It provides a unified framework for policy creation and management across multiple clouds, simplifies policy writing, and supports popular authorization models such as role-based and attribute-based access control. Additionally, AWS has adopted a verification-guided development process to ensure the security and safety of Cedar.

The open-sourcing of the project also includes the Cedar language specification and SDK which offers libraries for authoring and validating policies and authorizing access requests. 

Amazon Verified Permissions uses Cedar to allow you to manage fine-grained permissions in your custom applications. With Amazon Verified Permissions, you can store Cedar policies centrally, have low latency with millisecond processing, and audit permissions across different applications. 

The open-source libraries of Cedar allow users to test and validate policies on their own computers before deploying them with Amazon Verified Permissions. This makes it possible to use Cedar to run applications not connected to the network, allowing users to customize the libraries to meet their needs.

Additional details on the project are available here. 

The post SD Times Open-Source Project of the Week: Cedar appeared first on SD Times.

The Harness CET provides several advantages to developers, such as minimizing the occurrence of defects that go undetected, removing the need for manual troubleshooting, and enabling quicker resolution of customer problems. This enables teams to identify and resolve issues within a matter of minutes instead of weeks, resulting in enhanced satisfaction for both the developers and end-users.

“Our goal is to empower developers by providing a solution that addresses the pain points unmet by traditional error tracking and observability tools,” said Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness. “Harness Continuous Error Tracking offers unparalleled visibility and context, enabling teams to quickly identify, diagnose, and resolve issues, ultimately ensuring a better experience for both developers and customers.”

The tool includes runtime code analysis that provides complete visibility into every exception’s source code, variables, and environment state. These issues are routed directly to the right developer for faster resolution. CET also provides the full context of errors including code variables and objects up to ten levels deep into the heap.

CET creates guardrails to ensure only high-quality code advances which prevents unreliable releases from being promoted to staging and production environments.

In addition, release stability allows developers to compare current or past releases to understand trends in new, critical, and resurfaced errors.

The tool integrates with monitoring solutions such as AppDynamics, Dynatrace, Datadog, New Relic, and Splunk. It also natively integrates into Harness build and deployment pipelines or it can be used as a standalone solution.

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The new code search engine has been remodeled to be two times faster than the old one and has more capabilities such as supporting substring queries, regular expressions, and symbol search.

Code Search understands a user’s code and brings relevant results at high speeds by searching across multiple repositories. Users can search using regular expressions, boolean operations, keyboard shortcuts, and more.

“Imagine that a user complains that they received an error message from your service saying ‘query is not satisfiable.’ You’re not sure which system produced this error message, or which repository the code is in,” ​​Colin Merkel, software engineer at GitHub, wrote in a blog post. 

“Without code search, you might have to clone a bunch of repositories and grep through them, or ask a knowledgeable coworker. But with code search, you can instantly search across all of an organization’s code at once.” 

As an example, if a company uses Kubernetes and their infrastructure team reports a shortage of memory in their cluster, one approach could be to search for YAML configuration files containing the term “memory” across the team’s code. The search results, which can be saved with a query such as “saved:blackbird lang:yaml memory,” would reveal the Kubernetes configuration files for the team’s services and their allocated memory. The search results could then be shared with the infrastructure team to initiate a discussion on the memory allocation for those services.

For teams using React, the prop dangerouslySetInnerHTML is a well-known feature that enables the direct injection of HTML into an element using a string. However, it can pose a security risk if the string being injected is untrusted. One way to identify potential vulnerabilities is by searching for the usage of this prop across GitHub’s codebase using a query such as “repo:github/github dangerouslySetInnerHTML.” The search results could reveal any occurrences of the prop, including some linter rules that forbid its use. 

GitHub also redesigned its code view to integrate search, browsing, and code navigation. The company stated that this launch is just the beginning and it is infusing intelligence into every aspect of software development moving forward. 

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Microsoft also announced that it’s moving from text-only search & chat to one that’s more visual with rich image/video answers and new multimodal support coming shortly. Users can get more visual answers including charts and graphs and updated formatting of answers, to help them find information more easily. Image Creator has also been expanded to all languages in Bing.

Microsoft Edge will be redesigned with a sleeker and enhanced UI and is adding the ability to incorporate visual search in chat so that users can upload images and search the web for related content.

Chat history allows users to pick up where they left off and return to previous chats in Bing chat with chat history. Chats can then be moved to Edge Sidebar so that they can be kept on hand while browsing. 

