The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 3,290 posts.
This is the final installment of a three part series in which we dive into modern application authentication solutions - the hard way. Part One: The Hard Way Part Two: The Hard Way, Continued Part Three: The Hard Way: Return Of The Specification The Hard Way: Return Of The Specification We are continuing our quest to…
Here’s my take on JWT* and why I think it’s amazing, after having migrated hundreds of applications in JP Morgan from a legacy authentication solution. *JWT = JSON Web Token 1) Pro: JWT…
Designing, printing, and building a one-handed gaming keypad
Looking for an em dash I was recently trying to find an em dash character to use in a piece of writing. Since I don’t have the shortcut memorized—for future reference, shift+option+minus on Mac—I did a quick search for it. I didn’t see one on the search results page to copy, so I clicked into the first result: “The…
Hosting static websites is great. As they only contain static assets to be downloaded by the visitor’s browser - think HTML, CSS, Javascript, Fonts, images - no server-side code such as Java or PHP needs to be run. They’re therefore typically faster to load than dynamic websites, they have a smaller attack surface…
The Problem Video playback looks better with a higher scan rate. A lot of content that was designed for TV (EG almost all historical documentaries) is going to be 25Hz interlaced (UK and Australia)…
C++ “move” semantics are simple, and unchanged since C++11. But they are still widely misunderstood, sometimes because of unclear teaching and sometimes because of a desire to view move…
A new email-based extortion scheme apparently is making the rounds, targeting Web site owners serving banner ads through Google’s AdSense program. In this scam, the fraudsters demand bitcoin in exchange for a promise not to flood the publisher’s ads with so much bot and junk traffic that Google’s automated anti-fraud…
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
Before I go into the specifics of my record attempt, it is important for you to have some background information. Over the past few years I have been steadily acquiring server hardware to increase my knowledge of system administration and cyber security. This is not only for personal growth: it has also helped me…
For two years I was on the Canadian NSERC committee that reviewed individual grant applications. Fascinating. After reading dozens of applications you can begin to see patterns emerging. I’m …
While writing the documentation for Org-roam, it occurred to me that I have things to say that do not belong in the documentation. I wrote Org-roam because Org-mode simply didn’t have the utilities to enable the kind of note-taking workflow I wanted. I don’t want to be prescriptive about how note-taking should be…
In my work I’ve developed a mental framework related to data modeling, which has helped greatly both when coming up with a model and when making decisions down the road about how to use that model. Here I will establish three different categories of data in software: Constants, State, and Cached Values. By “data” I…
(Note: This was written in 2016. I recently — in late 2019 — wrote a post about some things I’ve learned since then .)
There have been multiple generations of Macs. Apple has not really divided them up. 1. Original 680x0 Macs with 24-bit ROMs (ending with the SE/30, Mac II, IIx IIcx) 2. 32-bit-clean-ROM 680x0 Macs (starting with the Mac IIci) 3. NuBus-based PowerMacs (6100, 7100, 8100) 4. OldWorld-ROM…
Over the last 5 years of bootstrapping, I’ve tried a lot of things, and discovered there are many ways to create hassle for yourself that wastes time and energy and distracts you from building value in your business. This is my second post on lessons learned from bootstrapping; you can subscribe to updates to this…
Part of my series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. The SpaceX Starship is a game changer for space exploration. It is intended to be far bigger, cheaper, versatile, and available t…
Anybody who has ever taken an advanced computer architecture class has heard of the CDC6600, which was the world’s fastest computer from 1964 to 1969. It was the machine that put Seymour Cray…
Clifford algebra gives a unified view of many things that otherwise would need to be understood separately.
Listen, anyone can make a PCB at home, it’s easy. PCBs (printed circuit boards) are those flat things with all the components that are inside all electronic devices, you’ve seen them. All you need is a laser printer, some glossy magazine pages, print your circuit onto the page, use a clothes iron to transfer the toner…
Two books — 45 years apart — explain it. If you want to get ahead, it’s time to face the facts.
The chart classifies programming paradigms according to their kernel languages. Kernel languages are ordered according to the creative extension principle: a new concept is added when it cannot be encoded with only local transformations. Two languages that implement the same paradigm can nevertheless have very…
The most valuable thing a product manager can do is frame the right problem for the right user before anyone writes a line of code.
Every once in a while I receive an email from a fellow programmer asking me what language I used for one of my games and how I learned it. Here is an entry that list the best things to read about C. If you know of other gems, please email me or add a comment at the bottom of the page.
