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Comment Re:So, does the Duct Tape Programmer... (Score 1) 551

by Spy der Mann (#29545391) Attached to: The Duct Tape Programmer

I would argue that goto is great when used correctly---for jumping to a cleanup routine at the end of a complex function that you jump to when anything goes fatally wrong.

This is where the duct tape programmer fails: Design Patterns. What you just described is called RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization - look it up in wikipedia), and it SIMPLIFIES programming while also saving you coding and debugging time.

Clean up code should go in the destructors, so they can be called when an exception is thrown. Oh, I guess duct tape programmers are masters at writing exception-safe code, right? ...right?

Comment How about a "lockedby" field in the tables? (Score 1) 283

by Spy der Mann (#29538387) Attached to: Data Locking In a Web Application?

If a determinate record is being edited, you set the "lockedby" field in the record, and a "lockexpire" field (say, 30 mins). This is set when the user starts editing the page. This could be done in the same table, or in a specific table for locking purposes. This specific table would have the following fields:
table, recordnumber,user,expires

When the user finishes, the data is written and the locks are removed.

If another user tries to edit a record, the software checks if that record is being "locked" by another user, and posts an error message.

To solve the problem of users trying to access the same record at the same time, you simply insert the "locking" queries inside a transaction. Ta-da!
Google

Microsoft Says Google Chrome Frame Makes IE Less Secure 459

Posted by CmdrTaco from the less-secure-than-what-exactly dept.
Mark writes "The release of Google Chrome Frame, a new open source plugin that injects Chrome's renderer and JavaScript engine into Microsoft's browser, earlier this week had many web developers happily dancing long through the night. Finally, someone had found a way to get Internet Explorer users up to speed on the Web. Microsoft, on the other hand, is warning IE users that it does not recommend installing the plugin. What does the company have against the plugin? It makes Internet Explorer less secure. 'With Internet Explorer 8, we made significant advancements and updates to make the browser safer for our customers,' a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. 'Given the security issues with plugins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plugin has doubled the attack area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take.'"
Networking

Nominum Calls Open Source DNS "a Recipe For Problems" 237

Posted by Soulskill from the dem's-fightin'-woids dept.
Raindeer writes "Commercial DNS software provider Nominum, in an effort to promote its new cloud-based DNS service, SKYE, has slandered all open source/freeware DNS packages. It said: 'Given all the nasty things that have happened this year, freeware is a recipe for problems, and it's just going to get worse. ... So, whether it's Eircom in Ireland or a Brazilian ISP that was attacked earlier this year, all of them were using some variant of freeware. Freeware is not akin to malware, but is opening up those customers to problems.' This has the DNS community fuming. Especially when you consider that Nominum was one of the companies affected by the DNS cache poisoning problem of last year, something PowerDNS, MaraDNS and DJBDNS (all open source) weren't vulnerable to."
The Military

Soviets Built a Doomsday Machine; It's Still Alive 638

Posted by kdawson from the dead-hand dept.
An anonymous reader points out a story in Wired introducing us to the Doomsday Machine built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s — and that remains active to this day. It was called "Perimeter." The article explains why the device was built, and why the Soviets considered it to be something that kept the peace, even though they never told the US about it. "[Reagan's] strategy worked. Moscow soon believed the new US leadership really was ready to fight a nuclear war. But the Soviets also became convinced that the US was now willing to start a nuclear war. ... A few months later, Reagan... announced that the US was going to develop a shield of lasers and nuclear weapons in space to defend against Soviet warheads. ... To Moscow it was the Death Star — and it confirmed that the US was planning an attack. ... By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, [an informant] says, was 'to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished.'"
Security

Australian ISPs Asked To Cut Off Malware-Infected PCs 286

Posted by timothy from the good-of-the-tribe dept.
bennyboy64 writes "Australia's Internet Industry Association has put forward a new code of conduct that suggests ISPs contact, and in some cases disconnect, customers that have malware-infected computers. 'Once an ISP has detected a compromised computer or malicious activity on its network, it should take action to address the problem. ISPs should therefore attempt to identify the end user whose computer has been compromised, and contact them to educate them about the problem,' the new code states. The code won't be mandatory, but it's expected the ISP industry will take it up if they are to work with the Australian Government in preventing the many botnets operating in Australia."

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