https://simonbutler.se/ Recent content on Simon Butler Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb All rights reserved Tue, 02 May 2023 19:30:00 +0200 https://simonbutler.se/writing/sculpt/ Tue, 02 May 2023 19:30:00 +0200 https://simonbutler.se/writing/sculpt/ For the last twenty years or more I have used Microsoft’s ergonomic keyboards, wearing out more than a few. During the last 5-6 years I have used the wireless Sculpt with one keyboard at home and one in my office at work. The one at home is not in such great condition any more; the one at work gets much heavier use and has been in need of replacement for a while. https://simonbutler.se/writing/chatgpt-threats/ Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:00:00 +0200 https://simonbutler.se/writing/chatgpt-threats/ In common with many researchers and teachers I have been playing and experimenting with ChatGPT - the free research preview version in my case. I would like to understand more about what ChatGPT is capable of and how I can use it, and also how students might use it. Some colleagues have been impressed, and I largely agree with their perspective that, with care and vigilance, it has the potential to be a very useful tool. https://simonbutler.se/writing/research-ethics/ Sun, 19 Mar 2023 22:00:00 +0100 https://simonbutler.se/writing/research-ethics/ A recurrent theme during the last few months has been research ethics. And, for me, there is a question in each case which concerns the motivation to behave unethically, and a second question about whether there are research integrity processes in each institution involved. There is also a subsidiary question which might be phrased as: “Exactly how stupid do you think the reviewers or your colleagues are?” Example 1: Plagiarism Recently I was a reviewer for submissions to a special issue of a journal. https://simonbutler.se/writing/reproducible-builds/ Tue, 29 Nov 2022 09:04:00 +0100 https://simonbutler.se/writing/reproducible-builds/ Software Quality Journal have published our article on the use of reproducible builds in industry. The article is published with open access and is available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11219-022-09607-z Summary Reproducible builds (R-Bs) are techniques for creating identical executable files from known source code. Establishing the correspondence between source code and binary has a wide range of applications in securing application development, in particular, and provides support for activities such as licence clearance when building complex software with multiple dependencies. https://simonbutler.se/writing/oss-adoption/ Thu, 22 Sep 2022 11:58:00 +0100 https://simonbutler.se/writing/oss-adoption/ We have recently (November 2021) had an article on OSS component adoption accepted for publication by the Journal of Systems and Software. Unfortunately the production process appears to have been delayed as a consequence of the late 2021 wave of COVID 19 infections (omicron). The publisher is based in the Netherlands, which has just started another period of lockdown, and production work is undertaken in India (as far as I can tell). https://simonbutler.se/writing/publishing-security/ Sun, 26 Dec 2021 20:15:00 +0100 https://simonbutler.se/writing/publishing-security/ The publication workflow for an accepted manuscript with academic publishers can contain security flaws. Some journals can have been tightening up security in their publication processes during the last few years. In general, the measures taken are quite reasonable and are a “good thing”. Sometimes they are flawed, fulfilling one function while providing opportunities for the process to be abused by the unscrupulous. Confirming authorship An outwardly sensible idea has been to ask individual authors to confirm that they have contributed to the paper and are, indeed, authors. https://simonbutler.se/writing/moving-on-from-polymode/ Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:04:00 +0100 https://simonbutler.se/writing/moving-on-from-polymode/ Previously, I have written about using Polymode with org-mode and BibTeX. At the end of that piece, I wrote about finding my setup a little brittle, which turned out to be a problem. After trying to work with Polymode, I gave up because I found it inconvenient So, what was the solution? My bibliography file is now treated as org-mode by Emacs and contains BibTeX source blocks, as in the following example: https://simonbutler.se/writing/polymode/ Tue, 30 Jun 2020 20:04:00 +0200 https://simonbutler.se/writing/polymode/ tl;dr: Emacs polymode allows the use of more than one major mode in the same file, and is easy to set up. Motivation is that embedded major mode content may be syntax highlighted, but can only be edited in the file’s major mode, meaning that an org file may contain embedded Python, for example, but the editor does not switch to Python mode when in a Python block. I have a lot of ambitions for my Emacs usage, but often have very little time to learn how to achieve those ambitions. https://simonbutler.se/publications/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://simonbutler.se/publications/ Journal Articles S. Butler, J. Gamalielsson, B. Lundell, C. Brax, A. Mattsson, T. Gustavsson, J. Feist, B. Kvarnström and E. Lönroth, On Business Adoption and Use of Reproducible Builds for Open and Closed Source Software, Software Quality Journal, v31(3), pp. 687–719 2023. DOI: 10.1007/s11219-022-09607-z S. Butler, J. Gamalielsson, B. Lundell, C. Brax, A. Mattsson, T. Gustavsson, J. Feist, B. Kvarnström and E. Lönroth, Considerations and Challenges for the Adoption of Open Source Components in Software-Intensive Businesses, Journal of Systems and Software, v186 2022.