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Facebook was the victim of a backdoor hack
Even a tech giant like Facebook isn't immune to significant security breaches. Devcore's Orange Tsai recently discovered that someone had installed a backdoor on one of Facebook's corporate servers (that is, not the social network itself) in a bid to swipe workers' login details. While it's not clear how successful the script-based exploit was, Tsai noted that the file transfer app hosted on the server had several vulnerabilities that effectively gave any intruder free rein. The attacker could have checked employee email, for instance, or even connected to Facebook's virtual private network to get access to the company's inner workings.
DevJuice: Preview your icons
Sharing icons by email and Dropbox never really captures the way each image will appear on-screen. That's why developer Michael Burford and his brother created a web page mock-up solution that automatically adds an iPhone background and styles the icons to match the way they display on-device. He built a PHP/CSS toolset that you can place on a web host to serve icon previews. The script detects your browsing platform, so the previews look right on both iPhones and iPads. You can download the tools from his web page. Make sure to stop by and read his full write-up for details about installing and using these.
Arduino hack lights up the tree with every email, spammers get in spirit
The holidays are all about eggnog, ugly sweaters and disconnecting from the internet just long enough to reassure the family you still care. For those of us with web separation anxiety, the folks at MAKE have hooked us up with an easy way to stay hip to incoming emails -- by connecting the holiday fir to the Internets. It works as such: using an Arduino and PHP script, the tree will check for incoming emails and light up if the number has increased. The set-up can be tweaked based on your most valued type of alert like YouTube comments, texts or changes in the weather. To the family, it will look like unparalleled holiday cheer rather than your cue to ditch the sing-a-long and get back to Gmail. Check out the video after the break. [Thanks, Matt]
LikeLight lights up your likes with Legos, Arduino (video)
How long has it been since someone lit up your life? Since someone gave you hope, to carry on? As it turns out all you need for that is a box of Lego, an Arduino board, and a bit of your time. Ad agency Redpepper has successfully proven its abilities to generate buzz by creating this "LikeLight," an up-scaled version of the blue pixelated thumb that makes Facebook denizens get all in a tizzy. This bigger version is almost guaranteed to generate even greater tizzies, glowing blue thanks to a combination of clear bricks outside and four LEDs inside. Code is even provided that pulls data from the Facebook Graph API to light up those bricks -- and your life.
TUAW at Big Nerd Ranch: Mark Fenoglio
More coverage of TUAW's inside look at developer boot camp. See below for notes & disclaimer. I'm on my second day at Big Nerd Ranch, settling in and getting some blogging done between 3-hour lectures on Objective-C fundamentals. I sat down with our first instructor, Mark Fenoglio, last night to discuss Big Nerd Ranch from his point of view. He's a very dynamic guy, even if my "talking head" video angle doesn't portray that very well. If you're curious about the kind of people Big Nerd Ranch has on the teaching staff, this is a good introduction. I've also got a few clips of classmate "first impressions," some walking tour-video of the ranch and plenty to write today, so you'll hear more from me soon. To view the video, click on the "Read more" link below. In order to give our readers the first-hand account of what it's like to experience developer boot camp, Big Nerd Ranch has permitted Brett to attend complimentary classes and has provided transportation/lodging assistance. Other than those considerations, no sponsorship or advertising relationship exists between BNR and TUAW. This series is not an endorsement of BNR's programs or teaching methodology.
Ryzom deploys patch 1.6, extends web applications system
Ryzom has moved forward with their interactive web application goals, and with their newest patch players will be able to check mail both in-game and out of game.While Patch 1.6 cleans up a few bugs, adds a few more tattoos to the game, and tweaks the GM's event creation tools, it also opens up the Ryzom player developers project even further. Beginning with the mail and notes applications, players will be able to log into the game's website to send/read their e-mail as well as review their in-game notes as long as they retrieve their API key.
