Develop Bugs

Sense recording website screenshots.

Hi all,
I think this came up briefly in the “Flaws and annoyances thread” and I believe someone has started a post in the evo forum, but I thought it would be worth just mentioning it to notify the odd few in here.
There’s been a bit of news flying around about the Sense bookmarking widget creating little JPEG files and saving them to .bookmark_thumb1 on your SD card. The issue seemingly being that it doesn’t only take screenshots of your bookmarks; from time to time it records images of general sites you’ve visited. Since they aren’t stored on the phone memory, they won’t be removed by a factory reset – they also aren’t removed by clearing the all your internet history.
I’ve just had a look on my own desire and, sure enough, it’s got odd little snapshots of lots of webpages I’ve visited since I’ve had the phone (I didn’t count before I deleted them but it was about 2MB worth of tiny JPEG images). Any password entry pages it captured did not have any input in any of the fields (the password info would not have been displayed for me anyway).
I’m not particularly worried because I don’t really do anything super-secret with my phone browser, but it may be somewhat alarming for many people.
Does make it awfully tempting to explore other phones though =D
Apologies if this is a duplicate post / would be better placed somewhere else; please point out any daft mistakes I’ve made in describing the behaviour.
Cheers all.
Original article at boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/16/browser-privacy-htc-senseui/
EDIT: The consensus seems to be that this should only be happening for bookmarked and most visited sites. After clearing that directory and starting from scratch, that seems to be the most likely explanation.

I think this has been blown all out of proportion.
BGR is saying it is privacy issue, but since these screenshots are not being broadcast all over the internet, I don't see it that way.
Yes, I agree that if you clear your browser history it should clear down all those thumbnails, but since I generally keep my phone on me at all times, my privacy is not affected.
If I was selling my phone, I'd be factory resetting the device and clearing down any SD card that I'm selling with the phone anyway.
Regards,
Dave

It's a flaw. I get it since purchasing too and have to keep deleting all the images. Not just bookmarks, every other webpage I've visited is pictured there at least 2-3 times.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

I used the HTC browser only for a short time (switched to Dolphin HD).
I checked my SD card today and the thumbs were still saved there so I deleted them. No big deal (as foxmeister already said).
The only thing I don't understand why does the browser take these screenshots in the firs place?

I agree completely with you on the size of the issue. I scrub all my stuff before it leaves my possession; I also never leave my phone alone and don't really keep any sensitive data on the SD card.
Thought it might be worth mentioning for the odd few that would benefit.
I'm still unclear on what it decides to store and when (I understand updating the bookmarks, but the seemingly random ones are puzzling, maybe multiple windows?).

ferus said:
The only thing I don't understand why does the browser take these screenshots in the firs place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Presumably for the bookmarks widget, and the previews you get when you switch browser windows.
Regards,
Dave

This isn't random pictures. Obviously the ones you bookmark...that's a given. The others are times you have multiple windows open. If open a new window/tab, a picture is taken of the previous page you were on so that a preview will be shown when you want to switch between windows.
BGR and Engadget have blown it all out of proportion by suggesting it's not deletable data. Why on earth would my bookmarks be cleared with my history? Bad journalism.

The others are times you have multiple windows open. If open a new window/tab, a picture is taken of the previous page you were on so that a preview will be shown when you want to switch between windows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that officially stated as the working anywhere, or your personal estimate?
This isn't how it is working on mine at all. I've just opened/closed 4 windows of sites, switched through them a few times, then loaded another two pair of 4 on them in the past 3 mins. Not a single screenshot was added except for three of the homepage each window opened with at the beginning (Google).
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

th3 said:
This isn't how it is working on mine at all. I've just opened/closed 4 windows of sites, switched through them a few times, then loaded another two pair of 4 on them in the past 3 mins. Not a single screenshot was added except for three of the homepage each window opened with at the beginning (Google).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if it is something to do with the browser being killed. Perhaps if you open/close windows in a browser session, it does delete the screenshots. However, if you open a few windows and then go back to the home page, Android may at some point kill the browser leaving the screenshots behind.
I'd imagine that something similar might happen if you mounted the SD card whilst in a browser session.
Regards,
Dave

