Category: Software and Programming

New Scientist: Article: Software bug raises spectre of ‘JPEG of death’.
Microsoft pushed a Windows update on this about a week ago. Now, Slashdot reports that someone actually created a sample JPEG-based exploit (an image that contains a virus that installs remote access software on your PC when read by vulnerable software).

Some geek links:

• GNU Screen: an introduction and beginner’s tutorial (kuro5hin.org):
  Screen is best described as a terminal multiplexer. Using it, you can run any number of console-based applications–interactive command shells, curses-based applications, text editors, etc.–within a single terminal.
• Ten CSS tricks you may not know (evolt.org) – and commentary (corrected and improved!) by Tantek Çelik.
• I have a wodge of links about modeling trees in databases which I’ve just posted to my internal work blog, and fancy reproducing here, to bore everyone:
• Here’s an interesting and relevant article about Relational Modeling of Biological Data: Trees and Graphs,
  which actually discusses modelling GO in a database, covers both the
  Adjacency List and Nested Sets representations of trees, and in general
  looks very relevant. The only drawback (for my work) is that he uses MySQL in his
  examples.
• Phil Greenspun explains how Oracle’s proprietary SQL extensions can represent trees (the connect by prior … clause).
• A long formal discussion of handling trees in databases. Has complicated functions for adding, moving and deleting subtrees.
• The same web site also has links to a series of articles about representing trees using nested sets, by Joe Celko, and here’s another article by Celko about them.
• Trees in SQL: Nested Sets and Materialized Path
  by Vadim Tropashko (who works in Oracle) is an opinionated discussion
  of the topic, the bulk of which focuses on presenting a complicated
  (but clever) way to bypass the shortcomings of nested sets.