Category: Programming

A big part of my work has to do with code. I’ve worked as system administrator – installing, patching, and configuring someone else’s code. I’ve worked as independent programmer, writing code on my own. I also programmed as part of the team. And on top of that, I worked as Team Leader and Project Manager, where I had to interact a lot with programmers. Programming world on its own is as huge as the universe. There is always something to learn. When I find something worthy or something that I understand enough to write about, I share it in this category.

Database Popularity Index

Have a look at Red9’s Database Popularity Index, which is updated now on a monthly basis. Last year I blogged about a similar study.

One thing that is still mind-boggling to me is the total number of different database engines – over 300! I know there is a constant need for better and more powerful databases, but 300? Sounds like too much to choose from.

One other thing that I find slightly surprising is the popularity of the Microsoft Access. Really? With so much to choose from, people still stay with Access? What am I not getting here?

Google Developer Documentation Style Guide

“Google Developer Documentation Style Guide” is a guide for Google developers on how to write the developer documentation. As someone who have been involved in technical documentation for years now, I find a general lack of such guides from other companies interesting and slightly disturbing.

Kudos to Google for the effort and for sharing with all of us who are trying to improve the technical writing.

UI Museum: Turbo Pascal 7.1

Ilya Birman continues his (now) series of the historical user interfaces with the post “UI Museum: Turbo Pascal 7.1“. (I’ve linked previously to his post about Norton Commander).

Turbo Pascal wasn’t my first programming language (some variation of BASIC was), but I’ve spent countless hours coding in Turbo Pascal, both for my studies and outside.

It’s interesting to see how different and, at the same time, similar those interfaces of the past are to those of today. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) have gone a long way, but their basic principles, as well as some shortcuts and UI elements, are very similar to the 30-old tools.

One thing that I find in common with Ilya’s comments is that the teachers didn’t know or cover all the options. The information was scarce and Google wasn’t around. For many, there was also a language barrier, rendering even the available documentation useless.

Oh, good old times!

Optimizing web servers for high throughput and low latency

Dropbox Tech Blog has this in-depth article on “Optimizing web servers for high throughput and low latency“. It goes over everything from hardware and low level operating system stuff all the way up to the application level.

Great job, guys!

BeEF – Browser Exploitation Framework

BeEF is a browser exploitation framework.

BeEF is short for The Browser Exploitation Framework. It is a penetration testing tool that focuses on the web browser.

Amid growing concerns about web-borne attacks against clients, including mobile clients, BeEF allows the professional penetration tester to assess the actual security posture of a target environment by using client-side attack vectors. Unlike other security frameworks, BeEF looks past the hardened network perimeter and client system, and examines exploitability within the context of the one open door: the web browser. BeEF will hook one or more web browsers and use them as beachheads for launching directed command modules and further attacks against the system from within the browser context.