Microsoft stated that it will soon add export and share functionalities into chat for times when people want to easily share conversations with others on social media.

“The new AI-powered Bing has already helped people more easily find or create what they are looking for, making chat a great tool for both understanding and taking action. The integration of Image Creator saves you time by completing the task of creating the image you need right within chat,”  Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer wrote in a blog post that contains additional details on the new features. 

The post Microsoft Bing AI moves to Open Preview, eliminating waitlist appeared first on SD Times.

In CMake projects, users can simply click the “Run CTest” icon along the bottom status bar or the “Testing” side panel icon to launch the test explorer.

When the project is configured, the tests in your CMakeLists.txt will load in the Test Explorer.

The new feature allows users to view their tests’ detailed status and results, run specific tests or sets of tests, debug tests, and view test output. The tool also includes a refresh button for updating test information.

This release also features open-source community contributions from users.

Microsoft stated that it plans to experiment with the CMake tools’ user experience settings and implement CMake language services and a CMake Debugger in the future. 

Additional details are available here. 

The post CMake Tools 1.14 in VS Code adds Test Explorer for CTest appeared first on SD Times.

“InfluxDB 3.0 is a major milestone for InfluxData, developed with cutting-edge technologies focused on scale and performance to deliver the future of time series,” said Evan Kaplan, CEO at InfluxData. “Built on Apache Arrow, the most important ecosystem in data management, InfluxDB 3.0 delivers on our vision to analyze metric, event, and trace data in a single datastore with unlimited cardinality. InfluxDB 3.0 stands as a massive leap forward for both time series and real-time analytics, providing unparalleled speed and infinite scalability to large data sets for the first time.”

The solution was originally developed as the open-source project InfluxDB IOx and was built in Rust. It was then rebuilt as a columnar database that leverages the scale and performance of the Apache Arrow data structure to deliver real-time query responses. 

Users can also benefit from unlimited cardinality and high throughput to continuously ingest, transform, and analyze billions of time series data points, low-cost object store, and SQL language support. 

The new version is available now in InfluxData’s cloud products, including the fully managed service InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated. InfluxData also announced InfluxDB 3.0 Clustered and InfluxDB 3.0 Edge to give developers next-gen time series capabilities in a self-managed database and InfluxDB 3.0 will be available in these products later in the year.

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The platform includes modular architecture grounded in building blocks like functions, triggers, and workflows. They’re remixable, reusable, and hook into everything flowing in and out of Slack. 

It also includes new tools such as the Slack CLI and TypeScript SDK that simplify and clarify the most tedious parts of building on top of Slack. Developers can easily share what they built anywhere in Slack. With a link trigger, the workflow becomes portable and can be shared in a message, added in bookmarks, put in a canvas, and more.

Lastly, developers now have access to Secure deployment, data storage, and authentication powered by Slack-managed serverless infrastructure. And a fast, Deno-based TypeScript runtime keeps you focused on your code and your users.

Overall, the next-gen platform aims to provide a more seamless and streamlined experience for both developers and Slack users.

“Listening to developers, admins, and users is critical to building, maintaining, and evolving a platform like ours. We know that it’s been too darn difficult building custom integrations, ensuring that they’re enterprise-ready from day one, and keeping them fresh whenever new Slack features are released, regardless of experience level or interest,” said Taylor Singletary, head of developer relations at Slack. “After witnessing our customers’ enormous success in automating work with Workflow Builder, we knew we had to bring that automation power to even more people.”

Slack stated that Workflow Builder will soon become a no-code tool that puts the power of automating Slack and integrating everyday tools directly into the hands of users. The functions and workflows will become remixable as users discover new ways to combine triggers, inputs, and outputs with functions for the software they use most. 

The post Slack’s new platform makes it easier for developers to build and distribute apps appeared first on SD Times.

Developers can benefit from larger IDE fonts and unified dialog theme file names in the latest beta. 

InstallAware Multi Platform is an application repackager for macOS and Linux that enables developers to discover changes made by any process or any package and setup. 

The platform was created because for macOS, most apps don’t come with an uninstaller. While drag-and-drop apps that are placed in the /Applications folder don’t pose much of a problem, apps that come with standard macOS PKG installers cannot be uninstalled automatically, which is surprising in this day and age, according to Francesco Toscano, developer manager at InstallAware Software. 

