Archive for August, 2005

Mailing list frustrations with Tartan and Flexcoders

Published on August 31, 2005 in General. 8 Comments

I recently tried to sign up for the Tartan mailing list but gave up in utter frustration after putting up with screen after screen of ads, etc. because it is hosted by a mailing list service called Topica (not linking to them in order not to boost their pagerank.)

Paul Kenney, if you're reading this, you have a shiny new, ad-free mailing list waiting for you for Tartan on OSFlash if you want it.

This got me thinking that it would be great to move the FlexCoders list over to OSFlash as well. It is currently hosted on Yahoo's "free" services which are not so free (they serve ads on the list and you also need to register with Yahoo in order to sign up.) Also, the search feature on their archives is crippled (it searches only a subset of messages at a time), making it unusable on such a large, busy and important list. A mailing list on OSFlash would be free of Yahoo ads and would not require a Yahoo account to access. Even more importantly, it would have full search on archives.

Steven, Ali, if you guys want an ad-free mailing list, just send me an email and it'll be set up in no time :)

[Update] I should learn to read mailing list footers (who has time, tell me?) Steven just sent over a link to a service that lets you search the Flexcoders archives in the comments. OK, I take it back. As long as I have working search, I'm happy :)

Quick Flash Remoting Fix (and simple Flex Sample) for Tartan Sample Application

Published on August 31, 2005 in Flex. 2 Comments

The HelloWorld sample application that ships with Tartan has a small bug that might leave you scratching your head when you try to access them via Flash Remoting. It's a minor path issue which you can fix in two ways.

Taking the helloWorld example, either:

  1. Copy the config folder in tartanSamples\helloWorld to tartanSamples\helloWorld\remote, or

  2. Alter line 28 of tartanSamples\Application.cfc to read configFileLocation="#ExpandPath('../config/service.xml')#" (note the added "../" at the start of the path.)

Also, I don't believe that there are any Flash or Flex samples for using Tartan with Flash Remoting (it's actually dead simple) so here's the simplest possible Flex example:

MXML:
    

  1. 

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    

    2. 

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    <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2003/mxml" xmlns="*" load="initForm()">
    

    3. 

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        <mx:Button label="Get greeting" click="getGreeting()" />
    

    5. 

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        <mx:Label id="status" />
    

    6. 

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        <mx:Script>
    

    8. 

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        	<![CDATA[
    

    9. 

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    			import mx.remoting.Service;
    

    11. 

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    			import mx.remoting.PendingCall;
    

    12. 

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    			import mx.rpc.RelayResponder;
    

    13. 

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    			import mx.rpc.ResultEvent;
    

    14. 

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    			import mx.rpc.FaultEvent;			
    

    15. 

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    16. 

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    			import mx.remoting.debug.NetDebug;
    

    17. 

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    			var helloWorldService:Service;
    

    19. 

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    20. 

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    			function initForm()
    

    21. 

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    			{
    

    22. 

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    	  			NetDebug.initialize();
    

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    		  		var gatewayURL:String = "http://localhost:8500/flashservices/gateway";
    

    25. 

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    				helloWorldService = new Service ( gatewayURL, null, "tartanSamples.helloWorld.remote.HelloWorldFlashService", null, null );
    

    27. 

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    				status.text="Initialized.";
    

    28. 

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    			}    	
    

    29. 

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    			function getGreeting()
    

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    			{
    

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    				var pendingCall = helloWorldService.getGreeting ( "English" );
    

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    				pendingCall.responder = new RelayResponder(this, "onResult", "onStatus");
    

    34. 

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    			}
    

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    			function onResult (resultObj:ResultEvent)
    

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    			{
    

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    				status.text = resultObj.result;
    

    39. 

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    			}
    

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    			function onStatus ( faultObj:FaultEvent )
    

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    			{
    

    43. 

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    				status.text = "There was an error getting the greeting.";
    

    44. 

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    			}
    

    45. 

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        	]]>
    

    46. 

