Made of Everything You're Not

The more I work with ExpressionEngine the more I keep running into the same issues. ExpressionEngine hides most error messages, especially those related to configuration, probably for security, but this doesn’t make debugging any easier. To be fair, I don’t know if this is how ExpressionEngine works out of the box or if this is a configuration setup done by the projects original developers but it does make fixing the issue that much harder.

ExpressionEngine White Screen

Admin White Screen

I’ve only come across the administration area throwing a white screen when using ExpressionEngine 1.67 on a PHP 5.3 server and only if extensions are enabled. I’m not sure if the newer versions of the 1.x branch have this fixed so this might not work for you.

The issue has to do with how the variables are being passed and called; PHP 5.3 changed how references were handled so the method ExpressionEngine 1.67 uses no longer works. To fix you have to modify “/system/core/core.extensions.php” with the below changes that are on the ExpressionEngine forums:

<?php
//system/core/core.extensions.php around line 115 modify:
if (sizeof($args) == 1)
{
    $args = array($which, '');
}
 
if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.3') >= 0)
{
    foreach ($args as $k => $v)
    {
        $args[$k] =& $args[$k];
    }            
}  
?>
 
<?php
//and likewise around line 174 modify:
{
    $php4_object = FALSE;
    $args = array_slice(func_get_args(), 1);
}
 
if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.3') >= 0)
{
    foreach ($args as $k => $v)
    {
        $args[$k] =& $args[$k];
    }            
}  
?>

Front End White Screen

Then there’s the front end white screen; so far I’ve encountered this type of white screen in both the 1.6 and 2.0 branches of ExpressionEngine. Luckily, whenever I’ve ran into a white screen on the front site it’s always due to various path configurations which is easily fixed by over riding the configuration file.

Expression Engine is one of those programs that stores as much as possible in the database including file and path directory paths. To get around this permanently I’ve gotten in the habit of using a default config.php file for all any Expression Engine site I work on; it’s the first thing I do before anything else.

This new configuration file uses the $_SERVER super global to dynamically determine the paths and makes allowances for development, staging and production environments.

<?php
if ( ! defined('EXT')){
	exit('Invalid file request');
}
 
$conf['app_version'] = "167";
$conf['license_number'] = "";
$conf['debug'] = "0";
$conf['install_lock'] = "1";
$conf['db_hostname'] = "";
$conf['db_username'] = "";
$conf['db_password'] = "";
$conf['db_name'] = "";
 
if('dev.site.com' == $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])
{
	$conf['db_hostname'] = "";
	$conf['db_username'] = "";
	$conf['db_password'] = "";
	$conf['db_name'] = "";
}
elseif('stage.site.com' == $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])
{
	$conf['db_hostname'] = "";
	$conf['db_username'] = "";
	$conf['db_password'] = "";
	$conf['db_name'] = "";	
}
 
$conf['avatar_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/images/avatars/";
$conf['avatar_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/images/avatars/";
$conf['photo_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/images/member_photos/";
$conf['photo_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/images/member_photos/";
$conf['sig_img_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/images/signature_attachments/";
$conf['sig_img_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/images/signature_attachments/";
$conf['prv_msg_upload_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/images/pm_attachments/";
$conf['theme_folder_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/themes/";
$conf['site_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$conf['captcha_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/images/captchas/";
$conf['captcha_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/images/captchas/";
$conf['emoticon_path'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/images/smileys/";
$conf['theme_folder_path'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/themes/";	
$conf['db_type'] = "mysql";
$conf['db_prefix'] = "exp";
$conf['db_conntype'] = "0";
$conf['system_folder'] = "system";
$conf['cp_url'] = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/".$conf['system_folder']."/index.php";
$conf['doc_url'] = "http://expressionengine.com/docs/";
$conf['cookie_prefix'] = "";
$conf['is_system_on'] = "y";
$conf['allow_extensions'] = "y";
$conf['multiple_sites_enabled'] = "n";
?>

The above config is for the 1.x branch though most values should work for the 2.x branch with the addition of $config['tmpl_file_basepath'].

Hopefully, this should take care of those white screens.

