Jump to content
UBot Underground

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me...


Recommended Posts

Hello all,

 

Time for a little rant...

 

Version 4.1 finally came out yesterday. Awesome. Until I go to upgrade and I am forced to sign up for the subscription.

 

No big deal, because I thought I was grandfathered in at the $5 price. So I sent in a support ticket and get a very vague answer telling me that I would have to sign up at the new price. Now I know that $9 is not alot, but it's principality here. I swear that when I signed up the FAQ said $5 a month for updates.

 

So, I responded to the support ticket and asked when was the exact date that the price change went into effect. I was only told November, even though I asked for the exact date. How convenient... It just so happens that I purchased in November... Coincidence?

 

So whatever, I signed up for the updates and updated to 4.1. Now I have been waiting for this update for quite a while because I had to stop using ubot due to many, many, many browser crashes.

 

I update and happily start the bot I have been working on. Got it running on my server and went to sleep. I wake up this morning to 19 browser crashes... WTF, I was forced to pay for this update that I was told should fix the problems I am having. If version 4 was stable, I would not be having these problems and would have chose not to subscribe. But this is simply not the case. I am still getting the same errors that I was before.

 

I know that alot of new features where added... But I could care less about these features, I just want ubot to work as advertised. How can you call it automation, when you have to constantly baby sit your bots and restart them every time they crash. When I first purchased I was under the impression that I would be able to automate my workflow, and let the bots work for me 24/7.

 

However, I have spent more time trying to create bots that freeze up and crash than actually working on my business. Now I know that there is immense power in Ubot, but it simply does not work as it should right now.

 

Can I just get a stable version without having to pay for updates...

 

Rant over...

 

Eddie and JohnB, you have my code that I am referring to. Please get back to me. I really, really need to get this bot working. I am sick and tired of getting errors and freeze ups and browser crashes. I have spent over $450 for virtually nothing at this point.

 

Justin

 

P.S. - Here is the error code I am STILL receiving:

 

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BEX

Application Name: UBotBrowser.exe

Application Version: 0.0.0.0

Application Timestamp: 4f7dfe22

Fault Module Name: Awesomium.dll

Fault Module Version: 1.6.5.0

Fault Module Timestamp: 4f3d61b3

Exception Offset: 00773a56

Exception Code: c0000417

Exception Data: 00000000

OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.272.7

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: 6789

Additional Information 2: b4c9d65a2f538ab0ee7f94079c7b46fa

Additional Information 3: 7805

Additional Information 4: 14cefed1897371843d2af1d11ca0bab6

 

Read our privacy statement:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

 

 

And a screen shot of what I woke up to on my server:

post-3911-0-73781700-1333738974_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I remember reading something saying you would have to pay the subscription fee if the updates are coming a year after you had purchased UBot studio. Well, I purchased mine in June and I am being asked to purchase the updates... why is this?

Link to post
Share on other sites

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/699/ohcat.jpg

(puss in boots reference)

 

@A2MateIT: Lots of "nice" posts describing "that topic" (price suddenly upgrading even though text said otherwise), but I'm pretty sure that looking at your error report this is directly related to the Chrome library (awesomiun) crashing - I havent tested this in a while, but I found it in the help section a month ago - does the SSH plug for firefox still work? Maybe that crashes less?

 

@StygianGod: They changed the "free upgrade" amount somewhere in the middle, maybe a year ago or so. Went from 12 to 4 months.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes on both...that is the awesomium library crashing and the free update period changed from 12 to 3 months in August.

 

Awesomium's release is in alpha, so it's getting closer to a release, but we still have no idea when.

 

 

John

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've literally never been so frustrated/maddened as I am daily, at trying to get any task to behave w/ UBot and multithreading (or not depending) combined w/ anything that loads pages w/ flash/css, or anything that downloads will crash Ubot 100% of the time - all the time w/ the PurVirtual error that is some other guys fault.

 

I see no one bitching in the Awseomenium forums about the library doing that. They are also at an Alpha 1.7 release, I wish to god someone would give me an option to try that and see if it helps. I tried to replace it - but Ubot is smart and version checks for the exact version.

 

I program a little - some, php/coldfusion/python, so I'm not an idiot (like many/most of us), but admittedly, C++ isn't my forte, I'm a 'scripting' kind of guy. I'm ok w/ that :) So uBot seems like a dream option for a 'smart' guy w/ good ideas. Except it's turned me into the stupidest guy I know. I spend less than 1 consecutive productive hour in a row doing anything while I babysit (perfect description which I use daily as well) uBot - and my 'workdays' are now 7 days, 14 hours plus - I do work an outsourcer could do if I could only take the time to train them - but I didn't factor in an hourly cost on top of the studio price just to make my bots function.

