Year: 2006

8 Habits For Developing More Secure Code

Michael Howard, senior Security Program Manager at Microsoft, writes a list of habits any developer must have in order to get a final, secure and efficent product. The list goes as follows:

Habit #1: Take Responsibility
Habit #2: Never Trust Data
Habit #3: Model Threats against Your Code
Habit #4: Stay One Step Ahead
Habit #5: Fuzz!
Habit #6: Don’t Write Insecure Code
Habit #7: Recognize the Strategic Asymmetry
Habit #8: Use the Best Tools You Can

Details for every habit can be found here: 8 Simple Rules For Developing More Secure Code.

I couldn’t agree more…

[Source: MSDN]
[Via: Tom]

US Midterm Election Highlights

The following are the highlights of the US midterm elections:

– Democrats win House of Representatives.
– Democrats are more likely to win the Senate too.
– Nancy Pelosi is to become the first woman speaker of the house, she’ll also be the first Italian-American speaker.
– Keith Ellison, first Muslim elected to house of representatives.
– For the first time, 16 women are present in the senate.
– Majority of US governors are now Democrats.
– Deval Patrick, first Black governor, elected in Massachusetts.
– Donald Rumsfeld steps down.

Personally, I think these are very good results.
Results of political elections in the US generally affect the rest of the world too, so it’s good to see that Bush and his administration won’t be able to freely do as they please from now on.

[Via: Houssein]

New Seven Wonders of the World

The New7Wonders Foundation, a Swiss-based foundation created in 2001 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, launched a campaign to revise the list of the world’s seven wonders.

The 21 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World, listed alphabetically, are:

1. Acropolis of Athens, Athens, Greece
2. Alhambra, Granada, Spain
3. Angkor Wat, Angkor, Cambodia
4. Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico
5. Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
6. Colosseum, Rome, Italy
7. Easter Island statues, Chile
8. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
9. Great Wall, China
10. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
11. Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
12. Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia
13. Machu Picchu, Peru
14. Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany
15. Petra, Jordan
16. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
17. Statue of Liberty, New York, United States
18. Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom
19. Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
20. Taj Mahal, Agra, India
21. Timbuktu, Mali

People can vote online or by phone to choose among this list.

The final list of the new seven wonders is planned to be announced on July 7, 2007, in Lisbon taking advantage of the alignment of the date (07.07.07).

Personally, I don’t know why we have to be limited to seven?
I think all of them deserve to hold the title of “One of the wonders of the world”.

[Site: New Seven Wonders of the World]

How Readable Is Your Blog?

I came across an interesting readibility test on Roba’s blog yesterday that helps you determine how readable your content is.

So, I checked for my blog and here are the results:

Gunning Fog Index: 9.75
Flesch Reading Ease: 64.33
Flesch-Kincaid Grade: 6.79

So my Gunning-Fog Index of 9.75 puts me with the most popular novels when it comes to readability; The Flesch Reading Ease of 64.33 puts me within the recommended fork for writers; And the Flesch-Kincaid Grade of 6.79 means that a person with a minimum 6.79 years of schooling can easily read my blog.

So, I guess I write a lot better than I thought I did. Maybe I should start seriously working on a book.

You too can take the readability test for your blog or website here.

Cappuccino Or Chocolate?

The following events took place between the hours of 7:00 and 7:05 PM the other day, at a small grocery shop nearby, between me and the guy at the shop:

[…]
Me: Do you have those cappuccino thingies, you know those small instant cappuccino packs?
Guy: Yeah (and he goes to the back of the shop to get some)
Guy: How much do you need?
Me: Four
(he hands me four packs of powdered chocolate)
Me: Isn’t this chocolate?
Guy: No, it’s cappuccino
Me: Well, no it’s chocolate.
Guy: No, it’s cappuccino
Me: Dude, look it says “Chocolate”!!
Guy: No, it’s cappuccino
Me: Man, it’s “Chocoline”, they only make chocolate!! (I’m extra sure of this because I know the company that makes this brand and I’ve even been to their factory a number of times on work, and they’re all about chocolate)
Guy: No, it’s cappuccino
(I look around a bit and spot a pack of cappuccino lying around)
Me: Now that’s cappuccino, but this is chocolate
Guy: ….
Me: Ok, do you have any more of this “real” cappuccino?
Guy: No, that’s the last one
(I look around and find a full box)
Me: There’s a whole box!! Just give me another one and let me get out of here!
Guy: ….

Aaarrrgghhhh…
I don’t know why I even bothered…

Fish And Seafood Population On The Brink Of Extinction

A new study funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of California predicts we have only forty-two more years until the bulk of the world’s fish and seafood populations are largely wiped out. That’s from here to the year 2048.

The researchers, who called their findings uniformly disturbing, based their fish population study on data from nearly 50 marine locations under protection, as well as U.N. data.

The cause? Overfishing, for one, as well as climate change. But the study notes that oceans already have lost so many species that it’s hard for other species to thrive. Species loss disrupts food chains, which, in turn, disrupts the fragile balance of complex systems, both on land and in the water.

There is still time to reverse the trend, the researchers say, but only if quick action protects depleted fisheries more effectively and saves ocean habitats by creating new marine reserves.

[Sources: Sci-Tech, SFGate]

Saddam Hussein Sentenced To Death By Hanging

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, was pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging earlier today by the Iraqi High Tribunal.

The charges against him were related to the ordering of the killing of 148 Shia civilians in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Saddam’s sentence will be automatically appealed and reviewed by a panel of nine appeal judges, who will decide whether or not to allow a retrial.

If the judgement stands, however, Saddam must be executed within 30 days of the appeals panel delivering its verdict, which has to be ratified by Jalal Talibani, the Iraqi president.

Saddam, 69, said that he wants to be executed by firing squad. However Iraqi law states that he will be executed by hanging.

Saddam’s reaction to the verdict was to shout: “Long live the Iraqi people, damnation for the damned. You are the servants of the colonizers, Long live the people, long live the Arab nation! Down with the agents. Down with the occupier.”

Reactions are mixed to this verdict in Iraq, the Arab countries and around the world; with some people expressing joy, others anger and some others disagreement.

US president George W. Bush calls the verdict “a major achievement for Iraq’s young democracy”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: “The Saddam Hussein era is in the past now, as was the era of Hitler and Mussolini,” calling Hussein the worst ruler ever in Iraq. He also said he hoped that the verdict would help bring about reconciliation.

There’s also some buzz going on about how this verdict was announced just a couple of days before the US mid-term elections, and that it maybe an attempt to tip the scale towards the republicans.

Anyway, personally, I think it was very clear from the beginning that a death sentence awaited Saddam at the end of the line, and that this eleven month trial was more or less an act.
Saddam is a criminal, and many innocent lives were lost at his orders, so he deserves whatever he gets, but let’s not forget that much more innocent Iraqi people died because of George W. Bush’s orders than his.

[Sources: CNN, Al Jazeera, Chicago Tribune]

Six Arab States Join Nuclear Race?

Just came across this piece of news that some people are portraying as such a big catastrophe…

The spectre of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.

The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran

Poll: America, A Threat To World Peace…

That’s what the results of an ICM poll say…

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country’s reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US president as part of an “axis of evil”, but it is Mr Bush who now alarms voters in countries with traditionally strong links to the US.

[Source: The Guardian]

world10a.jpg

[Via: Justice For All]

links for 2006-11-03