrupted service.

 

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Windows 11 is the new Vista]

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
607 Views

You could see the forum and read, I could not post.  

 

In 19 years of forum life, there have been 157903 messages, that is 22 per day, it is unlikely in such a human process, one would see two straight days with zero posts.  It is possible, but not likely.  

 

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
603 Views

In statistical terms, I would ask the question regarding your observation,  did you try and post in those two days? 

 

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AlHill
Super User
551 Views

Yes.  I had no problems.  And I observed hundreds of other posts.

 

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Windows 11 is the new Vista]

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
525 Views

Dear Al:

This reminds me of a first year physics experiment at ANU.  ANU Physics Dept were excellent at teaching a student how to collect, collate and present data. 

Hypothesis -- On the Intel Fortran Forum, it was not possible to post between 20th of October at about 10 am until 22nd October at about 10 am.  

Data: The actual time recorded posts in reverse order from the first page of the forum is shown below.  The post of interest is the last post in the series of posts on each forum topic.  

Post         Topic                                 Date

16          Education                       14 Oct

15          F Function                        15 Oct

14         Recent Update                  15 Oct

13         Bug Report                          15 Oct

12         IFX                                      15 Oct

11          Stack overflow                16 Oct

10          DLL Export                         16 Oct

9          .SO                                        16 Oct

8          Library                                  18 Oct     -          there is a flaw in the web site as this is one that is not in date order

7.         Compiler                               17 Oct

6.         Abaqus                                  17 Oct

5          Issue DPD                              18 Oct

4          Integer                                    19 Oct

3         Compile                                   20 Oct    7:32 AM

2          Metric Assess                        20 Oct 10:05 AM

1          Intel Web Chall                      20 - Oct 10.08 AM.

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There are no posts on any of the Forum Topics numbered 2 to 15 after the 20th Oct at 1:05 AM.  

So we only need to consider the set of post times on the First Forum Topic the Web Challenge -- as my old Prof said - self evident. 

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Topic 1 had the following series of Post from start to finish

19 Oct ------------   11 posts

20 Oct                        6:32 AM

                                     6:49 AM

                                      7:20 AM

                                     10:08 AM

                                      There were no recorded posts on the Intel Fortran Forum after 10:08 AM on the 20th Oct.

21 Oct                         There were zero recorded posts on the Intel Fortran Forum on the 21st Oct.

22 Oct                        10:31 AM

                                     1:55 PM

                                      2:02 PM

                                       2:46 PM

                                       3:03 PM

                                        3:11 PM

                                       4:23 PM

                                        4:28 PM

                                        4:30 PM

                                        4:35 PM

  23 Oct                          2:37 AM

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Observation - there is a gap of 2 days in the posts on the Intel Fortran Forum.

Observation - I tried on at least 10 or 12 occasions on 2 different computers, you can tell which computer I am on from the login, one is J Nichols and the other is John Nichols to post to the board to ask -- what had happened to the logon   --  I am quite happy to swear to that fact in a court of law, so it is observationally sound. 

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Observation - 

I could see all of the forum posts when I opened the Intel Fortran Forum and the counter on the number of observations kept going up in that 2 day period.  But when I tried to post - the log on screen popped up - as it always does when you go to post, but it halted at the logon page.  No matter how many times I hit the submit button it did not work. 

Observation 

The logon for me, was not accepted from 20th to the 22nd from 10 AM to 10 AM on those days.  

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Summary:  I have no evidence to suggest that the website was accepting posts for the 48 hour period.  It would appear that the hypothesis on the balance of probability is true. 

The first evidence was my inability to log on.

The second evidence is no one else clearly posted in that period. 

No - one on this forum, since this discussion started have said they tried to post.   If they did - then they failed - there are no posts, so the dog clearly did not bark.  (This is a clear reference to the famous Sherlock Holmes story - if you are lost - I suggest you read the 1000 or so pages of Sherlock Holmes.  Random House has an excellent 2 volume paperback edition - it will be at BN.)

 

If we consider there are four types on the Forum.   

Type 1 ghosts,  I know there are ghosts on the Forum, as from time to time, I get quite nice emails from people saying they enjoy the posts, but their name never appears on the Forum as posting.   