For most web developers that I’ve met and worked with, at least, the concept of “hard coding” variable values, especially environment variables, is a definite “I will kill you and your first born if you do this” offense. Through a combination of painful moments, especially in the push to live phase, we all learned just how fucked up hard coding could make a day.

Portability Is A Good Goal

I’m telling you, it’s a special kind of pain when you’re frantically trying to fix a site you broke through poor planning and execution.

So, we do the most logical thing and abstract out all the system variables into a single point; either a config file or a database usually. For some reason we then go about our task feeling proud that we’ve stopped hard coding, oblivious to the fact that all we’ve done is just minimized the amount of hard coding. And that’s not enough.

According to WikiPedia hard coding

…refers to the software development practice of embedding input or configuration data directly into the source code of a program or other executable object, or fixed formatting of the data, instead of obtaining that data from external sources or generating data or formatting in the program itself with the given input.

Now, while that explanation is appropriate for good old fashioned native development, to be sure, I don’t think it’s applicable to web development because for most sites the database is as much a part of the application as the code is (especially when doing maintenance work). By which I mean that, in my experience, storing environment values inside a database isn’t a good idea unless there’s no other way (sometimes a project requires the rules be broken).

Anywho, for most of us who don’t have the natural, innate, knowledge, learning not to hard code was a tough lesson because when we first started developing web sites it was natural to connect the idea of the web site with the code and server it was running on. Hell, I personally remember being shocked to find out it was actually bad to develop a site on the live/production server; just didn’t make sense at the time (stupid, I know). In hindsight it was an obviously silly and short sighted mindset to adopt but changing that was probably the most important choice I’ve made to improve the quality of my projects.

I was reminded of this with painful clarity when a whole slew of issues came up from a client I’m working with. During the course of transitioning dozens of their legacy sites to a new server, some of which hadn’t been updated since the projects were completed some years ago by coders long since forgotten, quite a few started having weird and, not a little insidious, bugs in the new environment. Looking deeper into the issues revealed a nasty amount of hard coding in not only the custom projects, which I would expect actually, but also from various third party commercial and open source projects that were used for the base of the sites.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about in terms of your everyday configuration file hard coding along with an example of what I’ve learned to do:

<?php
//bad
$path = '/var/www/mysite.com/html/';
$url = 'http://www.mysite.com';
$cache = '/var/www/mysite.com/cache/';
 
//good
$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
$url = 'http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$cache = $url.'/../cache/';
?>

All thanks to the $_SERVER variable, in PHP (though most languages have some way to get that info), you shouldn’t have to ever hard code the paths to pretty much anything within your site. Note though that when executing PHP through CLI scripts or using the exec() function all bets are off (though there are ways to get around that too like using variations on __FILE__ and dirname()). And, yes, there are circumstances that demand hard coding, I know, but those cases are few and far between and usually have people capable of making those changes.

It was the third party programs that really annoyed me though. I find it a little easier to accept an individual inexperienced coder’s exuberance in coming up with a base solution at zero hour. I’ve been there; an issue comes up and the quickest, and less painful, solution is to just throw the path in place with a perosnal promise to come back later and make it elegant. Then… well, life takes over and the promise is forgotten. Happens all the time.

On the other hand though, when dealing with third party projects, both open source and commercial, this type of hard coding, well, that just bugs the crap out of me. It seems like such an obvious design decision yet Expression Engine, Zen Cart and WordPress (for example) all hard code environment variables into the configuration files.

This is especially irritating to me because it’s been my experience that most websites move to a different server at one time or another, so it’s a given that configuration is going to be changed at some point. Keeping the pain of moving the site to a minimum rates a higher priority to me. And, unless I’m missing something, it seems that there’s very little difference between having your installation/configuration script write $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] versus “/var/www/html” to a configuration file.

Something like (as a base example with no sanitization):

<?php
if($_POST['path'] == $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'])
{
    $path = '$_SERVER[\'DOCUMENT_ROOT\']';
}
else
{
    $path = $_POST['path'];
}
 
//write it to the config file
?>

As I mentioned above there are definitely times when $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] isn’t appropriate per the requirements or spec but for most projects that I’ve worked with replacing hard paths with the variable has been effective 99% of the time.

