Augmenting American Fuzzy Lop to Increase the Speed of Bug Detection

Whitebox fuzz testing is a vital part of the software testing process in the software development life cycle (SDLC). It is used for bug detection and security vulnerability checking as well. But current tools lack the ability to detect all the bugs and cover the entire code under test in a reasonable time. This study will explore some of the various whitebox fuzzing techniques and tools (AFL, SAGE, Driller, etc.) currently in use followed by a discussion of their strategies and the challenges facing them. One of the most popular state-of-the-art fuzzers, American Fuzzy Lop (AFL) will be discussed in detail and the modifications proposed to reduce the time required by it while functioning under QEMU emulation mode will be put forth. The study found that the AFL fuzzer can be sped up by injecting an intermediary layer of code in the Tiny Code Generator (TCG) that helps in translating blocks between the two architectures being used for testing. The modified version of AFL was able to find a mean 1.6 crashes more than the basic AFL running in QEMU mode. The study will then recommend future research avenues in the form of hybrid techniques to resolve the challenges faced by the state of the art fuzzers and create an optimal fuzzing tool. The motivation behind the study is to optimize the fuzzing process in order to reduce the time taken to perform software testing and produce robust, error-free software products

Breakdown in the broker state: The Cio in southern Nevada during World War Ii

During World War II, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) fought a bitter jurisdictional dispute at Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI), a defense plant in southern Nevada. While the CIO concentrated on organizing African-American workers, the AFL colluded with plant managers and conservative politicians, including Senator Patrick A. McCarran, in an effort to destroy the industrial union. Following the CIO\u27s victory in a representation election sponsored by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the AFL and its allies used the newly-enacted Frey Amendment, a piece of legislation which sharply limited the Board\u27s authority to hear certain cases, to deny the CIO bargaining rights at Basic Magnesium. The neutralization of the NLRB also rendered the Fair Employment Practices Commission and the National War Labor Board powerless, thus revealing the weakness of the national broker state when confronted with determined local resistance

Global positioning systems in the AFL : worthwhile or waste of time?

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in the Australian Football League (AFL) are the big-ticket item that sees clubs trying to gain any competitive advantage over their opposition that they can. This paper explores whether the current application of GPS by clubs is worthwhile or a waste of time from three core perspectives: technical, organisational and personal. Issues include poor data storage and analysis, inaccurate units, lack of appropriate business processes in place, and resistance to use. Although many of these issues can be addressed through improved technology, resolving the organisational and personal issues will require a change in mindset to ensure the use of GPS in the AFL is a worthwhile endeavour. The paper concludes that the current use of GPS devices in the AFL is a waste of time.<br /

Global Unions, Local Power: The New Spirit of Transnational Labor Organizing

[Excerpt] This book is about two parallel stories. First, it relates the account of the most aggressive campaign ever waged by a global union federation (GUF), a years-long effort of private security guard unions to organize against Group4 Securicor (G4S), the world\u27s largest private employer after Walmart. What began as an isolated battle in the United States blossomed into a worldwide struggle for global unionism impacting hundreds of thou­ sands of workers from over twenty countries. But the global effort also gave rise to deep local struggles. Consequently, the narrative moves among dif­ ferent scales of action, from the global arena, to the national-level context, to the local union office. Throughout the campaign, workers in different places won wage increases, union recognition, benefits, an end to abusive workplace discrimination, and, most importantly, a greater degree of control over their employer\u27s business model. In the United States, security guard union density (8 percent as of late 2012) is now slightly higher than the national private-sector average, and the campaign settlement provides the union with a dearer path to bring more workers into the fold. Rarely have global campaigns meant more than superficial changes in workers\u27 lives-this struggle set a new standard. The second story describes a transition to a new spirit of transnational labor activism. The word spirit implies a shifting idea about how labor should best confront the problems posed by global capital. In a context of rising corporate power and declining or unenforceable worker rights (publicly enforceable claims), many of labor\u27s tried and true strategies have proven wholly ineffective. In response, since the early 1970s unions have engaged in what I call governance struggles, a panoply of strategies to subordinate the rules-based logic of private companies to democratic oversight by workers and their unions. The significance of the fight against G4S is the complex and contradictory ways in which those gains at the global level were articulated onto the local context, enhancing worker mobilization and transforming local union movements. Most global union campaigns seek to assert universal labor standards and core values within a given company. But the inability to transfer any gains to the local context has often meant that workers\u27 lives remain unchanged. Rather than insist on the incompatibility of global and local levels of activism, the findings in this book suggest a paradox—effective global unionism requires reciprocity with local actors. The conclusions also permit cautious optimism about the prospects for authentic labor internationalism where others have asserted an overriding pessimism (see Burawoy 2010). The question therefore posed here is simple: How can global unions build local power

Global Positioning Systems in the AFL: Worthwhile or Waste of Time?

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in the Australian Football League (AFL) are the big-ticket item that sees clubs trying to gain any competitive advantage over their opposition that they can. This paper explores whether the current application of GPS by clubs is worthwhile or a waste of time from three core perspectives: technical, organisational and personal. Issues include poor data storage and analysis, inaccurate units, lack of appropriate business processes in place, and resistance to use. Although many of these issues can be addressed through improved technology, resolving the organisational and personal issues will require a change in mindset to ensure the use of GPS in the AFL is a worthwhile endeavour. The paper concludes that the current use of GPS devices in the AFL is a waste of time

The Transformation of Australian Football: The Impact of Business on the Sport Field

This article interprets the Australian Football League's (AFL) transformation from a game to an entertainment business through the theory and concepts of Pierre Bourdieu. In particular, Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus enable us to understand how the sport field has merged with the economic and media fields and how the dominant business characteristics of the sport field influence the way those participating in the field act, make decisions and prioritise. Likewise, we can interpret how the actions of the field's participants reinforce the dominant characteristics of the field. In practical terms, using the AFL as a case study, the analysis highlights how neoliberal, business ideals characterise the sport field and how the actions of the field's participants reflect this. Importantly, this article draws on insights from the fans who provide their thoughts on the changing face of the AFL, and in particular, the increased role of the media and economic fields in the sport field