Struts 2 Security Update

A couple of weeks ago, a remote exploit was demonstrated for applications using Struts 2.0.8 and below. It's a scary one. Like System.exit(0) scary. In some ways I can't believe that it got this far because it's such a simple one.

Anyway, if you're using Struts 2 below verson 2.0.9, or if you're using WebWork below version 2.0.4, do yourself a favor and UPDATE your jars.

Easy way: just update your xwork jar file (download the full lib here)
Better way: update to Struts2.0.9

Social Networking is Candy

I have some opinions about the current trends I've been seeing with new and emerging web sites. It seems that every single day, tech crunch posts something about a new social networking site getting seven figure venture capitalist investment. It makes me shake my head. This is why.

The underlying goal of social networking sites is communication with other people. And that's cool. We human beings love communication. I believe it's one of the core human needs. If you think of the major leaps in technology, many of them relate to advancement in communication methods. And if not directly, indirectly. Many advances help us to communicate with others better. The same is true with websites.

I can't help but notice a couple challenges facing a new social networking business model though.

1. Maintenance.

Keeping up with them numerous accounts on various sites is challenging at best. Just as it becomes increasingly time consuming and burdensom when you have multiple phone numbers, or multiple email addresses, belonging to many social networking sites requires overhead. I believe that Facebook is right on with adding applications, though, because this will allow it's users to pool their needs to communicate in one place. The need to belong to another type of social networking site, which has a specific purpose, becomes less gravitational. The more a user has invested in a single site, with a single account, the more reason there is to stay at that one place. This means that the flood of social networking sites we see today with specific purposes may become overshadowed by Facebook, simply because users don't want to keep up with an account in too many places at once.

2. Longevity.

Remember Friendster? What about MySpace? Facebook has grown immensely in the past year, simply because its the next thing, and facilitates communication in a slightly different way. And yes, unlike another popular site, it helps that it actually looks OK. MySpace is certainly not dead, but it's not the buzz that it was a year ago. I can't help but notice how trendy these sites are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that soon a new site will launch, with a new twist on networking, and will take over as the place to keep in touch with people. If I may make a prediction, I'll say that the next big site will do something amazing related to integrating our cellphones and portable devices (on and off line).

3. Utility.

Sites that have longevity have something in common. People DO something with them. They use them. There's an investment involved. Flickr has all your photos, Hotmail / Gmail has your email, Ebay is your source of income, Wikipedia is your source for information, and Google is your oracle. Does Myspace or Facebook _have_ your friends? Not really, that's just where you hang out virtually. What does it DO for you? The answer? These sites give you a place and a medium to communicate. But the nature of communication is ethereal. It exists, and then it's gone. It has an expiration date. With the exception of time, there's little to no investment from an account holder at purely social networking sites. There's just the convenience of being in the same virtual place at the same virtual time with your friends, and adding customizations to your profile. This is not to say that facilitating communication is not useful. What I'm saying is that the value of that communication on social networking sites is mostly trivial. How many MySpace pages have endless streams of "LOL" and "Dude, how's it goin'?" conversations?

4. Excitement.

One of the best parts of signing on with a social networking account, is the process of building your account, loading it with connections to friends. It's really exciting when it's new, because so much happens so fast. However, once all of your close friends are signed up, the pace of growth slows down, and the thrill is gone. This alone makes for a short term life span.

Now, I'm not saying that there's no place for a social networking business model. It works for a specific purpose. It facilitates communication. But, we communicate in so many various ways, that one place on the internet to do it all just isn't lasting. We love new and novel means of communicating too. It gets easy to cut our losses when we leave an account at one site for another site because any communication through these sites has already served it's purpose. It's only of archival purpose once it exists. Much like a new car, the value of a communicated idea decreases at a dramatic pace (the IDEA communicated, on the other hand, is of some value... sometimes)

Social networking is candy. Lots of fun, but of no real nutritional, lasting value. I have to add as a disclaimer to all of this that I don't do much on social networking sites. They bore me. I love to communicate with people who I know and whom I don't know, but if I want to communicate something important, I have SO many ways to do it that work better than a website.

What does this mean? I believe that social networking sites are a flash in the pan, a gold rush if you will. It's not lasting though. Just exciting. As someone who is investing the future of his career in the industry, I just hope that the hype doesn't get out of hand, like it did in our recent past.