HTML5 – Jupiter Broadcasting

“Symantec is a popular vendor in the enterprise security market, their flagship product is Symantec Endpoint Protection. They sell various products using the same core engine in several markets, including a consumer version under the Norton brand.”
“Today we’re publishing details of multiple critical vulnerabilities that we discovered, including many wormable remote code execution flaws.”
“These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets. They don’t require any user interaction, they affect the default configuration, and the software runs at the highest privilege levels possible. In certain cases on Windows, vulnerable code is even loaded into the kernel, resulting in remote kernel memory corruption.”
“As Symantec use the same core engine across their entire product line, all Symantec and Norton branded antivirus products are affected by these vulnerabilities, including:”
Norton Security, Norton 360, and other legacy Norton products (All Platforms)
Symantec Endpoint Protection (All Versions, All Platforms)
Symantec Email Security (All Platforms)
Symantec Protection Engine (All Platforms)
Symantec Protection for SharePoint Servers
And so on.
“Some of these products cannot be automatically updated, and administrators must take immediate action to protect their networks. Symantec has published advisories for customers, available here.”
“Many developers will be familiar with executable packers like UPX, they’re tools intended to reduce the size of executables by compressing them. This causes a problem for antivirus products because it changes how executables look.”
Packers can be designed to obfuscate the executable, and make it harder for virus scanners to match against their signature database, or heuristically detect bad code
“Antivirus vendors solve this problem with two solutions. First, they write dedicated unpackers to reverse the operation of the most common packers, and then use emulation to handle less common and custom packers.”
“The problem with both of these solutions is that they’re hugely complicated and prone to vulnerabilities; it’s extremely challenging to make code like this safe. We recommend sandboxing and a Security Development Lifecycle, but vendors will often cut corners here. Because of this, unpackers and emulators continue to be a huge source of vulnerabilities, we’ve written about examples in Comodo, ESET, Kaspersky, Fireeye and many more.”
“Let’s look at an example from Symantec and Norton Antivirus. This vulnerability has an unusual characteristic: Symantec runs their unpackers in the Kernel!”
“Reviewing Symantec’s unpacker, we noticed a trivial buffer overflow when a section’s SizeOfRawData field is greater than SizeOfImage. When this happens, Symantec will allocate SizeOfImage bytes and then memcpy all available data into the buffer.”
“This was enough for me to make a testcase in NASM that reliably triggered Symantec’s ASPack unpacker. Once I verified this work with a debugger, building a PE header that mismatched SizeOfImage and SizeOfRawData would reliably trigger the vulnerability.”
“Because Symantec uses a filter driver to intercept all system I/O, just emailing a file to a victim or sending them a link to an exploit is enough to trigger it – the victim does not need to open the file or interact with it in anyway. Because no interaction is necessary to exploit it, this is a wormable vulnerability with potentially devastating consequences to Norton and Symantec customers.”
“An attacker could easily compromise an entire enterprise fleet using a vulnerability like this. Network administrators should keep scenarios like this in mind when deciding to deploy Antivirus, it’s a significant tradeoff in terms of increasing attack surface.”
There is also a buffer overflow in the Power Point decomposer (used to check for macros etc)
There is another vulnerability in “Advanced Heuristic Protection” or “Bloodhound Heuristics” mode
“As with all software developers, antivirus vendors have to do vulnerability management. This means monitoring for new releases of third party software used, watching published vulnerability announcements, and distributing updates.”
“Nobody enjoys doing this, but it’s an integral part of secure software development. Symantec dropped the ball here.”
“A quick look at the decomposer library shipped by Symantec showed that they were using code derived from open source libraries like libmspack and unrarsrc, but hadn’t updated them in at least 7 years.”
“Dozens of public vulnerabilities in these libraries affected Symantec, some with public exploits. We sent Symantec some examples, and they verified they had fallen behind on releases.”
There is “behind” and then there is 7 years, which is pretty much “definitely didn’t bother to look at all”
“As well as the vulnerabilities we described in detail here, we also found a collection of other stack buffer overflows, memory corruption and more.”
Additional Coverage: Fortune.com
Additional Coverage: Ars Technica

Botnet made up to CCTV Cameras and DVRs conducts DDoS attacks

As we reported in TechSNAP #259 a security research found that 70 different CCTV-DVR vendors are just reselling devices from the same Chinese manufacturer, with the same firmware
This firmware has a number of critical security flaws that the vendor was notified about, but refused to fix
Original coverage from March
Now criminals have exploited one or more of these known vulnerabilities to turn these devices into a large botnet
Unlike a typical botnet made up of personal computers that are turned on and off at random, and where a user might notice sluggish performance, infected embedded devices tend to be always on, and performance issues are rarely noticed
A botnet of over 25,000 of these CCTV systems is being used to conduct layer7 DDoS attacks against various businesses
One of the victims, a Jewelry store, moved their site behind a WAF (Web Application Firewall), to protect it from the attack
Unlike most attackers, instead of admitting defeat and moving on, the attacker stepped up the attack, and prolonged it for multiple days
Most botnets lose strength the longer the attack is sustained, because infected machines are shutdown, isolated, reported, or disconnected.
The fact that this botnet is made up of embedded CCTV devices gives it more staying power, and it is not likely to be considered the source of the problem if abuse reports do come in.

Security of HTML5 Video Ads

For a long time many have railed against Flash, and accused it of being the root of all evil when it comes to Malvertising
“For the last several years, Adobe Flash has been an enemy of the online community. In general, the position is well deserved: there were more than 300 vulnerabilities found in Flash Player during 2015 alone, making it the most vulnerable PC software of the year.”
This study provides a comparison between Flash and HTM5 based advertisements
Flash ads tend to be smaller. HTML5 ads also on average 100kb larger, using more bandwidth, which on mobile can be a big deal
Flash ads may be more work to create, since they are not responsive, and a different file must be created for each different ad size
HTML5 ads do not require a plugin to run, but older browsers do not support them. This is becoming less of an issue the number of aged devices dwindles
Flash ads tend to provide better picture quality, due to sub-pixel support
HTML5 provides better mobile support, where Flash on mobile is rare
There is currently a larger community of Flash developers, but this is changing
HTML5 is not controlled by a single entity like Adobe
Flash provides better optimization
HTML5 provides better usability and semantic support
This study finds that killing off Adobe Flash will not solve the security problems, HTML5 has plenty of its own security issues
“Even if Flash is prohibited, malvertising can still be inserted in the first two stages of video ad delivery.”
“The proponents pushing for Flash to be prohibited from use in an ad creative are saying that HTML5 is the remedy that can handle security threats in the advertising industry. It stands to reason that if the ad unit itself is clean, then the user won’t have any problems. Unfortunately, this is an inaccurate statement. Malvertising attacks using video ads were already occurring in late 2015 and early 2016.”
A typical flash malvertising campaign, the ad calls the flash externalCall interface, and runs some malicious javascript, creating a popup, that if you user accepts, may infect their computer
In an HTML5 based attack, the malvertising campaign payload is not in the actual advertisement, but in the VAST/VPAID metadata, as the tracking url. This silently navigates the user to an Angler exploit kit, where they are infected with no required user interaction
“the second scenario shows how the ad unit itself is not the only piece of the malvertising pie”
“The main root of the video ad malvertising problem is, unfortunately, fundamental. VAST/VPAID standards, developed in 2012, provide extensive abilities so that ad industry players can create a rich ad experience.”
“Since these standards allow advertisers to receive data about the user, they allow for third-party codes to be inserted inside the ad. Once a third-party code is allowed, there is an open door for bad actors to perpetrate malicious activities, i.e. insert malicious code.”
“Now that we have debunked the idea that malvertising would be eliminated if the industry prohibited the use of Flash in their ads, let’s discuss solutions.”
Even if malicious ads could be eliminated by better screening, malactors can compromise the ad network, and inject the malicious ads there
In the end, maybe we need to stop allowing advertisements to have the ability to execute code
Does anyone remember when advertisements were just animated .gif files?

