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This is probably to bypass the built in IE error page that is triggered if less than 256 (or 512?) bytes are returned for an error HTTP status.

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http://www.404-error-page.com/404-error-page-too-short-probl...

Go figure, 500 errors are rewritten if they're less than 512 bytes. O.O

Good to know, but why would they do this? Is it really worth hiding valuable error information from your users just to what, promote your search engine and have a somewhat more consistent UI?

Google does that with Chrome as well. Now go figure why BigCos do that with their browsers.

PS: at least nginx takes care of this issue http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpCoreModule#msie_padding

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