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The People's Code

code.gov

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Re: The People's Code

#61

Post by Alupis »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #58
Alupis wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should send in a pull request, or file a bug report in the repo.

I'm not on their payroll, and I'd already fixed the CVE upstream over a year ago , so no.

You took the time to go search through those repos, and then took the time to come here and point out your findings.

You could have easily just copy pasted what you wrote here into an Issue on those repos.

It would have helped out your government, made these projects a tad bit better, and taught a few developers something they'll remember in the future when they write more software for the government.

It's part of the "spirit" if you will. Let's support these efforts - they're long overdue and difficult enough to get done for those few trying.

Re: The People's Code

#62

Post by stomato »

myowncrapulence wrote: post #34
joshdotsmith wrote: post #9

I really like the work of folks at 18F, USDS, CFPB, et al. Bearing in mind that I'm ecstatic to see this collection of projects and someone clearly put a lot of time and effort into this already, I do have couple points of hopefully constructive feedback here: - Please list all of your repositories and feature ones that you think deserve special recognition. Seeing all your repos is a 4-step process otherwise: click…

I really hope this sort of promotion of innovating in the tech sector remains growing.. with the current political climate, I doubt many sectors (besides military/finance) will see governmental spending growth in coming years.

If you're a US citizen, vote for someone that will keep it going. Some have promised to undo a lot that the current administration has done, and this might be part of that.

I'm not aware of any free code from Trump so far, btw.

Also, when his campaign has tried to code, they fail:

http://qz.com/762424/trumps-campaign-donation-website-used-o...

"A programmer named Shu Uesugi, an engineer at a California company called EdSurge, discovered a major flaw with the way Trump’s website was using jQuery. Instead of downloading the open-source code from GitHub and running it off a server they controlled, the developers who built Trump’s website simply ran the code off GitHub directly, Uesugi found.

While the code’s location might seem like a minor detail, running it off GitHub meant that the person who controlled the code on GitHub could change the code at his whim, and those changes would take hold on Trump’s website. Since GitHub is for open-source projects, it also meant that any user could submit a request to modify the code and impact Trump’s website, if the change was approved by the plug-in’s author, a developer in Lisbon named Igor Escobar."

Then Igor tweeted about how he could have modified it: https://twitter.com/igorescobar/status/766367306662440960?re...

Re: The People's Code

#63

Post by [deleted] »

Alupis wrote: post #61
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not on their payroll, and I'd already fixed the CVE upstream over a year ago , so no.

You took the time to go search through those repos, and then took the time to come here and point out your findings. You could have easily just copy pasted what you wrote here into an Issue on those repos. It would have helped out your government, made these projects a tad bit better, and taught a few developers something they'll remember in the future when they write more software for the government. It's part of th…

[deleted]

Re: The People's Code

#64

Post by officialchicken »

mars4rp wrote: post #48

Where is the IRS code?

Under the Department of Commerce - unsurprisingly - there is nothing from IRS.

A bit more surprising and entirely missing from the list (no source code):

* Department of Education * Department of Health and Human Services * Department of Housing * Department of Interior * State Department * Department of Transportation

And not really expecting anything from: * Department of Defense * Department of Homeland Security

Re: The People's Code

#65

Post by Aaron1011 »

stomato wrote: post #62
myowncrapulence wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hope this sort of promotion of innovating in the tech sector remains growing.. with the current political climate, I doubt many sectors (besides military/finance) will see governmental spending growth in coming years.

If you're a US citizen, vote for someone that will keep it going. Some have promised to undo a lot that the current administration has done, and this might be part of that. I'm not aware of any free code from Trump so far, btw. Also, when his campaign has tried to code, they fail: http://qz.com/762424/trumps-campaign-donation-website-used-o... "A programmer named Shu Uesugi, an engineer at a California company called…

> Since GitHub is for open-source projects, it also meant that any user could submit a request to modify the code and impact Trump’s website, if the change was approved by the plug-in’s author, a developer in Lisbon named Igor Escobar."

