dwheeler

26 ms·

301.
by dwheeler 4y ago
There is definitely a lot of fiddling with the text when writing, because you aren't really writing in English but instead a programming language. On the other hand, the results can be remarkably readable, and in a fascinating way. As
302.
by dwheeler 4y ago
For more about what happened next, see Steve Lipner's "The Birth and Death of the Orange Book": https://www.stevelipner.org/links/resources/The%2520Birth%25...
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by dwheeler 4y ago
As I posted about 4 months ago on "The Futures of Inform" < https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32571293 >: The "Inform 7 Programmer's Manual" by Ron Newcomb explains Inform 7 from the point-of
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by dwheeler 4y ago
I just hired a developer for a Rails application. They definitely exist :-).
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by dwheeler 4y ago
I used nokogiri in Ruby on Rails in 2015 and since, and have never had a problem installing nokogiri.
306.
by dwheeler 4y ago
I also did some astronomical calculations and display for a hard science fiction book. In my case the book was "Project Hail Mary". I used Python, pandas, numpy, and matplotlib; I also converted all distances to light-years. See:
307.
by dwheeler 4y ago
The problem here is specific to LaTeX. I wrote my PhD dissertation using OpenOffice.org (now use LibreOffice), and generating HTML was easy (I posted the HTML). But the author is right, LaTeX is widely used, translating it to HTML is hard,
308.
by dwheeler 4y ago
Git no longer uses SHA-1. It instead uses a variant called SHA-1DC that detects some known problems, and in those cases returns a different answer. More info: < https://github.com/cr-marcstevens/sha1collisiondetection
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by dwheeler 4y ago
How much was really lost won't matter much in terms of prosecuting those who committed any crimes. And while it looks like a huge crime to me, they are still innocent until proven guilty. It does matter to those who appear to have
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by dwheeler 4y ago
I do this as well. I encourage people to own their own domain and use that for email; it is more complex to set up, but you have far more control long term.
311.
by dwheeler 4y ago
The business cycle has been known for a long time. Things were never going to always go up, and this downturn will end too.
312.
by dwheeler 4y ago
More on JSON5 is here: https://json5.org/ I like the comments and trailing commas too. It has a few other small improvements as well.
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by dwheeler 4y ago
Exactly, if you reveal that an account exists when you just type in an email address, then you have a privacy failure and probably a security failure. For example, the OpenSSF's secure software development fundamentals course < http
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by dwheeler 4y ago
I think this is a great example of a book for learning a language. The cartoon illustrations are both funny and illustrative. The characters are consistent, too - each one represents a different concept. Most people probably won't be u
315.
by dwheeler 4y ago
It's relatively easy to learn a new language (for example) when you think, "this is like x, this is like Y, etc." I guess my key point is that you always need to keep learning, and don't box yourself in too much. Ideas f
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by dwheeler 4y ago
Eliminating leap seconds was only a half measure. They should have finished the job by adding rockets to the Earth to ensure that its rotation will stay at exactly 24 hours. If they weren't going to do that, then why eliminate leap sec
317.
by dwheeler 4y ago
I disagree, it takes lots of time but it is possible. Personal example: I have an electronics engineering degree that was 1 semester short of a physics degree, so I learned quantum mechanics, electromagnetic field theory, transistors, and h
318.
by dwheeler 4y ago
I disagree that the definition is "outdated". Yes, linters find real bugs, I never said they couldn't. But tools typically called "linters" routinely also report things that aren't serious defects, while othe
319.
by dwheeler 4y ago
This seems to equate linters with other kinds of tools, and I think that's mistaken. Linters attempt to look for "less than best practices". When you update a linter, you often also need to update code for the new style rul
320.
by dwheeler 4y ago
I think part of the problem is that people aren't distinguishing trusted inputs from untrusted inputs. ReDoS is only a possible problem if untrusted inputs can cause it. Some inputs are trusted, and while it's not crazy to check
321.
by dwheeler 4y ago
Yes, index the database. Another thing that can make Rails apps quite fast is using caching (Rails has some builtins that make that easy). In some cases you end up skipping a database lookup and running little Ruby code, which is a huge spe
322.
by dwheeler 4y ago
Right. Ebola spreads via contact with infected blood or body fluids. That's terrible for those infected, and we should definitely take steps to counter its spread. But that's not at all the same level of risk as airborne spreading
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by dwheeler 4y ago
Unsurprising. It's difficult to get a new trial, you have to have a strong justification for it.
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by dwheeler 4y ago
Using specialized types can be useful, but if it provide s methods they need to be correct for ALL situations. Here's a subversion of GitHub's authentication (now fixed) where they assumed that "lowercasing domain name using
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by dwheeler 4y ago
I wonder how effective this is. The text suggests that the only thing that they look for is that they look for is a version statement of a major component, and then compare it to known vulnerable components. That could be somewhat helpful,
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by dwheeler 4y ago
This was an important study in the history of computer security. It kicked off a lot of work on security, although a lot of it didn't pan out. Among other things, this study led to the Orange book. A good historical overview of what
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by dwheeler 4y ago
I live in northern Virginia, and I have never been a victim of theft. If this poll is correct, that amount of theft is insane. Regardless of the causes, this seems like a pretty serious problem.
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by dwheeler 4y ago
On iOS, yes. My understanding is that Apple forbids installing full Safari alternatives on iOS. On iOS the only permitted browsers are Safari reskins that use the Safari webkit. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fir
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by dwheeler 4y ago
Safari (especially on iOS) appears to have become the new Internet Explorer, holding back progress for everyone. The table in the article certainly suggests it. At least on Windows years ago you could install another browser. You can instal
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by dwheeler 4y ago
> The general sentiment I have seen among people doing SRE is that IDA is rapidly losing market share to Ghidra. While it excels in some areas, the licenses are pricy even for tech employers, and entirely out of reach for students or col

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