Friday, June 22, 2012

Cannot play videos on Yahoo! News?

Symptom: This often happens with users of Firefox and other Gecko-based browsers, when:
• they can't show most news videos on the Yahoo! News website and some other Yahoo! properties;
• the commenting system is not functional (can't properly view and post comments).

Privacy-conscious users, and/or those who wish for their browsers to consume less resources, use a script blocking add-on, such as NoScript. I often have NoScript configured to allow/disallow full domains (like d.yimg.com) and not just second-level domains (just yimg.com).

As it often happens, allowing only full subdomains instead of just second-level domains brings with itself more issues.

By default, NoScript includes a whitelist of second-level domains without which major services' functionality would be wholly disabled. The whitelist also contains yahoo.com, yimg.com, and yahoopis.com). The instructions herein are for users who have chosen to impose a more fine-grained control over the websites they visit.


Right, well, I finally played around with NoScript and found a solution:

NoScript:
    In addition to news.yahoo.com and screen.yahoo.com and maybe others, allow the following domains essential for video playback:
  • l.yimg.com
  • d.yimg.com
  • connect.facebook.net (If you're privacy-conscious, then allow temporarily).

  • 11.07.2012. Update: I later discovered that non-video news items also featured videos, so here's an addition of domains that must be allowed:
  • video.query.yahoo.com
  • yep.video.yahoo.com
  • yui.yahooapis.com (important on other Yahoo properties, even if not using video)
  • webplayer.yahooapis.com
Flashblock:
• Allow d.yimg.com
^ Including only that domain in the Flashblock whitelist will have the video area rendered with the Flashblock placeholder. Clicking on it will start playback (note that ads are also played).
• Allow l.yimg.com
^ In regular news items that included video, disallowing l.yimg.com wouldn't even load the Flashblock video placeholder.

If you want video to load automatically, allow the above domains, and news.yahoo.com and screen.yahoo.com (and/or other Yahoo! properties as necessary from the Flashblock toolbar button).

Conclusion

Even if l.yimg.com and d.yimg.com are enabled in NoScript, the crucial part for some erroneous coding reason is connect.facebook.net; If that is not allowed, most video code and commenting functionality won't load. Note that connect.facebook.net is the primary culprit. This has been discussed before at forums.informaction.com (a NoScript and web security forum).

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Overview of Nokia phones offered by U.S. carriers on the web

US web offers for new Nokia phones as of 06.06.2012.
The list is very much incomplete, and emphasis is added to phones that don't have Windows Phone 7.5 in them.
This list also reflects which carriers' websites first ask for location without offering their phones first. The carriers whose sites that do that are more likely to offer locked phones and with a fixed contract instead of selling them to someone who would want to use their phone with a different carrier.


Legend:
* "Nokia not listed" means that the website is offering phones by brand name
* "No Nokia phones" means that the website either does not offer phones by brand name, or that Nokia phones were not available.

National
  • T-Mobile:
    Nokia X2 (refurb)
  • AT&T: Nokia Lumia 900 (doesn't count)
  • Verizon Wireless
    Basic phones: No Nokia
    Smartphones: Nokia is not even in a gray list
  • Sprint: Personal/Business — No Nokia, has one Sony Ericsson, IIRC
  • Tried alltel — service not available at "my" zip code (I used one of Au Sable Forks, NY)
  • C-Spire: None (has Sony Ericsson)
  • Cricket Wireless — No coverage in the area :(
    According to Wikipedia (as of 31.05.2012), Nokia is not in the current list of phones.
Supra-Regional
MetroPCS — Nokia is not in the listed brands
U.S. Cellular — Nokia is not in the listed brands

Regional
Alaska Communications — Nokia is not in listed brands
    Cellcom —
    Nokia is listed, but no products shown
  • Cellular One
      Locations: Montana, North-Western Wyoming, Texas (TX-10, TX-11), and Oklahoma (OK-5)
      cellonenation.com — Wants zip code
      celloneet.com — Wants zip code
    • cellular1.net (East Central Illinois, device availability varies by location) —
      Feature Phones:
      Nokia 2680
      Nokia 2720
      Smartphones:
      Nokia N8
      Nokia N97
      Texting phones:
      Nokia C3
    • cellularoneonline.com (Northeastern Arizona and Northwestern New Mexico)
      All mobile phones:
      Nokia C1
      Hearing aid-compatible:
      Nokia 2720
      Nokia 6085
      Nokia 7020
      Nokia E5 (Aspect)
      Nokia E75
    • South Canaan Cellular (Wayne and Pike Counties, Pennsylvania/cellularonenepa.com) — No Nokia phones
    • Choice Wireless (Texas and Oklahoma, cellonetxok.com, models vary based on availability)
      Nokia 2760
      Nokia 5800
      Nokia 6061
      Nokia 6085
      Nokia E63
  • Cincinnati Bell — Has landing page, but this can be run around. Nokia not listed.
  • Element Mobile — No Nokia phones
  • i Wireless
    Nokia 1208
  • Immix Wireless
    Nokia C1
  • nTelos — Nokia not listed
  • Revol Wireless — No Nokia phones
  • southernLINC Wireless — No Nokia phones
  • West Central Wireless
    Nokia C6
    Nokia N8
  • Indigo Wireless — No Nokia phones
  • Viaero Wireless
    Nokia 2720
    Nokia 7020
  • Long Lines Wireless
    Nokia 7020
  • Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative (astac.net) — wants zip code