Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Yes, Virginia, autopoke works again

Still working on the final touches:


Right now, this only works on the pokes app page, as suggested by Lord_Fandomar.

What's left is for me clean up the code and obfuscate parts of the code.  I also plan to make this work on the main page, but it's not a high priority.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Survey Results: 70% prefer closed source

Its not too late to voice your thoughts on closing the source.  I've finally had a chance to review the results and out of about 200 people who took the survey, 70% would prefer that I close the code.

I've been wrestling with this issue for a while and still have not come to a decision.  Here's what hangs in the balance:
  • Since the Autopoke scripts inception, it has been 100% open-source, using the GPL 2 and 3 licenses.  The latest version of the script (4.0.1) exclusively uses GPL 3.
  • Closing the source would mean that other developers could not learn from the work.  This includes both legitimate programmers who are porting the script to Google Chrome to Facebook programmers who may be trying to stop scripts like this from working.
  • Closing the source would not mean it's 100% secure against viewing.  Real developers can parse through obfuscated code.  It's harder, but not impossible.  (In fact, I go through Facebook's obfuscated code to create this script.)
  • Obfuscated code would be hosted remotely, making it less secure.  In order to properly shield the code from viewing, the code would be hosted on my personal site.  This comes with risks such as me having the ability to know who you are.  I would draft a very simple privacy policy (basically that I don't care who you are).  But doing this would allow me to block facebook.com from connecting to the site.
Despite the large number of people who would prefer that I close the code, I still lean toward an open-source solution.  I'm a firm believer that open-source is better since it allows everyone to learn and don't think that the benefits outweigh the problems.

I am still developing the Autopoke for the new version of the Facebook news feed.  PLEASE be patient.  I have a full-time job and I do other things besides computers.  This time of year is very busy for me.