copied from PR nodejs/evangelism#47

weekly/2015-03-20.md

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+# io.js 1.6 release
+This week we had a two io.js releases [v1.6.1](https://iojs.org/dist/v1.6.1/) and  [v1.6.0](https://iojs.org/dist/v1.6.0/), complete changelog can be found [on GitHub](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/blob/v1.x/CHANGELOG.md).
+
+### Notable changes
+
+#### 1.6.1
+
+* **path**: New type-checking on `path.resolve()` [#1153](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1153) uncovered some edge-cases being relied upon in the wild, most notably `path.dirname(undefined)`. Type-checking has been loosened for `path.dirname()`, `path.basename()`, and `path.extname()` (Colin Ihrig) [#1216](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1216).
+* **querystring**: Internal optimizations in `querystring.parse()` and `querystring.stringify()` [#847](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/847) prevented `Number` literals from being properly converted via `querystring.escape()` [#1208](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/1208), exposing a blind-spot in the test suite. The bug and the tests have now been fixed (Jeremiah Senkpiel) [#1213](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1213).
+
+#### 1.6.0
+
+* **node**: a new `-r` or `--require` command-line option can be used to pre-load modules at start-up (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) [#881](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/881).
+* **querystring**: `parse()` and `stringify()` are now faster (Brian White) [#847](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/847).
+* **http**: the `http.ClientRequest#flush()` method has been deprecated and replaced with `http.ClientRequest#flushHeaders()` to match the same change now in Node.js v0.12 as per [joyent/node#9048](https://github.com/joyent/node/pull/9048) (Yosuke Furukawa) [#1156](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1156).
+* **net**: allow `server.listen()` to accept a `String` option for `port`, e.g. `{ port: "1234" }`, to match the same option being accepted in `net.connect()` as of [joyent/node#9268](https://github.com/joyent/node/pull/9268) (Ben Noordhuis) [#1116](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1116).
+* **tls**: further work on the reported memory leak although there appears to be a minor leak remaining for the use-case in question, track progress at [#1075](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/1075).
+* **v8**: backport a fix for an integer overflow when `--max_old_space_size` values above `4096` are used (Ben Noordhuis) [#1166](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1166).
+* **platforms**: the io.js CI system now reports passes on **FreeBSD** and **SmartOS** (_Solaris_).
+* **npm**: upgrade npm to 2.7.1. See [npm CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/npm/npm/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v271-2015-03-05) for details. Summary:
+  * [`6823807`](https://github.com/npm/npm/commit/6823807bba) [#7121](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/7121) `npm install --save` for Git dependencies saves the URL passed in, instead of the temporary directory used to clone the remote repo. Fixes using Git dependencies when shrinkwwapping. In the process, rewrote the Git dependency caching code. Again. No more single-letter variable names, and a much clearer workflow. ([@othiym23](https://github.com/othiym23))
+  * [`abdd040`](https://github.com/npm/npm/commit/abdd040da9) read-package-json@1.3.2: Provide more helpful error messages when JSON parse errors are encountered by using a more forgiving JSON parser than JSON.parse. ([@smikes](https://github.com/smikes))
+  * [`c56cfcd`](https://github.com/npm/npm/commit/c56cfcd79c) [#7525](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/7525) `npm dedupe` handles scoped packages. ([@KidkArolis](https://github.com/KidkArolis))
+  * [`4ef1412`](https://github.com/npm/npm/commit/4ef1412d00) [#7075](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/7075) If you try to tag a release as a valid semver range, `npm publish` and `npm tag` will error early instead of proceeding. ([@smikes](https://github.com/smikes))
+
+### Known Issues
+
+* Possible remaining TLS-related memory leak(s), details at [#1075](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/1075).
+* Surrogate pair in REPL can freeze terminal [#690](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/690)
+* Not possible to build io.js as a static library [#686](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/686)
+* `process.send()` is not synchronous as the docs suggest, a regression introduced in 1.0.2, see [#760](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/760) and fix in [#774](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/774)
+* Calling `dns.setServers()` while a DNS query is in progress can cause the process to crash on a failed assertion [#894](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/894)
+
+# Community Updates
+
+* browserify supports io.js, you can check the announcement [here](https://twitter.com/yosuke_furukawa/status/577150547850969088)
+* express.js added [support](https://github.com/strongloop/express/commit/165660811aa9ba5f3733a7b033894f3d9a9c5e60) to io.js
+* Over the last two weeks we got access to hardware from Joyent and upstreamed a patch to V8 so we got io.js building. After that we worked on passing tests for both [SmartOS](https://github.com/iojs/build/pull/64) and [FreeBSD](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1167) which as of two days ago now pass, this was thanks to the amazing work of the build team and [Johan Bergström](https://github.com/jbergstroem)
+* [Petka Antonov](https://github.com/petkaantonov) is proposing a workers implementation in io.js under an experimental flag, you can join the discussion [here](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1159)
+* io.js [upgraded](https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/1206) openssl to `1.0.1m`
+
+# Upcoming Events
+
+* [NodeConf](http://nodeconf.com/) tickets are on sale, June 8th and 9th at Oakland, CA and NodeConf Adventure for June 11th - 14th at Walker Creek Ranch, CA
+* [CascadiaJS](http://2015.cascadiajs.com/) tickets are on sale, July 8th - 10th at Washington State
+* [NodeConf EU](http://nodeconf.eu/) tickets are on sale, September 6th - 9th at Waterford, Ireland