Gabor Torok's Forum Nokia Blog

Gabor Torok's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog Software architect working in Symbian/S60 area since 2000 and still being enthusiastic about mobility. Please visit my introduction page on Forum Nokia Champions web page. tote_b5 2009-11-23T21:10:01Z Change from mobile http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2009/07/13/change-from-mobile To those who have been passionately reading my blog in the past and who may be wondering why I've been so silent lately. I wouldn't like to burden the readers with too much details. Follow <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/change-from-mobile.html">this link</a> if you're still interested.Tote  General 2009-07-13T23:34:55Z tote_b5 Google, the ultimate savior of mobile http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2008/02/15/google-the-ultimate-savior-of-mobile That's why I like Russel Beattie. Definitely the <a href="http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/the-google-myth-rolls-to-mobile">post of the week</a> for me. :) Tote General 2008-02-15T16:55:06Z tote_b5 Symbian Platform Security - hacked? http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/10/27/symbian-platform-security-hacked Well, 3:00am has already passed and I'm tired and sleepy. One thing doesn't let me sleep, though. I've just stumbled upon these articles (<a href="http://www.symbaali.info/2007/10/exploring-s60-with-allfiles.html">Exploring S60 with AllFiles</a> and <a href="http://www.symbaali.info/2007/10/goodbye-s60-platform-security-hello.html">Goodbye S60 Platform Security, Hello CAPABILITIES!</a>) and I can't believe my eyes: Platform Security hacked?! Briefly, the solution is as follows: <ul> <li>Take a firmware update package (currently supported only by Nokia for their S60 phones).</li> <li>Edit a well-isolated part of it, where all those capabilities (i.e. rights) are listed that a user can grant to a 3rd party application upon installation. Remove existing capabilities, add new ones, whatever.</li> <li>Flash it.</li> </ul> Now you have such a phone (software) that allows you to give so powerful rights to any 3rd party application that they can do basically anything on the device. For example, your program can access DRM-protected content (you've downloaded it once and share it with others), browse other applications' secret folders, etc. You just need to <ul> <li>Extract a signed SIS (Symbian Installation) file</li> <li>Add rights to it (whatever gives them more power)</li> <li>Re-pack & sign it again</li> <li>And install it</li> <li>Although the Software Installer will notice that the application was not properly signed (== acquires for more capabilities than it can normally have), the user will be in such a position that he can grant those extra rights.</li> </ul> Actually, this is the approach that the author of the aforementioned articles followed with regards to a very popular file browser application: he added <tt>AllFiles</tt> capability to the program so that he could explore the entire file system, which he hadn't been able to do until then. Unfortunately, I can't prove or disprove whether this solution really works, since I haven't even updated my N95's firmware yet (shame on me!). However, this guy seems to know what he was talking about and I sort of a believe him. In any case, if what he wrote happens to be true, then I have a few questions: <ul> <li>Why on earth did Symbian publish such a confidential information that is useful solely for phone manufacturers? You know, the documentation of <a href="http://www.symbian.com/developer/techlib/v9.2docs/doc_source/ToolsAndUtilities/Installing-ref/swipolicy.html">Software Installation Policy</a> is a very internal thing, not anyone's business. You can see that it's enough if one talented person stumbles upon that documentation and uses it.</li> <li>Why is a firmware package in such a format that anyone can edit it? I mean, locally on their machine. Okay, with such a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_%28Unix%29">low-level tool</a> that very few people are familiar with, but it's still possible. Wouldn't it have made more sense to encrypt and sign the package so that <ul> <li>it cannot be decrypted by 3rd parties (well, easily at least)</li> </ul> <ul> <li>it gets decrypted only on the target device right before flashing?</li> </ul> </li> </ul> You know, I'm not a security expert, so I might easily be suggesting a stupid thing, but if there's any chance to do it that way, I think it's definitely worth the effort. <ul> <li>But even if it's not viable, then why does the firmware package update the whole system including the most critical parts? You could see that one can change the software installation policy this way. Why not make a process consisting of two steps: <ul> <li>User can download and flash a firmware package that updates the (vast) majority of the system, but it doesn't allow him to touch the critical parts</li> <li>Those critical parts can either NOT be updated at all or only at service points.