Feedback:

Round Up:

The post Make Ads GIF Again | TechSNAP 273 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

AGILE: Too Big to Fail | CR 207

chris — Mon, 30 May 2016 16:26:33 +0000

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Mike shares a humbling war story, then we dig into the great “Android Instant App Conspiracy”, the announcement that destroyed the .Net ecosystem & the poverty trap of software development.

Plus some closing thoughts on Google vs Oracle, a neat tool of the week & a special holiday bonus extended laid back chat!

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— Show Notes: —

Mike’s DO / Ghost War Story

Hoopla & Feedback

Blending Apps, Bots, and the Cloud

Apps, Bots, & Cloud Oh My
What does this all mean for independent / smaller developers

Tool of the Week

The post AGILE: Too Big to Fail | CR 207 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Decision 2016: Native vs Hybrid | CR 186

chris — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 15:21:20 +0000

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Can Web standards make mobile apps obsolete? The new generation of hybrid apps aren’t your grandparents solution to code once, run everywhere.

Plus why Swift is going to be big on Linux in 2016, Google has a thing with openJDK & much more!

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Hoopla

The App-ocalypse: Can Web standards make mobile apps obsolete?

There’s currently a litany of problems with apps. There is the platform lock-in and the space the apps take up on the device. Updating apps is a pain that users often ignore, leaving broken or vulnerable versions in use long after they’ve been allegedly patched. Apps are also a lot of work for developers—it’s not easy to write native apps to run on both Android and iOS, never mind considering Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

Swift in 2016

jowkame/SwiftGtk · GitHub

SwiftGtk is a swift wrapper for GTK+3 library
which means initial (or later basic) GUI support on OSX and Linux platforms.
Please note that project is in early state now.

Feedback

#Google confirms next #Android version won’t implement Oracle’s proprietary #Java APIs https://pocket.co/soFMNR

The post Decision 2016: Native vs Hybrid | CR 186 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Open Source Plex Alternative | LAS 383

chris — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 08:36:52 +0000

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Emby is an open source home media server, that brings all of your media together into one place & automatically converts and streams your media on-the-fly to any device. In other words, a legitimate Plex competitor. We give you our in-depth look.

Plus Microsoft announces its own Linux distribution, why it’s the year of the Linux Desktop in China, why it might be time to drop VirtualBox & more!

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— Show Notes: —

Brought to you by: System76

Emby – The open media solution

Bringing all of your media together into one place has never been easier. Your Emby Server automatically converts and streams your media on-the-fly to play on any device.

Prepare your media

Emby identifies your media according to folder structure, file name, and the type of library to which it is assigned. Once identified, Emby downloads information like posters, descriptions, and ratings that make media selection a rich experience. The requirements for organizing and naming files are quite flexible, but will require some basic structure.

The general recommendations are:

Separate media into appropriate folders (e.g., Movies in a “Movies” folder, TV shows in a “TV Shows” folder, music in a “Music” folder, photos in a “Photos” folder, etc.)
Movies should be named as “Name (Year).exe”, for example “Brave (2012).mp4”
TV shows should include season and episode numbers in the name, and be stored in separate folders per show. For example: “\TV\Homeland\Homeland s01e01.mp4”
Music should be stored within artist and album folders, such as “\Music\Artist\Album\tracks”

Install the Server

Once your media is named and organized, it’s time to install the Server. The server is available on a number of platforms ranging from Windows to Linux, Mac, FreeBSD and Nas devices.

For more information, see installation.

Add Users

You may wish to add users and invite your friends. Users can have their own personalized media libraries, user data, recommendations and more.

For more information, see users.

Has support for advanced features power users love, that likely does not appeal to the majority of Plex users.

Emby Supports Live TV

Built-in Live TV support, and support for external services.

Amazon.com: HDHomeRun EXTEND 2-Tuner CordCutter Over-the-Air WiFi Streaming Media Playe

Watch live streaming HD TV on your phone or tablet wherever you are in your home
- Cut the cable and cut the subscription costs
- Watch live HD TV on up to 2 devices simultaneously on your wifi or wired network
- One click of our App to view live TV on Android or iOS
- TV antenna required

Emby for Android

Bringing all of your personal media together into one place has never been easier! Emby unites your personal videos, music, and photos and streams them to your devices.

Emby Online Web Client

Visit https://app.emby.media from any web browser and sign in using Emby Connect. You’ll be able to connect any of your servers and enjoy all of your media.

Branding Support

Some basic support for branding, which could make Emby powered deployments for business a real nice option.

Donate and You Get More Features

Becoming an Emby supporter brings a number of additional benefits and bonus features. As an Emby Supporter you can enjoy:

Cover Art
Mobile Sync
Cloud Sync
Much more
Learn more about becoming an Emby Supporter..
Sync · MediaBrowser/Wiki Wiki · GitHub

The sync feature allows you to copy content to external devices for backup purposes, archiving in multiple resolutions, and offline viewing.

Emby for Kodi

Emby for Kodi is an add-on to enable connectivity to your Emby library within Kodi.

Emby Apps

Notes

Minimum Requirements — no transcoding

Intel Core 2 Duo processor 1.6 GHz or better
At least 1GB RAM for Windows/Mac OS X
At least 512MB RAM for Linux
Windows: Vista or later
OS X: Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later
Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux

Recommended Configuration — transcoding HD Content:

Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2.4 GHz or better
If transcoding for multiple devices, a faster CPU may be required
At least 2GB RAM
Windows: Vista or later
OS X: Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later
Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux
Chris has noticed better compatibility under Firefox than Chrome, for playback, and Metadata management.
Decoding Performance seems be worse than Plex… However both are using ffmpeg on the backend. Not sure why.
My specific use case is a bit different than normal. I am running with a minimum amount of media. Enough to last the Finding Linux roadtrip, and maybe a bit more. I’m not loading it up with hundreds of TV shows and movies.
Emby/LICENSE.md at master · MediaBrowser/Emby · GitHub

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991

FileBot – The ultimate TV and Movie Renamer / Subtitle Downloader

FileBot is the ultimate tool for organizing and renaming your movies, tv shows or anime, and music well as downloading subtitles and artwork. It’s smart and just works.

— PICKS —

Runs Linux

Disney’s light-bulb Runs Linux, supports TCP

Now, boffins working for Disney Research have taken LED-based comms a step further, adding a Linux TCP/IP network stack to a consumer lamp.

Desktop App Pick

Privoxy

Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. It has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.

