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New Google recruits learn how to protect their web applications against security threads with the help of technical presentations and interactive tutorials. Today, Google is making its “Web Application Exploits and Defenses” tutorial available to everybody on the Internet. Part of this tutorial includes Jarlsberg , a full-featured microblogging application that was developed with a single purpose: to be hacked. Sponsor Jarlsberg was written specifically to teach developers about security vulnerabilities and for this reason, the code is full of security flaws. According to the tutorial, “Jarlsberg has multiple security bugs ranging from cross-site scripting and cross-site request forgery, to information disclosure, denial of service, and remote code execution.” The application is written in Python, though Google notes that the security bugs are not Python-specific. Jarlsberg’s source code is published under the Creative Commons license and the tutorial is part of Google’s Code University . It Takes a Hacker to Catch a Hacker As Google’s Bruce Leban notes, “it takes a hacker to catch a hacker” and the tutorial is meant to teach programmers to think like an attacker and to learn how hackers find security vulnerabilities. Leban also points out that the security bugs in the application are very typical bugs and similar to those found in many applications today. Discuss

Korean company Egoing has introduced MonkeyFly, a browser plugin that allows a user to customize their Twitter. For users who feel the abiding need for monkeying around (rimshot) with everything they use, this could come in handy. Among the features the plugin powers are a grid-style interface, lightbox profile, link tracking and easy photo upload. Sponsor Currently MonkeyFly supports Firefox and Google Chrome . If you’re a Safari user, speak Korean . Otherwise you’re out of luck. The focus is both on providing a customizable experience but also setting all the functions of the application to hand, such as incoming Tweets and @ references. Discuss

While everybody was talking about the iPhone OS 4 event yesterday , Apple also quietly announced WebKit2 , a major contribution to the open source WebKit project that forms the basis of Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers. One of the reasons that Google Chrome doesn’t crash very often is that Google uses a split process model. Every tab in Chrome runs in a different process and a crashing plugin or bug only takes down this tab and not the whole browser. While Google had to develop this code from the ground up for Chrome, Apple is now making this technology a core part of the WebKit2 framework. Sponsor Here is how Apple’s engineers Anders Carlsson and Sam Weinig describe WebKit2: WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process. This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it. What does this mean for users? First of all, Safari and every other application that uses WebKit, including the popular NetNewsWire RSS reader or the Konqueror browser for KDE, for example, will soon be able to rely on the same kind of crash protection that Google Chrome currently offers. Microsoft’s IE8 already features a similar crash-protection mechanism and as our own Sarah Perez noted earlier today , the latest beta version of Firefox ( Lorentz ) now also lets some processes (Flash, QuickTime and Silverlight) run in separate instances. Getting Ready for Multi-Core Browsing WebKit2 will also implement a number of APIs that will make applications more responsive. These will allow applications to render web content in the background without blocking other processes that the application wants to execute. As Stephen Shankland points out , this technique will also make it easier for developers (including Apple) to take advantage of multi-core chips. For a more detailed look at the technical side of WebKit2, also have a look a this document from the WebKit2 team. Discuss

Zynga is a leading example of how to wield cloud infrastructure to achieve scale. The company uses RightScale to help match demand of its incredibly successful game franchise with appropriate resources. Zynga seems to be a master of understanding how to model customer demand and underlying resources. As even virtual goods have COGS (cost of goods sold) server resources are part of the bill when conjuring up virtual goods for tens of millions of users. Although we can’t all be as smart (or cute) as Zynga, many of us are catching on that scaling into the cloud is a smart choice. This brief analysis of RightScale looks at its offerings and the momentum the company is gaining in the market. Sponsor What Does RightScale Offer ? RightScale is a platform that abstracts cloud offerings from Amazon and a host of other cloud providers to help orchestrate the management and provisioning of cloud assets. In the case of social games, this may be algorithms that help spin up services during a dramatic swing of usage. Or, in the reverse case, it maybe scaling infrastructure across the life cycle of a property as it is launched, goes viral, and eventually is replaced with the next thing. The company also offers resource portability, where it can deploy servers with Amazon, or other cloud providers that compete in providing cloud workload services and the ability to spin up new services through APIs. RightScale has tuned its tools to both learn and to react to changes required in the infrastructure for applications using the platform. New customer announcements include Hitachi Systems and Services in Japan and ProKarma in the United States. Both are strong systems integrators that have chosen RightScale as the platform to bring the cloud to their customers. RightScale has announced over one million servers launched using its platform. Maybe Zynga is the next Zynga The company certainly has the viral pattern down, and delivery nailed. And, one thing that we’ve learned in watching the excitement of social games is that demand can be like a roller-coaster. In addition to all of the natural benefits of cloud infrastructure in cost and timing, we think being ready for wild success is just good practice – it can much less expensive than failing to scale. More importantly, have a platform that scales can open up new doors to business that may have not existed without it. RightScale: For All Shapes and Sizes At RightScale, it doesn’t matter if your application is an addictive game, or monthly billing application. The company knows that in the next years, it is likely that hosting in the cloud makes sense for internet infrastructure and it is well positioned to be a piece of a lot of solutions that want to scale with demand. If the momentum with heavy-hitting system integrators continues, RightScale will be coming to you through its partners. Of course, you can also try it for free and get started in managing the cloud. The company is targeting companies that have more than a handful of servers and has a compelling offering to get started and to grow from there. Does RightScale fit into your scaling plans? Photo Credit: jurvetson Discuss

Team managers that are looking for a simple way of knowing exactly what it is that their subordinates are doing at all times might as well take a liking to this application. Entitled BusyWith, it provides a thorough overview of any team’s activity at any given time. The way this application works, each and every member of the team simply inputs a few details to update his status. Read more Learn more about BusyWith.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much BusyWith.com is worth with Stimator.com