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How to unblock blocked BrainKing images (Firefox)

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:12:00 -0400

Firefox is a powerful and robust web browser, but sometimes it can cause problems to less experiences users who accidentally turn on certain security blocks and don't know how to unblock them. It is not a rare situation in these times when annoying popups and different kinds of attacks threaten people on a daily basis, and since I was solving a real "my BrainKing images have suddenly disappeared" issue of one BrainKing user, I have decided to write this short article because it could happen to more people.

All right, what to do if you are using Firefox, an "ignore images from this domain" appears, you click on it and then want to make the particular images visible again?

Go to Tools / Options menu of your Firefox window.
Activate Content tab of the Options window and click Exceptions ... button next to Load images automatically option.
Wait until a list of blocked sites appear. Warning! If you are using Spybot - Search & Destroy or similar anti-spyware program which automatically blocks blacklisted sites, it can take 10-20 seconds to activate the blocked list box, so don't panic and be patient.
Find the i.brainking.com line and remove it.

That's it, you should observe no further problems with BrainKing images.

Icon/photo manipulation

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:30:00 -0400

I would like to drop a line about user icons and profile photos (not to be mistaken with photo albums). I am sure that many people observed that a non-existent image is shown where an icon should be, for some BrainKing users, and the reason of this small issue is that it is always a little risky to release a formerly admin-only feature to public.

All right, what is it about?

There are Activate/deactivate icon/photo options at profile pages of paying members. These small forms used to be available only to BrainKing administrators in the past, but due to enormous amount of request from some people to disable their icons for any reason (don't ask me why), I decided to enable this process to everyone, which means that any paying member of BrainKing can simply deactivate his profile icon/photo if he feels like that.
However, this function is probably a little misleading because other people have been trying to "activate" their icons without uploading them first. That's not the right approach. And it would not be too meaningful to write a FAQ entry about it because not everyone reads how-to descriptions.

Very well, it has been fixed at last. The mentioned activate/deactivate icon/photo forms are available only if the proper images actually exist for the user, so if you don't see these options at your profile page anymore, please try to use the Profile / Upload icon link to provide some image first.

More translating options

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:18:00 -0400

Actually, it was released five days ago but since I prefer to post no more than one article a day, I have decided to write a few words about it today.

Google made an important upgrade of their language tools and added new languages to translate from and to. And since Czech in included there too (at last), it should be good news for everyone who has been asking me for a good English-Czech translator, most likely because Czech players form the third biggest group on BrainKing, so many people play games with them and a good translating service can significantly improve an in-game conversation.

Besides, the mentioned upgrade of Google language tools now supports 16 languages out of 20 BrainKing localizations. That's a nice step forward to break language barriers.

http://www.google.com/language_tools

BGBlitz special offer

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:33:00 -0400

First of all - since I have been told that white player starts a game of Italian Checkers, not black, I've made this change to the game model and it also affects all started and already finished games of Italian Checkers. So, if your pieces have suddenly changed the color, it is not a bug. I hope nobody gets too confused.

And now, what is more important - BrainKing starts a cooperation with Frank Berger, the author of professional backgammon software for Windows, Mac and Linux, called BGBlitz. Since today, every BrainKing user, who purchases or renews at least 1 year membership of any level, will get a 20% discount of a Player or Professional version of BGBlitz. The bonus would be displayed at the particular order page as a short description with customized PayPal buttons, so the only think you have to do is to choose the BGBlitz version and click the proper button.

It also means that BrainKing currently offers two bonuses to every 1 year membership purchase - 50% discount of a 300AD.com game and 20% discount of BGBlitz. Take them while they are hot.

A short comparing of different BGBlitz versions.

Let me summarize some BGBlitz features (copied from BGBlitz home page with a permission of Frank Berger):

Play Backgammon against a world class opponent or play over the network.
A tutor helps to improve your game.
Rollout position with optional variance reduction.
Choose between several themes. See the themes page.
Train your skill with quiz databases.
Train your cube handling in match play.
Replay your games.
Collect matches in databases.
Convert from/to different match-formats and to HTML.
Use the precise endgame database.
Completely internationalised. Current languages are English, German, Dutch (Roger Troost), Italian and French (Radu-Dan Sabau), Spanish (José Manuel Solis Preisser), Danish (Søren Pingel Daalsgard), Hebrew (Shahar Tal), Swedish (Peter Nevalainen), Turkish (Özgür Albayrak), Catalan (Xavier Blanquer), Chinese (Angelita Li), Polish (Miroslaw Golda), Japanese (Katsutoshi Seki) and Russian (Oleg Timshin). Thanks to all of them.
And more ...

