Four short links: 5 February 2010

Public Domain, Science Code, Bad Crypto, Javascript Grids

  1. The Public Domain Manifesto — eloquent argument in favour of the public domain. (via BoingBoing)
  2. Clear Climate Code — project to write and maintain software for climate science, with an emphasis on clarity and correctness. What a wonderful way for coders who aren’t scientists to contribute to open and better science. (via the interesting OKFN blog)
  3. Don’t Hash SecretsOne area of secure protocol development that seems to consistently yield poor design choices is the use of hash functions. What I’m going to say is not 100% correct, but it is on the conservative side of correct, so if you follow the rule, you (probably) can’t go wrong. You might be considered overly paranoid, but as they say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you. So here it is: Don’t hash secrets. Never. No, sorry, I know you think your case is special but it’s not. No. Stop it. Just don’t do it. You’re making the cryptographers cry.
  4. Javascript Grid Editors — nice wrapup of available Javascript editable grid components, divided into “data driven”, “light edit”, and “spreadsheet”. (via joshua on Delicious)
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