May the Force be with you.

11th july 2009

Did you mean "I am a bot" ?

Hi everyone, last winter at my job I was looking for an issue about a specific problem. Which was a problem with AJAX on a website trought a Sonic Wall Firewall and VPN/SSL connection.

I found some similar thread about that on the web, few had the same problem but another firewall brand, unfortunatly no working solutions was found. The problem is that Sonic Wall is actually rewritting the headers when it's a X-Microsoft Ajax type, it result of a beautifull page with the header in plain text on top, that's so professionnal :P

One day, I was searching about that on on google, with my superman clicks it seems, because after 10-15 mins it lead me to a message from google.

Google telling me that I'm a bot.

OMG !!! I was pretty shocked on the moment mostly because I tought they blocked my IP or something like that, which could be catastrophic for the firm I worked for.

It's a chance that didn't happen, it was just a "warning" for me and prolly a security for against real bot. Our Dev and IT team laughted a lot about it, but trust me it's not cool to be treated as a bot. ;)

I guess it's the worst insult for a developper, isn't ?


8th june 2009

Stay up to date with RSS Feeds !

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I want to post about that. As a new resolution this year, I finally decided to create my Google Reader account and learn how to use RSS feed.

I had mutiples recommandations about some good RSS readers, but I choose Google Reader because it's on the web. The interface is pretty simple, easy to use and there is enough configuration for me so I get started with it ! Anyway, the main point here is not how to do it, it's just do it !

My friend Stan was using RSS feed since a while, probably like many of you. No choice for him he's Director in Research and Developement at Versacom, so he must to stay up to date (like everyone should anyway). I recommand to everyone (especially teachers) to stay up to date, just find good RSS feeds and read them ! That's the new way of learning!

I've got a list of very good RSS feed and I want to share them. The biggest part of the list I currently use come from Stan and it contains some "must have" blogs for a developer.

By the way, I still don't have a lot of feed about Linux for the moment, even if I'm using Slackware and Ubuntu. I didn't find very good one and I would like to, so I need advice, if you found some please send me an email!

The XML export is here :) (I've separate each blog in a different folder, the feeds are in french in the Hardware folder but everything else is in english)

I wish you a nice learning experience !


26th may 2009

Aleajecta Knowledge sharing - Forum section - Back Fence.

You may know Aleajecta as a Private World of Warcraft Server, but since a year now, Greenseed tried to create a whole community of knowledge sharing who will never die ! So, our forum is full of new resources and we now have a section called "Back Fence" for general discussions. There is a Geek section who still need to be filled with plenty of good Threads and Posts about computer science. I invite you to register and share your knowledge with all of us ! I created also a Feed RSS for the Back Fence - Forum - Aleajecta section, so you will be able to see any new interesting subject in there.

P.S. Yeah we know, when you will click on Register on the forum, it will redirect you to the World Of Warcraft registering, but it's ok, it will create both account. It was the easiest way to avoid Bot, because it seems that they can easely detect Capcha and create account with our forum version.


28 april 2009

Firefox - Patch 3.0.10 finally solve the Deezer and Firefox RAM usage problem.

After only one week since the last Firefox patch (3.0.9) they came out again with another one (3.0.10). I was disapointed after the patch 3.0.9 when I realised that the Deezer bug was still there but this time they succeed. I tested again FF on Deezer and now it seems they really solve the problem.


2 march 2009

Deezer and Firefox - I hope you have a lot of RAM !

In a previous post I've been talking about how Deezer was nice and easy to use. But recently, I use it more and more with Firefox and I discover something not so nice. Actually, I'm still not sure if it's a Firefox problem or a Deezer memory leek or even both. My deezer playlists are bigger than before so, most of the time now, I often listen 3-4 hours of music non-stop. And the "problem" appear, weird Windows Error,not enough memory !!! Wth, I have 2 gig on a 3.2 Ghz HT on XP it should be enough.

After a look on the system monitoring, it didn't take me long to see that Firefox was using 1,12 gig of my RAM.

So much ram used by Firefox!
Then, after fews test, I discover that it happened more often that I tought. Well, it doesn't took always 1,12 gig, but easely 700-800 megs, which is pretty high. Imagine when you're runing other program as well, lol and it's almost funny to see the RAM usage graphic when I close FF it looks like a stock market crash!

So much ram used by Firefox!

I still don't know exactly why, maybe it's because of my FF config, (there is a way to set maximum RAM used in FireFox).

Maybe it's a memory leak of the Deezer website, javascript + flash, it's pretty easy to create leek if you're not carefull, but I didn't experienced that on other browser... Another clue could be that the stream sended by Deezer is never cleared on FF.

