Lesson from a Reference

I learned a valuable lesson recently. When implemented TOTP on the OTP Android application, I used the Java reference implementation from the draft RFC document. The outputs matched and I assumed everything was fine. Last week, I was given a heads up through email that  TOTP output values were not matching output values of other TOTP implementations. I assumed the other applications were wrong as I followed the true reference implementation.

I realized, however, that I was wrong. I was incorrectly using the source code by not verifying how the input was specified. The source attached to the document assumed that the ASCII seed had already been transformed into a hexadecimal string. For example, the seed in the reference implementation was "3132333435363738393031323334353637383930" which is the hexadecimal representation of the ASCII string "01234567890123456789". I thought that the long string was supposed to be entered by the user. If I would have though shortly about the ridiculous nature of that number, I may have realized my mistake.

I have released an update to the market correcting this error and a few other bugs. I fixed the activity stack to behave more in line with other Android applications (I didn't know much at the time of writing the older releases). I also cleaned up some interfaces to behave properly on different screen sizes.

• Source Code
• APK Installer

Ultimate Search Widget for Android

All major browsers have done it. By providing different search providers, a web browser user is quickly able to search their favorite search engine by selecting the search provider and then the desired query. The Google Search widget or Android is great, except it only searches Google. Frequently I find myself typing search queries with the following pattern: "* Wikipedia," "* IMDB," etc. to quickly bring up the desired page. My brother and I decided it would be great if there was a widget of a similar fashion to the way modern web browsers handle searching. Ultime Search Widget is the result of this labor.

Ultimate Search widget is an Android widget that installs directly on your home screen and bears a similar appearance to Google's Search widget.

There is a subtle difference however, the Google favicon to the right. As per modern web browsers, by selecting the favicon, the searcher is able to select which search provider they would like to carry out their search.

After selecting the search provider, the searcher is able to enter a query. All the features of the Google Search widget are provided, such as voice searching and suggestions.

The current providers:
* Amazon
* Answers
* Bing
* Creative Commons
* Dictionary
* eBay
* IMDB
* Google
* Google Images
* Merriam-Webster
* Wikipedia
* Yahoo!
* Youtube

Wherever applicable, the search results will be the mobile version of the search provider to improve response times of search queries. The Ultimate Search Widget is available on the Android market for a 99¢.


Check it out!