CubicleSoft Forum

Products - VerifyMyPC: Read this before posting!

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 04:18:57 GMT

Subject: Read this before posting!
Author: BariyaB
Posted: 2009-02-15 04:18:57

Thanks.

Products - MyProBB: Another suggestion....

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:33:09 GMT

Subject: Another suggestion....
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-06-02 04:33:09

Baldilock s wrote:
It seems as though all of the posts from new users are "moderated&quo t;.... this might be a big turn off for customers/potential users trying to post here.

New member moderation (new members get moderated but eventually are taken off after a number of posts). An idea I picked up from a YahooGroups group that I and about 11,000 other people really like. It keeps the spammers out. I'm trying to keep this forum as close to the default settings as possible so people know what it looks like out-of-the-box since I don't have a demo site.

Products - MyProBB: A Suggestion

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:22:41 GMT

Subject: A Suggestion
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-06-02 04:22:41

Baldilock s wrote:
1. There needs to be a "New Topic" button. It was very hard for me to find the New Topic text as it blends in too much.

Yup.

General - General Discussion: Just saying hello....

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:15:25 GMT

Subject: Just saying hello....
Author: Baldilocks
Posted: 2008-06-02 04:15:25

Hello!! :) Nice to be here.

Products - MyProBB: Another suggestion....

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:13:23 GMT

Subject: Another suggestion....
Author: Baldilocks
Posted: 2008-06-02 04:13:23

It seems as though all of the posts from new users are "moderated&quo t;.... this might be a big turn off for customers/potential users trying to post here.

Products - MyProBB: A Suggestion

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:11:20 GMT

Subject: A Suggestion
Author: Baldilocks
Posted: 2008-06-02 04:11:20

1. There needs to be a "New Topic" button. It was very hard for me to find the New Topic text as it blends in too much.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v2.3 released

Sat, 31 May 2008 17:07:58 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v2.3 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-05-31 17:07:58

Two very long months. But it is finally done. MyProBB 2.3 is released! This release is huge, so brace yourself for an insane post.

First up is the biggest change: The brand new Management Interface (manage.php). This new interface isn't a visual interface. Basically, it offloads the stuff that happens daily in the forum to a separate script. This script manages everything that is time-consuming and would slow down the user experience. The old cleanup.php script and portions of init.php are fully integrated into this brand new interface. This interface is designed to be hooked up to a 'cron' type tool (either command-line OR web-based) so that it runs periodically (preferably every 5-15 minutes). This interface also fully supports all sorts of plugins. Keep reading - you definitely don't want to miss the very cool plugins that tie into this interface.

Part of the new Management Interface includes the ability to send out e-mails containing the log during the daily cycle. The log can be sent to multiple e-mail addresses. After the log has been sent, log entries are deleted depending on how old they are (configurable).

Also part of the Management Interface is the new ability to send e-mail notifications. Users can subscribe to forums and topics they are interested in and receive e-mail notifications of those topics. These features are configurable through the administration panel. E-mail notification of topics the user is interested in is turned on by default but forum level notifications is turned off. The Management Interface manages the process of sending out e-mails.

One minor, indirectly related feature, is the ability to track attempted account creation using restricted domains. MyProBB comes with a list of freebie e-mail domains grouped by popularity. An administrator can block registrations from entire domains but, until now, there has been no way to determine how many registrations fail due to domain blocking. This is the perfect companion to the new daily log e-mail.

That is the core of the Management Interface. However, writing it only took me a little over a week. What was I doing during the remainder of the two months? Writing three plugins.

Writing plugins for MyProBB can be difficult to do. Most users want to get up and running quickly. However, many systems already exist that are not likely directly compatible with MyProBB. So what I've decided to do is to create a new plugin type called Partial plugins. The original types of Official and Unofficial are still in effect. This new type allows me to author plugins that are intentionally incomplete. For partial plugins, the site owner fills in the blanks of a well-commented plugin.

The new partial plugin Automatic Login is an example of this new type of plugin. Automatic Login provides the skeleton with heavy comments of how to integrate an existing PHP-based login system. Basically, it allows the site owner to avoid having to wander around the MyProBB internals to figure out how to integrate their login system and how to write plugins in general. It takes maybe 15 minutes to fully integrate an existing login system using this partial plugin. One less headache to deal with when management decides to use MyProBB for a web forum!

The Automatic Login partial plugin took a little over a day to create.

Up next is the POP3 plugin. This plugin is entirely Management Interface-oriented. It modifies the notification e-mail that goes out to users who are signed up for e-mail notifications and checks a POP3 mailbox for incoming e-mail. This plugin allows users to reply to the forum directly using their favorite e-mail client.

The hardest part of making this wonderful little plugin was that I had to go write a POP3 client in PHP and then I had to parse MIME data. And convert responses to Unicode. Ugh. MIME was a nightmare to get right, but given this was my fourth iteration of writing a MIME parser (don't ask), I pretty much knew what to do and I'm pretty sure I got it right this time (I did not like my previous attempts for various reasons).

The POP3 plugin took about one-and-a-half weeks.

So, where is the other one-and-a-half months? I've kept you waiting, but get ready for perhaps the best little gem to hit the Internet since AJAX-driven websites, er, Google...

The Official Instant Message plugin. Yup. That's right. I single-handedly hold the distinction of having the first web software package that sends Instant Messages. I hold the distinction of being the first to send IMs to five major IM networks from a web forum. I also hold the distinction of having the only web forum software package that sends real Instant Messages. I even hold the distinctions of having the most advanced Pidgin plugin using the Perl plugin for Pidgin, the first Perl plugin for Pidgin that contacts the Internet, and the first ever multi-protocol automated IM web-driven bot.

That's a lot of firsts. I've done something no one else on this planet has done. It took a lot of sweat, tears, and one-and-a-half months to get here, but I did it.

Despite making the plugin as simple as possible, the plugin itself has over five pages of documentation. However, while it does take a bit to set up, it really does send IMs. To five different networks: AOL IM (AIM), MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and Jabber/XMPP.

There are three parts to the plugin: The 'User Profile' part (what the user sees), the Management Interface part (handles requests), and the Pidgin part.

The first two parts are straight-forward (more or less), the Pidgin part is not so straight-forward. Pidgin is a multi-protocol IM chat client that has Perl scripting support for writing plugins (it also supposedly supports Tcl plugins, which I don't know). I looked at the documentation and knew it would take a while but a Perl plugin for Pidgin was the best route. A Perl plugin for Pidgin would allow users to use the plugin with Pidgin on any Pidgin supported OS (which is all the major OSes).

My first step was to get Pidgin installed with the Perl plugin. That took several days. (The instructions cut through the awful steps I went through). Then I had to re-learn Perl. For the zillionth time. I hate Perl. Once I figured that out, I had to download the source code to Pidgin and learn how that worked. I was digging around in the C code far more than I cared to just to figure out what in the world was going on. I ran into so many ridiculous bugs (fully documented in the plugin source), I ended up writing all sorts of cheesy hacks to get the darn thing to not do weird things. Then I had to wait for Pidgin 2.4.2 to be released because they were making changes to the Perl part of the plugin, which resulted in more hacks. Then I had to figure out how to communicate between the Perl and PHP parts of the plugin over the Internet in a bandwidth-friendly fashion. And then I ran into rate limit and size limit issues of sending messages over IM. By the time I figured everything out, a whole month-and-a-half had passed.

Sorry for the rant. But hopefully that thoroughly explains the reason for the delayed release. Instant Message support for a web forum: A very cool feature. And it totally abuses someone else's software application (Pidgin).

That's it! MyProBB just keeps on getting better and better. If you aren't using it, you should. Using MyProBB helps stroke my already big ego and stops forum spam (you likely only care about the latter).

General - Announcements: MyProBB v2.2 released

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:03:36 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v2.2 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-03-30 23:03:36

24 hours between two versions of a piece of software. And I'm not talking about bug fixes here. Yes, there is a new feature. Yes, it has been well tested. That has to be a record. You haven't seen software development this nuts before.

The feature was actually pretty simple. Users get confused when topics and posts disappear right as soon as they post them. The topic/post doesn't actually vanish - it goes into a moderation queue to await being approved by the forum moderator. The idea is to keep the rest of the world from seeing the topic/post if it is offensive or violates the forum rules. But making it disappear from the original poster's view is somewhat disconcerting. So it now stays visible to just that user and any moderators.

To be honest, though, this release was supposed to be significantly harder - I accidentally included portions of 2.2 in 2.1. Only after I looked back over 2.2's release feature set did I realize my mistake and determined this would end up being a cheesy release (notice the lack of a news item on the front page). Oh well. No harm done.