That's how it works for any open source project you use, regardless of where it's been hosted. Unless you review the entire codebase (as well as all changes made in new releases), you're trusting the maintainers' judgement.

Re: The People's Code

#66

Post by mwfunk »

ohyoutravel wrote: post #57
not_ed_snow wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The explicit and everpresent awareness that you are owned by your employer in your off hours, for a limited sub-selection of possible activities. In other words, you are not your productivity, you are required to live their moral code in your off hours.

That is...most jobs. Unless I'm not understanding your meaning. Many jobs will fire you for, say, getting a DUI or getting arrested for drug possession or something. And many employers do drug testing. But realistically, a "limited sub-selection of possible activities" is just about everything everyone else can do, except maybe go to Cuba or smoke pot, the latter of which will get one fired at many non-government pla…

Smoking weed is not going to get you fired anywhere, except for the worst jobs in the worst places. Any place that does regular drug testing and/or cares one teeny tiny itsy bitsy bit about employees smoking weed when they're not working is guaranteed to be a terrible place to work at, for that and any number of other reasons. There is not a single reputable company in the entire tech industry that does this.

Re: The People's Code

#67

Post by tommynicholas »

zanny wrote: post #28
tommynicholas wrote: post #19

If there's one thing that deserves a federal massive budget, it's this. If laws and regulations can be understood easily by software, we would remove so many problems the government creates. Complexity would be easier to manage, but also transparency would inherently breed simplicity.

Just for an example, HNR Block and other companies built on doing your taxes for you lobby the government to prevent simplification of the tax code, because they profit off its complexity. The same applies to almost all law. The complexity does not exist without a reason - there is almost always some entity actively funding the continued obfuscation of law for profit. So don't expect government to ever actively get s…

Exactly - there are tax code companies you've probably never even heard of like Avalara entering the Unicorn range. The kicker: all they do is calculate sales tax! Actually a cool company, but one that should never exist.

Re: The People's Code

#68

Post by gkop »

Aaron1011 wrote: post #65
stomato wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a US citizen, vote for someone that will keep it going. Some have promised to undo a lot that the current administration has done, and this might be part of that. I'm not aware of any free code from Trump so far, btw. Also, when his campaign has tried to code, they fail: http://qz.com/762424/trumps-campaign-donation-website-used-o... "A programmer named Shu Uesugi, an engineer at a California company called…

> Since GitHub is for open-source projects, it also meant that any user could submit a request to modify the code and impact Trump’s website, if the change was approved by the plug-in’s author, a developer in Lisbon named Igor Escobar." That's how it works for any open source project you use, regardless of where it's been hosted. Unless you review the entire codebase (as well as all changes made in new releases), you…

I agree it's overblown (based on the article).

Was it sourced from a particular SHA or a "latest" link?

Re: The People's Code

#69

Post by voltagex_ »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #58
Alupis wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should send in a pull request, or file a bug report in the repo.

I'm not on their payroll, and I'd already fixed the CVE upstream over a year ago , so no.

I have no intention of getting into an argument with you but wow, you must be having a bad day. I wonder if you would have gotten a different response to your report if you'd taken a different tone with the people trying to understand the issue itself.

Re: The People's Code

#70

Post by toomuchtodo »

greglindahl wrote: post #44
weka wrote: post #41

Took a look at some of the code. I see one for Gov of Commerce: The Commerce.gov API is under active, but not public, development. As such, API code is not currently made available publically. This Github repository will be used to collect and respond to feedback regarding the API and engage with developers interested in using the API. --- I don't believe that's the correct usage of GitHub. What's the point if you're…

They said what they think the point is in what you quoted: "to collect and respond to feedback..." I can see why you might not like it, or not agree with it, but it's not like they didn't say it!

My feedback would be a FOIA request for commerce.gov's API code, and a PR to add it to their repo.
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