Luis Rodríguez, CTO of Xygeni.io, joins host Robert Blumen for a discussion of the recently thwarted attempt to insert a backdoor in the SSH (Secure Shell) daemon. OpenSSH is a popular implementation of the protocol used in major Linux distributions for authentication over a network. Luis describes how a backdoor in a supporting library was recently discovered and removed before the package was published to stable releases of the Linux distros. The conversation explores the mechanism of the attack through modifying a function table in the runtime; how the attack was inserted during the build; how the attack was carefully staged in a series of modifications to the lz compression library; the nature of “Jia Tan,” the entity who committed the changes to the open source project; social engineering that the entity used to gain the trust of the open source community; what forensics indicates about the location of the entity; hypotheses about whether criminal or state actors backed the entity; how the attack was detected; implications for other open source projects; why traditional methods for detecting exploits would not have helped find this; and lessons learned by the community.

Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.

Goran Petrovic, a Staff Software Engineer at Google, speaks with host Gregory M. Kapfhammer about how to perform mutation testing on large software systems. They explore the design and implementation of the mutation testing infrastructure at Google, discussing the strategies for ensuring that it enhances both developer productivity and software quality. They also investigate the findings from experiments that quantify how mutation testing enables software engineers at Google to write better tests that can detect defects and increase confidence in software correctness. Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.

Palit's RTX 2080 Super Gaming Pro OC is a new variant with a triple-slot, triple-fan cooler, to replace their dual-fan designs. It delivers solid temperatures and noise levels. At $720, the card is priced very reasonably, yet includes a factory overclock, idle-fan-stop, and backplate.... [PCSTATS]

TerraMaster�s TD2 Thunderbolt 3 is a 2-bay DAS (Direct-Attached Storage) drive aimed at professional users and, as the name suggests comes with a pair of Thunderbolt 3 interfaces. TerraMaster�s TD2 Thunderbolt 3 looks just like a 2-bay NAS with the obvious exception that the TD2 comes with a very useful carrying handle. The enclosure is built from ... [PCSTATS]

" The mainstream PCIe Gen 3x4 P34A60 mainstream SSD from Silicon Power does offer good all-around performance and does not drop to very slow speeds when the cache fills up completely, as we could notice from the HD Tune Pro write test. When copying large files continuously to the drive, we haven�t seen drops of under 90MB/s, which is great for a TL... [PCSTATS]

Want to know the kind of performance you will see at 1440p on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER FE when it is overclocked? Check out our gaming review.... [PCSTATS]

At AMD Financial Analyst Day 2020, Mark Papermaster unveiled the AMD computing roadmap for 2020 and beyond. Check it out!... [PCSTATS]

The Galax RTX 2070 Super HOF 10 Year comes with a large overclock on both GPU and memory, it's actually the fastest RTX 2070 we ever tested, almost matching RTX 2080. Thanks to a large power limit increase and 16 Gbps memory chips from Samsung, manual overclocking works great, too.... [PCSTATS]

If you're tight on cash but want a really good monitor, this is the article for you. For putting together this buying guide we narrowed down our options to displays that give you the best experience for the lowest possible price.... [PCSTATS]

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the effort that became the Atom feed format. It all began on June 16, 2003, with a blog post from Apache Software Foundation contributor Sam Ruby asking for feedback about what constitutes a well-formed blog entry.

The development of RSS 2.0 had been an unplanned hopscotch from a small group at Netscape to a smaller one at UserLand Software, but Atom was a barn raising. Hundreds of software developers, web publishers and technologists gathered for a discussion in the abstract that led to a concrete effort to build a well-specified syndication format and associated publishing API that could become Internet standards. Work was done on a project wiki that grew to over 1,500 pages. Everything was up for a vote, including a plebiscite on choosing a name that ballooned into a four-month-long bike shed discussion in which Pie, Echo, Wingnut, Feedcast, Phaistos and several dozen alternatives finally, mercifully, miraculously lost out to Atom.

The road map of the Atom wiki lists the people, companies and projects that jumped at the chance to create a new format for feeds. XML specification co-author Tim Bray wrote:

The time to write it all down and standardize it is not when you're first struggling to invent the technology. We now have aggregators and publishing systems and search engines and you-name-it, and I think the community collectively understands pretty well what you need, what you don't need, and what a good syntax looks like.