th3 said:
Is that officially stated as the working anywhere, or your personal estimate?
This isn't how it is working on mine at all. I've just opened/closed 4 windows of sites, switched through them a few times, then loaded another two pair of 4 on them in the past 3 mins. Not a single screenshot was added except for three of the homepage each window opened with at the beginning (Google).
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems you may be right...I'm finding it's the "Most Visited" sites that it's saving the thumbnails for. It keeps two versions of each pick, which coincide with the two different views in the most visited tab.

Is that officially stated as the working anywhere, or your personal estimate?
This isn't how it is working on mine at all. I've just opened/closed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems you may be right...I'm finding it's the "Most Visited" sites that it's saving the thumbnails for. It keeps two versions of each pick, which coincide with the two different views in the most visited tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's multi tab and bookmarks for me. Engadget won't admit they're wrong either lol.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

All very good points.
It seems you may be right...I'm finding it's the "Most Visited" sites that it's saving the thumbnails for. It keeps two versions of each pick, which coincide with the two different views in the most visited tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know, after nearly a day testing/observing, that is also what I've understood. Two thumbnail views for the most visited sites are saved. Only for these sites. One is for the "Most Visited" section previews and one the preview of that window when switching between windows.
The only flaw I deem in it is the endless saving without delete. I've had the browser open in the background days on end many times, and always quit through the back button after clearing history/cache. Such images remain undeleted. I don't have any security/privacy concerns with it. Both me and my better half use the phone, just as I might use hers at times (she watches vids and takes pics on mine, not her iPhone ).
BTW, anyone noticed that after clearing history/cache you can still go through all the pages you've visited through the Back button?
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

Ah, I hadn't considered the most visited sites; that most likely explains the large number of pictures I had (I rarely multi-tab or bookmark).
Certainly seems to be the case now I've started from scratch and have been watching closely.

always makes me chuckle, the term "sensitive data", I take it we mean legal, banking documents etc? only? I bloody doubt it given that this is a forum full of geeks
"da intarwebs is for pRon"
just kidding fellas, no offence....

I used the HTC browser only for a short time (switched to Dolphin HD).
I checked my SD card today and the thumbs were still saved there so I deleted them. No big deal (as foxmeister already said).
The only thing I don't understand why does the browser take these screenshots in the firs place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope dolphin is better with your private data than opera, read what they do with your phone number and your history to finance there work!
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Its a pain in the arse on my bookmarks since it usually saves a snapshot of the next page I visit on a bookmarks thumb for instance my YM bookmark shows a snapshot of this forum.. so its just confusing when I'm trying to quick select my bookmarks.
I dont care about history, its my phone I can do what I like with it.