Yuma: New scripting tool for web developers
To web developers, scripting is the glue that connects web pages and back-end systems. For example, PHP is a very popular scripting environment that has been used to write web apps like WordPress and phpBB. For those of you who use PHP, you know that it is a dynamic, weakly-typed hypertext preprocessor. In other words, it's a scripting language that is embedded in the HTML code that makes up a web page.Inspiring Applications, Inc. hopes to catch the imagination of web developers with Yuma, their new strongly-typed, object-oriented scripting tool that is being released today. Rather than the confusing syntax of PHP, Yuma uses a simple REALBasic-like syntax. It is natively compiled to machine code on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows for high speed.Yuma Development Server for Mac OS X is available as a free download, complete with example code, a full developer reference, language definition files for BBEdit, TextMate and Text Wrangler, and more. When you're ready to deploy your Yuma web app, you can purchase and install Yuma Enterprise Server ($149). It's a command-line app and may be set up as a daemon.To run either Yuma Development or Enterprise Server on Mac OS X, you need to be running OS X 10.3 or later on a G4, G5, or Intel-based Mac with at least 1 GB of RAM. Thanks to Brad for the tip.
MacGDBp Kills PHP Bugs Dead!
Bothered with pesky PHP bugs? Grab a can of MacGDBp and exterminate those bugs FAST!18 year-old Beantown open source whiz Robert Sesek has announced that he'll be releasing his MacGDBp project bright and early on Tuesday, June 17 at his Blue Static website.MacGDBp builds on the open source Xdebug application to provide a native Cocoa Leopard-only app for remote debugging of PHP scripts. Connect to your running PHP script and you can do instruction stepping to see how your script is working. You can set breakpoints, view the current function call stack, and look at all local variable values.Robert noted that MacGDBp is designed to be very familiar to anyone who has spent time using the Xcode debugger. He's releasing the app under the GNU GPL version 2, which (duh) means it is available at no cost.If you do any work with PHP (hey, I'm constantly customizing WordPress myself), MacGDBp may be your new best friend. Be sure to set an iCal alarm for Tuesday morning and get your copy of MacGDBp.Thank you, Robert, for telling us about your app!Updated to add correct date
Pump up your local forum with Metaplace!
Got a small or medium sized community forum? Want to add YouTubes, mini-games, customizable avatars and heck -- a whole world all your own (why not?) -- in it? Then Areae wants to talk with you. Their Metaplace minigames for the masses / virtual world portal needs beta testers who wouldn't mind giving their new tech a trial run in their forums. You will probably need to paste some PHP code here and there -- but if you know what that entails, are comfortable doing it and want to give your community members reasons to spend more time on your forum, then head over to Metaplace for more details.This could be your chance to get in on the ground floor of the Next Best Thing. Give it a shot, and if it works out for you, tell us about it!
How to put WoW Insider on your PHP enabled website
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put WoW Insider on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index.About PHP and RSS PHP is a very fun programming language. Just like World of Warcraft, it is easy to learn, and difficult to master. The idea behind PHP is that you enter a script, located within your webpage, and the server processes the script as it send the webpage to your visitor's web browser. PHP and things like it literally power the web – everything from WoW Insider, to Google, to Amazon. For more information on PHP, I highly recommend O'Reilly's book Learning PHP. How to get syndicate WoW Insider using Magpie RSS The easiest RSS syndication addon for PHP I've found is Magpie RSS. It's quite simple to use, and can easily integrate itself into existing page architecture. A sample Magpie script that would syndicate WoW Insider would look like this: require_once 'rss_fetch.inc'; $url = ' http://wow.joystiq.com/rss.xml; $rss = fetch_rss($url); echo "Site: ", $rss->channel['title'], "<br>"; foreach ($rss->items as $item ) { $title = $item[title]; $url = $item[link]; echo "<a href=$url>$title</a></li><br>"; } Of course, the above is just a rough template and doesn't include any formatting or bulleting or anything like that. Where other sites and tools listed above will provide you with lots of bells and whistles off the bat, PHP is bare bones – you have to make everything from scratch. Luckily there's a lot of great information out there and most of the work has already been done. However, that work is beyond the scope of this guide.
Clutch provides browser control of torrents
Just yesterday, we told you about the new GUI version of Transmission. For those who prefer remote control, there's also a web UI for the Transmission daemon, called (cleverly enough) Clutch, just updated to version 0.2. Clutch is an easy way to manage your BitTorrent downloads from anywhere you can access the internet. Clutch is a front-end for the Transmission torrent engine; it doesn't require the GUI version of Transmission, and the two tools don't show each others' download results. but if you use both you may see download results from one tool in the other's list, say our commenters. Clutch uses the web server that's built into Mac OS X, along with AJAX and PHP for the web interface. The app is a self-contained package that has all of the software needed to run the web interface; just open, set a few preferences, and then -- boom -- you're done!If you do not have a static IP address, or use a dynamic DNS service (such as DynDNS), then Clutch will give you a link to your current external IP address, so you can find and connect to your computer over the internet. You might ask "Why would I want to do that?" The answer is time management: BitTorrent downloads can take a while, much too long for you to wait around, and with this tool you can manage your downloads from work, school, or at the local Starbucks. Using this software means that you will have to open a port in your firewall (the default port is 9091, however, you may set it to use any inactive port above 1024 that you wish). Clutch 0.2 is open source and is available as a free download from the Clutch website.