The upcoming 2.3 release is going to take a while. There is a hefty amount of work to be done. Which inevitably means more really cool features.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v2.1 released

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:16:36 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v2.1 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-03-30 01:16:36

In case you were wondering where I have been for the past month, it varied greatly. I had all sorts of compiler problems as I was revving up for a major update/rewrite of a portion of MyUpdate Toolkit called the Elevate package:

UAC: The Definitive Guide [^]

Elevate is definitely one of the cooler little bits of software I've written. I wasn't expecting it to take almost three weeks to complete the update.

Anyway, I digress. MyProBB 2.1 introduces what I like to call "user forums". User forums track topics the user is interested in, the user created, or the user replied to. Most forums have many users who only want an answer to one question and plan on never returning. This feature makes it easy for such users to find that single topic more easily.

If you can't tell, I have moved away from moderation features to features that target the user and the user experience. User forums are just the beginning. This release solidifies that important milestone.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v2.0 released

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:16:47 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v2.0 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-02-26 02:16:47

Ah. The big 2.0 release. MyProBB has completed its first year in existence. If you haven't noticed, I'm on an extremely rapid development schedule. I completed two releases of MyProBB within 48 hours.

This version introduces "locked topics". This feature is also known as "closed threads" or "closed topics" in other forums. What makes this a big release is that it finally completes the minimal moderator feature set. The early versions of MyProBB were designed to build a base to make it possible to rapidly develop new features and yet maintain a very high level of security at the same time.

The next few versions are going to go a bit slower as I ready the forum for some big changes. My goal is to be to version 3.3 by the end of the year. For comparison, most software products release updates every 4 to 8 months (roughly 1-3 times per year). My goal is to release 18 software updates this year. That is 6 to 15 times the average software product's update schedule.

However, to accomplish this goal, I'm having to be a jerk. Becoming a customer now is going to make you overly familiar with the upgrade system. And a whole lot of stuff is breaking. Testing isn't very thorough at the moment. It is improving, but I can't spend a whole lot of time on it. I'd love for you to start using the forum right now but you'll have to be willing to endure a few hardships.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.9 released

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:10:48 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.9 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-02-24 20:10:48

The next version of MyProBB is now available. This release is incredibly innovative.

I was somewhat hush-hush about the 1.8 release for a reason - I want to be the first kid on the block to have this feature. Other forum software packages have a feature called "split/join threads". The feature is designed to combat the problem of unrelated threads getting mingled with the thread's original topic. Eventually, the topic would completely change into something else. If the original poster had asked a question, they wouldn't get an answer.

The solution to this is to split out the thread into two different threads. Every forum I have seen implements split/join by entering a special screen with a bazillion checkboxes. You check the boxes of the posts you want in the new thread.

I wanted to have something much more familiar. My goal with implementing this feature was to create a sort of "clipboard&quo t;. Cut, copy, paste. Operations people are very familiar with (copy-and-paste). So I merely applied what people were familiar with to my forum software package and the result is an innovative, if not clever, solution. Moderators can simply click hyperlinks to store posts on a clipboard. They can even store posts from multiple topics. Then move to the forum or topic where the posts should go. Click 'Move' and presto! Posts have been moved. The whole process feels much more natural.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.8 released

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:03:44 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.8 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-02-16 19:03:44

After being sick for almost two weeks, I finally managed to pull myself away from the Kleenex long enough to finish MyProBB v1.8.

There are two new features. Well, technically, four new features, but the features are the ability to copy entire topics and move entire topics. Those are the two new features. The other two features are the ability to create or not create "shadow"/ redirected topics when moving a topic (i.e. leave behind a redirect) and the ability to create a redirected ("shadow" ) topic that points at another topic.

I have no idea why the industry calls redirected topics "shadow topics". Granted, it is possible to cause a redirected topic that points at a topic to stop pointing at the topic, but that requires a topic to be moved around several times mixing shadow and no-shadow.

Which brings up an interesting point. It is possible to create a redirection "chain" where one redirect points at another redirect which points at another redirect. If you are careful, you can also form massive redirection "loops" where the browser goes in an infinite loop through a series of redirects. Given that only trusted moderators should have the ability to create redirects in the first place, this probably won't ever happen - and users will likely stop the redirect cycle after waiting for a few seconds.

Anyway, time to start on the next version.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.7 released

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:49:23 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.7 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-02-03 00:49:23

MyProBB is definitely becoming a more mature product. Only three more versions until v2.0. This release introduces a few new features, a new exciting plugin, a template, and fixes one minor bug.

Just to get it out of the way, the bug that was fixed is chopping up really long words into multiple words. This has the potential downside of chopping up a word in a weird locale that affects the meaning of the words (it does chop on UTF-8 character boundaries but some Unicode letters affect the display of later Unicode letters). But I'm fairly certain most words in most languages don't exceed 20 characters.

The next two features fall into the "Why didn't you already have that?" category. The first feature is searching for topics and posts by author. The answer to the "why" question for that feature is that I was feeling lazy. The second feature is the ability to rename topics. The answer to the "why" question for that feature is that it was more involved. Renaming topics requires the "Rename Topics" privilege.

I had both of those features done in a little over a week. What took so long for this release was the new plugin called Dynamic Template. Dynamic Template is a fairly nifty plugin that allows users to replace components of the default template without having to edit the default template. This plugin also allows you to get really fancy and change just about every little bit of the look-and-feel of the forum. And, if you are a developer/programme r, you can get even fancier and turn on full dynamic processing, which executes your PHP script within the MyProBB environment. If you've got header and footer include files, you'll love this plugin.

Unfortunately for me, the only way to test the new plugin was to go all-out and do a full replacement template. So I did. Someone asked for a Wiki-like template, so I figured "how hard can it be?" Given that it took almost two weeks to hammer it out, I know how hard it is. Well, it was also the first template I've ever made for the Dynamic Template plugin and the plugin itself had a number of kinks to work out as well.

Anyway, enjoy! And happy upgrading!

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.6 released

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:34:27 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.6 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2008-01-05 23:34:27

After a long dry spell, MyProBB 1.6 is finally released! This version has so many new features and updates I don't know where to begin. I suppose the first thing I should do is apologize for having a mostly broken forum for the past few months. About 50% of all verification e-mails were being (silently) rejected by the servers they were being sent to. This problem was caused partly by bad code and partly by using the built-in PHP mail functions. The forum now uses fake Thunderbird headers and has a very high success rate of getting through to the user.

Some of the changes in this version are purely cosmetic. For instance, the Administration Panel privilege restrictions from 1.5 and earlier didn't apply to certain users. It didn't cause a lot of confusion since you wouldn't grant most of the privileges to non-moderators but, if an administrator ever did, nothing would happen. Now certain privileges are only available for certain user types in the Admin. interface. Technically, the privileges are still there but I figure not showing the checkboxes was a better idea since the privileges can't be used for those user types anyway.

There are some new moderation features: There is a hyperlink now to jump to the first topic/post that needs moderating. The ability to make topics "important". Important topics can only be replied to by moderators. Also, redirected forums (Admin only) and topics (requires appropriate privileges - moderator only) are part of the new moderator feature set.

The next two major features are basically polar opposites. The first feature is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) via something called "URL rewriting". Basically, it allows MyProBB forums to be indexed by search engines. The other feature is an anti-spider/anti-bot script feature that is designed to stop users from chewing bandwidth by limiting the number of pages per minute they can view and automatically banning users who violate the rules. Since search engines usually try to scan sites as fast as possible, this makes the feature counter-productive to the SEO feature. To counter this, an exceptions file exists that stores a list of IP addresses of all known popular search engine bots (e.g. Googlebot).

While I'm on the subject of IP addresses, it is now possible to limit access to the Administration Panel and moderation privileges by IP address. If the Administrator username and password are correct but the IP address is not, access to the Administration Panel is flat out denied (behind the scenes, the Admin. token is stripped from the user - basically the user ends up with fewer privileges than even guests do). For moderators, if they log in and the IP address matches, they can moderate. If the IP address does NOT match, they become a regular user (again, just the moderator token is stripped away).

There are few nice new features for users too. Users now have the ability to jump to the first new post in a topic. If a topic contains more than one page's worth of posts, multi-page links show up. Note that this is quite difficult to do with most topics - MyProBB has a generous 50 posts per page before the multiple page rule kicks in. I find most forums annoying that you can only read 10 posts then you've got to wait for the next page to load to read 10 more, and so on... Anyway, the last new feature for users is that a "new" icon now shows on formerly unread posts.

