Question: I'm trying to create a portal/dashboard using jQuery & Bootstrap. I need the ability to display gadgets with fixed dimensions that can be displayed on the same page together. I am giving the user the ability to define a template for each page, which defines the dimensions of gadgets that can be displayed on the page and also their layout.

I can already do a basic non-responsive dashboard but the part that is confusing me, is that I want to make the dashboard responsive. This would be fairly easy if gadgets were all of similar sizes, organised into rows, as per Bootstrap's grid system.

I guess the best example is this screenshot I found online.

![Dashboard example](https://i.stack.imgur.com/TaveQ.jpg)

The first gadget spans two rows and the next two only span one. I can't see how to do this using Bootstrap's grid system.

Alternatively, should it even be responsive? Is it a better user experience if the dashboard isn't responsive?

Edit: I do have clients who use tablets and/or cellphones.

Answer: 
Well, lot of time passed so I figured I will answer with my current (not perfect) solution for other people to easily see it (also written inside the question).

Just set the readTimeout to 0 (no timeout) or at least the connection timeout value. This will make sure connection timeout will be raised before the read timeout. 

```
int timeoutMs = request.getTimeoutMs();    //  or whatever
connection.setConnectTimeout(timeoutMs);   //  actual timeout desired
connection.setReadTimeout(timeoutMs);      //  >= timeoutMs or 0

```

Of course, it depends on the use of the request. Most of the times, the app is part of a project containing the related server, and you know read timeouts shouldn't happen anyway..

As said, not really a "solution", but a very nice and 90% useful fix.
[As it says in one of the links you quoted](http://www.coderanch.com/t/490463/sockets/java/Timeout-retry-URLHTTPRequest), you need to set `sun.net.http.retryPost` to `false`.

Or, don't use fixed-length or chunked transfer mode: see [this bug report](http://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6672144).