Well, what should I add? I like to support all interesting projects which have something to do with board games and since backgammon is still the most played game on BrainKing game site, I am sure that BGBlitz would be worth trying for the majority of BrainKing community.

Static chat room page can be useful

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:02:00 -0400

Although BrainKing's chat box is not filled with hundreds of messages every day (actually, at least the Czech room is kind of active), I like this opportunity to have a chat with currently connected people and since the static version of this feature (Chat room page) was created mostly for people with JavaScript-disabled browsers and provided no extra functionality, I have decided to change this status a little.

Starting today, the Chat Room page contains the following improvements:

Older messages are displayed with date and time. It is useful in less frequent rooms where it is not clear whether the time values refer to the current day or some other day in the past.
History can be browsed (pagination). If you missed a conversation because it is already pulled down by newest messages, it can be easily found by page links above and below the message list.
Messages can be searched using a simple search form at the top of the page, and results are returned with the particular context links. It means that if the context link is clicked, the page containing the particular message is displayed and the corresponding conversation can be accessed as well.

But I still like the interactive JavaScript version more. However, I use the static one as a resource of historical data.

Pond notes and statistics speculation

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:35:00 -0400

The recent article about different browsers usage on BrainKing game site has invoked a couple of questions whether the numbers are accurate enough or not, regarding real BrainKing users (just registered users, not visitors). Of course, the server log analyzer cannot distinguish between entries created by logged users and accidental passers-by, which means that if we want better and more detailed statistics of this kind, we need a help of BrainKing itself.

As of 1st May 2008 (it should happen after 2 days), BrainKing will start to store accurate and users-only information about web browsers, operating systems and similar non-private data which are important to calculate a real ratio of, for instance, Firefox 3.0 usage on Windows Vista etc., which will give us much better overview and should help us to make any further optimizations which are really necessary (because if this feature shows that some browser is used by less than 1% of all users, any optimizations for it would not have the top priority). In order to provide some meaningful information, no results will be shown for at least 1 month, although the data itself will be processed on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, there is a small update on the Ponds system - since today, it is possible to add personal notes to any pond you are currently playing, and the notes are visible to you only, of course (something like that already works for normal games). This feature might be helpful for people who like to keep track of previous moves of opponents, in order to plan their strategy.

JavaScript troubleshooting again

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:46:00 -0400

I have been thinking about BrainKing optional features which require client-side scripting (JavaScript) to make them work, because it might be a little tricky for some users, especially when something suddenly stops working - for example, the smiley popup window. This article contains instructions what to do, instead of posting "it doesn't work for me" without any further information:

First of all - if something works for the majority of BrainKing users and does not work for only you or a few other ones, in 99% cases it is not BrainKing's fault (troublemakers are welcome to comment this note, as they usually do it anyway ). It means that the most straightforward way to solve the problem is to check own computer and web browser for anything unusual.
There are several possible sources of this kind of issues:
- The feature is blocked by a popup ad blocker extension. Actually, it is very unlikely in case of the smiley window because it does not work like a typical popup, but if nothing else helps, it might be worth trying to change the particular browser extension settings or temporarily uninstall it at all.
- The feature is blocked by a security application, similar to Norton Internet Security etc., which does not allow the browser to change already loaded page dynamically. Try to disable the blocking program for a while and see if anything changes.
- There might be a hidden bug in the browser which did not appear before due to some circumstances. Try to open BrainKing with another web browser to see differences.
- From time to time, a problem occurs when the system firewall settings are changes, at least I remember that some users had problems to load BrainKing picture until they fixed their firewall configuration.
If nothing helps, it is necessary to provide some information to analyze. I am not sure about other web browsers, but Firefox contains a neat error console which can be found at Tools / Error Console menu. It can be very helpful to copy and paste its content and send it to me, many anomalies can be detected in this way.

These instructions definitely do not cover all possible scenarios, but can work as a start point for any possible progress. A good cooperation never makes it worse.

Firefox 3 Beta 5

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:37:00 -0400

I don't spend my time testing products in beta status too often (frankly, I don't remember when I did it for the last time) but since Firefox web browser is something what I use every day and I belong to the group of its supporters, I have decided to try out the most recent public beta version - Firefox 3 Beta 5 - at least to check if BrainKing needs some style modifications because of possible Firefox 3 specific behavior.

Well, after a few hours of active using and trying everything possible, I am impressed. Positively.