In Expression Engine Escaping Madness I laid out an issue I was experiencing with a client site. The issue was that there didn’t appear to be a method available to escape Expression Engine markup when it is mixed with php so there is a definite risk of parse errors using that technique (it’s not a security issue or anything; I want to be clear on that). This made me nervous enough that I couldn’t let it go and kept thinking about how to get around the issue. The answer: write an Expression Engine plugin.Of course this meant I had to actually learn how to write an Expression Engine plugin first. Here are my notes

Create Expression Engine Plugin

First though credit where it’s due: for this example I used the number_format plugin as a base so a lot of credit goes to Robert Wallis for the nicely written plugin I’m basically leaching from:)

An Expression Engine plugin is essentially a php class with at least one method that translates into an Expression Engine tag and used inside of Expression Engine templates (I don’t think they can be used inside of entries directly though I haven’t confirmed this). They are best left for small tasks though because they can’t have an administrative backend or integration with the Expression Engine l10n stuff or form processing or any manageable settings. No fun stuff for plugins…

Like most platforms there’s a few conventions that have to be followed but, also like most platforms, they aren’t too troublesome to work with. It should be noted that the syntax for the class uses the php4 syntax so dumb yourself down accordingly.

For example our plugin class will look like:

<?php
class Add_Slashes
{
	function Add_Slashes()
	{
 
        }
}

And the plugin will be executed with the below Expression Engine template tag:

{exp:add_slashes}O'Reilly{/exp:add_slashes}

Now, it’s possible to create template tags that aren’t done in pairs but for this example I’m going to stick with pairs. In case it wasn’t obvious, if you wanted to have a plugin that has more than a single method you would call that method like:

{exp:add_slashes:somethingelse}O'Reilly{/exp:add_slashes:somethingelse}

So that’s the basic syntax. The next thing that needs to be done is that a file has to be created inside the “/system/plugin/” folder. Note that I’m using the default name for that folder (system) so if you renamed it during the installation process use that instead. The file name must be lower case the same as the class name and it must have pi. as the prefix, and begin with the second segment of the tag. So, with our example plugin, the plugin name would be: pi.add_slashes.php. Simple enough. Once the file is saved to the location the plugin is installed. That’s how Expression Engine rolls.

Now we have a working plugin in theory but if you go into the plugin manager you’ll see an error about a missing variable as well as a distorted view of the page. We’re missing something; the $plugin_info array.

Every Expression Engine plugin should have a variable outside of the class called $plugin_info. For our example it should look like the below:

<?php
$plugin_info = array(
	'pi_name'        => 'Add Slashes',
	'pi_version'      => '1.0',
	'pi_author'       => 'Eric Lamb',
	'pi_author_url'  => 'http://blog.ericlamb.net/',
	'pi_description' => 'Exposes PHP\'s <a href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.addslashes.php">addslashes()</a> function via EE tags.',
	'pi_usage'        => Add_Slashes::usage()
);
?>

Obviously, the above lists all the details about the plugin for display in the plugin administration module:

Expression Engine Plugin Manager

You may have noticed the pi_usage key in the array; this method is recommended by the Expression Engine Developer Center for describing the usage of a plugin. Inside the plugin create a method called usage() and just return the instructions. Those instructions will be used on the plugin description page:

Expression Engine Plugin Information

Using all of the above the completed plugin is below:

<?php
$plugin_info = array(
	'pi_name'        => 'Add Slashes',
	'pi_version'      => '1.0',
	'pi_author'       => 'Eric Lamb',
	'pi_author_url'  => 'http://blog.ericlamb.net/',
	'pi_description' => 'Exposes PHP\'s <a href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.addslashes.php">addslashes()</a> function via EE tags.',
	'pi_usage'        => Add_Slashes::usage()
);
 
class Add_Slashes
{
	function Add_Slashes()
	{
		global $TMPL;
		$this->return_data = addslashes($TMPL->tagdata);
        } 
 
	function usage()
	{
		return "This is really just a wrapper for PHP's add_slashes function:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.addslashes.php
 
{exp:add_slashes}
O'Reilly
{/exp:add_slashes}
returns: O\'Reilly
 
";
	} 
 
}

Now, this example was used using Expression Engine 1.6.9 so the process might not work for the upcoming 2.0 (I haven’t looked into that version just yet). It also doesn’t look like EllisLabs is accepting any new submissions to their plugin library so if you’re hoping to distribute your plugin prepare to do it solo and without any help from them.