The last big feature isn't actually part of the forum software itself. As you know, I've got multilingual support in MyProBB. Embarrassingly, I don't know any foreign languages but Pig Latin. Go ahead and laugh - I'm laughing too. Actually, Pig Latin is used in many other commercial products as a "first translation" to make sure all strings are part of a language package before they are handed off to a translation agency. The Lanugage Manager was sort of a knee-jerk response to having to constantly keep both the English and Pig Latin versions in sync. throughout development. It actually is a nice tool because I can wait until I'm ready to release and it picks out exactly what needs to be translated to be ready for the next version. I even threw in plugin translations, which solves the major issue of getting translators to also translate the plugins. I realize I've spent quite a few releases working on multilingual support, but it is a pretty big deal and I wanted it to work well. This new tool should be close to the final necessary step before I start handing this off to people to start translating.

Whew! What a release. I was starting to go down the depression cycle here (6 months seems to be my limit). However, I'm thrilled to be done with this version. The upgrade for this version is the largest MyProBB upgrade I've done to date.

Products - MyProBB: MyProBB v1.6 is coming...

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:01:07 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.6 is coming...
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-12-07 03:01:07

MyProBB 1.6 is definitely coming. The number of new features included in this release is quite large. I'm working on the last major feature and it is a doozy. I can't really share what all has happened at this point but factor in a move from Okemos, Michigan to Tucson, Arizona and you'll have a pretty good idea. But you'll still wonder how I managed to pull off a major move AND find the time to work on all the changes made in 1.6. MyProBB 1.6 is definitely coming together.

On top of not being able to share the new feature list with you, I also can't give a timeframe for the release at this point. Big features take time and need to be done right the first time. But if you look at the upgrade script for 1.5 and multiply the largest release by a factor of three, you'll know a LOT of changes are happening. Well worth the wait!

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.5 released

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:07:33 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.5 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-08-08 01:07:33

MyProBB 1.5 introduces plugin support. Plus three bonus, official plugins: reCAPTCHA, Profile Fields, and Trashcan.

I said that 1.5 would take quite a while to develop and it sure did. A little over a month to figure everything out. Actually, I'm quite impressed as to the simplicity of the system compared to what I thought I was going to have to deal with. And it performs quite well. System performance only takes a slight hit with the first plugin and then almost no performance loss for extra plugins beyond the first.

For you non-geeks, a plugin (also known as an "add-in") is a tiny piece of software designed to extend existing functionality or create new functionality. MyProBB now has the ability to be extended through plugins. This is a feature found in a more limited class of forum software...usually of the professional/mature variety.

Now on to the plugins. The first plugin is reCAPTCHA. Most forum software uses CAPTCHAs but MyProBB takes a different approach with trivia questions and other stronger defensive mechanisms against spammers. However, someone might want to use the traditional CAPTCHA for their forum instead or in conjunction with the trivia questions. The plugin itself was actually quite easy to write since most of the work was already done by the wonderful people over at reCAPTCHA.net [^]. This plugin worked out most of the quirks in the system.

The second plugin is Profile Fields. This plugin was significantly more complex. Actually, it was the hardest of the three to develop and took the most time. I wanted a way to allow Administrators to set up custom profile fields that members could add to their profile while, at the same time, support a multilingual environment while making it easy to add fields that could also be optionally verified. I decided on an approach that would allow Administrators control over what fields showed up and they could customize new fields by editing the plugin's language file. There really isn't a better approach to the problem. I put in enough fields that it should be good enough for most people's needs.

The last plugin is Trashcan. It allows the Administrator to select a forum and make it the target of all denied (deleted) topics. The target forum becomes something like the Windows recycling bin...a place where accidentally deleted topics can be recovered. The trashcan forum gets a cool icon and a custom "Restore Denied Topics" privilege that can be assigned to Moderators.

Right now I don't exactly have a specific direction for plugin support (nor much documentation). I added plugin support and made three plugins that prove that it works. However, it will mostly depend on eager developers as to what plugin support will ultimately look like. I'm also open to the idea of selling great plugins on behalf of developers on my website (I would take a 10-15% cut of each sale to cover operating costs).

General - Announcements: MyTaskFocus v1.1 released

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:55:33 GMT

Subject: MyTaskFocus v1.1 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-07-06 02:55:33

Part 3 of 3 of today's updates: MyTaskFocus v1.1.

If you have been following along with the various updates made today, there has been a common theme about why features get added. A feature gets added either because I get annoyed by something or because a user requests the feature.

Well, MyTaskFocus is no different. In v1.0, I was quite annoyed by two things:

1) The inability to switch to another task temporarily and then jump back to the previous task.
2) Forgetting to start the timer after pausing it to go do another task.

So I fixed those problems in 1.1. I now have the ability to create a new task and then to switch to the previous task, I create a new task and use the dropdown list that shows up to select the previous task. Then I put an hour on the clock and then go to work on the previous task.

The other problem is solved by blinking the display once every 5 minutes when the timer is paused. Even if I'm not looking at it, when the display in MyTaskFocus blinks, that information will be subliminally sent to my brain. I really do treat this application with a healthy dose of psychology. I want it to be just pushy enough to get me to actually stay on task without annoying me.

Well, this concludes today's updates. I've got more in the pipeline. Actually, this stuff wasn't really on my agenda until I remembered that SIC was just around the corner. I'm not going this year (I wish I were going - SIC is a lot of fun) but my products are going. I'm planning on making an actual appearance next year.

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.6 released

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:37:43 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.6 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-07-06 02:37:43

Part 2 of 3 of today's updates: VerifyMyPC v2.6.

There are a large number of changes to VerifyMyPC this release. The first of which I need to get out of the way quickly. VerifyMyPC 2.4 and 2.5 have a serious security vulnerability in them. All users running these versions should upgrade to 2.6 immediately.

VerifyMyPC v2.4 introduced what is known as "Alternate Data Stream", or ADS, detection and support. Along with this came an incredibly rare and hard to track down crash bug. Between the releases of 2.4 and 2.6, I personally experienced the crash bug two times. The first time was with 2.4 and the second time was, ironically, while I was in the middle of figuring out the crash bug using results from the brand new crash reporting Support Tools that I had integrated into 2.5.

I had suspected all along that somewhere within the new ADS support was where the code was crashing but reproducing the crash was near impossible. VerifyMyPC 2.5 with the crash reporting Support Tools was a last-ditch effort to offload this extremely rare and impossible to duplicate bug onto other people. This is a terrible approach to software development but I was desperate and determined to hunt it down.

Fortunately, one user ran across it consistently and sent me regular reports (Woohoo! The crash reporting system really does work!). From those reports I was able to determine the exact location of the bug, why it was happening, and how to fix it. Unfortunately, the bug was also an entry point to being a security exploit (heap-based buffer overflow) and resided in my base library (Safe Design terminology). As such, I have to follow my own Logo Program rules and for 6 months from today I can't use the "Designed Using Safe Design Principles" logo for this product. This is somewhat disappointing but I have an incredibly amazing track record otherwise. Fortunately, I caught the bug before it spread to other products.

Okay, that's enough about the security vulnerability.

There is one huge change to VerifyMyPC 2.6. Starting as of today there will no longer be VerifyMyPC and VerifyMyPC Advanced. I finally figured out how to merge the two products into one. There are now two modes to the core scanning engine and GUI: Normal and Advanced. Due to the way the two were set up pricing-wise, I've decided to convert VerifyMyPC into a shareware product. Some people might notice that the trial period is set for 15 days - that only applies if something significant with VerifyMyPC happens. The trial period can actually last up to several months. I think this is fair.

A note to existing VerifyMyPC 2.x customers: You will be receiving serial numbers via e-mail for the latest version despite the price hike to $15. I think this is fair too.

If you read Part 1 of 3 of these updates, you know I only introduce new features for two reasons. From a development perspective, I view 2.6 as a new feature. Previous versions of VerifyMyPC annoyed me because I had to build, upload, and maintain something ridiculous like 8 different installers. Now I am down to two installers. That is MUCH more manageable.

General - Announcements: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.4 released

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:05:04 GMT

Subject: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.4 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-07-06 02:05:04

Part 1 of 3 of today's updates: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.4.

I tend to introduce new features into software either when I encounter a personal annoyance or someone requests the feature. In this case, it is the former. I hate having to maintain 40 bazillion different versions of my software on my web server just because MyUpdate demands it to function correctly. Part of the reason for the change is server storage space. My EXEs seem to be getting larger and I only have limited storage space. So today I fixed that. If the 'Location:' field in the Update Manager is left blank, MyUpdate assumes that the download is no longer available.

