nivas.hr blog

From the Nivas crew to the galaxy of unknown

# Will Microsoft IE8 block ads and affiliate cookies by default (or by accident)?

There is a lot of hype in the cyberworld regarding new privacy-enhancing feature of the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 called "InPrivate Blocking". Imagine if all things that are bad for you would just one day disappear (for your protection)? Where is fun in that.

"A Microsoft spokesman said that the feature, to be known as 'InPrivate Blocking,' was never designed to be an ad blocker, though 'there may be ads that get blocked.' Instead, it was designed to stop tracking 'pixels' or pieces of code that could allow third-party sites to track users as they move around the Web." - via SlashDot

I support ad blocking, but not by any means by default! Badly produced Flash ads (banners) can seriously degrade your surfing experience (and some can even cause epilepsy), and if you really want to get rid of them, you can for eg. use Adblock Plus addon for Firefox. IE users as a rule - don't ever never configure their browser. They don't know what configuration is, so whatever Microsoft decides to enable 'by default' in IE8, will actually change the way of the web as we know it.

The so called "tracking pixels" are different ball game. I never liked them but they make money go around the web. For noob webmaster they are fool-proof way of implementing very simple functionality. Without them - webmasters would have to implement that functionality in their code on their own, which is nothing more than just a silent way of tracking stuff. Does Microsoft say that silent way of tracking better than 'public' tracking?

We will have to just wait and see.

developers journal | opširnije

# A trip to the Google Toolbar land and back

Couple of days ago I posted an article about the SplinQ Firefox extension we made. Firefox rocks, and building extensions is a breeze, but that only covers Firefox users. Since we need to target wider site audience, therefore next logical step would be to develop Internet Explorer Add-on.

I remember Google Toolbar back in the days Firefox wasn't so hot. It added nice web search ability to Internet Explorer and many IE bundles had him preinstalled. Google Toolbar is installed by default for Windows/IE users whenever Flash is installed or updated from Adobe's website, and the penetration of Adobe Flash appears to be around 99% so I suspect Google Toolbar penetration is quite good. With all this in mind we decided to try extending Google Toolbar.

I have done exhaustive research regarding Google Toolbar and after couple of hours of prototyping I came to conclusion that we CANNOT reproduce desired behavior from our Firefox extension. Only way we could "port" Firefox plugin is by writing ActiveX Internet Explorer Addon control.

I have used Google toolbar v5 beta since earlier versions of the toolbar are completely useless. The idea was to setup the feed to reload every X seconds and to say to SplinQ server an URL of the website where user is right now, and based on that, toolbar button/gadget would know should it show alerts and notifications by icon change or not.

I tried to simulate events by using Google toolbar RSS feed feature which enables toolbar gadget to load a remote RSS feed in certain interval times. Interval can’t be less than 20 seconds (another Google limitation). This feed can:

change the dropdown menu icons (when clicked)
replace icon in toolbar
add alert texts beneath the toolbar icon

The main reason for a failure is security feature from Google toolbar that prevents developers to automatically send in any way URL of current site user is browsing. That is off course serious security hazard, and I completely understand why Google doesn’t allow this. Malicious user could be able to track all sites you are visiting and record that into his log files. Big fail!

However, Google toolbar can send current URL, but only if user:

used search option within the toolbar
pressed toolbar button

Both ways don’t enable us to have seamless way of user notification. What we need here are events, which will trigger upon user visit of new site in browser. Google toolbar doesn’t support this.

You can send some data from user by using two mentioned methods by using special tags (more on this on Google toolbar variables reference and scopes):
{query} - <search> element {url} - <search>, <site>, or <send> element {url.host} - <search>, <site>, or <send> element {url.noescape} - <search>, <site>, or <send> element {domain} - <search>, <site>, <send>, or <feed> element {locale} - <search>, <site>, or <send> element {selection} - <send> element {option1} - Must go in a URL in <search>, <site>, <send>, or <feed> element {random} – all?

So, what now. This only leaves us with one option, and that is to start writing ActiveX Internet Explorer Addon control.

Screenshot 1 – Alternate search provider:

Screenshot 2 - RSS feed icon changes and alerts:

Screenshot 3 – clicked button / plugin config screen:

developers journalnivas | opširnije

# Pixels are classic (filmed in Papervision3D)

When I saw Radiohead's "House of Cards" video I was truly amazed how pixels can look good in 2008. What does that video have in common with Papervision3D? Press play on player and read on...

In production of this video they haven't used any cameras, but data from 3D laser-enhanced scanners. The Making-of "House of Cards" video is pretty crazy, check it. If you wanna get freaky with pixels - Google Code is hosting the Data Visualization application and accompanying iGoogle gadget. Interactive Flash piece was made by Aaron Meyers (Torrent Raiders, Digg Swarm) and Aaron Koblin using Papervision 3D. It's pretty slick.

