Solving a Maze with D3.js - <AUTHOR> http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11189414

<comment><USER2> Part of a whole family of maze visualizations created in the past day by Mike Bostock:

Maze Generator: [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11159599](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11159599)

Maze Solver: [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11161648](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11161648)

Maze Flooder: [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11167589](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11167589)

Maze Solver with Best-First Search Algorithm: [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11189414](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/11189414)

(Edit: Best-First Search, not A*.)

It's awesome to see interesting algorithm visualizations in D3 (or other web standards) as opposed to Java applets. Especially as a student who has to do algorithm visualizations... in Java applets.

<comment> jay-anderson A few years back Jamis Buck did a survey of maze generation algorithms: [http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/2/7/maze-generation- algorit...](http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/2/7/maze-generation-algorithm- recap). The different algorithms seem to create mazes with different 'feels' to them. For instance recursive division algorithm appears more blocky and some have more dead ends than others. This d3 generator appears to be toothy (lots of short dead ends) on the right edge of the maze.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Is there a reason why it will continue searching "down" once it hits the right edge (and "left" if it hits the top edge)? I'm just curious.

<comment><USER4> Imagine you're in a maze. Do you know where you are in relation to the maze's boundaries at any point?

<comment><USER3> I guess that makes sense. I was thinking of it as a maze that someone would using a pencil on paper, but if it were a real maze with high walls it would make sense that you wouldn't necessarily know when you've reached a side.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love d3. But that example doesn't really use d3 for either the solving or the displaying.

<comment><USER6> I was thinking the same thing - it looks like the example used d3 mostly to simplify working with svg elements

<comment><USER2> This one actually uses the canvas element instead of svg. Just another awesome thing about D3: it works equally well with both. You can draw svg paths just as easily as you can draw them on a canvas.

Cool example of canvas[0] vs svg[1]. The canvas renders heavy animation a bit better. Both are around the same number of lines of code.

[0] [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/9539958](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/9539958)

[1] [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/1062544](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/1062544)

<comment><USER6> Ah! Thanks so much - I was wondering how this maze would work as a collection of svg elements. I'll look into using d3 with canvas for a project I'm doing.

<comment><USER7> IME, it gets pretty laggy beyond a few hundred svg elements. The catch to using canvas with d3 is that you lose the ability to bind event handlers to the canvas "elements" (since on a canvas they're not DOM elements, just pixels).

For my latest project I used a kineticjs canvas to get handlers on the canvas shapes. That's positioned on top of a d3-bound svg container. Best of both worlds, reasonable speed up to a couple thousand canvas shapes. Though it was quite tricky getting the same input events to trigger separate handlers on sibling dom elements. (Can't just let the events bubble up unless you make the canvas a child of the svg or vice-versa, but that approach creates more problems.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Brilliant. Never thought using D3 this way !

</comment><comment><USER9> I still remember the days when Javascript was regarded as a toy language. A glue script for image rollovers and drop-down menus and little else.

Now there are a dozen new Javascript creations each week on HN that make my jaw drop.

It's amazing how far it's come.

</comment><comment><USER10> very cool. i am even more amazed by the other data virtualization examples on the author's page [http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock](http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock)

<comment><USER11> @mbostock is the creator of d3.js.

<comment><USER12> and bl.ocks.org/</comment></comment></comment>


Quick, Hide in This Closet - <AUTHOR> http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Hide_Under_This_Desk.txt&sortOrder=Sort+by+Rating&characters=Steve+Jobs <comment><USER2> It's nice to read a story in which Steve Jobs is wrong</comment>


It's not you – it's your knowledge base - <AUTHOR> https://kevinslin.com/organizing/its_not_you_its_your_knowledge_base/ <comment><AUTHOR> author here - been working on this project for the past year and excited to share my thoughts about organizing information. feel free to comment if you have questions</comment>


Launched my side project: Grade Spotter - <AUTHOR> http://gradespotter.com/

<comment><USER2> Totally awesome. Quite frankly, I'm mad I didn't get to it first as I'm also obsessed with these grades.

I would suggest maybe changing the tag-line on your front page to "there are no more excuses _for_ the unknown reasons behind your favorite restaurant's grade, but that's just me.

Also, on Firefox 11 for Windows XP I'm having a hard time even reading that text. You might want to consider adding a little weight to it as it's quite badly aliased.

