What Java Developers Know About Compatibility, And Why This Matters

Real-world programs are neither monolithic nor static -- they are constructed using platform and third party libraries, and both programs and libraries continuously evolve in response to change pressure. In case of the Java language, rules defined in the Java Language and Java Virtual Machine Specifications define when library evolution is safe. These rules distinguish between three types of compatibility - binary, source and behavioural. We claim that some of these rules are counter intuitive and not well-understood by many developers. We present the results of a survey where we quizzed developers about their understanding of the various types of compatibility. 414 developers responded to our survey. We find that while most programmers are familiar with the rules of source compatibility, they generally lack knowledge about the rules of binary and behavioural compatibility. This can be problematic when organisations switch from integration builds to technologies that require dynamic linking, such as OSGi. We have assessed the gravity of the problem by studying how often linkage-related problems are referenced in issue tracking systems, and find that they are common

Riley v. California and the Stickiness Principle

In Fourth Amendment decisions, different concepts, facts and assumptions about reality are often tethered together by vocabulary and fact, creating a ‘Stickiness Principle.’ In particular, form and function historically were considered indistinguishable, not as separate factors. For example, “containers” carried things, “watches” told time, and “phones” were used to make voice calls. Advancing technology, though, began to fracture this identity and the broader Stickiness Principle. In June 2014, Riley v. California and its companion case, United States v. Wurie, offered the Supreme Court an opportunity to begin untethering form and function and dismantling the Stickiness Principle. Riley presented the question of whether cell phone searches incident to a lawful arrest were constitutional. The Court, which had clung to pre-digital concepts such as physical trespass well into the twenty-first century, appeared ready to explore how technology is reshaping historically understood conceptions of privacy. From a broader perspective, the case offers an initial step in reconciling pre-digital rules based on outdated spatial conceptions of physical things with the changing realities of a technology driven world

Exercise as Labour: Quantified Self and the Transformation of Exercise into Labour

The recent increase in the use of digital self-tracking devices has given rise to a range of relations to the self often discussed as quantified self (QS). In popular and academic discourse, this development has been discussed variously as a form of narcissistic self-involvement, an advanced expression of panoptical self-surveillance and a potential new dawn for e-health. This article proposes a previously un-theorised consequence of this large-scale observation and analysis of human behaviour; that exercise activity is in the process of being reconfigured as labour. QS will be briefly introduced, and reflected on, subsequently considering some of its key aspects in relation to how these have so far been interpreted and analysed in academic literature. Secondly, the analysis of scholars of “digital labour” and “immaterial labour” will be considered, which will be discussed in relation to what its analysis of the transformations of work in contemporary advanced capitalism can offer to an interpretation of the promotion and management of the self-tracking of exercise activities. Building on this analysis, it will be proposed that a thermodynamic model of the exploitation of potential energy underlies the interest that corporations have shown in self-tracking and that “gamification” and the promotion of an entrepreneurial selfhood is the ideological frame that informs the strategy through which labour value is extracted without payment. Finally, the potential theoretical and political consequences of these insights will be considered

Playpen, the NIT, and Rule 41(b): Electronic “Searches” for Those Who Do Not Wish to be Found

In 2015, the FBI executed a massive online sting to catch users of child pornography websites using a special program, the Network Investigative Technique (NIT). One search warrant issued from a magistrate in Virginia allowed the FBI to deploy computer code on suspect computers across the nation. This article examines the differing federal circuit analysis regarding whether the Virginia magistrate had jurisdiction before and after the recent amendment to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and if using the NIT over the internet even counts as a search under the Fourth Amendment

Mining Fix Patterns for FindBugs Violations

In this paper, we first collect and track a large number of fixed and unfixed violations across revisions of software. The empirical analyses reveal that there are discrepancies in the distributions of violations that are detected and those that are fixed, in terms of occurrences, spread and categories, which can provide insights into prioritizing violations. To automatically identify patterns in violations and their fixes, we propose an approach that utilizes convolutional neural networks to learn features and clustering to regroup similar instances. We then evaluate the usefulness of the identified fix patterns by applying them to unfixed violations. The results show that developers will accept and merge a majority (69/116) of fixes generated from the inferred fix patterns. It is also noteworthy that the yielded patterns are applicable to four real bugs in the Defects4J major benchmark for software testing and automated repair.Comment: Accepted for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineerin

2014 Tracking Report: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Grantmaking by U.S. Foundations

The 2014 Tracking Report (2016) explores the scope and character of foundation funding for LGBTQ issues in the calendar year 2014. The report analyzes 4,552 grants from 313 foundations, making it the most comprehensiveness assessment of LGBTQ funding available.In 2013, funding for LGBTQ issues reached a record high of $153.2 million. In particular, there were significant increases in HIV/AIDS funding, support for the U.S. South, and grantmaking benefiting trans communities.However, there are an unfortunate number of sobering statistics behind the promising headlines. Despite our most sophisticated survey of philanthropic entities to date, the report finds that not since 2009 have so few funders supported LGBTQ issues.For the first time, the 2014 Tracking Report features an in-depth analysis of funding by 100 of the largest foundations in the United States. The report finds that more than 6 in 10 made no LGBTQ-specific grants in 2014

Implementation and Development of Vehicle Tracking and Immobilization Technologies

Since the mid-1980s, limited use has been made of vehicle tracking using satellite communications to mitigate the security and safety risks created by the highway transportation of certain types of hazardous materials. However, vehicle-tracking technology applied to safety and security is increasingly being researched and piloted, and it has been the subject of several government reports and legislative mandates. At the same time, the motor carrier industry has been investing in and implementing vehicle tracking, for a number of reasons, particularly the increase in efficiency achieved through better management of both personnel (drivers) and assets (trucks or, as they are known, tractors; cargo loads; and trailers). While vehicle tracking and immobilization technologies can play a significant role in preventing truck-borne hazardous materials from being used as weapons against key targets, they are not a & ”silver bullet.” However, the experience of DTTS and the FMCSA and TSA pilot projects indicates that when these technologies are combined with other security measures, and when the information they provide is used in conjunction with information supplied outside of the tracking system, they can provide defensive value to any effort to protect assets from attacks using hazmat as a weapon. This report is a sister publication to MTI Report 09-03, Potential Terrorist Uses of Highway-Borne Hazardous Materials. That publication was created in response to the Department of Homeland Security´s request that the Mineta Transportation Institute´s National Transportation Security Center of Excellence provide research and insights regarding the security risks created by the highway transportation of hazardous materials