TechnoBabel » English

Chris Anderson Speaks About Free

Boris Fritscher — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:44:36 +0000

If the freemium or other free business model pattern interest you, check out this interview of Chris Anderson about his upcoming book.

http://www.geekentertainment.tv/2009/07/02/chris-anderson-speaks-for-free/

The freemium pattern can also be modelled on the business model canvas

checkout http://bmdesigner.com for more.

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Browsing iTunesU without intalling iTunes

Boris Fritscher — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:51:59 +0000

Updated version of the script

On some pages the location-bar information is available (third-level pages), but 1st and 2nd level pages do not have a location-bar. Even in iTunes it has been removed in favor of a location-bar managed by iTunes. I suppose this is done in order to make use of a cached version of the page and speed up loading. Having no location-bar at 2nd level pages is an awkward design choice from Apple. Therefore location-bar has to be managed by the script and 3th level pages need also to be re-adapted to be displayed correctly.

Fixed version can be tested here: http://1.latest.unil-podcast.appspot.com/index.groovy?handle=[itunesU url]

the new source files are available here:
complete source code at github http://github.com/bfritscher/www-itunesu

index_fixed.groovy – new version with navigation fixed
proxy.groovy – proxy class because iTunes checks user-agent to link to some video files behind a redirect.

The problem

More and more universities publish courses as podcasts on iTunesU and neglect to give a direct access to their content. This hinders sharing of knowledge, because of the obligatory Apple’s iTunes application needed to access iTunesU.

The solution

Emulating the iTunes client: the script can be tested at

http://www2.unil.ch/itunesu/index.groovy?handle=[itunesU url]

It only needs the url which would open in iTunes and converts it to a displayable webpage.

For example for mit.edu: http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browsev2/mit.edu

http://www2.unil.ch/itunesu/index.groovy?handle=http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browsev2/mit.edu

Source download

index.groovy version 1 iTunesU xml to html groovy script

Why groovy?

Having experience with Java and Grails development using Groovy especially due to its powerful closures, xml navigation and html building was a obvious choice. Also this project started as a Google AppEngine prototype, but hit the no-user-agent change limitation.

Limitations

Of the three types of layout used in iTunes U only the two column standard university page view and detailed course view (track list) are supported. The iTunes main site listing and main page three column layout is not supported.

Solution explained

iTunes uses a custom xml page to receive and render its content. This file can be access when switching the user-agent to “iTunes”.
Switching user agent is easy under Firefox with the user-agent switcher add-on
Part of the xml file

The xml file is quite verbose and it takes some time to identify the interesting content.
The hard part of this project was to identify the right way to identify and select the wanted data from the xml tree.

Following are code snippets of the source file with their most important or interesting aspects explained.

First task of the script is to retrieve the xml page by settings the right user-agent [3] and then use the powerful groovy xml parser api [13] to have an easily navigable xml object.

def xml
def conn = new URL(handle).openConnection()
conn.setRequestProperty ( "User-Agent", "iTunes/8.1" )
def putBackTogether = new StringBuffer()
def r = new InputStreamReader ( conn.getInputStream(), "UTF-8" )
char [  ]  cb = new char [ 2048 ]
int amtRead = r.read ( cb )
while  ( amtRead  >  0 )   {
	putBackTogether.append ( cb, 0, amtRead )
	amtRead = r.read ( cb )
}
xml = putBackTogether.toString()
xml = new XmlSlurper().parseText(xml)

To work around default namespace bugs when recreating a xml string from an xml object the Markupbuilder has to be set to the apple namespace[6].

import groovy.xml.StreamingMarkupBuilder
def getXml(item){
	def outputBuilder = new StreamingMarkupBuilder()
	outputBuilder.encoding = "UTF-8"
	String result = outputBuilder.bind{
		mkp.declareNamespace("":"http://www.apple.com/itms/")
		mkp.yield item
	}
}

Example of the powerful way to generate html code with the groovy MarkupBuilder.

import groovy.xml.StreamingMarkupBuilder
html.html(xmlns:"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml",lang:"en",'xml:lang':"en") {
	head {
		title xml.Path.PathElement.collect{it.'@displayName'}.join(" > ")
		meta('http-equiv':"X-UA-Compatible", content:"IE=8")
		meta('http-equiv':"content-type",content:"application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8")
		//...