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> I just really don't know what I've expected from Platform Security, but I have a feeling that in my secret dreams I thought it was unbreakable (I know, I'm naive). Again, I'm still looking for confirmation as to whether this solution really works, but I'm afraid that I already feel the bitter taste in my mouth. You know, a <a href="http://live.sdnhost.com/main/downloads/papers/PlatSec_and_Symbian_Signed.pdf">system</a> that Symbian is proud of, <a href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/4187_Operators_locking_handsets_Sym.php">operators love</a> (some <a href="http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/archives/240">developers hate</a>:) and even <a href="http://mobile.antonypranata.com/2007/10/17/platform-security-on-apples-iphone/">competitors acknowledge</a> shall not be attackable and even if a security hole is discovered it shall be closed quickly without any major impacts. Nevertheless, I think this problem can be solved - hopefully very easily. But as to injecting the fixed version on to old phones, it will just take another firmware update. :) Originally from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/10/symbian-platform-security-hacked.html" target="undefined">mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com</a> Tote Update: another fellow Forum Nokia Champion of mine, <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/forum_nokia_champion/forum_nokia_champions/Antony_Pranata.html">Antony Pranata</a>, wrote an <a href="http://mobile.antonypranata.com/2007/10/26/symbians-platform-security-is-hacked">article</a> about the very same topic. I think it completes my post in addition to confirming that the solution works. Worth reading. General S60 Symbian C++ 2007-10-27T03:48:18Z tote_b5 Treading on shaky ground http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/10/11/treading-on-shaky-ground If I were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albus_Dumbledore">Dumbledore</a>, then I could put my thoughts, memories in my pensive to keep my mind clear and fresh. But I'm not him at all and my mind now feels overburdened with news that I can't keep in - so I let them out. You know, it's a great thing to tag blog articles. It keeps them categorized, easy to look for, easy to oversee, etc. What I'm now about to write, though, fits in a new category (well, at least to me): treading on shaky ground. What is it? You'll see, just read on! Everybody paid immediate attention to one of Nokia's recent acquisitions, the agreement for <a href="http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1157198">Nokia to acquire NAVTEQ.</a> You know, two things couldn't escape most people's attention: first, the huge amount of money Nokia is willing to pay ($8.1 billion!), second, that it is such an area (GPS and location-based services) that hasn't been fully explored yet. They must foresee something (and of course play an active role in it) that others haven't been thinking of yet! And it's not the only acquisition Nokia was recently involved in: for example, they also <a href="http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1158398">merged with Enpocket</a>. This deal is to give a boost to advertisement after the public announcement that Nokia is opening to the Internet. Not as if we didn't know that <a href="http://www.nseries.com/index.html?l=campaigns,open">NSeries is open to anything</a>, we now know that to the Internet, too. In addition, and I'm sure most of you already know, Nokia has launched new services for content download & consumption lately, check out <a href="http://ovi.nokia.com/">Ovi</a> and <a href="http://mosh.nokia.com/">MOSH</a> to see what I mean. So good, so nice. But you know what? There are some parties who are not happy with Nokia opening to Internet and offering content online. It's said to be the operators (carriers in US) who will lose the most money if Nokia happens to be successful in this area. Although their online offering (mostly ringtones and themes) can usually be described with one word, pathetic, they're still the biggest revenue generator for Nokia. What happens, for example, if <a href="http://www.intomobile.com/2007/10/08/the-n81-recieves-no-opeartor-love-in-the-uk-more-countries-to-follow.html">some UK operators refuse to sell new Nokia models</a>? What happens if others follow them? Although, as I've already <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/03/smartphone-os-market-share-in-2006.html">pointed out</a>, Nokia might not be really affected by such a sudden(?) move in the US, it'd still be an unpleasant thing to happen to Nokia. I sort of have a feeling that what we see happening around is a total war between Nokia and others (operators, mobile manufacturers, OS vendors, etc.). That's the way how it goes. As to mobile operating systems, the competition is also getting more and more tough. Although it's nicely put by <a href="http://www.atmasphere.net/wp/archives/2007/10/08/nokia-n95-or-apple-iphone">Atmasphere</a> that iPhone is a feature phone, in contrast with N95, the über-smartphone, Apple definitely has influence on newer phones not only from Nokia, but other handset makers, too. It's also worth noting what he found about the afore-mentioned two phones: <div style="text-align: center;">The iPhone is for consuming content, while the N95 is for creating it.