Fix for Pushy Safari Install over Apple Software Update

Ok, so after about 3+ hours of routing around in the horrifying Windows registry I’ve made a fix for the Safari install through Apple’s Software Update. Incase you missed it read about it here, here and here.

Being a member of the Digg community I’ve seen the reaction to this and I feel, like the majority of people that this is the wrong way to introduce users to new software, and install it over an updater.

Ok, I’ll get to the good part, the fix!

Just a few registry values and you are sorted.

Download these 2 files (I’m sure they can be merged but I’m too tired and maybe lazy to check if they can) and then add them to your registry.

File 1 — File 2

Want some info on what they do? They just make your system think Safari is installed, and therefore tricking ASU into thinking you have it installed. Now for the smart bit (well I like it), the current version of Safari is 3.1.525.13 (afaik), so if you just added the current version’s registry entry, the next update you would get the annoying popup again. So, to avoid this, the version you download from here puts in the highest version possible (again afaik) 255.255.65535. Also, the beauty of this is that if you do decide to install Safari at a later date, it will overwrite this so when an update comes out you will get it in the ASU like normal.

Please let me know if this works, doesn’t work. I accept no responsibility if this breaks your system or messes anything up.

Also as an aside, I noticed something when I started out looking for a fix. I looked through the files Apple uses to let ASU know that there is an update and seen in the Safari specific file, the attitude of the Apple team about this:

        // they do not already have it, but should get it

        if(minVersion == "0.0.0.0.0") {

            return true;

        }

This is the line of code which means that if you don’t have it installed, the update pops up, which is what everyone is getting and see the comment above it. Yeah, we’re not impressed Apple.

Hope this helps you,

Alan.

A blog on ice…

This blog really does live up to its name! The blog has been put on ice for the time being, unfortunately. Maximum ice cream production will not return until mid June it would appear, due to impending exams, which I must start taking seriously. There will be the odd blog post now and again and I’m not giving up (just for the record!). I’m just letting readers know that things may go quiet(er) until these retched exams are done.

On a brighter front I’m considering launching a podcast in the near future, aimed at a niche which I think have yet to be satisfied via podcast. It will of course be free to download and there maybe be some optional literature to accompany the casts. This is a very new area for me so I’m currently looking into the viability of this project and the general “ins and outs”. Oh it’s a video podcast, just in case you were wondering, I felt like sharing that! It seems important.

I’d like to pose two questions to you:

1. How long would you listen/watch a podcast for? What’s the ideal length basically in your opinion?
2. Would you pay for the extra literature which supports the podcasts? And if so, how much? For example, there is a French language podcast which charges $25 for 3 months of podcast literature. Now personally I think that this price is a too high but obviously people pay this.

So any and all comments are welcome.

Alan.

Leave table-ridden designs behind!

When I design a web page, the only reason I would include a table would be to include a table (smart, I know). I code in tableless css-styled xhtml. It has many, many advantages but whenever I’m asked for them I go blank and the best I can come up with is: It’s just better!
Well if your like me fear no more because here are 55 reasons why you should leave stone age table-ridden designs behind.

• 55 Reasons to Design in XHTML-CSS – ProgramimiCOM
  

Lack of posting again!

I know! I’m sorry but I’m having a big year and because of this, my blog is getting neglected severely! I have so much work and therefore little time for blogging. I’m going to try my hardest to keep blogging like a little trooper (blogger?) in the near feature.

Stay tuned…

Six months! Stats Mania!

Wow! Who would have guessed I’d still be blogging six months after I started!? I wouldn’t have! Anyway here are some stats for people who can’t get enough (like me!). I’ve even included the character count for us statistic lovers!

• Days alive: 6 months (Don’t have time to work out how many days this is!)
• Post count: 23 not including this post (I’m aiming for 50 by the 1 year marker)
• Word Count: 8,972
• Character count: 48,343
• Comments: 77
• Tags: 37 (Is this high or low?)
• Posts that I’ve started and not finished: 6 (They will probably never get finished)
• Total views: 1,745 (I need more! Lots more!)
• Best day ever: 119 (On Sunday, August 5, 2007)
• Views today so far: 11
• Spam: 2,646 and growing by the day! Imagine that only 3 months ago I had only 57! Ha! The good ole’ days!

Enjoy,
Alan.

Google Phone to run OpenMoko

Now that the Google Phone has been confirm, it is rumored that Google will be using the OpenMoko platform on Google designed hardware.

According to Phoronix.com, “A friendly penguin has told us at Phoronix that Google is looking to team up with OpenMoko for their “gPhone”. Google will not be using the FIC Neo1973 GTA01, but they will be bringing the open-source OpenMoko platform to their own hardware, which looks to be manufactured through HTC, and making a few changes along the way.”

I did predict that the Google phone would be Linux-based (although I suggested Ubuntu ) and a commenter on one of my posts informed me about the OpenMoko project(the Neo1973 running OpenMoko, pictured right).

Could this phone be even more hyped than the iPhone?