Also, for those of you who are using MyUpdate on an annual contract basis, I have a special treat for you that will arrive in your snail mail boxes sometime in the very near future: A special version of MyUpdate Toolkit v1.4 that eliminates the highly annoying "please feed me", uh, I mean, "please donate" dialog for the term of the contract. I think it is only fair to do that.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.4 released

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:49:01 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.4 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-06-25 22:49:01

This release finalizes what was started in 1.3. Multilingual support. I started off wanting to convert the forum to an actual, real language but was unable to find anyone fluent in anything. So, I converted MyProBB to Pig Latin.

To me this is a huge release. A lot went into the autodetection of new languages in the Administration Panel. One thing that I've always found annoying is clicking my way from Google onto a Chinese or Japanese forum and not having a clue about anything even what part of the forum I was in. So I introduced a drop-down box for guests that allow the selection of the language to display for the forum. Now this doesn't change things like post/thread text, but joining the forum becomes a LOT easier and postings are clarified as to what language is being used for each post. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more to the language architecture than meets the eye. I also try to autodetect a guest's desired language and select the supported language if available. Not really useful at the moment, but hopefully this feature will become much more useful very soon.

One minor feature was also added: The ability to resend the verification e-mail. This serves two purposes - to resend verification e-mails and to verify that the verification e-mail link actually worked.

General - Announcements: Logo Program

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:22:03 GMT

Subject: Logo Program
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-06-19 23:22:03

The CubicleSoft Logo Program is something I have always wanted to start. Software, behind the scenes, is abysmal. Applications crash. OSes have security vulnerabilities. And the actual source code is usually a mess.

What I hope to accomplish with the CubicleSoft Logo Program is create an environment of high quality software. Microsoft has a Windows Logo program. I actually went through the process once and they once-upon-a-time actually had the lofty goals of improving the quality of software in the world. However, that program has significantly faltered and it is too easy to get in - slipshod development practices get logo'ed. In other words, the Windows Logo is being cheapened by bad programming. This was most obvious with the "Designed for Windows Vista" logo program...I heard stories about how Veritest was intentionally double-charging customers before accepting their program.

So what I am doing is creating a Logo Program that actually works. You can't get into my Logo Program nearly as easily. And I'm tiering the logos such that if you want the "Certified By CubicleSoft Core" logo, you have to run your actual source code by me and pay me $5,000 annually (and preferably be participating in other logo programs as well). You can view it as a third-party (CubicleSoft) verifying that you follow the best possible practices for software development.

Now does this eliminate crash bugs? Probably not. What it does, however, it tell users that you are striving for high quality in various areas for a given software product.

MyTaskFocus, for instance (a brand new product), uses four logos: "Developed By CubicleSoft Core", "Developed With Safe Design Principles", "Integrated With MyUpdate Technology", and "Ready For Support Tools". This says that I (Core) developed the product using the principles found in Safe C++ Design Principles along with other Core Standards(TM), I use MyUpdate Toolkit to manage updates to the products, and the new Support Tools can be used in the event a crash bug is found.

What does this mean? Well, it means I have used solidified, tested, existing technologies to build a new technology. Quality products being used to build new quality products.

You will slowly see the CubicleSoft Logo Program being used on other portions of the site as updates are made to each product. New logos will be made to address different aspects of products. Perhaps you will be interested in using a logo as well. If so, contact me! I don't bite.

General - Announcements: MyTaskFocus v1.0 released

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:00:08 GMT

Subject: MyTaskFocus v1.0 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-06-19 23:00:08

Check it out: A brand new product!

I am excited about this product. I have the tendency to wander off task. MyTaskFocus is the first tool I've ever used that actually keeps me on task. This tool is a huge productivity booster! I also really like it because it fits in so well with Windows Vista. It has that sleek Aero look-and-feel to it but it also looks good under any other Windows OS.

At its core is a digital countdown timer. To be honest, I kind of ran out of things to talk about on the main product webpage. I mean it doesn't do a whole lot, but some of the best tools out there have a single purpose in life but they do what they do very well even though there isn't much to say about them. It doesn't make the tool any less important...perhaps it makes the tool that much more important!

My favorite feature is something I wish I had over 3 years ago. Status reports were required of me and I had incredible difficulty remembering what I did on Monday. Well, I eventually figured it out but I never wrote it down. Monday is a long time from Friday. This little gem tracks every task so I can quickly put together a status report. Also, during long droughts of no updates I can get depressed. Being able to tell myself what I did during the week (or even during the day!) is a huge booster shot for my personal esteem, which translates directly to increased productivity!

Anyway, give MyTaskFocus a go. It sits on the Windows taskbar and just works.
Oh! Time's up. Gotta move onto the next task.

General - Announcements: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.3 released

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:59:26 GMT

Subject: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.3 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-06-13 14:59:26

MyUpdate Toolkit got a big booster shot today. Now included with the package is a tool called Elevate. It is a very developer-centric tool designed to make it easy to integrate with existing CreateProcess() code.

Personally, I'm excited by this new addition to MyUpdate Toolkit. It makes UAC and Vista do things it wasn't really designed specifically to do but if you think about it, it does work out all right even if it is someone borderline.

I've written an article on Elevate and Vista UAC in general on CodeProject.com that covers how UAC works in-depth. Way more in-depth than any other resource out there. It does get pretty technical and there are a couple spots I'm kind of shaky on still, but overall the article is worth checking out. If you ever have problems with UAC, the article should be your first, and probably only, stop:

UAC: The Definitive Guide [^]

Not really meant for non-developers unless you understand the lingo. I tried to keep the article light and happy.

General - Announcements: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.2 released

Mon, 21 May 2007 20:49:56 GMT

Subject: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.2 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-05-21 20:49:56

For this release I didn't really do all that much. I fixed a major bug based on user feedback. It didn't crash so much as not do anything. It required a pretty odd combination of things to occur to even replicate the bug. Thankfully the user was kind enough to let me watch the computer in action and e-mailed me the necessary components needed to diagnose and replicate the problem.

Although, MyUpdate Toolkit has been kind of behind in terms of the latest base library. I've got a huge number of changes that I've made to the base library and this update picks all of those changes up. VerifyMyPC will need the changes too.

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.5 released

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:24:03 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.5 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-04-07 17:24:03

This release of VerifyMyPC is kind of embarrassing. I released 2.4 and, as usual, installed it on my own computer. This makes sure that I run the release build for a few days for the "just in case" scenario. Well, at some point later 2.4 crashed (on my computer). I was, uh, playing a video game demo at the time (gotta take a break sometimes) so I hit cancel on the "Send Error Report" dialog. I would later regret hitting cancel.

A few days later, I ran into a family member and installed 2.4 on their computer system. It crashed during the initial scan. At this point I knew I had a problem and started trying replicate it everywhere. After a while, I realized I couldn't replicate it and that it was an intermittent problem. I hate intermittent problems.

So I devised a solution. You know that "Send Error Report" dialog that pops up when an application crashes? Well, that is part of the Windows Error Reporting (WER) program Microsoft has set up. And it rarely works. The reason is because it costs a few thousand dollars to set up and then something like $500 per year after that. And even then it doesn't work right by default because you have to alter your application to participate in the program. Then, Microsoft's servers don't actually collect error reports until someone at the company logs in and says, "okay, start collecting data for this particular crash." In other words, it is a big, expensive, mess that no one but Microsoft uses and doesn't really work very well.

So, I found a little project on CodeProject.com that seemed like it would work. It did, sort of. Had to drop in something like 5,000 lines of code to get it to work properly. I wanted to create a crash reporting system that completely bypassed Microsoft's WER system and connected to my servers instead without having to do anything really special to my code. I initially tried the built-in method and that completely barfed. So, I hauled in my gigantic base library and started chopping together a solution. I initially tried SMTP thinking it would be great to contact the user with the problem. That failed, so I switched to HTTP. Worked like a charm. I make it sound easy, but let's just say I crammed 3 weeks of effort into 1 week and now need two weeks of vacation to recover. (The family member was only in town until today and they had a computer that I could physically be at that was a potential candidate for repeating the crash bug - that and they were slightly annoyed that I was running debug builds on their computer - so I really didn't have a choice but to cram*).

* Don't worry, I still work well under pressure and can produce high-quality code. But only for so long. I'm quite serious about the two weeks of vacation.

