Things I found while cleaning out my sock drawer

It's been quiet recently. Everybody is doing their taxes, I guess.

• Saving 13 Million Computational Minutes per Day with Flame Graphs

  For those unfamiliar with flame graphs, the default visualization places the initial frame in a call stack at the bottom of the graph and stacks subsequent frames on top of each other with the deepest frame at the top. Stacks are ordered alphabetically to maximize the merging of common adjacent frames that call the same method. As a quick side note, the magenta frames in the flame graphs are those frames that match a search phrase. Their particular significance in these specific visualizations will be discussed later on.

• How a Hypothesis Can Be Neither True Nor False

  Kurt Gödel described a model that satisfies the axioms of set theory, which does not allow for an infinite set to exist whose size is between the natural numbers and the real numbers. This prevented the Continuum Hypothesis from being disproven. Remarkably, some years later, Paul Cohen succeeded in finding another model of set theory that also satisfies set theory axioms, that doesallow for such a set to exist. This prevented the Continuum Hypothesis from being proven.

  Put another way: for there to be a proof of the Continuum Hypothesis, it would have to be true in all models of set theory, which it isn’t. Similarly, for the Hypothesis to be disproven, it would have to remain invalid in all models of set theory, which it also isn’t.

• Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems

  In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization.

• Robots against robots: How a Machine Learning IDS detected a novel Linux Botnet

  Still unknown and hidden.

  Could not be detected by usual protections.

• Lawful Hacking and Continuing Vulnerabilities

  Whatever method the FBI used to get into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone is one such vulnerability. The FBI did the right thing by using an existing vulnerability rather than forcing Apple to create a new one, but it should be disclosed to Apple and patched immediately.

• Attack of the Week: Apple iMessage

  it's worth noting that the security of a text messaging protocol may not seem like the most important problem in computer security. And under normal circumstances I might agree with you. But today the circumstances are anything but normal: encryption systems like iMessage are at the center of a critical national debate over the role of technology companies in assisting law enforcement.

• Down from Eight Miles High… and Landing!

  Neurensic has some lucky timing and some serious financial market Quant talent. They put together a Machine Learning-based product to find financial market cheaters – and just in time to match the new Dodd-Frank compliance rules. Their timing is impeccable; suddenly everybody who is responsible for traders’ good behavior (i.e. the Banks) wants their stuff. Their first generation product is just coming out, and I plan on bring my own skill and H2O’s Big Data and ML abilities to dramatically up Neurensic’s game. The Goal: keeping the Stock Market (well, all financial markets) safe for everybody.

• The Sun Rises--But the Sun Also Sets...

  Ever since I was six years old or so, my overriding goal has been to become as smart as possible--not to become the smartest person around (as it was all was clear that that was simply not possible), but as smart as I could be. That seemed to be a very fun way to live one's life. And it is.

• The Rain Barrel Is Only the Beginning of the West’s Water Wars

  For years now, Coloradans have been fighting over the seemingly innocuous rain barrel. Environmentally conscious and thrifty residents say they should have the right to catch as much rain as they please, while agricultural interests argue that doing so is tantamount to stealing water from its rightful owners. The same battle has played out throughout the West, but Colorado is the last remaining state where barrels are banned outright—for a few more days, anyway. On April 1, the state legislature passed a bill to permit residents to catch rain in measured quantities, and Governor John Hickenlooper is expected to sign it.

  Coloradans will no longer have to hide their downspouts and barrels for fear of being fined, but the issue is hardly settled. The forthcoming law keeps historical water law intact, while opening a crack in the once unbreakable water doctrine by allowing two 55-gallon barrels per residential property.

• Number Of Wild Tigers Increases For First Time In 100 Years

  The WWF cites factors such as better survey processes and enhanced protections in explaining the gains. But it adds that the world's tigers remain threatened by shrinking habitats in Asia and that they are also a prime target for poachers.

  "Every part of the tiger — from whisker to tail — is traded in illegal wildlife markets, feeding a multi-billion dollar criminal network," the organization says.