[REQ][XDA WIKI]: Feature request thread

Request 1: Add HTML Tidy to the xda wiki stack
Template:Navbox @ Wikipedia said:
Using this template on other wikis requires HTML Tidy to be turned on. A version that does not require Tidy can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Transwiki/Template:Navbox. (That version generally shouldn't be used here on the English Wikipedia.) More detailed information on copying {{Navbox}} to other wikis can be found on the talk page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been doing a LOT of work adding stuff to the xda wiki, but I've hit an impasse, some of the most complex templates used on Wikipedia depend on it being 'scripted' with HTML instead of pure wikimarkup.
The main example is Template:Navbox. While this specific template does have a pupre wikimarkup equivilent (if it even is an equivilent, it's not maintained at the level of the normal one). The other templates I wish to use dont have equivilents.
Template:Navbox subgroup is the one (among others) that I wish to add in but cant because it depends on HTML Tidy. The Template itself is already on the xda wiki, but if you attempt to use it it's completely broken.
I cant say it's as simple as "install on server and turn it on" but the fact of the matter is that without it most of the fun/magic stuff on wikipedia cant be brought over to the xda wiki.
Some examples of recent stuff i've made (for reference):
Samsung Galaxy S Series Navbox
Samsung Galaxy S II Series Navbox
New Samsung Portal on Main page
Entirety of Dell devices page
If you look at the several navboxes I've made they have hacks in the code to get around the fact that I'm just a normal level editor.
Request 2: We need MOAR editors!
Also this doubles as a request for more editors on the wiki: XDA is the largest android development based site on the internet, yet here we are weeks after the release of the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note and the pages didnt even exist until I made stubs for them.
As of this past quarter I've generated more edits then possibly nearly every other user combined, but there's only so much I can do at this point by my self. (With my primary style being to organize page layouts and tidying stuff up vs writing new content for devices)
[Edit count itself is a bad metric, but edits that arnt mine only number in the dozens a month]
Sure it's reasonable for minor devices and varients to be stubs, but the Note has sold over a million units and yet not a single person has even bothered to make as much as a scribble on the wiki about the device. That's just an example, but ultimately if this were wikipedia, the amount of pages rated 'good' or higher would only number in the dozens. (There's also the fact that my belief is that it's a bad idea to add anything intensive for a device you dont own, standard fare on one device can super-brick another due to quirks)
It's a rather sad state of affairs that for such a large web site with 22000 active users at any one time that there's not a single good consistant repeat editor besides me.
Edit: changed wording to not be inflammatory
Request 3: Turn on Subpages on the main namespace
Mediawiki:Subpages are by default enabled on the template and user namespaces, but not on the main namespace. I believe it's done this way because of editor policy and not technical reasons.
The xda wiki would HEAVILY benefit from having it enabled since it already currently manually uses them, the previous example of:
Samsung <Series>/<model number>/article has long existed this way but without the automatically generated anchors.
The majority of pages are already ready to accept it, it might simply need to be turned on.

XDA Wiki
TheManii said:
there's not a single good editor besides me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO that is a rather sweeping statement and is likely to put off anyone from editing the Wiki. I would dispute even your claim as a good editor would not make sweeping changes to categories without discussion on the pages involved. Should I just "undo" them?
XDA has a problem with repetitive questions leading to user dissatisfaction with overlong forums and the loss of good developers such as AdamG.
One solution may be to create a FAQ Wiki for any thread over a certain size (for example 1,000 posts) and automatically link to that thread at the top of every page and above the reply box.
Cheers
Tom