Weekly Spotlight

sshuttle · GitHub

As far as I know, sshuttle is the only program that solves the following
common case:

Your client machine (or router) is Linux, FreeBSD, or MacOS.
You have access to a remote network via ssh.
You don’t necessarily have admin access on the remote network.
The remote network has no VPN, or only stupid/complex VPN
protocols (IPsec, PPTP, etc). Or maybe you are the
admin and you just got frustrated with the awful state of
VPN tools.
You don’t want to create an ssh port forward for every
single host/port on the remote network.
You hate openssh’s port forwarding because it’s randomly
slow and/or stupid.
You can’t use openssh’s PermitTunnel feature because
it’s disabled by default on openssh servers; plus it does
TCP-over-TCP, which has terrible performance (see below).

— NEWS —

Microsoft Has Own Distro

Microsoft has developed its own Linux distribution. And Azure runs it to do networking.

Redmond’s revealed that it’s built something called Azure Cloud Switch (ACS), describing it as “a cross-platform modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux” and “our foray into building our own software for running network devices like switches.”

But it appears Redmond couldn’t find SDN code to fits its particular needs, as it says ACS “… focuses on feature development based on Microsoft priorities” and “allows us to debug, fix, and test software bugs much faster. It also allows us the flexibility to scale down the software and develop features that are required for our datacenter and our networking needs.”

Microsoft showcases the Azure Cloud Switch (ACS)

ACS believes in the power of Open Networking. ACS together with the open, standardized SAI interface allows us to exploit new hardware faster and enables us to ride the tide of ASIC innovation while simultaneously being able to operate on multiple platforms. Running on Linux, ACS is able to make use of its vibrant ecosystem. ACS allows to use and extend Open Source, Microsoft, and Third Party applications. The main functional blocks from top to the bottom of the ACS stack are shown in the figure below.

VirtualBox No Long to Provide Info about Security Vulnerabilities

This update fixes an unspecified security issue in VirtualBox related to
guests using bridged networking via WiFi. Oracle no longer provides
information on specific security vulnerabilities in VirtualBox. To still
support users of the already released Debian releases we’ve decided to
update these to the respective 4.1.40 and 4.3.30 bugfix releases.

Ubuntu Hardware Store

It just got even easier to buy Ubuntu laptops, desktops and phones from India’s biggest online retailer.

Canonical has opened a brand new “brand store” for Ubuntu products on Snapdeal, who are the exclusive stockists of the Bq Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition and E5 Ubuntu Edition smartphones in India.

China’s Year of the Linux Desktop

For years, the “year of the Linux desktop” was right around the corner: Open-source software would displace Windows (or Window$), and usher in a glorious, peaceful revolution in the computing industry.

If Dell is to be believed, that revolution is happening now.

Dell’s head of China told The Wall Street Journal that NeoKylin Linux is shipped on 42 percent of the PCs it sells into the country, primarily for the commercial and government PCs that Dell specializes in. Hewlett-Packard also ships NeoKylin-equipped PCs to China, the paper said, but it’s unclear how many they sell with the OS installed.

A Chinese OS at last? More than 40 per cent of Dell PCs in China now running homegrown Windows alternative

America’s crackdown on open-source Wi-Fi router firmware

Analysis America’s broadband watchdog is suffering a backlash over plans to control software updates to Wi-Fi routers, smartphones, and even laptops.

In a proposed update [PDF] to the regulator’s rules over radiofrequency equipment, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would oblige manufacturers to “specify which parties will be authorized to make software changes.”

In addition, it proposes that “modifications by third parties should not be permitted unless the third party receives its own certification.”

Save WiFi – LibrePlanet

AMD Confirms Vulkan Driver For Linux, But To Start Off As Closed-Source

AMD has finally revealed some basic details concerning their support of Vulkan on Linux. AMD has a Vulkan driver but it will begin its life as closed-source, reports Phoronix. In time the AMD Vulkan driver will transition to being open-source. This Vulkan driver is built to interface with their new AMDGPU kernel DRM driver that’s part of their long talked about AMD open-source strategy for Linux. This closed-then-open Vulkan driver will be competing with Valve’s Intel Vulkan driver that will be open from day one.

Feedback:

BSD Now – Producer Search

We are searching for someone passionate about BSD to support Allan and Kris with BSD Now. Different tasks include scheduling interviews with prominent community members, creating an outline doc for each show, discovering new projects, articles, and other relevant content for the show. If you are interested please fill out the questions below!

https://slexy.org/view/s21ZmQKnur
https://slexy.org/view/s20AQgo91a
https://slexy.org/view/s26wgnFY4b

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The post Open Source Plex Alternative | LAS 383 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Coder Craftsmen | CR 171

chris — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:16:43 +0000

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Mike shares his excitement for Ionic, an advanced HTML5 hybrid mobile app Framework. Then Chris asks if the tools used to make the product, as long as the end result is good, really matter?

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Hoopla

Ionic: Advanced HTML5 Hybrid Mobile App Framework

AngularJS — Superheroic JavaScript MVW Framework

AngularJS Tutorial

Epic Games releases $3 million in art and sound assets for free | Ars Technica

Feedback

The post Coder Craftsmen | CR 171 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Happy Little Accidents | TTT 205

chris — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 09:34:46 +0000

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Freshly back from LinuxCon we update you on the stories of the day, the big players pushing Flash out the door & how forgetful scientists accidentally quadruple lithium-ion battery lifespan.

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The post Happy Little Accidents | TTT 205 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Pixel Perfect | WTR 36

chris — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 06:31:17 +0000

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Tiffany is a UX front end developer and makes things look pretty! She hates photoshop and the term “Pixel Perfect” though so don’t get her confused with being a designer!

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Transcription:

