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THIS WEEK, ONE angry programmer broke a whole mess of the software the internet runs on with the simple deletion of one simple program consisting of 11 lines of code.
Everything is OK now. But it’s a strange case that involves copyright lawyers, a petulant developer, and a behind-the-scenes look at how tech titans like Facebook, Spotify, and Netflix make the sausage.
It all starts with a developer named Azer Koçulu, who wrote an otherwise unremarkable piece of code called Kik, an extension for the popular programming language Node.js.
Koçulu put his Kik module up on NPM, essentially an App Store for Node.js programmers, as a free download for developers to work into their apps at their leisure.
Kik, the popular social network of the same name, took notice and sent Koçulu an email requesting that he change the name of his module. By Koçulu’s own admission in a blog post, Kik’s initial request was reasonable. Still, Koçulu wouldn’t budge.
“When I started coding Kik, didn’t know there is a company with the same name. And I didn’t want to let a company force me to change the name of it,” Koçulu writes.
Given that Kik did have copyright on its side, Koçulu says that NPM CEO Isaac Schlueter took away his ownership of the module in question without asking.
Upset, Koçulu announced in that blog entry that he was removing his Kik from NPM entirely – as well as all of his other code.
It’s likely that nobody would have noticed – except that Koçulu is also the person who created a very silly, very basic, but very popular NPM module called “npm left-pad.” It’s 11 lines long and doesn’t actually do anything complicated, but it’s been downloaded over 575,000 times.
And when it vanished, developers on Reddit, Twitter, and elsewhere definitely took notice.
This is where things get sticky.
A module like npm left-pad is basically a shortcut so a developer doesn’t have to write a whole bunch of basic code from scratch. If a developer calls on an NPM module, it’s basically shorthand for “put this code in later,” and a software compiler will just download the code when the time is right.
Most of the time, this works just fine. But sometimes, software ends up relying on what’s essentially a house of cards: One Node.js module calls on another, calls on another, calls on another. Again, usually it works fine – right up until npm left-pad is taken offline.
Boom – down went the house of cards. Popular software projects like Babel, which helps Facebook, Netflix, and Spotify run code faster, and React, which helps developers build better interfaces, were suddenly broken and no more work could be done with them. Overall, over a thousand software projects were affected, according to the npm blog.
Fixing the problem would require that programmers sift through all of those dependencies, making sure that absolutely nothing relied on that one silly 11-line bit of code.
And so, after a mass outcry from developers all over the world, NPM was forced to “un-un-publish” the code in question, handing it over to a new owner.
In a series of Twitter posts, NPM CTO Laurie Voss says that the company wasn’t totally comfortable handing over what’s still Koçulu’s intellectual property, but much of the software industry had ground to a halt over the issue.
All told, the storm is over, and npm left-pad is back online. But the wounds are still deeply felt: “Have We Forgotten How To Program,” asks one blog entry urging developers to rethink how they build their apps.
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Ireland’s very own Watergate, but we all know that the real perpretators will walk away scot free!
They will because no one has any idea who they are.
RTE needs to start up Nighthawks again!
If that happens then indeed Democracy and Law in Ireland are only a facade and I unreservedly apologize for defending the Guards and State in the past.
After this week, the idea of impartial justice, media and policing are lying in pieces on the floor.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. – Thomas Jefferson
Has anybody asked the commissioner or the minister if the Garda have ever used this type of technology or indeed if they have access to it.
Watch, they can’t tell you that for operational reasons, officials secrets act and all that shite, it just show how stupid the guards really are, they should stick to putting people out of there homes and catching people for no tax on the vehekilllllllllllll, whistttttttt
Its another secret to be kept from the citizens by the gang cartel
ahhh harry :) was that you in paper last week. the victim again lol
You off your medication again harry?
One of them are going down. Either Shatter, Callinan, or O’ Brien. The scurrying for cover is well under way. My money is on O’ Brien. My preference would be Shatter or Callinan to get the boot.
Breathtaking! It only took the Garda Commissioner five days to conduct an investigation into bugging at the GSOC and he categorically states that there was no authorised OR unauthorised Garda involvement. ” Mick, were you involved? No sir! Ok then . Paddy, were you involved? No sir! Ok then . I’ll make my announcement and put this thing to bed. I’ll have to feed these bloody chickens that came home to roost !”
As said by a dead writer … O what a web we weave when we try to deceive.. well it fits the bugging of the GSOC offices` .The garda commissioner seems to think that we all are sheeple oh did i make a mistake there
Yes Harry, you made a mistake! The Poet Sir Walter Scott wrote in ‘Marmion’- ‘Oh what a tangled web weave, When first we practise to deceive!’ But sure seeing as most (sorry, make that ALL!) of what you write on here is crap, why should failing to quote a well known line from a poem be any different for you!
