https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/28/microsoft_bytecode_alliance/ The Register(r) -- Biting the hand that feeds IT search [ ] # # Sign in Off-Prem All Off-PremEdge + IoTChannelPaaS + IaaSSaaS (X) On-Prem All On-PremServersStorageNetworksHPCPersonal Tech (X) Software All SoftwareAI + MLApplicationsDatabasesDevOpsOSesVirtualization (X) SecurityOffbeat All OffbeatDebatesColumnistsScienceGeek's GuideBOFHLegalBootnotesSite NewsAbout Us (X) Vendor Voice AdobeGoogle CloudGoogle Cloud's ApigeeNutanixRapid7Red hatSophosVeeam Virtru (X) # # # [applicatio] Applications Microsoft joins Bytecode Alliance to advance WebAssembly - aka the thing that lets you run compiled C/C++/Rust code in browsers Maybe we can make software modular, secure, speedy all at the same time Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 13:00 UTC Share reddit Twitter Facebook linkedin WhatsApp email [https://www.theregis] Copy --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bytecode Alliance, formed by Fastly, Intel, Mozilla, and Red Hat to move WebAssembly beyond the browser, has created a non-profit organization with the help of Microsoft to further their cause. The gang has also added six more member organizations to advance its mission to make software more modular, secure, and fast. In addition to Microsoft, the new members are: Arm, DFINITY Foundation, Embark Studios, Google, Shopify, and University of California San Diego. [applicatio] In a statement, Bobby Holley, distinguished engineer at Mozilla and a Bytecode Alliance board member, described software development today as a set of vexing trade-offs. "If you want to build something big, it's not realistic to build each component from scratch," Holley said. "But relying on a complex supply chain of components from other parties allows a defect anywhere in that chain to compromise the security and stability of the entire program. "Tools like containers can provide some degree of isolation, but they add substantial overhead and are impractical to use at per-supplier granularity. And all of these dynamics entrench the advantages of big companies with the resources to carefully manage and audit their supply chains." This Qt Mandelbrot demo was successfully built with the gbuild LibreOffice build system; it is the only thing so far that runs 'It's where the industry is heading': LibreOffice team working on WebAssembly port READ MORE The Bytecode Alliance, founded in 2019, sees WebAssembly as a way to make code composable, safe, and speedy without sacrifices. WebAssembly is a low-level byte code generated by higher level languages like C/C++ or better yet, because of its memory safety, Rust. It's an assembly-like programming language or structured stack machine, as opposed to a general stack machine like the JVM. As a compilation target for higher level code, WebAssembly or wasm libraries are often added to web-based applications to handle computationally intensive operations. [applicatio] Feross Aboukhadijeh, an open-source developer and co-creator of Wormhole, told The Register in an email that WebAssembly has two main benefits. "WebAssembly allows developers to take existing C and C++ codebases and run them on the web, with little to no modifications," said Aboukhadijeh. "This is great for reusing old code like ffmpeg -- it means it doesn't need to be rewritten in JavaScript." "WebAssembly also allows performance-critical components to be written in Rust and then run with near-native performance. WebAssembly can perform faster or more predictably than JavaScript since it's lower level." Code for the future The Bytecode Alliance sees WebAssembly, and various related code infrastructure projects like WebAssembly System Interface (WASI), WebAssembly Micro Runtime (WAMR), and Lucet, as a way to deal with difficult-to-secure package registries like npm, PyPI, and crates.io that form the foundation of modern software development. * The JavaScript ecosystem is 'hopelessly fragmented'... so here is another runtime: Deno is now a company * Internet Archive to preserve Flash content for posterity with Ruffle emulator * Your web browser running remotely in Cloudflare's cloud. That's it. That's the story * The W3C steers the way the World Wide Web works. Yet it is reluctant to record crucial meetings - and its minutes are incomplete Package registries are essentially databases of previously written code that developers can import into their own projects so they don't have to solve problems already solved by existing programs. This saves an enormous amount of time but can lead to security problems if the imported modules have inadvertent or deliberate flaws. As Lin Clark, Fastly senior principal software engineer, wrote in 2019 while at Mozilla, 80 per cent of code bases come from these package registries. So there's much to be gained by limiting the potential harm from any buggy or malicious libraries in an application. WebAssembly aims to do so through nanoprocesses, which create memory-efficient isolated sandboxes for each wasm module or library. It has the potential to replace microservices with quarantined, wasm-based nanoprocesses. And that's more or less the mission of the Bytecode Alliance. [applicatio] With its incorporation as a 501(C)(6) organization and its membership expansion, the Bytecode Alliance is looking to extend its vision of more modular, secure, performant applications to a broader set of environments, like the cloud and the network edge. "WebAssembly and the emerging WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) specification enable cloud-native solutions to become more secure by default and help solve computing challenges across a variety of environments, including the 'tiny edge' of systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) and microcontroller units (MCUs)," said Ralph Squillace, principal program