<comment><USER3> I'm having the same issues with Chrome 18.0.1025.151 on Windows 7. I pulled it up in IE9 and it looks good.

<comment><USER4> On the iPhone the header doesn't take the whole width.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Almost skipped the link, I thought it was some app for high school teachers or something since I mostly associate that with grades. Maybe some reference to the fact that its about restaurants may be a good idea.

<comment><USER6> I'll second this. Looks like an interesting app and a good use of public data. Not really obsessed with grading, though, so I'm not the target audience. My only quibble is that it doesn't really look "iOS native." Trying to set it apart from the crowd?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> the text "The powerful and easy NYC restaurant grade reference app for the iPhone is now available. There are no more excuses to the unknown reasons behind your favorite restaurant's grade." looks really weird on chrome 18 ... not sure what it is supposed to look like, other than that the site looks good

</comment><comment><USER8> Initial thought was that the introduction/explanation paragraph was difficult to read due to the font. The rest of the page is far easier to understand

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback, I think I have fixed that intro paragraph.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> <http://imgur.com/Y8XNb> text is in 3D? it looks strange on firefox 11 xubuntu

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the screenshot! It should be all fixed now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Awesome project. I love the clean interface. Having no information about these grading systems, are they available outside of NY? If so, any plans to expand this nation-wide?

<comment><AUTHOR> We have talked about expanding. Our first thought was we would just build this simple app, then we found out that other cities have some sort of a grading systems. So if all works well for NYC, then I see no reason to not expand.</comment></comment>


Just touching an item in a store makes you more likely to purchase it. - <AUTHOR> http://www.livescience.com/culture/080910-touch-taste.html <comment><USER2> finally some facts to back up marketing "theories" I'm tired of marketing people who don't have open minds</comment>


Ask HN: Chances for Restarting a Career in CS @ 30+ ? - <AUTHOR> i studied literature and philosophy @ a german university. after my master, i joined an it-startup - and as so many of them, we failed (but i don't regret learning so much within that time). even though, i got some interviews within the last ~7 months, i still can't find an avg. job to be able to finance a small room + living expenses.
now, i'm 31. i did some cs certificates offered by edx/coursera within the last 12 months (MitX: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science; BerkelyX: Engineering Software as a Service; HarvardX: CS50...).
and i'm totally addicted to coding - even when i notice my lack of math skills. i spent the nights trying to understand cs concepts and couldn't sleep or stop before i found a solution (sometimes i did not sleep the whole day).
sorry for the long prologue, but i thinks it's important for my main question:
do you think, it makes sense to study computer science at the age of 31? or is it too late? do you have some experience with that?
or do you work at a human resources department and can tell me if there is a chance for those kind of people? <comment><USER2> I went to tech school at age 41, after owning/managing in the restaurant business my entire adult life. I worked full time and studied full time and helped raise my little 2-year-old boy. I got my degree this spring.

Now I'm 44 and working my first job as a .NET developer, and I've never been happier. I have encountered no resistance to my age, quite the contrary: I've never felt more welcomed and encouraged than I do now in the coding community.

IT is changing rapidly, and you hear that all the time. But it's not just changing technically, it's also changing socially. That's very important to remember. If you are smart, and if you have the "knack", and if you work your butt off, and if you have a modicum of charm and social polish and confidence, you will have no trouble getting a job.

The world of coding is not monolithic. It is not homogeneous. To put it tritely, it is amazing how diverse a room full of coders can be....

<comment><USER3> I got my BS in CS (US) from mid tier state school at the age of 38. I think getting a degree later in life is an advantage, people see my graduation date on my resume and assume I'm younger than I am. Some people say I look younger as well.

I'm a team lead now, and if anything, I see younger devs as a liability. IMO you gain a certain level of pragmatism and persistance from working on large (crappy) code bases for a few years. When faced with challenging bugs, I see some younger devs giving up too quickly.

It takes time to develop the 'large code base skill', and I'd rather not solve you're bugs while you do. Especially if you're telling me how great language X is, and we should move to it.

<comment><USER4> Maybe you actually should move to language X.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> You talk about 'career in CS' but what you describe is 'being a programmer'.

'Career in CS' = MSc then PhD then postdoc in CS, making you ~ 40 when you will qualify for ~E2000/month jobs. So yeah, too late; also, not worth it (but that's a different topic).