</div> So from that point of view, Apple might not pose a considerable risk to Nokia's position yet. But how about Google? Even though it's a bit of an old news that <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/28/google-is-working-on-a-mobile-os-and-its-due-out-shortly/">Google is working on a mobile OS</a>, I'm wondering how it will threaten Symbian's future. It's said to be a Linux variant (a new distribution to make the market even more fragmented?) and of course will be ad-supported (== cheap). Looking forward to it! Thanks for being my pensive so far, I feel really relaxed now. And also eager to know what you think about all these things I've mentioned! Original from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/10/treading-on-shaky-ground.html" target="undefined">http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/</a>. Cheers, Tote Business Opportunities/Services General Location Based Services 2007-10-11T17:23:12Z tote_b5 Being featured by Nokia http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/09/11/being-featured-by-nokia I am honoured to be the featured Forum Nokia Champion this month. However, to be honest I was not prepared for the increased interest about me and my work and surprised to see the flood of e-mails day by day asking me for help regarding this and that problem. I try to answer these e-mails as thoroughly as I can, however, I'm afraid I can't give perfect answers to all of them. Nevertheless, e-mails are only one thing. People are asking me to let them join my <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/" target="undefined">LinkedIn</a> network, too. Although the way they're asking it varies case by case, I'm afraid I have to refuse these requests all. You know, my biggest concern is that I wouldn't like to acknowledge that I know someone with whom I've never met. And since giving referral of someone is one of the core features of this networking site, it simply doesn't make any sense for me to do so. But the last thing that happened to me just the other day is that I got an e-mail from Sargam Bansal. Yes, right from him (her?). I don't know where he took my e-mail address from or if it has anything to do with me being featured by Nokia, but it doesn't matter at all: he found me. Let me cite his e-mail in its entirety: <div> <div dir="ltr"> <div dir="ltr">to: my e-mail address cc: Olli-Pekka.Kallasvuo@nokia.com Dear Sir,</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">I ve been using Nokia for past 5-6 years. I had submitted my Phone NOKIA 3250 at Nokia Care Centre Sector 3 Noida(JOB SHEET NO:-1200196776 ; Serial No :- 357933005291399) for the problem it used to hang when music was on & some call used to come.</div> <div dir="ltr"> I got my cell after 15 days & after that the phone's condition was horrible. Itwas completely damaged , not even it was able to switch on. The Phone was submitted again. It been over one month & on each visit they are delaying the date.Not only me many people coming there are totally frustrated for the service being provided by Nokia care centres .</div> <div dir="ltr"> I emailed over a week ago and I have not received any reply. Similarly, when people email Nokia's Customer Support they are getting no response, which is surely unacceptable. Due to such irresponsible behaviour, there has grown immense dissatisfaction among us, the users of NOKIA & also it makes me doubted about the name NOKIA have had in the past years. Now it has became a difficult question to answer.. Can we really trust NOKIA now???</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> </div> <div dir="ltr">I am sure you will be concerned about this matter and I would respectfully ask for your assistance in arranging for Customers to better informed and to receive prompt responses to complaints and enquiries.I hope you can agree that this should not be too much to ask nor beyond the capability of Nokia. Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.</div> </div> <div dir="ltr">Thanks & regards,</div> <div dir="ltr">Sargam Bansal</div> Regardless of the seriousness of this e-mail, it's quite obvious that I can't help. Other than publishing this e-mail so that other (more competent) people can also read it and possibly react on it. However, there is one thing that I hope you have also noticed: who was cc:-d in this e-mail? Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO and not other. You know, I've never dreamt of being in the same e-mail group than him, but now that I have achieved it, I think I'll make an exception with Olli-Pekka: I'm ready to accept his invitation on LinkedIn. :-) Original from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/09/being-featured-by-nokia.html" target="undefined">mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com</a>. Tote General 2007-09-11T23:05:33Z tote_b5 Time of competition - a peaceful summer? http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/07/26/time-of-competition-a-peaceful-summer Summer is hot, silent and peaceful in Hungary. I can just sit back and watch/read what's happening around the world. And in mobile space, of course. Well, it's not that silent as I expected. In the past few days I have noticed new signs of a tough competition between mobile- and consumer electronics device manufacturers, internet service providers, mobile operating systems. Let me go into the details! Although <a href="http://www.nokia.com/">Nokia</a> is clearly a market leader, they have to listen carefully to users' demand. On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone">smartphone</a> market, for example, there's a new challenger who demands everyone's attention. There's been a lot of discussion over whether <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/">iPhone</a> is a smartphone or not, but that's not my point now. They clearly showed people how easy to use a user interface (UI) can be (I also happen to know <a href="http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone">how an iPhone blends</a>, but that's a different topic:). However, the UI is not everything: there must be great (and well-implemented) features in the phone, too. You know, just in order to make a phone smart - if that's Apple's intention at all. It's not obvious as the mass market (=biggest revenue) of mobile phones is NOT smartphones. These times everyone is trying to <a href="http://blog.gustavobarbieri.com.br/2007/07/24/iphone-like-virtual-keyboard-for-n800/">imitate</a> iPhone's behavior on their phone; even one of my friends has put a new "iPhone shell" on his Windows CE phone - just for the feeling's sake. :) Other people, on the other hand, wonder if <a href="http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2007/07/exactly-how-many-iphones-did-you-really.html">iPhone is really selling at the same pace</a> how Apple claims to be. You know, it's just one thing, they say, how many phones <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/25/IPHONE.TMP">Apple and AT&T could sell</a> so far (not to mention how many have actually been activated), it's just the hype that keeps selling at this level. Sooner or later, however, everything (and everybody) will calm down and we'll see how successful Apple is. Let's see! Another company is also trying to expand into this new area - at least new to them. It's been announced several days ago that <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134895-pg,1/article.html">Google invested in cellular technology</a>. No surprise, we already knew they're interested in this technology area (i.e. mobile), too. What might be a sign of a new aggressive campaign is that <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134894-pg,1/article.html">Google makes the conditions to FCC</a> for a wireless spectrum auction. You know, I pretty much sympathize with Google in this case and hope that not only will the rules change (free download of any applications, services or content), but the list of operators will be refreshed, too. By the way, Russell Beattie is <a href="http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog">back</a>. In case his name doesn't sound familiar to you, he's an American blogger (one of my favorites) from the Silicon Valley full of great ideas. This time he shared his opinion with us how he sees <a href="http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/nokia-and-the-next-gen-mobile-gui">the future of Nokia S60 UI</a>. He's not alone with the vision that Nokia will change to Linux from Symbian, what he adds, though, is that he expects (or rather suggests) Nokia to revolutionize their UI, too. Neither would be an easy change just a side-note. On the Linux issue, it's been already told that royalty-free doesn't mean entirely free at all. There must be (lots of) people who customize Linux to the needs of manufacturers, operators, follow market demands, adds features to Linux that have never been implemented since Linux originally has not been a mobile OS. The interest of all the possible players is very fractioned, there're already several interest groups who are doing their own design, following their own desires, etc. On the other hand, there're lots of things Symbian (Nokia, UIQ, etc.) could learn from Linux, especially from their developer community. For example, I'm not sure if you've heard about the service <a href="http://mobile.antonypranata.com/2007/07/10/symbian-signed-please-enable-me/">outage</a> of <a href="http://www.symbiansigned.com/">Symbian Signed</a> that happened recently. For example, one of my fellow Forum Nokia Champions, <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/forum_nokia_champion/forum_nokia_champions/Antony_Pranata.html">Antony Pranata</a>, was in trouble due to this. There are other people, too, who are <a href="http://news.mobile9.com/s60apps/2007/07/23/is-symbian-trying-to-kill-off-small-developers">not too happy</a> with the current situation and think Nokia and Symbian could make it better. Finally, as to the UI revolution: I'm pretty sure that everybody at Nokia has already drawn the conclusion from iPhone's success. I bet they've even already started to design the new approach of a touch-based model from Nokia. I'm really looking forward to it. And finally, a side-note to Russell: not as if it was a trivial step for Nokia to get rid of their "old" UI design in a jiffy. The UI (believe it or not:) is one of the core features people love the most in their Nokia phone. They might interpret a radical change in the user interface in a way that would make Nokia, khmm, unhappy. That's it for now, I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts! Original from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/07/time-of-competition-peaceful-summer.html" target="undefined">http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com</a>. Tote General S60 2007-07-26T17:01:03Z tote_b5 Symbian Signed is not an anti-virus software http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/05/23/symbian-signed-is-not-an-anti-virus-software The Register <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/23/symbian_signed_spyware/">reported</a> today that a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware">spyware</a> for mobile phones had appeared on the horizon. It's harmful for S60 phones, too, 3rd Edition devices included. And what causes the stir in the water is that it's a Symbian Signed