Identifying the type of layout the xml file is meant to build is done by looking at a reflection attribute from the first image found in the file.

def topimg = xml.'**'.find{ it.name() == "PictureView"}
def reflect = topimg?.'@reflection'==1 //true = course page

Getting page colors from FontStyle tags

def titleFontStyle = xml.'**'.find{it.name() == "FontStyle" && it.'@name' == "normalTitleFontStyle"}?.'@color'
if(titleFontStyle == null){
	titleFontStyle = xml.'**'.find{it.name() == "FontStyle" && it.'@name' == "outlineTitleFontStyle"}?.'@color'
}

Some more examples of the groovy MarkupBuilder: especially interesting is the mkp.yieldUnescaped [10] method to allow usage of html otherwise automatically converted symbols like &.

body(style:"background: #${xml.'*'.find{ it.'@backColor' != ''}.'@backColor'}"){
	div(class:"container"){
		div(class:"span-24 last nav"){
			def list = xml.Path.PathElement
			def last = list.size()-1
			list.eachWithIndex{ pe,i ->
				if(i == 0){
					a(class:"first",href:"index.groovy?handle=${pe.text().trim()}"){
						span(){
							mkp.yieldUnescaped " "
						}
					}
				}else{
					a(class:"${i == last ? 'last' : ''}",href:"index.groovy?handle=${pe.text().trim()}", pe.'@displayName')
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Being able to identify the right element is sometimes a bit tricky, especially that not all pages seem to follow the same structure rules.

div(class:"description"){
	xml.ScrollView.View.MatrixView.View?.'**'.find{it?.name()== "VBoxView" && it?.parent()?.name()== "VBoxView" && it?.parent()?.parent()?.name()== "VBoxView" && it?.parent()?.parent()?.parent()?.name()== "VBoxView"}?.'*'.findAll{ it?.name() == "TextView"}.each{ text -> p text }
	mkp.yieldUnescaped " "
}

Usage of the xmlwise library[15] to parse the standard plist part of the xml containing the track list .

import xmlwise.*
div(class:"span-24 last tracklist"){
	table(cellspacing:"1", class:"tablesorter"){
		thead{
			tr{
				th ""
				th "Name"
				th "Time"
				th "Artist"
				th "Release Date"
				th ""
			}
		}
		tbody{
			def plist = Plist.fromXml(getXml(xml.TrackList.plist))
			plist.items.eachWithIndex{ track, i ->
				int seconds = (track["duration"] /1000)
				int minutes = seconds % 3600
				int hours = (seconds - minutes) / 3600
				seconds = minutes % 60
				minutes = (minutes - seconds) / 60

				tr(class:i % 2 == 0 ? "even" : "odd"){
					td track["rank"]
					td track["songName"]
					td ((hours > 0 ? String.format("%02d",hours)  + ":" : "")+ String.format("%02d",minutes) + ":" + String.format("%02d",seconds))
					td track["artistName"]
					td track["releaseDate"][0..9]
					td{
						a(href:track["previewURL"],rel:"lightbox[set 480 380]",title:track["songName"], "view")
						mkp.yieldUnescaped(" ")
						a(href:track["previewURL"],title:track["songName"], "download")
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Resources used for html design

http://www.blueprintcss.org/
http://jquery.com/ (thankfully, compatible with mootools)
http://www.digitalia.be/software/reflectionjs-for-jquery
http://mootools.net/ (needed for mediabox advanced)
http://iaian7.com/webcode/mediaboxAdvanced
http://tablesorter.com/docs/
http://comparenetworks.com/developers/jqueryplugins/jbreadcrumb.html (only used images)

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Google Chrome ADBlock without proxy

Boris Fritscher — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:57:05 +0000

I found a new way to use the Google Chrome browser without having to install or use a proxy.

The solution is called http://www.adsweep.org/

Since I use the developer preview channel, I installed adsweep as an extension/plugin.

Quick steps for Chrome-dev with adsweep extension:

Switch chrome to dev channel with the Google Chrome Channel Changer (more info)
Download AdSweep extension AdSweep.crx
Install extension by running chrome from command-line with:
chrome.exe –install-extension=AdSweep.crx
Chrome is installed by default in your application data profile: for Vista users:
C:Users[user]AppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplication
Enable extensions by adding:
–enable-extensions
to your Google Chrome Shortcut
Verify that the extension/addon loaded correctly by navigating to chrome-ui://extensions/

Happy browsing, without Ads and proxy!

Google Chrome AdBlock with Privoxy

Google Chrome AdBlock with Privoxy

Boris Fritscher — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:51:34 +0000

[update 2]

Check adsweep an adblock extension for chrome

[update]
other alternatives to my original solution:

Privoxy solution:

I love the new Google Chrome Browser, especially the…:

- really fast render speed,
- new tab page
- and the ability to create a new window from a tab that you drop outside chrome.

Naturally, I am missing all my nice add-ons from Firefox, mainly the adblock add-on!

