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stwe

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I was a happy user of the python autocomplete package with Jedi for some time. Starting in November 2016 they introduced kite-specific code, shipping kite-installer as a dependency and also added tracking of your autocompletion behaviour (I suspect this is where they get their Kite vs. Jedi performance numbers from).

Only in February 2017 I noticed that the whole package had changed right under me because of an error traceback window caused by their metrics collection going wrong. I looked at the package settings and IIRC there was a checkmark set for the "Use Kite" option which I'm pretty sure I did not set myself.

The telemetry collection alone is a deal breaker for me. But I also don't like the sneaky way they practically took over the package without clear notice and consent. The package README still makes no mention of Kite and the package is running under the innocently looking 'autocomplete-python' GitHub org instead of their 'kiteco' org. To me it's a very fishy 'growth hacking' strategy.

GitHub Pages supports HTTPS, so please include your JS/CSS schema-relative (//) or directly with HTTPS. Otherwise people who force HTTPS on that domain get mixed content warnings and nothing loads.

I'm the original creator of that repo. Keeping it up to date is unfortunately a time-consuming manual effort. Doing version control downstream is generally a nightmare because unraveling different law changes/typo fixes is complicated (yes, lot's of typos when humans consolidate laws by hand).

If you're interested, here's a talk about it at Git Merge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qql1Ess7qM

Here are some scrapers/scripts around it: https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze-tools

I'm using MyOpenID but with a delegation through my own website. In theory transitioning to another provider should just be about changing meta tags in my homepage. However, some consumers store the delegated OpenID URL instead of the one given by the user, which makes transitioning more painful than it has to be.

These procedures trade my freedom and privacy for security. I always have someone keep an eye on my stuff, but I've also been at similar events (Chaos Communication Camp 2011) where keeping something unattended was not a problem at all.

Treating all you attendees like potential thieves is simply a bad premise for a hacker event.

Indeed. This is a commercial event with too much security - quite the opposite from the usual hacker events in Germany. You need to give lots of info on registration including a passport style photo, your laptop serial number (because equipment is required to be tagged) and apparently bags are searched on entry and exit. It's ridiculous. That's why the usual hacker crowd in Germany totally ignores this event.

It's only free as in free beer if it's free as in GPL, otherwise you have to pay for a commercial license. GPL means you have to provide source if you distribute the app. And isn't there also an incompatibility with Apple's App Store terms and the GPL (VLC case)?

Yes, if they are implemented via hash tables and do not randomize their hash generation somehow. The talk at 28c3 specifically mentions PHP, Java, ASP.net, Python. Ruby is fine, but other variants of Ruby are apparently also vulnerable.

There are some great NGOs for hackers that do awesome stuff: e.g. the Sunlight Labs in the US, MySociety and the Open Knowledge Foundation (disclaimer: associated) in the UK. They build apps for government transparency (also international aid transparency) and participation. I believe that these are the hackers who actually make the world a better place.

It used to have funny effects on websites (browser name in title bar spelled backwards), but it doesn't seem to work now. The above comment contains the unicode character three times.

"Share what you want, with who you want." Is no one else put off by that grammar mistake centered on their front page? I'm not a native speaker, but it sounds just plain wrong.

The additional datastore call and also the CPU time spent in the script (even though it might be minimal) are totally unnecessary. Just upload the files yourself and serve them statically. Even though it's not a true CDN (as discussed in many places many times), it works good enough. And why do call it Google Application Engine? Google itself calls it just App Engine.

An API that is subject to change should have a version number as a namespace somewhere in the URL. That way you can have different API versions running and it makes less painful to go forward.

The problem is that the browser owned control bar is right next to the web content. It's good for usability (quick to reach with mouse), but opens the door for trickeries like click jacking (that's actually why there's a countdown when you want to install an extension in firefox).

I filed a related bug a year ago at Mozilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=497388 but it didn't get anyone busy (no offense). We probably have to wait until browser extensions are more common place and these kind of UI vulnerabilities get exploited on a regular basis.