How to make your old plugins work with Firefox 4?

I had a old plugin, which was working fine with Firefox 3.6. When I upgraded to Firefox 4.0.1, it suddenly stopped working. Firefox was listing it in the list of plugins installed and pointing to the right dll to load. Googling for this issue did not help. Also, tried replicating the registry entries similar to the ones in the machine which had Firefox 3.6 installed. No, it also did not work out.

From Process Explorer, came to know that Firefox 4.0.1 was not at all loading the dll. Then I looked into the Firefox logs to see what exactly is going on with this plugin dll.
[ Use the following commands to get the Firefox browser logs in file c:\plugins.log.
C:\> set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=all:5
C:\> set NSPR_LOG_FILE=c:\plugins.log
C:\> cd C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
C:\> firefox.exe ]

To my surprise, Firefox was actually loading the plugin dll. But immediately it was unloading it. Then I put debug logs in all the plugin implemented APIs, to see what was going wrong. Finally found out that in NPP_Initialize(), I was calling NS_GetServiceManager(), an XPCOM API to get a reference to the XPCOM service manager. It was failing to get the reference and NPP_Initialize() was returning NPERR_GENERIC_ERROR to the browser. Cause of the issue is thus found out. Looking for solutions in Google again, I hit on the code project link, which explained two ways of getting the reference for XPCOM service manager. One, I was using in my plugin using the XPCOM API, NS_GetServiceManager(). The other one used the XPCOM API NS_InitXPCOM2(). Tried this one. Wow, it worked!

You can surely try this solution, if you are looking for solutions as to why your old plugin is not working in Firefox 4.0.1. See you then. Happy debugging!

Finding Out Slider Count and Total Call Time in Sony Ericsson Mobile Phone

Have you ever wanted to find out, how many times you have slided your Sony Ericsson slider phone(or slider count)? or Total call time of your Sony Ericsson mobile? Well, you find that out and more, with few key presses in your mobile.

Press the keys in the following order in your Sony Ericssson mobile phone - Right Navigation Key + '*' key + Left Navigation Key + Left Navigation Key + '*' key + Left Navigation Key + '*' key.

After you press the above keys, Service menu comes up on the mobile screen.

For finding out the slider count, Go to Service Info -> Slider Count.

For finding out the total call time of the mobile, Go to Service Tests -> Total Call time.

Apart from these, you can find the Model Info, Software Info, Configuration Info from 'Service info' menu item. You can also run tests to see the working of Main Display, LED/Illumination, Keys, Speaker, Earphone, Microphone, Vibrating Alert, Camera, Video Call Camera, Flash LED, FM Radio from 'Service tests' menu item.

To come out of Service menu, press the End Call key.

P.S: The above tests were done on Sony Ericsson W705 and W550i.

What to do when you are unable to make outgoing calls from your Hutch/Vodafone SIM?

What is your immediate reaction when you are unable to make any calls from your cell phone. Frustrated? That was how I felt 2 days ago, when I was unable to make any outgoing calls from my mobile phone from a prime location in Bangalore. Electronic gadgets have made us over dependent on them nowadays.

My initial reaction was to restart the cell phone. No, it did not work. Then I tried switching off the phone, removing the battery and SIM card, put them back again to see if it works. No, it also didn't work. After half an hour or so, when I tried to make a call, I was able to do so. But it was not because of the tasks I did above.Later I came to know that though the network icon in the phone showed full coverage when I tried restarting the phone or removing the battery/SIM, it was not so. In such cases, updation of the SIM card will do the trick. I use Hutch/Vodafone connection.

Following are the steps you might want to follow to resolve the issue.

Go to Hutch Plus menu in your mobile phone.

Select Hutch Roam.

Select Hutch.

A Message will be displayed - 'SIM card update starts...', Select OK

One more message will be displayed - 'Allow SIM Update? Phone will restart', Select OK

After you do this you will see, 'Inactive SIM', in place of operator logo Hutch.

Phone will restart after few seconds and network coverage icon is shown on your cell phone.

You should now be able to make outgoing calls.
P.S: The above procedure has been tested only on Home network of Hutch and not in Hutch Roaming.

BSNL EVDO Data card availability only on paper!

If you had noticed the ads by BSNL in newspapers, featuring ever smiling Deepika Padukone and Abhinav Bindra, about the EVDO Data Cards they are offering now for discounted prices, you tend to believe that the EVDO Data cards are readily available. As per the ad, for customers activating the EVDO postpaid unlimited data plan till 31st March 2010, fixed monthly rental will be Rs.750 instead of Rs.999. Though there are intial charges like Activation Charges(Rs.500), price of Data Card(Rs.3500)/monthly rental for the card(Rs.200) and refundable security deposit(Rs.1000), it seemed like a good bet. But when you do a reality check by contacting the BSNL Customer Service Center, the story is entirely different.When I contacted the Executive at BSNL Customer Service Center at Vijayanagar, Bangalore, he said there are no EVDO Data cards available as of now. Though the ads are in place, they say they have not been supplied enough EVDO Data Cards. Instead he offers me a NIC(Network Interface card), with max speed upto 144 kbps. Well, why do I go for that, when my BSNL Broadband connection(Dataone) offers much more than that speed(256 kbps). He adds that though the max speed is 144 kbps, NIC average speed may be upto 100 kbps. Then, when I tell the area where I reside, he reduces average speed further. BSNL NIC Card uses CDMA 1x technology, predecessor of CDMA 1x EVDO, offers speed upto 144 kbps whereas BSNL EVDO Card offers upto 3.1 Mbps. BSNL Customer Service executive also informed that the average speed offered by EVDO Card can be upto 1 Mbps. Voila, who would not want such a speed on a wireless internet card!

Well, my main intention was to get EVDO Data Card which offers higher speed than the BSNL broadband. More importantly, I am fed up with the frequent connection lost scenarios with BSNL Broadband. Also, pricewise current discount matches with the unlimited usage offer by BSNL Broadband Dataone connection, I am currently having for Rs.750. Hoping for the things to improve at BSNL.

For FAQs on NIC and EVDO Cards by BSNL, you can visit this BSNL link and for the tariff plans, click here.