So, I recommand you to try this config to set a maximum of RAM which Firefox can use, that should solve a part of the problem if you're experiencing the same as me ! Good luck :)


19th january 2009

My you tube addiction - Top ten video of FAILBlog.

For a long time I've been browsing through YouTube. I found some videos in the past that are really great however others are really bad. There is so much stuff out there even when you think you've seen almost everything really funny... you haven't. I was browsing funny videos the other day when I found the "Fail blog".

They currently have a lot of pictures and videos about Fail things, for my part I've looked to all their youtube videos. The numbers of views they are receiving are increasing enormously each day. They have been on YouTube since approximately 6 months. They made me think about RickRolling because they are getting so popular so fast. I made a top then about the funniest video of "Fail things", you really gotta watch them!

Enjoy listening ;)

Golfing Fail - Makeover Fail - Rafting Fail - Frisk Fail - Paramedic Fail
Pepper Fail - Grape Stomp Fail - Journalism Fail - Courage Fail - Cop Fail


1st august 2008

2 bad sellers eliminated! Mission completed.

Hello everybody, a little post just to tell you that seller accounts "real_metal" and "lovin_da_old_skool" has been suspended!!!

Following my procedures with eBay customer support, I explain the situation and my suspicions about both sellers and I've Won! I also received 3 or 4 mail from other eBay buyers who were encouraging me during the process, I was a bit surprised at the time, but it was funny and I was glad to satisfy another person who was also fooled by those cruel and ruthless sellers!

I give 5 stars to eBay for that!



30th july 2008

The best cheep Counterfeit CDs sold by two evil sellers.

I can say I'm at ease with eBay, I've been a member since 2003, and I have more than 45 transactions (buy/sell), its high I think for a non-commercial user. But recently I been fooled, I buyed 2 CDs of Black Label Society (99 cents for the CD and 10$ for the shipping for each of them) and I discovered that both CDs was counterfeit.

In each case, the seller was not a novice in illegal copying I guess because both was so close to appearing genuine that I took 2 weeks to realise that for the first CD was an illegal copy. For the second one, I realised the day I received it especially because the departure address was the same than on the first CD. The first seller username was "real_metal" and the second one "lovin_da_old_skool".

After a lot of double checking and testing the CDs, I was 99% sure they were both counterfeit and also that both seller was the same guy. I said 99% because the CDs looked so official. Except for they contained and a strange warning about "do not sold this CD outside Russia and blablabla" everything else looked genuine.

For the warning, well at the beginning I tought it was like a Russia Promo CD or something like that, but I think it's only to sow doubt about his officiality in the buyer head. And it worked on me the first time!

It was much more evident that it wasn't an official CD when I played it in my computer. First it wasn't playing at all! I tested it on a CD player and it was working... So I put it back on my computer and looked at the data.

Surprise !!!

Instead of ".cda" file for each song like other official CDs, there was a lot of useless stuff like a promo website about the compagny who made the CD and also some stuff to be able to play it on a CD player. Everything was also written in Norwegian or another language similar to this one. Of course, it's even not the official compagny who produce and release the genuine album, who maded this one.

Anyway, I tried to contact the buyer; he told me that it wasn't a counterfeit CD and blablabla. I gave him a bad feedback, so he called me a liar and he said I don't know how to use CDs... lol!

I also opened a dispute with Paypal to have my money refunded, he asked me to send back the CD to his headquarters. For both CD the address was the same, so at this point I was 100% sure both seller was the same guy. Also, his headquarters is based in London... strange for a guy who sells CDs from Russia!

After that, I did some search on my best friend Google! I found a forum talking about a lot of other bad eBay seller similar to the one who I was fooled by. I will give you the link, it's on Ultimate Metal and it's a topic called "Counterfeit Metal albums on eBay and other online stores".

So I wish you to be luckier than me! Keep your eyes open on eBay and don't be shy to use Google to check the reputation of the seller you want buy items from. In the end, it will save you time, money and energy.


About Black Label Society !

I discovered this group since the death of DimeBag (Pantera and DamagePlan Guitarist). It's a very nice group with one the the best metal guitarist "Zakk Wylde" and we could say it's his group. Personally, I describe it like a nice smooth and loud metal with Ozzy and Pantera influences. I really love this group; my favorite however is still Pantera.

I recommend Black Label Society if you like Black Sabbath, Pantera or Ozzy Osbourne solo career songs.


18th july 2008

It's not just a simple game; it's the best racing simulation in the World.

Have you ever heard "Live For Speed"... do you live for speed ?

If you're a realism addict or simply if you like to race online with a lot of people, Live for Speed is for you. This simulation is probably the best in the world, not for the graphics part (they are pretty nice), but for dynamics. Live For Speed, also called LFS, won a price for the best dynamics in a simulation racing game.