So, here's how it works: If VMPC crashes, the user sends the error report. The error report is zip-compressed and sent to my server. My server then turns around and e-mails me the report as an attachment. Then I open up my e-mail and say, "Oh! Yay! I can finally figure out where that crash bug is."

Weird solution to a problem, huh?

(As a bonus, this works for every program I write. I just have to drop in a couple files and, bam, free crash reporting capabilities).

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.4 released

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:57:54 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.4 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-03-29 02:57:54

This release was pretty crazy given the amount of stuff to do. Had to hunt down and squash a performance bug in VerifyMyPC Advanced someone found. There was a similar problem in VerifyMyPC, but not as prominent. Then I went and fixed a bug I found dealing with configuration information. Finally, I got to the main feature: Alternate Data Streams.

Many people don't realize the amount of STUFF that Microsoft puts into Windows. There is a lot of it and many things are hidden from users. Some things are even hidden from software developers like myself. Take Alternate Data Streams, or ADS, for example. ADS is a hidden feature of NTFS. Microsoft brought ADS to light when they released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP. Internet Explorer 6 got a hefty (and much-needed) upgrade. Part of that upgrade process was what happens with downloaded files. Every time Internet Explorer downloads a file to the hard drive and then you go to run it, a dialog appears in Windows warning you that the file came from the Internet. You can stop this warning from popping up by right-clicking and going into Properties and clicking the "Unblock" button. BUT you have probably wondered how Windows knows which files were downloaded from the Internet? Well, Internet Explorer saves a little file called "Zone.Information" alongside the file you downloaded as an Alternate Data Stream. This little file doesn't affect the file you downloaded. Think of it as metadata. However, also keep in mind that since this "metadata" is a file, the file is usually just a text file BUT it can also be executables and DLLs and other bits of nastiness. Toss in the fact that you can't see ADS from Windows without specialized tools and you've got a problem - especially considering that copying and moving the files also copies and moves the "metadata".

VerifyMyPC now detects Alternate Data Streams and is smart about what it does with them.

General - Announcements: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.1 released

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:50:20 GMT

Subject: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.1 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-03-23 21:50:20

MyUpdate Tookit 1.1 is out. One day after releasing VerifyMyPC. Talk about an incredibly short development cycle. I'm on fire. A user requested this latest feature (a couple days ago)...plus I added a couple smaller things I wanted to add.

The major thing in this release was the ability to mass deploy MyUpdate enabled applications. System administrators may (or may not) know about the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK - search Google). Well, this is kind of like that...only without the crashing wizard. Okay, no wizard - the whole thing is command-line oriented. But you get the picture.

I figured the best spot for the new code would be associated with "Syntax 5": The automated installation section. Instead of just installing, offer an option to "download only", put all the necessary files in a directory, and skip the installation step. It works well and the changes were pretty small with only a couple bugs.

I also made it possible in the toolkit to use local and UNC paths (e.g. \\SomeServer\SomeDir\Some.exe) for the data files AND where to "download" from. Sort of a hidden feature. Not 100% bug free in the Update Manager (e.g. the "Determine Automatically" buttons are kind of busted) but works fine in the main Update utility (which is really what matters). The main method of distribution is via HTTP servers - which could ALSO be used internally at large organizations to massively deploy updates.

BTW, I have gotten seriously annoyed with the latest InstallShield stuff. It constantly pops up a fancy, bloated GUI and wants to update software even though I've supposedly turned it off (went to options and turned off its updater stuff and it still shows up). Apparently InstallShield has made the newest version of their software not only more annoying from an end-user perspective (I'm not alone - run a few Google searches), but also made their updater prohibitively expensive to use. Which is why organizations are looking to MyUpdate Toolkit to solve their problems.

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.3 released

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:36:00 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.3 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-03-22 16:36:00

Let me give a good hearty cheer for this. Yipee!

VerifyMyPC v2.3 debuts a new feature I call internally "Summary Mode". This introduces analysis of what has changed on the user's system. See the VerifyMyPC page for a screenshot of a recently updated Windows XP box with various Windows Updates. Once you've seen the screenshot, come back here because there is more.

VerifyMyPC v2.3's new Summary feature offers a high-level overview of the system. Trust me, this is a lot harder to do than it probably looks...several thousand lines of code went into the effort and it still isn't perfect but is significantly better than staring at files and registry entries (but you can still do that if you need to). I estimate that roughly 95% of all problems will be solveable with the new Summary mode alone.

Plus, I added the ability to detect roughly 75% of the spyware out there as well as detection of virus-like and botnet-like behavior. It also has bad software detection that is known to cause crashes in other applications. These capabilities aren't perfect either but work pretty well.

I also (hopefully) fixed the bug in the main scanning engine. This bug is where someone suspends their computer at night and the next morning the scanning engine is unresponsive to requests. I fixed a few issues that are probably related to the bug. Took forever, but I was finally able to duplicate the bug one time and it only seemed to show up for users running NT4/2000 only.

That said, enjoy the new Summary mode! I'm already loving what it does.

General - Announcements: Current Project List

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:14:10 GMT

Subject: Current Project List
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-03-17 20:14:10

Here is my current development schedule:

MyProBB v2.4: Under development.
MyProBB v2.5-v3.3: Feature list open to debate.
VerifyMyPC v2.7: Feature list open to debate (but I'd like to leave what is slated as-is).

I am currently focusing on MyProBB development. It needs a lot of work on new features. It should start looking a lot like a feature-laden forum somewhere around v2.5. Right now the feature list is kind of skimpy since I've got such a heavy focus on forum security.

Also, one new, unnamed project: Finished. This will become a new product once I've got features in my other products.

Two new projects in the pipeline. Both are on hold. Two newly critical projects in the pipeline are on hold.

As usual, I accept feature requests (preferably via e-mail or over the phone - that way I can directly tell you what version I have your requested feature slated for - assuming it is relevant to the product). The above list is NOT the finalized order of development until it is actually being developed. This means if I think your feature is important, I will slate it for an earlier release (pushing others down the list) and possibly move it to the next version to develop.

Note that there is no timetable. I operate on a "when it gets done" basis. This allows me to properly develop quality software. However, I still only have 2-3 weeks turnaround times (for relatively short feature lists) due to two things: I'm a pretty good developer and I try to automate as many of my processes as is reasonable.

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.2 released

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 22:13:23 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.2 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-03-09 22:13:23

VerifyMyPC v2.3 is just around the corner! Been working like crazy to get this huge modification done and this first pass looks really good. Still have documentation and website changes to do (and some testing left). Which might take a bit because this change is fairly big.

(Got my first Vista bug report yesterday. Smart people are installing VerifyMyPC first thing after getting/installing Vista.)

I'm excited. Perhaps too excited. VerifyMyPC v2.3 is just a really important release for me.

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.2 released

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:01:00 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.2 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-02-26 07:01:00

Due to an upgrade problem with PHP, the announcement for VerifyMyPC 2.1 didn't happen. But nothing really big happened there except a few minor bugfixes and elimination of a couple things that annoyed me.

VerifyMyPC 2.2 introduced a way to ignore directories to scan. Most likely this feature will be used by software developers (like myself) wanting to ignore certain directories. A user on one of the mailing lists I own asked for this feature. Just wanted to make sure people know that I DO implement features that people request.

Of course I get the occasional really bizarre request for some feature that makes little to no sense. I e-mail/contact the person for clarification and they don't reply. It would seem to me that it should be common courtesy for someone who wants a feature badly enough to ask for it that if I ask for clarification that the person would reply or just pick up the phone and call me.

I've got features planned out to v3.6 so far. But that doesn't matter. If your feature request is easy to do or seems incredibly useful or I want the feature as well or it means a large number of licenses (or some combination), I'll slate it for an earlier release. I'm trying to make each release more manageable - 2.0 was really hard but 2.1 and 2.2 were both pretty quick releases of about 1-2 weeks between each one. 2.3 is going to be a lot harder. Don't want to say a lot here, but it will address the primary feedback I've been getting. It is also a feature I have been wanting for a while.

But I love feedback. It tells me what you are thinking. How to improve the product to better suit your needs. Or just a passing idea that crossed your mind. Even if you duplicate the request that someone else has made, that will tell me that there is more than one person wanting the feature.

Anyway, 2.2 is out. I'm getting excited. 2.3 is around the corner. Get ready for some fairly impressive changes.

Products - MyProBB: MyProBB v1.3 crashes PHP 5.2.1

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 05:58:48 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.3 crashes PHP 5.2.1
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-02-26 05:58:48

Sorry about the MyProBB forum being down but I was working on an issue with the PHP team. Apparently a carefully crafted string passed to a certain function in PHP 5.2.1 can crash PHP (buffer overflow) along with the web server PHP is running under in some cases (DoS). Kind of scary combination.

