The Insider News

Ken Thompson[^]:

The moral is obvious. You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself. (Especially code from companies that employ people like me.) No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code. In demonstrating the possibility of this kind of attack, I picked on the C compiler. I could have picked on any program-handling program such as an assembler, a loader, or even hardware microcode. As the level of program gets lower, these bugs will be harder and harder to detect.

XOXCO[^]:

Logging in to web sites is ironically one of the most difficult tasks put before our users. Usernames and passwords are hard to remember, and harder than ever to type on the tiny on-screen keyboards of mobile devices. Even large, successful websites report that they receive an outsized number of support requests pertaining to login problems. We need something better.

Hal's (Im)Perfect Vision[^]:

Microsoft is simply following a strategy that makes large users of Android and Linux stop thinking of them as free. And by focusing on large users it also leaves small users, enthusiasts, researchers, etc. that are more likely to be hurt by a direct attack on Linux itself completely alone. I think it’s the right thing to do, though I don’t think it will change the market dynamics much at this point.

Shane Hudson Dot Net[^]:

the Internet (including of course the World Wide Web and – more importantly for this discussion – Domain Name Systems) is one of the most important inventions of all time, yet we are having trouble coming up with names for new websites just 27 years later. The web is unsustainable in its current form.

The Old New Thing[^]:

The process by which Windows has been localized has changed over the years. Back in the days of 16-bit Windows, Windows was developed with a single target language: English. Just English. After Windows was complete and masters were sent off to the factory for duplication, the development team handed the source code over to the localization teams. "Hey, by the way, we shipped a new version of Windows. Go localize it, will ya?"

Jason Kottke[^]:

I'm switching to a new default web browser today (i.e. the browser I use the most on my computer) and that put me in a reminiscing mood. So here are some screenshots of all of the browsers I've used as my default for the past 18 years.

Hack a Day[^]:

They manage to push out a rather well put history of hacking, while keeping it short and easily consumable. Keep in mind this book focuses on “computer hacking” so they touch on the influence hackers like Steve Wozniak had on the computer industry. What the difference between “hacking” and “cracking” are, and even jump into how to safely practice “hacking” in your own home.

Daniel Lemire[^]:

We routinely attribute the long battery life and power of our tablets and tiny laptops to better hardware. However, in many cases, this better hardware runs software that is an order of magnitude faster than older software. For example, our web browsers feel faster because JavaScript interpreters are 10 to 20 times faster than the original ones.... We are also moving away from low-level programming and, yet, our software is still getting faster. I believe that a major understated trend in the last decade or so has been the increase in performance of the higher level languages.