Robert Accettura's
Fun With Wordage

Well, I’ve been delayed by one thing or another for quite some time. Anyway, I’m starting to gather my thoughts, and the various emails and conversations I’ve had with people over the project for quite some time. Just to review, Securita is a project to create a content filter for Mozilla.

The first checkin will not happen until I’m at version 0.1. Simply because it’s to messy, and a pain in the butt. At 0.1, I’ll checkin the source, and perhaps add a few devs to the project as appropriate.

The goals for 0.1

• Load RDF datafile
• Scan page for matches to RDF datafile
• Display error when scan returns true
• Make XPI for Firefox/Seamonkey

At this point, I’ve got a mini engine that can scan (including regexp, thanks to caillon) and return true if there’s a match (from an array of items).

My time is slightly limited right now, but I don’t want my short time to hold this project up any more. So what I need is the following:

Most Wanted #1

Method to load RDF datafile, and loop through for each element. Sample

Brief Rundown
String: what to search for
Scan: type of scan to perform. Either string or regexp
Type: URL, text, image , hybrid

Simply get to the point of doing a demo loop like follows:

for (i=0; i<ELEMENTS; i++){
  scan(string[i], scan[i], type[i]);
}

Most Wanted #2

Also need a method to link the script that does the processing (filterRun.js) to execute on each page loaded. I’m not exactly sure how to do this, and time is a bit short right now. If anyone can write a simple extension boilerplate that attaches the script filterRun.js to every tab that contains the following code to be executed as the page loads:

alert("Securita beats up the butterfly");

Anyone who can contribute the these two things would be extremely helpful. Email submissions as per my contact info on this website.

It’s been a busy week, but here’s where I stand:

The rest of the “Week”
Math Test
Accounting Quiz
Legal Environments Paper/Power Point
Marketing Test
unmangle patch for importing .eml files (it’s either on my laptop or server).
Create Schedule for next Semester

Test and Quiz all done by 4:30 PM, and paper/presentation should be done by 8:00 PM. Then I can relax for the rest of the evening. It’s been a tough week.

My todo list for the weekend:
Schedule (carried down from above)
A little work on Securita (yes it’s silent, but I’m slowly making a strategy)
Project Aquarius
Study for Bio Quiz (should be really easy)

Note: My weekend essentially starts Wednesday afternoon, because Thursday I have one relatively laid back class in the middle of the day, and that’s it for the week, so Wednesday by 8:00 I’m wrapping up what needs to be done for the week.

Anyway, I’ll update this as the day goes on.

Spyware Blaster has been updated to version 3.0. This popular Internet Explorer tool blocks most Spyware ActiveX components and Cookies. New to version 3.0 is support for Mozilla. Since there’s no ActiveX support, it blocks some cookies. Perhaps in the future it will protect against malicous XPI’s.

In any regard, it’s great to see a popular product making Mozilla a priority to support. It makes Mozilla even better for those who want security (without disabling all cookies).

It’s 1 year ago I turned this from a static never updated page into a rather rapidly updated blog style website!

Happy birthday to robert.accettura.com

Some changes coming soon I might add. I’ll be doing a little better with content soon. And some new stuff will come.

In case the news hasn’t reached everyone yet, Netscape will update it’s release sometime early this summer, speculated to be based on Mozilla 1.7.

Personally, I wonder who will be actually coordinating this update? And secondly, why not wait until Firefox is released, and market it as Netscape 8.0 Light, and make a pro version for use with it’s new ISP. At least that makes much more logical sense from a business point of view. It would allow them to promote their new business model by using their old business model. They can also advertise their service as having all the wonderful feature Firefox has. Could release Mac/Linux version as well. Capture that part of the market.

Then again, who said AOL/Netscape made logical sense from a business point of view? After all, it’s now known as: AOLTW for a good reason.

Todo:

Legal Environments Paper/Power Point
Math Test
Marketing Test
unmangle patch for importing .eml files (it’s either on my laptop or server).
Create Schedule for next Semester

Filling in any spare moment with Project Aquarius, MacVillage.net work, and perhaps a few hours of TV or even sleep.

So yes, I’m alive, but if I’m not replying to bugmail, Email, IM, private messages, forum posts, banging on dumpsters from a county over, look above and you know why. I’m still reading, but not replying unless it’s critical, or I have a few moments to relax.

Looking for Free (prefer Open Source) software that can create flowcharts, in particular for use with designing user interfaces.

Also in search of project management software.

Any insight/suggestions welcome.