Still, an easy enough process that any custom functionality you may need for an Expression Engine site should be trivial to achieve.

Avactis is another in a long line of e-commerce web applications written in php (similar to OpenCart and PrestaCart), this one a little different in that Avactis has different versions, each with different features, depending on how much you’re willing to spend. Avactis is a full featured product with all the bells and whistles any ambitious store would need (and then some more features stacked on top for good measure) combined with a very php like integration methodology. Unfortunately, the dated administration interface combined with a lack of a plugin architecture and theme community really holds it back from the awesome bar.

Avactis

For the uninitiated, Avactis is created and maintained by Pentasoft Corp; oddly, there’s no website for the parent company so take that for what you will. As mentioned, Avactis is based on a pay model though it’s way more upfront about it than PrestaCart and, while the free version is missing some features, the source is available for modifications. Not too bad in my opinion; at least the more cash strapped shops can still play if they want to.

The different versions of Avactis are Free, Owned ($199), Monthly Leased ($19.95 a month) and White Label ($299) each with their own features and options. Most notably the Free version doesn’t include any (useful) payment modules (Authorize.net anyone?), coupon module, data export and import, quantity discounts or search engine friendly URLs out of the box. They do offer discounts for web developers though (at least 50% and they say up to 100%), and the complete source is available without obfuscation, so at least those functions that are needed can be added which can really ease the pain of paying for the thing in my opinion.

As expected, Avactis has the ability for custom themes though I’m disappointed to see that there doesn’t appear to be any theme community in existence (compared to other cart software packages). The reasoning behind this is probably because Avactis bills itself as being “easy integration with an existing website thanks to unique Avactis tag technology”. And by unique they mean including a php file and calling php function snippets. I’m all for marketing hype but wtf is that?!? Here’s an example:

<?php include('init.php'); ?>
<?php NavigationBar(); ?>
<?php Breadcrumb(); ?>
<?php ProductList(); ?>

It’s called php and EVERY php site does this Avactis not just you. Essentially though, this isn’t a bad strategy and, in fact, is definitely a strength especially without all the hyperbole. Obviously, Avactis can stand alone and doesn’t need to be integrated into a separate site but it’s a good idea to allow easy integration into existing sites.

Avactis PHP shopping cart software

Avactis is packed with all the features any online store would want; content management system, coupon and discount mechanisms, order and customer management, packing slip builder to name a few. Each feature is also highly customizable and usually includes a plethora of options and settings; nice if you build complex product build outs or specific functionality. On the other hand though, this amount of features and customization comes at a cost in terms of ease of use, work flow and a lacking user friendly experience.

The administration interface for Avactis is a nightmare mess of pop-up windows, tabs and accordion widgets. Slick is not a word I would use to describe the experience. Functional or crappy or painful or eyebleedingworstinterfaceeverpleasekillmefortheloveofgod!; those are better words to describe it.

There’s inconsistencies all over the place; for example while editing a product the help widgets will open another pop-up window (sigh…) yet in the main menu hovering over a link will display a tool tip and in the installation process the help widgets are all inline divs.

Avactis Admin Popups

Going through the code yields such codesod qualifiers as the below:

<?php
    /**
     * Defines the possibility of uploading images by file type.
     *
     * @param $file The array consists of the $_FILES variable, for
     * the current file.
     * @return boolean
     */
    function isAllowedImageType($file)
    {
/*        $type = _ml_strtolower($file['type']);
        switch ($type)
        {
            case 'image/gif':
            case 'image/jpeg':
            case 'image/jpg':
            case 'image/jpe':
            case 'image/jfif':
            case 'image/pjpeg':
            case 'image/pjp':
            case 'image/png':
            case 'image/x-png':
                return true;
            default:
                return false;
        }
*/
        return true;
    }
?>

If that doesn’t make any sense to you suffice it to say that the above function is supposed to verify that an image’s mime type matches the list; unfortunately though, the function is, what we call “commented out” and will not be executed. All files sent to the function will validate as true so, essentially, any file type can be uploaded. While it’s entirely possible this is an old function that was replaced with something useful, and it should be noted that I never found any calls to that function (but I really didn’t look too hard), the fact that it’s still in the code-base speaks volumes, to me, about the project maintenance at the very least.

