Eugenia Loli Archive

Strings - such as command-line arguments, environment variables, and console input - are of special concern in secure programming because they comprise most of the data exchanged between an end user and a software system. This chapter covers the security issues with strings and how you can sidestep them.

What if you could combine Cocoa (that easy-to-use extension to C that is the primary language used for development on the OS X platform) and Java (one of the most widely used languages on the Internet) to create an OS X native application that utilizes the power of Java's libraries? Marcus Zarra does just that in this latest article in his series on Cocoa from the Java developer's perspective.

Surendra Verma, Development Manager on the Vista Kernel team, digs into Vista's new Transactional File System with Charles Torre. TxF, as it is referred to internally, is a new kernel construct that is part of an updated Vista NTFS. Surendra provides a high level overview of TxF in this video. Elsewhere, Microsoft is serious about meeting its ship date for Windows Vista during the second half of 2006.

ToothMote is an application to control Linux computers using a BlueTooth-enabled cell phone. It provides a basis for communicating with a connected cell phone, and then uses a plugin architecture to easily expand the amount of functionality it provides. Other similar applications are Salling Clicker for Mac OS X and Bluemote for Linux.

This edition covers: writing custom widgets using GTK+ 2.8, a closer look at GnomeMeeting, and includes an interview discussing the a recent 5,000 Gnome desktop deployment.

Linux.com has an article about autopackage, the universal Linux package installer.

This is an interesting method of speeding up your debugging phase. This article gives a background on Linux signals with examples specifically tested on PPC Linux, then goes on to show how to design your handlers to output information that lets you quickly home in on failed portions of code.

Visopsys 0.6 introduces a host of new functionality including a cleaned up desktop with icons for browsing the computer, file systems, and administrative tasks, FAT defragmenting, ELF dynamic linking, a built in chain-boot loader and simple MBR formatting, file browsing widgets and dialogs, Windows .ico icon file support, a generic file viewing program, Italian keyboard support, new icons and a new splash screen.

"With Windows Vista, the Media Center functions will be built into the "Home Premium" and "Ultimate" editions, which will probably quadruple its installed base in no time flat. We all know Windows Vista will cause a huge change in the way the desktop looks and feels, and MCE is getting a similar face-lift." More at ExtremeTech.

Move your application from CodeWarrior to Xcode and be ready for Intel-based Macs. It's easier than you may think, and this article gets you started.

Sun Microsystems has fixed five security bugs in Java that expose computers running Windows, Linux and Solaris to hacker attack. In the meantime Apple also released a Mac OS X security update for apache_mod_ssl, CoreFoundation, CoreTypes, curl, iodbcadmin, OpenSSL, Safari, sudo, syslog. Elsewhere, computer code posted can crash vulnerable Windows machines by exploiting a "critical" Windows flaw disclosed and patched by Microsoft in October.

Geeks.com sent us for a review an external hard drive enclosure case, the "TVisto Series 3.5" Multimedia HDD Enclosure" (2.5" series also available). But this is not just another hard drive enclosure, but also a multimedia jukebox. And it's running uCLinux, an embedded version of Linux.

The second part of the comparison of Windows Vista beta and Mac OS X "Tiger" continues with an examination of the security, networking, and power management features in each system.

Envelope printing is the tax return of office suite tasks. Everyone has to do it, and everyone hates it. Printing envelopes in OpenOffice.org, or in any office suite, is complicated because of printers. When you take printers out of their comfort space of letter or A4 size paper, they get cranky. Well, not cranky; they just have different rules for how they print, and it's not always obvious what those are. OpenOffice expert Solveig Haugland walks users through custom envelope creation and design.