I kept getting this annoying error on Windows start-up every time I would login (running Windows 7, 64 bit).

Dialog: AppleSyncNotifier.exe – Entry Point Not Found. Message: The procedure entry point kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelNegotiatedSSL could not be located in the dynamic link library CFNetwork.dll.

First thing to do is go to Control Panel->System->Advanced System Settings->System Properties (Dialog)->Advanced (Tab)->Environment Variables. You should see a dialog like this;

Now check your Path (PATH) variable by selecting the Path list item and clicking on the Edit button. You’ll see a lot of paths there, now the problem is that one of the paths in that field is making it so the AppleSyncNotifier loads the wrong library file (CFNetwork.dll)! In my case I have CA (Computer Associates) Unicenter software installed which had this path included;

C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\DSM\bin; … (full PATH truncated)

This makes iTunes load the CA version of CFNetwork.dll and generating this error.

Now if you get this error and don’t have CA or this path, please check all the paths in your PATH variable, and it is very likely that one of them from another program is loading the wrong CFNetwork.dll (do a search for CFNetwork.dll in your C:\Program Files folder).

So to fix this, let’s add the Apple path to the correct CFNetwork.dll, by prepending the PATH variable to point to it. In my case I added this path before the CA one;

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support; (remember to add “;” at the end before the paths that follow).

Click OK, on this, the Environment Variables and the System Properties dialogs and that’s it. Next time you reboot you shouldn’t see this error anymore.

Noticed a good post on this bug here via the Java Posse Google Group, if you parse the double “2.2250738585072012e-308″ it will hang a Thread, both at runtime (via parseDouble) or at compile time (just by defining referencing that number as a literal).

Examples (from the post at exploringbinary.com);

class runhang {
public static void main(String[] args) {
  System.out.println("Test:");
  double d = Double.parseDouble("2.2250738585072012e-308");
  System.out.println("Value: " + d);
 }
}

And then at compile time;

class compilehang {
public static void main(String[] args) {
  double d = 2.2250738585072012e-308;
  System.out.println("Value: " + d);
 }
}

See that blog post for a detailed analysis, it has links to the offending file in question (FloatingDecimal.java) and a pretty long comment list that is worth reading. Everybody is still trying to access what this impacts, and it seems to impact JVM based languages of course, and all platforms. I did notice on the Java Posse Group people saying that Android and Harmony are not affected (since they’re different implementations of course).

Impact of the bug? The most obvious one I can see is you can hang a thread on any JVM based software that accepts an input string that will be eventually parsed as a double. So for example a servlet on tomcat, you can eventually hang all HTTP threads and exhaust it’s thread pool to the point were it won’t be able to handle any more incoming request unless you restart the server. Ouch!

The bug will hang a thread, not the whole JVM (I wanted to clarify this because some people are saying it hangs the JVM, but it’s really the thread that is processing the call).

class hangthread {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

    Thread t1 = new Thread() {
        @Override
        public void run() {hangme();}};

    Thread t2 = new Thread() {
        @Override
        public void run() {hangme();}};

    Thread t3 = new Thread() {
        @Override
        public void run() {amialive();}};

        t3.start();
        t2.start();
        t1.start();
    }

    public static void amialive()
    {
        while (true){ System.out.println("I'm alive ...");
        try {Thread.sleep(1000);} catch (Exception e){}
        }
    }

    public static void hangme()
    {
        System.out.println("Test:" + Thread.currentThread().getName());
        double d = Double.parseDouble("2.2250738585072012e-308");
        System.out.println("Value: " + d);
    }
}

Seems this bug was originally reported to Sun on 04-MAR-2001(infinite loop while parsing double literal) !!!

Taking the term "Little Big Planet" too literally

Having a lot of fun so far with Little Big Planet 2, and I can’t wait to get into create mode. However, while starting up the game a second time I noticed the “world” was stuck right in the middle of my pod!!! You can move around a bit and go to the right of the screen to see your character, but you can’t select any games or do much.

I quickly found out I’m not the only one seeing this problem (btw that screenshot is from another player, not mine, although that’s exactly what my screen looked like!).

So this is my workaround for this bug (first try workaround in UPDATE2 and UPDATE3 at bottom of this message, which is simpler …):

1. Exit the game
2. Go to XMB->Network Settings->Internet Connection->Disable
3. Start LBP2 again, skip intro screen
4. Now that you’re in offline mode, your pod should be reset
5. Open your popit (press [square])
6. Select “Pod Decoration”
7. Functions->Save Pod
8. Quit game
9. Repeat step 2 and re-enable your internet connection
10. Start LBP2 and enjoy

I’m sure there’ll be a patch soon for this. I’m not sure what caused it, but by reading some of the comments around, it might be related to playing online with others which is what I was doing before I got this error.

UPDATE: Good news! The folks at Media Molecule are aware of the problem and are working on a fix, from their lbp twitter page:

If you’re seeing a bug with your LBP2 Pod and giant craft earth, we’re looking in to it. In the meantime, try this fix:http://bit.ly/gyYBBM

Link for the fix is to this post.

UPDATE2: If you find a different (and easier) workaround for the bug, please note it in the comments section and I will include it here.

Here are some of the ones I’ve gotten and/or seen on other forums (note: I haven’t tried any of them, I’ve only tried the one I describe in my original blog post):

• Stay in game and logout from PSN and log back in (from EU playstation forums)

While in your pod, access your XMB by hitting the PS button.  Highlight the Account Management option and hit Triangle.  Select “Sign off”.  You can then go back to the game by hitting the PS button again.  The game will tell you that you have been signed off and will probably ask if you would like to sign back in.  Do so, and it should be back to normal. (thanks to user Arliman)

• Join or try to join a game with a friend
• Turning off your PS3 and then turning it back on

UPDATE3: No patch yet, but easiest and quickest fix has been confirmed by the official LBP twitter page;

@LittleBigPlanet LittleBigPlanet

@MeatRations Head to the XMB, sign out of PSN and go back – should fix it. We’re aware of the issue

I’m not going to brag too much, but I may be the only user in the world with a monitor capable of -1x-1 screen resolution. Makes me feel special! Now if I could only find a game that supports this resolution, perhaps Duke Nukem Forever?