On top of that Avactis has one of the most wasteful and useless installation processes I’ve ever seen. Initially, Avactis ships with a very minimal file set that includes a 15 mega byte (MB) file whose sole purpose is to contain all additional files in a gzipped and base64 encoded string. The sole purpose of this is to allow Avactis to programmatically write all source files to the file system during installation. For the life of me I can’t imagine what functional requirement precipitated this design decision. Considering the complexity added to the development cycle this would cause it makes no sense to me; I’m at a loss. I could be missing something though; you never know it may have a really sick benefit that I’m just not privy to.

Are any of those “issues” at all relevant? Not the function and not the installation process. Those are subjective issues that may only matter to me; it’s armchair quarterbacking at it’s finest (if I do say so myself). For everything else, well, that obviously depends on the specific needs of the project. For my needs it’s a pass simply because my clients care about the interface and Avactis looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2002 (at least).

So, while Avactis is a nice program with all of the features any store would ever need I personally feel that it’s not ready for my project.

As a continuation of my research into choosing an appropriate shopping cart application for an upcoming project I’m working on I chose to review OpenCart this time. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of OpenCart until one of the comments from the last post turned me onto it but after reviewing it I am glad I did.

opencart-logo

As mentioned above, OpenCart is another e-commerce platform useful for setting up an online storefront. OpenCart is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) which means it’s freely available for anyone to use and since OpenCart is written in php it’s right in my wheel house. The main developer of OpenCart is Daniel Kerr who, from what I can gather, is over in Great Britain but not the Australian rules footballer (in case there was some confusion from any Aussies).

Anywho, OpenCart has lot of good features available out of the box with my favorites being the Backup Manager, User Groups, really nice localization (l18n) and internationalization (i18n) options, support for multiple stores and a slick reporting overview. OpenCart also has the one feature I personally love from any and all e-commerce packages; Guest Checkouts. Personally, when I’m buying something from an online store that’s not a 500 pound gorilla like Amazon or Best Buy I hate signing up for an account. Guest checkout is the shit.

The code is really well structured and thought out; it uses a nice implementation of the MVC pattern which made things ridiculously easy to walk through and find out what was going on under the hood. OpenCart appears to be using a home grown MVC framework, which, while, in my opinion a little unnecessary,  isn’t at all a big deal. Unfortunately, the code appears to be open to Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks and other security issues. More on this in a minute.

The OpenCart administration module is attractive and laid out logically. Everything is ready and available in such a way that most people with experience working with administration panels would feel right at home. It should be noted though that the administration panel will NOT work in Internet Explorer 6.

OpenCart Dashboard

Naturally, OpenCart also ships with the ability to have custom themes and the default theme that ships with OpenCart is quite attractive too. After reviewing the procedure for creating themes though I have to say that I’m not even a little impressed in how themes are supposed to be created; they appear, in my opinion, to be overly complicated, a little convoluted and deviates from the traditional manner used with countless other open source projects.

OpenCart Store

OpenCart has a basic module system though it isn’t what, in my experience, should be considered a module system; in OpenCart a module is more of a sidebar widget. A small distinction to be sure and not really an issue; more of an inconvenience of nomenclature than anything else but something that drives me nuts (can’t we all agree on what these terms mean already?).

There’s also a lot of manual intervention needed when configuring the system. Want to add a module? FTP the module, go to the module section of the admin, click install, click edit and fill out the form (be sure to enable the module too). Want to turn on search engine friendly URLs? Rename the file .htaccess.txt to .htaccess (through FTP or similar) then go to the administration panel, then to the settings area to enable. Very anti user friendly in my opinion.

