Roundup: The Github Rails upgrade, impersonation in Rails, accessible video games, CORS, semantic intent
Elena Tanasoiu
Oct. 5, 2018
Upgrading GitHub from Rails 3.2 to 5.2 - Andrew W
https://githubengineering.com/upgrading-github-from-rails-3-2-to-5-2/
Rails Core Team member, Eileen Uchitelle, explains how she and her colleagues took GitHub from Rails 3.2 to Rails 5.2 over a period of 18 months and offers tips on how to stay current and to smooth the upgrade process.
Implementing impersonation - Andrew W
https://jamie.ideasasylum.com/2018/09/29/implementing-impersonation/
The recent leak of 90m user records by Facebook was caused by a feature that allowed user impersonation. Jamie Lawrence explains how to implement this feature inside your Rails app securely and what pitfalls to avoid.
Making video games more accessible for blind people - Celia C
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/how-blind-players-succeed-at-sports-video-games-theyve-never-seen/
It may seem surprising but blind people play video games using cues from the game itself like the commentary or certain rumbles the controller makes. When an accessibility lead found out, she pushed for changes in the games to help them further. This is really cool.
Do you really know CORS? - Elena T
http://performantcode.com/web/do-you-really-know-cors
When you think of CORS, you think of a security mechanism added for your own protection. However, CORS is actually a mechanism for weakening that protection and we usually only interact with it when we're trying to bypass it.
Better code search - Murray S
https://githubengineering.com/towards-natural-language-semantic-code-search/
Work with me on a project long enough and you'll probably hear me bemoaning the search functionality on github. It can't search for punctuation, which seems like a huge miss-step when searching through code as punctuation is very imoportant to the meaning. However, maybe I'm thinking about improving search wrong. Over at github they've started an experiment to allow for searching code snippets by semantic intent, rather than by actual content. It's a neat idea and I'm keen to see where they take it.
Track of the Week - Steve L
One of the many great things about The Bridge is the theme music…