Adobe addresses critical ColdFusion, JRun problems

Adobe has released patches for ColdFusion and JRun in order to correct a number of security vulnerabilities. Adobe has recently been slammed with a huge number of security issues, as attackers have found the OS to no longer be the lowest hanging fruit on the tree.

70% of organizations do not secure data during testing

Frightening statistic of the week: Nearly 80% of organizations are using production data in their application testing, and the majority of these organizations are not masking sensitive data, according to a study from the Ponemon Institute and Micro Focus. The upshot? 70% of organizations are exposing real user data to needless breaches during testing, which 94% of the organizations say happens at least monthly, and 64% say is done at least once a week. Other than troubleshooting a problem with that sensitive data, there is no reason to do this. Well, I know the reasons… time and money. But still, when sensitive data gets stolen, was it really worth not investing in processes and tools to protect that data?

SpringSource prepares Java cloud

SpringSource just entered the beta of Cloud Foundry, its Java cloud offering. There are now an awful lot of players climbing onto the cloud wagon, but I have yet to see much evidence that many developers are willing to use their services.

Firefox 3.5 breaks the .NET Framework Assistant plug-in

The latest version of Firefox 3.5 is not compatible with the .NET Assistant plug-in. Some are crying foul, but I wonder how many things are actually dependent upon that plug-in.

ASP.NET vs. WebSphere: More benchmark battles

InfoQ has an in-depth piece about the war of metrics being waged between Microsoft and IBM over application server speeds.

Free C# 3.0 ebook

Red Gate is giving away free copies of C# 3.0 Pocket Reference by Joseph Albahari and Ben Albahari. No signup, registration, etc. is needed, just click the link and download. I’ve read good reviews of this book, and there’s no harm in giving it a read. Thanks, Red Gate!

Microsoft working to help developers charge more than $0.99 for apps

One of the big problems people have with the Apple App Store is that it has quickly become a race to the bottom on the price front. A lot of developers are stuck between offering an app for nothing (or close to it) or seeing limited market penetration at a higher price. Microsoft is trying to make sure that developers aren’t backed into this corner for its mobile application store.

What it’s like to move to NHibernate

Bertrand Le Roy has a nice piece about his experiences with moving to NHibernate. I have been hearing a lot of good things about NHibernate; it definitely looks like it’s worth checking out.

99 Designs connects designers and buyers

99 Designs is a new company that lets designers submit design proposals to companies in need of design work. If the designer’s work is chosen, they get paid; but even if the proposal isn’t selected, the designer is building a portfolio that will help them attract future customers.

Squeakfest videos posted

If you would like to see what went on at Squeakfest (a Squeak conference), they have posted videos of the event.

A really neat Web trick

I was filling out a registration form at Plimus.com, and in step one of registration, I had to provide our Web site’s URL; in the second step, Plimus.com had magically found our company’s address and phone number information and filled it into the form for contact details. Either it OCRed that information from our banner graphic, or it quickly searched for a Contact Us link, went to the page, and found the right information. Regardless, I thought it was super slick. The next time I think about writing a registration page, I’ll see if I can do something like that too.

J.Ja

Disclosure of Justin’s industry affiliations: Justin James has a working arrangement with Microsoft to write an article for MSDN Magazine. He also has a contract with Spiceworks to write product buying guides.

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