application. There's a general misconception here, I'm afraid. I think the biggest problem most people don't understand that signing has not much to do with protection against malicious programs. These people don't understand that the process is about signing (surprisingly), i.e. certifying that the application comes from a well-known source. Additionally, in order for an application to be <a href="http://www.symbiansigned.com/">Symbian Signed</a> it must undergo thorough testing being done by independent test houses. Since this application is Symbian Signed, it must have passed those tests. The problem is that it's impossible to test everything an application can do. It's even possible to acquire for a capability (and get it!) just by saying that the application needs it for a different purpose. As this example shows: I can ask for e.g. <tt>NetworkServices</tt> capability and say that I need it for remote backup. And then make no mention on the fact that I will use it for other reasons, too. You know, it can be done since no-one checks the source code, it's not part of the approval process for Symbian Signed certification. And it will never be, I suppose, as no-one will ever share their best kept secret (i.e. the source code) with outsiders. What Symbian (Signed) could do better, though, is that they shouldn't advertise these signed applications as "trusted". Because they aren't. What you can trust, though, is that the author of a Symbian Signed application is accountable. If he/she/they produce a software that proves to contain some malicious code, then they can be "caught" and counter-measures can be taken. What counter-measures? For example, the author's certificate can be revoked and added to a list, called Certificate Revocation List or CRL for short. This list can be always checked upon on-line. For example, when a user is just about to install a 3rd party software whose author is not known (or at least not trusted), the Application Installer can do this cross-verification as part of the installation process. Pretty useful info, isn't it? Worth noting that most users are not aware of this and they have this feature disabled on their phones. Including me, but that's on purpose. :- Original from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/05/symbian-signed-is-not-anti-virus.html">mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com</a>. Just my two cents, Tote General Symbian C++ Testing 2007-05-23T16:35:10Z tote_b5 My new N95 - comments http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/05/19/my-new-n95-comments I have received my new <a href="http://www.nseries.com/products/n95/index.html">Nokia N95</a> device as a reward from Nokia for contributing to the launch of their new service, <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Wiki_Home">Forum Nokia Wiki</a>. I was among the top 10 <a href="http://forum.nokia.com/main/forum_nokia_champion/index.html">Forum Nokia Champion</a> contributors, you know. We have received something else, too, but it's still too early to talk about it. I'm planning to get back about it in a month or so. Well, I was very excited about this device, because I must admit it was my dream device. THE smartphone that I've always dreamed of. I have read couple of reviews on it by now (e.g. on <a href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Nokia_N95_First_Impressions.php">AllAboutSymbian</a> or <a href="http://www.symbian-freak.com/reviews/n95/n95_preview_01.htm">Symbian Freak</a>) and I was very convinced that the only issue that these reviews had found in common was the battery. The fact that it gets exhausted very easily, very fast. That's okay, I thought, I believe that's an issue that I can easily handle. I'm sure that Nokia is aware of this problem, too, and they're on it to fix it. Not necessarily with this phone, but with future phones. However, I think I can tell you/them a few other hints they might want to pay attention to. Or maybe not, but at least I did not keep my comments secret on this great device. :-) <ul> <li>Lack of memory card in the package. This is the third device from the N-series that I have got without any multimedia cards. First, an N90, second an N73, now it's an N95. Hey, it's a multimedia phone and I can hardly believe that the built-in storage is sufficient for multimedia purposes. And I can't believe it, either, that Nokia is to save some money on NOT including a memory card in their sales package, because the price of such a piece of hardware is so low. Then why is it not included?</li> <li>Battery. The topic that I have already mentioned. It's just right my second day, but it has already proved to be true that I need to charge the battery once a day. I was already recommended to get used to it, now I'm on that path. :-|</li> <li>GPS. This is the first GPS device of mine, so I don't know too much what to expect from it. I can see, though, that the built-in program is data-hungry and tries to get that data from the internet (without a network connection it doesn't really work, i.e. is not really useful). It's not a good sign for me, because I have decided not to spend too much money on using GPS, but try to keep my spending as low as possible. Perhaps the installation of additional maps will solve the problem, I don't know, I'm just hoping that.