As far as I can say, it is definitely the fastest Firefox so far, most likely thanks to its new rendering engine. BrainKing contains many optional JavaScript features which look nice but can make a browser "a little" slower when all of them are activated at the same time, so it was one of details I wanted to test as soon as possible. And since all my attempts to make Firefox 3 jammed or at least overloaded by all possible popups, pulldowns, fade-ins or flying dragons absolutely failed, I can only say "wow!" to the programmers - this is definitely a big step forward.

This article is not meant to publish a full featured review, I just wanted to express my experiences and personal opinion. Which is exactly what blogs are designed to.

A very short overview of pros:

It is faster. In some cases, much faster.
It looks "nicer". It is hard to describe but I have a much better feeling when I work with Firefox 3, compared to previous versions.
Smart bookmarks - the most visited pages are automatically bookmarked to a special folder. Right now, I know that my most frequent activity on BrainKing during last hour was to submit new entries to the BrainKing Translator database.
BrainKing Bookmarks add-on work with it.

Cons:

Many add-ons don't work with it because they are not upgraded to Firefox 3 yet.
It is still a beta version, so it can be unstable on some platforms or computers.
Regarding the previous point, some web pages can behave "strangely", as I heard from a few people. However, although I tried to display as many different pages as possible and did the worst possible things with them, I could not reproduce anything unusual. Strange. But good for me.

And a quick look to BrainKing statistics page says that 1.2% visitors of our site are already browsing the web with Firefox 3. That's a very good start.

Get it here if you want to give it a try.

The icon confusion

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:47:00 -0400

I have received an inquiry about the recently updated list of paid membership advantages, more precisely about the point 3.2. This is what the mentioned section says:

"Paying members can upload a small 40x50 picture (which is called icon) to their profiles. Icons are shown next to the player's name on many important pages - game pages, discussion boards, private messages etc."

The problem is that the section deals with icons only, so what happened to user photos? (bigger 200x300 images)
Actually, the Paid Membership page is correct and only the small image, which is displayed on game pages, discussion boards etc., is going to remain as a privilege for paying members. User photos will be replaced by user photo albums, which will allow any registered user to upload more images, organize them in folders (albums), share them with other users etc. It is a logical decision, making this feature more flexible and, as a side effect, solving another long term problem.

I've been too optimistic again, so this feature is not released yet because it's not fully finished yet. However, if nothing unexpected happens, it should go live very soon.

Paid membership feature list

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:57:00 -0400

Many things changed since the BrainKing beginning in October 2002 but one of the most important source of information (never changed) was the list of benefit of a paid membership.

Well, actually, there was no such list before, just a short note at the Paid Membership page and a very outdated table comparing different membership levels. And now, at least the second sub-page of the mentioned page (called Details) has been completely rewritten to reflect the contemporary status.

Please find it here: Paid Membership / Details

This is just a not officially released version because it is likely that I have omitted some details (who is supposed to remember ALL members only features?). If someone things that something important is missing, please let me know and I will add it.

And some small screenshots should be added too, I guess.

Spammers all around the world

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:36:00 -0400

BrainKing has a good protection against robots who sometimes attempt to create fake accounts with links to porn, illegal or other types of inacceptable sites - as already described several times in the past, all new account requests are manually checked and accepted/rejected by administrators, so the chance of recognizing a robot activity is really high. However, when a malicious human, which is usually much smarter than an ordinary robot, wants to misuse BrainKing services for his own profit, it is often detected after a certain "bad" action is made. Luckily, there is not much harm to do since BrainKing does not allow a user to embed dangerous HTML tags or scripting code to any kind of messages, so there is no reason to be afraid of being infected by adware, spyware or other types of "wares" just be viewing BrainKing pages.

The point of this article is to bring an enlightenment to situations where a fake BrainKing account sends tens of messages of "I am a poor African girl and I need your help" type (it is also known as Nigerian Letter). The best way to protect oneself (and others too) is:

Never click on suspicious links contained in a personal message from an unknown sender.
Report this event to me as soon as possible. BrainKing administration console contains a functionality which, when it's triggered by an administrator, instantly disables the offender's account and removes all messages sent by this user from the database (which means that the messages disappear from message boxes of all attacked recepients).
Never panic. Such things happen and the best protection against them is to know what to do and, which is more important, what NEVER to do.

By the way, there is some very interesting information to read about modern Nigerian spam and botnets (what is a botnet?).

Chat Room page on BrainKing

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:00:00 -0400

I have just added a static version of the BrainKing Chat Box. Static means that it contains no JavaScript and does not refresh itself automatically. It is mostly a redundant feature but I have decided to make it anyway, because:

Some web browsers can have problems with JavaScript code or JavaScript is disabled in them for security reasons.

Some people want to chat without displaying the chat box at the top of all BrainKing pages.