ANGELA: This is Women’s Tech Radio.
PAIGE: A show on the Jupiter Broadcasting Network, interviewing interesting women in technology. Exploring their roles and how they’re successful in technology careers. I’m Paige.
ANGELA: And I’m Angela.
PAIGE: So, Angela, today we’re joined by Tiffany. She is a UX developer and she goes into the differences between developer and designer, front end and back end, and all this really interesting industry industry kind of separation that has happened over the years and why it’s important. And we also get into a fantastic conversation about board games.
ANGELA: And before we get into the interview, if you’re interesting in supporting this show, if you’re listening to it week after week and you’re finding this content really awesome, which we do — we have a really good time every time we record and we always get something new from every single episode. It’s really awesome. You can go over to patreaon.com/today and that supports the whole network, but also, specifically Womens’ Tech Radio. And you can donate as little as $3,00 a month or whatever you’re comfortable with. And it’s a monthly basis, automatically comes out.
PAIGE: Yep. And we get started with our interview today by asking Tiffany what she’s up to these days.
TIFFANY: Right now, in the tech field, well I primarily identify as a UX developer. So, as i tell people that don’t really know what that mean, I make things look pretty. So, I prefer, and really more of a front end developer but I spend a lot of time on design teams and whatnot. So I actually also have a design eye. Some people mistake me for a designer. I hate PhotoShop, I hate design. But yeah. And right now I’m actually freelance and I’ve been freelance since November. I’m doing a whole bunch of hodgepodge jobs including some YouTube channel stuff, so day-to-day for me is just really random, because it just really depends on what contracts I have going and if I’m filing anything for YouTube or anything like that. My everyday is not a typical day.
ANGELA: Well, that’s awesome. I like that.
TIFFANY: It is. Yeah. It’s also really confusing.
ANGELA: Yeah. Especially when you don’t get Google SMS anymore.
TIFFANY: Yeah. Darn you Google. My life was made by that. Made or break.
ANGELA: Yeah. I guess you’ll have to maybe research another calendar app something; right?
TIFFANY: Yeah. Something like that.
ANGELA: Or write something to-
PAIGE: Yeah, so for our folks, because this going to go in the future. Google just turned of SMS alerts for calendaring, which I think I lame, because i used the crap out of the feature.
TIFFANY: Uh-huh.
PAIGE: But, we’ll figure it out. So, what is, if you don’t identify as a designer, what do you think is the difference between a UX developer and a designer?
TIFFANY: A UX developer is somebody who when they look at a screen and they look at — essentially, like what need to be done, they think about it in terms of code. Like, they think, oh I need to do this. I need to adjust this padding, this margin, etcetera, etcetera. UX developer is more of a, it’s the designer side. And then a designer, specifically a UX designer is usually, um, their partner in crime, if you’re lucky enough to have a UX designer and a UX developer. And they think of things in terms of actual pixels and the modification of actual PhotoSHop files and stuff like that. So, they don’t really code. So they’re dealing mostly in various visual software editing tools to get mock ups or interaction designs, which is a big one. And UX developers work with them to have those designs come to life, and also, UX developers, because they work so closely and always really have an eye for that kind of stuff, UX developers also are really awesome because we usually have an idea of what a goodish sense of design or interaction would be. And we focus primarily on user interaction when we code things, not always necessarily what’s the best way to code something from like an efficiency standpoint of your code, which gets some really good UX developers can write super efficient super awesome code that is also very user interactive and great for the user. But it’s like this, it’s like the unicorn balance effect of that kind of stuff.
PAIGE: So, like any other developer, you’re probably not an efficiency expert unless you’re an efficiency expert?
TIFFANY: Yeah. But I am a front end developer expert. So, I — like, it’s really, there is a phrase that we use, and people have kind of stopped using it in resumes and interviews, but it’s pixel perfect. And I feel that most UX developers, while we hate the term pixel perfect, it’s true. I can look at mocks, I can look at mock ups or specs or I can just look at a webpage and I can be like, oh, that’s four pixels, it needs to be two pixels. Or something like that. Or, oh, that’s five pixels and it needs to be six pixels. So it’s just like, usually we’re very visual and UX developers, all the ones I”ve met, really do actually want to be pixel perfect. Which, I hate that phrase, but it’s true.
ANGELA: That’s too bad, because I think that would make a great title for the episode. I feel like I need to ask you if that’s okay.
TIFFANY: Yeah, no. That’s fine. You can do that.
ANGELA: Okay. Maybe I’ll put it in the description. Like, even though hates the term, find out what pixel perfect is.
TIFFANY: The only reason I hate it is because, for years there when people realized that front end developers existed and needed to be a thing, so there was this transition seven years ago in the industry. I loved and worked out in Silicon Valley and there was this transition where they started realizing that having a software engineer does not necessarily mean that they can do every — they’re not full stack. You have front end software engineers and you have back end software engineers. Especially as more companies started developing products that were web based, like web apps and that kind of stuff, because the technology space between being good at making the front end of a web app is very different from being good at making the back end of a web app, because there’s just so many languages and concepts involved. And efficiency for both ends of those scale. And so, a lot of companies started posted job listings and one of the requirements was attention to detail, pixel perfect. And it just became this buzz word in the industry and if you were talking with somebody and they were like yeah I’m pixel perfect, like 90 percent of the time they weren’t and it was just really frustrating, because it was a buzzword and everybody used.
ANGELA: Right. And it just kind of became vague, it sounds like.
TIFFANY: Yeah. There’s this great — have you seen the nailed it meme?
ANGELA: Yes. With the, was it with the kid, little baby fist?
TIFFANY: Well, no, so the one — there was one that went around with Cookie Monster cupcakes.
PAIGE: Yes, with the bad, the Pinterest fails.
TIFFANY: Yes. So, and it’s a thing-
ANGELA: Oh, right.
TIFFANY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, where there’s like really beautiful something crafty and then somebody tries to make it and it’s like this horrible version..
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: Nailed it.
TIFFANY: We started doing that in the company that I worked at. The large mega corp that I’ve (unintelligible).
ANGELA: Sure.
TIFFANY: We started doing that to developers. Like, we would do the nailed it where we would have the mock up and then we would have like what they made. And we would do, like nailed it.
PAIGE: That’s awesome.
ANGELA: That’s great. I just did a Pinterest fail on Monday with my kids. It was some sort of a flour and salt dough mix and then you put pebbles in it to make a design and my butterfly did not look like a butterfly and none of them look good. The pebbles were too big and it cracked. It was just bad.
PAIGE: Yeah, Pinterest, it’s like a whole other rabbit hole of doom.
ANGELA: I know. Well, I didn’t go to — I don’t go to Pinterest. I make a point not to, because I’ll get sucked in. My friend did. It was a play date.
PAIGE: So youre friend is attempting to make you a Pinterest addict?
ANGELA: We jointly failed. No, I just let her do it. That’s funny though. That is great. Now, did that, was that good for comradery and — I’m sure it kind of framed the culture, but it wasn’t making fun of people that worked there was it?
TIFFANY: No, it wasn’t. It just started making fun of software development. It was-
ANGELA: Okay.
TIFFANY: Specifically we were on — I was on a design team and we fought tooth and nail to get some front end developers hired, because at the time I was on the design team and I was the rapid prototyper. So they would mock up some crazy ideas and then it was my job to just quickly make something that looked and they could click around. So there was a lot of fake Javascript connecting to empty calls. Lots of static text just being loaded in to pretend it was a database. But I was there rapid prototype maker and we really struggled. We’re like, our — my rapid markups of their stuff, proof of concepts would look like the specs and then the actual product when it went over to enginnering always looked really bad. So my boss made those nailed it meme jokes for a presentation with the higher ups who convinced them finally to hire front end engineers.
ANGELA: Nice.
PAIGE: Okay. The fact that you got memes in a corporate presentation in attempt to actually get headcount, that’s impressive.
TIFFANY: Yeah. And after that they started hiring people who specialized in front end development. That really made a big difference in the product. I think that’s — it’s starting to become more common. So when I went to college in 2005, when I started looking for degree programs, there was nothing that I could find that focused on UX front end development. Everything in computer science was computer science hardcore. There was nothing that specialized in front end and web or anything like that. I think there was one program in some random college on the east coast, and I had never even heard of the college. But now if you went and look for those kind of programs they’re popping up everywhere, because there’s such a demand for those positions.
PAIGE: I mean, even Stanford now has a full track for web and iOS. It’s crazy. That’s good. So where do you make the division between front end design, back end. I mean, I know where I do, but.
TIFFANY: Usually I make the division where anything becomes visual on the screen. So, if anybody — if you’re putting something on the screen, you’re dealing with front end design. Especially with the MVC model. So, model, view, and controller. You can really separate frontend and backend, because you work with backend team really closely to make sure that you’re making the correct connections in the middle area, and then you can focus primarily on the view. And if you need to go into the middle area, you can. But there’s definitely a lot of overlap between that area. That’s where the most code conflict happen, on check in. But I really make the divide. It it modifies a data structure that will eventually appear on the screen in some way, shape, or form, there’s an argument that that could be front end. But if it puts anything on the screen, it’s definitely front end development, in my opinion.
PAIGE: I would agree with that. That’s very cool. So you’re freelancing now. How did you get into freelancing? What are you struggles in freelancing? I’ve definitely met a lot of people who are kind of like not quite happy in a job or they feel like they’d like to try doing their own thing. What are some of the ups and downs for you, since you just started?
TIFFANY: Well, my case is — I don’t — it’s probably something that lot of people can relate to. I graduated from college in 2008 and I had a job before I graduated. I actually graduated early so that I could go and work at this job. And I almost burnt out. I was super close to burning out after three and a half years at this giant corporation, that shall not be named. I had a friend that worked at another larger corporation, not giant, but large, that also shall not be named. He was like, you should come work for us. It’s super awesome. I changed companies and I worked there. It was really awesome for a while and then that large company started to grow into a mega corp, like a very large company and it had a lot of growing pains and they had a lot of headcount reduction either through layoffs or people just leaving because they didn’t like the transition from small to large, or from large to extra large. And so in the three and a half — I was also there for three and a half years, that’s basically my boiling point. In the three and a half years that I was there, I was hired when there was 9,000 — or no, there was like 8,500 employees when I was hired.