Google Phone confirmed!

You may have read my last post about the things the so-called gPhone needs to have to beat the iPhone. well it looks to be confirmed that a gPhone prototype has been made and is doing the rounds at various carriers around North America and Europe.

This rumor seems to be confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, here.

Analysis by two news sites:

‘Google is believed to have spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” on its mobile phone project and has courted Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and others as possible partners for carrying a Google-designed phone. According to anonymous sources, Google has multiple phone prototypes and envisions a day in which mobile phones will be ad-supported thanks to services such as those Google provides.’ -Ars Technica

‘Google Inc. has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.’ – Computer World.

So it appears the gPhone is really and will more than likely be in our hands a year from now. Stay tuned…

10 things the Google Phone needs to kick the iPhone’s ass!

There must have been thousands of rumors about the iPhone in the past few months. But has this provided the perfect quiet development time for Google to roll out its own phone? Here is a list of what the gPhone needs to makes the iPhone just another smartphone. Is it just me or are there too many phones in that last sentence…

1. Touchscreen - Well that much is obvious! One of the iPhone’s main selling features is that it has a good touchscreen. Any phone planning on over taking it will need as good, if not a better and bigger touchscreen.
2. Google Apps ready to roll – Gmail, Google Calendar, Maps, Search, gTalk, etc. all pre-installed and ready to use out of the shop. Enough said here.
3. A full OS installed – The iPhone has Mac OS X, the Google Phone should have Ubuntu! And what better time than when Ubuntu is developing a version of its OS just for mobile devices… Also in Google HQs, Google employees use specially adapted Ubuntu distributions. Why not adapt the mobile version as well to suit Google’s needs?
4. 2.9GB of an inbox! – And I don’t just mean email inbox! All text messages you receive will be stored in Gmail for viewing anywhere in the world with or without your gPhone. You’ll never have to clear out your SMS inbox again or realise you deleted that important text message from a friend or collegue confirming your meeting time and place. Of course if you still had the message and didn’t recognise the meeting place just select it and map integration will provide driving directions if you need them.
5. EDGE!? Google laughs at EDGE! - Or at least it will when it buys the old 700MHz wireless spectrum which is up for auction soon. Basically with this Google could supply broadband to every device on the network (which it already does in San Francisco with Wi-Fi), which kinda kicks EDGE in the pants! Along with the iPhone! With this network Google could, if it wished, supply unlimited data for free (if you haven’t noticed it likes giving lots for free, think Gmail, Google Earth, etc.), or a high bandwidth for free and then unlimited for a flat rate. Of course, any search or homepage on this network with either be Google.com, Google.co.uk, Google.fr, Google.au… You get the picture.
6. What a phone without Talk? Google Talk? – With this network Google could supply anything up to and including streaming video and audio i.e. Youtube (which it now owns) and iTunes Music Store integration. Possibly even video calls in a new and radically improved Google Talk, which hasn’t seen an update since January 1st! This update would bring SIP compatibility, video conferencing abilities, Skype and AIM communication and a linux version (if the gPhone is indeed linux-based). This new and improved Google Talk could also provide the voice calls to landlines and other mobiles not just other Google Talk users.
7. More flashy than the iPhone – meant literally, the gPhone will need Adobe Flash player installed to compete with the iPhone. Rumored to be included in upcoming updates to the iPhone (or at least eventually installed onto the iPhone by a hacker) Flash will have to be installed from go or easily installed onto the gPhone.
8. Full screen, stereo and all that jazz in many formats – The gPhone would of course include a media player possibly designed by Android, a company acquired by Google some time back, that would do all the usual things a media player is required to do. The iPhone does a pretty good job on video playback but isn’t it a pain when you have to re-encode your video whenever you want to put it on your phone? The gPhone could make life easier and support multiple formats and take up where the iPhone left off.
9. Lets have a party! A 3rd party! – The iPhone only allows web apps to be run on it which for developers is like smacking them across the face and saying your doing it for their own good. A Linux-based gPhone would have endless development possibilities and have a low security risk due to its secure nature.
10. And see that dotted line, don’t sign it. – Last but not least, the gPhones needs to be available without a contract to AT&T or any other network. It’s the first thing hackers tried to get around when the iPhone came out, and something that is putting many people off getting one. Tied to AT&T, it will cost you at least $1439.76 for the two year contract and that’s without the price of the iPhone. If the gPhone was contract-less, there would be no reason not to get one, unless of course your tied to your iPhone contract!

Of course the gPhone would also need proper Bluetooth support (on the iPhone you can’t send a photo over BT), Wifi, 2MP+ camera, Video recording (which the iPhone doesn’t have), MMS (again lacking on the iPhone), games, voice recording, 4gb/8gb options, and good battery life.

I think Google could pull this off. If they did, I could see the craze of calling things iSomething going out of fashion pretty quick. gPod anyone?

Obviously Bebo doesn’t respect my privacy. At least not when money is involved!

