I was looking through the IIS settings of a server running Server 2003 (or 2008) and noticed “Show friendly error messages” was enabled. The setting is pretty self explanatory and should probably be disabled on a production server, but what do “unfriendly” error messages look like? Is it standard practice to test server error pages – other than 404 pages, which are easy to test. If so, is accessing the (presumably) static html file directly sufficient?

I tend to err on the side of caution and wanted to see an actual error in action. Fortunately, IIS makes this pretty easy. If you have a form, enter a ‘tag’ in a field and submit the form. Something like `<script>` ought to do it.

tl;dr: Submit a form with a tag (eg `<script>`) in one of the fields.

Hi there! I’m Andrew Budker.

I’m currently working as a Software Development Engineer in Amazon.com’s Kindle Group. Prior to joining Amazon.com in the summer of 2010, I worked in the SharePoint Business Intelligence Group at Microsoft. With my spare cycles, I develop iPhone and Android applications. I attended the University of California where I studied applied mathematics and cryptography (and got into trouble with Mr. Mills). I started programming for the web in high school and haven’t looked back since. I’ve been really lucky to get to work in different languages across a wide variety of platforms and applications. I hope to continue to learn, and hopefully capture some of my findings in this blog.

Who are you?

I’m Enrico Mills. I currently live in London. I started programming while studying Mechanical Engineering at UCLA in 2006 – I use the word “studying” loosely. On the advice of Andrew Budker, I took an introductory C++ course and got hooked, so it will be his fault if I end up living under a bridge, staring at a concrete pillar and typing on a ergonomically designed sharpie and cardboard keyboard. In early 2009 I started MyLifeIsG.com and MyLifeIsAverage.com with a co-worker and friend, Guru Khalsa. I am currently working on a website to place motivated students in project driven internships.