constructive nonconformist

Science and Technology Television for a Seven Year Old

Television shows that my seven year old son enjoys that have science and technology content:

• MythBusters
• Fetch!
• Zula Patrol
• PEEP and the Big Wide World

Internet Explorer's Maximum URL Length

Note to self: Internet Explorer has a maximum URL size limit of 2,083 characters. Passing a longer URL (like maybe a URL with a dynamically built query string) to IE 7.0 will produce a cryptic error page (even with ‘Friendly’ turned off) that says “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” and then misleadingly suggests that the server can not be reached. Don’t waste time troubleshooting network connections or DNS lookups. Don’t be puzzled by why the same URL works in FireFox and Safari.

Safari 3.1 Develop Menu

SimpleBits: Safari 3.1 Develop Menu

Joy in the Job

Ponderous Programmer: Crazy is as Crazy Does - Joy in the job

iPhone SDK: Rogue Amoeba's Code Signing and You

From the Rogue Amoeba Blog post Code Signing and You:

However, the environment is different in one important way. Apple is the gatekeeper:

“Phones will only run apps signed by Apple. It also applies FairPlay to the package.”
Twitter message from Deric Horn on March 6, 2008

Let me repeat that: if Apple doesn’t sign your iPhone app, it does not run.

This makes more sense than what I was thinking. It means an iPhone OS device doesn’t need to know thousands of valid certificates.

In addition to upgrading applications will the App Store be capable of removing applications?

iPhone SDK and More Questions

John Gruber has posted More Questions on his Daring Fireball blog about the iPhone SDK. I can answer one of his questions.

• So it seems like the answer to my question yesterday about how users will be prevented from running apps downloaded directly from developers (rather than through the App Store) is that unsigned apps will only work on your iPhone if you pay (and get approved) for a $99 iPhone developer account. But does that mean that approved developers will be able to freely exchange unsigned apps with each other?

An unsigned app will not run on an iPhone at all.¹ The only place an unsigned iPhone OS application will run is on the simulator.

I doubt that the barrier for the $99 iPhone developer program is higher than for other types of code signing certificates. The iPhone code signing certs are issued to either individuals or organizations. Apple’s approval for the App Store will be on a application by application basis.

If you as a developer get an application or two approved for the App Store and it later turns that you’re breaking Apple’s rules, it seems safe to presume that one of Apple’s possible recourses is to revoke your certificate and all your (as in signed with your cert) iPhone OS applications will stop working.

¹ iPhone OS Programming Guide: Working with a Device

iPhone SDK and App Code Signing

In iPhone Enterprise and SDK: First Impressions and Questions John Gruber notes “there is no option to circumvent the App Store” and asks:

My question, though, is how will this be enforced technically? If developers can install on their iPhones the apps they’re working on, what will stop users from doing the same? I’m guessing it’s tied to digital certificates, but that’s just a guess. There must be something, though.

From the Macworld Apple iPhone Event live update page I think that question is answered.

11:10 PT: “We think a lot of people are going to want to become an iPhone developer.” It’s really easy. Go to our web site and download our SDK for free. Run the Simulator on your Mac. You can join the iPhone Developer Program if you want to run the app on an iPhone or iPod Touch, and distribute your app. To join the developer program costs $99.

…

11:24 PT: What are you doing to make these applications secure? “This is a big concern. It is a dangerous world out there. We’ve tried to strike a good path here. On one side, you’ve got a closed device like the iPod, which always works. You don’t have to worry about third-party apps mucking it up. And on the other side, you’ve got a Windows PC. We want to take the best of both, the reliability of that iPod and we want to take the ability to run third-party apps from the PC world, but without malicious applications.

“The developers have to register with us, and for $99 they get an electronic certificate, and that tells us who they are. If they write a malicious app, we can track them down, we can tell their parents, and we will know who they are. And we can turn off the spigot if we need to.”

I added emphasis on two sentences above.

Here’s my interpretation and, I think, the answer to John’s question. For free anyone can run a Cocoa Touch iPhone OS application on the simulator but the SDK and the Xcode tools alone don’t allow an application to be installed on an iPhone or iPod Touch. To get an app onto an actual iPhone requires paying the $99 for the iPhone Developer Program. The Developer Program is essentially a certification program.

John assumes the $99 is for getting listed on the App Store. I think he’s off. I think the $99 is for the code signing certificate. Getting listed is a separate (but no-charge) hurdle.

But I haven’t watched the video (via TUAW) for myself yet.

Update: I wonder if for a developer with a cert if there is any limit to the number of iPhones that Xcode will drop the app onto.

The human programmer

Coderspiel: The human programmer: "Here’s a theory of software quality for you: software must be nurtured."

(Via raganwald.)

waves

the show with zefrank: waves

(Via PragDave: Don't wear the yellow trunks.)

North Pole Voyager

A wonderful 2 minute film (that happens to be an ad.)

(Via O'Reilly Radar: Advertising Homage to the DIY Spirit (Via Adverganza: JC Penney ads rock, while sales suck))