Programming: mmap. Python and More

• Making the Most of your Memory with mmap

  Sometimes it seems that we have nearly infinite memory resources, especially compared to the tiny 48K RAM of yesteryear’s 8-bit computers. But today’s complex applications can soak up megabytes before you know it. While it would be great if developers planned their memory management for all applications, thinking through a memory management strategy is crucial for applications with especially RAM intensive features like image/video processing, massive databases, and machine learning. How do you plan a memory management strategy? It’s very dependent on your application and its requirements, but a good start is to work with your operating system instead of against it. That’s where memory mapping comes in. mmap can make your application’s performance better while also improving its memory profile by letting you leverage the same virtual memory paging machinery that the OS itself relies on. Smart use of the memory mapping API (Qt, UNIX, Windows) allows you to transparently handle massive data sets, automatically paging them out of memory as needed – and it’s much better than you’re likely to manage with a roll-your-own memory management scheme. Here’s a real-life use case of how we used mmap to optimize RAM use in QiTissue, a medical image application. This application loads, merges, manipulates, and displays highly detailed microscope images that are up to gigabytes in size. It needs to be efficient or risks running out of memory even on desktops loaded with RAM.

• Moving Kolla images to Python 3

  Python… To use 2.7 or to go for 3.x? To “be compatible” or to “use fancy new features”. Next year Python 2 gets finally unsupported upstream.

• PyCharm 2019.1 RC 2

  New in PyCharm 2019.1: completely redesigned Jupyter Notebooks, improved HTML & CSS quick documentation, custom themes, and more. Get the release candidate from our website

• 13 Project Ideas for Intermediate Python Developers

  Learning the basics of Python is a wonderful experience. But the euphoria of just learning can be replaced by the hunger for hands-on projects. It’s normal to want to build projects, hence the need for project ideas. The problem though is that some projects are either too simple for an intermediate Python developer or too hard. This article will suggest projects you can work on as an intermediate Python developer. These project ideas will provide the appropriate level of challenge for you.

• Speed: Default value vs checking for None

• Announcing SLE 15 SP1 RC 1 and SES 6 Beta 11!

• Coding in Python 19 - More fun with the OS Module

• Coding in Python 20 - Subprocess

• Coding in Python 21 - Handling Exceptions

• Starting A Django Project

• Microsoft buffs up its open-source halo to fine sheen with PostgreSQL GUI in Azure Data Studio [Ed: These are all proprietary software falsely marketed using "free bait" a.k.a. "open core" or 'open' plugins. It's also surveillance.]

DebConf20 Conference to Be Hosted in Haifa, Israel, for Debian GNU/Linux 11

A port city built in tiers, Haifa is found in the northern area of Israel, extending from the Mediterranean sea till the north slope of the Carmel Mountain National Park. Haifa it's the third-largest city in Israel after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and it is close to the biblical city Nazareth where Jesus studied and prayed. In 2020, the Debian Project will celebrate 12 years since the first DebConf Debian developer conference, so they decided to choose Israel instead of Lisbon, Portugal, for next year's DebConf20 event despite the extensive discussions between the DebConf team and committee due to Israel's political system.

Ubuntu Leftovers

• Debug ACPI DSDT and SSDT with ACPICA Utilities

  Using acpidbg on Ubuntu 18.04 x64 can be quite handy; however, the Linux kernel with ACPI_DEBUGGER is not always available, such as on Ubuntu for ARM. In such cases, acpica also provides a set of utilities, named acpica-tools, for ACPI debugging.

• NVIDIA Jetson Nano is a $99 Computer Built for AI, Powered by Ubuntu

  Sold as a complete compute solution, the Jetson Nano Developer Kit wants to let embedded designers, researchers, and DIY makers harness the power of AI, all at an affordable price. A NVIDIA’s JetPack SDK provides a ‘complete desktop Linux environment based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS’, replete with accelerated graphics, NVIDIA CUDA toolkit support, and more. NVIDIA say developers will find it “easy” to install leading open-source Machine Learning (ML) frameworks like TensorFlow, Caffe and Keras. Frameworks for computer vision and robotics development like OpenCV and ROS are also available via the SDK. The JetPack 4.2 SDK [shipped on the microSD card] provides a complete desktop Linux environment for Jetson Nano based on Ubuntu 18.04 with accelerated graphics, support for NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 10.0, and libraries such as cuDNN 7.3 and TensorRT 5,” Nvidia says of the nimble Nano dev kit. But how powerful is it?

• Vertical rhythm and spacing in Vanilla Framework 2.0

  Vanilla, the CSS framework behind Canonical’s suite of products and services, has undergone significant changes over the last 12 months. We’ve introduced vertical rhythm, a new type scale, consistent white space in and between elements, and adjustable information density. 

• Ubuntu 19 04 Desktop Tour of New Features

Security: Updates, Microsoft, Mirai, Reproducible Builds and PuTTY

• Security updates for Wednesday

• Microsoft Office Is The Most Exploited Software By Cybercriminals[Ed: Microsoft software is designed for back doors, not for security, and that still shows.]

  list of the top 10 most exploited vulnerabilities in 2018 has revealed that Microsoft Office was the favorite victim of cybercriminals. Microsoft Office vulnerabilities appear 8 times in the list with one Adobe Flash Player vulnerability and an AndroidRAT cyber vulnerability being the only mobile device flaw in the list.

• Mirai botnet returns with sights set on enterprise IoT devices

   

  Researchers from Unit 42, the threat intelligence group of Palo Alto Networks, found the new variant targeting LG Supersign TVs and WePresent WiPG-1000 Wireless Presentation system, both of which are used by businesses with networks offering larger amounts of bandwidth.

• Reproducible builds folks: Reproducible Builds: Weekly report #203

• PuTTY in your hands: SSH client gets patched after RSA key exchange memory vuln spotted

  Venerable SSH client PuTTY has received a pile of security patches, with its lead maintainer admitting to the The Register that one fixed a "'game over' level vulnerability". The fixes implemented in PuTTY over the weekend include new features plugging a plethora of vulns in the Telnet and SSH client, most of which were uncovered as part of an EU-sponsored HackerOne bug bounty.