code

For four years, Google has brought together some of the best open-source projects and most promising young programmers in its Summer of Code.

Now in its fifth year, Summer of Code 2009 promises to do the same, with a range of new countries and projects represented.

Of the 70 countries involved, here are the ones with the most students: United States (212), India (101), Germany (55), Canada (44), and Brazil (43). And for the first time, student programmers from the Dominican Republic, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Nigeria will also participate.

Summer of Code has been an excellent way for Google to … Read more

Conficker, which was set to activate on April 1 but failed to cause any problems, isn't the first virus to be programmed to take action on a certain date or time. Experts believe that worms with a trigger date can lead to panic and hype. Here are some others:

Jerusalem One of the first known viruses, dubbed Jerusalem, was first detected in the Israeli city in October 1987 and targeted at DOS systems. It was programmed to delete programs on Friday 13th, except in the year 1987.

Michelangelo The Michelangelo virus, first discovered in 1991, was triggered to launch … Read more

Many open-source projects would love to offer a hosted version of their products, but lack the resources to be able to do so. SourceForge, the world's largest repository of open-source projects, is therefore stepping into the void to host open-source applications.

The company actually announced this new program in October 2008, initially with just three applications: LimeSurvey, MediaWiki, and phpBB. Since then, SourceForge has added another half-dozen or so applications, and plans to grow the service further.

In a conversation I had on Thursday with Ross Turk, SourceForge community manager, I suggested that this could be a way for … Read more

What a difference a year makes. In the case of CodePlex, Microsoft's open-source code-hosting site, a year has seen Microsoft make serious progress toward real open-source savvy. The site has more than 120,000 registered users and 7,500 projects.

I've noted for years that open source should be an opportunity for Microsoft, not a threat. Windows, for example, should be the world's biggest open-source platform, but it's not, and Microsoft has only itself to blame for this.

But perhaps the rising popularity of CodePlex can help change this. The numbers, as called out by Microsoft's Peter Galli, … Read more

Security experts from U.S. government agencies, multinational companies, and academia have released a list of what they consider to be the 25 most critical errors made while coding software.

Participants from more than 30 organizations worked together to agree on the 25 "most dangerous" errors, the SANS Institute said in a statement on Monday. They included experts from the U.S. National Security Agency, the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US-Cert), Mitre, and the Sans Institute, as well as from Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle.

The list was released so programmers can check their code for the … Read more

As Microsoft's Peter Galli recently noted, the open-source Web content management project DotNetNuke has moved to Microsoft's CodePlex, citing CodePlex's "reliable and dependable infrastructure, cleanest user experience, most advanced project administration tools, and highest commitment to future innovation" as its rationale.

This is the first move by a high-profile open-source project to Microsoft's open-source code hosting site. Is it a one-off example of a sell-out, or a harbinger of more movement to Microsoft's open-source site?

It's too soon to tell, but I suspect this move signals the open-source community's gradual thaw … Read more

Google's free code-hosting Web site for developers is being used to distribute malware, a security researcher said on Friday.

Google Code is a place where programmers can host projects and code. Along with the legitimate code are links to fake videos that direct users to download a missing codec, said Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee Avert Labs. The codecs turn out instead to be password-stealing Trojan horses and programs geared toward stealing financial information for identity fraud, he said.

"They're using it as a way to send out links or as a place to … Read more

Charles Schwab improved its online trading platform Tuesday with the introduction of new features for its site, StreetSmart.com. According to the investment firm, clients will now have real-time performance reporting for closed positions, new short-selling tools, and more order types. The app will also feature new tabs for realized gain and loss data and information on shorting securities. The updates are available now on the Schwab service.

Privus Mobile, a company that provides mobile calling services, announced Tuesday that its Caller ID app is now available through Handmark stores, as well as mobile stores that offer apps for Windows … Read more

Microsoft on Tuesday released its December 2008 security bulletin. The "critical" bulletins affect Windows GDI, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and Windows Search. The "important" updates affect SharePoint and Windows Media Components.

Microsoft is including within each bulletin an "exploitability index" to help system administrators prioritize the patches. All Microsoft security patches for both Windows and Office software are available via Microsoft Update or via the individual bulletins detailed below.

MS08-070: Critical

Exploitability index: 1-2. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately. Titled "Vulnerabilities in Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime Extended Files (ActiveX … Read more