Mike Cohen

Ning allows spammers to abuse their system

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Several times a week I get crap like this from someone who set up a Ning site for the sole purpose of sending spam. Even though I have my privacy settings to NOT send email for any requests, I still get these. There’s no way to completely block invitations or messages from anyone not a friend.

From: Gidion Kalu
Reply-To: do-not-reply@xxx.ning.com
To: Mike Cohen
Subject: YOUR COMPENSATION OF $3.5M.

Gidion Kalu has sent you a message on gidion Kalu

Attention Please,

I am Barr.Gdion Kalu and I am very happy to inform you about
my success in getting that fund transferred.

Now I want you to contact my secretary on his email address below and
receive your compensation of $3.5M from him: NAME: Mr Chinedu Obi
EMAIL:chineduobi11117@yahoo.fr Kindly reconfirm to him the following below
information:

Your full name_________________________
Your address__________________________
Your country___________________________
Your age______________________________
Your occupation________________________
Your cell Phone number______________________

Note that if you did not send him the above information complete, he
will not release the cheque to you because he has to be sure that it
is you. Ask him to send you the total sum of ($3.5m )USD CASHIER’S
CHEQUE ,which I kept for you. Note also that I will not be reached by
email or phone for now because I am currently away in Japan for
investment purpose with my share and I will be busy till about six
months time or a year.

Best regards,

Barr.Gdion Kalu.

To join this network, click here: http://xxx.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?emailAddress=xyz

—
To control which emails you receive on gidion Kalu, go to:
http://XXX.ning.com/?xgo=vzzzzz

Movie FAIL

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The ICHC Web site has switched from YouTube to Viddler for embedded videos. Unfortunately their videos aren’t compatible with the iPhone (even in Mobile Safari they’re broken). I currently don’t have any work-around until they can provide iPhone compatible videos.

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A ratings solution

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I’ve figured out a possible solution to avoid future rejections due to “mature or suggestive” content. I can append “/tag/g-rated” to the URL for FAILblog, which will prevent it from returning any such content.

I’ll probably add that tag to the free version, allowing it to get a 4 rating, but omit it from the premium version, allowing a more mature rating. On the other hand, it may not even be necessary depending on what’s appearing at FAILblog when Apple’s review visits it.

ICHC 1.5.1 rejected

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Apple has rejected the I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.1 update due to “mature or suggestive themes”.

Thank you for submitting I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) to the App Store. We’ve reviewed I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because it is not appropriately rated. Our review indicates that the application content is not consistent with the current rating because it contains sexual content and mature or suggestive themes.

Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binary and rate your application appropriately.

The content in question was these items found at FAILblog.

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Topaz Photoshop plugins now work in Aperture

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I bought Topaz Labs plugin bundle at Macworld Expo and I’ve been very impressed with its capabilities. Today they introduced Topaz Fusion Express, an add-on which lets you use their Photoshop plugins in Aperture. When you install the plugins, it will appear in the ‘edit with…’ menu and will open an editing window where you can use the plugin exactly as you do in Photoshop.

The plugins include Adjust, which can produce some really amazing effects; simplify, which lets you create painting, sketching, and line drawing effects from your photos; Clean, which smoothes, adjusts texture, and enhances edges; and DeNoise & DeJPEG which remove noise and compression artifacts.

Here’s an example of the color blast effect in Topaz Adjust.

Original Image

Before 		Topaz Adjust Color Blast

After

Unfortunately, installing it overwrote my old Topaz plugins and wiped out the license keys. When I re-entered the keys, they were no longer recognized. I’m waiting for Topaz support to resolve this. Update: Topaz just sent me updated keys.

ICHC Crash Fixed

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We’ve reverted the server side change that was causing ICHC app to crash, so that problem should be fixed now. I’ve also I’m now catching unknown key exceptions in my XML handler, so it will no longer crash if it sees an unknown element.

Unfortunately this means the next version won’t include the ‘save to favorite’ feature, since old versions are still out there that WILL crash if the server sent the element necessary for favorites. I’m keeping that code in the application so it will ‘magically’ start working if we ever do make the server change.

I Can Has Crashes

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We recently made a server change to support the favorites feature I’m adding to the upcoming ICHC update. Unfortunately it causes older versions of the app to crash, since it wasn’t able to handle the XML changes. The server change should be reverted soon, which will stop the crashes. We’ll probably use an alternate feed for the favorites feature.

Amazon forces Delicious Library to be removed from App Store

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I love Delicious Library, both on the Mac and the iPhone, so I’m pretty disappointed by this new development.

Due to Amazon’s new contract, Delicious Monster has removed Delicious Library from the App Store. Wil Shipley says: “Delicious Library for iPhone isn’t coming back as long as we’re using Amazon’s APIs, unless they decide to make an exception to section 4e.”

Section 4e of the Amazon contract reads:

You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device.

Wil also says, “I already did ask for permission, Amazon said no permission is being given right now. So, that’s that.”

I Can Has Favorites

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I’ve implemented a new feature that will be in the next release of I Can Has Cheezburger Premium: Add to Favorites. You’ll need an account at icanhascheezburger.com. It will log you in and save the current item to your favorites, which you can view in your profile.

Not all items can be saved as favorites. Movies can’t be saved as favorites & it isn’t available on all network sites.

I CAN HAS FAVORITE