</li> <li>Connected to TV. There is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_connector">RCA jack</a> included in the package with which we can attach the phone to the television so that you can see it real-time on your telly what you're doing on your phone. It's a pretty nice feature that can be used, among others, for demoing, showing your pictures/video/etc. to your family, browse the web in full screen on your tv, etc. However, for some reason, voice was not audible when I was e.g. playing a game. I'm unsure as to where the problem is - on my phone or with my TV, in any case, it's waiting to be fixed. Just tell me if you have experienced this and managed to get over with it.</li> <li>Localisation. You know, I'm from Hungary, Europe and although I'm pretty much happy with using English I've already got used to using <a href="http://www.t9.com/">T9</a> on my phone. It's such a brilliant feature that now I can hardly live without (at least in terms of short messaging:). The problem is that as I have forgotten to indicate my wish to have Hungarian language included on my phone I can't make use of (Hungarian) T9, either. Unless somebody smarter than me enlightens me how to fix this problem with the least pain. </li> </ul> That's it for now! By the way, before I forget: thanks, <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/member.php?u=134847">Ron</a> and Forum Nokia, for this great device. It was really worth the effort of contributing to the Wiki. I wonder if others know that <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Rules_of_Participation">they can win an N95</a>, too. :) Original from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/05/my-new-n95-comments.html">mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com</a>. Cheers, Tote General 2007-05-19T02:44:12Z tote_b5 Forum Nokia Wiki - the responsibility of contributors http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/04/09/forum-nokia-wiki-the-responsibility-of-contributors As Ron from Forum Nokia <a href="../../../view_entry.html?id=452">announced</a>, <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Wiki_Home">Forum Nokia Wiki</a> has been launched just a week ago. We, Forum Nokia Champions, were asked to fill the Wiki with contents a few weeks earlier so it wasn't news to us when it was launched. Nevertheless, I thought it was a good thing to have a centralized knowledge base online available to anyone wishing to find answers to their technical questions. Ideally it's going to be updated regularly with high- and low-level information alike (e.g. architectural vs API-level) sharing all the knowledge that lots of developers have gained on many areas that have anything to do with mobile development. I believe it was a good step waiting for being made by Nokia. However, users of a wiki system must be aware of that there are some rules that every contributor should follow. Because one side of the coin says that a wiki can be edited by anyone, the other side, though, suggests that it ought to be done well. For example, <ul> <li>Most people know that copyrighted stuff shall not be added to the wiki, unless the author of the material in question has approved of doing so.</li> <li>Then it also has to be considered if the article to be added is really useful or not. Typically, "how to"s greatly improve the usefulness of a wiki, because what they explain is usually not mentioned in any off-line documents. As opposed to detailed API-documentation that should rather not be added to wikis (imho), since most developers interested in APIs already have a comprehensive API reference off-line.</li> <li>We have to be catious on adding new things so that they're in a readable format meaning that it can be digested easily. For example, I have seen articles that not only lacked formatting (I mean, at all), but they used internet-slang, like 'r u nuts?' (emphasis on one-letter words). I'm pretty sure that it's obvious to everyone why this style should be avioded in wikis.</li> <li>Finally, a very-very important thing: since anyone can edit any other people's article in a wiki, special care must be taken to change other people's contribution elegantly. For example, my articles have already been:</li> <ul> <li>Re-categorized - by removing a category which the article belonged to on purpose</li> <li>Re-formatted - so that external references (i.e. links) have been removed</li> <li>Truncated - some parts have been removed that should have stayed intact.</li> </ul> </ul> Unfortunately, all these changes happened so that no-one asked me what I thought about the changes and whether I approve them. Side-note: I would not have approved these changes, btw. Also note that above is not a comprehensive list of what people should keep in mind, I just picked up some topics. You know, there're a lot of people who don't know that wikis provide means to ease what I call elegant contributions. For example, <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/">MediaWiki</a>, a web based wiki software used by e.g. Forum Nokia Wiki or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">WikiPedia</a>, provides watchlist, feeds, notification mechanism for regular contributors to make it easy for them to follow-up the changes they made. Each article can be watched so that any changes are visible when one is checking to see if an article has been further improved since the last check. Feeds enable you to check it out what the recent changes were, for example. Although automatically not enabled, but e-mail notifications can also be requested upon any changes to any articles. MediaWiki also lets you