Google Gears and Linux

“Google Gears” could not be installed because it is not compatible with
your Firefox build type (Linux_x86-gcc3). Please contact the author of this
item about the problem.

Found the fix in this Google group post which says re-installing Gears should fix this issue.

On more digging, it appears that there are several bugs reported with this issue e.g. Bug # 975, 977. Apparently someone uploaded a custom gears xpi to fix versioning issue. Google indeed has moved on to phase out Gears in favour of HTML5.

Tags: google

Simple Update Protocol (SUP)

Paul Buchheit (the creator and ex-lead developer of Gmail) of FriendFeed has suggested a new format – Simple Update Protocol (SUP) to minimize multiple feed polling.

The idea is simple -

• The feed provider will generate a live or cached feed for ALL recent updates with an ID field to identify the updated entities.
• The feed consumer will poll this SUP feed instead of polling individual RSS feed.
• The feed consumer will request only relevant updated feeds.

HTTP header If-Modified-Since does something similar. But, that would still means requesting for each individual feed.

The proposal looks good for both feed generators and consumers, and not very difficult to implement either. However, the format is too vulnerable to feature creep and standardization can be a painful process.

Internet Explorer’s Trailing Comma Woes

Internet Explorer is notorious for breaking on trailing commas in JavaScript array declaration. e.g.

var obj = {
     a: 1,
      b: 2,
};

fails on IE, while all other browsers just ignore the innocuous trailing comma after second element.

Weeding out these commas from JavaScript code is absolute PITA. However, here is a regular expression search string I wrote to search such instances in the code.

,\s*\n+\s*[\}\)\]]

Even better,
,\s*\n+(\s*\/\/.*\n)*\s*[\}\)\]]
matches multiple new lines and comments.

Compiling Greasemonkey Scripts to xpi (Firefox Extension)

This page has a tool to create a Firefox extension (.xpi) from a greasemonkey script.
http://arantius.com/misc/greasemonkey/script-compiler

Gmail Updated

Gmail’s new version rolled out for me today, and first thing I noticed that it had reset my gmail chat config (basically I had switched off gmail chat), my greasemonkey scripts were broken and I had a firebug extension warning on top.

While I have no gripe about greasemonkey, resetting gmail chat setting means I’ve to check rest of my settings to be sure anything else is not broken.

New version seems quicker, with additional options in “More Actions” menu and updated “Contacts” section.

Direct Link to IMDb Movie Quotes

A small greasemonkey script to get direct link to a quote on IMDb’s “memorable quotes” page. This script creates a “#” with a link to corresponding quote.

Cookie Stealer

Someone has been posting cookie stealing greasemonkey scripts at userscripts.org.

Any of the following code snippets are red flags.

.php?cookie=

encodeURIComponent(document.cookie)

SQL Injection

A good primer on SQL Injection techniques,

to help beginners with grasping the problems facing them while trying to utilize SQL Injection techniques, to successfully utilize them, and to protect themselves from such attacks.

Reveal TinyURL

Totally awesome Greasemonkey script for Firefox – 'Tin Foil Hat' reveals tinyurl in a tooltip.

Past threatening the future

Bram Cohen, the author of BitTorrent is under legal scrutiny for something he wrote back in 1999.

A technological activist’s agenda

“I am a technological activist. I have a political agenda. I am in favor of basic human rights: to free speech, to use any information and technology, to purchase and use recreational drugs, to enjoy and purchase so-called ‘vices’, to be free of intruders, and to privacy.

I further my goals with technology. I build systems to disseminate information, commit digital piracy, synthesize drugs, maintain untrusted contacts, purchase anonymously, and secure machines and homes. I release my code and writings freely, and publish all of my ideas early to make them unpatentable.

Technology is not a panacea. I refuse to work on technology to track users, analyze usage patterns, watermark information, censor, detect drug use, or eavesdrop. I am not naive enough to think any of those technologies could enable a ‘compromise’.

Despite my emphasis on technology, I do not view laws as inherently evil. My goals are political ones, even if my techniques are not. The only way to fundamentally succeed is by changing existing laws. If I rejected all help from the political arena I would inevitably fail.”

The big fishes are already after Bram’s blood for developing BitTorrent. Oh Bram, don’t get into trouble for not knowing the future and writing this parody. “They” blame you for failure of their outdated business model. But why hinder the evolution of technology. BitTorrent is the present and future of how data will be transferred over network.