However, if the standard BrainKing Chat Box is working for you, I do not recommend to use the static one, because:

As I have already said, there is no automatic refresh (unlike the JavaScript version which is automatically refreshed every 2 seconds), so if you want to see new messages, you must refresh the page manually or click the Submit button.

Neither special codes (/a, /m, /r etc.) nor smart "click-and-fill" features work in the static version.

Any new features will be added to the JavaScript version at first. They might be reflected at the static one later, but it is not guaranteed.

Oh, I have almost forgotten - the mentioned page can be found at the left menu column, Statiscics section, and is called Chat room. It is also the only page (except BrainKing home page) where the JavaScript chat box is not displayed.

More (or less) privacy?

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:24:00 -0500

Actually, there are three new features of this day and only one has something to do with some kind of privacy:

Privacy level of fellowships - since a few fellowship owners have been complaining about a situation when they don't want any more people to join their fellowships but still receive new membership requests which must be manually declined, it is possible to make a fellowship more "private". There is a new option at the fellowship edit page and the option is called privacy level. It can be set to one of the following values:
- Any paying member can join anytime (no requests or invitations are required) - a fellowship with this option would be "public", which means that any paying member would be able to join it instantly, with no approval process.
- Members with accepted requests or invitations can join (the default option) - that's how it's been working so far.
- Only invited members can join (requesting a membership is disabled) - this is the "full privacy" option. When it is set, the Big Boss is no more bothered by unwanted membership requests.

Show games where it is opponent's turn to move on the main page - it is a new option at the Settings / General page. It can be useful if you want to make the total size of Main Page much shorter because the page would display only games where it is your turn to move. This option can be triggered at the Main Page directly, using the show/hide switch at the opponent's games section.

Big Jungle has been released, as it's been announced yesterday.

Enough for one day, I guess.

Silentium Universi

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:16:00 -0500

BrainKing is not a typical community (or social networking) site, although it provides many features to allow users to communicate one another, giving a "touch of life" to abstract games. But it is also understandable and perfectly OK that not everyone is eager to chat while concentrating to an interesting game, or because of a risk of being bothered, harassed, etc. After all, BrainKing is a game site, not a chat site (who was the first one to say that?), so it does not ignore the needs of people who incline to the "game only" category.

Actually, there are functions which allow anyone to filter out all messages from an obtrusive opponent - the Blocked users list. However, although it is a powerful feature, it can be mostly used only to solve an effect, not a cause. In other words - a player usually puts another player to his Blocked users list after a communication problem with the respective user, not before.

Furthermore, I have already seen a few user profiles with a note "I want to play only, not to chat". The universal solution is here.

You can see a new line Allow other users to send messages in games: at the Settings page. This switch can be used to define a group of game opponents which are allowed to converse with you while playing games, and nobody else has a possibility to do so. The feature contains three options:

Nobody - this is a real "Silence of the Universe" because your games will be about a pure playing. Nobody, not even the site owner, can pass a single word to you, when he submits a move in a game with you.
Friends only - this option enables to use your Friends list as a group of privileged users who can send you in-game messages.
Everybody - the default option. Any other player can freely have a chat with you, unless you put him to your Blocked users list.

I have also fixed the filter of incoming game invitations - the section Settings / Game Filter / Select games which you allow other players to invite you to. Now it is possible to uncheck all games and not to receive any kind of game invitations anymore. This configuration is indicated by a note The user does not wish to be invited to games at the particular profile page. A typical player who would use this feature is the one who wants to create and accept only public invitations.

Read receipts

nospam@example.com (Filip Rachunek) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:16:00 -0500

So be it. BrainKing's private message system has been improved by a new feature which was requested several times in the past but always postponed because of its low priority. And now, it has been implemented at least, because I have found out that it could be useful for me too, occasionally. Yes, that's a good thing to know - a probability of a feature request implementation drastically grows when the outcome brings advantages for the respective programmer. Cruel, but true.

Never mind. As the title suggests, it is about read receipts. When a private message is sent (using BrainKing's message box) and an outbox copy is created and saved (which is the default option), it is possible to track the message status and find out whether the recipient has already opened and read it. The trick is to open your Message box / Outbox page and check for green dots. If a green dot appears next to the particular message subject (to the left), it means that it's been already read, and moving the mouse cursor over the dot should show a tooltip with exact date and time of reading.

There are a few restrictions:

It does not work for message which were sent prior to this day because read receipts were not collected before.
It does not apply to system or group messages. For example, if you sent a group message to all fellowship members, you cannot check which members has read it and when.

However, the main purpose of this feature is to track simple personal messages - and it should work as it is designed.