But all this is nothing compared to this baby. Benoit Beausejour from Turbulent built crazy demo using Papervision3D effects branch which transforms video stream to something similar and very very cool. Be sure to check it in full screen playing Kraftwerk’s "Little Computer People"! WOOHOO GO PV3D!

flashmoviesmusic | opširnije

# Photoshop Powertip

Power Tip Copy/Paste Layer Style

What I have been doing for years by right clicking on layers, can be easily done like shown in the picture above. Create keyboard shortcut for copying and pasting layer style, and your life will be changed forever.

Love from Nivas!

(By the way, is it obvious that we are back from summer vacations?)

developers journal | opširnije

# David Hasselhoff’s Social Network

"This is the official David Hasselhoff Social Network. Let's socialize!" OMG! I just had to post this. While developers around the world struggle to build better, faster and more attractive social network web sites, Hoff by not even trying - manages to rule them all. Check it - Hoff Around The World!

If Chuck Norris starts his own social network - I am sold!

spam | opširnije

# SplinQ Shopping Firefox extension

Do you remember SplinQ Shopping project which we released half a year ago? Currently it's primary focus is on Dutch market, so in the case you missed it - SplinQ is a community site that makes online shopping cheaper and easier. You automatically save on everything you buy online! You sign up for free so the shop can identify you and we can give cash back to you.

Well, reactions to the project were overwhelming, and people like it a lot! But, the biggest complaint from users is that when they have to buy something - they are in a hurry and they completely forget about existence of SplinQ. In a survey among people that saw SplinQ, but do not use it, conclusion is that no matter they would save money by using it, they just forget to go to SplinQ. So, we came up with the solution to that - completely free 100% secure and easy to use SplinQ Shopping Firefox extension (beta)! Wheeee!

SplinQ Shopping Firefox extension runs on Firefox 2 and 3, it will be hosted at addons.mozilla.org as soon as it gets reviewed by Mozilla guys, but for now you can get it here. You may have to right click to download it, then drag the file onto your browser window. This is beta version, and functionality may change in future. Since Firefox has nice update functionality, your browser will update add-on automatically and you don't have to worry about a thing.

Once you have installed SplinQ Shopping add-on into your Firefox, you will notice 2 grayed out letters "S". First in main toolbar (right of the address and search bar), and second one down right in Firefox status bar. That means add-on is working perfectly. Now, you can try it out by surfing to website of any store found in SplinQ store database. Eg. try navigating to Perfectly Basics web shop ( perfectlybasics.nl ). Once you are on site, add-on will detect it and if that specific store is found in SplinQ store database, it will alert you that cashback is available by changing the color of letters "S" to SplinQ green color ™ and showing an information on toolbar in bottom of your browser. You can disable alert for specific site by clicking on [x] icon on the toolbar, and you can enable it again by left clicking on little "S" in the status bar and selecting "Show toolbar...".

Your feedback on extension is more than welcome.

Screen shot of SplinQ extension running under Ubuntu

cssdevelopers journal | opširnije

# FEZ - best game concept since games were invented

You have to see this to believe. This game mixes 3D and 2D with such superb idea that I have pooped my pants the first time I saw it. By rotating a 3D world, you create new 2D pattern where depth of objects do not matter and which behaves like classic Super Mario jumper game. I want this, and I want it NOW!

developers journal | opširnije

# The sound of summer

I think it's time to break the radio (erm. blog) silence, and write new post. It's summer time in Croatia and the weather is hot. Life is a bit slower here at Nivas so we updated our website with few latest project we have been working on. Some of us returned from vacation, some are still on seaside, other are yet to leave for long waited and definitely earned vacation.

Until next post, enjoy this picture taken by me couple of weeks ago on island of Hvar. We had great time there, but it seems like it was 10 years ago.

developers journalnivas | opširnije

# Do zore; crew

designmusicAdd new tag | opširnije

# It was about bloody time!

New Firefox is out ( 3.0.1 ).

They fixed the issue of image blurring, and some other stuff that I do not care about.

It was about bloody time because I was THIS close to switch to some other browser. Don't care which one, just some that does not crush my images into unrecognizable blurb of pixels.

Thanks Mozilla.

developers journal | opširnije

# This file came from another computer…. Well doh!

The other day I wanted to copy xhtml templates, images and javascript files from my colleagues computer (xp) to my own (xp) to make a new repository for a project we were working on.

Nothing unusual here except the fact I was forbidden by his xp to copy any .js file with error similar to permissions problem. I walked to his computer and checked permissions and everything was ok with them. But, rightclicking one of .js files brought interesting message: "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer".

Right of the message you can see a big Unblock button, which actually doesn't do anything. After "unblocking" I was still unable to copy them. This situation occurs only if you have XP SP2+ and use IE to download files because IE tags the file with an additional "NTFS Stream" of information.

There are few possible hacks how to disable this annoyance slash security feature:

unblock the file, then copy it to FAT32 partition, and then move it back to NTFS.
Disable NTFS Streams with SysInternals Streams utility (mega haxor)
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Attachment Manager. Enable: Do not preserve zone information in file attachments (only works for new files)
Just stop using IE!

developers journal | opširnije

# Just got back from Exit 08

More than 600 artists on 24 stages - Tiga, 2 Many DJs, Soulwax, Dubfire, Booka Shade, Dillinja, Shy Fx, Sex Pistols, Pekinska Patka, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Miguel Migs, High Contrast, Ben Watt, Manu Chao, Laurent Garnier, Roni Size, Sven Vath, Francios K... the list goes on. Organization, lights, sound, million people everything was brilliant. Everything except sand storm. Big shout to all crazy people I met!

