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What kind of test do I need for my software?

Perfect Testing in Software

Introduction

Most software companies run in that dilemma. In order to write software that works, you want to write some tests. The question for many of these companies is: what kind of tests are most efficient for my business?

Here we talk about seven common test practices in the software industry.

1. Unit Testing

Probably the most used form of testing is Unit Testing. This is easy to write and very effective in discovering bugs. If you are looking at verifying correctness, this is 100% what you need to have to test your software.

Why is it easy to write?

In most cases, Unit ...

3 Efficient Ways to Store Data Long Term

Safe Backups The digital landscape is changing every day. That means that businesses, organizations, and personal information need constant care and attention to maintain their safety, especially if it's data that needs to be kept an eye on for a long time. From being reliable, affordable, and as secure as possible, it's critical that it remains in the right hands.

This is why we've compiled a list of 3 efficient ways to store data long-term, including using off-site cloud storage plus taking advantage of SQL Server Data Tools. Ready to give your info the safety it deserves? Read on…

The Benefits of Keyword Research Software

Various Branches of SEO

You've heard it said that a team is only as good as its leader, right? In the world of computer systems, many times, a computer is only as good as its software.

If you do any marketing research or work for an online company, one of the best software you could ask for is a keyword finder. If your job focuses on marketing techniques and sale inquiries, keyword finders are the way to go. 

Why? Let's discuss the most significant benefits these handy tools can provide for you!

1. They Help Narrow the Search Results  

If you are searching for information about a subject ...

What is the Significance of Tiny PCBs?

A PCB board with drawings of the wires

It’s a common refrain that our electronics are always getting smaller. While there may be some up-and-down fluctuation between one phone release and the next, the broader trend is clear: From speakers, to laptops, to home appliances, we can pack a lot more power into a lot less space these days.

This trend leads to some near-fantastical speculation about where tech can go from here. For instance, Quartz posted about limits in processing power back in 2017, and speculated that light could be built into processing chips as a substitute for what we’d now think ...

Docker, an advanced chroot utility

Chasm—just like a Docker creates a chasm between two sets of software

SECURITY WARNING

Before installing Docker and containers with services on your Linux system, make sure to read and understand the risks as mentioned on this Docker and iptables page. Especially, Docker will make all your containers visible to the entire world through your Internet connection. This is great if you want to indeed share that service with the rest of the world, it's very dangerous if you are working on that container service since it could have security issues that need patching and such. Docker documents a way to prevent that behavior by adding the following rule to your firewall:

iptables -I DOCKER-USER -i eth0 ! -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j DROP

This means that unless the IP address matches 192.168.1.0/24, the access is refused. The `eth0` interface name should be replaced with the interface name you use as the external ethernet connection. During development, you should always have such a rule.

That has not worked at all for me because my local network includes many other computers on my LAN and this rule blocks them all. So really not a useful idea.

Instead, I created my own entries based on some other characteristics. That includes the following lines in my firewall file:

*filter
:DOCKER-USER - [0:0]

-A DOCKER-USER -j early_forward
-A DOCKER-USER -i eno1 -p tcp -m conntrack --ctorigdstport 80 --ctdir ORIGINAL -j DROP
-A DOCKER-USER -i eno1 -p tcp -m conntrack --ctorigdstport 8080 --ctdir ORIGINAL -j DROP
-A DOCKER-USER -i eno1 -p tcp -m conntrack --ctorigdstport 8081 --ctdir ORIGINAL -j DROP

My early_forward allows my LAN to continue to work. These are my firewall rules that allow my LAN computers to have their traffic forwarded as expected.

Then I have three rules that block port 80, 8080, and 8081 from Docker.

Docker will add new rules that will appear after (albeit not within the DOCKER-USER list) and will open ports for whatever necessary service you install in your Dockers.

Note that the only ports you have to block are ports that Docker will share and that you have otherwise open on your main server. If Docker opens port 5000 and your firewall does not allow connections to port 5000 from the outside, then you're already safe. On my end I have Apache running so as a result I block quite usual HTTP ports from Docker.

Docker

As we are helping various customers, we encounter new technologies.

In the old days, we used chroot to create a separate environment where you could have your own installation and prevent the software from within that environment access to everything on your computer. This is particularly useful for publicly facing services liek Apache, Bind, etc.

No more excuses! Protect your passwords on your computer with strong encryption.

More and more, we hear talks about hackers entering personal accounts on systems such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others. There are many reasons why someone's account will be hacked. One of them is the lack of imagination for their password. Plus, some people use the same password for all of their accounts.

So, if you do it right, you will end up with many passwords. On my end, I have one password per account and that means about 400 passwords... That's totally unmanageable in a fairly standard human brain. For this reason, you end up writing down all your passwords on ...

IPv4 exhausted!

That's it! It's official, the IPv4 address space is now exhausted. This happened this year on February 3, 2011. Now what?

Well, first of all the exhaustion was at the level of the IANA, not for each single Internet provider. This means many more IPs are still available.

However, it is important now for everyone to think of writing any new Internet based software so that it works with IPv61

  • 1. Remember that if you support IPv6, then your system is capable of accessing all IPv4 addresses since the IPv6 address range includes the IPv4. Now let's hope that the IPv6 is not going to be ...

SimpleMenu Known Issues

SimpleMenu Disappears

There following are a few of the main reasons why SimpleMenu disappears.

Pop-up Windows

By default, SimpleMenu wants to hide itself in pop-up windows. This is a feature.

The reason is that many websites will open pop-up windows for all kinds of extra-features such as uploading an image or printing some description of an image or the definition of a word or product.

These windows should not include the SimpleMenu bar.

There is a dedicated page giving several different ways to fix this problem on your website.

Menu Overflow

Long menu going out of screen vertically and horizontally.Very long menus will disappear on the

What are yellow pages good for?

Since I work a lot with the Internet, I often have people asking me whether the Yellow Pages are still useful...

The fact is, there are still many people using the Yellow Pages. Most advanced geek will use an online directory such as superpages.com. Yet, for certain things such as looking for a plumber, people still use the Yellow Pages.

So, how do I choose whether to have an ad in the Yellow Pages?

Simple! Take the latest Yellow Pages book you've received and look under your category and see what your competition does. If you have 1 or more full page advertiser, you bet that you have ...

GoldMoney.com

Watching the spiraling price of gold (the spot price as of this writing is $1,213.40/oz) has been a humbling experience for me. There are all kinds of marketing forces happening to cause this, but if you follow what the Austrian School folks are saying, this is not a surprising trend at all. Central banks around the world are dumping their U.S. dollars and buying up gold, which is driving the price up. But I think this is different than just another commodity bubble, because the way gold is perceived--as a store of wealth. Traditionally investors who feel the currency they are in is threatened ...