The Insider News

14-Jan-20 6:45

CNBC[^]:
The cooperation is somewhat of a departure. In the past the NSA has kept some flaws secret to use them as part of the U.S. tech arsenal.

The backdoor expired?

I'm sure it's a coincidence this falls on the day Win7 support ends?

"It is unclear how long the NSA knew about the flaw before reporting it to Microsoft." Long enough?

The shapes of code

Kent Sharkey14-Jan-20 6:30

14-Jan-20 6:30

Fluent C++[^]:
Every piece of code we write is unique, or pretty much. However, there are things that are common in a lot of code, even across various codebases, and even across various languages: the physical shape that code has.

"Methinks it is like a weasel"

Re: The shapes of code

jeron114-Jan-20 6:58

jeron1

14-Jan-20 6:58

Quote:
Shapes of ~~things~~ code before my eyes
Just teach me to despise

"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

Re: The shapes of code

Mark_Wallace14-Jan-20 7:18

Circles are Pointless - Meme Center[^]

14-Jan-20 7:18

You only have to worry if it weighs the same as a duck.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

Re: The shapes of code

Rick York15-Jan-20 10:38

Rick York

15-Jan-20 10:38

"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"

Google to phase out user-agent strings in Chrome

Kent Sharkey14-Jan-20 6:30

Re: Google to phase out user-agent strings in Chrome

14-Jan-20 6:30

ZDNet[^]:
Chrome will move to a new technology called Client Hints, part of the newer Privacy Sandbox project.

Now how will I know if that browser is Mozilla-compliant?

Mark_Wallace14-Jan-20 7:17

Microsoft spots malicious npm package stealing data from UNIX systems

14-Jan-20 7:17

This is obviously because anyone who's looked into UA strings has wisely changed their UA string to prevent all the p1ssing about that companies like google use it for, and google is determined to regain that pissing-about ability from those who value their privacy.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

Kent Sharkey13-Jan-20 11:30

Re: Microsoft spots malicious npm package stealing data from UNIX systems

13-Jan-20 11:30

ZDNet[^]:
Malicious JavaScript package was only active on the npm repository for two weeks.

Isn't it nice that the hackers have a central repository and easy deployment tool?

Mark_Wallace13-Jan-20 21:19

Microsoft CEO says encryption backdoors are a ‘terrible idea’

13-Jan-20 21:19

I just love the way these ridiculously rich companies keep such a close watch on each others' products, so that they can ~~play the blackshirt~~ help them with their problems.

It's nice to know that when companies get so much money, it helps their employees to become better people, who do only good in the world.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

Kent Sharkey13-Jan-20 11:00

Re: Microsoft CEO says encryption backdoors are a ‘terrible idea’

13-Jan-20 11:00

The Verge[^]:
But won’t defend Apple in Pensacola case

"The men don't know, but the little girls understand"

Mark_Wallace13-Jan-20 21:15

Team builds the first living robots

13-Jan-20 21:15

1. Boot up the computer.
2. Start up the AI feed.
3. Feed in a couple of unarguable phrases ("!" indicates an incontrovertible fact):

- Whatever satya says is bollocks!
- Encryption backdoors are a terrible idea!

4. Put the fire out, and open the windows to get rid of the smoke.
5. Shop on-line for a new dev computer.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

Kent Sharkey13-Jan-20 11:00

Overengineering in software development

13-Jan-20 11:00

Tech Xplore[^]:
A team of scientists has repurposed living cells—scraped from frog embryos—and assembled them into entirely new life-forms.

This always ends well in the movies

Kent Sharkey13-Jan-20 11:00

13-Jan-20 11:00

Solid Studio[^]:
Overengineering could be problematic since these programmers are usually of a great value to the company, but at some point need to be supervised by analytics and more business-savvy developers.

This blurb posted by an app that sent the request to a website that phoned a typist

#realJSOP14-Jan-20 0:52

#realJSOP

14-Jan-20 0:52

"Code or design that solves problems you don’t have."

And here I sit, bustin' my redneck ass over code that was implemented in adherence to that very design philosophy. Once again, an article about coding written by someone that doesn't have a f*ckin clue about actually doing it.

".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

Mark_Wallace14-Jan-20 19:27

14-Jan-20 19:27

We don' need no scalin' an' sh1t. Things'll never change.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

Rick York15-Jan-20 10:43

Rick York

15-Jan-20 10:43

According to the wikipedia, overengineering is : "... for a process to be unnecessarily complex or inefficient".

I disagree entirely. If a process suffers from those things it is not overengineered. It is very poorly engineered. There is a big difference.

"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"

Kent Sharkey15-Jan-20 11:01

15-Jan-20 11:01

How do you feel about Rube Goldberg devices? Over-engineered or poorly engineered? Smile | :)

TTFN - Kent

Where programming languages are headed in 2020

Rick York15-Jan-20 11:06

Rick York

15-Jan-20 11:06

Those are perfectly designed for their purpose. Cool | :cool:

"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"

Kent Sharkey13-Jan-20 9:00

13-Jan-20 9:00

O'Reilly[^]:
Experts discuss what's in store for popular and growing programming languages.

To the compiler! (or interpreter as the case may be)

Marc Clifton13-Jan-20 10:30

Marc Clifton

13-Jan-20 10:30

Not a criticism to you and your posting this, Kent -- I am far less concerned with where languages are headed than I am concerned with where programmers are headed. Having worked in this field for 30+ years, I can confidently say, "not in the right direction." Finding programmers who actually care about the quality of their work (and *know* what quality even means so as to care about it) is a downward spiral. Sigh | :sigh:

Latest Articles:
Abusing Extension Methods, Null Continuation, and Null Coalescence Operators

Kent Sharkey13-Jan-20 10:37

13-Jan-20 10:37

Agreed. I'm a little worried about the possible answers to the next question though:

Why do you think this direction is happening?

Is it the over-reliance on frameworks? (especially by JS devs)
Or IDEs?
Move towards busy-work (SOLID, "repository all the stuff", "clean code" etc.)
Just those dang kids on the lawn?
Something else?

TTFN - Kent

Mark_Wallace13-Jan-20 21:09

13-Jan-20 21:09

Lack of good teachers.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!