'Being a programmer' = hitting the pavement hard to land your first job, transcend 'junior' status in 2-3 years. There are plenty of corporate programming jobs you can talk yourself into at your age.

Then there is 'I want to do only cool and hip things with computers and get paid well for it'. That doesn't have anything to do with age - or maybe a bit, but either way, it'll be a long hard road ahead.

<comment><USER6> I agree with most of what you say, but: 2000 euro/month -- as a finished Phd in CS?! That's ludicrously low?

Still, there's a difference between working as a developer/architect/engineer -- and doing CS research. I'm guessing op meant a career in "software engineering", not "computer science".

<comment><USER5> Sorry I meant that as the salary for a post-doc, which you will be for 2 (if you're top of your field) to 6-8 years (if you are a postdoc for longer, you should reconsider academia imo).

Also I meant 2000 pre-tax, but when I look at it, it seems that in some Western European countries you get paid more; like 2500-2800 pre-tax (I know several postdocs in Southern or Eastern European countries who would jump with joy with 2000 pre-tax though).

Don't think a PhD means you will earn a liveable wage! I personally know of a post-doc in economics (not paid like CS I think, but certainly normally one of the better-paid fields) who came from Eastern Europe to Belgium where he qualified for the equivalent of welfare payments ('leefloon'), which basically meant he made less than 817 euros a month!

<comment><USER6> Ah, yes, that makes more sense. I was more thinking as a researcher/architect at a private company after getting a phd -- in which case it sounded very low.

I never read op's post as an "actual" "career in computer scinece", more as a "career in software after maybe taking some CS (be that bsc ms phd or just a few courses)".

As for a post-doc in economics -- I would expect them to make more than minimum wage -- but again, if the goal was to make as much money as possible, I'd assume working as a consultant for Pwc or somewhere like that would be much better paid than continuing doing research in academia. Very different career goals though!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't think it makes sense to study computer science at an actual university, as you indicated you really like to code.

My strategy would be: learn one language very well, preferably a practical one like Javascript/Ruby/Python/C#/Java, do a small but significant (don't spend more than a month or two full time on it) open source or MVP project in it. This project will be your portfolio. Make sure you know at least the basic syntax of those 5 languages so you know which will suit you best.

After you have your portfolio project, you can be confident in applying for a job, if you picked one of the first 3 languages you might want to move to a big city like Munchen or Berlin that has lots of young companies to improve your prospects.

The key to being a good programmer in my opinion is to know about as many techniques and solutions as possible. This is why even during your process of learning your primary language and acquiring your first job, you should allow yourself to be distracted by fancy techniques and impractical languages. Learn languages like Haskell, Lisp, Erlang, C, don't become proficient in them, just enough to understand why they exist and why people love them, perhaps pick one of them up as your secondary language.

Also read a few of the good books you would get to read if you had done a university. IMO read "Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach" by Kurose, and "Operating System Concepts" by Silberschatz. Unlike most CS books these are very practical and easy to read. If you'd really like some more heady stuff, try "Computer Algorithms" by Van Gelder. Although it's sort of out of fashion I think I have to recommend "Design Patterns" by Gamma (gang of four) as well.

Perhaps I'm an optimist, but I think if you're focused you could do all these things in under 6 months. And you would have made a great start as a programmer. On a university you'd spend at least 3 years doing this, 3 years you could also spend getting real experience, making a living and perhaps start a family. In my opinion that would be a waste. If you really aspire for a degree, why not do it when you retire? Also if you must study now, consider a Fachhochschule, as it would focus more on coding than on maths and other side acts of CS.

Good luck, and if you need more book recommendations send me a message.

</comment><comment><USER8> First of all: Can we please stop pretending that your professional life is over and your skills and abilities are set in stone when you turn 30? I really can't hear this anymore and I think it's as far from the truth as can be. So, first of all: NO, IT's NEVER TOO LATE for you to learn something new, even at the biblical age of 31 :D

For a more detailed answer let's first have a look at the facts: You're 31. You have a University degree in Philosophy. You have several years (?) of work experience in a startup. You're passionate about programming. You're based in Germany.

Should you go study CS to land a job as a programmer? It depends.

In Germany, I think it's always beneficial if you can show some formal certificate or University degree in CS or a related field if you apply to a position as programmer: The lack of IT talent is not as big here as in the US, so most companies have a larger pool of candidates to select from and will actually care about degrees and relevant prior experience as a programmer, especially if they're big corporations. So if you want to go work at BigCorp, a CS degree will open many doors for you.

