Category Archives: Development

The City of Chicago is on Github

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This means that projects like OpenStreetMaps will be able to add over 2GBs of Chicago data to their site. This also means that companies and Chicago startups who would like to leverage this data are able to as part of daily business.

via The City of Chicago is on Github – The Changelog.

I downloaded the crime data dataset that supposedly includes all reported crimes from 2001.  The CSV file was 1G in plain text.  They could have compressed it but it doesn’t matter.  It contained over 4 million records.  Now I have to figure out how to slice and dice this dataset and for what purpose I don’t quite know yet.

Facebook Hacks Points to Much Bigger Threat for Mobile Developers

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In this case, the website of a legitimate mobile developer was targeted, with the attackers knowing the people they were really targeting (Facebook, Twitter etc) would sooner or later come to visit the site, allowing them to infect the computers of these organisations.

This type of attack allows hackers to infiltrate systems otherwise closed off to them as Facebook’s own security would spot a straight forward attack.

via Facebook Hacks Points to Much Bigger Threat for Mobile Developers – IBTimes UK.

The article mentions how many app developers on Mac platforms are operating with a false sense of security.  Interesting read.

Sullivan has this advice for mobile app developers:

“Any developer who has Java enabled in his browser, has visited mobile developer websites in the last couple of months, and finds evidence his computer is compromised – probably should use his source code versioning system to check recent commits.”

ZoneMinder: Linux Home CCTV and Video Camera Security with Motion Detection

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ZoneMinder is an integrated set of applications which provide a complete surveillance solution allowing capture, analysis, recording and monitoring of any CCTV or security cameras attached to a Linux based machine. It is designed to run on distributions which support the Video For Linux (V4L) interface and has been tested with video cameras attached to BTTV cards, various USB cameras and also supports most IP network cameras. A partial list is given in the Wiki and Support sections, please give feedback in the Forums if it works with yours. ZoneMinder also requires MySQL and PHP, and is enhanced by a webserver such as Apache.

via ZoneMinder – ZoneMinder: Linux Home CCTV and Video Camera Security with Motion Detection.

Source code of EveryBlock.com

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Overview

In an effort to make the code useful to as many people as possible, we’ve split it into several packages:

  • The main package (probably the thing you’re looking for) is the publishing system, known as ebpub.
  • Second, the packages ebdata and ebgeo contain Python modules for processing data and making maps.
  • Third, the packages ebinternal and everyblock round out the code that powers EveryBlock.com. They’re internal tools and are likely not of general use, but we’re including them to be complete.
  • Finally, ebblog and ebwiki are our blog and wiki software, respectively. Because, dammit, the world needs another Django-powered blogging tool.

via ebcode – Source code of EveryBlock.com – Google Project Hosting.

This might make for an interesting read through.

Brogrammer Killed The Requirements Engineering Star

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Writing functional and technical specifications – even for simple programs – is a vital skill, forcing programmers to think through what it is they want to do before they start doing it. They’re also invaluable for the generation (or two) of programmers who may need to modify or update your code after you’ve moved on. Trying to make even simple changes to a program without introducing new bugs requires a detailed understanding of what the program or function is supposed to do and how it was written. Without proper documentation, that job becomes much, much harder, Lamport says.

via Brogrammer Killed The Requirements Engineering Star.

Interesting read as well as the two featured comments.

Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses

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Architects draw detailed plans before a brick is laid or a nail is hammered. Programmers and software engineers don’t. Can this be why houses seldom collapse and programs often crash?

via Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses | Wired Opinion | Wired.com.

This analogy made me laugh because software doesn’t have to fight gravity or -20F temperatures or whatever else planet Earth has in store for a physical structure.  The gist of this article however seems to be that every software project should start with and needs a solid foundation of requirements.  Shout out to system engineering!

Update:  Here’s an interesting comment from slashdot and a shout out to awk.

If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
Gerald Weinberg

Trivia: Gerald Weinberg is the “w” in awk. Sadly, things haven’t changed much since back when.

Cheers,
Dave

Secure shell (SSH) client for the Android platform

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ConnectBot is a Secure Shell client for the Android platform. Its ultimate goal is to create a secure connection through which you can use a shell on a remote machine and transfer files back and forth to your phone.

via connectbot – Secure shell (SSH) client for the Android platform – Google Project Hosting.

Putty is also available for Android but it’s nice there are two options for doing this.

Syncing an Android Tablet to a PC

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Android tablets don’t have an automatic method or desktop management software to sync your files from the device to a personal computer. However, there is a way to do it manually, a process which requires mounting the device so the computer recognizes its file system, then moving pictures, videos and other data to the computer’s local hard drive.

via Syncing an Android Tablet to a PC | Chron.com.

This entire site seems like a good reference on many topics relaing to  using tablets based on android.