It is sweeping, but the fact is there arent many repeat editors, many devices havnt not seen edits in months because a great deal of the changes dones are a one-time batch job with a single theme.
I'm not at all saying that the other editors are bad, though yes that what the impression was (and perhaps I should have worded it better). I'm saying that few wish to stay with it for the long-haul.
There's few editors that consistantly return to add/update/expand artitles for their own devices or other devices. That's my main issue. I actively want to be proven wrong in this regard, I'm inviting other to prove me wrong. I myself am somewhat guilty of this myself, I primarly concentrate on the dell devices, but I've kept them very up to date for the previous year.
One example I have issue with is: Acer A500 -xda wiki the entire page are just forum links. I have no issue at all with the contents of the posts (just as much my opinion on them is irrelevent) but the fact they are just links and not part of the article. The fact it's not on the wiki means that other editors cannot make changes themselves, which rather defeats the point of the wiki, which leads to,
The other issue is, unless the OP is excellent at keeping the thread organizied, you often have to wade though the entire thread to keep up to date. With a thread with +200 posts even if you wanted to it's a huge effort to do that. Even in the most complex of topics, they can be broken down a couple bullet points and approx a paragraph each to elaborate. There's also 'bad' advise that doesnt get edited away on topics ('bad' as in it may simply be the case that it was the right thing at the moment but there was eventually a more 'correct' method discovered later and the original 'bad' one is still reposted for whatever reason)
I could copy the posts onto the wiki verbaitm, but you really should have the poster's permission, what if the poster isnt active? It would be a bad idea to paraphrase advise/guides without context, what if you remove an important small detail. The right way to be to frequent the device and get context, but that triples the amount of work to do so properly.
It's no secret that there's always users that refuse to read topics and simply skip straight to posting repeat questions. Short pages with clear instructions are much easier to recommend then having them read though dozens and dozens of posts (which they skipped as they posted without reading in the first place)
Discussions dont really work on a wiki, esp one without consistant-repeat (or even repeat) editors. There's a fair amount of edits for various devices, but there are obviously more devices then editors. Lets walk though it: I want to make an edit, do I post it on the topic's talk page? Short of doing so on wikipiedia proper on a popular change, you wont recieve much feedback.
Do you make a post on each of their device's forums? XDA has sub-forums for each device, but not really a sub-forum for the family itself (back to the SGS/SGS2, there's the main device's subforum and each varient's subforum but none for the entire family, i think) That means making dozens of posts to talk about each major change.
What if it's an old device such as the winmo devices? The HTC HD2 is the only one left on the active part of the xda forums, because it's obviously not just a winmo device now. You're going to have to wait a very long time as they naturally only get a couple posts a month now.
Just as much, unless a mod/admin states to the contrary, you can always assume Wikipedia:Be Bold is implied to apply. I honestly have no issue if my edits are reverted if they are constructive reverts, as that's how wikis work.
If anyone has a issue with the edits I make, you're welcome to discuss it with me and hopefully we'll find a middle road.
Also I've made a reply on User_talkaveShaw#Page Name & Categories (as a fun note: & is translated to _.26_ in links while / isnt, though mediawiki has no issue with either of them, though you cannot directly use & in page names while you can use /) You should read it if the critisim is directed towards me.
tl;dr prove me wrong, Be Bold, help make the wiki better
Edit: HTC_HD2 - NexusHD2 ICS CM9 FAQ is an excellent example of why things should be on the wiki as articles instead of just merely links to a thread. It's about 3 pages of topic points and contains the majority of the topic points instead of having to read 225 (currently) pages to get the same info. (Also, just as much if I inadvertently remove valid content, revert/add it back! That was not my intention, everyone makes mistakes. The xda wiki is pretty well off in that it has little/no intentional vanadalism, you can always assume an edit is in good faith, I dont recall more then 1-2 legitamitely bad edits in nearly a year)

I've asked someone to look at Request 1.
I'm not sure what can be done about Request 2, if people don't want to maintain it, we can't make then

Thanks!
I dont really expect req 2 to be fullfilled in any real manner. Just pointing it out.

Added request 3: enable subpages on main namespace

TheManii said:
Added request 3: enable subpages on main namespace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Our server admin has told me this has been done.
Dave

I can confirm it's on now, all the subcatagorized pages seem to be working great now

TheManii said:
I can confirm it's on now, all the subcatagorized pages seem to be working great now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Dave

Browser Crash \ Read an article for me on your 900

I think there is a bug in the Windows Phone IE implementation.
Even on my Focus I had tabs simply go blank while I was reading them or after I opened them but before I got to read them. It wasn't repeatable until now. Previously I reopened the same article a second time and it was usually fine. The reason it is so problematic is the way I read articles. I have an igoogle page full of RSS feeds from the top two dozen sites I follow. I skim the igoogle page and open the first five articles I want to read in other tabs, then I go back and read them one at a time. I would read engadget or gizmodo similarly. If the articles span multiple pages then I when click the "next button" I switch tabs to another article while the page loads. Maybe it is obvious to everyone but I do it this way so I don't have to wait for pages to load. Also I have my internet website settings on my phone set to desktop preference rather than mobile.
Anyway, the fact that the pages would go blank was most annoying because when I opened a tab that went blank I would have to go back through the original list of articles to figure out which one I had missed.
I couldn't duplicate it until I tried to read this article:
http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=d3debfc5accaa909f0cd201b356bfdc0
The article is pretty interesting - it is Tom's Hardware take on the new Intel Z77 chipset and Lucidlogix implementation. I would appreciate if anyone would try to read it for me. You will have to set your browser preference on the 900 to "desktop version" to duplicate the bug. I can sometimes get two or three pages in clicking 'next' before it crashes in one way or another. If nobody can duplicate my problem then my Lumia is going back for another 900.