So I found an alternative solution: using Privoxy. Privoxy is a small web proxy that runs locally and has the ability to filter ads.

1. Download & install http://www.privoxy.org/
2. And then set Google chrome’s proxy options:
Options->Under the hood->change proxy settings->Lan Settings
Check: “Use a proxy server for your LAN”
And under advanced add proxy address 127.0.0.1 port 8118 for http and secure but leave ftp blank.

Now you can surf the web with Google Chrome and a lot less ads!

Google Chrome ADBlock without proxy

Make Thunderbird Usefull [list of add-ons]

Boris Fritscher — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:25:35 +0000

Here is the list of add-ons I use to make my Mozilla Thunderbird Mail client more usefull.

New Features

Folder Account
Lets you associate user accounts and identities with specific folders.
Remember Mismatched Domains
Adds a “Don’t warn me again about this certificate for this domain” checkbox to the Domain Mismatch and Expired Certificate warning windows.
MinimizeToTray
Minimizes Thunderbird windows into the system tray.
MoreFunctionsForAddressBook
gives the possibility to import and export in vCard and vcf format;
Sync Kolab 1.0.1
SyncKolab reads a selected Imap folder and synchronizes it with the local address book and calendar
WebMail
Integrates web site based email accounts in to Mozllia Thunderbird: Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail,…

Usability

Dictionary Switcher for Thunderbird
Displays the currently selected dictionary in the status bar …
Display Mail User Agent
Displays icon for user agent of received mails.

Calendar

Lightning
Adds a calendar to Thunderbird
Provider for Google Calendar
Allows bidirectional access to Google Calendar

Mozilla Thunderbird Crash (Solved)

Mozilla Thunderbird Crash (Solved)

Boris Fritscher — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:39:41 +0000

Suddenly Mozilla Thunderbird started crashing on me. I found out that it was the webmail addon “Hotmail 1.2.15 (live)” which creates the problem. The solution is to upgrade to the newer version 1.2.17, but unfortunately this has to be done manually:

1) download the new version of the addon http://webmail.mozdev.org/installation.html (right-click save as).
2) start mozilla thunderbird in safemode.
3) drag & drop the downloaded extension into the addon manager.
4) restart Thunderbird.

Make Thunderbird Usefull [list of add-ons]

Slowness with localhost on Vista and seaside/squeak in firefox

Boris Fritscher — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:48:59 +0000

While testing seaside when loading the pages locally in firefox I had a long delay. After some digging,

it turns out that the slowness is caused by an IPv6 issue with DNS and can easily be resolved by turning IPv6 support off in Firefox while doing localhost testing. To make the change, type about:config in the address bar, locate the network.dns.disableIPv6 setting and double-click on it to set it to true. This does the trick for the Firefox localhost issue on Vista and everything is running fast again.

as it turns out other people had the same issues but not in relation with seaside, therefore I found it in google only after having discovered the solution by myself.

I am hopping that blogging it under seaside/squeak will help someone save some time.

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Lift08 my picks

Boris Fritscher — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:27:39 +0000

After watching most of the videos of the LIFT event available at www.nouvo.ch/liftvideo here is my personal selection:

Eric Favre, the co-inventor of Nespresso (Speech in French)
Interesting story about the invention of the “capsule” and its future in tea.

Mieke Gerritzen
Strange talk but a fresh look at the intersection between nature and technology.

Paul Barnett, the creative director for Electronic Arts Mythic, oversees the design of the upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online.
Very dynamic and humorous presentation about game development.

Kevin Marks
About OpenSocial, friend connections in social networks.

Robert Scoble was also present and made his famous interviews.

Talking about Social Networking problems with sharing data

MixIn demoed

Live blogging of the talks available at climbtothestars.org

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Company of Heroes: Opposing fronts – mission 8 black screen

Boris Fritscher — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:55:23 +0000

The loading will get to the point where you click to continue [Mission Splash screen] once you click, the screen goes blank and you hear what sounds like an explosion then nothing. Only a black screen.

I found a solution in the relic forums

DragonRR:

Fix for this issue:

Go to this folder:

My documents\My Games\Company of Heroes\Savegames\RelicCOH\Campaigns\cxp2\

Find the file

“oosterbeek_crossing – counterattack.cohsav”

Move this file out of the folder and onto your desktop or delete it.

Run the game, hit continue campaign.

NOTE: This worked for me

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Think you know JAVA?

Boris Fritscher — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:06:43 +0000

Think again!

Advanced Topics in Programming Languages: Java Puzzlers, Episode VI – Google Tech Talks July 23, 2007

Many other interesting talks at: Google Video Tech Talks

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