Getting Ready for PHP 7.2

PHP 7.2 is planned to be released on 30th November 2017. And it comes with two new security features in the core, several smaller improvements and some language legacy clean-ups. In the article, I will describe what the improvements and changes are. I read the RFCs, discussions on internals and PRs on Github, so you …

Spark: A Typeface for Creating Sparklines in Text Without Code

Spark is a typeface for creating sparklines in text. It uses OpenType’s contextual alternates and requires no Javascript, though it does require a modern-ish browser that can make use of OpenType features in text. Spark data needs to be formatted as comma-separated values, with curly brackets at both ends of the set, e.g., {30,60,90}. You …

Detox: E2E Testing in React Native

High velocity native mobile development requires us to adopt continuous integration workflows, which means our reliance on manual QA has to drop significantly. Detox tests your mobile app while it’s running in a real device/simulator, interacting with it just like a real user. Here’s a sample test for a login screen: describe(‘Login flow’, () => …

Upgrades for Google Maps Street View

Google is rolling out upgraded cars with upgraded camera rigs to capture Street View imagery. The new camera rig will help capture photos that are clearer, higher in resolution, and more vivid in color. Like the old design, the rig will attach to a vehicle’s roof, but the smaller ball on top now features just …

DolphinAttack: Hacking Voice Assistants with Inaudible Voice Commands

About a year ago it came to my attention that voice assistants such as Siri can lead to easily exploitable security issues. As voice assistants are not aware who is talking to them, it doesn’t matter if it’s you or your neighbour shouting “Unlock the door” at ‘m … Now a team from Zhejiang University …

The (fictitious) adventure of learning the next big framework

Installing all the things! On learning a new framework, and having to install a gazillion things for starters, and then eventually seeing it not work at all: I just want to write a bit of code and make a simple app,” Roger thought. It shouldn’t be this hard. Still, he didn’t quit. He cut and …

Monitoring for the encrypted web with “Oh Dear!”

Because there’s more to HTTPs than just monitoring for certificate expiration dates. Next to SSL Certificate Expirations, Oh Dear! also scans for Mixed Content, Revoked (Intermediate) Certificates, the use of bad or insecure ciphers, etc. Knowing that this service is built by Dries Vints, Freek Van der Herten, and Mattias Geniar tells me that this …