Brought me to m.tomshardware.com for an article called "Intel’s Z77 Express And Lucidlogix MVP: New Features For Gamers - Z77 Express: USB 3.0 And Enhanced Manageability" with no problems...
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express
-----
Update: So then I went back and opened the link with the browser in desktop mode and was able to get it to crash around the 4th page. However... I saw some funky rendering on the 3rd page so I'm not sure what caused the crash (could have been bad code from the article's site not handled well in IE).

Bug Submitted
eknutson said:
...was able to get it to crash around the 4th page. However... I saw some funky rendering on the 3rd page so I'm not sure what caused the crash (could have been bad code from the article's site not handled well in IE).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I have submitted this as a bug. I am surprised that more people haven't commented on "desktop version" crashes in Windows Phone Internet Explorer. Maybe I should switch back to "mobile version" since most sites are now coded correctly for that.

XDA forums almost unusable with NoScript

Hi - My internet browser is Firefox, and I have been using NoScript for years.
There is only one website that causes me constant problems when browsing: XDA Developers.
I use NoScript constantly with a lot of stuff disabled by default: Everything Facebook is always disabled, along with doubleclick and a bunch of other tracking websites.
With NoScript on, the XDA screen is constantly jumping around, with various websites constantly trying to refresh about twice a second. It is so jumpy with embedded websites continuously refreshing, that I can't even control NoScript well enough to enable whatever disabled website(s) are causing the problem.
I wouldn't be frustrated if this happened to me all the time, but XDA is the only website I see this problem on. I would expect a high-tech developer website like XDA to have less problems instead of more problems.
Sigh. I wish somebody at XDA could fix this.
¿GJ?

NoScript has a whitelist feature. If you don't want to use it, you can't expect it to be "fixed" (actually, modified to fit your needs would be a better choice of words) anytime soon, as the forums (and many other forums, in general) rely rather heavily on scripts.
I personally have XDA added to my whitelist.
As for the refreshes, did you make sure it's not another add-on that's conflicting? Start FF in safe mode and check if the issue persists.

Don't know if this helps, but I just tested XDA with NoScript without any issues.
That being said, a lot of features rely on JavaScript, so no guarantee what would happen if you only turned on some of them.

Huh.. I use NS on FF, and have seen no issues. To be sure it is NS, have you told it to temporarily allow all, and see if that fixes it? It could certainly be another issue..

What he could be speaking of is the portal constant refreshing (not on the forum), which also occurs on my differents computers with NS (with xda on whitelist).
For me, everytime I scroll on the portal main page, it refresh itself.

It's weird - Something changed between yesterday and today. Yesterday, this page wouldn't sit still until I was able to do enough "Temporarily allow all this page" button presses (about 5 or 6) to get the page finally stabilized.
Now, everything was stable when I entered XDA with the same "allow" list I had yesterday.
I'm not a big fan of "White List"ing sites, since so many sites have Facebook embedded in them (amongst many other tracking sites I don't like). Ever since Facebook violated my privacy and sucked up my personal contact information without my explicit approval, I ... ...
... well, let's just say I won't "Like" Facebook.
I appreciate the feedback from y'all, and I wish I knew what changed.
Thanks!
¿GJ?

