Software-Programming

The development team of CyanogenMod, a popular community-built Android firmware, discovered and removed a line of code that posed potential security risks because it logged and stored device screen-lock patterns in a file.

The unwanted line of code was added back in August in CyanogenMod version 10, which is based on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), as part of a new feature that allowed the size of the lock screen's dot grid to be configurable -- for example from the default 3x3 size to 6x6.

Mozilla is introducing a new Social API in the latest beta version of Firefox, which provides the browser with the ability to integrate with social media sites. When enabled, the new social functions are displayed in a permanent sidebar alongside the usual page content. According to Firefox Engineering Director Jonathan Nightingale, the thinking behind the implementation of the feature was to "stop treating social like just another tab."

Lately, Mike Janke has been getting what he calls the "hairy eyeball" from international government agencies. The 44-year-old former Navy SEAL commando, together with two of the world's most renowned cryptographers, was always bound to ruffle high-level feathers with his new project - a surveillance-resistant communications platform that makes complex encryption so simple your grandma can use it.

More than 1,000 out of a sample of 13,000 Android applications analysed by German researchers contained serious flaws in their SSL implementations.

In this paper (PDF), the researchers from Leibniz University in Hannover and Philipps University of Marburg found that 17 percent of the SSL-using apps in their sample suffered from implementations that potentially made them vulnerable to man-in-the-middle MITM attacks.

Mozilla has released a preview version of Firefox Metro for Windows 8, a version of the browser which runs both in Microsoft's "Metro" touch-friendly environment and on the classic Windows desktop. Mozilla has continued to use the term "Metro" to refer to the user interface even though Microsoft has ceased using that name.

CyanogenMod ROMs give Android users the latest Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean treats to their otherwise-neglected smartphones, and it's mostly open-source except for one piece: the boarded-off ROM Manager.

To remedy that, the modding organization is bringing its OTA updater back from the CM5 and 6 graves, letting users pull updates straight to their devices.

Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark.Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark.

That's the sound of Rode Dog, an app designed by sixth-grader Victoria Walker in collaboration with David Grau, a creative director and designer at WLDG, an interactive agency in Santa Ana. All that barking is designed to get you to stop texting and driving.

 PHP icon Version 5.5 of PHP will come with an API designed to allow administrators and developers to safely store passwords. With its help, developers will be able to use just one line of code to generate a secure salted password hash using bcrypt.

$hash = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

A salt is not needed; it will be auto-generated by the API if not present and added as a random component to the password. Verifying the password is equally easy:

password_verify($password, $hash);

 Mozilla has begun building a new technology called IonMonkey into Firefox to improve its JavaScript performance.

High JavaScript performance is essential in today's hotly competitive browser market, because JavaScript is the language behind complicated Web sites and Web apps such as Google Docs and Facebook. IonMonkey has now been packaged into the "nightly" version of Firefox 18 for hardcore developers; that version is scheduled to become the mainstream version of the browser early in 2013.

Google launched an open source course building web application for the growing list of K-12 and big-name universities developing online classes.

The barebones website is a lightweight way to bring course material online, track student engagement (with web traffic and surveys), and evaluate performance. “We want to use this launch to show that Google believes it can contribute to technology in education,” says Google’s Director of Research, Peter Norvig.''