Code names can take on all manner of themes–like Apple’s cat theme for OSX–but Google opted to go with a sugary sweet spin on code naming for their mobile operating system Android.

The first version had no code name but by the time it worked its way into public consumption it was sporting a delicious code name: Cupcake. From there on Android code names have named after things sweet treats: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo (Frozen yogurt), Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and IceCreamSandwich.

Although naming software after treats is rather uncommon, there is one other notable code name series with a sweet spin. The code names assigned to sugar on a stick–a version of Fedora Spin Live designed to support the sugar learning platform , an educational suite originally designed for the One Laptop Per Child initiative–are fruit-based like Strawberry, Blueberry, and Pineapple.

The New C Standard Explored 

C11 specifies many security features that require minimal changes to existing code. They greatly reduce unexpected behavior and prevent many kinds of common attacks.

C and C++ are members of the same family of languages. The evolutionary boldness of C++ removes some of the marketplace pressure on C; people who are continually pushing for innovation are naturally drawn to the C++ development process. Each language had a coherent original design (by Dennis Ritchie and Bjarne Stroustrup, respectively), followed by successive refinement in a very competitive marketplace of ideas. Both languages share an extreme concern for performance, with the slogan "don't leave space for a more-efficient systems-programming language underneath our language (C or C++)." However, it's unfair to complain that the original designs assigned too little importance to cybersecurity; both languages pre-date the beginnings of concern for security. But in recent years, as the marketplace has started to emphasize cybersecurity, C and C++ have been responding in several ways.

The C11 Annex K Functions

I'll start my tour of Annex K with the fopen_s function. The main innovation is that files are opened with exclusive (also known as non-shared) access. Furthermore, if the mode string doesn't begin with u (such as with code being updated from the older fopen ), then to the extent that the underlying system supports it, the file gets a file permission that prevents other users on the system from accessing the file.

In this article, I'll sequentially enumerate the security benefits of these _s functions. The new semantics illustrate the pattern of "least privilege." This "exclusive" mode was previously available in the Posix open() function, but the ISO standard for C doesn't standardize system-dependent, low-level I/O.

fopen() safety

If a file is opened with x as the last character in the mode argument, and the requested filename is already in use, the fopen_s function fails (as opposed to truncating the existing file, which is presumably already being used by someone).

Fixing tmpnam()

This function illustrates another security pattern in C11: "In the calling sequence of the function, every pointer through which the function might modify an array is immediately followed by the number of elements which the function is permitted to modify."

ISSAC NEWTON

Isaac Newton was so devoted to science that he stuck a needle behind his eye to test a hypothesis!

Newton thought that color is infused by pressure on the eye. To prove this, in an optical experiment, Newton stuck a darning needle around the side of his eye until it poked the backside. 

He calmly noted that he saw white, dark, and colored circles when he stirred the needle in his eye. Although it is not known what he concluded from his experiment, Newton argued that light is composed of particles. 

Science later adopted a wave theory of light and color, because of what some experiments found. Newton had some vindication on his theory, though. With the discovery of quantum mechanics, light is now thought to be both a wave and a particle. 

Google has developed a driverless car!


This new technology sounds as if it is right out of a science fiction movie, and that’s because it’s not far off. Over the past several years Google engineers and scientists have been working tirelessly at Stanford Laboratories to develop a technology that will change the way we live in the upcoming decades: the Google Car. 

This car is completely driverless. It combines information from Goggle Street View with artificial intelligence software that communicates with a sensor on top of the car, which in turn speaks to the wheels and steering wheel to drive the car without any human interference. So far the car has clocked over 175,000 miles and had zero accidents. 

In fact, the technology has caught on so fast that the state of Nevada has passed the first laws allowing for automated cars! To see a Google Car in action check out the video below! Are you excited or hesitant about driverless cars? Let us know in the comments

The New Native Languages

To many developers, the recent trend of reversion to true compiled languages implies a re-engagement with C and C++, or for denizens of smaller niches, a renewed embrace for Pascal, Fortran, Ada, and other languages of the pre-2000 era. But for some programmers, this native trend, which is most heavily touted by Microsoft as part of its re-engagement for C++, leaves a certain sense of dissatisfaction. C and C++ look a lot like they did in 1995. And even though C11 and C++11 have added useful features that we have been carefully chronicling in Dr. Dobb's, the languages can have the feel of a past era onto which contemporary elements have been grafted.

                              For developers who yearn for something more modern, languages that reflect current concepts of parallelism, immutability, large libraries, extended data types, and the like there are interesting alternatives; especially since many of them key off the basic C syntax, which makes them comparatively easy to adopt. Chief among these are D (from Digital Mars), Go (from Google), Rust (from Mozilla), and Vala (from Gnome). All four languages are available free and all but D are completely open source. (D is almost completely open source). Looking at these languages provides interesting insights in language design and shows in some ways what C and C++ are lacking.

youtube

The longest video on YouTube is 596 hours.

According to uploader MoldytoasterMedia, he has uploaded the longest video EVER to YouTube! Even more amazing about the video 

is that it only took an hour to upload to the site!

MoldytoasterMedia has posted many other long videos such as 100 hours of Nyan Cat, over 74 hours of him counting to 100,000, and the most annoying sound in the world for 50 hours! 

By searching on YouTube, you can find other incredible video feats such as the shortest video and the smallest video ever uploaded!

Adding the number 4 to the end of Facebook’s URL will automatically direct you to Mark Zuckerberg’s wall.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the term “URL” - type in this web address: www.facebook.com/4. We’re not sure why Zuckerberg chose the fourth ID number instead of number 1, but this is a quick and easy way to get to the original Facebook wall that is owned by its creator. Adding the numbers 5 or 6 to the end of the URL will take you to the respective profiles of Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founders and Mark’s former college roommates. Tacking a 7 onto the web address leads to the profile of Arie Hasit, another good friend of Zuckerberg from his days at Harvard.