So, now's the time.

As someone whose only contribution to the project was voting on names, I think I was too quick to rule out Phaistos, a suggestion inspired by a clay disc produced by movable type before 1600 B.C. Comments on the wiki page proposing that monicker offer a sample of the name wars:

MikeBlumenthal: Does one of the great mysteries of antiquity, a document which, after almost 100 years of trying, is still a mystery not only as to its meaning but even as to its purpose, and which stands as a paragon of impenetrability, really fit as a name for an interoperability format?

Jayseae: Actually, the current state of RSS is pretty much a mystery -- why should this project be any different? I like the association with publishing -- though I'm not sure the pronunciation really flows. Perhaps it could be shortened somehow?

AsbjornUlsberg: Sorry, but I don't like it. We could just as gladly give the project any other Greek-sounding name, like Papadopolous.

Arising from all the chaos and debate, the Atom format became a beautifully specified IETF standard in 2005 edited by Mark Nottingham and Robert Sayre that's used today in millions of feeds. It is the most popular syndication format that's never argued about.

Everybody got that out of their system on the wiki.

Today is the 20th birthday of the RSS Advisory Board, the group that publishes the RSS specification. It was formed on July 18, 2003, when the copyright of the specification was transferred to Harvard University, which immediately released it under a Creative Commons license and deferred all matters related to RSS to the new board.

At the time of the board's launch, here's how the founding members described its purpose:

Is the advisory board a standards body?

No. It will not create new formats and protocols. It will encourage and help developers who wish to use RSS 2.0. Since the format is extensible, there are many ways to add to it, while remaining compatible with the RSS 2.0 specification. We will help people who wish to do so.

What does the advisory board actually do?

We answer questions, write tech notes, advocate for RSS, make minor changes to the spec per the roadmap, help people use the technology, maintain a directory of compatible applications, accept contributions from community members, and otherwise do what we can to help people and organizations be successful with RSS.

This remains the purpose 140 dog years later. In addition to maintaining the current RSS specification, we are the official publisher of Netscape's RSS 0.90 and RSS 0.91 specifications and Yahoo's Media RSS specification.

We also offer an RSS Validator and RSS Best Practices Profile containing our recommendations for how to implement the format.

There's a resurgence of interest in RSS today as people discover the exhilarating freedom of the open web. Some of this is due to dissatisfaction with deleterious changes at big social sites like Twitter and Reddit. Some is due to satisfaction with Mastodon, a decentralized social network owned by nobody with more than one million active users. As long as there are social media gatekeepers using engagement algorithms to decide what you can and can't see, there will be a need to get around them. When someone offers an RSS or Atom feed and you subscribe to it in a reader, you get their latest updates without manipulation.

Here's to another 20 years of feeding readers, unlocking gates, helping developers adopt RSS and repeatedly getting asked the question, "Can an RSS item contain more than one enclosure?"

As Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastate the Southeastern U.S., Antonia Juhasz articulates a just vision for how to fix our climate.

The Heritage Foundation has a plan to rewrite the rules of government under a second Trump term, and they’ve helpfully laid it all out for public viewing.

A new report by Insurrection Exposed prepares voters on what to expect from Trump’s next effort to steal an election.

Instead of Project 2025's white supremacist vision for voting rights, Progress 2025 envisions universal early voting, a national federal holiday and more.

In response to Project 2025’s regressive political agenda, YES! has launched this hub for the big ideas—and grassroots methods—that offer solutions for democracy.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has promised a dystopian vision for LGBTQ rights. Its ideas are consistent with authoritarian, Christian nationalist, and white supremacist objectives. It aims to criminalize the existence

Instead of Project 2025’s harsh anti-immigrant policies, here’s what a progressive, human-centered vision for immigrant rights looks like.

Project 2025, created by the extremist right-wing Heritage Foundation, takes a colonialist position on U.S. influence at home and abroad. Its authors argue that too much public land is not

Project 2025, created by the extremist right-wing Heritage Foundation, fortifies the racist impact of policing by empowering the Department of Justice to focus on violent crime, despite the fact that

In the face of Project 2025’s dystopian vision for education, Ibram X Kendi lays out a progressive alternative for public education in the U.S.

A progressive alternative to Project 2025’s anti-tax, anti-worker economy includes worker protections and a strong social safety net.