 

So why do I do this ? I foolishly have clients who I sold services to way back in v3 - and I'm like a mouse caught in a wheel - it's unfortunately how I eat/pay bills now.. oh and drive myself insane daily.

 

New version ? It's like waiting for Santa to bring you just what you want.. but you get socks. Yes I like IMAP, I have truckloads of good ideas to make use of it. If I had 5 minutes of time where I wasn't fixing something gone haywire because of random uBot crashes, I'd love to make use of it.. after I write the other 20 bots I've dreamed of making that wouldn't crash.

 

As it is I have to write log file updates on every loop now because I never know when it'll crash, and not knowing where I left off sucks - but w/ less than even 2 threads, or w/ any program that calls functions that open a new browser, or uses proxies, or navigate to pages w/ flash/css/download, or open a dialogue, it'll die, 101% of the time, sometimes in 30 seconds, sometimes 7 minutes, but ALWAYS. Win2k8, Win2k3, WinXP, Win7, 32 or 64 bit, I mean I rented a cloud box and just kept dropping images on it trying to find some combo that works - there isn't one.

 

My life would change over night w/ release that was stable. I could ... automate things.. it'd be awesome.. and moreover, I could use the newfound time to write software I could ... sell.. because it would be stable (or sleep). Wow, what a crazy dream!

 

I see lots of funny things happen, especially when using uBot w/ threads - especially when you put time delays in- it's a real red heering to run a threaded loop w/out a delay, even if you have counter, because when you do it with some delays, you really can see how there are times where uBot 'misses' certain conditions because a variable doesn't have a certain value after being incremented for instance, when in fact it should/does microseconds latter, after missing a loop. Inserting wait's makes things worse actually, as the problem becomes more evident. I can have code that's locked at 4 threads drop to 2 and struggle to get to 3, and never get to 4 or skip to 5 - but without inserting wait 1's, this never happens, and makes no sense - but it's simple to see/replicate and has always been that way.

 

I really think (hope/imagine/grasp at the idea that) Awesomium may be a red herring - as they have 100's of people using their library in as many commercial products w/out this complaint. I read an article that makes a lot of sense to me in concept, and wonder if it's not possible that what it describes has something to do w/ maybe uBot causing awesomium to crash and pointing the finger in the wrong direction. I'll paste it.. cause..

 

Anyhow..if anyone wants to start a support group or some other thing I used to think was stupid.. hit me up, I think I'm just about there....

 

 

----------------

 

There's another scenario where this can happen that is common in multi-threaded, event-driven code:

 

Assume an abstract class that defines an interface (call it A), a base class (call it B) that derives from A, and that can be derived from, and a derived class (call it D) that represents what a user would write, and which derives from B.

 

Assume that B does not define the pure virtual method declared in A -- for instance, to force the derived class to implement it.

 

The pure virtual method is a "callback" method -- i.e., it is invoked in response to external events, and on a different thread.

 

If another thread invokes D's dtor while a callback is in progress, some "funny" things can happen:

 

* D's dtor executes -- the object is still a "D" at this point.

 

* At the end of D's dtor (but before ~D returns) B's dtor executes, since it is the next-most derived class. At this point the compiler replaces the vtable ptr in the object with B's vtable ptr, so the object is now a "B", not a "D" anymore. Remember that B chose not to define the pure virtual method, in order to force it to be defined in D.

 

* Another thread invokes the callback function on the object in response to an external event. At this point you get a "pure virtual error", because B's vtable doesn't have an entry for the callback method -- B's dtor effectively changed the object from a "D" to a "B".

 

One possible solution to this problem is to use a lock to control access to the dtor and callback function. This doesn't work, however, unless the lock is acquired in the most-derived class ("D") -- by the time the object morphs into a "B" (at entry to B's dtor) it is already too late.

 

If the code in question is a library (our case), it may not be reasonable to expect users of the convenience class to have to remember to lock the object in their dtor.

 

For this reason, it seemed to us that the only reasonable solution was to not define the callback method as pure virtual, but as a "plain old" virtual method, with a default (no-op) implementation. When the callback function is invoked in response to the external event, at least there is a vtable entry for the compiler to call. This assumes, of course, that the callback method can be skipped -- not an unreasonable assumption for an object that is halfway deleted already anyway.

