Dear Software Developers,

This CPTTM Software Developer newsletter is to bring useful news to you, software developers in Macau, for references without obligations, so that you can do your jobs easier and better! Hope you like it. if you'd like to unsubscribe or recommend your friends to subscribe, just email me at kent@cpttm.org.mo. Old issues are available here.

Topics in this issue:

• Find 0-day security vulnerabilities in Oracle in 10 minutes?
• Ditch commons logging
  
• Scala = Ruby + Java?
  
• Upcoming courses for software developers

Find 0-day security vulnerabilities in Oracle in 10 minutes?

Oracle 10g R2 should be quite secure, right? Here is a step-by-step guide to show how you can find not one, but several 0-day security vulnerabilities in it in 10 minutes using free tools. Scary? That's why you and your colleagues should attend our Writing secure code in Java course.

Ditch commons logging

If you have used Apache commons logging, you may have noticed quite some problems such as memory leaks or class not found exceptions. This is because it searches the classloader hierarchy to see which logging mechanism (log4j, JDK logging and etc.) is available in which classloader for use. This is a complicated process and creates subtle problems. Now there is a better and simpler alternative: Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J). It expects a single logging mechanism (slf4j-log4j.jar or slf4j-jdk.jar) to be in available in the same classloader as the API (slf4j-api.jar) and there is no complicated or sublte behavior.  That's why it is getting a lot of momentum. For example, Hibernate, Apache Wicket, Apache Tapestry and many others have switched from commons logging to SLF4J.

Scala = Ruby + Java?

You may have heard about the Ruby language and the Ruby on Rails web framework. However, personally I am still not convinced that dynamic typing is good for us. Recently I came across another interesting language called "Scala". It is interesting in that it seems to have the best of Ruby (domain specific language, meta programming, closure) and Java (static typing, runs on JVM, access to lots of Java libraries). Of course it is not a major language and you probably won't use in your daily job, but it is certainly worth checking out if you enjoy learning new things.

Upcoming courses for software developers

In addition, there are some courses your kids may enjoy:

Feedbacks

Any questions, ideas or experiences to share? Contact me at 28781313 or kent@cpttm.org.mo. We also have two other newsletters: CIO newsletter and Network administrator newsletter, your friends may like to subscribe.

Until next time, 

Kent Tong