manager, Azure Core Upstream, at Microsoft and Bytecode Alliance board member in a statement. Holley said the technical community has a chance to change the way software is built in a way that will empower small teams to develop big projects that manage to be both secure and speedy. "Achieving the elusive trifecta -- easy composition, defect isolation, and high performance -- requires both the right technology and a coordinated effort across the ecosystem to deploy it in the right way," he said. Maybe wasm is that technology. (r) Get our Tech Resources * MORE * Security * Software * Cloud Corrections Send us news 41 Comments reddit Twitter Facebook linkedin WhatsApp email [applicatio] Most Read 1. Words to strike fear into admins' hearts: One in five workers consider themselves 'digital experts' these days 2. Shadow over Fedora 34 as maintainer of Java packages quits with some choice words for Red Hat and Eclipse 3. Traffic lights, who needs 'em? Lucky Kentucky residents up in arms over first roundabout 4. JavaScript developers left in the dark after DroidScript software shut down by Google over ad fraud allegations 5. Here's what Russia's SVR spy agency does when it breaks into your network, says US CISA infosec agency [applicatio] --------------------------------------------------------------------- [applicatio] * Court snubs Microsoft, US govt's request to throw out Amazon's complaint against JEDI cloud contract decision Yes, AWS is still fighting for this $10bn deal Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 22:53 UTC The US Court for Federal Claims on Wednesday denied motions by the Department of Justice and Microsoft to dismiss an Amazon Web Services lawsuit challenging the Defense Department's decision to award its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing contract to the Windows giant. Since 2019, AWS has been trying to overturn the government's determination to hand Microsoft the $10bn single-vendor JEDI contract following a multi-year battle. Last October, AWS claimed in a court filing that President Trump had interfered in the Defense Department's procurement process due to his apparent dislike of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. Continue reading * Michael Collins, once the world's 'loneliest man,' is dead. If that name means little or nothing to you, read this Buzz Aldrin sole remaining survivor of Apollo 11 Moon landing Iain Thomson in San Francisco Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 21:41 UTC Obit Michael Collins, the one Apollo 11 astronaut too few remember, has died of cancer at the age of 90. Collins was the man who stayed in the Command Module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while his crewmates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history by setting foot on the Moon. But he never begrudged the pair for their time on the lunar regolith, and turned down further opportunities to visit our natural satellite. "Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, his final challenge, in the same way," his family said in a statement. Continue reading * Red Hat OpenShifts gears at summit to pin its future on 'open hybrid cloud' Kubernetes takes centre stage as open-source giant aims to offer OpenShift everywhere Tim Anderson Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 20:20 UTC Red Hat introduced new managed cloud services at its 2021 summit and expanded the OpenShift Kubernetes platform with improved security, management, and Edge deployment features. CEO Paul Cormier kicked off yesterday's keynote with a speech in praise of open source, stating that "it's only the open-source model that brings collaboration across many global communities." He reminisced about the first non-beta release of Red Hat Linux in May 1995. At the time Linux needed more enterprise attributes if companies were going to bet their businesses on it, he said, and the 2003 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was "introduced to bridge this gap." Continue reading * UK government gives Automated Lane Keeping Systems the green light for use on motorways But at less than 37mph, don't expect anything to be quick Lindsay Clark Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 19:35 UTC Limited to speeds of up to 37mph on motorways, Automated Lane Keeping Systems have been offered a route to their legal introduction on UK roads. The Department for Transport claimed that the technology could improve road safety by reducing human error, which contributes to over 85 per cent of accidents. "The driver will be able to hand control over to the vehicle, which will constantly monitor speed and keep a safe distance from other cars," it said. Self-driving technology in cars, buses, and delivery vehicles "could spark the beginning of the end of urban congestion, with traffic lights and vehicles speaking to each other to keep traffic flowing, reducing emissions and improving air quality in our towns and cities," DfT said. Continue reading * FCC gives SpaceX the go-ahead to drop Starlink satellite orbits by 500 kilometres or so Low enough to witness Musk's Twitter trolling of Jeff Bezos? Richard Speed Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 18:49 UTC America's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted an application by SpaceX to bring some of its broadband satellites closer to Earth. The authorisation reduces the maximum number of birds allowed in the constellation by one from 4,409 to 4,408, and reduces the operational altitude for 2,814 of the satellites from between 1,100-1,300km to the 540-570km range used by other Starlink sats. The fleet has just over 1,000 satellites in orbit right now, and it's hoped 12,000 or more will be launched eventually. Continue reading * There is no escape: Atlassian to send Jira into places only Excel dares to tread HR, finance, marketing and more in the