At the University of Taiwan, several researchers are bringing message encoding to the next plateau. Funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, under the “Aiming for the Top University” (sic) program, two researchers have uncovered a way to hide secret messages in the revision log of Wikipedia. Their findings are detailed in the paper “A New Data Hiding Method via Revision History Records on Collaborative Writing Platforms.”
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One of the interesting differences between Linux and Windows is in the file permission structure and management. While both operating systems are able to conceptually handle the same set of file management scenarios, they implement those permissions in different ways.
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It’s often useful to import Excel files directly into an ASP.NET web application in order to simplify data entry. Excel makes it easier to manipulate data, and has far better integration with other apps than most web grids. As a result, integrating a web application with Excel lets users leverage the best features of a spreadsheet software, while taking advantage of the RDBMS and business logic in the web application.
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Each virtual server instance in Amazon is secured by a unique file, called the PEM Key Pair. This file needs to be saved onto the client computer in order to access and maintain the cloud server. Unfortunately, these keys can occasionally be lost, such as during a hard drive crash or when switching software vendors.
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Years ago, during the advent of free and open-source software, most developers joined the movement purely for the fun of it. They wanted to make a difference in the world – build a free alternative to a paid package, and reduce the grip of large, profit-focused corporations on the software world. Out of these glorious sentiments came the GPL – hallmarked as the license to end all licenses – the stamp of approval from the open source community.
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A new technology developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and IBM is taking the Enterprise Cloud to new heights. Codenamed Seagull, the cloud management software is capable of improving cloud performance during peak usage “bursts”, when a large number of users simultaneously access cloud applications.
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After a long hiatus from open source productivity software, I am again giving OpenOffice a shot. My home laptop started with an old vanilla install of XP, and out of installation convenience, I have been using open source software as opposed to the usual higher-end commercial packages. Below are a few of my thoughts and suggestions for others undertaking the same experiment.
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In a scenario that several years ago was difficult to imagine, Microsoft is offering its most popular brand – the Windows operating system – free on mobile devices under 9 inches. This is primarily in response to its negligible smart phone market share and inability to compete with Apple and Android. The fascinating corollary question is – how long will it take before the iconic Windows brand will be completely free on the desktop as well?
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When developing web applications, it is sometimes necessary to capture and replicate a particular request in order to debug and fix a problem. This is especially true when integrating with third-party applications, where it can be challenging and time-consuming to reproduce a specific scenario. If the errors are sporadic, capturing all relevant data to a file will allow the developer to review the log afterward to match the incident time with the suspect form parameters.
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When integrating PayPal payment processing into a web application, one of the common errors is “SSL: Connection Reset By Peer.” This cryptic error message can be challenging to fix without the correct set of headers.
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