amp page 4 - Dave's Blog

Search
My timeline on Mastodon

MPAA Boss: If The Chinese Censor The Internet, Why Can't The US? (techdirt.com)

2011 Dec 10, 8:31

FTA:

The MPAA is getting pretty desperate, it seems. MPAA boss Chris Dodd was out trying to defend censoring the internet this week by using China as an example of why censorship isn’t a problem. It’s kind of shocking, really.

“When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites.”

PermalinkCommentsmpaa technical censorship

URI Empty Path Segments Matter

2011 Nov 23, 11:00

Shortly after joining the Internet Explorer team I got a bug from a PM on a popular Microsoft web server product that I'll leave unnamed (from now on UWS). The bug said that IE was handling empty path segments incorrectly by not removing them before resolving dotted path segments. For example UWS would do the following:

A.1. http://example.com/a/b//../
A.2. http://example.com/a/b/../
A.3. http://example.com/a/
In step 1 they are given a URI with dotted path segment and an empty path segment. In step 2 they remove the empty path segment, and in step 3 they resolve the dotted path segment. Whereas, given the same initial URI, IE would do the following:
B.1. http://example.com/a/b//../
B.2. http://example.com/a/b/
IE simply resolves the dotted path segment against the empty path segment and removes them both. So, how did I resolve this bug? As "By Design" of course!

The URI RFC allows path segments of zero length and does not assign them any special meaning. So generic user agents that intend to work on the web must not treat an empty path segment any different from a path segment with some text in it. In the case above IE is doing the correct thing.

That's the case for generic user agents, however servers may decide that a URI with an empty path segment returns the same resource as a the same URI without that empty path segment. Essentially they can decide to ignore empty path segments. Both IIS and Apache work this way and thus return the same resource for the following URIs:

http://exmaple.com/foo//bar///baz
http://example.com/foo/bar/baz
The issue for UWS is that it removes empty path segments before resolving dotted path segments. It must follow normal URI procedure before applying its own additional rules for empty path segments. Not doing that means they end up violating URI equivalency rules: URIs (A.1) and (B.2) are equivalent but UWS will not return the same resource for them.
PermalinkCommentsuser agent url ie uri technical web browser

Features of image type input tags in HTML

2011 Nov 21, 11:00

A bug came up the other day involving markup containing <input type="image" src="http://example.com/.... I knew that "image" was a valid input type but it wasn't until that moment that I realized I didn't know what it did. Looking it up I found that it displays the specified image and when the user clicks on the image, the form is submitted with an additional two name value pairs: the x and y positions of the point at which the user clicked the image.

Take for example the following HTML:

<form action="http://example.com/">
<input type="image" name="foo" src="http://deletethis.net/dave/images/davebefore.jpg">
</form>
If the user clicks on the image, the browser will submit the form with a URI like the following:http://example.com/?foo.x=145&foo.y=124.

This seemed like an incredibly specific feature to be built directly into the language when this could instead be done with javascript. I looked a bit further and saw that its been in HTML since at least HTML2, which of course makes much more sense. Javascript barely existed at that point and sending off the user's click location in a form may have been the only way to do something interesting with that action.

PermalinkCommentsuri technical form history html

4chan BBS - Genius sorting algorithm: Sleep sort

2011 Jun 20, 2:20"Genius sorting algorithm: Sleep sort 1 Name: Anonymous : 2011-01-20 12:22 Man, am I a genius. Check out this sorting algorithm I just invented.
#!/bin/bash 
function f() { 
    sleep "$1" 
    echo "$1" 
} 
while [ -n "$1" ] 
do 
    f "$1" & 
    shift 
done 
wait 

example usage: 
./sleepsort.bash 5 3 6 3 6 3 1 4 7
"PermalinkCommentshumor programming code technical 4chan bash sort sleep-sort sleep