bitpushr said:
Don't know if this helps, but I just tested XDA with NoScript without any issues.
That being said, a lot of features rely on JavaScript, so no guarantee what would happen if you only turned on some of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Divine_Madcat said:
Huh.. I use NS on FF, and have seen no issues. To be sure it is NS, have you told it to temporarily allow all, and see if that fixes it? It could certainly be another issue..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some forum features won't work: dropdown menus (e.g. "Go to Page" next to the page numbers, "Quick Links", "Rate thread") search boxes not being cleared automatically when you click them, username/device completion in search boxes or using the new mention feature, share buttons (they won't show how many times X got shared), etc. The WIYIWYG editor obviously doesn't work as well.
The portal's layout is a bit messed up, too.
It's all fixed by adding xda-developers.com to the whitelist. I think you both already have it added (I removed it for testing), which is what you're supposed to do for websites you trust anyway.
---------- Post added at 12:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 AM ----------
¿GotJazz? said:
It's weird - Something changed between yesterday and today. Yesterday, this page wouldn't sit still until I was able to do enough "Temporarily allow all this page" button presses (about 5 or 6) to get the page finally stabilized.
Now, everything was stable when I entered XDA with the same "allow" list I had yesterday.
I'm not a big fan of "White List"ing sites, since so many sites have Facebook embedded in them (amongst many other tracking sites I don't like). Ever since Facebook violated my privacy and sucked up my personal contact information without my explicit approval, I ... ...
... well, let's just say I won't "Like" Facebook.
I appreciate the feedback from y'all, and I wish I knew what changed.
Thanks!
¿GJ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest using something that will block them on all websites, then. You can probably do it using NoScript's advanced filtering options, but I personally already use AdBlock Plus, and there's a neat list you can subscribe to that will block all those buttons. Get the "Annoyance Block List" from here.

¿GotJazz? said:
It's weird - Something changed between yesterday and today. Yesterday, this page wouldn't sit still until I was able to do enough "Temporarily allow all this page" button presses (about 5 or 6) to get the page finally stabilized.
Now, everything was stable when I entered XDA with the same "allow" list I had yesterday.
I'm not a big fan of "White List"ing sites, since so many sites have Facebook embedded in them (amongst many other tracking sites I don't like). Ever since Facebook violated my privacy and sucked up my personal contact information without my explicit approval, I ... ...
... well, let's just say I won't "Like" Facebook.
I appreciate the feedback from y'all, and I wish I knew what changed.
Thanks!
¿GJ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the opposite problem it seems, in that if I white-list the site then quite often one of the scripts goes haywire
and refreshes the page repeatedly for several refreshes or until the server complains with an error message about being overloaded.
It has been suggested to me that this may be a 2013 theme problem, so I'm trying the 2010 one for a few days to see if that fixes it.

Nameless One said:
I have the opposite problem it seems, in that if I white-list the site then quite often one of the scripts goes haywire
and refreshes the page repeatedly for several refreshes or until the server complains with an error message about being overloaded.
It has been suggested to me that this may be a 2013 theme problem, so I'm trying the 2010 one for a few days to see if that fixes it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Nameless One: Yes, I've been seeing the "Server Overloaded" error message as well. I wasn't sure if it was NoScript related, though I was beginning to suspect it. I would open the same XDA pages in IE or Chrome without any problem, but see the "Overloaded" error only with Firefox. Usually (but, not always), temporarily enabling all sites fixed that problem for me.
¿GJ?

I have the same constant refresh problem.
The site only works if I set noscript to allow everything globally or if I use IE (ouch).
It feels to me this site is overburdened with ad/tracking scripts and blocking them forces the site to break (admins anti block?).
I will try the 2010 theme idea and report back, also I do have the main domain whitelisted.
--edit--
2010 theme fixes it, so I guess a 2013 theme issue.

Yep - Dumped the 2013 Theme and went back to 2010 Theme.
Everything's groovy now.
¿GJ?

¿GotJazz? said:
Yep - Dumped the 2013 Theme and went back to 2010 Theme.
Everything's groovy now.
¿GJ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2013 relies heavily on javascript so I imagine that is why you are having some issues. 2010 uses it much less but you may still see some issues relating to Javascript being blocked, such as menus not working and that sort of thing.

Ads stealing focus from message textarea.

I am finding that ads are stealing the focus from the textarea, like the one I am typing into now, so that every few seconds what I type goes into oblivion and I need to click back into the textarea.
Having said that, I've not noticed it on this one, so perhaps it is specific to one forum, or ads that are placed on that forum. The post this most recently happened on is:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-30-pro/accessories/screen-protectors-t4013837#post81412545
It would be excellent if this behaviour could be prevented.
Google Chrome 79.0.3945.88 (Official Build) unknown (64-bit)