03
Oct
2011

How to debug IE7 silent crashes

Experiencing a problem where a page randomly crashes in Internet Explorer 7 with no warning.

Work-in-progress blog posting, but found this so far: http://groups.google.com/group/IEToolbar-Group-Bugs/msg/fd808abaa72524ea?pli=1.

The crash report requires more Googling it seems:

Access violation – code c0000005 (first chance) eax=00000000 ebx=00000001 ecx=00000000 edx=00000007 esi=00219ec8 edi=00000000
eip=3cf6e923 esp=01e5ddf0 ebp=01e5ddf0 iopl=0         nv up ei pl nz ac pe cy
cs=001b  ss=0023  ds=0023  es=0023  fs=003b  gs=0000             efl=00210213
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found.  Defaulted to export symbols for C:\W INNT\system32\mshtml.dll -
mshtml!DllGetClassObject+bfa45:
3cf6e923 8b490c           mov     ecx,[ecx+0xc]     ds:0023:0000000c=????????
0:005>

11
Mar
2011

Error Handling in ActionScript 3

Old (in internet years I guess) but great article on error handling in AS3.

02
Dec
2010

Android Flash player version weirdness

If I visit playerversion.com in my HTC Desire Z’s Froyo browser it tells me I’m running “FL 10,1,123,425″, but when I navigate to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > All > Adobe Flash Player 10.1 it tells me it’s version “10.1.92.10″.

I’m still relatively new to Android so this isn’t making immediate sense to me; either playerversion.com‘s JS need adjusting or there are two versions of the Flash player on my Android device. Or something else?!?

Edit: Adobe’s own version test page mirrors playerversion.com‘s findings. cisnky suggested trying a pure Flash-based version detection method, which’ll be my next move.

Edit 2: This Flash-based test mirrors the above; that the minor version I’m running is “123″.

24
Nov
2010

Changing the User Agent on an Android phone

This posting on Lifehacker is very useful if Android’s tendancy towards bouncing you over to mobile versions of sites is annoying you. However, I noticed you can also play around with the Flash plug-in settings using this method too; switching between Flash 10 and Flash Lite (on Froyo anyway).

04
Apr
2010

Mozilla have no plans to bundle Flash with Firefox

Adobe Flash received a very welcome shot in the arm recently when Google announced that it was to package Flash with its Chrome browser. Mozilla however have since announced that they have no plans to follow suit.

Flash usually runs comparatively poorly in Firefox, so it’s a shame it’s not receiving any love to improve its performance.

09
Mar
2010

Couple of Flash Firefox things

Flashbug; debug Flash content within Firefox via Firebug.

Mozilla have also revealed they’re adding safeguards against Flash crashes in future versions of their browser (much like Chrome offer).

03
Mar
2010

Initial adventures in PS3-browser land

I’ve begun doing some work involving the PlayStation 3 web browser. I thought for ages that it used NetFront as it’s browser manufacturer, but it turns out it’s supposedly proprietary and kinda based on Internet Explorer 4 (thanks @jaffathecake for that). I messed around with the Sony PSP browser years ago and found it to be very sluggish and lied sometimes when you tried to test for certain features.

Anyway, I took a mini adventure across the web to see how a number of popular websites would fair in the PS3 browser and was disappointed to discover that the browser crashed. More than once. Three times in fact, and it wasn’t just a browser crash; the whole PS3 needed restarting on each occasion. I visited such sites as Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Flickr and when given the option always went for the non-latest JS-Lite versions whenever presented.

I applaud Sony for updating certain elements associated with browsing so far (such as updating Flash support to version 9), but it’s frustrating when you’re excited to be developing on next-gen consoles only to discover they’re built on very old and flaky browsing technology. I doubt it’s top of their list, but I’d hope within the next few firmware updates they might consider adding to the standards support of their browser.

22
Dec
2009

Firefox 3.5 the world’s most popular browser

…depending on how you read the stats (i.e. it measures individual browser versions). Still; it’s reason to remain optimistic that IE6 might soon be a browser we no longer have to code for (unless you live in Africa…or Asia).

18
Dec
2009

Hide extension == stupid

I thought it was only Windows which offered to hide file extensions, but I’ve just tried to download a JavaScript file off the net via Safari 4.0.4 and it hides the extension by default seemingly. I hate that; why would anyone ever want to be in the dark over what type of file they’re working with?

Grrrr >:(

02
Sep
2009

Flash Lite 3.1 now available through Wii Browser (Opera)

Good to hear that Flash support isn’t standing still on the Nintendo Wii. As this blog post says, we need it on the Nintendo DSi now (providing it can run at a decent speed…erm, which might not be that likely actually, so maybe not).