Firefox: (...)unsupported form of compression

Using Firefox 5.0 I noticed that in a webpage some javascript was not running.

Using Firebug I noticed that the call to related .js file was returning the following error:

"The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression"

Because the page (and javascript) was working in other browsers I tried the "force-refresh" ("do not use cache") and it fixed the problem! It looks like the cache was corrupted somehow.

Now I know!

BTW: I'm thinking in switching to chrome as my default browser. Any thoughts?

APEX Listener Release 1.1.2 released

APEX Listener Standard Configuration

In May, a new version of APEX Listener was released.
It fixes some bugs like:

• Fixed flexible parameter support to handle POSTs without requiring a query string to be present in the submitted URI.
• Fixed a problem with the standalone Listener where the location of the images folder could not be overwritten.
• Fixed a problem with character encoding when consuming HTML forms submitted using the multipart/form-data content-type.
• Fixed a problem with an IllegalStateException being thrown when the path /apex (instead of /apex/) was accessed on the standalone Listener.

As always you can download the last version at OTN.

APEX Listener Advanced Configuration

Oracle APEX Listener 1.1.1

Oracle APEX Listener 1.1.1 was released last week.

This release fixed several bugs. It addresses the following issues:

Firefox 4

Firefox 4 was released two day ago.

The changes I like:

"Performance: Firefox is up to six times faster than the previous release."
(...)
"The JavaScript engine (..) for faster page-load speed and better performance of Web apps and games."

I really find start-up faster and also the javascript programs.

Private and Secure: Do Not Track: (...) allows users to opt-out of tracking used for behavioral advertising.
Firefox (..) fix(...) flaws in some Web standards to prevent others from accessing your browser history.
HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS): automatically establishes secure connections to stop “man in the middle” attacks and keep sensitive data safe from interception during the log-in process.
Content Security Policy (CSP): prevent cross-scripting attacks by allowing sites to explicitly tell the browser which content is legitimate.

The HSTS and CSP still needs some implementation in the webservers (upgrading,etc..) but I think that will happen very fast.

Some HTML5 support . It's still not a final standard but it's adoption is growing (some features more than others) and the features are already being used to great advantages.

And most visual/operational change: Tabs on Top! (you can change to the previous Tabs position if you like)

Now Opera, Chrome and Firefox looks very similar :-)

Changes I need some time to get use to:
Add-ons panel
Link Url information

It's my browser for choice!

Why Oracle is not search engine user friendly?

More than ever we use and relay on search engines to find things in the Web (i.e. Google, Bing, etc).

Oracle has a history of changing link around (OTN, etc..) and not maintaining an internal redirection list or even issuing for a time the HTTP 301 Moved Permanently (with the new URL) to web clients (including the crawlers of the search engines).

So we keep on getting oracle site pages in the first places of the search answer list but with no information and search in oracle site means you have to logon. OK using the "Single Sign-On" it's free but even so it's for the normal web user a "wall" and they will leave.

An example of this (at the time of the post) ? Easy!
Search: "Java Stored Procedures" and you will get a link to
http://www.oracle.com/us/technology/sample_code/tech/java/jsp/index.html in the first page (OK it depends on search engine features, country and if you logged on , but should be there)
That link will get you to a page "Error Page 404 - We're sorry, the page you requested was not found." :-(

You can try to use the "Internet Archive: Wayback Machine" but will no success :-(
A possible workaround? Try to check the cache result of Google for the link if available.

Why can't Oracle (a "Database also" Company) maintain their links or keep a database (!) of old link-> new ("related" if not equal) link and search on it when it would display the "Error Page 404" and or redirect the person to that page or show in that 404 page the new link (or list of links)?

Oracle Learning Library

Oracle Learning Library is an web search index of several free demos and tutorials.
Here are the direct links for the PL/SQL section, the APEX section and the SQL Developer Section.

HTML5 onde estás tu?

