One of the things I love about River2 is that it's an app that runs in the OPML Editor, which means that it is endlessly hackable and (apropos to this post) you can fix your own bugs.

So here's a bug report. And fix. (Actually, it could be a workaround for a bug in another application, as I explain below).

1. What I was doing: From the Tools > River2 > Pages menu, I selected a page to view (any one, it's the same bug no matter which page).
2. What I expected to happen: I expected the selected page to open in my default web browser, Pale Moon (a Windows-optimized build of Firefox)
3. What actually happened: Nothing. Not even an error dialog.

I immediately suspected that the problem was the communication between the OPML Editor and the Pale Moon browser. After all, there was a major bug for the longest time in Firefox's DDE implementation that required a workaround.

Bottom line: the OPML Editor's DDE implementation expects that the DDE service name is the same as the name of the executable with the filename suffix removed. So, for Excel, the service name is "excel," and for Firefox it's "firefox." But the service name is determined by the application, and the Pale Moon developers decided that its service name would be "Pale Moon," not "palemoon." A simple patch to system.verbs.builtins.webBrowser.openURL resolves the problem.

if string.lower (id) contains "palemoon" { // 2/11/11; 12:09:06 AM by DJM
	ddeName = "Pale Moon";
	return (webBrowser.callBrowser (ddeName, "WWW_OpenURL", s+",,0,0,,,,"))}

The function webBrowser.callBrowser expects ddeName to be the name of the executable, from which it attempts to remove the ".exe" suffix. Luckily, if the function is passed any string without an ".exe" suffix, it just accepts the passed string as the DDE service name.

Here's the full context:

That ",,0,0,,,," nonsense is part of the DDE message that Pale Moon expects:

From a command prompt, just change to the folder containing all the empty folders and enter the following:

FOR /f "tokens=*" %G IN ('dir /ad /b /s') DO rd /q "%G"

The command "rd /q" will be executed on every folder, but "rd" only deletes empty folders -- "rd" does not delete non-empty folders.

Credit to pastebin for some code snippets.

Hope this saves someone some time and effort.

#!/usr/bin/python
'''vcard.py - Update your XMPP vcard photo with the image you provide

Usage: vcard.py image_file jid password
'''

from xmpp import JID, Client, Iq, Presence, NS_VERSION, NS_VCARD
import sys
import os
import time
from base64 import encode, decode
from hashlib import sha1

try:
    file=os.path.expanduser(sys.argv[1])
    jid=sys.argv[2]
    password=sys.argv[3]
    resource='vcard'
except:
    print >>sys.stderr, __doc__
    sys.exit(2)

NS_VCARD_UPDATE = 'vcard-temp:x:update'
NS_NICK = 'http://jabber.org/protocol/nick'

def hash_img(img):
    return sha1(img).hexdigest()

def base64_img(img):
    return img.encode('base64')

def get_img(file):
    try:
        os.stat(file)[6]
        fh = open(file, 'rb')
        img = fh.read()
        return img
    except Exception, e:
        print >>sys.stderr, e
        sys.exit(2)

def get_mime_type(file):
    try:
        ext = file[-4:]
        if ext == '.png':
            mime_type = 'image/png'
        elif ext == '.gif':
            mime_type = 'image/gif'
        elif ext == '.jpg' or ext == '.jpeg':
            mime_type = 'image/jpeg'
        else:
            raise ValueError, "Wrong mime-type detected. Check file suffix."
    except ValueError, e:
        print >>sys.stderr, e
        sys.exit(2)
    return mime_type

def send_vcard(conn, base64_img, mime_type, nick):
    iq_vcard = Iq(typ='set')
    vcard = iq_vcard.addChild(name='vCard', namespace=NS_VCARD)
    vcard.addChild(name='NICKNAME', payload=[nick])
    photo = vcard.addChild(name='PHOTO')
    photo.setTagData(tag='TYPE', val=mime_type)
    photo.setTagData(tag='BINVAL', val=base64_img)
    conn.send(iq_vcard)