If you are running 5.2.1, consider using a snapshot Win32 binary of 5.2 (snaps.php.net [^]). Might not be entirely stable but can be a temporary fix until 5.2.2 is released.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.3 released

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:36:46 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.3 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-02-08 18:36:46

Whew! This release was hard. I added preliminary multilingual support to the application. What this means right now is basically nothing has changed except it is now possible to make this forum available in other languages. I sort of ran out of time for this release to fully include multilingual support. What is really cool is the language stack, which could potentially look like:

System: English
Forum: Spanish
User: Chinese (Mandarin)

And since partial translations are allowed, you could potentially have all three languages appear on the same page. Highly unlikely, but it is possible. I'm looking for people willing to donate some time and do at least partial translations of the critical parts of the forum.

There is also a fix for a minor bug where members could view posts they weren't authorized to view.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.2 released

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:04:08 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.2 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-01-29 17:04:08

Added UTF-8 (Unicode) support to the forum.
Also added support for certain HTML tags.

The hardest part about this version was learning how Unicode works. It took a LOT of digging around (research) to figure out how to integrate proper Unicode support. There are no examples on how to upgrade existing tables in MySQL to Unicode. I eventually found a few links to the right tidbits of information and got a working picture of how Unicode works. Seems to work okay. Then again, I don't understand Russian or Mandarin but the characters going in and out look identical.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.1 released

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 05:28:32 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.1 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2007-01-24 05:28:32

Probably a world record for adding a new feature to a software package, but MyProBB v1.1 is released. In this version, I added, in order of importance: An upgrade system, an automatic check for updates, and named template pages.

The upgrade system is really slick. It has the ability to completely recover from a failed upgrade. If it fails, it shows you two hyperlinks: Continue and Rollback. Continue does a partial rollback of the failed step and then continues forward until another error occurs or completes the upgrade. Rollback undoes everything that has been done up to this point from the previous version.

And, of course, everything is done with security as the primary objective. MyProBB v1.1 is significantly more secure than v1.0. So, upgrade today!

Products - MyProBB: problem installing

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 02:32:35 GMT

Subject: problem installing
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-21 02:32:35

Xavier wrote:
is forum spam really that important of an issue? i've not really heard of it but i only occasionally visit forums. of course this is the company's first attempt at using forum software.

Actually, spammers come in two forms: Script kiddies (automated bots) and humans. Human spammers (e.g. spammer sweatshops) that register are a lot harder to deal with. Within 3-6 months of putting up almost any forum, you will have to deal with spam of both types. MyProBB employs a whole slew of features to stop spammers, but new member moderation is the biggest obstacle and requires hard work to get around. Hard work is something most spammers won't have the time for.

Xavier wrote:
edit: hey, it looks like i'm off that new member moderation thing you talked about. thanks

I figured you were legit after the first couple posts, so I removed you from moderation status. You're welcome...although you have only been unmoderated from just one type of moderation that MyProBB offers. Of course, if you misbehave, you'll probably get put back on moderation status.

Products - MyProBB: problem installing

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 02:21:18 GMT

Subject: problem installing
Author: Xavier
Posted: 2006-12-21 02:21:18

webmaster wrote:
It is worthless to spam any MyProBB-based forum because only moderators see the spam and just delete it and usually permanently ban the user in the process.

is forum spam really that important of an issue? i've not really heard of it but i only occasionally visit forums. of course this is the company's first attempt at using forum software.

edit: hey, it looks like i'm off that new member moderation thing you talked about. thanks

Products - MyProBB: problem installing

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 02:11:49 GMT

Subject: problem installing
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-21 02:11:49

Xavier wrote:
thanks a ton! you are amazing! i was missing config.php

by the way, i love the emoticons, professional and nice looking
i have one more question, how come my msg didn't appear right away?

my company plans on licensing this forum as soon as i determine if it is a good fit for us. so far i've been impressed.

keep up the good work!

Thanks for the compliment. MyProBB is some of my best work in PHP and I'm always trying to improve my graphics design skills.

The reason your message didn't appear right away is due to a feature of MyProBB called "New Member Moderation". That is, a moderator has to approve posts made by new members until the user is removed from moderation status. This is to make sure you aren't a spammer or a predator. Some forum moderators choose to leave all members on moderation - others wait until a few posts go through before unmoderating them. It is worthless to spam any MyProBB-based forum because only moderators see the spam and just delete it and usually permanently ban the user in the process.

Products - MyProBB: problem installing

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 01:55:49 GMT

Subject: problem installing
Author: Xavier
Posted: 2006-12-21 01:55:49

thanks a ton! you are amazing! i was missing config.php

by the way, i love the emoticons, professional and nice looking
i have one more question, how come my msg didn't appear right away?

my company plans on licensing this forum as soon as i determine if it is a good fit for us. so far i've been impressed.

keep up the good work!

Products - MyProBB: problem installing

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 01:05:02 GMT

Subject: problem installing
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-21 01:05:02

Xavier wrote:
found myprobb while looking for a forum and yours made me pretty impressed. however, i put the files on my server and i just get the following message:

Fatal Error! Initialization failed!

Type: Warning [E_WARNING] (2)
Message: Security Error: You do not have permission to see the error message [E_SECURITY].
Initialized
Array
(
[Debug] => 1
[Template] => 1
[Config] => 0
[Database] => 0
[Globals] => 0
)

what does this mean? why do i not have permission to see stuff?

This tells me that the debugging facilities loaded fine, the template loaded fine, but the configuration failed to load. More than likely you didn't run install.php as the instructions in the readme.txt file states. There is also the possibility of bad information in your config.php file.

No one has permissions to see the debug messages. You are asking about part of the security of the forum. When there is an error message, only a fully logged in administrator can see them within the website. Error messages are generally logged in the database in the logs table with the exception of initialization errors. As long as a correct config.php file exists, you should never see initialization errors.

Remember, if you use this forum, you have to pay for it. MyProBB is not free...but it isn't expensive either.

Products - MyProBB: problem installing

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:38:48 GMT

Subject: problem installing
Author: Xavier
Posted: 2006-12-21 00:38:48

found myprobb while looking for a forum and yours made me pretty impressed. however, i put the files on my server and i just get the following message:

Fatal Error! Initialization failed!

Type: Warning [E_WARNING] (2)
Message: Security Error: You do not have permission to see the error message [E_SECURITY].
File: Security Error: You do not have permission to see the filename [E_SECURITY].
Line Number: Security Error: You do not have permission to see the line number [E_SECURITY].
Timestamp: 2006-12-21 00:33:30
Variables: Security Error: You do not have permission to see the variables [E_SECURITY].
Initialized
Array
(
[Debug] => 1
[Template] => 1
[Config] => 0
[Database] => 0
[Globals] => 0
)

Stack trace: Security Error: You do not have permission to see the stack trace [E_SECURITY].

what does this mean? why do i not have permission to see stuff?

Products - MyUpdate Toolkit: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 05:26:55 GMT

Subject: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-18 05:26:55

People who first encounter MyUpdate Toolkit ask lots of questions about it. This is meant as a beginner's aid to answer frequently asked questions about the product but it is by no means exhaustive.

Q: What is MyUpdate Toolkit?
A: MyUpdate Toolkit is a set of tools for developers to quickly and easily deploy software updates to users. MyUpdate is a very powerful utility that arms the user with information about why they should upgrade to the latest version of your software. A detailed comparison chart presents all sorts of information that has traditionally been hard to put on websites and displays exactly what users want to know. The user is presented with a dialog with the ability to upgrade or downgrade to any version of your software they choose. MyUpdate requires a web server and does not contact CubicleSoft's servers.

Q: Who is MyUpdate Toolkit designed for?
A: Software developers and some IT personnel will get the most out of this toolkit. End-users will use the toolkit fairly transparently (the curious might find the required .txt file in the product's directory). This piece of software is incredibly powerful and feature-laden. I'm told that it is significantly more powerful than the Mac's update utility, which, according to the same people, is apparently more powerful than Microsoft's Windows update utility. Never used a Mac, but I figure it is probably true. (You could buy me a Mac Mini or Macbook and I might just port this utility to the Mac).

Q: I used application XYZ and discovered they are using MyUpdate Toolkit. Do I have to pay you for this software?
A: No. The MyUpdate utility from the end-user perspective is freeware, but if you really like it, donations help feed me and further this product's development. Developers are the only ones who have to pay for the software (but that depends on the type of software).