If you never play you must, at least try it! I began to play and I played for a short period maybe 9-10 months ago. I didn't play a lot because I wasn't really good at it. I was playing with keyboard and the game is so realistic that it was really hard to play like that.

But 4 month ago I was back behing the wheel to play a lot more than the first time. I began this time with mouse and keyboard which is; I think, the better way to play for a normal racer. You can have a lot of fun, it's what I mean. With the Demo version you can play on 2 tracks with 3 cars, it's pretty cool. The funniest car is for me the FBM, it's a good engine with an F1 frame.

Also, there are a lots of adjustments you can set on your car to improve your best time. It's the key to having a real best lap time to reach the best racer in the world. At this point, if you love the game, you really need a wheel, I suggest the Logitec Momo or something like that. The feeling is incredible and the realism a lot better because of the force feedback.

You can also buy the game, it's only approximatly 20$ CAN for Licence 1 and same price for Licence 2 called S1 and S2, well you will discover a lot more. With both Licence you will have access to all cars (over 15) and a lot of new tack (over 15 too). Also, they have a website where you can see your stats, other racer stats, all finished races with their time and player position, also you can download and upload skins for the cars. Because you can pimp them!! Well you can do a lot more than you think!

I think wrote enough, you just need to try it! I hope you will love it as much as me.
There is currently a section about Live For Speed on Aleajecta Forum.


8th july 2008

Listen music while working.

Who are listening music during they are working? Probably a lot of people!
For my part, I usually listen music during I'm coding or reading stuff on the web. When I was younger, I had about 12 go of music in my computer linked with Winamp Playlist. Since fews months I changed my way to listen music. I found a nice website who have more and more song each days.

Deezer, you may already hear this name before. It's a nice online website to listen music; it's like "radioblogclub" but in much better. Also, I really think that it's totally legal; if you wanna download a song they will redirect you on ITunes. Anyway, you can create your account and make your own playlist, put them public or not if you want. It's developed with Flash and Ajax so it's pretty nice. I strongly suggest you to go on this website and take a look if you like listen music on your computer!

Oh ! And maybe I found only one disadvantage, it could take a lot of bandwith, I hope you don't have only 10-15 go for a month with your current Internet package.


2th july 2008

My personal experience about GetAFreelancer.com

During my summer, I was exciting to work as my own and had my first Freelancing experience. So, I look up on my friend Google about Freelancer website for developer. I found plenty of them, some wasn't looking good, others were better but finally I tried GetAFreelancer.com. A friend tell me about this website in the past (even if he didn't try it).So, I decided to create an account there to sell my services to plenty of honest buyer...

I was so happy when my account was validated; I began looking for job right after my confirmation. I took my time, maybe 1 week, to choose one or two good job for me. During I was looking at each attractive job, I was completely shock by the average bid of all other Freelancer on each job, but nothing in comparison with the Lowest bid of those jobs!!! There were plenty of long designs or coding jobs who took time to do a nice and clean product and what was the lowest bid? It was approximatly 10$ to 30$ per jobs in most case. That was my first disappointment about this website, so my first bid was also very low. My goal with lows bids? Try to get some good feedback to be able to bid higher after that.

So, I continue bidding on jobs, I was reading everything, downloading everything if the services buyer put stuff to understand what to do and try to evaluate a best honest price for each job. After that, I was decreasing my bid to be competitive when others bid lower than me. So finnaly I was bidding 10-15$ on most job too like every new freelancers.

I stayed positive at the time, but I was finally angry about their system. Why? Because I saw some job like "cloning website blablabla" or others like "hack script" or "hacking program", well the title didn't always containing "hack" but when you read the description it was easy to know that it was a hacking program. I report some of them as a non-legal stuff, hoping they could deleted them in time, but nothing.... No awnser! It seems that they didn't care about that because... let me guess... they will get money from those jobs anyway.

Finally, I cancelled my account there. I needed to post a demand on their forum to do that, no options on your account menu was available for that (probably for security reason).

Anyway, I found a much better safer website for that. It's called Odesk. Their mentality is completly different, they care about copyrights, buyers and freelancers. Their system is very good, they have a lot of tests, like "certifications" to test your knowledge and prove that you really know a subject. Also for the payment it's much simpler, it's not the buyer who pay directly to you but Odesk do, in the case of a problem occurs with the buyer for example, the freelancer isn't penalised because Odesk will pay.

I aslo read some other blogs about freelancing website and no one was better than Odesk in most opinion, I'll tell you the truth it's hard there to get a job there too, but they respect more the developer and they have plenty of tools and settings for you to help you create a winning profile to get jobs. I really recommand this website, at least try it !