AWS Lambda now bills in 1ms increments, one Twitter user noted. Previously, Lambda billed in 100ms increments, with a minimum of 100ms, which could prove more cost-effective for developers as they make architecture decisions based on minimum thresholds.

More:

• While the news hasn't been officially announced yet, it is possible AWS will do so at AWS re:Invent 2020, a three-week virtual conference that launched yesterday.
• AWS also captured attention recently after launching Amazon EC2 Mac instances which make it possible for developers to build, test, package, and sign Xcode applications for the Apple platform - including Safari, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. 
• The new Amazon EC2 Mac instances are powered by Mac mini hardware and the AWS Nitro System.

Many are launching free Advent Calendar programming challenges this week. Notable ones you can participate in include:

1. The annual Advent of Code 2020 challenge, which consists of daily new small programming puzzles for a variety of skill levels you can solve in any language, launches today, Dec. 1. 
2. The second bekk.christmas challenge launched with 11 new individual advent calendars on different topics, including the functional programming paradigm, Kotlin, React, JavaScript, security, the cloud, UX, and more. Each advent calendar includes short, tutorial-type articles and podcast episodes to inspire you to learn something new daily.
3. Scrimba's #JavaScriptmas, which consists of a daily coding challenge from Dec.1-24. The winner will receive $1,000. 

If you know of more holiday-themed contests, challenges, and events (or you're throwing your own!), let me know by hitting 'reply' so I can potentially share with other readers!

Giving Tuesday: If you want to give back this Giving Tuesday using your programming skills, check out Terminal's Tech Takes On Mental Health Hackathon. Participants can team up with others, or individually, to develop innovative apps tackling mental health issues that have resulted in the wake of COVID-19. The deadline to submit is Dec. 7, or next Monday.

Projects touching on the five following themes are particularly encouraged: physical health, gratitude, mindfulness, accessibility, and connecting with loved ones. Judges will be primarily mental health experts.

Winners will be able to donate the $8,500+ prize money to the established charity or a not-for-profit that is addressing mental health., while Terminal will also donate $25 USD per project submitted to the Mental Health America, Canadian Mental Health Association, and Voz Pro Salud Mental.

To find out more, click here. For more hackathons and virtual events taking place this month, check out the December calendar in the next story.

📅   Dev Calendar: December 2020 Virtual Events and Hackathons: (with hackathons organized by deadlines)

WEEK 1: NOV. 30-DEC.5

Virtual Events:

• NOV. 30- DEC. 4: WeAreDevelopers Live Week. "Watch dev talks and live coding sessions with leading experts from all around the world on WeAreDevelopers Live – real professionals, real projects, in real-time and on-demand!"
• NOV. 30-DEC.18: AWS re:Invent 2020, a three-week virtual conference from Amazon Web Services. Register here.
• DEC. 4...

Hackathons:

• NOV. 9-DEC. 7: Tech Takes On Mental Health Hackathon. Participants can team up with others or individually develop innovative apps tackling mental health issues that have resulted in the wake of COVID-19.
• DEC. 4-6....

WEEK 2: DEC. 6-12

Virtual Events:

• DEC. 7-8: GraphQL Galaxy conference. Major GraphQL conference diving into the future of the tool with talks by the creators of GraphQL and more. Will also include talks by well-known names, MCs, virtual networking activities, interactive entertainment, and engaging challenges.
• DEC. 8-10: GitHub Universe. GitHub's annual "product and community event featuring GitHub product experts, software leaders, and enterprise teams who are building the world’s most important technologies."
• DEC. 9...

Hackathons:

• NOV. 9-DEC. 7: Tech Takes On Mental Health Hackathon. Participants can team up with others or individually develop innovative apps tackling mental health issues that have resulted in the wake of COVID-19.
• DEC. 11-DEC. 13...

WEEK 3: DEC. 13-19

Virtual Events:

• DEC. 17...

Hackathons:

WEEK 4: DEC. 20-26

Virtual Events:

Hackathons:

WEEK 4: DEC. 20-26

Virtual Events:

Hackathons:

WEEK 4: DEC. 27-JAN.2

Virtual Events:

Hackathons:

Drupal has released emergency patches for two critical code execution (RCE) bugs in the Drupal core because of known exploits in the wild. The bugs are in the open-source PEAR Archive_Tar library, which Drupal uses to handle TAR files in PHP.

More:

• The bugs are possible if Drupal is configured to allow .tar, .tar.gz, .bz2, or .tlz file uploads and processes them.
• Drupal stressed that these flaws are different from critical RCE bugs it patched last year.
• A week ago, Drupal fixed another RCE bug in Drupal core.

This story first appeared in Inside Security.

Quick Hits:

• During this holiday season, find out how SimpliSafe is protecting over 3 million homes with less markup and more security.*
• FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who got rid of net neutrality in the U.S., will step down on Jan. 20. 
• hCaptcha now runs on 15% of the internet, making it the largest independent captcha service in the world.
• Tests reveal user internet speeds in the U.S. were 91% faster this year. 
• Revtown’s changing the denim game by applying the best parts of workout clothes – comfort, flexibility & durability – to jeans.*

*This is sponsored content.