ANGELA: Wow.
TIFFANY: When I quit three and a half years later, there was over 20,000 employees and we had a piece of software in the company that somebody made that told you how long you had been — it compared how long you had been at the company with everybody else and according to that script that somebody wrote, I had bene at the company more than 98 percent of the rest of the employees.
ANGELA: Wow. So big turnover.
TIFFANY: Massive turnover and massive influx of new people, which meant that there was just constant turmoil. I was, in my last year of evaluation, the last full calendar year that I was there and I had the employee evaluation thing, I had five different managers.
PAIGE: What?
TIFFANY: And so I was like — and I was in charge of a very large code base and I was working with people in Bulgaria (unintelligible) and so I burned out. I crashed out. They were transitioning, when i was there from FLex to HTML5 and so I was in this weird straddle between Flex and HTML5 and I kept telling myself when they first announced they were going to transition that I would stick around long enough to get my resume padded to be able to add the H5 technology officially and then I would quit. And two years later my fiance was like, when I met you you were talking about how you were going to quit soon and that was a year ago.
PAIGE: And you were like, little did you know, it was a year before that as well.
TIFFANY: Yes, exactly. So I decided, I looked at my finances and I discussed it with my partner and we decided that for my mental stability it would be best if I just quit. So I quit my job and I had a friend that was looking for some design work and web work and basically an everything person at his — he’s trying to kickstart a product, a home automation system and so he needed somebody to do that. So I lucked out in that I quit and then immediately had a contract that could pay all my bills for six months. ANd that contract actually came to an end in May and so now I’m looking for work elsewhere, more contracts elsewhere and I kind of — it’s funny because I kind of just keep like — I have a friend that is very involved in a lot of tech networks in Portland, and she’s probably one of the reasons we moved here, but she keeps throwing things over the fence at me and so I just keep accidently getting these jobs. Where she’s like, oh hey this is this thing and you should do it, and I’m like okay. So I feel really lucky in that regard. I haven’t had to actively search for some stuff. But I also am living very-
ANGELA: Frugal?
TIFFANY: Yes. My fiance is doing most of the — we’re basically on like a 1.5 income household right now. So, but we’re both fine with that because we own all the fancy technology gadgets we need and use so we don’t need to buy anything new. And Portland is significantly cheaper than the Bay area.
PAIGE: Oh my goodness, right?
TIFFANY: Yeah, so it’s actually kind of funny. Because if we had continued to live in the Bay area I would have had to get another job that was like an actual tech job because the cost of living is just so high. And that was part of the reason we moved to Portland was so that I didn’t have to get a traditional 9:00 to 5:00 tech job, because I’ve worked for three mega corps at this point. Well, two mega corps and a large company that was becoming a mega corp, and I just can’t do it anymore.
ANGELA: What was one of your favorite contracts that you’ve done since you left your most recent mega corp job?
TIFFANY: It actually wasn’t tech involved really at all. It was in — I do some video editing. I very much am into the board gaming community. And when I say that I don’t mean like just playing board games, I also review board games. I play test board games for designers. I”m friends with a lot of people at publishing companies, that kind of stuff. And also, I’m pretty, I’m not active on Kickstarter but I’m aware of the Kickstarter tabletop world and I usually know somebody that — I have two friends right now that are running Kickstarters on tabletop. So I had a contract from a friend where he wanted me to do his Kickstarter videos. And so part of that involved going to PAX South in Texas in January.
ANGELA: Oh darn.
TIFFANY: Yeah. Gosh darn. That was a fun contract because the game that he was making was about — it’s basically you’re doing a mini role playing as the Goonies. You’re four siblings and you’re going on this crazy adventure. And so it’s a coop and it’s storytelling and there’s actual numbers and stats that you can lose even if you can tell the best story in the world. So it was a lot of fun because I would go and my job was to film people playing it and people would just have such a blast telling these stories about how they were running around in the mysterious forest and throwing dung at trolls, and all this other fun stuff. But it was a blast. And then editing all of that footage was also a lot of fun into a video. So that was my most fun contract, but it’s not tech related.
PAIGE: Totally fine. I think that that’s one of the beauties of doing — you know, it kind of is tech related. Video is still technology. But being a freelancer, being a contractor is you kind of get some of that freedom to pick and choose projects to be involved in a lot of things. To be a jack of all trades.
TIFFANY: Yeah. I have a friend — I decided to paint. I brought my fiance in a copy of Imperial Assault, which is a Star Wars dungeon crawling game. And I decided stupidly while he was out of town one weekend I would surprise him and paint all of the miniatures in this game.
PAIGE: Oh wow.
TIFFANY: And there’s about — yeah, there’s about 40 miniatures. And they’re like super detailed Star Wars, like Storm Troopers and Darth Vader and ATSDs and the heroes like Han Solo, and Chewbacca, and Luke and all that. And it was stupid and insane, but at the end of it I was able to tell the internet, I was able to tweet about it, because I didn’t tweet while I was going it, because it was a surprise. One of my friends online was like, hey actually can I pay you to paint my set?
ANGELA: Oh my gosh.
TIFFANY: Yeah, so it’s the weird funny thing where it was just like, because I’m freelancing I can just basically do whatever.
PAIGE: You can say, yeah that’s a project I’d like to do.
TIFFANY: Yeah. I can get money for painting miniatures. Which is hilarious to me and a lot of fun, but also makes my carpal tunnel way worse.
PAIGE: Yeah. Righit? Miniature painting is the worse thing for that. Okay, so it sounds like you are super into board games. You review board games? Do you have a YouTube channel or something?
TIFFANY: Yeah. I review board games and my YouTube channel is TheOneTAR. I also am on Twitter as TheOneTAR. I’m very active on Twitter. Most recently, if you go to my channel, most recently I was doing an unpacking series where when we moved we packed all our board games up and then somebody on Twitter was like you should make videos when you unpack them. And so I was like, okay. And then I did. And so I have 24 episodes of me just unpacking a box.
PAIGE: It’s like, re-
ANGELA: Wow.
PAIGE: Re-unboxings.
TIFFANY: Yeah. But people are apparently really into them, because they just want to know what’s in the box.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: So what is in the box, usually?
TIFFANY: All of my board games.
ANGELA: Oh, okay.
PAIGE: So they want to see your collection, really.
ANGELA: Right. Okay. So do you pack the box or is it-
TIFFANY: I did pack the box.
PAIGE: Because they moved.
TIFFANY: This was when we moved.
ANGELA: Oh. Oh, okay. I got it. I thought you were like — well I wasn’t sure if you were buying new board games and be like oh what could be in here? Or if you were like putting stuff in there for the show.
TIFFANY: Nope.
ANGELA: Okay, so it’s a result of moving. Got it. That’s great.
TIFFANY: Yeah.
PAIGE: Okay. So I”m a bit of a board game player myself. I’m not huge. I don’t have a YouTube channel, but I’m always interested in co op board games because I find that it’s the best way for me to get people who aren’t board game people to play with me. And a lot of my friends for some reason aren’t board game people. So what should I play?
TIFFANY: Well, what have you played?
PAIGE: Um Pandemic, Zombie Panic, Castle Panic, Forbidden Island, and Forbidden Desert.
TIFFANY: Okay. So if you feel like you’re ready for a level up on your co op experience and you want to go — if you like the zombie stuff there’s a game that’s really popular right now, it’s called Dead of Winter. It’s produced by Plaid Hat games and it’s designed by John Gilmore and Isaac Vegas, I think is his last name. But you are survivors. Every player — it’s kind of this weird — the theme is kind of weird but there’s — the zombie apocalypse has happened so there’s zombies everywhere. And it’s the middle of winter, hence the name of the game. Every player controls a group of survivors and you’re trying to work together to make sure there’s enough food stocked in your little base and also to make sure that no zombies break into the base. And you also can send your survivors out into the town at the various locations to look for things like food or fuel or that kind of stuff. So it’s co op in that regard. And in addition to that, everybody has a secret objective that they are working for. So, for example, your secret objective might be at the end of the game you want there to be five med kits in the base, right? And so those are secrets. So you’re all working together but you’re also trying to accomplish your goal and sometimes you trying to accomplish our secret goal might hinder the survival of the whole group. Because you’re like well my goad needs more med kids, but we actually need more food. Which do I play.
PAIGE: So it’s like coop with secret personal goals?
TIFFANY: Yeah, exactly. And if you want to take it a step up, you can include the saboteur when you deal out the secret goals.
PAIGE: Oh yeah.
TIFFANY: And the sabitor’s secret goal is to accomplish his secret goal and also ensure that the rest of the players don’t win. So it’s usually something like you kill so many survivors and also you get this much food and then you run away. Like that’s your secret goal or something like that. So it’s — the game has a lot — there’s so many components in the game and it can be really overwhelming when you open it up, but there’s a really good teaching series online by Rodney Smith called Watch it Played.
PAIGE: I love those.
TIFFANY: Yeah. He does a really good Watch it Played of how to play it and he also does a game with his son Luke, I believe.
ANGELA: That’s awesome.
TIFFANY: So that’s definitely a level up on your coop.
PAIGE: Very cool. Thank you so much for that recommendation. This has been a fantastic chat. We should totally get together and play some board games.
TIFFANY: Oh, yes.
PAIGE: Maybe we’ll have you back on to talk some more about how all of that ties together and you can tell us how your freelancing is going and we’ll definitely follow along. Oh, and if people want to follow you on Twitter, it’s TheOneTAR?
TIFFANY: That’s right. And it’s spelled out, so T-A-R or, sorry, The and then one is spelled out.
ANGELA: Thank you for listening to this episode of Women’s Tech Radio. Remember, you can contact us by emailing wtr@jupiterbroadcasting.com. There’s a contact form at JupiterBroadcasting.com where you can drop down to Women’s Tech Radio to contact us. Or you can on Twitter. Our handle is heywtr.
PAIGE: You can also find us on iTunes. If you have a minute leave a review and you can check out the show notes at JupiterBroadcasting.com on our page and it will also incluide the transcripts if you have some people who might be interested in the show, but don’t have the time to listen to us, but are fast readers. Thanks so much.