Type 2 New Users who suddenly find they have a Fortran problem and post here instead of doing a google search. 

Type 3 users, regular forum users who initiate forum topics, this is a smaller subset of Type 4. 

Type 4 are the small group of people who mainly answer the questions, you all know the set, but a lot of them respond to posts they do not initiate posts. So a Type 4 user is going to quickly glance at the forum on the 20th - 22nd - see no posts and unless they are curious - go back to their work.    

The Type 3 will attempt logon, figure it is something minor and try again.  I tried about 10 times.  If I had not been able to log on the 22nd, then my next step was an email to the nice people at Intel who run the forum.  

Finally, statistically the posts are regular and then they are not regular.   

As anyone who has read about the Battle of Somme will know, the English bombarded the German trenches for several days, something like a million shells. The Germans sitting in the dugout bunkers, well below the surface just waited. The English General stupidly halted the bombardment before he sent the men across.  Absence of a signal and the Germans occupied the trenches and killed about 20,000 with 60,000 injured or thereabouts.  Sure they got pushed back a little, but ......

So it has been a while since I did this type of analysis.  It was fun.  

So, Al there is no record of you posting from the 20th 10 AM till the 22nd 10 AM that I can find, being able to view the site is not posting.  I agree we could view, but there is no evidence we could post, and the statistical data suggests such a pause has a cause and it is most probably not the users - not posting.  

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So in response to your last statements, may I suggest politely:

1.   You said  :: I had no problems,   

You had no problems viewing the board, I do not disagree, observationally both you and I agree on that. 

2. I observed hundreds of posts. 

Yes, you could have, but in the two day period you did not observe any new posts, there were none.  And on average there are between 20 to 30 posts per day, with Sunday being the quiet day. 

I have been savagely attacked in court by lawyers on the opposing side, who usually wish to discredit your evidence.  It is a most unpleasant experience.  The way to avoid that unpleasant experience is to prepare a well thought out and logical analysis that anyone can follow who understands some high school math, which the opposing side has no desire to question with one in the witness box.  

I used a similar technique for a road accident and the other side settled in 20 minutes.  

So thanks Al, this brought back some old memories.  

JMN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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AlHill
Super User
523 Views

Observation - John, you need to let this go.  I perform various tasks on the forum, which are more than just viewing posts, and that you do not need to be aware of.   As I also said, there may have been forum problems that afected various geographical areas, which has happened in the past. 

 

If you want to complain, I know that you know how to reach forum management.

 

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Windows 11 is the new Vista]

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
507 Views

Al:

It was just fun.  

I am not complaining, it is no big deal if the forum goes down.  It is just observation.  And it gave my mind a rest from a rather difficult problem.  

Interestingly, one of the concerns with statisticians is the need to change from insufficient data to to much data.  There are really only three methods to deal with the huge data sets,  Fortran, -- best,  C++ - God created a nightmare, and C# -- sometimes we are pushed to a MS program. 

JMN

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
402 Views

I like the new forum, it does not do screen jumps as you log on - nor require a logon just to read.  

 

Interestingly, yesterday I unfortunately turned up a zero divide in the program.  I had not checked for it as I should have, we all learn as we get older.  

No this time to edit this response it did the old logon jumps - never mind, it is nice to be home with the curmudgeons. Are the pinned posts going back at the top, they answer a lot of interesting questions? 

 

 

 

 

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Steve_Lionel
Honored Contributor III
403 Views

I still get the multiple refreshes at login. I did notice that all the pinned posts disappeared, including the new FAQ link Devorah posted last week. An annoying behavior that remains is that the forum does not automatically mark a new reply as seen by its author.

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JohnNichols
Valued Contributor III
393 Views

On the refresh, yes I agree, the grey lines on the left hand side are like the editing marks in word, that annoys me no end,  on the last one, I do not know what you mean, but that is not unusual.  

Plus the ghosts are alive and well on the site.  

As an aside, I have been using VS 2022 for some coding.  As we improve we change and sometimes change is not for the better.  One change, once you upgrade to VS 2022 is it hard to return to VS 2019 with some forms of code.  The autocomplete has changed and the engine that runs it is to say -- challenging.  

 

 

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