Something changes keystrokes to spaces on this board

[Silent Observer]

This morning is the first time I've noticed it, but: something is messing with my typing on this forum board (only!). Some keystrokes, apparently at random, are converted to spaces, even to the point of backspace coming out as backspace-space combination.

I've never seen this, that I can recall; FWIW, I'm running Kubuntu 14.04 (updated to 14.04.1 after installation), unmodified, with SeaMonkey browser (up to date last I checked), and this isn't happening when I type the text of my post in Kwrite. This does not happen on other boards...

[SteveRiley]

Does it happen with any other browser?

[Silent Observer]

Testing, testing -- I don't see it happening with Firefox, but then I don't recall it happening with SeaMonkey prior to the session in which I started this thread. Let me switch back to SeaMonkey and check further...

SeaMonkey now -- and I don't seem to be seeing the space conversion this session, either. May/must have been a one-time thing -- I was thinking it might have been scripts from page advertising, but I don't see any advertising on this page, at least, and now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing ads on this forum at all. A Mystery...

Or maybe it's time to clean my keyboard.

[SteveRiley]

Cosmic rays. That's what I blame all unexplainable phenomena on.

[Snowhog]

From our dusty archives:

Re: apt-get / adept problems

[Silent Observer]

If there were a nano-size hole in my optical fiber, I think I'd have more problems than spurious spaces when typing on a single forum. I'm much more inclined to suspect a rogue script, possibly held over from a previous page (I get script hangs in SeaMonkey all the time on ad-heavy pages), or an otherwise undetected IP address conflict in my home network resulting in someone else's keystrokes (say, from a laptop that routinely has something sitting on the keyboard) being attributed to my computer...

[SteveRiley]

an otherwise undetected IP address conflict in my home network resulting in someone else's keystrokes (say, from a laptop that routinely has something sitting on the keyboard) being attributed to my computer...

Like what, a cat searching the Internet for pictures of birds?

Left-over script garbage is a possibility. But keystrokes from another machine would require the successful installation of a remote-access trojan on yours, and one that is capable of acting only in a browser and only when visiting a specific site. Possible, but highly unlikely.

[Silent Observer]

Like what, a cat searching the Internet for pictures of birds?

Left-over script garbage is a possibility. But keystrokes from another machine would require the successful installation of a remote-access trojan on yours, and one that is capable of acting only in a browser and only when visiting a specific site. Possible, but highly unlikely.

Well, I was thinking of random junk sitting on the space bar, but I can't rule out the cat theory; we do have an eight month old tomcat in the house who is too smart for his own good, and I wouldn't instantly discount his ability to use a mouse or touchpad (though I'm pretty sure he'd have a lot of trouble typing).

However, as you suggest, an IP conflict, in my experience, just results in the router or host closing both connections. And installation of a remote-access trojan, while not impossible (one other person in the house has the user password to this machine, but as far as I'm aware, I'm the only one with the root password, which this machine requires for sudo as well as more persistent root operation). A browser plugin version would be one that a user could install without root privilege, so a remote possibility -- except that the person who might want to spy on me is almost completely Linux-ignorant, as is the one really computer-competent individual she might recruit for assistance.

Unless I find a specific package has been installed (which would prompt me to ask how to change root password -- I think I know, but I'd want to check before possibly locking myself out of my own computer), I'm going to call it leftover script junk or a dirty keyboard (the latter a very real possibility; I need to read up on the dishwasher method of cleaning a keyboard). This keyboard is close to ten years old, and pretty grungy...