----------------------------------

The problem is that multiple threads are using a shared object without synchronizing access. D's destructor has nothing to do with it. Since the object exists in a queue to be used when an event occurs and in some other context where it can be deleted, those two contexts must be synchronized. A simple means to that end is reference counting.

-------------------------------

You're right, but that's on purpose: "One possible solution to this problem is to use a lock to control access to the dtor and callback function. This doesn't work, however, unless the lock is acquired in the most-derived class ("D") -- by the time the object morphs into a "B" (at entry to B's dtor) it is already too late.

 

If the code in question is a library (our case), it may not be reasonable to expect users of the convenience class to have to remember to lock the object in their dtor."

--------------------------------

 

and seemingly releated also -

 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3188358/suspicions-of-multithreading-race-conditions-in-c-virtual-calls-w-vtable-impl

 

 

 

 

 

I know that alot of new features where added... But I could care less about these features, I just want ubot to work as advertised. How can you call it automation, when you have to constantly baby sit your bots and restart them every time they crash. When I first purchased I was under the impression that I would be able to automate my workflow, and let the bots work for me 24/7.

 

However, I have spent more time trying to create bots that freeze up and crash than actually working on my business. Now I know that there is immense power in Ubot, but it simply does not work as it should right now.

 

Can I just get a stable version without having to pay for updates...

Link to post
Share on other sites

So if I purchased UBot in June 2011, and then later upgraded to Professional in I believe September. Wouldn't I still be eligible? Or does that 3 month rule still apply to me?

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've literally never been so frustrated/maddened as I am daily, at trying to get any task to behave w/ UBot and multithreading (or not depending) combined w/ anything that loads pages w/ flash/css, or anything that downloads will crash Ubot 100% of the time - all the time w/ the PurVirtual error that is some other guys fault.

 

I see no one bitching in the Awseomenium forums about the library doing that. They are also at an Alpha 1.7 release, I wish to god someone would give me an option to try that and see if it helps. I tried to replace it - but Ubot is smart and version checks for the exact version.

 

...

 

The pure virtual function call error I have reported to Awesomium as a private conversation. I was able to reproduce the issue and narrowed it down to a specific call to awesomium's library. It doesn't seem to happen every time the function is called. I believe it is a timing issue where two things are happening at the same time when it errors.

 

As far as using Awesomium's 1.7 alpha release, I have tested it but the release is incomplete, so a lot of functions (including the ones necessary to reproduce this error) don't work. So I can't say for sure whether it is fixed in Awesomium 1.7 or not yet.

 

As far as the advice on fixing pure virtual function calls, we don't use any virtual functions or pure virtual functions in any of our C++ code, and if you use Spy++ you can trace the messagebox that pops up to Awesomium's browser and not our c++ code.

 

I'm sorry you're having issues with threading, I can't give much advice on variables being the wrong values without seeing your code, sorry if I've already looked at it, I do look at a lot of bots and forget who has submitted what bots to support.

 

Hope that helps clear some things up.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I understand having to pay if it were June 1st but since I had purchased on June 3rd it was made clear to me that it would be a 12 month period of no subscriptions. Another thing, I upgraded to ubot v 4.0 from 3.5 without a subscription charge. Wouldn't that be going against the June 1st subscription change?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes on both...that is the awesomium library crashing and the free update period changed from 12 to 3 months in August.

 

Awesomium's release is in alpha, so it's getting closer to a release, but we still have no idea when.

 

 

John

 

That is exactly my point John. This is a bug that is keeping me from being able to use Ubot for what I bought it for.

 

So this is an UPDATE that will be required to get my bots working correctly. I should NOT have to pay for that Update, because Ubot should work the way it is advertised...

 

I've literally never been so frustrated/maddened as I am daily, at trying to get any task to behave w/ UBot and multithreading (or not depending) combined w/ anything that loads pages w/ flash/css, or anything that downloads will crash Ubot 100% of the time - all the time w/ the PurVirtual error that is some other guys fault.

 

I see no one bitching in the Awseomenium forums about the library doing that. They are also at an Alpha 1.7 release, I wish to god someone would give me an option to try that and see if it helps. I tried to replace it - but Ubot is smart and version checks for the exact version.

 

My life would change over night w/ release that was stable. I could ... automate things.. it'd be awesome.. and moreover, I could use the newfound time to write software I could ... sell.. because it would be stable (or sleep). Wow, what a crazy dream!