Create your own iPhone remote application
One of the good things about the "very sweet solution" of iPhone development is that you don't need any special tools or too much knowhow to create neat applications-- if you know a little HTML, a little PHP, and have access to a text editor, you can come up with some pretty cool stuff. This tutorial from IBM's DeveloperWorks is about as simple as it gets, and yet it shows you how you can use your iPhone as a remote for iTunes, Keynote, or any other AppleScript-able applications on your Mac, with no jailbreakin' necessary.Of course, as he mentions at the end, Telekinesis did most of this stuff early on, so if you've got something standard that you want to do (like control iTunes), you don't need to write the code yourself any more. But combine the tutorial with any other custom AppleScripts you've written (or might write), and a lot of possibilities open up in terms of what you can do with your computer, straight from your iPhone.[ via MacBytes ]
Hypercard's history
SiliconUser takes a short look at ye olde Hypercard technology, Apple's precursor to the concepts that eventually became HTML and the World Wide Web. The project was originally created in 1985 as an easier way to create programs on the Macintosh-- it consisted of a "cards and stacks" metaphor, as in you created one card that linked to another card in the stack, and so on. Early Hypercard stacks just worked as organized information databases, but eventually Hypercard ended up doing more and more-- cards could work as applications in themselves, and the links between them served as a precursor to hyperlinks and what we know as the Internet today. Personally, I only used Hypercard very minimally, and it's hard for me to imagine as much functionality coming out of Hypercard as we've got with CSS, HTML, and PHP today. But Hypercard faithful (of which the numbers seem to be not quite known), held onto the application for a long time.Hypercard's downfall came arguably not because it failed to stand up to new concepts, but because Apple, in a blunder, passed the program away to Claris, who tried to sell it rather than include it free in Macs. By the time Apple took it back, in 1993, the momentum was lost, and after a short period with Apple's Quicktime division, Hypercard was discontinued in 2004. Previous to that, Hypercard 3.0 was shown at WWDC 1996 (including the ability to display Hypercard stacks in a web browser, which might have been the key to keeping Hypercard alive), but that release never came. There are a few traces of Hypercard left on Apple's site, but as a technology, it's as dead as dead gets.Thanks, Thomas!
FileMaker 9 released
You'd be forgiven for thinking, especially reading our coverage and stories elsewhere, that the only new product to come out of Apple, Inc. in the past two weeks was some sort of bizarre chimera mutant love child of an iPod and a cellphone. Not true! Hardworking and underappreciated subsidiary FileMaker has lovingly crafted version 9 of its namesake desktop database, to the joy and glee of DB geeks near and far.Version 9 continues the trend of power-user upgrades for FileMaker, adding dramatically improved SQL integration with MSSQL, MySQL and, Oracle back ends; there's also a code-free PHP setup tool in FileMaker Server for database-powered web pages at an instant. More than 30 new features in total are gracing the FM website, so by all means check it out. Upgrades start at $179 for FileMaker Pro.
RapidWeaver 3.6 released
Realmac Software today has released the much-anticipated new version of RapidWeaver, their powerful WYSIWYG software that does a great job of filling the gap between iWeb and Dreamweaver. This new v3.6 ushers in a significant list of new features, such as: Themes Styles - no more digging in HTML and CSS to customize your theme (unless you really want to) 6 completely new themes Snippets - manage chunks of frequently used code instead of copy/pasting or constantly re-typing New Flash Slideshow - completely rewritten and can now pull images from a Flickr feed Improved blog, including tags and inline comment support Easy creation of Lists Detailed Publishing And much, much more Also, due to RapidWeaver's "skyrocketing" popularity, RealMac Software introduced a redesigned website today that includes a full-featured add-ons section where users can browse themes, plug-ins and code snippets, which of course also means 3rd parties nowhave one central RapidWeaver community where the can highlight their products. With everything involved, I can completely understand Realmac Software's decision to make v3.6 a paid upgrade - current users (including MacHeist owners) can purchase a v3.6 license for $25, while a full license costs $49. A demo is of course available, so head over to the shiny new Realmac Software site to see everything RapidWeaver has to offer.