And yes, check out the official gallery.

developers journal | opširnije

# Rework the Remote controller to Internet age?

So anyways, the story goes as follows. I do not watch much TV, and I was at the seaside for a week, disconnected from TV or internet. When I got home, I turned on the TV using remote, and tried to navigate through programs using that cross-buttons that all remotes feature nowadays.

Cross buttons:

However, I kept pressing Arrow Down in order to go to next channel, resulting in going from channel 1 to channel 0, then 99, then 98, etc ...

At first I was thinking that remote is not working, so I tried again. Press Arrow Down - and again I got the wrong effect.

And then it hit me. Since I did not use remote for quite some time, my brain defaulted to the web way of navigation, where all the NEXT options are DOWN in the line, not up.

Think about it. All the lists are written so that the starting option is on the top, and next in line is below it. If you want to access next option in any menu, you must go down (or in case of tabs, right). When you come to think of it, everything we do that needs some sort of ordering or listing is done by putting first option on the top, and then next option goes below. Your shopping lists, your to-do lists, ...

So, naturally, when I tried to access next channel in list, I pressed Arrow Down.

Furthermore, if you access your TV's menu, where you have channel list, and when you are moving on that list, you select next channel by pressing Arrow Down. Pretty inconsistent I must say.

Channels in the TV menu:

My proposal? Rework the cross-buttons functions in this way:

Arrow Up: volume up
Arrow Down: volume down
Arrow Right: next channel, you have a feeling that you are flipping book pages to the right
Arrow Left: previous channel, flipping back

This would actually make more sense considering their function.

developers journal | opširnije

# OMG, the website is down!

You just have to watch this. Sounds familiar?

spam | opširnije

# First Flash Lite Project ported to the iPhone/iPod Touch

Off course, not thanks to Apple, but thanks to couple of very creative guys.

Thomas Joos did the porting of his Flash Lite app using the b.Tween framework which sits on top of barefootsoft’s EyeGT technology. eyeGT is multi platform highly efficient graphic renderer, capable of handling vector graphics and bitmaps. Think about eyeGT as a Windows GDI+ or Mac OSX Quartz2D on steroids, heavily optimized and designed from the ground up for mobile. This is NOT a iPhone Flash Player (Lite or otherwise), but rather a sets of tools, a graphical engine (eyeGT) and a framework (b.Tween) that extract, rework, and optimize the Flash application, turning it into a fully native and compilable Objective-C/C++ application that doesn’t require any runtime, thus complying with the iPhone SDK requirements. Crazy stuff!

flashmobile | opširnije

# Google improved Flash crawling… but why?

Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files. They teamed up with Adobe and improved the performance of Flash indexing algorithm. Stop cheering, calm down and continue reading.

This was a great news for Flash beginners but real problem lies a bit deeper inside complex Flash architecture which can't be that easily indexed. No, this won't magically bring SEO to your Flash website. No, this won't lift your pagerank to a new heights. The algorithm it self has few rather nasty caveats which actually can, in my opinion, bring more confusion than good search results.

Even with new improvements, Google spider:

is not able to index text in additional flash content you may be loading (trough bootstrap loader with XML or something) and even if, by some miracle it does get indexed it won't be connected anyhow to other crawled text content in Flash files you may be using on your website.
can't really cope with different crazy javascript flash embedding techniques (eg swfobject and such)
doesn't understand graphics and FLV's

Knowing that and being hardcore Flash fanatic as I am, I contemplated a bit around Flash crawling concept. I can only speculate how Google crawls Flash these days, but I remember tool from couple of years ago called swf2html.exe shipped with Flash Search Engine SDK.I suppose search engines used that, for retrieving text from Flash files. The tool was not updated since Macromedia wrote it in 2002 but you can check it here.

Indexing Flash content by extracting strings of text from Flash files completely invalidates the purpose of Flash as a complex and feature rich presentation technology. Many parts of website are basically graphics with static text, or are dynamically loaded or generated. If you ignore that graphical-textual content (and you have to since crawler doesn't have OCR), and index just a text content, the search engine user will get confusing, or even very dangerous results. Partially indexed misleading information is more dangerous than no information at all. Flash RIA applications in 99% cases use dynamically populated lists so I am not sure that Google will be able to crawl those sites either.

This is like having a tour guide, to guide you trough city in which he has never been before, and in country which language he doesn't speak fluent. Thank you but, I think I'll pass.

Correct my if I am wrong, but solution is pretty simple and it works great - If you are building Flash website, build an XHTML fallback version of the website. Google knows and loves valid markup structure and there are still many corporate users which can't install (or upgrade) Flash because their system administrator is a noob. By having XHTML version you can even better control the content you want to get indexed and non Flash users will thank you too.