Leaning into lineages of resilience and care can be a balm for election-related anxiety for LGBTQ people—and everyone.

La poeta Julie Quiroz ofrece un hechizo de solsticio de verano que celebra la nacimiento de la luz.

Instead of gutting Medicare and Medicaid, as Project 2025 envisions, here's what a holistic, collective approach to health care would look like.

Para los inmigrantes que enfrentan pérdidas desde lejos, el apoyo puede provenir de la comunidad, nuevos rituales y mejores políticas.

In an Election Day conversation, Serene Khader reflects on how women were mobilized by attacks on their bodily autonomy, and what post-election organizing can look like.

Beat the clock as you test yourself with our quiz to celebrate the end of the Olympics!

In a Champions League match between his team, Paris Saint Germain, and Real Sociedad, the French forward managed to run 100m in 10.9 seconds.

See how much you know about the Day of the Dead with our quiz.

Beyoncé joins Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga as a subject for serious academic study.

The new series is nearly here and we now know which ten famous faces will be going into the jungle. Meet all the stars set to star in this year's show - and let us know who you're most looking forward to seeing in action.

World leaders are expected to discuss a range of issues including how to limit long-term global temperature rises to 1.5C - a target set by the Paris Agreement.

It's almost time for Children in Need day! And we want to hear about YOUR plans...

Many schools across the UK will be marking Anti-bullying Week, but what is it all about?

Since the end of 2004, we have recorded how many entries we have in some of the sections of our site, which means that we can see how much new content we have created since then.

In 2007, we put the Language Articles and PDF Lesson Plans into databases and currently have 26, 31 and 116 entries respectively. These sections are growing fast as we have an additional contributor, Alex Case, who has been adding a lot, which we're very grateful for. There are a further 14 articles in the Members' Area.

In 2007, traffic continued to grow fast, so thank you to all of you for using the site. We hope that 2008 will see many improvements and additions.

Here's a comparison of some of the sections of the site now with 2007, the last time this sort of overview was done. As always, thanks to everyone who has contributed so much.

Here's a comparison of some of the sections of the site over the last year. As always, thanks to everyone who has contributed so much.

Title: Australian Rhyming Slang 2
Topic: Cockney Rhyming Slang
Level: Advanced
Information: Choose the correct answer.
Link: https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/570.html

Title: Idioms- Animals 2
Topic: Idioms
Level: Advanced
Information: Choose the correct answer.
Link: https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/573.html

Title: Parts of Speech 2
Topic: Parts of Speech
Level: Beginner
Information: Choose the correct answer.
Link: https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/575.html

Title: Phrasal Verbs - Take 2
Topic: Phrasal Verbs
Level: Intermediate
Information: Choose the correct answer.
Link: https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/581.html

Title: Idioms- Sport 2
Topic: Idioms
Level: Advanced
Information: Choose the correct answer.
Link: https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/583.html

The utility's five-year capital plan totals $63 billion, 80% of which will support investments in grid modernization and zero or lower-carbon emitting generation.

1st part | 2nd part | 3rd part The list of the next ten household circuit wirings: Double receptacle circuit with shared neutral wire (receptacles alternate circuits) Double receptacle small-appliance circuit with GFCIs & shared neutral wire Double receptacle small... Read more

The post 31 Common Household Circuit Wirings You Can Use For Your Home (2) appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

New Articles Entry: '12 learning vocabulary challenges' has just been added to the Articles area of UsingEnglish.com.

Part 200: AC metal-enclosed switchgear and controlgear for rated voltages above 1 kV and up to and including 52 kV Switchgears are important nodal points in modern power distribution. Correspondingly important is their reliable functioning, a clearly defined switching behavior... Read more

The post IEC 62271-200 – HV Switchgear And Controlgear appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

The protection of enclosures against ingress of dirt or against the ingress of water is defined in IEC529 (BSEN60529:1991). Conversely, an enclosure which protects equipment against ingress of particles will also protect a person from potential hazards within that enclosure,... Read more

The post IP Protection Degree (IEC 60529) Explained appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Continued from first part: Comparison of major grid failures in United States and around the world (part 1) On the International side, about 1/5 of the power outages (9 of 44) were not given a cause in the reports. A... Read more

The post Comparison of major power grid failures in US and around the world (2) appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.