Q: Can you help me integrate MyUpdate Toolkit into my product?
A: There is a complete tutorial included with the toolkit. Read and follow that through first. I made MyUpdate Toolkit available to the software development community at such a cheap price because most developers can figure it out. Some people who hang out at this forum might be able to help you with integration as well. If you are still having difficulties, I have a consulting fee that isn't cheap (on-site: $75/hr + airfare, hotel, and transportation costs; off-site conference calls: $50/hr).

If your question was not answered, feel free to ask your own.

Products - MyUpdate Toolkit: Read this before posting!

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:51:05 GMT

Subject: Read this before posting!
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-18 04:51:05

This forum is for MyUpdate Toolkit discussions.
You may:

- Ask questions about MyUpdate Toolkit.
- Ask for help with MyUpdate Toolkit.
- Request for direct technical support if you have paid for MyUpdate Toolkit.
- Request features if you have paid for MyUpdate Toolkit.
- Report bugs in MyUpdate Toolkit.

Do not flame other members.
Do not use inappropriate language.
Do not spam this forum.

Violations will result in warnings and/or banning.

Products - MyProBB: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:36:47 GMT

Subject: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-18 04:36:47

People who first encounter MyProBB ask lots of questions about it. This is meant as a beginner's aid to answer frequently asked questions about the product but it is by no means exhaustive.

Q: What is MyProBB?
A: MyProBB is a web forum designed specifically for businesses wanting to communicate with customers. It has forum security as its primary goal to keep spammers and hackers/defacers out while letting legitimate customers in. It also has several business-oriented features such as the ability to integrate the forum with your current purchase system (e.g. access to specific forums based on what the customer purchases). Every SQL query is protected from SQL injection. Every bit of HTML is scrubbed for cross-site scripting attempts. All that plus a crisp layout, nice graphics, and a great user interface make it ideal for businesses wanting to make their customer's experience even better.

Q: Why another web forum?
A: At the time of this writing, MyProBB is the only forum in existence geared solely for business purposes. Forums are a great communication mechanism with users and between users. CubicleSoft used to use a forum called phpBB and had to shut it down when the spammers hit the site after 3 months of it being online. It took a lot of time and effort to keep the old forum clean of spam. If you are frustrated with spam or defacements in your current forum (even after "modding" it), evaluate MyProBB. Spam in public forums run by a business makes the business look bad from the customer's point of view.

Q: Is there a laundry list of features for this forum?
A: You may wish to visit Forum Matrix [^]. This website allows you to compare various forums side-by-side to find the right fit for you. If you are a business, MyProBB is more than likely the solution you are looking for. I developed this forum with security at the forefront of my mind and know how SQL injection works and how cross-site scripting works. I wanted a core set of features as well such as RSS feeds, a security-oriented privilege system, and the ability to integrate the forum with my purchase system. I also wanted to keep the spammers out since I got fed up with not being able to communicate with customers via the forums. I also wanted to moderate posts for language content so foul language never made it to Google. Keep in mind that Forum Matrix doesn't have some of these comparisons because MyProBB is the only web forum with business-oriented features.

Q: I want to integrate this forum into my website. Can you help me?
A: If you are stuck installing the forum for evaluation purposes, I'll gladly help you out. However, if you want official help from CubicleSoft with website integration efforts (i.e. visual look-and-feel), you need to purchase a valid license. Licensing MyProBB is $25 per year. That covers technical support, upgrades, and feature requests. If you need a custom solution, call CubicleSoft for a quote.

If your question was not answered, feel free to ask your own.

Products - MyProBB: Read this before posting!

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 03:59:47 GMT

Subject: Read this before posting!
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-18 03:59:47

This forum is for MyProBB (My Professional Bulletin Board) discussions.
You may:

- Ask questions about MyProBB.
- Ask for help with MyProBB setup and use.
- Request for direct technical support if you have paid for MyProBB.
- Request features if you have paid for MyProBB.
- Report bugs in MyProBB.

Do not flame other members.
Do not use inappropriate language.
Do not spam this forum.

Violations will result in warnings and/or banning.

Products - VerifyMyPC: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 01:18:37 GMT

Subject: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-18 01:18:37

People who first encounter VerifyMyPC ask lots of questions about it. This is meant as a beginner's aid to answer frequently asked questions about the product but it is by no means exhaustive.

Q: What is VerifyMyPC?
A: VerifyMyPC (aka VMPC for those who like acronyms) is a change tracking and management tool. It is designed to aid the IT professional in significantly reducing time spent on technical support. The average time spent on any given technical support issue is 30 minutes to 2 hours. With VerifyMyPC, those times drastically drop to 5 minutes.

Q: Who is VerifyMyPC designed for?
A: Eventually VerifyMyPC will be accessible to everyone. Currently, only IT/computer savvy people will understand it. However, even if you don't understand how the computer operates, you probably know someone who understands the PC and provides technical support for you. If they charge you by the hour for support, you can save yourself a bundle of money by having VerifyMyPC installed. Likewise, IT personnel should be installing VerifyMyPC on every computer they plan on supporting to reduce future technical support costs.

Q: When is the best time to install VerifyMyPC?
A: The absolute best time to install VerifyMyPC is immediately after installing Windows and before any drivers, applications, or patches are installed. The next best time to install VerifyMyPC is right now.

Q: I would like to learn how to better use my computer. Can VerifyMyPC teach me how to do that?
A: You don't have to know how to interpret VerifyMyPC results if you know someone who is computer savvy. And if you don't, look for a local "Windows user group"...most cities have at least one and they will get you connected with the right people. However, if you are interested in learning more and have a couple hours, you can learn a lot about your computer. Included with VerifyMyPC is a help file. You can get to it by starting the VerifyMyPC Scan Manager (the main UI) and pressing the F1 key (at the top of your keyboard). In the help file is a section titled "Learn About Your Computer" which gives a crash course on how your computer works. It is some pretty hefty reading, but if you can understand it you will start to appreciate what VerifyMyPC does for you.

Q: I have a problem with my computer. Can you fix it?
A: In my opinion, one-on-one technical support with someone you know and trust is way better than getting help over the Internet. And if they mess your computer up, you know where they live... Having VerifyMyPC installed before any problems happen will make it really easy for them to fix your computer problems. Almost any techie you know will come over to your place if you pay them for their effort and offer to feed them dinner.

If your question was not answered, feel free to ask your own.

Products - VerifyMyPC: Read this before posting!

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 21:41:30 GMT

Subject: Read this before posting!
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-17 21:41:30

This forum is for VerifyMyPC discussions.
You may:

- Ask questions about VerifyMyPC or VerifyMyPC Advanced.
- Ask for help with VerifyMyPC.
- Request for direct technical support if you have paid for VerifyMyPC.
- Request features if you have paid for VerifyMyPC.
- Report bugs in VerifyMyPC.

Do not flame other members.
Do not use inappropriate language.
Do not spam this forum.

Violations will result in warnings and/or banning.

General - Off-Topic Discussion: Read before posting!

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 13:30:13 GMT

Subject: Read before posting!
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-17 13:30:13

You can post just about anything to this forum with the following conditions:

- It must not be offensive (e.g. no racial slurs).
- No foul language.
- It should be interesting.
- No spam. Not that spam gets through to MyProBB users, this isn't a forum for spammers.

That's about it. Enjoy!

General - General Discussion: Read this before posting!

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 13:16:03 GMT

Subject: Read this before posting!
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-17 13:16:03

This forum is for general discussions about CubicleSoft.
For instance, if I get ill, there might be a quickie note about that here.
If you have a great idea for a brand-new product, feel free to post it here.
If you find a competitor's product, it may or may not be posted.
Product testimonials are okay here as well.

What is unacceptable for this forum is off-topic discussions or product-specific discussions.
If you don't like me or have a personal grudge, talk to me.
"Advertising" non-CubicleSoft products is unacceptable.
Keep cussing and other foul language off this forum.

General - Announcements: VerifyMyPC v2.0 released

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 06:45:22 GMT

Subject: VerifyMyPC v2.0 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-17 06:45:22

Wow. What an amazing nine months this has been.

VerifyMyPC v2.0 is FINALLY released. For those who aren't aware, I have had nothing but trouble with this piece of software. I completely re-wrote it from the ground up. Almost nothing of the original code exists. And it was one performance issue after another after another. And after working out each performance issue, I had huge bugs to work out as well. This got to be a very tedious process day after day after day. It doesn't help that VerifyMyPC can only be tested a handful of times each day.

