Ben Kahn

or: making your file uploads work over HTTPS when you are using a self-signed certificate or an authority Flash decides it doesn’t like.

Flash is a popular way to upload files to web sites. This is because you can have multiple files upload at once, give pretty progress bars, and can control the file upload UI. There are some alternatives that don’t appear to be cross-platform, but that seems self-defeating.

But there is a problem; if you are using a certificate that Flash doesn’t like, it doesn’t work at all.  And you don’t get an error message.  In Windows this is solved pretty well.  If Internet Explorer trusts a certificate, so does Flash.  But on Linux, flash only checks the system certificate store.  And on Fedora, it doesn’t even do that.

To fix it until Adobe fixes the bug, run as root:

mkdir /etc/ssl && ln -sf /etc/pki/tls/certs /etc/ssl/certs

Come to think of it, is there a way to tell where the system certs should be found?

Amazon MP3 on the Android

Amazon claims “We’re Building Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company” and they deliver.  Every time I have had a problem, they jump through hoops to resolve it immediately.

Unfortunately,  I am unable to make myself understood by the Amazon tech support team, which leads to lots of problems.

This weekend I purchased about $6 worth of music downloads from my phone.  (3 tracks, and a CD)  One of the tracks didn’t download correctly, and Amazon incorrectly charged my credit card  and not my gift certificate balance.  I sent this message:

I just ordered a CD and 3 tracks through my T-Mobile Android G1 phone.  The third song, “Crazy Love” did not download.  (The CD was purchased while not on a wi-fi network, so I’m not sure if it worked yet.)

My second problem is a billing issue.  My account has a gift card balance of $29.01, but my credit card was charged.  Please refund my card and remove the balance from my gift certificate.  I would like future purchases to come out of that balance as well.

So what did they do?  They refunded me the full $6 and told me to re-download.  Nice, but not quite right…

Android G1 by Michael Oryl. This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

I have a new T-Mobile G1 running Android from Google.  It’s an awesome upgrade from the Sidekick II I had been using.  Although it still feels very “rough” around the edges, I can see a lot of reasons why it’s exciting.

The architecture is pretty cool — applications are a bundle of entry points called “intents.”  An intent is roughly like a task:  make a phone call, change a ring tone, share a photo.  Any application can trigger an intent (within a permission system) or provide an action on an intent.

The phone itself feels solid, but has some problems.  Battery life is terrible.  The first day I had it, I had to recharge it 3 times.  Seriously.  Since then I’ve installed Power Manager to keep it charged the whole (or most of the) day.  I paid for the application although there is a free version as well.  Frankly, its amazing that this phone was released with battery life this poor.

The phone can be very sluggish.  There are two things that always need to work quickly:  the phone and the home screen.  The phone is obvious; when someone calls you, you need to be able to answer.  Although rare, you can’t always.  The home screen frequently takes 10 or more seconds to appear.  Since that’s how you launch applications, you’re just staring at your wallpaper or worse, a blank screen

No light sensor.  You can set the screen brightness, but since the phone doesn’t know when it is direct sunlight, it can suddenly be too dim.  I installed a application called FastBright which makes it easy to change the brightness, but doesn’t solve the problem

On the other hand, I’ve been very surprised by how many applications are available.  The Market has thousands and thousands list — many of them for free.  And there are even alternate Markets you can install and use.  Crazy.  Interestingly, there are reports that many of these applications are Open Source, but I can’t seem to find a way to list applications by license.  Or even a place collecting Open Source Android applications.  Does anyone know where this might exist?

So in the long trip to get a working TiVo with FiOS service, I’ve hit another snag.  Verizon insists on sending someone to my house to install the cable cards.  Why, I ask?  Because they are fragile.  (It costs $100 to replace them if they break.)  Yikes.

So after UPS (and I hate UPS) screwed up the TiVo delivery (and Amazon refunded 10% of the purchase price to ease the pain of that) I had to reschedule the technician visit.  That Friday, I reschedule for next Friday, which was the first possible day available.  *grumble*

On Monday, the technician showed up, of course.  So we sent him away, and I called Verizon again.  They showed no record of the cancellation or the reschedule.  So I scheduled Friday again, which was hard since Friday was actually full now.

Today, of course, no technician is coming.  I just called.  No record of my call.

Now, it’s scheduled for Wednesday the 6th.  But they gave me a confirmation # this time, so I guess it’s really true.

But, at least I’m not as bad off as this guy.

I ordered a TiVO on Tuesday night from Amazon with 2 day shipping.  It was too late in the day, so it counted as being ordered on Wednesday.  Estimated delivery?  Friday.  So, I called up Verizon to order cable cards for it.  They quickly scheduled a technician to come out (?!) and deliver them and install them Monday morning.  Perfect.

Then, UPS got involved.  Check out the shipping history of this package:

This is a UPS screw up.  It happens sometimes, right?  Nothing to worry about.  I’ve seen their ads where you can fix problems and they’ll help out!  So I call them and detail the problem.  I need the shipment before Monday. (the customer service rep mentions the package won’t arrive until the end of day on Monday)

“I need this before Monday, can you change it to Saturday delivery?”

“No, it’s on a truck right now with 5000 other packages.  We can’t pull just one package off, we don’t know where it is.”

“I need this before Monday.  This is your error, I paid for delivery to be on Friday, what can you do?”

“Call Amazon and have them pay for a package intercept back to them.  When it arrives (!) have them ship it again next day air with Saturday delivery.”

So, they can’t find the package unless Amazon (I can’t do it) pays them to find it.  In which case they can get it back to Amazon in time to reship it to me at GREAT expense for Saturday delivery.  Yes, that’s the case, although the original delivery charge would be refunded.

Awesome.

I hate you, UPS.

(Yes, I called Amazon to suggest this insane scheme, and they refused for some strange reason.)