There are other issues with OpenCart, like the flow for adding images to a product being pretty convoluted, but those are all small in the grand scheme (pretty much all my gripes can be, rightfully, dismissed as design decisions I don’t agree with). Fair enough. What isn’t acceptable is the complete lack of respect the developer has for security in OpenCart or the developers who try to help out in general. This, I’m afraid, is a deal breaker.

May 2010 was actually a pretty fortuitous time for me to research OpenCart; as soon as I began looking into the program I started seeing some discussion on OpenCart which lead me to a forum post on the official OpenCart forums. Another developer had some suggestions on how to improve the style and conventions of OpenCart and, well, Daniel really showed his ass.

Then, not a week later, I see on that there’s another war going on between Daniel and a developer who found some pretty nasty CSRF issues. Again, Daniel showed his ass (along with a good helping of ignorance mixed with arrogance this time) with nothing being resolved.

This was truly the breaking point for me. Why in the world would I ever use software written by someone who, when confronted with the issues, acts like nothing’s wrong? Nope. I have people relying on me to make choices that won’t, you know, ruin their business and OpenCart, for all it’s bells and whistles and nice code and pretty administration panel, is a horrible platform because the developer refuses to do anything about issues when presented with them.

If you were a sysadmin a few years ago, and you had php on your servers, you’re probably already familiar with c99. In case you haven’t had the personal pleasure, c99, or specifically c99.php (hint: check the source), is the name of a script used by hackers to gain access to a web server running php using an exploit technique called Remote File Inclusion.

The Horrors of C99.php

A Little History

See, back in the day some php developers were pretty stupid. (Admit it; you were stupid once too.) What other explanation could there be for writing code that allowed the injection of arbitrary routines into a program. Trivially easy too.

To be fair, PHP was to blame a little for this as well. Given PHP’s high adoption, and design, by, and for, newbie programmers allowing such a technique by default was just ill conceived, and maybe even a little negligent. I understand the desire, and sometime need, for a technique that could be dangerous but to enable the feature by default…. damn man…

So, the risk was known, yet code was still being written (like the below example) that allowed remote file inclusion to be possible. Mostly because of the aforementioned default setting.

<?php
$color = 'blue';
if (isset( $_GET['COLOR'] ) )
{
	$color = $_GET['COLOR'];
}
require( $color . '.php' );
?>

BTW, if you currently write code that does anything like the above, frankly, you’re an idiot. You aren’t nearly as smart and clever as you think you are. I promise you this will bite you. Bad too.

About C99.php

So, using a technique like the above opens you up to learning first hand about c99.php. Finding information about the program itself is a little tricky but there are a couple examples that highlight just how devastating it can be.

When malicious intruders compromise a web server, there’s an excellent chance a famous Russian PHP script, r57shell, will follow. The r57shell PHP script gives the intruder a number of capabilities, including, but not limited to: downloading files, uploading files, creating backdoors, setting up a spam relay, forging email, bouncing a connection to decrease the risk of being caught, and even taking control of SQL databases. All these functions become readily available through an easy to use web interface, but now you can fight back.

Using the above explanation, which I agree with, c99.php acts as an interface to control your server. Once it’s on your server an attacker has easy access to view all the files and their contents, make changes to the system, upload new files, manipulate the database(s) and more.

Quite the nasty little script but pretty elegant in how it’s implemented. c99 is a completely standalone script; even the images are embedded inside using base64!

Until a month ago I would have thought the risk of encountering c99.php in the wild would have been small these days. Then, SMACK!!, a client had a site get hacked (quick CYA; that I didn’t’ work on ) using c99. So be warned. It’s out there and if you’re not smart, or if you’re a lazy, lazy, coder, c99 will get you.

With the release of Google Buzz last week a lot of people have been screaming bloody murder over some privacy concerns they have and Google’s perceived lack of forethought on the matter.

Google Didn't Fuck You; You Did

First, Google Buzz appears to be a FriendFeed clone that Google just launched about a week (or 2) ago. Initially, it was enabled inside of all gmail accounts by default without any authorization to the contrary. I haven’t had the opportunity to try it though. Not because I don’t use gmail (I do; sorta) but because I use Google Apps gmail which wasn’t a part of the rollout.

