marc paradise » other

RIM releases another app that’s already been done.

Marc — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:01:58 +0000

As you may have heard, RIM released a podcast app yesterday. RIM has now released several apps that have already had commercial equivalents released into App World:

Google talk/live chat/et al — IM+ and one or two others.
Twitter -> UberTwitter and others.
Podcast app -> Podcatcher

This is a worrisome trend as individuals and companies have devoted considerable time and resources to creating apps for sale in the RIM app store — only to be undercut with free apps released by RIM itself. What’s to say that tomorrow, they’re not going to release an SSH client? Or any of the other apps that make this platform great?

Competition is a good thing (frankly – the commercial offerings in all cases are better than what RIM has developed) but this is kind of like they’re saying, “Hey, thanks for contributing to our available Blackberry apps and helping to build a customer base. We also really appreciate the great app ideas. Now f!@# you.”

It really has to give any new (or existing) BB app developer pause when considering whether this is a platform worth building on.

Quick bbssh news update

Marc — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:02:26 +0000

Things are taking a bit longer than I expected to get the next bbssh release out — I’m currently struggling with converting the underlying encryption technology to the native BB platform encryption. There are quite a few benefits: it will give support for more encryption algorithms, reduce memory usage, and reduce the installable size. From what preliminary results are showing it may also be a little easier on the battery.

It’s turning out a bit trickier than I expected though. On the one hand, it’s been an uphill battle. On the other hand, I’ve been learning quite a bit about cryptography

Expect an update sometime later this week. There are other fixes included too — so if things remain stalled for too long I’ll release an update that doesn’t include the crypto changes.

SSH1 – do you use it?

Marc — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:25:41 +0000

For those of you using BBSSH (or midpssh), do you still need SSH v1 support? It seems that the de facto standard is v2 these days, and has been for the last several years. OpenSSH itself has been defaulting to ssh-v1 being disabled in the latest versions.

So I’m wondering if you still find yourselves connecting to servers that do not support ssh v2? If there’s no audience for it, I can discontinue v1 support in BBSSH and shave off a few KB.

Please reply below and let me know.

BBSSH Roadmap and Overview

Marc — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:40:02 +0000

Here’s a kind of loose roadmap for BBSSH’s planned development combined with a planned feature list and status. As it stands now, it is actually functional to the point where I’m using it on my own BB, but I’m more forgiving of certain issues than I’d expect anybody else to be.

Expect the first public OTA download beta in 2-3 weeks. If you’d like to play with it before then, I would appreciate any early feedback – just drop me a comment here and I’ll send you the link by this weekend (or later if you contact me later…) If you’re not able to provide feedback and bug reports, please don’t request an early build at this time.

MidpSSH Implemented Features

These features exist in MidpSSH and have been successfully re-implemented (or retained) already.

Connection Management
SSH
Telnet
HTTP proxy (should be functional but untested for now)
All connection types (BIS, BES, Wifi)
Rendering of bitmap font to session window based on BB screen objects
Connection management and properties.
BBSSH settings.

New Implemented Features

New main screen intended to make it easy to connect immediately.
Hybrid mode editing – a small overlay that appears every time you start to type when not using “direct typing” mode. This does not obscure the screen, however it can expand to include multiple lines as you type; and shift-enter will force a newline. Enter will submit the text along with the enter key.
Moved most global settings to be session specific, including font.
Multiple concurrent /active connections
Copy existing connection properties into a new connection
No more “low level connection” popup warning, since this is a signed app now.

MidpSSH Features in Progress:

local key-pair: 90% (everything works except dumping the key to current connection
Import session definitions via HTTP: 50% but also being enhanced significantly.
Special Keys: Partial support. Most frequently used special keys are mapped to BB keys. This is temporary as the plan here is to have key mappings 100% customizable, though configured with reasonable defaults. For the early releases, it will likely be as follows:
- VolUp : Ctrl
- VolDn: Alt
- Wheel/trackbutton clikc: Esc
- SYM: Tab , or if typing into hybrid overlay it will display the symbol screen.
- Directional keys: wheel/trackbutton
- PageUp/PageDown: Shift+Up, Shift+Dn
- Home, End: Shift+Left, Shift+Right

Removed or Obsolete Features

90/270 screen rotation. This feature will still be present, but the supporting code for it is getting removed – my understanding is that this is “automatic” on Blackberry, as long as the application is aware of the changed dimensions and responds correctly. If I’m proven incorrect, obviously this will need to go back in completely.
Full-screen edit window removed. (Replaced with “hybrid mode” expanding edit field overlay that does not obscure the screen by default)
Menu-driven special keys- to be replaced with key-bindings and optional on-screen keypad.
Special keys Enter and Shift are being removed – on the blackberry these are present on the keyboard.
Modes being removed: Scroll, Cursor. Unlike the lowest-common-denominator that MidpSSH had to cater to, Blackberry devices have dedicated directional keys via the nav wheel/button. As such, by default these keys will always send movement commands to the server.
- local buffer scrolling may be implemented if practical and helpful

New Features – Future

Key bindings: Map any blackberry key, key combination , or touch-screen gesture (pinch, swipe, tap, etc) to:
- Any special key (Alt, Ctrl, F1-12, Break, Pause, etc)
- Any macro you define
- Any key combination you want to send.
- Any BBSSH function such as displaying a symbols screen, extended keypad, screenshot, settings etc
TrueType font instead of rendered bitmap. This is only supported in OS 5.0 and later, so it’s lower on the priority list.
Initial Command: configure an initial command to be sent after connection is completed.
(Possibly) Scripting support in macros using javascript – not sure if there’s a benefit to this or not though.
Automatic detection of portrait/landscape mode (Storm, Storm2). Allow locking in so that it’s not constantly switching back and forth.
Allow sending of session definitions to BB messenger contacts
Copy and paste support.
Public/private key pairs: key-pairs including support for password protected, importing from external source, and possibly sharing of private key between devices.
Screen capture
URL scraping from screen content
“Special Key” onscreen keypad instead of menus
Notification icon on the Home screen when an active SSH session requires attention

I think that covers the big stuff…

Coming soon…

Marc — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:53:10 +0000

I’m in the midst of setting up the site and customizing the appearance a bit. In the relatively near future, you’ll find my own thoughts here on subjects technical and otherwise.