Having spent the past few days trawling through Bebo’s source code trying to create a Firefox extension for the site (not helped by the lack of an API or the backwards table based site design :rolls eyes:), I noticed something very unusual: Bebo letting my personal information visible to all! Even after me telling it not too! Why? Money I suppose…

So lets pretend I’m 13 (the lowest age you can join Bebo) for a second. Bebo won’t let me display my age on my Bebo Profile (which I can display publicly to anyone [although I'm warned not to unless I'm over 21. Come on Bebo like kids these days are actually stopped by that!]). Which is good because if I’m 13 and my profile is public, anyone weirdo could contact me and you know how the story goes.

Come out of my fictitious story now and cut to me today trying to make my extension stop Bebo FlashBox’s from automatically playing when the page is loaded. Youtube videos are great as they wait to be click to start playing but VideoEgg videos have the option to autoplay which can be really annoying as certain users like to play some em… dodgy… music. It is this auto play variable that I was searching for and trying to tame but I found more than I expected.

The line of code in question is:

var origtitle=document.title; document.title=escape(document.title); var VE_api = VE_getPlayerAPI('1.2');var myMoviePath = '/gid329/cid1124/4S/G3/1177411571YvJRDMJCSa1cBF45TaJh';VE_api.embedPlayer(myMoviePath,355,298,false,'','FFFFFF',true,'site=bebo&area=userhomepages&vl=IE&va=17&vg=M&pa=18&pg=F&channel=Humor','');document.title=origtitle;

This line firstly requests the video:

var myMoviePath = ‘/gid329/cid1124/4S/G3/1177411571YvJRDMJCSa1cBF45TaJh’;

Then the Width and Height that the video should be:

355,298,

and whether it should AutoPlay:

false,

This is the good bit. The site its displaying on so it can place a watermark on the video (i.e a Bebo logo) logo and what part of the site its on (i.e a user homepage):

site=bebo&area=userhomepages

But it also includes what seemed like some random letters at first. Turns out they aren’t so random.

vl=IE&va=17&vg=M&pa=18&pg=F

vl stands for viewer’s location, Ireland here.
va, viewer’s age.
vg, viewer’s gender.
pa, player’s age and pg, player’s gender.

Why would a video player need all those details!? For advertising and statistics! Basically money. There is really no need for this and it appears to be only for VideoEgg videos.

Funny thing is that even if you set your age to hidden which anyone, of any age, can do, it still shows here right in the source code! Not really hidden is it? Also remember the madeup 13 year old at the beginning of this blog post? Yes you guessed it! Anyone can see his age even though he doesn’t have the option to display it on his profile himself!

So lets call on Bebo to remove this blatant invasion of privacy, at least to protect those who don’t (or can’t) display their ages on their profiles!

Update: I have now contacted Bebo on this mattter and I am awaiting a response.

“Hello Bebo. I would like to draw your attention to a privacy flaw on your website. You can read about it here http://alanrice.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/obviously-bebo-doesnt-respect-my-privacy-at-least-not-when-money-is-involved/
Basically you are letting personal information slip to VideoEgg about the viewer and the player of the video, which is ok as its not identifiable info but anyonce can look at the source code and use it to find out if a person is under 16 (as these users are not allowed to show their age on their profile).
I would consider this a major flaw as theu reason for hiding a minor’s age is for their own protection yet you display it freely in the source code for all to see!
Please remove this code from your site or at least protect those who have their ages hidden or are under 16.
Regards,
Alan.“

Update: Bebo has replied to me saying:

“Hi

Many thanks for taking the time to let us know. I appreciate it. We take our member’s privacy very seriously and I have now forwarded this to our technical team for them to look into.

Please contact me again if I can be of further assistance.

Kindest Regards
Lupita”

Hopefully the matter will be sorted soon. 

A dream of a host.

Over the past while, I’ve heard several negative comments about Dreamhost. People either love Dreamhost or hate them it seems. I’ve used another host before for a website I designed but for my new latest project I felt like I needed a more stable and reliable host that could accommodate a startup like mine. Enter Dreamhost! At first glance, even their basic L1 package seems very generous. 156.2 GB of disk storage, 1.562 TB of bandwidth per month and 1 domain free for the life of the hosting package. However at second glance, you see the price and and the last sentence loses its wind. If your paying for a year it costs $119.40, thats a lot compare to many hosts, but still not a ridiculous amount of money by any means.

So I spent a few days thinking about what to do and two things made me go ahead and buy a hosting plan with Dreamhost. Firstly, they have a 97-day back guarantee, so if I didn’t like them after 96 days I was free to change. And second, I noticed a lot of promotional codes around the internet for Dreamhost. These are codes which give you a discount on the hosting plan.

Now that I have signed up to Dreamhost I can make Promo Codes of my own. If you would like a discount of around $90 off the $119.40 enter “GOFUL” when signing up. Or if you would prefer a discount of around $45 but 3 free domains for the life of the hosting enter “GOFUL2“.

What are your views on Dreamhost?
Alan.