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Friday, August 16th, 2013
| Time |
Event |
| 3:43a |
De Icaza: Callbacks as our Generations' Go To Statement On his blog, Miguel de Icaza touts C# (and F#) async as a superior model for doing asynchronous programming to the mechanisms offered by other languages. He notes that using callbacks for asynchronous programming turns programmers into " glorified accountants" in much the same way goto statements did, as Edsger Dijkstra's famous "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" paper described. " And this is precisely where C# async (and F#) come in. Every time you put the word "await" in your program, the compiler interprets this as a point in your program where execution can be suspended while some background operation takes place. The instruction just in front of await becomes the place where execution resumes once the task has completed." | | 2:34p |
Samsung releases exFAT filesystem source The Software Freedom Conservancy has announcedthat it has helped Samsung to release a version of its exFAT filesystem implementation under the GPL. This filesystem had previously been unofficially released after a copy leaked out of Samsung. " Conservancy's primary goal, as always, was to assist
and advise toward the best possible resolution to the matter that complied
fully with the GPL. Conservancy is delighted that the correct outcome has
been reached: a legitimate, full release from Samsung of all relevant
source code under the terms of Linux's license, the GPL, version 2." | | 2:36p |
Friday's security updates openSUSE has updated filezilla (multiple vulnerabilities), mozilla (multiple vulnerabilities), and
samba (denial of service).
Ubuntu has updated puppet (multiple vulnerabilities). | | 3:34p |
| | 3:51p |
The New Orleans UEFI Plugfest
There will be a "UEFI Plugfest" held concurrently with the Linux Plumbers
Conference in New Orleans on September 19 and 20. "This
event is intended to provide the Linux community with an opportunity to
conduct interoperability testing with a variety of UEFI implementations.
Additionally, the event will feature technical presentations related to
UEFI advancements and key technology insights." Joining the UEFI
Forum at the "Adopter" level is required to attend. | | 5:58p |
Mozilla releases FuzzDB Mozilla has announcedthe FuzzDB repository as a resource for those doing web security testing. " The attack pattern test-case sets are categorized by platform,
language, and attack type. These are malicious and malformed inputs known
to cause information leakage and exploitation. FuzzDB contains
comprehensive lists of attack payloads known to cause issues like OS
command injection, directory listings, directory traversals, source
exposure, file upload bypass, authentication bypass, http header crlf
injections, and more." | | 8:37p |
vger mailing list problems David Miller has let
it be known that the vger mailing list server — which handles a large number of lists for the kernel and beyond — is having difficulties related to changes at Gmail. " We may, therefore, be without mailing lists
for several days while I install something to replace our zmailer setup.
It could take some time and I appreciate everyone's patience in
advance." | | 9:45p |
Usability testing: how do we design effective tasks (Canonical Design) At the Canonical Design blog, Tingting Zhao has written a detailed look at defining and articulating the "tasks" that are given out as prompts in usability testing. This includes finding the correct amount of detail, as well as navigating the distinction between closed- and open-ended tasks, or "direct" and "scenario" tasks. With scenario tasks, for example, "some participants may experience uncertainty as to where to look and when they have accomplished the task. Others may be more interested in getting the test done, and therefore do not put in as much effort as what they would in reality." |
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