the rich! ramblings

http://cms.skunk2.com/id/441/Honda-Tech-Founders-Day-In-Court/

http://static.skunk2.com/files/pdf/FirstAmendedComplaint.pdf

The short version of the complaint filed is as follows: Dustin Adler alleges that he was a co-owner of RelyNet, and subsequently Honda-Tech. Dustin Adler is the owner of the copyrights for the ZeroForum software that powered Honda-Tech. DiCarlo “fires”Adler from RelyNet, and then eventually sells Honda-Tech for $2.6 million. Adler is claiming DiCarlo willfully infringed on his copyrights and is seeking damages.

…and there you have it. FireVortex was created as ZeroForum stalled. Now lets hope VMG can avoid all the legal mess in this suit.

Experimental VWvortex deals finder is now live (little late for the holidays) for forum Advertisers – Parses out the forums on a regular basis, matches up users to the FireVortex company database.

Also setup a RSS feed – FireVortex RSS Index and Twitter updates – please follow @vwvortexdeals

Who knows how long the current method will last though.

No fancy features like other deal sites – but I’ll entertain the idea if popularity grows

Looks like VWvortex will be changing their forum software provider in the near future (finally, ZeroForum was dead years ago). New FireVortex features will be put on hold until I know what is forthcoming.

Actually we are looking into moving to different forum software. No small undertaking as you can imagine and it will likely result in a bunch of other issues and growing pains to sort through.

Moving something this big to a completely different type of software won’t be easy, but hopefully it will resolve the issues.

- jamie

Download Now – FireVortex v1.7.7 for Firefox 3.6b3 (and probably RC) is now available…

Some minor bug fixes – especially with VMG’s new Kilometer Magazine forum site.

Future Plans:
- Converting data storage to sqlite (and implement a watchlist archive)
- Converting greasemonkey script used to parse out watch list, im history, new ims, etc into background process that processes data when online – NOT just browsing the forums. Some sort of notification pop-up when new data is found.
- Weave support? – common request is to sync data (favorite forums, buddy list)

Excellent news from Mozilla this morning… “AMO welcomes self-hosted add-ons and HTML”

I just added FireVortex to AMO! I always felt it was too site-specific to list on Mozilla – plus updates are needed very quickly if the forum html code changes. Just another way to find the add-on… (i’m sure i will still receive the occasional angry email about users trying to research Fire and Vortexes on google search )

Preferences MDC has an example for setting a “nsPref:changed” observer but I needed to watch some cookies as well for FireVortex. I was unable to find a clear cut example so a slight modification and it seems to work:


function CookieListener(func) {
var cl = Components.classes['@mozilla.org/observer-service;1']
.getService(Components.interfaces.nsIObserverService);

myListenerCookie.register();


*EDIT…

found this throws a random Error: Components is not defined
added
if (typeof Components == 'undefined') return;

as a fail-safe… not sure why this is happening…

*DOUBLE EDIT…

my bad… don’t keep the profile/extensions folder under application data open during an update

*note… twitter bots are bad. (just tweeted and server was slammed with bots)

Download Now – FireVortex v1.7.3 for Firefox 3.5 is now Available… did not have enough time to incorporate all the features on my list, so a few updates over the next month is to be expected.

Also, installed bbPress for a FireVortex Support Forums which includes an auto-registration feature built-in to FireVortex. bbPress needs more tweaking but RC3 seems solid. a support forums for an extension that fixes another forum, i’m confused too.

…and working on a new site template. almost done but a lot more programming left for new site features.

I would like to thank a fellow VWvortex member (loopsnew) for creating a new logo for FireVortex. (I may have added some small tweaks to the original design)

FireVortex Logo

A new site and features will be rolled out shortly. The FireVortex Twitter page has been updated already.

FireVortex runs on Greasemonkey which kicks in after the page has loaded. VWvortex forums (and VMG sister forums) use a number of third party tracking sites. Unfortunately (like today) those sites go down and cause a delay before FireVortex starts.

I recommend installing Adblock Plus and add the following URLs to the filter:

vwvortex.jbrlsr.com
la.jbrlsr.com
prstats.postrelease.com
www.big-boards.com
static.chartbeat.com
ping.chartbeat.net
http.cdnlayer.com

OR

I have created a simple filter subscription list which will ONLY block the third-party tracking urls used on the forums (no ads). The filter subscription rules are restricted to the VMG forum domains. I make no guarantee and this may cause other javascript errors to appear in the console. Some of the third-party sites do not use try/catch blocks – prtracker()

How to add an Adblock Plus Filter Subscription:
Open ADP Options (Tools > Add-Ons > Adblock Plus > Options or right click on ADP status icon > Preferences)
Filters > Add filter subscription
Add a different subscription
Enter a title and this url:

http://update.firevortex.net/abp/vmg.tracking.txt

**edit – 5 Aug, 2009 – updated list
**edit – 1 Sep, 2009 – added filter subscription list
**edit – 28 Oct, 2009 – updated list
**edit – 20 Jan, 2010 – updated list

Removing a cookie from an extension…

IS:
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/cookiemanager;1"]
.getService(Components.interfaces.nsICookieManager)
.remove(“forums.vwvortex.com”, “firevortexfavforums”, “/”, false);

INSTEAD OF:
cookieSvc.setCookieString(uri, null, “firevortexfavforums=; domain=forums.vwvortex.com; expires=Thu Jan 01 1970 00:00:01 GMT-0700; path=/”, null);