Double Feature: Sudoku Pseudo Updates and Facebook App Security

Two separate but slightly related thoughts today.

Updates to Sudoku Pseudo have been completed. Updated to the latest Facebook PHP API and Graph API. Does not mean Facebook won’t change things next Tuesday. If you did not know, Facebook typically deploys changes on Tuesdays. To accommodate the latest changes, had to upgrade hosting plan and upgrade to latest PHP version. As far as I can tell, I have caught everything that changed. I even found some bugs along the way. Of course, anyone that has worked with me professionally knows that I find bugs whenever I use any piece of software.

I also added a very brief tutorial on solving Sudoku Pseudo puzzles. I am not exactly pleased with the result, but it is something and can be a starting point for future refinements. Suggestions are welcome.

Bugs that were fixed include: Practice 2x2 puzzles showed invalid puzzles; time clock was non-functional and/or updated too frequently; undo/redo did not always work properly when reloading the puzzle or going to a second puzzle.

A while ago Facebook changed policies for apps getting a list of your friends. They currently restrict applications to only get friends who have also authorized the app. This means that the pool of friends’ pictures is made up only those friends that have also authorized Sudoku Pseudo. I made a change so that is has a preference for using your friends’ pictures over the stand-in pictures, i.e. yellow smiley, red square.

Facebook App Center submission guidelines apparently have changed. There used to be a requirement for a certain number of daily users. New requirements are for additional graphics to be developed - another future project.

It would be helpful though if you authorized Sudoku Pseudo. At least one person has commented to me that they did not even know it existed. You do not actually have to do the puzzles unless you want to. Authorizing the app increases the number of authorizations that Facebook sees and the number of pictures I see when I am doing puzzles. See below for further thoughts on authorizing unknown Facebook apps.

*** Second Feature: Facebook App Security ***

Every so often I post recommending that people check their currently authorized Facebook Applications and to remove any that you no longer have a use for or are unfamiliar with. For some games it is beneficial to your friends that play to still have you authorized as a user. Farmtown, Farmville, and Mafia Wars come to mind. So even though I don’t use those anymore, leaving the apps authorized benefits my friends that do actively play them.

This comes to the forefront because of the recent “This is…be like...” meme. I have seen reports that this is click bait and is collecting information about you for who knows what actual purpose. This is why I always suspect links that ask to be authorized to access my Facebook profile. I am sure many of them are benign. But some of them could be quite dangerous.  I personally tend to be more security phobic than most. I do know people that are worse than I am. But think of this: You should not make it so easy to steal from you that you actually encourage those that normally would not to actually do so. Simple example: Would you leave large sums of cash sitting in the backseat of your car fully visible to the casual passerby? This will get your car window broken. So at least do the simple things to protect yourself.

You can check your authorized Facebook apps by: 1) Logging in to Facebook. 2) Click the down arrow on the top blue bar on the far right. 3) Select settings from the menu that shows. 4) Click on "apps" on the menu on the left. 5) Click show more/all in the center portion. If you hover your mouse over apps, you can click the X to remove or the pencil to edit what permissions you give the app.

So if you do not want to authorize Sudoku Pseudo, I understand. But if you are willing to authorize every other Facebook app that comes along, I would hope that authorizing Sudoku Pseudo wouldn’t put you out. I promise that Mad Elf Software won’t intentionally abuse the access.

*exit rant soapbox*