September 2014 Summaries

Phil Haack, in collaboration with the Seoul Tech Society, is set to deliver a public talk on "GitHub Secrets" during DEVIEW 2014 in Seoul, Korea. The talk is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30, at 19:45, held at D.CAMP in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP, while participation in the subsequent after-party at the nearby Mekjuya bar, starting at 21:30, requires no RSVP. This event aims to foster engaging conversations and networking opportunities among participants, with GitHub sponsoring the evening's refreshments.

In late September 2014, GitHub released a series of updates and patches addressing multiple critical vulnerabilities identified in the GNU bash utility, specifically CVE-2014-6271, CVE-2014-7169, CVE-2014-7186, and CVE-2014-7187, which affected the majority of Unix and Linux systems. These vulnerabilities allowed for the execution of arbitrary commands on affected servers, posing a significant security risk. GitHub responded by providing special patches for GitHub Enterprise users, urging them to upgrade their systems immediately to mitigate potential exploits. Despite extensive penetration testing revealing no vulnerabilities on GitHub.com, including git over SSH, GitHub proactively patched all systems as a precautionary measure. The updates were communicated effectively to ensure that all GitHub Enterprise customers were informed and protected against the vulnerabilities.

Zach Holman invites Londoners to a meetup on Sunday, September 28, 2014, at Strongroom Bar, located at 120-124 Curtain Road, London. The gathering, which is open to everyone regardless of their attendance at the Future of Web Apps 2014 conference, offers a chance for local tech enthusiasts to connect. Attendees can enjoy complimentary non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages courtesy of the host.

GitHub hosted a Patchwork hack night on September 30, 2014, at its headquarters in San Francisco, designed as a hands-on workshop for beginners to learn Git and GitHub without needing prior coding experience. The event aimed to foster community engagement and open source contribution by helping newcomers create their own open source projects and achieve their first merged Pull Request, thereby enhancing their confidence to participate in the open source community. GitHub staff, including @jlord who kicked off the event with a talk about her programming journey, along with local community mentors, provided guidance throughout the evening. The event also featured a closing lightning talk from a community member on their open source experience, with opportunities for attendees to RSVP as either participants or mentors, the latter receiving a curriculum overview prior to the event.

The third annual Data Challenge announced its winners, showcasing innovative projects in data analysis and visualization. First place was awarded to "Issue Stats" by @hstove, a tool that tracks and displays the time taken to close issues or merge pull requests in projects, enhancing transparency through a simple badge. Second place went to "GitHut" by @littleark, which provides a comparative analysis of programming languages based on various metrics like development activity and social engagement. The third place was secured by "Eigenfaces" by @c-w, a project that utilized principal component analysis to distill significant features from 8,000 user avatars, revealing key shapes that contribute to avatar variance. Celebrating a record 79 entries from around the globe, the competition highlighted the creativity and dedication of participants, with winners receiving prizes including a course by Edward Tufte and cash rewards, while fostering anticipation for next year's challenge.

Gmail users receiving GitHub notifications via email will now see subject-line links to issues and pull requests in their notification messages, allowing for quicker access to GitHub content without needing to open the email itself. This enhancement is made possible through Gmail's Actions in the Inbox feature and was implemented by Ben Toews, also known by the username @mastahyeti.

GitHub is sponsoring the HACKMemphis event, inviting participants to join James White and James Fryman for a casual meetup at Fox and Hound in Memphis. The gathering, scheduled for Thursday, September 18th at 6:00 PM, offers attendees an opportunity to enjoy drinks, engage in DIY discussions, and connect with members of the GitHub team. Both locals and those in town for the conference are encouraged to stop by for this informal social event.

GitHub has introduced TODO, a collaborative initiative with several partner organizations aimed at enhancing open-source software support within large companies. The initiative seeks participation from companies with existing open-source programs or those interested in starting one, with the goal of addressing the unique challenges associated with using and developing open-source technologies in diverse corporate environments. TODO's focus includes discussions on releasing open-source projects, transferring project ownership from companies to communities, and maintaining the health and activity of open-source projects. Founding members of TODO include prominent companies such as Box, Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Google, Khan Academy, Square, Stripe, Twitter, and Walmart Labs, and more information is available at todogroup.org.

GitHub emphasizes the importance of maintaining net neutrality to safeguard innovation, communication, and economic growth facilitated by an open and free Internet. The company urges US users to contact their representatives to oppose proposed FCC changes that could allow a new "fast lane" for privileged businesses, potentially harming developers and altering user experiences based on payments to Internet providers. Highlighting a historical precedent where Congress intervened in communication conflicts, GitHub believes that with support from the broader Internet community, legislative action can preserve the Internet as an open platform for speech and commerce. In May, GitHub co-signed a letter to the FCC supporting net neutrality and continues to advocate for public involvement in keeping the Internet equitable.

A Patchwork hack night is scheduled for Thursday, September 18, 2014, at Dev Bootcamp NYC, designed to teach beginners Git and GitHub through a practical, hands-on workshop. The event encourages newcomers to the open-source community to participate, promising attendees the experience of having a merged Pull Request and a contribution to their GitHub graph, all while enjoying the social atmosphere and snacks. Experienced mentors, including GitHub staff, will be available to guide participants through the process, and the evening will feature talks from GitHub's @aroben and a community member about their programming journeys and open source projects. Those interested can RSVP as either attendees or mentors, and they will receive preparatory instructions via email before the event.

GitHub has enhanced its platform by highlighting individual changed words within commits, compare views, and pull requests, rather than marking entire changed sections. This improvement allows users to more easily identify specific additions or removals in code, thereby streamlining the review process. The feature is compatible with split diffs, which offers a side-by-side comparison for further clarity.

GitHub now offers two types of diff views, unified and split, allowing users to switch between them on pull request, commit, and compare pages via a toggle located at the top right. The platform remembers the last mode used, setting it as the user's default preference for future reference.

GitHub has introduced a new shirt in its shop that promotes the ease of merging pull requests, combining functionality with style. Brandi Firestine highlights this new addition as a way for users to express their connection to GitHub's streamlined workflow while staying fashionable.

GitHub's infrastructure team successfully executed a major MySQL database migration to a new datacenter, enhancing the performance and speed of GitHub.com. This complex transition involved meticulous planning, testing, and configuration adjustments, such as tuning MySQL settings and partitioning large tables to optimize resources. The team employed tcpdump for realistic workload testing and ensured a seamless switchover by following a comprehensive checklist, announcing a maintenance window, and coordinating globally through pull requests. Post-migration, the average page load time was halved, demonstrating the effectiveness of their approach. The project highlighted the importance of extensive testing, collaboration, and strategic resource management, leading to improved performance and reliability, with plans for further enhancements underway.