# Get off my internet! (Old Fogey question about little boxes with letters in 'em)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-off-my-internet-old-fogey-question-about-little-boxes-with-letters-in-em/459250>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 8, 2008, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-off-my-internet-old-fogey-question-about-little-boxes-with-letters-in-em/459250 "2008-08-08T01:26:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-off-my-internet-old-fogey-question-about-little-boxes-with-letters-in-em/459250/21 "2008-08-09T05:17:21Z")

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Okay, so according to [this thread](http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=705615) in the Mozillazine Forums, the problem is this:

Previous versions of FF did not adhere to character encoding standards, and when a particular character was used that was not available in the specified or expected available character set, it tried the next on the list until it found the right one. Thus characters displayed correctly through an automatic process of best-guessing.

FF3 now adheres to the standards. It displays the page in the character set specified by the web page, or the server, and does _not_ guess. Instead, when you encounter an absence of character, you have to specify it yourself via the View menu, or add the appropriate International Font to your OS.

The argument is, it’s not FF3 that’s at fault, it’s the web pages and servers not specifying the correct character set that was subsequently used in the page.

I can reluctantly accept that. But I think it’s a poor way to “fix” something that wasn’t, essentially, broken, and it needs to be addressed, by Firefox, in a better way.

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**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-off-my-internet-old-fogey-question-about-little-boxes-with-letters-in-em/459250/22 "2008-08-09T08:57:56Z")

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[QUOTE=Myglaren]  
I’m on Ubuntu Linux/Firefox 3 and see the same.

Same with Opera,  
and Epiphany  
and Galeon  
and Kazahakase

Two empty squares in Konqueror.  
[/QUOTE]

Kubuntu + Konqueror. I see the rhombuses.

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**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-off-my-internet-old-fogey-question-about-little-boxes-with-letters-in-em/459250/23 "2008-08-09T09:59:04Z")

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Firefox on Vista = Rhombus with ?  
Safari on Vista = blank squares.

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