From what I can glean; Google Buzz works by parsing your contact list and then making connections between everyone in it and displaying their social network activity info publicly for all to see (seriously, just like FriendFeed). Make sense? No? Here’s the Crunchgear explanation of Google Buzz:

Google Buzz is a social network and sharing product built by Google. Based within Google Profiles, Buzz offers a stream of status updates, pictures, links, and videos from your friends. You can “like” these items and you can comment on them. Updates from Flickr, Picasa, Google Reader, or Twitter can also be automatically imported into a Buzz stream. Buzz will recommend items you might like based on your friends’ activity.

So, apparently, one of the “features” of Google Buzz is that when it was initially released it displayed your contact list publicly which raised all sorts of hell from people who can’t afford for this to happen (think lawyers, journalists, etc).

This smacks of a high level of naivete on most of the users. Under what delusion are people living in to think that they have any expectation of privacy from a publicly traded company. Yes, I know they claim to care about your privacy, and I’m sure on a personal level the people working for Google do, in fact, care about your privacy. But the organization itself? Not a fucking chance.

Let’s get serious here; as stated above, Google is a publicly traded company which means their priorities start and end with cash ($$$). Frankly, it’s naive to think otherwise. Ask any corporate officer and they’ll tell you they have a responsibility to their shareholders. This is a notorious lose for consumers but it’s the reality nonetheless. Cry all you want but Google fucking their users in this way did ensure they launched a new social network with millions of users. From a fiscal standpoint, this was a HUGE win even with all the bitching and moaning. Even taking into account any users who would leave Google (along with any ill will this may have created) this was still a winning strategy for launch.

If privacy is an issue then, it seems to me, that you really should have taken greater measures to protect yourself. Relying on Google to protect something like this screams of escapism and finger pointing. Guess what? It’s your fault. Deal with that instead of crying that a publicly traded company that provides a service you use for free does something in a way that you don’t like.

Do I think that Google was right in any way for doing what they did? Not for a second. That said, people need to take responsibility for their own needs instead of blindly trusting a for profit company to do it for them. Yes, even when that company claims to “do no evil”.

I hadn’t really had much time to announce this (what with the holidays and stuff) but last week WP-Click-Track 0.7 was released. This release includes a few bug fixes and a couple new features. I’d planned to release this a while ago but testing took a little longer than anticipated but it’s finally done.

WP-Click-Track 0.7 Released (Umm Last Week)

There were a couple minor, edge, bugs that I don’t want to go into detail about but there were 2 in particular that deserve a mention.

First, there was a bug fix for SSL enabled admins. This one I hadn’t really anticipated; I’d never thought someone would use ssl for the admin panel. The problem was that if you went to the admin through ssl the graphs wouldn’t render properly. My bad.

Then there was an issue in the graphs. If the charted number was over 1,000 the chart would basically throw up. Rookie move on my part but some escaping fixed that right up. If you ran into this bug I’m really sorry.

0.7 also includes an improved cookie model. I admit, I’ve been completely lazy about cookie management for years now. Yes, sessions are nice but when you’re building for a multi-server environment sessions can get a little tricky. Problem is that there are some pretty specific rules for cookies and just setting a cookie willy nilly, without any thought to the implications, can screw things up. Now it’s much, much, better.

Among the additions there’s a new configuration value to disable tracking of internal links. This should help with all the clicks in peoples galleries I’ve been hearing so much about

Speaking of configuration the entire configuration section has been rewritten to be more user friendly. Instead of the HUGE and confusing single page everything is organized into tabs and should, hopefully, make for a better experience when you do have to configure something.

Anyway, you can install it within the WordPress plugin manager or if you want to take a  look at the code here you go.

My business partner recently had her phone literally break apart in her hands. Since communication between us is pretty crucial I decided to give her a backup Blackberry Curve I had as a replacement for my Blackberry Bold. Problem was that the Curve was bought through AT&T and she uses T-mobile. The phone would have to be unlocked.

How To Unlock AT&T Blackberry

Initially, I was a little nervous about the process of  unlocking the Blackberry. I’d never personally tried anything like this and my direct experience with the process was that a 3rd party company would have to be brought into the mix. I didn’t relish the idea of paying someone to handle what seemed to be a simple exercise when I’m capable of pushing buttons on a freaking phone.