Transcribed by Carrie Cotter | Transcription@cotterville.net

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Corrupt Accomplices | Tech Talk Today 174

chris — Thu, 21 May 2015 09:53:39 +0000

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Spy agencies target mobile phones, app stores to implant spyware & the extent of the effort is shocking. Linux 4.0 has a EXT4 corruption bug, YouTube brings the fight to Twitch & Netflix has some big updates.

Then we have a Kickstarter of the week to help you men lucid dream, the penis way.

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Spy agencies target mobile phones, app stores to implant spyware

Electronic intelligence agencies began targeting UC Browser — a massively popular app in China and India with growing use in North America — in late 2011 after discovering it leaked revealing details about its half-billion users.

Their goal, in tapping into UC Browser and also looking for larger app store vulnerabilities, was to collect data on suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets — and, in some cases, implant spyware on targeted smartphones.

The 2012 document shows that the surveillance agencies exploited the weaknesses in certain mobile apps in pursuit of their national security interests, but it appears they didn’t alert the companies or the public to these weaknesses. That potentially put millions of users in danger of their data being accessed by other governments’ agencies, hackers or criminals.

NSA Planned to Hijack Google App Store to Hack Smartphones – The Intercept

Linux 4.0 Has a File-System Corruption Problem, RAID Users Warned

For the past few days kernel developers and Linux users have been investigating an EXT4 file-system corruption issue affecting the latest stable kernel series (Linux 4.0) and the current development code (Linux 4.1). It turns out that Linux users running the EXT4 file-system on a RAID0 configuration can easily destroy their file-system with this newest “stable” kernel. The cause and fix have materialized but it hasn’t yet worked its way out into the mainline kernel, thus users should be warned before quickly upgrading to the new kernel on systems with EXT4 and RAID0.

Apparently this was fixed in the 4.0.3 Kernel. The current release is 4.0.4.

YouTube eyes Twitch user base, adds 60 FPS live streams with HTML5 playback | Ars Technica

The HTML5 player will not only save users from the CPU and batter__y-eating Flash player, but will also enable variable speed playback, allowing users to “skip backward in a stream while it’s live and watch at 1.5x or 2x speed to catch back up.”

Netflix To Roll Out A New, More Immersive Web Interface Starting In June | TechCrunch

Netflix confirms today that it will roll out a new user interface on the web to all users worldwide beginning next month. A number of Netflix customers are already seeing the updated look-and-feel, however, according to various reports. The interface, which was previously demonstrated at CES and Mobile World Congress, brings the design of Netflix’s website more in line with what users today see on mobile phones, tablets, on gaming consoles and on other streaming media players, like Roku.

NPT Lucid Dreamer by NPT Lucid Dreamer — Kickstarter

Men, trigger lucid dreams using nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT). By far the simplest & most reliable method possible.

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The Open Pivot | CR 152

chris — Mon, 04 May 2015 13:44:59 +0000

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Mike and Chris reflect on Microsoft’s Build 2015 conference & discuss the undeniable shift to open industry wide. Mike also announces his new business with a focus on open source.

Plus we discuss Visual Studio Code a bit, bad app ports, new ways for developers to make money & more!

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Hoopla

Build 2015 Objective-C, Android apps, continuity, Visual Studio Code for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
Microsoft hopes to court iOS apps to Windows 10 with Objective-C support
Microsoft’s new Code editor is built on Google’s Chromium | Ars Technica

What Microsoft didn’t say when announcing the new editor was how it built Visual Studio Code. In a move that might seem a little surprising, given the regular animosity between the two companies, the editor is built on top of Chromium, the open source version of Google’s Chrome browser.

The app is built using an open source desktop application framework developed by GitHub called Electron. Electron uses HTML5, JavaScript, and other Web technologies, using Chromium for presentation, and io.js (a fork of node.js) to tie it all together.