It’s all a big cover up , we will never know who planted the bug for sure , F.G and the Garda will make sure of that
Also on a very far fetched suggestion; gsoc is investigating two cases with international connotations;
The murder of Sophie Tuscon du Plantie which the French authorities want resolved.
The matter of suspected collusion between the Gardaí and ira, which the UK government are very interested in.
Both the French and British wouldn’t be in the junior leagues when it comes to intelligence gathering.
That is a very far fetched statement to think that the British or French would think there could possibly be any sort of intelligence in any Garda file is totally far fetched, intelligence and garda don’t go well in the one sentence
Grow up Lm. Everybody can see your deep hatred of the Gardai which shows inself that anything you say will be utter shite coming out your mouth.
Lm,,,, your intelligence is absolutely mind blowing, that skull of yours must be a pretty lonely place for that lone brain cell.
Let’s face it, you hate the GARDAI.
I wonder who you go crying to when you’re in trouble ? The Army, GSOC, Provos, ah yes, you’re a real gem !!
Anything positive going on there at all ????
Its interesting how the line from pro-establishment commentators has changed from ‘there was no bugging’ and the ‘GSOC bugged themselves’ to now it was the French that done it.
A study in the art of deflection and obfuscation in itself.
It must be very exciting at the press office briefings to anticipate what the red herring special of the day is going to be.
Keep up the good work interns.
The French dropped looking for Ian Bailey once they saw the evidence against him.
A hodge podge of supposition and made up testimony that has since been roundly debunked. They don’t have to listen in to GSOC to see he was framed.
The French have full access to all files and personnel, they do not need to bug it.
Is that you Boylan, where are you Rosslare or Dunlaoighre, hold on there and the lads will be out to give you a hand unload soon
Believe me and I swear on this, I do not hate the guards, I have very good friends who are in the guards who can’t wait for the pension to kick in, let’s face it they are a law onto themselves that can do what they want when they want, that what I don’t like about guards but I don’t hate them, I have my tax,insurance and licence up to date and that’s all that matters, so after that I am free to do whatever I want, legal or otherwise
Now Dominic you will be glad to know the word is out that the Sunday times is going to publish the report from the security company that done the sweep so that should bring clarification to some questions
Shatter is also minister of Defence, Army intelligence would have access to surveillance equipment. The Defence Forces regularly play a role in defence of state agencies from hacking.
Minister gets one agency (defence) to spy on gsoc to find out what gsoc knows about his other agency (Gardaí)
Far fetched, but plausible and deniable.
Not that far fetched at all. Probably what happened.
“I suspect or potentially suspect! ” how exactly do you potentially suspect something? You either do or you don’t. One can certainly be a potential suspect but the amount of spin these guys try to use is just shameful. Imagine where they’d be without their advisors, speech writers and press officers. Potentially defunct springs to mind.
I watched Watergate unfold, and this has the same taste to it. Deny, deny. Accuse the victim. Blame the press. Deny, deny.
I am confident that there are more people out there who have direct knowledge of this matter, and they will come forward.
Watergate took more than a year to blossom. John Dean didn’t start cooperating with the investigation for 11 months. It will take some time. There are differences, certainly. Your best hope is with the Dail and it is imperative that TDs keep up the pressure. The Sunday Times in all probability will have much more to say about this episode as well. Ireland being a relatively small country, things can move along more quickly than they did in America over the Watergate scandal.
We are living in interesting times.
We certainly are.
its a crazy world when Shatter cant ask people what they know, The politicians have just become embroiled in a web of lies among themselves and us ,the world would be a better place if people just stop lying faking and pretending.
Shatter desn’t ask because he is afraid they might answer and what does he do then.
We all know who was behind this subversion of democracy and law in the state.
Outside of that fact what is equally disturbing is the lack of concern by the Guards and Cabinet that a vital wing of the Justice system was under surveillance, probably illegal surveillance.
This is the most pointless story in years and years! So many more important newsworthy events occurred, in the past few weeks, that deserved air time more than this nonsensical event!!!
Another “investigation” if memory serves me well..
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/may/11/irish-journalists-police-monitoring
British publication explains how Shatter effectively controls Irish media.
http://www.cityam.com/article/ireland-shows-why-press-controls-are-not-solution#sthash.OinZrjI9.dpuf
Seamus that was an investigation into corrupt police officers giving information to the media for money. Are you saying the state should ignore this problem
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