Nine months later, I have a brand-new, shiny product that is VerifyMyPC v2.0. It is a complete rewrite that achieves the same goals as the v1.x series without all the issues/complaints/flak/etc. I received for v1.x. My original goal for writing VerifyMyPC was to be able to tell me what side effects occur from things like malware that might get on my machine as well as detect conflicting software packages that don't play nice together.

VerifyMyPC v2.0 accomplishes that same goal in a slightly different fashion. I now prefer to view the software package as "change tracking and management software." This tool is something I have wanted for so long - just to have it makes me absolutely excited. I constantly have people coming to me to fix their computer problems and they have no idea what is wrong and I waste two hours figuring out what is wrong and fixing the problem. Now that VerifyMyPC v2.0 is out, I will be installing this on everyone's computer systems that I end up fixing. That way, if I encounter the same computer in the future, it will take 5 minutes instead of 2 hours! Seriously, this software is completely amazing for IT people. I have about a dozen of absolutely favorite applications that I use. If I were to create a "top 10 apps of all time" list, VerifyMyPC would be about 3rd or 4th on that list.

The big question: Who needs VerifyMyPC? Everyone. This is a mass-market product. All my other products sit in the shadows of this beast. Everyone I show VMPC v2.0 to is instantly sold on it. Even non-IT people. While the current version is geared for IT helpdesks delpoying to the organization (i.e. not exactly for Average-Joe-User yet), average users should install it so that their IT geeky friends can spend less time working on their computer...and IT geeks should be installing it everywhere.

The best part is the pricetag. This product is free (donationware) for personal use. All other uses is $10 per user. (Personal use means you plan on doing your own technical support - if someone else is involved, even to install it, you need to send $10 in my direction). What's $10 to you? Probably nothing. To me, it means I get to eat, wear clothes (it is better than no clothes), pay for the bandwidth, provide technical support to you, etc. CubicleSoft is a small business and it probably shows, but I don't care.

Now some of you are probably saying, "Why $10? Is he a bad programmer? Is the price related to the quality of the software?" Those who might have followed along during development might have gotten the impression that this is a poorly written piece of software. To the contrary, I was merely concerned about application performance and only vented my most frustrating moments online. The software is of extremely high quality, is some of my absolute best work ever, and perhaps too well-tested.

No - I set the price at $10 to make it affordable. Software costs so much these days. Look at Windows Vista - Microsoft is charging an arm, a leg, an eyeball, and half an ear for their latest OS. Prices on software are depressing. $10 is incredibly refreshing.

I wander the VerifyMyPC forum. I'm interested in what you have to say about the product and, of course, ideas for improvement.

General - Announcements: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.0 released

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 03:06:22 GMT

Subject: MyUpdate Toolkit v1.0 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-17 03:06:22

While developing VerifyMyPC v2.0, I came upon a dilemma. What to do about product upgrades. See, VerifyMyPC v2.0 is donationware for personal use, but I wanted to be able to allow users to have the same ease of upgrading as the v1.x series had.

So, the question came to mind: Should I stick with the same half-baked solution I used in 1.x and just tweak it a little or come up with a whole new product?

Obviously, I ended up choosing the latter. MyUpdate Toolkit is one of the better software applications I have ever made. Integrating it into any product is incredibly simple and there is a complete tutorial to guide you through the process of understanding how it works. Once integrated, the process to create an updated version of a software product is as simple as editing and uploading a tiny file to your web server. And most of the process is point-and-click (minus installer integration - but that's more or less copy-and-paste).

I realize the target audience for this product is pretty restrictive, but the best part, IMO, is this product is donationware. Developers donate $20 for non-personal use for every version of their software they release. But use good judgement about when to donate - if you release updates every week, donate when some major feature is added - if you release once every 6 months, donate then. And if your product is freeware, donate if you feel your conscience weighing down on you, but it isn't required.

Note that only for software authors is the donation thing in effect. The end-user will never see a dialog saying, "I'm hungry, please donate money and feed me."

There are a lot of features in MyUpdate Toolkit. It is designed to give the user information about your product on a level they have never been able to get before (there was no good way to present such information until now). I've always sort-of liked Microsoft's half-baked Windows "Automatic Update" tool, but what it has lacked is the ability for developers to get their software into it so that when Windows updates on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, your software updates as well. However, I've been told that MyUpdate Toolkit is significantly better than even Mac's update utility - apparently Mac's tool doesn't let users _downgrade_ back to previous versions and Mac's tool is supposedly better than Microsoft's. I don't own a Mac, so I don't know. So, users can try out the latest version of your product and, if they don't like it, go back to the previous version. These were industry experts telling me that the beta of v1.0 (I showed a pre-1.0 around to a bunch of people) is better than anything else out there.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to market this really nifty software product.

If you want a taste of what MyUpdate Toolkit can do, download VerifyMyPC. You need VMPC on your computer anyway. The upgrade tool is buried in the program you launch from your desktop. Currently there aren't any upgrades, but knowing it is there brings me much happiness.

General - Announcements: MyProBB v1.0 released

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 02:28:42 GMT

Subject: MyProBB v1.0 released
Author: webmaster
Posted: 2006-12-17 02:28:42

MyProBB is short for My Professional Bulletin Board. This web forum software is geared for businesses who are tired of having to constantly battle with forum defacements, constant upgrades, spammers, and the like. It is also geared for those who want a forum that is quick and easy to setup, doesn't have a zillion features, and just works...yet has that professional graphics designer touch.

I've been asked, "Why another web forum? Is it some sort of 'rite of passage'?"

Well, previously CubicleSoft (um, that's me referring to myself as a company - makes me look important) ran a forum called phpBB. Supposedly that is one of the best forum packages out there. It comes up every time someone asks which web forum they should try out. It is fairly simple to set up...unless you run some weird server configuration (like I do) but once it is up and running, it only takes a few minutes to get forums made and you are off and running.

For about 2-3 months.

Then the spammers arrive. That's where you start learning about things like forum "mods" to combat spam. Mods are unofficial hacks to either solve a problem that should not exist or introduce new features (or both). However, when you start modding forums, upgrades to the forum software becomes a nightmare. And I have yet to see a single mod that completely stops spam or is bug free.

I had to literally shut down my forum to keep the spammers out. I looked for an alternate solution and found none. And I really didn't want to mess with the source code of any of the forums out there...it would have taken just as long to figure out how to change their source as it would be to create a brand new forum. Also, I wanted something just a tad more professional than phpBB. This _IS_ a business and I want to look good to my customers.

Despite being a 1.0, MyProBB has an impressive feature set. I first sat down and decided what the most important things to me from a business perspective were. I came up with this really short list in order of importance:

- Security.
- Anti-spammer.
- Anti-hacker.
- Ability to defend my image.
- Ability to integrate forum with purchase system.
- Simple moderation.
- RSS feeds.
- Logging.
- Professional-looking layout and icons.
- Should be fast.

When I was researching all the forums out there, I noticed every single forum has had major security vulnerabilities in the past year. Ever since I started working with VerifyMyPC [^], I've become a security nut. I knew that if I wanted to make a forum for businesses, I needed to focus on things like anti-SQL injection and anti-cross-site scripting code first and features second.

I then determined what features are absolutely useless. Stuff I never use in other forums and things most other people just find annoying. Take polls, for instance. Online polls in forums that actually have "statistical significance" are so rare that it isn't worth the effort to even create the poll in the first place.

You will note that I want the ability to "defend my image". IMO, it looks pretty bad when spammers plague a forum. It says to customers that the company can't stay ahead of the spammers. Not to mention, if the customer is subscribed to the forum via RSS, that spam will show up in their RSS feed reader...which makes the problem 10 times worse and can cause you to lose customers. That's not good.

You should also note that performance of the forum is at the bottom of the list. I still factored it into the development effort and was able to get every page down to about 8-10 simple SQL queries. Page loads are very fast, but SQL query performance was kind of an afterthought. (Although, I'm pretty sure there will be some very impressed people out there who think the SQL queries are pure genius). If you need additional performance, I can work with you to improve the product for your needs.

Well, that's enough discussion on this. If you have any questions about MyProBB, feel free to leave a message in the forum. BTW, I always run the latest available default MyProBB forum on the server. Lots of forum authors "tweak out"/"mod" their default forum or change its style so you don't get a good feel for how it will look on your server. What you see here is what you get (WYSIWYG).

MyProBB is available for evaluation purposes. Licensing MyProBB for business use is $25 per year. That covers technical support, upgrade, and feature request/implementation costs. IMO, this is a fair price for a professionally written piece of software.