While having an updated version of OpenSSL is always recommended, vulnerabilities such as The Heartbleed Bug reported 7th of April 2014 reminds us of it. Also, not counting on an updated version can cause some packages not to install (e.g., IO::Socket::SSL, necessary to run git send-email). In this post we go through the steps of updating OpenSSL in OSX, which as usual, entails a few more steps than in linux. I use Homebrew as a package manager.
Category Archives: Interesting
Best tools to get more out of your fingers in your mac
Depending on the task you are carrying out, you want you fingers either in your keyboard or in your mouse; and you want them to stay there. When I am programming I want to forget about my mouse and this implies that I should be able to open new terminals, navigate the code or check Stack Overflow without missing it. On the other hand, when working on my pictures, I want to prescind as much as I can from the keyboard, or at least limit my interaction with it to only one hand. Today I will tell you about the tools I use that allow me to feel comfortable working on my mac; from mapping gestures and shortcuts to choosing the speed of a certain key repetition.
On C, memory violations, and the white knight: Valgrind
Dealing with dynamic memory is a very demanding task in low level programming languages like C, where the flexibility of the language is build on top of the assumption that programmers do not make mistakes, but they (we) know what they are doing at all times. As Peter Van Der Linden masterfully writes in this Expert C Programming book: “It’s not a bug. It is a language feature”. (if you have not read the book, but it. Now!). In this post I will present one of my favourite programming tools: Valgrind, which helps programmers (among other things) to deal with memory leaks in their programs.
SerialSend – A scriptable serial terminal
For a long time now I have been working with Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). One of my interest in this field has been improving the speed and the reliability of the serial communication among sensor nodes.
One problem I have always had to solve in one way or another when coming up with a new idea was testing it! Unfortunately, even when there are many serial terminals out there (cutecom, minicom, etc.), I found it very difficult to cover all my needs. For this reason, I decided to make my own serial terminal, keeping in mind that it had to be as configurable as possible, as well as easy scriptable. The product, serialSend.
Still under construction… but alive :)
My Cellar Door is still an under-construction website. I’m trying to spend some daily-time to update and fill it up with my projects, interesting links, tools, frameworks, tips, etc – hope you come back soon 😉
Please feel free to check out the AboutMe section to have an idea of who I am, what I do, and contact me if you feel like doing it 🙂
Best
–javier
My Cellar Door 