If you want Microsoft’s nifty Continuum for phones, you’ll have to upgrade | PCWorld

Continuum is a big deal for Windows Phone—both a technological advance and a means of escape from its lonely island of misfit apps. Microsoft’s plan to bring more Android and iOS apps to Windows 10 is another encouraging sign for the platform. It’s no fun for Windows Phone faithfuls to have to upgrade, but perhaps the right to brag about Continuum’s talents will be worth the expense.

Mike’s new company!
+ Microsoft Wants To Bring Azure To Your Data Center | TechCrunch

Azure Stack will bring Microsoft’s technologies for software-defined networking, pooling direct-attached storage, handling (and securing) virtual machines and monitoring this cloud to on-premise data centers. It’s essentially a new private cloud solution for IT pros and makes it easier for developers to scale their apps across their existing data centers and then boost to the cloud if they need more capacity on short notice.

Open source won.

Feedback:

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How The Fest Was Fun | LINUX Unplugged 90

chris — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 19:19:14 +0000

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Exclusive interviews from the floor of LinuxFest Northwest 2015, meet the man who brought Netflix to Linux & changed the WINE project forever, how Intel builds the MinnowBoard for Linux, the state of ZFS on Linux & how we had so much fun it just might be illegal.

Plus a quick look at the new KDE Plasma update, Telegram’s surprising popularity & more!

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Pre-Show:

Instant Messaging in Fedora Workstation 2 | Brno’s hat

Telegram – I was really surprised by the popularity of Telegram. I personally don’t know anyone who uses it, but it looks like it could be the new #1 IM service for open source enthusiasts as Jabber was in the last decade. It’s the only (at least a bit popular) modern IM service that is trying to be open and focused on privacy. It has a Linux desktop app written in Qt. You can find it in Copr although it’s not packaged very well and the app is missing an icon. I’m not sure how easy it would be for the package to make it into the official repositories. The website says they’re using slightly modified Qt which could make it difficult. There is also a plugin for Pidgin which doesn’t support advanced features, but works well for simple chat communication (again available in Copr). If we pick Pidgin as the default browser again, we should have this plugin pre-installed since Telegram seems to be becoming more and more popular.

Catch Up:

KDE – KDE Ships Plasma 5.3, New Feature Release

Angela’s Yoga Update

LinuxFest Northwest 2015

Bellingham, WA • April 25th & 26th

Want to attend future JB events in Seattle, or your area? Join our group: Jupiter Broadcasting Meetup – Meetup

TING

Ting – mobile that makes sense

OpenZFS

OpenZFS was announced in September 2013 as the truly open source successor to the ZFS project. Our community brings together developers from the illumos, FreeBSD, Linux, and OS X platforms, and a wide range of companies that build products on top of OpenZFS.

ZFS on Linux

Linux Academy

Linux Academy | Linux and AWS Online Training

minnowboard.org

MinnowBoard and MinnowBoard MAX are a Intel(r) Atom(tm) processor based boards which introduces Intel(r) Architecture to the small and low cost embedded market for the developer and maker community. They offer exceptional performance, flexibility, openness and standards.

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean: SSD Cloud Server, VPS Server, Simple Cloud Hosting

OLD: How To Use Netflix In Ubuntu Through Wine (PPA Available)

Netflix is finally working on Linux! No, there’s no native Linux Netflix application, but with a patched Wine build, you can now use Netflix under Linux.

Runs Linux from the people:

Send in a pic/video of your runs Linux.
Please upload videos to YouTube and submit a link via email or the subreddit.

Support Jupiter Broadcasting on Patreon

The post How The Fest Was Fun | LINUX Unplugged 90 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Sonic Philosophy | CR 147

chris — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:52:40 +0000

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Transitions in life comes in many forms, work, relationships, gadgets. How we deal with the process of transition is key & why we shouldn’t be anxious about a transition, even if it’s a difficult one.

Plus a bit about GitHub’s ongoing DDoS, switching from PHP to Ruby & a new contender for the perfect Linux dev rig.

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Dev World Hoopla

GitHub suffers ‘largest DDoS’ attack in site’s history

GitHub is suffering a DDoS attack deemed the largest in the website’s history and believed to originate from China.

The coding website is a popular repository for projects from game engines to security applications and web app frameworks, and is used by programmers and tech firms to develop and share tools. Since Thursday, the website has been under fire in a DDoS attack of a scale which has forced GitHub staff to rally and attempt to mitigate access problems.

In a blog post last week, GitHub said the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is the largest in github.com’s history. Beginning on March 26, at the time of writing the onslaught is yet to end.

GitHub says the attack “involves a wide combination of attack vectors,” which “includes every vector we’ve seen in previous attacks as well as some sophisticated new techniques that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic.”

“Based on reports we’ve received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content,” GitHub says.

The “specific class” of content may be related to China. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, GitHub’s traffic surge is based on visits intended for China’s largest search engine, Baidu. Security experts told the p

Transitions

The process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.
Undergo or cause to undergo a process or period of transition.
Transition can be a lot of things… You view on a technology, the status of a relationship, or a job.
We should not resist the process of transition. Without it, we can’t eventually fix whatever needs fixing, move forward, and arrive at our destination.

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Open Source as a Trap | CR 146

chris — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 14:05:19 +0000

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It’s a special open mic edition of Coder Radio. We discuss the complex reasons behind Microsoft’s choice to open source MSBuild, the quest for the perfect Linux laptop continues & why, oh why, oh why HTML5 has a place.

Plus emails & more!

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Dev World Hoopla

Commercial Dev on Linux?

Ubuntu Software Centre: Where is it now?

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Ghost in the Glibc | Tech Talk Today 123

chris — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:47:40 +0000

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We look at Apple’s big quarter & break down the most important numbers, good & bad. Plus we discuss YouTube’s switch to HTML5, the Ghost vulnerability impacting Linux & more!

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Apple Just Had The Most Profitable Quarter Of Any Company Ever | TechCrunch

For reference, that means **Apple makes around $8.3 million dollars per hour ** in profit (24 hours a day).

Apple Reports Record Earnings and iPhone Sales: $18B Profit on $74.6B in Revenue for Q1 2015 – Mac Rumors

Apple sold a record 74.5 million iPhones during the quarter, up from 51 million a year earlier, while Mac sales were also strong with 5.5 million units sold, up from 4.8 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were down, however, falling to 21.4 million from 26 million.

Apple breaks its sales records with 74.5M iPhones in Q1 2015, but iPad sales decline 21% to 21.4M | VentureBeat | Business | by Emil Protalinski

Helping the iPhone was undoubtedly Apple’s moves in China — a report earlier today estimated it shipped more smartphones than any other company in the country last quarter. Furthermore, last week a study found iPhones accounted for half of all new U.S. smartphone activations in the same quarter.

Apple’s Cash Is Now Greater Than The Market Cap Of These S&P500 Companies | Zero Hedge

Apple – which is the largest company in the world with market cap of over $660 billion – has a greater cash hoard than the market cap of all but 17 S&P 500 companies.

The table below shows Apple’s cash holdings in selected S&P500 market cap context.

YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog: YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

Over the last four years, we’ve worked with browser vendors and the broader community to close those gaps, and now, YouTube uses HTML5

Highly critical “Ghost” allowing code execution affects most Linux systems | Ars Technica

The vulnerability in the GNU C Library (glibc) represents a major Internet threat, in some ways comparable to the Heartbleed and Shellshock bugs that came to light last year. The bug, which is being dubbed “Ghost” by some researchers, has the common vulnerability and exposures designation of CVE-2015-0235. While a patch was issued two years ago, most Linux versions used in production systems remain unprotected at the moment. What’s more, patching systems requires core functions or the entire affected server to be rebooted, a requirement that may cause some systems to remain vulnerable for some time to come.

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Best Of Coder Radio 2014 | CR 133

chris — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:37:25 +0000

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We peer into the past of the show to pull out the amazing clips you guys suggested to us and fondly remember how funny it is to listen to Chris get trolled. Sit back, relax & enjoy the fun in this look back at best of Coder Radio!

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A look back on 2014:

Clips are listed in the order they’re show. Repeat links are because multiple clips were used from the same episde.

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The Gorilla in the Stack | CR 127

chris — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:57:12 +0000

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Mike and Chris respond to feedback on lackluster HTML5 apps, then how developers can leverage social media to stay up to date & avoid drama.

Then we blow apart the “Full Stack Developer” myth and the evolution of the term.

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The post The Gorilla in the Stack | CR 127 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

HTML5: Back To The Future | CR 126

chris — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:27:07 +0000

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Is the need to save money & time by developers forcing end users into less than acceptable application experiences? Have we all been oversold on HTML5?

Plus getting into QA, a cloud based IDE, some great feedback & much more!

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The post HTML5: Back To The Future | CR 126 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Oracle retires | Tech Talk Today 61

chris — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 09:33:05 +0000

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Larry Ellison steps down, and we reflect on the moment. Microsoft has another round of layoffs and Google is ready to drop some big cash on YouTube stars.

Plus legit Netflix streaming is coming to Linux soon & more!

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Larry Ellison steps down as Oracle CEO, appointed CTO, chairman; Mark Hurd and Safra Catz now co-CEOs

Oracle Corp. (ORCL)‘s Larry Ellison stepped down as chief executive officer of the software maker he founded, making way for a new generation of executives after one of the most profitable runs for a leader in business history.

Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, currently co-presidents of Oracle, were both named CEO to succeed Ellison, the company said today. Hurd will run sales, marketing and strategy, while Catz will remain chief financial officer and oversee legal and manufacturing operations. Ellison will become chairman, replacing Jeff Henley, and also take on the title of chief technology officer.

Ellison, who turned 70 last month, guided the Redwood City, California-based company for more than 35 years to make it the world’s largest database-software company and one of the biggest providers of business programs. Oracle’s products have become the backbone of modern commerce and industry. The company has a market capitalization of more than $185 billion and produces annual revenue of $38 billion.

Microsoft lays off 2,100, axes Silicon Valley research | Reuters

Microsoft gave notice to 2,100 employees on Thursday, 747 of those in the Seattle area, a company spokesman said. That is in addition to 13,000 laid off in July, which means a further 2,900 are set to be laid off over the next nine months or so.

News of the closure of the Microsoft Research lab at the company’s campus in Mountain View, California, was first made public on Twitter by employees. The company later confirmed the move and said it would involve the loss of 50 jobs.

A spokesman said Microsoft Research, which has over 1,000 scientists and engineers worldwide working on new product ideas, will consolidate its U.S. work at Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, Washington, and in offices in New York and Boston.

Newest Androids will join iPhones in offering default encryption, blocking police – The Washington Post

The next generation of Google’s Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones.

Now Google is designing the activation procedures for new Android devices so that encryption happens automatically; only somebody who enters a device’s password will be able to see the pictures, videos and communications stored on those smartphones.

“For over three years Android has offered encryption, and keys are not stored off of the device, so they cannot be shared with law enforcement,” said company spokeswoman Niki Christoff. “As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won’t even have to think about turning it on.”

YouTube Funding Original Content Again | Re/code

YouTube is planning to invest millions in some of its biggest stars, in deals intended to create high-quality content for the site. The deals are also designed to encourage those stars to keep working on YouTube instead of migrating to other platforms.

The plan comes a couple years after YouTube spent more than $100 million on a push to get video makers to create “channels” of programming for the site in an effort to make it more like TV.

Many of those efforts fizzled, but YouTube is taking a different approach this time: Instead of courting people from outside the YouTube ecosystem, like Madonna, it is focusing on “endemic” stars who already have big followings on the site. And it is going to pay them to create specific shows, instead of a suite of programs, and is promising to promote them to its billion-person audience.

Video producers and distributors who are discussing deals with YouTube executives say the site is talking about investing in different kinds of formats and different lengths; in some cases, YouTube is talking about pairing talent with more traditional Hollywood producers. The one constant is that they want to work with talent that is already popular on YouTube, like fashion star Bethany Mota.

YouTube has discussed spending “single-digit millions” to help fund a 10-part series, says one video producer who is talking to the company. “The idea is to help them make more ambitious projects than they can make with the money they’re making from YouTube right now.”

Netflix Offers to Work with Ubuntu to Bring Native Playback to All – OMG! Ubuntu!

In an e-mail sent to the Ubuntu Developer mailing list Netflix’s Paul Adolph explains the current situation:

“Netflix will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed. If this version is generally installed across 14.02, Netflix would be able to make a change so users would no longer have to hack their User-Agent to play.”

iPhone 6 Plus Teardown

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The Scripting Chronicles | CR 115

chris — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:11:35 +0000

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Where does TypeScript fit in, and are the many criticisms lobbied at it legitimate? We discuss the state of scripting, and the new dark pragmatism that seems to be setting in.

Plus picking your ideal client, package managers for Windows and Mac, your feedback & more!

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Microsoft/TypeScript · GitHub

TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output.

https://www.typescriptlang.org

TypeScript – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TypeScript is a free and open source programming language developed by Microsoft. It is a strict superset of JavaScript, and adds optional static typing and class-based object-oriented programming to the language. Anders Hejlsberg, lead architect of C# and creator of Delphi and Turbo Pascal, has worked on development of TypeScript.[1][2][3][4]

TypeScript is designed for development of large applications and transcompiles to JavaScript.[5] As TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, any existing JavaScript programs are also valid TypeScript programs.

TypeScript supports header files which can contain type information of existing JavaScript libraries, enabling other programs to use objects defined in the header files as if they were strongly typed TypeScript objects. There are third-party header files for popular libraries like jQuery, MongoDB, Node.js, and D3.js.[6]

Common criticisms of TypeScript

Why does TypeScript have to be the answer to anything? – Scott Hanselman

TypeScript was announced and folks are saying “TypeScript is clearly Microsoft’s answer to Google’s Dart” or “So TypeScript is Microsoft’s answer to CoffeeScript.”

People have compared TypeScript to Dart. That’s comparing apples to carburetors. TypeScript builds on JavaScript so there’s no JS interop issues. Dart is a native virtual machine written from scratch. Dart interops with JavaScript…but it’s not JS. It doesn’t even use the JavaScript number type for example.

Charles’ Problem with TypeScript

TypeScript | Build 2014 | Channel 9

JavaScript has grown from a webpage toy to being used in large-scale deployments both on the server and in the browser. This rapid growth has outpaced the growth of the language itself, which lacks features that allow teams to communicate requirements and build applications safely. This session will be a guided tour of TypeScript, showing how the language and toolset makes it easier to write cross-platform, large-scale JavaScript applications.

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