The official YouTube app no longer works on Android Gingerbread (2018). Remedies.

This is meant to be a reply in a thread at Google Product Forums. I've posted it here first. The official YouTube app stopped functioning in Android 2.3 in late-late October 2018.

Just an update: Logging out in the non-functional YouTube app in Gingerbread made it impossible to log in again. The error message (roughly translated) reads:

A problem occurred during launch. Check the network connection and system time.

It seems to me, that Error 410 probably appeared when an account is set as logged-in in the YouTube app, though I cannot claim this for certain. The error cited above now appears when attempting to log in, or when trying to play videos.

On the other hand, I got yet another opportunity to check out a device with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), and the YouTube app does work there, provided, that some of the software components are kept up-to-date.

The example ICS setup with a working YouTube app has the following component versions:

* Android 4.0.3
* Google Play Store 8.0.76.R-all [0] [PR] 163912422
* Google Play Services 14.5.74 (000302-219897028)
* YouTube app version 11.01.70

People with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a non-functioning YouTube app can do the following:

• Continue using the mobile YouTube site in the default browser that would launch videos in an external player.

The reason I suggest using the default browser ("Internet"), is, that while older versions of Mozilla Firefox and derivatives can run on Android 2.3, and while they do also support HTML5 video, then Firefox is resource-intensive on low-end devices. Such devices do not have enough RAM memory, and/or cannot run anything greater than Gingerbread. With these, video playback might work in Firefox, but not satisfactorily, or might not work at all.

• Or they can upgrade to at least Android 4.0 — either by updating the software, if a device manufacturer and/or mobile operator has an update on offer; or by obtaining a device installed with at least ICS.

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This I left out of the reply:

It appears, that this time, the YouTube app not working on Android Gingerbread is final, hence 'no longer' in the title of this post. I don't think it will be fixed, and it would be a miracle, if it were. If someone has Android 2.3 with a working YouTube app, while most others don't have that, then the most likely explanation could be expired certificates in the app and Gingerbread itself, and updated certificates on the YouTube end. Such is life.

In this case, I follow a personal policy of not suggesting alternative apps. Therefore, if the official app doesn't work, use the browser.

The two forks of Pale Moon for Windows XP

This was posted as a reply at Google Product Forums. This concerned video stopping every 25 minutes on YouTube during HTML5 playback.

I got to test a long-form YouTube video with New Moon 27.6.0a1, and the 25-minute video lag still happens.

At that point (when video stops during playback), I pause, or move the video progress indicator back a little to keep the video going.
I treat the breaks every 25 minutes like the breaks during tv ads

I'm most likely stuck with that video lag stoppage, as I've chosen to keep a fork of Pale Moon Moon 27.6.x, because that branch still supports cookie prompting.

There are two forks of Pale Moon for Windows XP:

* New Moon — available at RT's Free Soft blog at Blogspot.
This browser is not my main driver.
* MyPal. Of the two, MyPal 27.6.2 is a somewhat later release than New Moon 27.6.0a1, so I just might consider replacing New Moon with MyPal.

The positive side is, that unlike Firefox, the forks support H.264 video, which should play most videos on YouTube, and clips on twitter.

To switch on support for WebM/VP9 in New Moon 27.6.0a1, one can uncheck "Use MSE asynchronously", and then check "Enable MSE for WebM video" in the Content section of the Options window.

Newer versions of forks most likely have H.264 support as built-in. Older versions of New Moon require extracting the lav extension file(s) from lav.7z into the folder where the browser is installed in Program Files.

It should be noted, that New Moon and MyPal 27.6.x are older versions, but support a few bits more functionality than a comparable version of Firefox (38.8).

Posting URLs with multiple concurrent dots in YouTube comments

In a YouTube discussion under one of the Star Trek-related video clips, a commenter ha posted an address to a Memory Alpha page into the comments, but the address to the article was truncated, because it contained three concurrent dots:

Intended address:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_is...

and as it turned out in truncated form:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_is.

Note, that the two last dots are gone, and if the address is clicked on at YouTube comments, the browser is taken to a "404/Not found" page in Memory Alpha.

The article about what Star Trek is, actually does contain three dots at the end of its address, but the YouTube comments system doesn't like it, as I found this out through my Google+ notifications on the desktop and the (linked) comments at desktop YouTube.

The somewhat unorthodox solution to avoiding dots from being truncated is to insert the URL with those three ending dots and replace the two last-most dots with their percent-encoded representations. Case in point:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_is.%2E%2E

That one dot there may remain.