Nintendo's Wii gets into the home automation game
For those of you who've just unboxed (or already snagged) a Nintendo Wii, and are more interested in casing out the innards or hacking it up, we've got yet another challenge for you and your console. While we've seen how to control the functions of your home with a PSP, there's just something special about flinging your Wiimote up and down to lower and raise the lighting conditions around your crib. Aside from a Wii, Wiimote, and a good bit of spare time, you'll also need the Smarthome Insteon lights w/ ControlLinc, an Aurora Multimedia WACI NX, a Linux-based PC, and if you wish, an optional AXIS PTZ IP Security Camera and Proliphix IP Thermostat. Once you've got your hardware in order, you'll need to get your palms on a PHP script that directs the IP traffic and forwards the appropriate information. This home automation mod has the potential to control "lights, thermostat, cameras, jukeboxes, DVRs, TiVos," and basically anything you can dictate via IP information. So if you're looking for a great way to spend your hours off, and don't mind getting dirty with a little coding, be sure to hit the read link for the full rundown, and click on through for a YouTube demonstration.[Via Digg, thanks Nate]
Taco HTML v1.7.2 is Universal
If Dreamweaver is a bit overkill for some web work on your desk, Taco HTML might just be the editor for you. It's a small yet feature-packed web editor with tag coloring, HTML preview, syntax checking, code snippets and more. It's my favorite editor for HTML pages or tweaking a WordPress PHP page file or two.As far as I can tell, Taco HTML is provided free, and is a Universal Binary. Check it out if you read this post in less time than it takes Dreamweaver to start up.
Headdress
Headdress is a nifty little application that makes turning on and off PHP very easy, but that's not all. It also takes care of modifying the Apache config files, so your little old Mac can serve up a number of websites (locally) without you having to worry about nesting files or anything like that.Headdress will setup 2 sites before you have to register for $14.95.[via What Do I Know Enjoying]
Sandvox 1.0 official release
I'm really glad to see all this innovation in WYSIWYG web editing software, and from my experience, Sandvox from Karelia Software is poised to lead the pack. Yes, I've been going on about how excited I am about the iWeb 1.1 update, but after playing with Sandvox's beta editions, I'm going to give this official 1.0 release a good run-through, as it offers quite a bit of power and some nice tricks that other products like RapidWeaver and iWeb can't claim.The feature that impresses me the most about Sandvox is their innovative "Pagelets" feature. Pagelets are small chunks of rich content that you can simply drag and drop around your site's theme. Don't like where your blogroll is? Just drag its pagelet somewhere else. Pagelets in the pro version can also allow you to insert your own HTML and even PHP code into any portion of your site or sidebar. Speaking of site themes: Sandvox's are stellar, and a bit more creative than iWeb's. Sandvox comes with two dozen themes, with more available.Sandvox also does a lot of the, dare I say, 'standard' WYSIWYG web design-ish stuff that I've come to expect on the Apple platform. You can drag your audio podcasts into a Sandvox site and get them submitted to the iTMS, as well as drag images from iPhoto, etc.Overall, despite lightning striking twice for Karelia Software, Sandvox looks like a solid product that presents a strong array of features for the WYSIWYG designer that demands a little more from their web design app.
Ask Engadget: that's just NASty
It's Thursday night, kids, which means it's time for another round of Ask Engadget. Before we get going, if you'd like to ask Engadget something yourself, hit us up at ask at engadget dawt com, and we'll take it to the court of public opinion. Anyhow, last time Brian C wanted to know how to best RF shield his WiFi; this week we got a short n' sweet one for ya, so consider yourself asked by Serge:I'm looking for a NAS solution and was hoping you could make suggestions. I'm looking for something with gigabit Ethernet, Apache / PHP / MySQL, media serving and a RAID configuration.Kinda sounds more like Serge wants himself a web-hosting solution in a box, but take out the LAMP configuration and you've got a ton of options. Too many, in fact, the market's positively saturated with home NAS and media storage solutions (most, it seems, with RAID). Got any favorites?