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        </mx:Script>
    

    47. 

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    </mx:Application> 
    

    48.

I look forward to working with Tartan on our current Flex/CF project. We will be using it in conjunction with Model-Glue on the server side and, of course, Arp on the client :)

Google Talk for Miranda

Published on August 28, 2005 in General. 1 Comment

If you don't want yet another window and process clogging up your system, you can easily use Google Talk via the Jabber client in Miranda.

Google has instructions for configuring Miranda for Google Talk on their site and you will need to place the OpenSSL DLLs (Windows) in your Miranda folder for it to work. Get them from the Jabber Protocol Plugin for Miranda IM page.

First PSP firmware tricker to go back to 1.0 and up to 2.0 released

Published on August 28, 2005 in PSP. 8 Comments

I just saw on PSPHacks that the first PSP firmware hack that lets you go back to 1.0 from 1.5 has been released.

I tried it out and, lo and behold, my 1.5 PSP can be tricked into thinking it's a 1.0, 1.51, 1.52 or 2.0. (The very first version of the app, which I'd installed a few days ago, could only trick the PSP into 1.51 and 1.52.) This is a definite victory for the homebrew crowd and will probably mean that Phillip Torrone will start buying PSP games again :)

I wish I had more time at the moment to play with my new toy and hack out some examples in Lua or something (Flash would be so amazing on this thing -- that screen, my goodness what a screen) but I just found myself in the middle of setting up and leading a new Flex/CF team on a (really neat) project with quite a pressing deadline. Still, what's the half-hour after midnight for, if not for hacking a little PSP and perhaps playing a round of Ridge Racer?

Sleep, you say? Bah humbug! I'll sleep when my pixels are dead... :)

Screenweaver 3 - Download it now!

Published on August 25, 2005 in Open Source Flash. 5 Comments

Edwin van Rijkom just announced on the OSFlash mailing list that Screenweaver 3 has been released as Open Source. See the web site on OSFlash, online documentation or jump straight in and download it (setup.3.1.0.0.exe; ~2MB).

Minor OSFlash downtime this morning

Published on August 25, 2005 in Open Source Flash. 0 Comments

OSFlash is growing faster than I had thought! The site temporarily displayed a "bandwidth exceeded" message this morning for about 20 minutes or so before I was alerted to the fact and doubled its allocated bandwidth. Apologies if anyone tried unsuccesfully to reach the site during this time.

Never put it beyond Microsoft to cybersquat

Published on August 24, 2005 in General. 3 Comments

Microsoft proves it's possible to be a multi-billion dollar company and a cybersquatter at the same time! Where do you think whitepsp.com leads to?

Info courtesy of George Medve, whom I believe is eagerly awaiting one! :)

PSP Fraud on eBay: If they can get me…

Published on August 23, 2005 in General. 5 Comments

Well, there's a first time for everything: I just got defrauded on eBay.co.uk and let me tell you, it's not a good feeling.

After resisting the urge to buy a PSP while in Singapore, I finally caved in upon my return to the UK and ordered one from a Buy It Now auction on eBay. Now, before you jump to any conclusions: No, I didn't click on one of the "free PSP" offers, or the £0.01 PSPs or even the £25 PSPs. Nope, this was a new £214 PSP, Japanese version (1.5 firmware), being shipped from the UK with one free game. Given that a local store here in Brighton stocks PSPs at £180 and games at £30, I thought it was a fair price. So, I didn't jump for a low price or anything. Just wanted a 1.5 so I could play with all the homebrew stuff.

It gets worse: You see, I'm somewhat of an anal retentive when it comes to making purchases. I research the hell out of things. On eBay, I'm the guy who reads every freakin' feedback you ever got *and* clicks on all the auction links to see what they were for. I look for patterns, "eBay smells", if you will and if anything is slightly off, well, I bail. I've been using eBay for about five or six years now and so far I hadn't had any problems. (Well, except for a particular PayPal screw-up that could've left me out of pocket on quite an expensive digital camcorder had the buyer not been -- despite all of PayPal's efforts to make it tempting for him to cross over to the dark side -- a very honest person.) So, I'm not your regular granny with her first computer out on her virgin eBay experience. But they got me.

