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When I first start Spaz on OS X, it asks if I want to enter my password, and then it crashes! Why?
There is a known conflict with AIR 1.5 (which Spaz as of 0.6 uses) and Input Mangers like (but not exclusively) SIMBL on OS X. This is often used in unofficial Safari add-ons like Safari Ad-Block. You need to uninstall the InputManagers to use Spaz.
See this post on the Spaz-Users group for more information.
On Windows, Spaz won’t display themes properly. It looks like images aren’t loading correctly. What’s going on?
On some Windows machines with a curious registry entry, external CSS files won’t load properly in AIR HTML apps. The fix requires modifying your registry to change the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.css entry. Under Content Type, the value needs to be “text\css”. If it’s set to anything else, you’ll see this problem.
A .reg file that will apply the fix for you is available in issue #135 on the Spaz Issue Tracker.
When I install Spaz, it tells me that the Publisher is “UNVERIFIED.” This is terrifying. What gives?
Why Spaz isn’t “signed”
We don’t sign Spaz with a code signing certificate generated by one of the 4 (as of this writing) certificate authorities Adobe accepts. This means that when you install Spaz, you get a scary “Publisher:UNVERIFIED” warning. This is why we don’t sign, from a letter I wrote when asked about it in Spring 2008:
If I sign Spaz with a paid-for Thawte cert, I am on the hook every year for a Thawte cert. I can’t change my cert signer or go back to a self-signed cert without breaking auto updating (at least as I understand it), and I’m therefore locked into a $300 expense every year. That’s not terrible for a commercial app backed by a company, but that’s a pretty significant chunk of change for a free, open-source app developed by one person as a hobby to lay out.
I’m familiar with how certs work, and how Thawte handles certification as compared to other, less expensive cert vendors. Were I convinced that Thawte did some kind of verification process/background checking on the applicant I could see the value, but at least with SSL certs, they certainly didn’t do anything more than vendors who donate free certs to EDUs
Currently (March 2009), there are 3 other CAs in addition to Thawte, and the prices range between $180 and $300 per year. Some of these CAs do seem to do a little more background checking. Still, the same arguments apply, especially the one related to cost.
Spaz doesn’t generate revenue, and relies on donated time from myself and a handful of other generous folks. Committing to a yearly expense in the hundreds of dollars seems unwise.
If this is something you would like to see change, I’d encourage you to ask Adobe to make code signing a realistic option for Free, Open-Source Software like Spaz by providing certificates free-of-charge – after a reasonable review process – to projects like ours.
Why does Spaz complain that I’m over the request limit?
Behaving normally, Spaz will not send you over limit unless you frequently force manual refreshes.
Twitter accounts can send no more than 100 requests to the Twitter API per hour – yes, that’s per account. If you’re seeing this error, that’s what happened. There are a number of possible reasons:
- You are running multiple Twitter clients. Are you testing another Twitter client? Using a web service that requires you to log-in to Twitter? It might cause you to exceed the limit without meaning to. (This doesn’t happen with the Twitter website, which bypasses the API entirely)
- You really have exceeded the limit. This should only happen if you manually refresh a lot, using F5 or SHIFT+F5. Try a more zen-like approach, and let Twitter come to you.
- Twitter is borked. We’ve seen some behaviors where users get 400 errors right after starting Spaz, or hours after a rate limit block should have expired, and other developers report the same thing. You should contact Twitter support if you are certain it’s not one of the above issues.
One suggestion that has worked for many people is to change your password. This will keep any apps you’ve forgotten about from making API calls, and sometimes seems to have “unstuck” users whose blocks weren’t going away. If you change your password and the problem persists for more than a couple hours, contact Twitter support!
Spaz is only showing DMs and Replies, nothing from my timeline!
This is usually a problem with the Twitter API. When requesting data from Twitter, Spaz waits 20 seconds for a reply before giving up so if the API is slow, it can appear to miss “regular” timeline entries. This should fix itself – wait for the next update or hit Refresh. If it’s still a problem, wait for a while and it should come good.
Spaz lost my last couple of tweets!
The vast majority of the time, problems with certain messages getting “dropped” are because of Twitter API issues, not Spaz. The API and Twitter web site operate somewhat independently, so it’s possible for entries to show up on the web client, but not in desktop clients. Spaz can only show what the Twitter API gives it.
If you are very convinced that this is a problem specific to Spaz – that is, it doesn’t show up in any other desktop clients – you should file a proper bug report in our issue tracker.
Spaz drops off tweets after a while! How come?
