455F E104 22CA 29C4 933F 9505 2B79 2AB2

Today, this seems to be an interesting number ....
455F E104 22CA 29C4 933F 9505 2B79 2AB2

09F9 1102 9D74 E35B D841 56C5 6356 88C0

This seems to be a popular number today, no idea why.
09F9 1102 9D74 E35B D841 56C5 6356 88C0

Escaping CDATA in CDATA

In a current project I needed to be able to embed user submitted text into an element in a XML document.

The obvious way to start would be to enclose the text in a <![CDATA[ ... ]]> element. However, because the text came from user input, I couldn't guarantee that it didn't contain the CDATA end tag ']]>' in the text.

The W3C specification just says that you can't nest CDATA elements, but it doesn't say how to escape an existing ']]>' sequence so that it doesn't break the enclosing CDATA element.

I eventually found this useful blog entry CDATA-Section-Delimitosis on CodeSnipers.com.

Basically, it says that if you want to include the text '<![CDATA[ ... ]]>' in CDATA element, you can leave the openning '<![CDATA[' as is, but you need to split the closing ']]>' accross two CDATA elements.

For example, the following block of text

.....
<![CDATA[ ... ]]>
....

should be placed in a two CDATA elements like this

<![CDATA[
....
<![CDATA[ ... ]]]]><![CDATA[>
....
]]>

Splitting the ']]>' delimiter into two parts ']]' and '>'.

The mystery of the disappearing biscuits

Well, Google comes to the rescue again. The mystery of the disappearing biscuits is solved.

My partner and I love Carr's Table Water biscuits, particularly with a dab of houmous and a bit of fresh basil. Every time we visit our local supermarket, three or four packs of Carr's were always on our list.

Then they started to disappear ....

Sometime in summer 2005, we noticed that our two main supermarkets had stopped stocking Carr's. Shortly after this, at least one of the supermarkets started stocking their 'own brand' version of water biscuits. Ok, we thought we would give them a try, just one pack. Suffice to say they were terrible, just not the same.

Since then, we have been looking out for genuine Carr's Table Water biscuits whenever we visit a new shop. Smaller stores seemed to still stock them, and we often bought as many packs as they had whenever we did find them.

Then, things got worse. Yesterday, we bought two boxes from one of our local shops and found a nasty suprise. They were not genuine Carr's Table Water biscuits. They were hard crunchy backed biscuits, similar to the 'own brand' offering from the supermarket chain. Close examination of the box showed that rather than made in UK by Carr's of Carlisle, they were made in Canada for Carr's of Carlisle. A subtle but, it turns out, all important distinction.

Angry at being fobbed off with a sub-standard product, I was preparing to send the boxes back to Carr's of Carlisle with a letter demanding a refund. Before I did, I naturally turned to Google to see if anyone else had found the same problem, and all was revealed.

A Google search for 'carrs table water' found these pages

What now for biscuit making in Carlisle?

Who's taken the biscuit?

It appears that a flood in January 2005 damaged the factory, and production has been moved (temporarily we hope) to a factory in Canada.

I also found the Carr's online store. Which lists something called Carr's Table Water Crackers in the catalogue. The site seems aimed at US visitors, so I assume that Water Crackers are equivalent to the UK Table Water biscuits. However, there are no details to indicate if these are the original recipe, or the Canadian made substitute.

So, if anyone else loves Carr's Table Water biscuits, and is wondering where they all went, now you know.

First post ...

Ok, I've created a blog.

If anyone really wants to know, the name came from the captcha I had to decode to register the account.