Native x86 Android runtime will enable Android apps on Windows

2011 May 26, 1:28This was on my todo list. I'll scratch it off knowing far more funded folks are doing this: "A startup called BlueStacks has developed an Android runtime environment for the Windows operating system. It will enable users to run Android applications alongside conventional Windows software on Microsoft's operating system." "One example would be a convertible netbook tablet that normally runs Windows but switches to an Android interface for greater touch-friendliness when the screen is flipped.
Such a product would offer the full power and multitasking capabilities of Windows but also benefit from having access to Android's broad touch-enabled software ecosystem."PermalinkCommentswindows programming android java technical

Patterns for using the InitOnce functions - The Old New Thing - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

2011 Apr 8, 2:32"Since writing lock-free code is issuch a headache-inducer,you're probably best off making some other people suffer the headachesfor you. And those other people are the kernel folks, who have developedquite a few lock-free building blocks so you don't have to. For example, there's a collection of functions for manipulatinginterlocked lists.But today we're going to look at theone-time initialization functions."PermalinkCommentstechnical windows programming raymond-chen lock thread-safety

Capturing HTTPS with FiddlerCore

2011 Apr 6, 10:00

I used FiddlerCore in GeolocMock to edit HTTPS responses and ran into two stumbling blocks that I'll document here. The first is that I didn't check if the Fiddler root cert existed or was installed, which of course is necessary to edit HTTPS traffic. The following is my code where I check for the certs.

    if (!Fiddler.CertMaker.rootCertExists())
{
if (!Fiddler.CertMaker.createRootCert())
{
throw new Exception("Unable to create cert for FiddlerCore.");
}
}

if (!Fiddler.CertMaker.rootCertIsTrusted())
{
if (!Fiddler.CertMaker.trustRootCert())
{
throw new Exception("Unable to install FiddlerCore's cert.");
}
}

The second problem I had (which would have been solved had I read all the sample code first) was that my changes weren't being applied. In my app I only need the BeforeResponse but in order to modify the response I must also sign up for the BeforeRequest event and mark the bBufferResponse flag on the session before the response comes back. For example:

    Fiddler.FiddlerApplication.BeforeRequest += new SessionStateHandler(FiddlerApplication_BeforeRequest);
Fiddler.FiddlerApplication.BeforeResponse += new SessionStateHandler(FiddlerApplication_BeforeResponse);
...
private void FiddlerApplication_BeforeRequest(Session oSession)
{
if (IsInterestingSession(oSession))
{
oSession.bBufferResponse = true;
}
}
PermalinkCommentshttp fiddler technical https geolocmock programming fiddlercore

JavaScript & .NET interop via WebBrowser Control

2011 Apr 5, 10:00

For my GeolocMock weekend project I intended to use the Bing Maps API to display a map in a WebBrowser control and allow the user to interact with that to select a location to be consumed by my application. Getting my .NET code to talk to the JavaScript in the WebBrowser control was surprisingly easy.

To have .NET execute JavaScript code you can use the InvokeScript method passing the name of the JavaScript function to execute and an object array of parameters to pass:

this.webBrowser2.Document.InvokeScript("onLocationStateChanged",
new object[] {
latitudeTextBoxText,
longitudeTextBoxText,
altitudeTextBoxText,
uncertaintyTextBoxText
});

The other direction, having JavaScript call into .NET is slightly more complicated but still pretty easy as far as language interop goes. The first step is to mark your assembly as ComVisible so that it can interact with JavaScript via COM. VS had already added a ComVisible declaration to my project I just had to change the value to true.

[assembly: ComVisible(true)]

Next set ObjectForScripting attribute to the object you want to expose to JavaScript.

this.webBrowser2.ObjectForScripting = this.locationState;

Now that object is exposed as window.external in JavaScript and you can call methods on it.

window.external.Set(lat, long, alt, gUncert);

However you don't seem to be able to test for the existence of methods off of it. For example the following JavaScript generates an exception for me even though I have a Set method:

if (window.external && window.external.Set) {
PermalinkCommentsjavascript webbrowser .net technical csharp

I get better spam than you - Boing Boing

2010 Dec 30, 6:42"Posted here, verbatim, is an example of the sort of spam I get. 'hello I am China dinosaur factory .Hope that you know our product more .Also hope that we can establish long-term cooperative relation.'"PermalinkCommentshumor spam robot dino

Friday Rewind: Mugshot FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny Pictures

2010 Dec 17, 6:19 PermalinkCommentshumor video news fail hampster

Console Build Window Jump Lists Tool

2010 Dec 13, 11:14

I've made two simple command line tools related to the console window and Win7 jump lists. The source is available for both but neither is much more than the sort of samples you'd find on MSDN =).

