Cross-Domain Policy Files

A Cross-domain policy file or crossdomain.xml is used by Adobe Flash in determining whether it is allowed to access resources from a domain other than that of the currently running Flash object.

The master cross domain policy file has to be located at the root of the server Eg. http://api.flickr.com/crossdomain.xml .

The root element of the crossdomain.xml file is the cross-domain-policy tag which can contain one of the following:

allow-access-from
The allow-access-from element allows other domains to access resources. Attributes used with this element are domain (to specify a domain name; wildcards are supported), to-ports (to specify a comma-separated list or hyphenated-range of ports), secure (set to false for an HTTPS policy file to be used for allowing an HTTP request).

site-control
The site-control element is valid only within the master policy file (policy file located at the domain root). It is used to determine if other policy files other than the master policy file are permitted. The permitted-cross-domain-policies attribute is used in this tag with a value of: none, master-only, by-content-type, by-ftp-filename, and all. Using none prevents the user of any cross domain policy files for this domain, master-only specifies that only the policy file located at the root is permitted, by-content-type indicates that any file served via HTTP or HTTPS with a content type of text/x-cross-domain-policy is permitted, by-ftp-filename indicates that any file with the name crossdomain.xml is permitted, and all indicates that any policy file on the domain is allowed.

allow-http-request-headers-from
The allow-http-request-headers-from element allows a request from another domain to include custom headers. Attributes used within this element are domain (to specify a domain name), headers (to specify list of comma-separated headers, an asterisk or a header with a wildcard suffix), and secure (set to false for an HTTPS policy file to be used for allowing an HTTP request).


The following is an example of a cross domain policy file:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.macromedia.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-access-from domain="www.company.com" />
</cross-domain-policy>

The cross domain policy file should be served with the MIME type of text/*, application/xml, or application/xhtml+xml, but the preferred content type is text/x-cross-domain-policy.

On A Pentium-II

I'm making this blog post from my old IBM Thinkpad 600E, which is powered by a Pentium-II 366MHz processor and 64MB RAM. It runs Opera 9.64 on Windows 98 and can send/receive email and post to my blog without breaking a sweat. It makes you wonder how newer machines have lots and lots of processing power but you only need so much to get the job done.

I must admit though that for the amount of processing power I get, I do spend an awful lot of electricity. With the same number of electrons it takes to power an old computer, I can run a brand new shiny Thinkpad. My newer Thinkpad T60 also generates lesser heat, so I'm guessing the cooling fan uses lesser electricity and I'm less likely to turn on the air conditioning.

Anyway, I do my part by shutting down the 600E when it's not in use so let's all just take pride in knowing that an old Thinkpad 600E is still alive and in service on the frontlines.

PS: I would install Linux on it but I can't find a driver for the USB interface of my SpeedStream ADSL modem.

Flash Game: Darts

Check out this really cool game of darts:
http://www.gamesolo.com/flash-game/darts.html

It's fun to play - you use the mouse to aim left/right and hold the mouse button down to set the force at which you throw the dart. It's pretty much impossible to beat the computer-opponent at the game though.

Will Users Switch Over To Windows 7?

After Windows Vista was released, some users decided to take the leap and stayed on in the Vista camp while others were forced there as it was pre-installed on their computers. In either case, the most popular OS running on PCs today is Windows XP which according to NetApplications Market Share is 63.5%.

HugeURL

I stumbled across a mock of TinyURL called HugeURL. They take any URL you can throw at them and they turn it into an obnoxiously long URL.

Just for giggles, check it out at http://www.hugeurl.com