As for Linux, there are so many incompatible package managers with their own unique standards even though uninstalling software is technically possible.

InstallAware aims to solve repackaging issues by providing the same IDE, Dialog Designer, command line build tool, and the entire toolchain natively for both Intel/AMD and ARM. It also enables developers to address the complexity of application deployment regardless of platform by letting them build and maintain a single setup project, together with all its assets such as scripts, localizations, and custom dialogs.

The solution then takes the single setup project and compiles it as a native code setup program with the same look, feel, and predictable behavior on macOS, Linux, or Windows.

“As the InstallAware Multi Platform evolves, we’re looking to become the one-stop-shop for all things packaging related, irrespective of target platform or the underlying package format,” said Francesco Toscano, developer manager at InstallAware Software. “From having a package format agnostic, single workflow; to integrating Docker-like containerization for deployment targets, InstallAware Multi Platform heralds the arrival of the future of multi-platform installation.”

Additional details on the latest update are available here.

The post InstallAware improves IDE’s visual designers and setup engine in Multi Platform Beta 4 appeared first on SD Times.

Most prominently, the technology industry has felt this tension as it finds itself on the other side of the massive influx of hiring that the pandemic encouraged. 

Now with the sheer magnitude of tech layoffs making headlines, technology professionals are left to scramble and fight to find new opportunities in the field. 

Jake Cooper, CEO and co-founder of the tech-enabled mental health provider Grow Therapy, explained that these layoffs are an unforeseen consequence of the rapid growth that the tech sector experienced at the beginning of the pandemic. 

“The most obvious change that was precipitated was the transition of services from in-person to virtual, and we also saw the transformation of advertisements from subway ads to digital ads,” said Cooper. “That really gave temporary tailwinds to many tech companies that these companies assumed would be more permanent in nature.”

This led to mass hiring by tech companies in order to meet the heightened demand for virtual services. However, now that things are settling into a more normal state, these companies can no longer sustain this hiring acceleration.

Slowing demand led to layoffs

Kalani Leifer, founder and CEO of the nonprofit company COOP Careers, emphasized this point, explaining that in the first year of the pandemic, tech companies became overzealous because they believed that this spike in demand would be a long-term state for the industry. 

“Unfortunately the thing about capitalism and publicly traded companies is when push comes to shove, they’re going to lay off who they have to or who they believe they have to,” Leifer said. “It’s striking that a lot of people went towards tech because tech could pay so much more, but tech was not committed to them in any meaningful way. So, once that intense consumer demand started to level off… they let them go.”

Cooper also cited a transition in the way employers are looking at their teams and considering the current trajectory of the market. He said that he believes this has had an even bigger impact as the massive correction in the capital markets has led to a total mindset shift for the tech industry. 

He explained, “For companies that are high growth and now losing money, their valuations in the public markets have declined 70-80%.” He expanded on this, saying that this has caused organizations to reassess their cost base significantly.

In the presence of a less forgiving market, the mindset of tech companies has flipped from the desire to add more talent to encourage further growth, to the reverse of that, leading to organizations laying off team members that they view as non-essential. 

“The reality is, much like everyone rushed to hire when the going was good, they are now quick to fire because the going is not as good,” said Eric Riz, founder and CEO of the data analytics firm Verified. 

According to Riz, the way that governments were quick to hand out loans through the pandemic along with the misspending and mismanagement of those loans have also played a hand in the current state of the tech industry. 

He explained that, while these loans had good intentions, they also led to a fair amount of fraud and mishandling of the money. 

“Businesses were doing great because it is a circular relationship and when consumers have money, they’re spending money… and now that cash just isn’t there and because of that circular relationship it comes back around to the companies and the employees,” Riz said. 

How diverse, low-income, and first-generation grads could be affected 

While layoffs pose a pretty equal threat to tech professionals across the board, Kalani Leifer, founder and CEO of COOP Careers, believes that the playing field for finding new opportunities after the fact may not be as even.

He explained that because so much of finding a new job comes down to who you know rather than what you know, the starting line can often be much further back for diverse, low-income, and first-generation college graduates.

“I think it is deeply dependent on huge socioeconomic forces… It doesn’t matter what you know if you don’t  know someone who can get your resume on the top of the pile or give you a referral or get you an informational interview or even tell you that an opportunity exists,” Leifer said. 

