• The Author – Bart Busschots

  

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I spent the weekend majorly re-factoring XKpasswd.pm, my Perl random password generation library. V0.1 was the last thing I wrote before reading Perl Best Practices, and looking back on that code really illustrated the value of that book when used in combination with the perlcritic code analyser.

The new version of the module provides all the functionality the old one did, and more. The refactoring has made the module simpler to use from within scripts, as well as easier to modify and extend. Some new features have also been added, including the ability to use the www.random.org web service as the source of randomness for the library. A full list of bug fixes and new features is included below.

I had hoped to distribute this version as both a ZIP file and a .PKG file, but XCode 4.4 is not being cooperative on the new Mountain Lion, so that will probably have to wait until version 0.3.

Update – 6 August 2012: The link below has been updated to point to version 0.2.1 of the code. Details of the bugs fixed in the release notes.

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Tagged with: Perl • open source • HSXKPasswd • software release

Listeners of the various podcasts I pop up on from time to time may well know that I’m far from a fan of Steve Balmer. I didn’t like Bill Gates because of his hostile business practices, but I (perhaps grudgingly) admired his obvious talents. As CEO, Gates took Microsoft to the very very top. Balmer on the other hand, has always struck me as a rude and short-sighted bully who got to where he is now by being in the right place at the right time more than anything else. I just can’t see him as a visionary. I’ve been arguing for a long time that he is steering Microsoft down a dead-end path, and the fine folks over at MBAOnline.com seem to agree with me. They’ve put together a great infographic that really drives homes the point. Since a picture says a thousand words, I’ll leave you with the picture they paint of the Steve Balmer era at Microsoft.

Created by: MBAOnline.com

Tagged with: humour