You don’t have to read it, but you just might learn something.
Leading Thought
Prime
How I made a heap overflow in curl
This is a great write-up with an admirable transparency. If you’ve been coding for any length of time, chances are you have made a similar error. If you are lucky, you work in a memory-safe language that prevents this from becoming a problem but, like many things we rely on, curl is written in C and has no such protections. The author (also the author of the bug) has done a great job explaining the bug, it’s root cause, and remediation. Definitely worth a read if only to see how everyone should be responding to these sorts of issues. By sharing the problems, we may help prevent them in the future.
Reading the code now it is impossible not to see the bug. Yes, it truly aches having to accept the fact that I did this mistake without noticing and that the flaw then remained undiscovered in code for 1315 days. I apologize. I am but a human.
How to design climate-friendly emails
While the hook here is about email, there are some really interesting things in here that are probably not at the front of your mind when developing or simply using technology. From the amount of energy used by crypto or AI vs. credit card or traditional search, to how much energy is consumed to render a web page given the color palette, I will almost guarantee that something in here will catch you off guard and make you think.
It’s easy to forget that the bits we produce come at a cost, whether it’s in storage, transmission, or some other factor. We send an email to a subscriber, or maybe even a cold call list, without much thought because it’s just an email. But that list isn’t to a single user, which takes bandwidth to transmit, and that email is stored across multitudes of email accounts, taking up storage space. Think of the number of repeat email solicitations you receive and you can see how this problem explodes simply in the case of data centers. Give this a read – it just may change the way you look at what you build.
80% of the ecological impacts of a product are decided at the design phase. Granted this stat includes physical goods that can be reused, repaired, and recycled… but digital folks are still in a good position to have a real impact.
Flipped coins found not to be as fair as thought
How often do you flip a coin to break a tie?Or settle things fairly? It seems that there may be a slight edge to the person choosing the same side the coin starts on. The next time you need a coin flip, make sure that the person choosing doesn’t see which side is up, or use a 3rd party to make sure that the person flipping isn’t changing the up-side. But only if it’s really that important to be as fair as possible – like which kid gets to choose the movie.
FTC Proposes Rule to Ban Junk Fees
You’re getting tickets for a show. You get near the end of all your information being put in and – wham! – you see that each ticket is going to cost $20 each. Or you’re booking a flight and, based on the comparison site you’re using, you find one that fits your budget – until the very end, that is, when you see all those extra charges that make it a worse price than you may have gotten elsewhere.
This strategy banks on the fact that you have so much time and effort invested that you aren’t going to drop out at the very end and try someone else. Or, that you want to see your favorite artist bad enough that you’ll pay the extra fees even though you’re probably swearing that this will be the last time. It’s not fair to you as a consumer and the FTC, along with other agencies, are looking to address this. There is already a lot of noise from big businesses about how this will only hurt consumers; I don’t see it, but judge for yourself.
Drought and Relentless Heat Push Texas Pecan Growers to the Brink
Interesting read here about Pecan trees and their native Texas environment. While the trees are used to hot summers, the extended, above-average temperatures coupled with less water is starting to become too much. The impact of more people moving into Texas and creating an increased demand for water during a drought means less for the crops and the loss of trees that are decades, if not hundreds of years old. Whether or not you like Pecans – and how can you not with Pralines and Pecan Pie in the mix – this is just one more example of how a shift in climate will affect a large, often unseen part of the population.
In West Texas, scientists say warming temperatures are already threatening cotton, grape, and corn production. A recent report found that the Ogallala Aquifer has declined over the past five years, threatening High Plains agriculture. Hundreds of miles southeast, in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the most productive agricultural hubs in the United States, the Rio Grande is gradually drying up thanks to climate change and overuse, threatening a variety of crops, perhaps most notably corn, one of the region’s major exports. Across the state, drought has killed enough grass to cause a severe hay shortage, forcing farmers to spend more money on feed and other producers to cull “large portions” of their herds, one expert recently told the Austin American-Statesman.
Humble Bundles
Web Design and Development from Smashing Magazine Book Bundle
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Programming MEGA Bundle 2023 Book Bundle
New offering from Humble Bundle benefitting Child’s Play Charity – and, if you don’t know it’s there, there is an Adjust Donation button that will let you give more of the take to charity! For a minimum donation of $18 you get 16 titles, including:
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