He continued, saying that because of this, first-generation college grads who come from a lower-income family may be feeling a disproportionate impact from these layoffs. 

According to Leifer, most of these cases involve people who attended public colleges, worked while in school, and opted to commute over on-campus boarding. With that comes a reduced network of friends and peers with industry connections who can help them out when it comes to finding their next role. 

“I think the ability to bounce back is entirely dependent on social capital, which is really unevenly distributed in the United States,” Leifer said.

Because of this, he touted peer connections and interpersonal communication as key skills for tech professionals to foster when trying to bounce back from a layoff. He explained that, particularly for underserved communities, seeking out peer groups to learn new skills and grow with could be immensely helpful.

Once these connections are made, Leifer said there is a very good chance that jobs will be found through that person or their connections.

“Doing this journey together, even if it is organized around skill building, is in fact a relationship-building endeavor,” he said. “So, when you focus on personal growth in partnership with others… you get the skills, you get the relationships, and you get their connections without really doing any artificial networking.” 

The misconception around hiring

Cooper continued, saying that another reason behind these layoffs is the misconception that hiring more people automatically equals faster growth and heighted development. 

He explained that organizations are now realizing that there is not only a diminished marginal utility for each new hire, but also that they could harm productivity if they are not integrated properly into the existing team. 

“If you don’t position them well to succeed, if you over hire, if you don’t have properly skilled jobs, there is a negative impact on your ability to actually get things done,” Cooper said. 

With more employees comes heightened cognitive overhead, increased communication challenges, and a decrease in defined ownership over different problem areas. Therefore, Cooper explained that when additional employees start to cause more trouble than they are worth, companies are quick to lay them off. 

Finding new opportunities 

As far as where tech folks can go to find jobs, Riz cited health care and insurance as spaces where he has seen opportunities arise in recent months. Additionally, he said that seeking out new startups looking to hire will most likely yield positive results.

Cooper also said that the health care space is one full of opportunities because there has been no decrease in the demand for quality care; if anything, it has only increased. 

“For certain sectors like ours, we have seen no decline in the amount of clients looking for a high-quality and affordable mental health provider and we have seen an increase in demand for providers looking for more meaningful professional opportunities,” Cooper explained. “And because of that, our growth and hiring plans have really not been impacted.” 

According to Leifer, finance is another area that tech professionals could explore to find exciting new opportunities.

He explained that if you take away the industry and just read the job descriptions, many jobs in the finance sector resemble tech jobs in a lot of ways.

“And I think that it is really exciting for people who want to build careers in tech that they can take their skills and their curiosity and their ambition really into any field and any application, and I think that finance is a big one,” Leifer said. 

Riz also stressed the importance of seizing the opportunities that are in front of you. Technology is a constantly evolving field, lending itself to frequently finding new problems to solve, and with that, new positions open up. 

Cooper agreed, saying that while tech layoffs are a very real thing, assuming there are no jobs left in the industry is a mistake. 

“I think it is underappreciated how many companies are still hiring. Maybe not at the euphoric pace they were during COVID, but there are many tech companies who are still hiring,” Cooper said. “We have seen a fair amount of tech workers find new opportunities within a two- to three-month period at other tech companies.” 

The post How tech professionals can survive amidst the looming threat of layoffs appeared first on SD Times.

The new release of the IDE includes improvements to help build UIs with Live Edit, new features that assist with inspecting apps, IntelliJ updates, and more. 

Developers can build an app using Compose by pushing code changes directly to attached devices or emulators. You can automatically push any changes made to a file, and the user interface will update in real time. This feature called Live Edit, is still experimental, and you can activate it in the Editor Settings. However, it is important to note that there are some known limitations to this feature.

Also, a new System UI Mode selector on the toolbar enables users to switch wallpapers and see how themed app icons react to chosen wallpapers. Dynamic colors can be enabled in the app and the new wallpaper attribute. 

Network Inspector Traffic interception now shows all traffic data for full timelines by default and users can create and manage rules that help test how an app behaves when encountering different responses. 

Updates to App Quality Insights help to discover, investigate and reproduce issues reported by Crashlytics and the latest update now enables users to close issues or add useful annotations in the Notes pane.

Additional features include build analyzer task categorization, one-click automated profileable build and run, Lint support for SDK extensions, and Android Gradle Plugin 8.0.0. 

According to Google, Jetpack Compose and Material 3 templates are now recommended for new projects. 

Additional details are available here.

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