Submission + - Perl migrates to git versioning control system. (web-app.net) 1

Submitted by

On Elpeleg

on Saturday January 03, 2009 @08:46PM

On Elpeleg writes: "The Perl Foundation has announced at the http://use.perl.org/ website switching the version control systems to git. According to the announcement Perl 5 migration to git would allow the language development team to take advantage of git's extensive offline and distributed versioning support.

Git is open source and readily available to all Perl developers. Among other advantages, the announcement notes that git simplifies commits, producing fewer administrative overheads for integrating contributions. Git's change analysis tools are also singled out for praise.

The transformation from Perforce to git apparently took over a year. Sam Vilain of Catalyst IT "spent more than a year building custom tools to transform 21 years of Perl history into the first ever unified repository of every single change to Perl." The git repository incorporates historic snapshot releases and patch sets, which is frankly both cool and historically pleasing. Some of the patch sets were apparently recovered from old hard drives, notching up the geek satisfaction factor even more.

Developers can download a copy of the current Perl 5 repository directly from the perl.org site, where the source is hosted."

Visualizing Open Source Contributions 80

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 16, 2008 @03:24PM from the do-you-see-what-i-see dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A student at UC Davis has created some stunning visualizations of open source software contributions, including Eclipse, Python, Apache httpd and Postgres. From the website: 'This visualization, called code_swarm, shows the history of commits in a software project. A commit happens when a developer makes changes to the code or documents and transfers them into the central project repository. Both developers and files are represented as moving elements. When a developer commits a file, it lights up and flies towards that developer. Files are colored according to their purpose, such as whether they are source code or a document. If files or developers have not been active for a while, they will fade away. A histogram at the bottom keeps a reminder of what has come before.'"

Joomla! A User's Guide 117

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 11, 2008 @02:36PM from the read-all-about-it dept.

Michael J. Ross writes "Of all the content management systems (CMSs) from which a Web developer can choose for creating a new Web site, Joomla is generally considered to be one of the top choices -- partly because an experienced developer can create an attractive site faster with Joomla than with the majority of other CMSs. However, Joomla's online documentation leaves much to be desired, as is true for most if not all CMSs. Intermediate and especially new developers need a clear and comprehensive resource that can explain the terminology, customization, administrative panel, and other aspects of Joomla. A promising candidate is a book written by Barrie M. North, titled Joomla! A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.

Using Distributed Computing To Thwart Ransomware 361

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday June 11, 2008 @11:00AM from the much-less-satisfying-than-a-shovel-to-the-face dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The folks at Kaspersky labs are turning to distributed computing to factor the RSA key used by the GPcode virus to encrypt people's files and hold them for ransom. There are two 1024-bit RSA keys to break, which should require a network of about 15 million modern computers to spend a year per key factoring them. Unfortunately, there appear to be no vulnerabilities in the virus' use of RSA, unlike some previous cases. Perhaps more interestingly, there's some debate over whether people should bother cracking it. After all, what if they were trying to trick us into factoring the key for a root signing authority? Besides, there's a more direct method of breaking the encryption: track down the people who wrote the virus and force them to talk."

How To Frame a Printer For Copyright Infringement 325

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 05, 2008 @02:34PM from the point-the-finger-point-it-well dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Have you ever wondered what it takes to get 'caught' for copyright infringement on the Internet? Surprisingly, actual infringement is not required. The New York Times reports that researchers from the computer science department at the University of Washington have just released a study that examines how enforcement agencies monitor P2P networks and what it takes to receive a complaint today. Without downloading or sharing a single file, their study attracted more than 400 copyright infringement complaints. Even more disturbing is their discovery that illegal P2P participation can be easily spoofed; the researchers managed to frame innocent desktop machines and even several university printers, all of which received bogus complaints."

Blake's 7 Remake In the Works 212

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday April 27, 2008 @10:32AM from the polishing-old-gems dept.

bowman9991 writes "Remember the BBC's Blake's 7? Looks like the classic space adventure series is being reworked by Sky One. If they get it right (like the recent Battlestar Galactica revamp), this one has massive potential. 'As part of a drive to invest more in homegrown drama, Sky One has ordered scripts for two 60-minute pilot episodes. If successful, it will be expanded into a six-part series.' Created by Terry Nation, the man responsible for the Daleks in Doctor Who, Blake's 7 ran from 1978 to 1981 and had cult appeal. The effects were average, but the story and characters were compelling."

Comment Screen real-estate (Score 1) 376

by steg on Sunday April 23, 2000 @07:16AM (#1115676) Attached to: Are Printed Manuals Dead?

Another problem with online manuals is that they're difficult to read whilst working with the program they document. When I'm consulting a manual as a reference/tutorial, I want to be able to work with the relevant program at the same time. Short of having two monitors, there is no good solution to this at present.