 

Wow! Truly a Crazy, crazy dream!

 

 

Hope that helps clear some things up.

 

Doesn't really clear anything up. I think we all just want a stable version of UBot that works as advertised. With no browser crashes, memory leaks, or lock ups.

 

Any ETA on the Awesomium issue being solved, if that is truly the problem. I can replicate my error message all day long because it ALWAYS happens.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've come up with a GREAT way to get around this issue.

 

I can now run my bots w/ threads 24x7 - Ubot still crashes of course - but my 'solution' will fix enable your tools to get doing what they do, without the need for your intervention.

 

This simple.stupid idea/fix has saved me countless hours since I posted my rant - as it will with you.

 

What I'd like in exchange for sharing my fix - is someone to write me a piece of custom code for ubot, it's very basic and would likely take someone w/ experience an hour or so. It involves scraping pages and content and creating lists - not huge - but I'd rather have a little quid-pro-quo since even the developer wasn't willing to help us out with this issues.

 

Contact me at sturgeon @ g mail . com if you're interested - I don't read here often enough for us to connect

Link to post
Share on other sites

Here is my simple solution (without asking for anything in return):

 

1) Download RestartOnCrash from http://w-shadow.com/blog/2009/03/04/restart-on-crash/.

 

2) Add your application in RestartOnCrash and set it to kill the process when it's not responding to Windows messages.

 

3) Use the Execute a command option to restart the app after killing it.

 

This should keep you going until Awesomium is stable.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Here is my simple solution (without asking for anything in return):

 

1) Download RestartOnCrash from http://w-shadow.com/blog/2009/03/04/restart-on-crash/.

 

2) Add your application in RestartOnCrash and set it to kill the process when it's not responding to Windows messages.

 

3) Use the Execute a command option to restart the app after killing it.

 

This should keep you going until Awesomium is stable.

 

Thanks for this great suggestion, but how do I make it restart at the point it left off at?

 

Say it was on loop number 2134 when it crashed, how can I make it restart on loop number 2134 where it left off at?

Link to post
Share on other sites

record your loop to a text file.

 

check for the file exists in the beginning, if it does, set your start variable to that number else start from 0

 

That is correct. By doing this, your bot will continue where it left off.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Here is my simple solution (without asking for anything in return):

 

1) Download RestartOnCrash from http://w-shadow.com/...tart-on-crash/.

 

2) Add your application in RestartOnCrash and set it to kill the process when it's not responding to Windows messages.

 

3) Use the Execute a command option to restart the app after killing it.

 

This should keep you going until Awesomium is stable.

 

Thank you!! this is just what I was looking for...http://ubotstudio.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

I believe you were grandfathered in at the $5 a month price if you subscribed for the updates while they were still $5 a month.

 

I hope i'm not wrong, if I'm already on the $5 a month subscription for updates, is my fee going to go up too? That, I don't think would be fair as we were promised to be grandfathered in at $5/month for good.

Link to post
Share on other sites

record your loop to a text file.

 

check for the file exists in the beginning, if it does, set your start variable to that number else start from 0

 

Wouldn't this overwrite my existing data?

 

For example: I have an account creator bot that cycles through 11,000 sites and creates an account for all of them. Now if I restart the bot after it crashed on say the 1,000 cycle. Wouldn't it overwrite the 1000 accounts that were created before it crashed?

 

How to I restart without overwriting the accounts created before it crashed?

 

Thanks,

Justin

Link to post
Share on other sites

basically you would have to log to a variable, or list of data, what site, and line of data you were on, and save that to a file, and have your bot look if this file exists, and if so start with that data position, else start from 0

 

Maybe I wasn't specific enough. I understand how to get it to start from the site that it left off on...

 

But what I was wondering was how to keep it from overwriting the account data that was already created. For example it saves the username, password, and email to a text file called accounts.txt. So if it crashes on the 1,000 cycle, I understand how to make it start back at 1,001.

 

I am just not sure how to keep it from overwriting the info in the accounts.txt file. Is this possible? I'm sure that it's something simple that I am overlooking but I am stuck at this point.

 

Thanks in advance for any help...

Justin

Link to post
Share on other sites

The thread title (You Have Got To Be Kidding Me)

clear list

add to list your accounts list

list from file accounts.txt

 

 

have fun :D

 

Edit this has to be at the top of your script

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...