October 2010 Summaries

GitHub has introduced a new addition to its exclusive T-Shirt Family, following the success of their previous "fork you" and "all your rebase are belong to us" shirts. The latest offering is an American Apparel Ash Grey tee featuring a seven-color screen print on the front and a small GitHub logo on the back. GitHub emphasizes the quality of the shirt and encourages potential buyers to act quickly as supplies are limited. The announcement was made by Tom Preston-Werner, also known by his handle @mojombo.

A Firefox plugin called Firesheep has highlighted vulnerabilities in network security by enabling easy capture and exploitation of users' HTTP session cookies over insecure connections, which can lead to unauthorized account access on various services. GitHub was initially vulnerable to this type of session hijacking but has implemented a secure solution involving a second, secure cookie that is only sent over SSL requests, providing an additional layer of protection by ensuring that sidejacked session cookies cannot be used to access sensitive information. This secure cookie is a checksum of the user’s ID and password hash combined with a secret salt value, verified against subsequent SSL requests to confirm authentication. While GitHub has strengthened its defenses, the broader problem of sidejacking persists across many sites, leading to recommendations for users to encrypt all connections, with tools like SheepSafe offering solutions for secure browsing.

Basho, the creators of Riak, have transitioned to using GitHub as their primary platform for developing Riak and their other projects, such as Riak Search, webmachine, and rebar, rather than merely mirroring them there. This move, announced by Mark Phillips on the Riak mailing list, is motivated by GitHub's ability to enhance collaboration in open-source software development. Riak itself is a decentralized key/value store, and the shift to GitHub is expected to improve the collaborative process for these Erlang-based projects. Written by Risk Olson (@technoweenie).

A GitHub Drinkup event is scheduled for Tuesday, October 19th, at 20:00, taking place at Botequim Informal Leblon in Rio de Janeiro, where attendees can enjoy a beer and receive GitHub stickers. The location was selected with the help of someone named tapajos, and the announcement was written by Chris Wanstrath, also known as @defunkt. An update was made to fix translation errors in the original message.

GitHub representatives, including defunkt and schacon, will be participating in several conferences across South America in October, providing opportunities for attendees to meet them in person. The events they will attend include PyCon Argentina 2010 on October 15-16, with defunkt present, a GitHub Meetup in Rio de Janeiro on October 19 with further details to be announced, PyCon Brasil 2010 from October 21-23 attended by defunkt, RubyConf Brasil 2010 on October 26-27 featuring both defunkt and schacon, and finally RubyConf Uruguay on October 29-30 where schacon will be present. This itinerary, announced by Chris Wanstrath, highlights GitHub’s engagement with the developer community in the region.

A meetup is scheduled for Thursday, October 14th, at Thee Parkside, located at 1600 17th St in Potrero, starting at 8:30 pm. The event encourages attendees to engage in discussions and connect with others in a casual setting, as the evening is expected to have pleasant weather, allowing for socializing on the venue's patio. This gathering is an opportunity for individuals to come together and converse under the stars, fostering a sense of community and camaraderie among participants.

Hibernate, a suite of tools designed for relational persistence in Java and .Net, has transitioned from an old Subversion repository to GitHub, embracing the Git version control system. Originally developed in 2001, this move marks a significant milestone for the project, facilitating enhanced collaboration and accessibility for developers. The migration process is a complex task, reflecting the importance and scale of Hibernate's codebase within its organization.

GitHub Jobs has introduced a new feature called Company Spotlights, designed to provide job seekers and employers with valuable insights through short interviews with companies. This initiative aims to offer a deeper understanding of companies' cultures and future plans, enhancing the job search experience. The first spotlight features CrowdFlower, and future spotlights will be released monthly. This feature is part of GitHub Jobs' ongoing efforts to improve its platform for users looking to find work or learn about exceptional companies.

GitHub recently updated its user interface to simplify the downloading process, addressing the confusion caused by the previous multiple download options available on the platform. The old interface made it difficult for users to download binaries of GitHub-hosted projects, often leading them to mistakenly download the source code instead. To improve this, GitHub introduced a consolidated Downloads button, prominently placed in the repository description, which offers users several options, including downloading the source of the current branch, the latest packaged downloads, or tagged downloads. The update aims to streamline the process and make it easier for users to find what they need, although the old Downloads page remains accessible for those who prefer the previous method.

The Ruby and Rails European Conference is scheduled for October 21-22 at Pakhuis De Zwijger in Amsterdam, followed by a Code Retreat organized by Corey Haines on the 23rd. A speaker, Risk Olson, will present on the topic "Git: the stupid NOSQL database" and plans to host a GitHub drinkup in the area.