4. more fun with btsync

   I've already gushed over the amazingness that is btsync, but it just solved another problem for me, so here I am again.

   My new VPS provider (yes, that is an affiliate link; sue me) recently announced that their backup interval would be increasing from weekly to monthly. I'm coming from a daily backup environment, so weekly was already uncomfortable; it was time to set up my own backup system. But my primary machine (and therefore backup host) is Windows--am I supposed to set up some kind of rsync service? Muck about with Scheduled Tasks? Ugh. Headaches all around ...

   read more

5. on algorithms and boundaries

   I'm taking the Algorithms I class from Coursera that just started up again. (I'm going to finish it this time.) (No really!) The first programming assignment has students building a Monte Carlo simulation for the percolation problem, using a weighted quick-union algorithm. We'd already covered union finds and the internals of a WQU during the lectures and exercises, so the assignment focused on applying it efficiently.

   I built a slow prototype that mostly worked, then made it a decent amount faster, then fixed an edge case that I'd broken while making it faster, then got stuck ...

   read more

6. pernicious kingdoms

   From Seven Pernicious Kingdoms: A Taxonomy of Software Security Errors

   One of the first studies of computer security and privacy was the RISOS (Research Into Secure Operating Systems) project [in 1976]. RISOS proposed and described seven categories of operating system security defects...:

   • Incomplete Parameter Validation
   • Inconsistent Parameter Validation
   • Implicit Sharing of Privileges / Confidential Data
   • Asynchronous Validation / Inadequate Serialization
   • Inadequate Identification / Authentication / Authorization
   • Violable Prohibition / Limit
   • Exploitable Logic Error

   The study shows that there are a small number of fundamental defects that recur in different contexts.

   Heh. You could say that, yes. Here we are, 40 years later, dealing (or more ...

   read more

7. solving problems with threads

   A programmer had a problem. He thought “I know, I’ll solve it with threads!”. has Now problems. two he

   leonsbuddydave

   Still giggling, fifteen minutes later.

   read more

8. who left the burner on?

   Researchers in Uppsala, Sweden, accidentally left a reaction running over the weekend and ended up solving a century-old chemistry problem. Their work has led to the development of new material, dubbed Upsalite, with remarkable water-binding properties. Upsalite promises to find applications in everything from humidity control at home to chemical manufacturing in industry....

   When one mixture was accidentally allowed to react over a long weekend, researchers came back to find a gel. It turns out the gel was formed because methanol molecules had been trapped within the material. When heated to 70°C, which is above the boiling point of ...

   read more

« Page 3 / 3