Thursday 1 June 2017

Java 9 RC1 delay

It seems likely that the first release candiate from Java 9 will be delayed to the 21st September from 27th July. The delay is to address concerns that resulted in JSR 376 not being approved -- the Java Platform Module System aka. Project Jigsaw.

This is the project that was mean't to be in Java 7, then 8, now 9 so with it's history those involved have been stressing that they expect this to be resolved within the permitted 30 days and that they had to vote on what was submitted. i.e. They were aware some of their concerns were being addressed while they spoke.

It does sound like all will be well and hopefully we can start to escape Jar hell and embrace requires and exports.

Changes for Java 9 here: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/whatsnew/toc.htm

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Funny warnings

* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM
* before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
*/

From a community firmware upgrade for a Sony Xperia.

It would be something run-of-the-mill like the alarm app that would fail. While showing off my shiny new Mac at work years ago, the calculator app failed and took the rest of Mac OS X with it. It seems having it speaking the values was a step too far. Was a repeatable failure too :-(

Thursday 18 May 2017

Fun error messages

Android error message from today:

Could not find method setEpicenterBounds(Rect) on PopupWindow. Oh well.

:-)

Thursday 20 April 2017

Credit Cards with built-in fingerprint sensors

Mastercard have unveiled credit cards with built-in fingerprint sensors. Including the sensors on the cards avoids the need to upgrade the card readers. They are being trialed in South Africa by Absa Bank (Barclays Africa) and the Pick n Pay retail chain.

While fingerprint readers can be fooled and the use of fingerprints is sure to come with it's own set of problems, they should be compared to the current use of PINs and their use in differing security scenarios and retail environments around the world. For example some of the articles pick up on the inconvenience of having to visit a bank branch to have your fingerprint biometrics stored on the credit card, versus receiving the card in the post. However at least one South African Mastercard issuing bank hasn't distributed credit cards via the post for quite some time due to security concerns, so it differs from place to place.

If you are in a country that has had chip & PIN for a long time e.g. UK, Australia, South Africa, etc... it can be surprising that it isn't universal already and therefore rather staggering the scale Mastercard has to cover for example Chip & PIN is still being rolled out in the USA (70% consumer, 39% retailer coverage in 2016).

Engadget card demo
Mastercard press release
Wired
The Register
Tech Crunch
BBC