initiate a discussion over a topic of an article so that people can come to a conclusion over a debated topic without changing the content of the article in question. This is the reason why there is a comment page attached to each article in MediaWiki. If those people who changed my articles had been aware of this feature (or if they'd cared), then their contributions wouldn't have left mixed feeling behind. Of course, it's not only bad things that happened to the articles that I published on Forum Nokia Wiki, but the vast majority is useful additions and corrections. In addition, I'm so much amazed of the growth speed of the wiki and hope that it will be at least close to this in the future, too. But I also see that there're still lots of things to improve - Nokia Ron and his team and the future board of administrators will probably spend lots of hours with figuring out how FNWiki suits their users' needs in the most convenient way. Keep up the good work, guys! Original from <a href="http://mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/04/forum-nokia-wiki-responsibility-of.html">mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com</a>. Tote General 2007-04-09T23:59:52Z tote_b5 Here is my program, sign it yourself! http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/gabor-toroks-forum-nokia-blog/2007/03/01/here-is-my-program-sign-it-yourself I've bumped into the following <a href="http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/archives/325">blog</a> today. This is exactly what I was thinking about a few weeks ago! I asked myself if developers could distribute their apps freely? Of course, the bottleneck is that they have to sign their apps properly, which is time-consuming and costly. But if one publishes his unsigned SIS file (it can be signed as well, since a file can be re-signed), then it can be freely signed by anybody else. So that the author can get rid of the burden of having to have his application SymbianSigned before distribution takes place. One issue, though, that this workaround raises is trust. Why would I sign a SIS if it's from somebody whom I don't know? Why would I trust the program and presume that it will make no damage, generate extra cost, etc.? Of course, it's such an issue that must be carefully considered, case by case, program by program. But still there are programs whose authors are well-known and respected: they haven't all had time/money to bother with signing. Or let's take open source projects: unless they have good funding they will never spend money on content signing, which cost will never be returned. Not as if I was aware of such an open source project, but still. :) So let's have a closer look at how it would work in practice! The classification of capabilities is as follows: Group #1: User-grantable capabilities that can be granted by the user upon installation. Capabilities: LocalServices, UserEnvironment, NetworkServices, Location, ReadUserData and WriteUserData. Group #2: Powerful capabilities that cannot be granted by the user, but do not require any manufacturers' approval. Capabilities: PowerMgmt, ReadDeviceData, WriteDeviceData, TrustedUI, ProtServ, SwEvent, SurroundingsDD. Group #3: The most sensitive capabilities that only device manufacturers (i.e. not SymbianSigned or any other authority) can grant. Capabilities: AllFiles, CommDD, DiskAdmin, MultimediaDD, NetworkControl, TCB, DRM. If one writes a program that requires capabilities from groups #1-2 then it can be easily signed by anybody even if it demands some sort of technical mindedness. The steps for being able to install such a SIS file on our phone are as follows: <ul> <li>Registration on <a href="http://www.symbiansigned.com">SymbianSigned.com</a>.</li> <li>Requesting a developer certificate for a given IMEI (i.e. the person's own mobile phone).</li> <li>Once having the DevCert, sign the program with it.</li> </ul> Following these steps enables anyone to sign any (Symbian) programs that can eventually be installed on a (Symbian) smartphone. On any programs, I meant those that do not require capabilities from the third group. Another constraint of a single DevCert is the inability to sign a program for more than one phone. That requires an <a href="http://www.verisign.com/products-services/security-services/code-signing/symbian-content-signing/index.html">ACS Publisher ID</a> from VeriSign - costs 350 bucks, btw. And what about those programs that use APIs protected by capabilities from group #3? For them, one must have an ACS Publisher ID even for a single phone. And not only is it the cost that might prevent most people from requesting a publisher ID from VeriSign. If you'd like to be able to sign programs with the most sensitive capabilities, then getting a publisher ID is the easier task. The second step is to issue a request to the device manufacturer in which you detail which capability you need and why. On API level (e.g. I need RFormat::Open() to use and for that I have to have DiskAdmin capability) and for each capability one by one. And believe me it's tough! It's time and energy consuming and sometimes doesn't lack unnecessary conversation with the manufacturer ('we don't think you need that capability' ... arghh). As a brief summary I still think that it's worth going on this path. For a well-isolated target group, namely mobile geeks, but for them it's really worth. Yes, it's you who reads this blog. :) Tote General Symbian C++ 2007-03-01T16:22:27Z tote_b5