I paid the amount right after buying it and started making plans about late nights spent basking in the glow of a tiny brilliant screen. That is, until, I received an email today from eBay, telling me that the seller was no longer an eBay member and that the auction had been cancelled. Oh yeah, and I shouldn't send payment for it. (You gotta love the balls -- it's like that message in Windows 95 that used to blame you for not shutting down properly every time the damn thing crashed!)

Anyway, so this whole thing got me thinking about what eBay could do better about security. This particular fraudster had covered himself well. I am assuming that he first placed lots of similar items for sale and bought them himself using other accounts, leaving himself positive feedback. (I recognized this in another auction because the fraudster had bought only £0.01 intagible items -- quite a pattern.) This guy was smarter though -- for all the world, it looked legit.

So how do you stop this? Easy (now listen up, eBay)...

(I don't believe I'm about to say this but...) There's only one way: Only accept PayPal payments *and* only allow people who have actually paid to leave feedback.

And here's one more suggestion, virtually guaranteed to stop all fraud:

Now that all transactions are going through PayPal, hold the money for a specified number of days before releasing it to the seller. If there is a dispute, start the arbitration process with the money still held in escrow, rather than in the potential fraudster's pocket.

Would this be hard to implement? No. Would eBay lose sales? Probably, in the short run. Would it piss off some people? Yes. But would it, ultimately, be worth it? Yes -- as it would clean the place up and instill confidence in buyers.

eBay today is a minefield. Everywhere you look you're confronted with fraudulent listings. It's like a walk through Marseilles, you have to watch your pockets every step of the way.

Come on, eBay, it's time to clean up the streets!

PS. I've started the dispute procedure with PayPal and should receive the money back as part of their buyer protection programme. But it still sucks to know that some bastard somewhere is grinning to his ears with over 200 bucks of my hard-earned dough.

[Update] Oh yeah, being the nutjob I am, I've already ordered another one. Not going to let the fraudsters win! In fact, I may just buy another (just kidding, Emilie, seriously honey, no... I don't want to sleep on the couch... but baby...)

[Update] After getting the eBay email, I actually wrote to the seller with a "you should be ashamed of yourself" email, thinking for all the world that it would probably bounce or take its place next in an inbox full of unread complaints. Instead, this morning, I got a reply:

"Its something wrong with my information my account should be restore by tomorrow. If you have any problems u could contact me on [number removed/local UK cell phone]. So far I could see you put the disput on the payment. So I no longer have your money. If you still want the item u could contact me to arrange it. Please note I am not trying to ripe u off. Its just Ebay need some more informations from me thats all."

The plot thickens... :)

Nice URLs on OSFlash

Published on August 22, 2005 in Open Source Flash. 0 Comments

I just turned on URL rewriting on the OSFlash wiki so you can now reach your favorite projects using simpler URLs. Some examples:

The old-style URLs will always continue to work but now you have a simpler alternative if you want it :)

Xray (The Admintool) Goes Open Source

Published on August 20, 2005 in Open Source Flash. 0 Comments

Xray logoJohn Grden has just announced on the OSFlash mailing list that Xray, the tool previously known as the Admintool, has been released as open source under an MIT license on OSFlash.

What is Xray? Here's the description from the Xray page on OSFlash:

"Xray (The AdminTool) is a "snapshot viewer" of the current state of your Flash application without impacting the performance or the file size of your application. Xray's true nature is to look into the very guts of the Flash application and disolve the 2d myth you see on screen to a 3D tangible entity you can truly crawl through."

Needless to say, Xray is going to have an amazing impact on how you develop Flash applications.

Big thanks to John and to Blitz for sharing this valuable tool with the community.

(And yes, this was the second of the two new open source projects I had hinted at in last week's OSFlash update.)

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