The percent-encoded values are available from Windows Character Map, a similar program in UNIX/Linux, or through any Unicode character table available on the web.

One can also try with

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_is.%2E.

— with "typed dot | precent-encoded dot | typed dot" after "_is", but there cannot be any two or more concurrent normally-typed dots.

Truncation of characters in addresses pasted (or typed) into YouTube comments can also apply to other web addresses with multiple concurrent characters, but I do not know, which types of characters are more affected or less. I could lay a claim, that special and non-alphanumeric characters that are used in programming, are treated with a greater level of scrutiny.

Long-lasting designs

This is a reply to a post on YouTube discussing the longevity of Miranda-class ships in the fictional Star Trek universe.

Long-lasting old designs in various complex technology branches is really nothing new.

wrt this and the car industry, then off the top of my head, I can cite as examples the Volkswagen Beetle (1938–2003, 65y), the VW microbus (1949–2013, 64y), and Citroën 2CV (1948–1990, 42y).

Fiat 124 (1966) was transmogrified into Soviet Zhiguli/Lada cars, production of which design ended in 2012 in Russia, but continued well into 2014 in Egypt. With 2014 in mind, that's 48 years of mostly continuous production, though in that same year of 2014, the plant in Egypt had a fire

With trams, it's the PCC Streetcar (1936), numerous modifications of which are still in service. I don't know, whether any new PCC-spec trams are still built.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress had its first flight in 1952, and these planes are still in service.

Useful apps exclusive to Android

This is a copy of a comment I wrote in a YouTube discussion to someone who recommended that "[I] get an iPhone".

I've formatted and edited the comment with some additions into this blogpost. While it does harken back to a previous post I wrote about reducing one's Android's resource usage, then this one is more about some of the useful apps I use that are exclusive to Android.

An iPhone or any new smartphone is beyond my means, and I wouldn't be able to run some specific apps only available on Android, such as:

• Adblock Plus for Android. Works only on Wi-Fi, but blocks in-app ads;
   
• Firefox for Android. It's got Reader Mode, which saves an article, only keeps relevant article content, and allows white-on-black reading.
  
  Firefox extensions, which only run on Firefox-based mobile browsers:
  • NoScript Anywhere — blocks scripts and trackers run by scripts, and thus reduces browser resource usage. Its whitelist allows running scripts on sites I whitelist through the NoScript menu in Firefox;
  • Privacy Settings — allows users to switch off a number of default Firefox settings to make the browser less resource-hungry and more secure;
  • Stylish — allows users to locally change the appearance of webpages displayed in a browser (make them dark, etc. to save battery life). People can download or make their own userstyles.
  • Save Link Menus — allows saving links or webpages from Firefox to the local file system.
  
  
• Vim Touch — a very advanced text editor. This adds to productivity (I can create and edit content);
• Hacker's Keyboard — I need this to use VimTouch, to easily navigate in text, and to quickly switch between languages without going to settings every time. This keyboard app is very lightweight compared to most native virtual keyboards;
• Unicode Map — to search for, view, and copy Unicode characters;
• VLC Media Player. 'Nuff said;
• Arity — a scientific calculator, but I sometimes use it to calculate expenses when shopping for multiple things with a limited budget.
  

There some other apps with functionality not particularly unique to any mobile ecosystem:

• Sparse RSS — to subscribe to podcasts;
• Units — a very nice unit converter;
• MuPDF — a lightweight viewer for PDF, OpenXPS and CBZ files;

The above apps are all Free / Open Source Software (FOSS), and available at the F-Droid app repository.

Stock app —
• FM Radio. I can listen to plain FM radio and listen to great music for free and without ads. Estonia's public broadcaster ERR is just that awesome. They even provide small "what's playing" pages, so I can check out the artist and song.
  
  FM radio functionality is not on most iPhone models, and not on most Windows phones either. My phone even supports RDS.
  
  
Some proprietary apps:
• TeamViewer — I sometimes do computer support for friends and relatives;
• The local weather widget.

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This post is licensed under CC-BY-SA-3.0.

HDTV. UHD. Eesti.

Tarbija24: Eestlased ostavad aina nutikamaid telereid. Jätsin kommentaari siia ka, et see hiljem ära ei kaoks.

Eestis on võimalik üle kaabli (Starman) või ka IPTV (Elion) vaadata HD kanaleid küll. Esialgu on nö uuematest tehnoloogiatest laiemalt saadaval vaid FullHD.

See-eest UHD on alles verivärske ja seda sai näha näiteks FIFA jalgpalli maailmakarika ülekannet vaadates — nendel, kel vastav aparatuur olemas.

