Researchers from Georgia Tech have discovered an emerging class of C++ bugs, and Facebook has awarded them US$100,000 for their efforts.
The bugs are rooted in a new method for identifying “bad casting” vulnerabilities in C++ programs casted dynamically or statically at runtime. The researchers, who presented their findings at the USENIX Security ’15 conference, recommended combining both static and dynamic analysis to detect bad C++ type casts.
Intel reports better diversity
In the beginning of the year, Intel announced a US$300 million commitment to improve diversity within the company, and according to a recent report, the company is keeping its promise. In Intel’s Diversity in Technology 2015 Midyear report, the company revealed that 43.3% of hires this year in the U.S. were from underrepresented groups, just over the company’s 40% goal for 2015.
“I am extremely proud of our leadership on this important social issue,” wrote Brian M. Krzanich, CEO of Intel, in an open letter. “As with the formidable technology challenges we tackle at Intel, we’ve set aggressive goals, invested resources to improve, and established metrics to hold ourselves accountable. This engineering approach to problem-solving is how we achieve the impossible, year after year, and is a hallmark of our culture.
Google showcases experimental Android projects
Google is launching a new website to showcase inspiring Android projects, and to allow developers of all skill levels to share their experimental projects. Android Experiments is designed to show off the different ways Android can be used and interacted with.
“Android was created as an open and flexible platform, giving people more ways to come together to imagine and create,” wrote Roman Nurik, design advocate, and Richard The, engineer for Google’s Creative Lab, in a blog post. “This spirit of invention has allowed developers to push the boundaries of mobile development and has helped make Android the go-to platform for creative projects in more places—from phones, to tablets, to watches and beyond.”
Windows 10’s new contextual sensing APIs
Microsoft has announced new APIs for contextual sensing in Windows 10. The APIs are designed to help developers build apps that can improve consumers’ lives such as detecting whether or not the user is driving or walking, tracking fitness routines, and detecting a user’s presence.
“Using these APIs, you can anticipate customers’ needs and proactively deliver targeted, personalized and relevant content or services to enhance and simplify their lives,” wrote Rinku Sreedhar, senior program manager at Microsoft, in a blog post.
The APIs include new Activity Detection APIs, a pedometer, a Barometer API, and an Altimeter API.
Ember.js 2.0 released
Version 2.0 of Ember, the JavaScript Web application framework, is a nontraditional 2.0 release in that instead of adding new features, it primarily removes deprecated ones.
Ember.js 2.0 is what its developers are calling a “garbage collection” release, aligning Ember with JavaScript and ECMAScript 6, and moving more toward modules and a more stable codebase. The release removes several deprecated APIs such as Views, ReduceComputed and ArrayComputed, context shifting in templates, IE8 support, and legacy handlebars helpers. The full release notes are available here.
Visual Studio Code 0.7.0 released
Microsoft has released Visual Studio Code 0.7.0 with a wave of updates to programming language coverage, including Node.js app debugging, and language enhancements for JavaScript, JSON, PHP, Dockerfile and C#.
The release also updates VS Code’s documentation with an overview, an introduction to the editor itself, language details and runtime specifications. The editor also now features gulpfile auto detection with tasks.
