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again

Cell Phones now open to telemarketers!

That's it! The phone commissioners have finally decided that it's OK for telemarketers to call cell phones and try to sell you their products and services.

Personally, I do not think that, in itself, it is a bad thing... except that if I receive even just 1 call a day and have to spend 1 minute each time, I will be burning 30 minutes a month for nothing. (Okay, with 1,000 minutes a month, it wouldn't matter that much, but that's like text messaging... if you receive spam via your phone and you have to pay 20 cents for each spam email you receive, the bill goes up quickly ...

Declare Dictionary

SWF Action
Action Category: 
Objects
Action Details: 
0
Action Identifier: 
136
Action Structure: 
unsigned short    f_count;
string   f_dictionary[f_count];
Action Length: 
-1 byte(s)
Action Stack: 
n.a.
Action Operation: 
<n.a.>
Action Flash Version: 
5
See Also: 

Declare an array of strings that will later be retrieved using the Push Data action with a dictionary lookup. There can be a maximum of 65534 strings. The visibility of a dictionary is within its DoAction or other similar block of actions. Note that you should have only one Declare Dictionary. The dictionary is visible from everywhere in the DoAction. In other words, you can access it from functions1, With blocks, try/catch/finally blocks, etc.

When multiple Declare Dictionary actions are used, ...

DefineBitsJPEG

Tag Info
Tag Number: 
6
Tag Type: 
Define
Tag Flash Version: 
1
Brief Description: 

Define a JPEG bit stream.

Tag Structure: 
struct swf_definebitsjpeg {
	swf_long_tag		f_tag;		/* 6, 21, 35 or 90 */
	unsigned short		f_image_id;
	if(f_tag == DefineBitsJPEG3 + f_tag == DefineBitsJPEG4) {
		/* sizeof(f_encoding_tables) + sizeof(f_image_data) + 2 when JPEG4 */
		unsigned long		f_offset_to_alpha;
	}
	if(f_tag == DefineBitsJPEG4) {
		unsigned short fixed	f_deblocking_filter_parameter;
	}
	if(f_tag != DefineBitsJPEG) {
		/* when DefineBitsJPEG, use JPEGTables instead */
		unsigned char		f_encoding_tables[<variable size>];
	}
	unsigned char		f_image_data[<variable size>];
	if(f_tag == DefineBitsJPEG3 || f_tag == DefineBitsJPEG41) {
		unsigned char		f_alpha[<variable size>];
	}
};
  • 1. JPEG4 optionally accepts the f_alpha field. [To be verified]

These tags define an image saved using the JPEG compression scheme.

DefineBitsJPEG (V1.0) does not include the encoding tables which are defined in the unique JPEGTables tag instead. All the DefineBitsJPEG of an SWF file use the only JPEGTables tag. Yes... This means you need a tool that is capable of reusing the same tables over and over again to make sure that all your DefineBitsJPEGs work properly (or use it just once.)

The other tags incorporate their own version of the JPEG encoding tables.

The DefineBitsJPEG3 and DefineBitsJPEG4 support an alpha channel bit plane (8 bits.) ...

PostgreSQL and Drupal conflict

We have been running Drupal for some time now and we have noticed that it generates a very large amount of warnings in our log files.

The warning is in link with improperly formatted strings. PostgreSQL tries to follow the SQL specification to the letter and that means you cannot use the backslash character to escape special character sequences (such as \n for a newline character.)

I knew that in most cases the error was generated because of the function saving a full page or some other content in the cache. In that case, the system includes the characters: \012 and \015 (\n and \r.) That ...

Terms & Conditions

Made to Order Software Corporation
Terms and Conditions for the Online Services
offered by Made to Order Software Corporation

This Agreement ("Agreement") is by and between Made to Order Software Corporation ("m2osw") a Californian Corporation and You, your heirs, your agents, successors and assigns ("You" and "Your"), and is made effective as of the date of electronic execution, which is when you register for an electronic account to use the Web site of m2osw. This Agreement sets forth the terms and conditions of Your use of the Online Services ...

A new concept: Throwaway Software.

More and more, people are learning new software as they go. A few will stick to one software for a long time simply because it is easier, but changing is easy too, especially if the new system is easy to use.

But how do you produce throwaway software? And is it worth the trouble?

As we see things evolving, more and more, people want to use software anywhere they go. This means software that runs on the Internet in some ways. For instance, you can use Google Map anywhere you go, as long as you have a computer to access the Internet.

Hacking, Good or Bad?

I already mentioned the American Government as being a target of many hackers.

You may also remember that in 1998, the Department of Defense was hacked by someone named Ehud Tenenbau. He was arrested at the time. He was still a teenager then.

Once back on the streets, he decided to wear a white hat and helped companies, many in Israel, to enhance their defenses. But that was only his day time job!

I guess that once you had a taste for a bad behavior, you just go on with it.

AJAX, CSS, HTML, XML, SOAP, LAMP… and now Web 2.0?

Dear reader,

Yes. With all these terms, it is quite easy to get lost.

As a developer, my skills are quite extensive. I started with Logo, learned assembly language, BASIC, C, C++… and all these other languages in between, those that most people pass by such as Ada, Eiffel, Icon… And the languages you kind of have to learn because you’re in it: Bourne Shell, configuration files for 100 different software, Makefile, etc.

And once you know all of these languages, you think you’re done. Well… Not quite!

The web has got it’s own set of languages! It

Security Issues with the US government

Some people, I have noticed, have been skeptical about the amount of care taken by the US government and agencies in the last few years. Companies are also catching up. The security measures change every year, when not every semester, every month and for some, probably every day.

For sure, making sure that the most wanted information remains top-secret, you need top level security features on your network. I do not know how much data is of interest, but I found out today that there are hackers attacking the federal websites quite a bit…

“The Pentagon last month acknowledged ...

Order Made!® has its own website

After a couple of months, we finally released the Order Made! website.Order Made! Demo Page

Order Made! is an online system for ordering food from restaurants. This isn’t new, others have done it before, however, Order Made! uses our Instant Cart technology. This means: it is very fast! So fast, that customers will return to the ordering page over and over again. All the better for the restaurant owners using Order Made!

And it is not just fast, it is also very easy to use. Customers can order an item by clicking on it. Voilà! For the few items that require you to select a specific ingredient ...