UHD standardeid on kaks: 4K ja 8K. Jaapan läks kohe 8K peale üle, teised maad ja riigid on nagu kahevahel, et kas valida 4K või 8K.

YouTube muuseas toetab 4K-d, kui video on selles resolutsioonis üles võetud. Vaja on vaid, et toru oleks lai.

Eestis on minuteada DVB-T digistandard koos MPEG4 AVC pakkimisega, mis peaks võimaldama HDTV-d, aga ma ei tea täpselt, kas see on Eestis digiantenniga vastuvõetaval HD-kanalil ainult 720p, või pigem 1080i või 1080p.

HDTV on DVB-T standardi ja MPEG-4 AVC kodeeringuga võimalik, kuid DVB-T läbilaskevõime võimaldab korraga vist ainult ühte-kahte HD kanalit. Ühe multipleksi kohta mitme kanali jaoks on tarvis DVB-T2 saatjaid, aga meil on vaid DVB-T, mille läbilaskevõime on väiksem. Tõsi küll, MPEG-4 AVC kodeerimine on tõhusam kui MPEG2, mis võimaldab veidi rohkem.

Sest soomlastel on alumises otsas DVB-T koos MPEG2 kodeeringuga, mis on vanem kui meie variant, aga nad juurutavad juba DVB-T2 saatjaid ja paljudel sealsetel telekatarbijatel on see mure, et tuleb välja vahetada digivastuvõtjad või üldse uus teler osta. Mõlematpidi on kulu.

Eestis oli üleminek digitelevisioonile ses mõttes ratsionaalne, et analoogiga võrreldes muutus ülekandmine kõigile odavamaks ja nii sai ka kulusid kokku hoida. Nii riik kui ka eeldatavasti erakanalid.

Eestis on alles neli aastat möödas digitelevisioonile üleminekust, mille hulka kuulub DVB-T saatjate paigaldamine (infrastruktuur) ning tarbijate poolt digibokside ja/või uute telekate ostmine.

Ma ei kujuta üldse ette, et kas ja kuidas ja millal oleks peale selliseid kulutusi otstarbekas DVB-T2-le ja seeläbi UHD-le üle minna. Et kui, siis loodetavasti toimub see siis juba järk-järgult, nagu kunagi ammu oli näiteks mustvalgelt värvitelekale üleminek.

Brand recognition and advancements in technology

Everyone knows this picture, as it has become a meme of sorts.

Two major points:
* that "The iPhone introduced the smartphone to the world, and the iPad the tablet computer."

Well...

* And the opposite argument claiming that 'the HUD [headgear] technology predates Star Trek: Deeep Space Nine by decades in theory and by many years as science fact.'

So...

Even if Google Glass-like devices might have been in use well before Google came out with its own product, then in all actuality they might have been deployed in only sequestered (military, intelligence) and/or niche environments (specific businesses).

If you go to a library an read a 1980's book or major magazine about future computing devices and gadgets, then the headgear is there already. At least I remember on such book when I was younger.

Very often the point is, that some technologies are not acknowledged as being widely in existence until a reasonably affordable, well-branded, and easy-to-use product is successfully introduced into consumer space and gains major mindshare from the press and then the public at large.

The smartphone was there long before the iPhone (IBM, Nokia), ditto the tablet computer (Microsoft's thingy from 2000 was a rather half-hearted attempt, btw), and videoconferencing. There were video capabilities in instant messaging programs long before Skype.

Only that major brands recognized by most people are major only because of very effective promotion in one otherwise backwards (if you will) or underdeveloped, but rather powerful market compared to the rest of the world. That's iPhone in the U.S.

There are other reasons:
* One is that mainstream technology journalism has been dominated by U.S. outlets;
* The other is that they are usually rather partial to Apple. Almost all of them;
* And that the tech press of the U.S. — and by extension its public — were, IMO, in a very desperate need for a fancy product that was ostensibly innovated in United States, marketed by a major brand native to the U.S., and of which every person would want to have a piece of.
* Never mind that actual product was made in China, where industrialisation and labour conditions are historically comparable to those of 19th century Britain. (Yes, there have been some improvements.)

Possible causes for minor reductions in Firefox market share

This was first intended as a reply to the Firefox developer mailing list, but then I decided to post it here first.

Personally, there have so far been two gripes with Firefox that I've taken some issue with:
* One was the disabling of on-demand loading of pinned tabs after session restore (between versions 9–11);
* The other is the current brouhaha over Adobe's Flash crashing the plugin container process, which is really not the fault of Mozilla. (more below)

Sometimes it's not users leaving Firefox, but some of them starting to use Chrome as their very first browser. Well, Chrome coming around is a good thing, because this gives people more choice as to which browser they want to use, as Chrome and Firefox both possess unique and attractive features that meet their users' different needs.

