An Intro to Compilers
A compiler is just a program that translates other programs. Traditional compilers translate source code into executable machine code that your computer understands. (Some compilers translate source code into another programming language. These compilers are called source-to-source translators or transpilers.) LLVM is…
Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android
Firefox had a baby and named it Focus! Firefox Focus is the new private browser for iOS and Android, made for those times when you just need something simp
Options vs. Cash
I often talk to startups that claim that their compensation package has a higher expected value than the equivalent package at a place like Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Snapchat. One thing I don’t understand about this claim is, if the claim is true, why shouldn’t the startup go to an investor, sell their options for…
The world in which IPv6 was a good design
. It took a look longer to read the book than to play this little web game, but you get pretty much the same thing out of the game, so I hig...
Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33
Update 9/18: CCleaner Cloud version 1.07.3191 is also reported to be affected Update 9/19: This issue was discovered and reported by both Morphisec and Cisco in separate in-field cases and reported separately to Avast. Update 9/19: There has been some confusion on how the
The sound of the dialup, pictured (2012)
If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember how it sounded. But what do these sounds mean?
Chaos Computer Clubs Breaks Iris Recognition System of the Samsung Galaxy S8
Biometric authentication systems – again – don’t deliver on their security promise: The iris recognition system of the new Samsung Galaxy S8 was successfully defeated by hackers of the Chaos...
Show HN: Metaballs
Generating gooey metaballs as a single SVG path — locating the tangent points between two circles, spreading and curving the connector with polar coordinates, and handling overlap, after Hiroyuki Sato's Illustrator script.
I decided to disable AMP on my site
I have a long history with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, but yesterday I drew the final straw. I was on Twitter (in Safari on iPhone 6) and I noticed that somebody linked to my site…
Announcing Pipenv
I wrote a new tool this weekend, called Pipenv. Check it out on GitHub! Pipenv is an experimental project that aims to bring the best of all packaging...
YC AI
Some think the excitement around Artificial Intelligence is overhyped. They might be right. But if they’re wrong, we’re on the precipice of something really big. We can’t afford to ignore what might be the biggest technological leap since the Internet. In an effort to usher in more innovation with AI, Y Combinator is…
How to Read Mathematics
Ranked a top 100 research university, VCU is a place where discovery and creativity go hand in hand. Located in downtown Richmond, Virginia, its more than 200 programs emphasize hands-on learning, creativity and engaging in the world around us.
DRM’s Dead Canary: How We Lost the Web, What We Learned, and What to Do Next
EFF has been fighting against DRM and the laws behind it for a decade and a half, intervening in the US Broadcast Flag, the UN Broadcasting Treaty, the European DVB CPCM standard, the W3C EME standard and many other skirmishes, battles and even wars over the years. With that long history behind us...
Larry Ellison allegedly tried to have a professor fired for benchmarking Oracle
In 1983, at the University of Wisconsin, Dina Bitton, David DeWitt, and Carolyn Turbyfill created a database benchmarking framework . Some of their results included (lower is better):
Inside a fast CSS engine
Project Quantum is a major rewrite of Firefox’s internals to make Firefox fast. We’re swapping in parts from our experimental browser, Servo, and making massive improvements to other parts of ...
Gas Pump Skimmers
What’s the first thing that should scare you? There’s three. And the next? The label ‘46’. They’ve got so many in the field criminals need to number them just to keep track.
Ideal OS: Rebooting the Desktop Operating System
Twitter user ekse has graciously translated this blog to Chinese. Thanks! TL;DR: By the end of this essay I hope to convince you of the following facts. First, that modern desktop operating systems are anything but. They are bloated, slow, and layered with legacy cruft that still functions only thanks to Moore's Law…
Little Things I Like to Do with Git
Handy Git tricks and aliases: leaderboards, praise, word-diff, branch history, daily recaps, changelog generation, and more in one quick guide.
Out of all major energy sources, nuclear is the safest
Fossil fuels are the dirtiest and most dangerous energy sources, while nuclear and modern renewable energy sources are vastly safer and cleaner.