Turns out it’s actually extremely easy to handle this yourself though it does require a phone call to AT&T support. Simply call them up and they’ll ask you for your IMEI code; it’s under the battery on the serial number label. They’ll send you an email, like the below, that’ll walk you through the process.

Your device unlock request was received and processed, see below for details:

IMEI: YOUR_IMEI_NUMBER

Unlock Code: YOUR_UNLOCK_CODE

Caution: If this process is unsuccessful ten times in a row, the phone will be permanently locked to the at&t network. Do not attempt to enter the code more than one (1) time total.  Instructions below will assist you in unlocking your device, if these steps are unsuccessful please contact us at 1-800-331-0500 or (916) 843-4685 from overseas.

Blackberry 8310

Follow these steps to unlock device:

1. Turn off the radio! VERY IMPORTANT

2. Go to “Options”

3. Scroll to and select “Advanced Options”

4. Click on “SIM Card”

5. Type “MEPD” (You will not see on display what is being typed. To obtain a “P” double tap “OP” key)

6. Type “MEP2” (To obtain a “P” double tap “OP” key. Press “ALT “key to obtain a “2″)

7. Enter the unlock code

8. Press enter

9. Reboot device. Device is now unlocked.

Note: To verify the IMEI, dial *#06# on device’s keypad, 15 digit # IMEI will display on the screen.  If this sequence does not work, pull the back/battery off the phone and the IMEI will be listed on the back of the phone.

All told the total time invested was only about 5 minutes. Seriously, 5 minutes. So why would I want to pay someone for this again?

When I purchased my newest laptop back in July, from Best Buy, it came with a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it came out a few months later. Fast forward to December and I’ve since received the new operating system and have installed it on the laptop. Since a lot of people are going to be going through the same thing I put together some notes about the experience.

Windows 7

Because the promotion was for a version of Windows 7 that was the same flavor as the installed Windows Vista, I was given a 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium copy. Personally, I would have preferred Business or Ultimate but ok, fine Home Premium it is. At least this meant that I wouldn’t have to do a clean install so I could keep all files and programs where they were (still backing up the data of course).

The upgrade package came with 2 discs; the Windows 7 disc and a driver upgrade disc. The instructions said to insert the upgrade disc first and I’ll be prompted to enter disc 2 when required. Doing so started an upgrade program that inspected my system and warned me about deauthorizing my iTunes account which immediately made me feel good about the experience.

All told the install took around 3.5 hours and was like watching water boiling. I did it super late at night but I was still up and every time I would check on it I swear the progress rarely looked like it was making any progress. Still, it is Windows, so I was used to this; just wait and be patient, it’ll finish. And eventually it did.

Upon first booting up there were a couple issues. One was my fault. The others… not so much. Probably the worst offense was that I had no Internet connectivity. I checked both my wired NIC and the wifi and both were working  fine; I could connect to my router through both and I could find my Xbox and PS3 on the network. I just couldn’t get online. I eventually found that this was caused by a conflict between Esets firewall (which I had disabled in Vista) and the native Windows firewall. Uninstalling Eset and reinstalling it solved the issue.

I also had an issue with my local Apache webserver working. After checking the logs it turned out to be a soft link I had created under Vista to link the conf directory (makes editing the files from my working directory that much easier). Creating a new link solved the issue nicely.

The last issue is with the touchpad; and I haven’t really fixed it yet. At first, Windows thought the touchpad was a PS/2 mouse. This wouldn’t be an issue except I like the scrolling functions on the touchpad and the PS/2 drivers don’t support it. This seemed like a cut and dry driver issue except I installed all the latest drivers for my laptop that Gateway offered and it still doesn’t work all that well. Yes, it’s there but not in any real functional way. It’s jerky and hesitant when it works (around 30% of the time). Not enough to get me to downgrade but still a pain.

I’ve never really had an issue with Vista but I was still excited about Windows 7. Even though there were a couple hiccups during the install, and that my touchpad isn’t operating 100%, I’m still really happy with the experience.