HTML5 video
The current situation with Flash crashing the plugin container in Firefox is coincidentally a good cause for moving to HTML5 audio and HTML5 video, specifically Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, and WebM, which are free and especially license-free formats.

YouTube's work in converting most of its videos to WebM reduces the immediate requirement and sometimes unpleasant chore of installing Flash on Linux, thereby increasing adoption of Linux, as other sites will hopefully follow suit in adopting free formats.

If we exclude the Summer low and the current Flash issue, then the next reason behind a reduction in Firefox usage could be the choice of format in sites using HTML5 video — most users tend to choose the browser that plays back whatever their favoured media site offers, with variations (mobile/desktop) of Chrome being in a rather advantageous situation right now, as it has built-in support for Flash.

Yet the situation with HTML5 video seems to be split right now along the lines of which HTML5 codecs are supported by which groups of browsers: Safari and IE vs. Opera, Chrome, Firefox and its derivatives.

The choice of YouTube and DailyMotion to offer videos in license-free formats is highly commendable. Now, if YouTube could actually stream high-profile events using HTML5/WebM in addition to Flash...

Desktop to mobile/tablet
Yet another reason in reduction of Firefox market share could just as well be the transition of people's major computing devices from desktops (including notebooks) to hand-helds (smartphones, tablets), nearly all of which currently have WebKit as their main rendering engine (in the form of either Safari or Chrome). I do not know if there has been a separate browser market share comparison for just desktop computers, because I understand that general tallies have usually encompassed both desktop and mobile spaces, with mobile being the separate segment.

Ultimately, as Mozilla and then Firefox were introduced, it was hoped that the browser market would eventually take the shape that it of recent times has started to form (at least worldwide) — in that no one browser would completely rule the market to be in its singularity the one to hold back innovation, and the one to pose itself in unintended consequence a widespread vector for malicious attacks.

So, in conclusion, the situation in my humble and perhaps half-informed opinion, is quite a bit more mixed with regard to what may be the possible causes of Firefox browser market share reduction this Spring and Summer.

Windows Me, Netscape 4.x

This text was written as a series of replies I posted in the YouTube comments section of a promotional introduction video of Windows Me, which can be found in the said operating system.

Since the video was not uploaded from the official source, chances are that the video and the comments to it won't be available at some point of time. So I posted them here for future reference.

And since Blogspot does not have limits on the amount of text, then I have edited the replies a bit to add text.

Windows Me was really good on something like a 667 MHz CPU and 128Mb RAM at the time. If you want to run reasonably modern software without swapping much, then you need 256 Mb of RAM (factor in [modern] web browser, IM program, OpenOffice 2.4.3).

Windows Me can run on less, of course, as it was included in computers that only had 64Mb of RAM.

At one point, Windows xp ran fine with 128 Mb RAM, but nowadays it needs 512M RAM as a real-life minimum to keep the system secure & do something productive.

These specs were for a new PC from around 2000 that was first supplied with only 64 Mb RAM. I requested it have 128 Mb, since the lesser setup was slow with multimedia of the time (it had fast Internet, so I knew it was the amount of RAM). After the RAM upgrade, using the computer was a breeze.

I also took very good care of the hard drive and the OS, keeping it updated & secure, and since its users mostly used Netscape for business, then viruses and exploits never made it there.

At that time it [the popular version of Netscape] was Netscape Communciator 4.x. I think on that PC we stuck with 4.79 for a long time (the last of 4.x was 4.8, released in 2002 :-). The 4.x branch was the first to support CSS, but that was the only feature which caused crashes when turned on (especially in 4.0x), so I kept it off on all our Netscapes, which were fairly solid after that. Despite the clunky Navigator, the best part was the e-mail client, which introduced mail filters to fight spam (then seen as controversial).

We skipped Netscape 6, never considered 7.x, and in newer PC's moved instead to Mozilla, the open-source descendant of Netscape and which Netscape 6 and 7 were based on anyway.

As Mozilla Foundation started Firefox, it ceased Mozilla development, which was taken over by others, and Mozilla Application Suite became SeaMonkey.

The last version of SeaMonkey for Windows 98/Me is 1.1.19 ([from] 2010); its Gecko rendering engine is a wee bit newer than that of Firefox 2.0 (Gecko 1.8.1.20 vs 1.8.1.24).