November 2018 Summaries

A new private VPN called Outline was created to address the issue of government surveillance and data security for journalists, activists, and whistleblowers. The VPN is designed to be easy to use, secure, and resistant to censorship. It uses a combination of protocols, including Shadowsocks, to encrypt internet traffic and make it difficult to detect. Outline also allows users to create their own private VPN in just three easy steps, making it accessible to those with limited technical ability. The VPN's simplicity and security features were designed to empower individuals who are disproportionately vulnerable to online attacks due to their work on exposing corruption and promoting social change.

The DigitalOcean community team created Hacktoberfest, an annual program that aims to inspire open source contributions. The first year had 676 participants who completed the challenge, receiving rewards such as stickers and T-shirts. Five years later, the event has grown significantly, with 46,088 completions out of 106,582 sign-ups. This milestone marks a global community movement with shared values and passion for giving back. The program has been supported by partners like GitHub and Twilio, and its impact is evident in real stories of open source creation from various developer communities. In-person gatherings took place around the world, fostering connections among participants. The event also celebrates diversity and inclusivity, promoting a culture that builds together to make the world a better place. Despite some challenges with spam, the community remains committed to giving back, and the organizers look forward to seeing what participants will build all year long.

The author of this text is discussing how comparing strings using the `==` operator can be inefficient, especially when case sensitivity is not a concern. They introduce a simple optimization by removing the first two loops in the string comparison function and instead comparing each character in each position, with a fallback to converting runes to lowercase if they don't match. This approach reduces the time complexity from O(n) to O(min(n, m)) where n and m are the lengths of the strings being compared. The author also compares this optimized solution with the built-in `strings.EqualFold` function in Go, which achieves similar results but is more efficient in practice. The article concludes that even small optimizations like this one can make a significant difference in the performance of software applications, especially when they are implemented from the beginning rather than as a last-minute fix.

Hollie Haggans, from DigitalOcean, announced that their global startup program, Hatch, has reached a major milestone by turning two. Since its launch, the program has partnered with over 400 incubators and accelerators globally to provide support to over 2,000 startups. Hatchers have spun up over 20 million Droplets, which are digital machines for running applications on DigitalOcean's cloud platform, from 92 countries. The community at the heart of Hatch is crucial in continually improving the program, with feedback received from members such as stress-testing new business ideas and feeling supported by a community on a similar journey. To celebrate this milestone, DigitalOcean has created a platform for founders to share their experiences and discuss their companies, including events like the Hatch Founders' Circles and Expert Office Hours. The online Slack Community also provides a space for founders from all over the world to connect and help each other reach their goals.