Quem como eu acha que o XHMTL foi um "ar que se deu", que no fundo não trouxe nenhuma vantagem pois a sua (lenta) adopção não trouxe nenhuma vantagem prática e esperava que o HTML5 viesse colmatar o HTML4 e o uso de "flash e companhia" teve à dois dias um "banho de água fria": o HTML5 foi relagado para 2014 :-(

Lembram-se do WAP ? ...teve uma adopção limitada (mas conheço duas companhias que pegaram logo nisso) e também uma vida muito limitada mas de certo modo teve um desenvolvimento e crescimento rápido.
Pelo contrário o XHTML e o HTML parecem terem estagnado durante uma década (e agora com esta data década e meia) o que me parece deveras estranho num ambiente maioritariamente tecnológico. Vejam só a evolução dos telemóveis e televisores/plasmas, etc..

Essa estagnação permitiu o crescimento de outras tecnologias com mais ou mesmo adopção em especial a do adobe flash.

É claro que mesmo no estágio actual o HTML5 "draft" já tem partes suportadas em alguns "browsers" mas como irá este atraso na versão final influenciar a sua adopção ...ou o suporte que agora existe?

Por mim avançaria-se já com o HTML5 e em 2014 seria uma versão 5.1 ...

Actualização: mais pessoas ficaram também decepcionadas. Gostei deste post (em inglês).

A Google Portugal está activa nos Doodles

(continuação de post anterior)
E hoje é a comemoração do Aniversário de Almeida Garret.

Não deixa de ser educativo e também cria um pouco de distração.

Vitinho no Google

Foi com supresa que vi o Vitinho como Doodle do Google hoje.
Na altura tentei perceber a razão mas não consegui pois estava com alguma pressa.

Agora já sei. Foi para comemorar a data de nascimento do desenho que não era um dado públicamente conhecido.
 No público explicam a origem da ideia e a sua execução.

What the customer want...

I really like this comic strips (Kopozky)...very close to (a sad) reality

Missing the point: Developer versus Designer

Did you ever experience a situation like that? :-)
Maybe not with a designer, ...

Strok Project

Two days ago I was presented to the Strok Project (and no, it's not a project to bring babies :-) ). To put it simple: it's a project to make secure electronic identity across Europe using the national eID.
It's a great way to allow a person to validate against government sites, enroll to university courses (Erasmus for example).
If you are in Europe and like eID check it out...it's already being used in some government sites across Europe , (for taxes submission info, etc..) and some universities selected as test cases.

I hope to implement it in University of Oporto (one of the partners of the project) in the next month or two.

RSS and PL/SQL

In answer to a friend request, just two pointers:
Lucas Jellema rss feed reader with several commentaries to improve the code
Tyler Muth rss producer

Do you know of others?

Caffeine

If you as me didn't knew that google new index is called Caffeine ( :-) ) and what improvement it has brought to the Google search read this post.

For people you do not have the slightest idea how the Google search work I recommend the following video.

XHTML: why?

I agree with Brain Cray that XHTML was/is not really needed and provided no actual benefits.
10 years later and where XHTML get us? It gave work, it gave headaches, ...


Simon Pieters researched the XML-compliance of mobile browsers and concluded

the claim that XHTML would be needed for mobile devices is simply a myth

What people would do without internet?

The Muppets have an answer!

Universidade do Porto no 250º lugar do ranking "Times Higher Education"

Universidade do Porto (U.Porto) no 250º lugar das melhores universidades do ranking "Times Higher Education" (correspondendo ao 106º lugar das europeias)
Ler a notícia

Alternatives for PL/SQL Gateway

A attendee of my presentation on OPP 2010 Brussels notice an error in one URL in my presentation and asked me more info in the alternatives for PL/SQL Gateways.
So I provide here my investigation on that (please be free to help me improve this list) with the distintive features of each alternative.

Google's Logos

Today it's the 115 anniversary of the discovery of the X-rays.
I discovered that by the change in the google logo :-).

If you, like me, are curios about previous Google's logos (BTE they are called Doodles) check the google's logos site (it's not up-to-date - I think it only shows previous ones and not actual ones)

So many Doogles for several countries and I was not able to find one about Portugal.

Be careful when using facebook

Please be aware of some facebook "features":
Facebook Launches Location Based Stalking Tool
Facebook Hack: The “Dislike” Button
Facebook Hacked. Again!