crosshairs for Jira Work Management Richard Speed Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 17:45 UTC Atlassian has released Jira Work Management, which it plans to slip into fields beyond the usual IT and software suspects. The Jira product itself, which Atlassian initially built its house on, is coming up on its third decade, having started life in 2002 as an issue tracker. It has grown over the years to encompass agile project management and, late last year, was extended to handle IT Service Management. It is therefore not too surprising that the company has turned its gaze to other areas of the enterprise with Jira Work Management, aimed at teams in HR, finance and marketing. Continue reading * Ransomware crooks who broke into Merseyrail used director's email address to brag about it - report Hasn't stopped the trains, though Gareth Corfield Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 16:45 UTC Brit railway company Merseyrail is understood to have suffered a ransomware attack - and the crooks responsible reportedly pwned a director's Office 365 account to email employees and journalists about it. News of the breach was reported by BleepingComputer, which received one of those emails. A spokesperson for the rail operator told us in a statement: "Merseyrail was recently subject to a cyber-attack. A full investigation has been launched and relevant authorities notified. This does not affect the operation of our services, which will continue to run as advertised." Continue reading * Why mission-critical storage needs more intelligence How to predict - and prevent - errors Dan Robinson Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 16:00 UTC Sponsored Storage is perhaps the most fiendishly complex part of enterprise IT, as the storage infrastructure has to meet the demands of a range of workloads with differing requirements for performance, all while ensuring reliability. This is particularly so for storage that supports mission-critical applications where high availability is an essential requirement. Add to the mix the need to accelerate the speed of their business and become more agile, and it is clear that organizations need to have a strategy for managing their data, one that takes a more intelligent approach. This in turn calls for more intelligent platforms to support the whole process and avoid being tied down with the complexity that mission-critical storage often entails. These are the challenges that HPE set out to address with its Intelligent Data Platform and the HPE Primera mission-critical storage arrays that are based on it. Continue reading * 33 'unsustainably loss-making' Dixons Travel outlets set to be shuttered affecting 400 staff Electronics retailer 'confident' workers can be offered opportunities elsewhere in the business Paul Kunert Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 15:19 UTC Dixons Carphone is to permanently ground its airport stores that employ 398 staff, amid mounting losses and following the British government's discontinuation of airside tax-free shopping at the start of 2021. The decision to shutter the Dixons Travel outlets was confirmed in a trading update covering the 51 weeks ended 24 April, which show group turnover rising 14 per cent year-on-year as online sales more than doubled to PS4.5bn. A spokesperson told The Reg: "Today's announcement follows an unprecedented year for the travel industry, which has seen UK airline passenger volumes fall by 75 per cent in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Continue reading * Brit MPs and campaigners come together to oppose COVID status certificates as 'divisive and discriminatory' Transport minister confirms use of the NHS app for just that when citizens travel abroad Lindsay Clark Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 14:32 UTC With Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove expected to announce app-based "COVID status certificates," the UK's post-lockdown plan looks set to come under fierce attack. Seventy-eight Members of Parliament and 11 lords - including former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey - are backing a campaign by Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties and privacy group. They join other campaign groups, including Liberty, in backing the statement: "We oppose the divisive and discriminatory use of COVID status certification to deny individuals access to general services, businesses or jobs." Continue reading * Show me the Monet: Late Samsung chairman's family settles inheritance tax bill, massive art donation Highly anticipated details of stock division still unavailable Laura Dobberstein Wed 28 Apr 2021 // 13:45 UTC Heirs of Samsung patriarch billionaire Lee Kun-hee issued a statement today partially detailing their inheritance tax strategy alongside financial and art charity contributions. The statement said the family has "decided to give back to society through medical contributions and art donations." Lee Kun-hee's survivors include his wife, Hong Ra-hee, son Jae-yong ,and two daughters Boo-jin and Seo-hyun. His heirs will pay the second largest inheritance tax in Korea's history, more than 12 trillion won ($10.7bn), in instalments. The first instalment, one-sixth of the total, is due this Friday. Continue reading [applicatio] ABOUT US* * Who we are * Under the hood * Contact us * Advertise with us MORE CONTENT* * Latest News * Popular Stories * Forums * Whitepapers * Webinars SITUATION PUBLISHING* * The Next Platform * DevClass * Blocks and Files * Continuous Lifecycle London * M-cubed Situation Publishing The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community. Part of Situation Publishing SIGN UP TO OUR DAILY NEWSLETTER Subscribe Twitter Facebook LinkedIn feeds no-js Biting the hand that feeds IT (c) 1998-2021 Do not sell my personal information Cookies Privacy Ts&Cs