def send_presence(conn, status, hash1, nick):
    presence = Presence(status = status, show = 'xa', priority = '-1')
    presence.setTag(name='x',namespace=NS_VCARD_UPDATE).setTag(name='photo',namespace=NS_VCARD_UPDATE).setData(hash1)
    presence.setTag(name='nick',namespace=NS_NICK).setData(nick)
    conn.send(presence)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    img = get_img(file)
    j=JID(jid)
    cl=Client(j.getDomain(),debug=[])
    conn=cl.connect()
    if not conn:
        raise Exception, 'failed to start connection'
    auth=cl.auth(j.getNode(),password,resource,sasl=1)
    if not auth:
        raise Exception, 'could not authenticate'
    send_vcard(cl, base64_img(img), get_mime_type(file), j.getNode())
    send_presence(cl, 'Updated vCard Image', hash_img(img), j.getNode())
    time.sleep(1)
    cl.disconnect()

Dave offered the well-worn phrase "haul yourself up by your bootstraps" as the mental image we should have when we use the bootstrapping metaphor. Imagine that you're wearing your boots, you grab your bootstraps and pull on them. Well, the best outcome I can imagine is that you'd fail to accomplish anything. If you could accomplish anything, I think all you'd do is pull your feet out from under yourself. But the phrase is supposed to connote (I think) strength by self-determination and self-motivation. That's why MBA-types say they're going to "bootstrap" their start-ups when what they really mean is that their start-ups will be self-funded at the outset.

But I recall learning that before bootstraps became merely decorative, they actually served a useful purpose: namely, to strap your boots to the top of heavy items so you could carry them. Maybe it's apocryphal, but here's MY mental image of bootstrapping: a person on a horse, laden with a pack on its rump, and a heavy wooden storage box strapped to each of the rider's boots.

And that more closely matches what bootstrapping means to me: taking advantage of what's already up-and-running and using that existing momentum to get something else moving.

So step one was just getting to a point where I could compile it. The source code documentation is incomplete, so here's what I did, starting from scratch.

1. Install Python 2.5.1
2. Install pywin32 (I'm on Windows)
3. Install mfc71.dll (needed by pywin32)
4. Install py2exe (needed to compile Python source code to executable bytecode)
5. Install wxPython (for the gui)
6. Install pysqlite (may not be necessary, but I knew I'd need it eventually)
7. Install NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System)
8. Install NSIS FindProcDLL plug-in

PHEW!

After all of that, it was actually fairly easy to build and install. However, I made the mistake of trying to upgrade the Universal Feed Parser, only to find that although Juice would still compile, install and run, it was silently crapping out while trying to read feeds so it would not actually update my podcasts. I reverted back to the version of UFP bundled with Juice and everything was fine (except for the UFP bugs I was hoping to have solved by using a later version, of course).

I should update this as things progress.

Les Orchard posted a blurb that indicated that he was looking for a PHP class to perform HTTP requests with conditional GET support. Well, a while ago I was looking for that, too. Because I was working on a replacement for Magpie RSS (see below), I decided to use Snoopy as my HTTP client. I then wrote a brief extension, Leash, to provide a cache-enabled front end to Snoopy. Leash automatically caches the HTTP results, the time of the request, and the Last Modified and Etag HTTP headers. When you request a page you've previously requested, Leash first checks to see if the cached copy is older than the maximum cache age you've specified (or the default of 1 hour), and if the cache is too old, Leash performs a conditional GET. The latest version of Leash (which I bundle with Snoopy) is in my Subversion repository.

Also in that repository is my replacement for Magpie RSS. I always liked Magpie, but it didn't quite work for me and I also wanted an OPML parser. So I wrote one. Actually, first I wrote a generic PHP XML parser. Then I wrote the OPML parser and Feed parser.

Sorry, but I currently don't have time for documentation. Or support. That probably makes this of very limited utility to all but the most daring. If you're a PHP junkie, you'll probably be able to peruse the code and get the gist. And here's an example of how I'm using it to help manage my podcasts.

Judging from what little buzz there was, I think that's probably true, but I'm interested in others' thoughts.