Simon Willison’s Weblog

Never store passwords in a database! The reddit.com developers just learnt this the hard way. It might be time to change some of your passwords.

# 16th December 2006, 12:01 am / reddit, security

Why do so many reddit users hate java? The answers provide a good overview as to why Java has fallen out of favour with the alpha-hacker crowd.

# 15th December 2006, 2:20 pm / java, reddit

[Python-3000] Refactoring tool available. Guido’s initial work on a tool for converting Python 2.x code to Python 3K.

# 15th December 2006, 2:19 pm / guido-van-rossum, python

’National interest’ halts arms corruption inquiry. “It has been necessary to balance the need to maintain the rule of law against the wider public interest.”

# 15th December 2006, 2:09 pm / law, politics, scandal, uk

Abusing Amazon images (via) Amazon have an amazingly flexible API for generating and modifying product images.

# 14th December 2006, 7:38 pm / amazon, api

Google’s own cornershop. Google groups has an undocumented API for generating rounded corners.

# 14th December 2006, 7:34 pm / api, google

Real-World Passwords. Random passwords phished from MySpace are surprisingly decent.

# 14th December 2006, 2:14 pm / bruce-schneier, myspace, passwords, phishing, security

Curse launches with Django platform. Handles 500k visits/hour!

# 14th December 2006, 3:02 am / curse, django, scaling

Battery Expansion. In which James Duncan Davidson’s MacBook Pro battery goes critical.

# 13th December 2006, 11:56 am / battery, james-duncan-davidson, macos

Statement Functions. Smart workaround for the lack of multi-line lambdas in Python.

# 12th December 2006, 7:08 pm / lambda, python

Making GWT Better. Explains the philosophy behind GWT. It’s all about the tools!

# 12th December 2006, 5:53 pm / google, gwt, javascript, philosophy

GWT 1.3 Release Candidate is 100% Open Source. At least you can see how the code generator works now.

# 12th December 2006, 5:50 pm / google, gwt, javascript, open-source

Russian squirrel pack “kills dog” (via) “The little beasts are agitated because they have nothing to eat”.

# 12th December 2006, 1:59 pm / squirrels

100% Python SCGI implementation. SCGI is like FastCGI but simpler.

# 12th December 2006, 1:37 pm / python, scgi

How many taps in a URL? Designing URLs for entry on a mobile phone.

# 12th December 2006, 12:28 pm / cameronmarlow, mobile, urls

Fletcher Capstan Table: Dinner Party Transformer. Best. Table. Evah.

# 12th December 2006, 8:59 am / table, woodwork

A General Theory of Programming Language Relativity. Functional languages have clearer levels of indirection.

# 12th December 2006, 8:56 am / functional, programming

Agile Development -or- How to name a religion. Clever language trick: If you’re not doing agile, you’re “not agile”.

# 12th December 2006, 8:54 am / agile, jargon

Java SE 6 Released. “Script engines” (like JavaScript, Jython and JRuby) become a first class citizen.

# 12th December 2006, 8:48 am / java, javascript, jruby, jython

Stemtags is back, thanks to Camping. Nice example of a throw-away single script web app,

# 10th December 2006, 8:51 pm / camping, matt-biddulph, ruby

xkcd.com/verizon/ (via) The xkcd.com response to Verizon’s appalling maths.

# 10th December 2006, 1:12 pm / funny, verizon, xkcd

Myspace.com Trojaned Navigation Menu. Replace the “Home” link with a link to a phishing page.

# 8th December 2006, 4:41 pm / myspace, phishing

DarwiinRemote (via) Software for communicating with a Wii Remote from your Mac.

# 8th December 2006, 4:34 pm / macos, wii

WiiSaber. From the genius that brought you MacSabre.

# 8th December 2006, 4:33 pm / macos, macsabre, wii

A conversation with Jon Udell about his new job with Microsoft. Jon wants to bridge the gap between the alpha geeks and the mainstream.

# 8th December 2006, 2:16 pm / jon-udell, microsoft

python-cluster. Fantastic interface design—pass a list and a function and you’re done.

# 7th December 2006, 5:19 pm / algorithms, python

The Architecture of Mailinator. 3 million e-mails a day on a 2GHz server with 1GB of RAM.

# 7th December 2006, 3:11 pm / mailinator, scaling

Marksman Called In To Kill Kingstons Pigeons (via) Best letters-to-the-editor I’ve seen in ages.

# 7th December 2006, 11:50 am / funny, pigeons

Microsoft versus FOSS Configuration Management. Why the Free Software world’s source control works and Vista’s apparently doesn’t.

# 7th December 2006, 9:28 am / microsoft, open-source, sourcecontrol

notes.natbat.net. Nat’s been blogging up a storm recently.

# 7th December 2006, 12:52 am / blogging, natalie-downe