Only a certain number of tweets are kept and shown in your timeline. As of version 0.7.x the defaults are: 300 “regular” entries, 25 direct messages and 50 replies. Once these numbers are reached, older tweets are dropped. This is to help keep memory at reasonable levels.
I’m running Mac OS X, and Spaz opens links in Safari even though I chose another browser (like Firefox) as my default. How do I fix this?
Adobe AIR opens links with the default browser chosen for the .html/.htm file associations, not your default browser. If you would like to use another browser, please do the following:
Right click on a .html/.htm file and click “Get Info”. Go down to the “Open With” section and select the browser you want. Then click “Change All”
I’m running Vista, and Spaz opens links in IE even though I chose another browser (like Firefox) as my default. How do I fix this?
This is actually a bug in AIR, and Adobe shares a method for solving this in their release notes for AIR 1.0:
To workaround this problem, go to Start > Default Programs > Set Program Access and Computer Defaults, expand Custom, select the radio button next to the application you want to set as the system-wide default browser (for example, Mozilla Firefox) and apply the setting.
All links from Spaz end with “20”, and won’t resolve in my browser. Why?
This is a known issue with AIR apps (not just Spaz) and Macs running nightly builds of Webkit. As far as we know, you need to uninstall the Webkit build. Feel free to offer other workarounds if you find them.
Why doesn’t Spaz save my username and password under the AIR Linux alpha?
The AIR Linux alpha does not support the EncryptedLocalStore part of the AIR API, which is what Spaz uses to store your credentials securely. This is a known issue noted by Adobe in their release notes, and will surely be fixed in a future AIR update.
I’m using Linux and when I start Spaz it just shows a black window and hangs!
Your EncryptedLocalStore is probably broken. Try to delete ~/.appdata/Adobe/AIR/ELS/Spaz.AIR.LONGID. If it doesn’t help, delete ~/.appdata/Adobe/ altogether. If even that doesn’t help, try to delete even more, especially the configuration files of Spaz. In worst case just kill ~/.appdata/ completely.
Spaz doesn’t do what I want!
File a new feature request on the Google Code project site for Spaz: http://code.google.com/p/spaz/issues/list. Or, download the source and contribute a patch!
I found a bug! Should I let you know?
Yep, file an issue on the Google Code project site for Spaz: http://code.google.com/p/spaz/issues/list
If you reeealy wants to help, turn on debug mode (located in Preferences, the last tab on the right) and restart. From then on, your Documents/My Documents directory should keep a running log of the mysterious goings-on that go on within Spaz. It’s called spaz-debug.log. If Spaz misbehaves, sending a copy of this arcane file when logging a bug in Google Code should be perty useful to the team.
Oh, and thanks.
Where can I get help with Spaz?
Check the Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/spaz-users. Here, you’ll find other Spaz users, discussions on feature suggestions and helpful hints on problem resolution.
Can I change how Spaz looks?
Sure! If you’re a dab hand at CSS – or even just fairly OK – you can make new Spaz themes. See this theme creation primer.
Can I change the sounds Spaz uses?
Sure. See this: http://funkatron.com/spaziki/Spaz-Sound-Sets/
What’s with the app’s name? It’s really offensive!!
Sorry! I’m aware of the association it has in the UK, but certainly did not have it in mind when I named the app. I might feel differently if it was a commercial application, but changing the name isn’t something I’m interested in doing.
If you like, you can edit your preferences.json file in a text editor and change the name reported to Twitter – that way no one will know you’re running Spaz. You can also download and modify the source code as you wish http://code.google.com/p/spaz.
Spaz sometimes screams at me! What’s that about?
If you send a tweet of exactly 140 characters, Twitter makes a certain sound. The equivalent in Spaz is the “Wilhelm!” noise – the scream. If you don’t like it you should be able to just swap in a new mp3 called “wilhelm.mp3” – but it seems AIR doesn’t let you. And down the road, it’ll be easier to swap in new sounds.
I thought Spaz supported multiple Twitter accounts?
That was a feature of the old version written in REALbasic. It was a “fast user switching” feature that let you choose a user from a dropdown and quickly switch between them. It didn’t let you post once to multiple accounts, and it didn’t let you read messages received by multiple accounts in the same timeline.
It may come back in future versions of Spaz.
How about putting Spaz on the iPhone?
AIR doesn’t run on the iPhone and right now, we’re unaware of plans (rumored
or otherwise) to port AIR to the iPhone. Adobe has never mentioned AIR as a mobile platform. If that changes, we’d look at getting Spaz running on there, but don’t hold your breath.
Do you let people beta test?
Test versions of Spaz are frequently announced on the spaz-users group. If you want to try out new versions, subscribe to that list.