SetAppUserModelId lets you change the Application User Model ID for the current console window. The AppUserModelId is the value Win7 uses to group together icons on the task bar and is what the task bar's jump lists are associated with. The tool lets you change that as well as the icon and name that appear in the task bar for the window, and the command to launch if the user attempts to re-launch the application from its task bar icon.

SetJumpList lets you set the jump list associated with a particular AppUserModelId. You pass the AppUserModelId as the only parameter and then in its standard input you give it lines specifying items that should appear in the jump list and what to execute when those items are picked.

I put these together to make my build environment easier to deal with at work. I have to deal with multiple enlistments in many different branches and so I wrote a simple script around these two tools to group my build windows by branch name in the task bar, and to add the history of commands I've used to launch the build environment console windows to the jump list of each.

PermalinkCommentswin7 jumplist technical console

Bike lock that hoists your bike up a lamp-post - Boing Boing

2010 Nov 26, 6:12 PermalinkCommentshumor video engineering bike

Joss Whedon (and Angel) react to the new Buffy reboot [Buffy]

2010 Nov 22, 9:39Joss Whedon and David Boreanaz respond to the news about the new Buffy movie.
PermalinkCommentsbuffy angel Buffy The Vampire Slayer David Boreanaz Fb Joss Whedon Movies Television tweet Vampires technical

TorrentMeter – A steampunk bandwidth meter

2010 Nov 15, 12:00PermalinkCommentsArts technical

C-SPAN Video Player - House Judiciary Subcmte. Hearing on Immigration and Farm Labor

2010 Sep 24, 8:38"Comedian Stephen Colbert joined the panel of witnesses at a House hearing on immigrant farm workers. Mr. Colbert has partnered with United Farm Workers and their campaign calling on unemployed Americans to take jobs in the agriculture sector. The organization's president, Arturo Rodriguez, also testified at the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security hearing chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).
Washington, DC : 2 hr. 10 min."PermalinkCommentshumor video stephen-colbert politics immigration farm labor house

Make: Online : Hand lights — Cool Tools contest winner

2010 Sep 14, 2:24Good idea and solves some of the head lamp problems: "...Enter the Hand Lights, a pretty simple and cheap DIY project that puts adjustable lights on your forearms to light whatever is in your hands."PermalinkCommentslight diy hand head-lamp tool

Sprinkler Fail

2010 Jul 16, 6:59

PermalinkCommentswater lamp grass pole sprinkler fail

A Survey of Rel Values on the Web » DeWitt Clinton

2010 Jul 1, 5:28"Here are the top 25 rel values found in and tags in a moderately sized sample of the web today"PermalinkCommentsstatistics html rel link internet crawl technical

TiMER

2010 Jun 29, 1:24

An excellent movie I'd never heard of. An entertaining and humorous sci-fi indie romance comedy. It stars Emma Caulfield (who I recognize as Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who obsesses over her timer, an implanted device that counts down to when she'll meet the love of her life. Thematically its similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which similarly adds a scifi device to society in order to examine the value of failed relationships on a persons life.
PermalinkCommentsmovie review netflix TiMER

YouTube - 2010 Dodge Challenger "Freedom" 60-Second Commercial

2010 Jun 12, 2:40The American's succeeded with the revolution thanks to the 2010 Dodge Challenger. This makes me eager for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.PermalinkCommentsvideo humor via:jon america history george-washington car advertising dodge
Older EntriesNewer Entries Creative Commons License Some rights reserved.