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Archive for the ‘Spark’ Category

Spark update, a few words on PSN support

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

I’m currently working on fixing the back-end of Spark. Once this is done, messages can be sent in the background, and ‘compare games’ can be re-enabled.

Today I spent some time getting to know the PlayStation Network website. Intimately. And I was pleasantly surprised – going from zero to fetching the achiev.. pardon, trophy list took a little over two hours. And I remembered why I love dealing with plain web scripting languages that do not wrap cumbersome, complicated functionality inside a deceptive layer of HTML and POSTdata (I’m looking at you, ASP.net).

The gist of this story is that PSN support is no longer a question of if, but when. I don’t know how many people are actually looking forward to PSN support (I’m much more fond of my 360 for games – my PS3 is largely used for BluRay discs, and the occasional PS3-exclusive title), but if you are, I’d like to hear about it. (I still love my PSP, though for reasons that do not include modern games.)

Tags: psn
Posted in Spark, Update | No Comments »

Spark version 1.0 emitted

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The very much real Spark is now out. You can find it at its official website, as well as on Android Market (link is Android browser-specific). Here’s the complete feature list:

Support for multiple accounts
Account summary
Game history
Achievement statistics
Message composition/message review
Friend status, summary, management (add, remove, approve and reject friends)

The application is free.

Posted in Release, Spark | 11 Comments »

Spark nearing release

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Spark icon Just a short note to let you know that Spark is nearing release. A few of the features I mentioned will not make it to the initial release, as they require more fine-tuning, but they will be eventually included in subsequent releases.

I’m still receiving questions about why I ask for login information in gsDroid, and while I discussed the reason at length in the gsDroid FAQ, I should probably reiterate that this is because both gsDroid and Spark get their information from the Xbox Live site, which is password-protected.

As to why certain other applications only require a gamertag, the answer is that they have access to a non-public API that I do not. That doesn’t make my applications illegal per se, though it probably does place them in a grey area (much like some of my other projects).

As it so often happens, the issue in this case is ultimately the matter of trust between the developer and the users, and while I don’t expect anyone to take my word for it, as with any such program, if you have reservations about giving your login information to an unknown application, you should refrain from doing so.

Tags: login
Posted in Spark, Update | 3 Comments »

Spark developments

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

I never really posted the full list of features in Spark, so I thought it proper to do so now. Features that will definitely be in the application:

Support for multiple accounts
Account summary
Played games statistics
Achievement statistics
Message composition/message review
Friends list
Friend summary (bio, location, rep)
Game comparison
Friend management (add, remove, approve and reject friends)

(more…)

Posted in Spark, Update | 3 Comments »

PSP and Android updates, possible cause for gsDroid login error found

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Some progress to report: on the PSP front, I have updated fMSX PSP to use the new psplib; remaining are the new virtual keyboard layout, and the changes I detailed earlier – especially better compatibility for saved states.

Work is continuing on Spark as before; a lot of new features have already been added; an update detailing them may follow soon. Regarding login error being reported for gsDroid – everything suggests that this is limited to msn.com accounts, and I should be able to look into it soon, so stay tuned.

Tags: login, msn.com
Posted in Spark, Update, fMSX, gsDroid for XBox Live | 3 Comments »

New features in Spark

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Some new developments on the Spark (gsDroid replacement) front – see screenshots below. Specifically, the look of the app has changed to a lighter theme, and a message viewer has been added.

I’m getting a small, but considerable number of reports of logins failing for certain users.This issue is difficult to debug, as it involves people’s usernames/passwords, and I’m not quite sure how to deal with it delicately. If you’re currently experiencing an error with gsDroid and want to help troubleshoot, I’m planning on putting together a testing application to investigate the problem. You will need to run the program and provide credentials. It will write some files to the SD card, which you can then review and forward to me via email.

Because Spark will use the same authentication method as gsDroid, if gsDroid is not fixed, Spark will have the same problems. If you can help with testing, please send me an email, or post a comment here (include your email address if you do).

UPDATE: This has been fixed.

Posted in Spark, Update | No Comments »

Icons, icons everywhere

Monday, December 14th, 2009

The successor to gsDroid is coming along nicely. I’ve managed to shear off a significant amount of time in the processing phase of the data fetch by among other things, performing bulk inserts. The end result is a significant reduction in the amount of time needed to populate list of played games – from ~32 seconds down to about 16 (on a 3G connection, with a list of 60 games). This assumes that you’re fetching the list of played games for the first time – for subsequent refreshes, update time is a lot shorter (few seconds).

The other news is that icons for games, achievements, and friends have been added, as you can see in the screen captures below. Of course, they will result in longer fetch times, but they’re optional, and can be disabled.