Startups might be more pragmatic when it comes to hiring programmers without formal education in CS, although salaries tend to be much lower there (especially in places like Berlin where there's a large influx of programmers from abroad).

I think a good strategy for you could be to keep working in a field were you can use your prior experience to make enough money, but where you can progressively add more and more programming and technical tasks to your job (e.g. working as a technical project manager could be interesting).

Concerning CS degrees I would have a look at part-time programmes offered by Fachhochschulen (FHs), since most of them have an excellent reputation in the industry, offer very pragmatic and relevant curricula (as opposed to some academic CS programmes) will even allow you to work on your degree part-time, or at least give you the opportunity to already work in a company during your studies.

<comment><USER9> People should drop the whole "I'm older than Zuckerberg my life it's ruin".

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Don't mind the lack of math skills. For a lot of programming tasks they are completely irrelevant. I studied some CS and later history at uni and I always felt that the things I learned studying history has been more useful for me than the CS courses were.

Writing good software is very much about abstract thinking and good language skills. I think you'll find that the things you learned studying literature and philosophy may be a lot more applicable that common wisdom suggests.

</comment><comment><USER11> Funny, I was almost exactly 31 when I decided to abandon my small business and go into web development. I have a degree in Psychology but had a long hobbyist programming history going back to writing BASIC programs on an Apple IIe, then later some dabbling in Assembler, Pascal and C.

From 2003 to 2010 I built LAMP stack bespoke websites for a modest living and then joined a startup that was using Ruby-on-Rails.

Now I make > $100K and get job inquiries twice a day.

It is definitely possible to make such a career change, but it is challenging to find just the right environment to be able to do it and still make a living while learning. For almost a decade I had to rely on my non-programming work skills to still have value to an employer while learning. For me this was Desktop publishing and light system admin work. It was also difficult to find increasingly complex real-world projects to work on to push me to learn more.

</comment><comment><USER12> Gee, I hope it's not too late. I'm 32 and been doing this as a hobbyist for a few years now and plan to do it for a job at some point. Since when was 31 old?? What the hell.

All I can say about this is that I'd be doing this no matter my age. I love it and I'll continue to do it without ever doing it as a career. Screw what everyone else thinks, be a man. You should take the same attitude. I decided at a certain point, I'll just do it on my own for my own clients if I have to. Make your own job. But knock off this 'am I too old', you're just out of diapers bubba.

</comment><comment><USER13> As a consultant, I've known several programmers that started later in life. Some at 30, some at 40. One was a car mechanic for 20 years before starting a CS career. All of them are very good at their CS job. I think the years of experience in a non-CS branch helps them see different perspectives, things that career programmers tend to miss or consider unimportant.

So by all means, go for it. It might be a little more difficult to find a job than a younger person, but you'll manage. Good techies are always in short supply.

</comment><comment><USER14> For what it's worth, here's how my path looked:

* Graduated at 25 * Worked editing photos of sports apparel for 3.5 years. Spent most evenings coding what I could and making things that were useful at least in theory (ridesharing web app, etc.) * Got a terrible job at a content farm in LA (not the one you're thinking of) working in ad trafficking. Took a pay cut to do it. Made a lot of tools with the the Google DART API in Java saving the company hundreds of thousands, which meant they were willing to let me continue on these wacky side projects. * Got another job as a Technical Account Manager based on my work in HTML/CSS/JS and Java. Product flopped, but the experience was great. Learned Python and Django while I was at it * Moved to Ireland on a lark on a working holiday visa * Got a tech support position at a domain registry (not registrar). Stagnated a bit since nothing was going on yet without any domains being released, but practiced while I could, in particular brushing up on network knowledge * Was recruited by and accepted a position at a PaaS company in Dublin as a support engineer, at roughly triple the salary I was at in LA. I spend most of my days working with iOS, Android, and Unity SDK's. I do a lot of debugging by trawling through logs. Have worked with Mongo quite a bit for this.

I am 31 - but the part where I got the crap job in LA I was 28, so I don't think you're too far off. Also, I'm not a "developer", but I hope I can become one in a few years' time.

<comment><USER6> Out of curiosity, what kind of money did you start at in your job in Dublin? I've been toying with the idea of moving to the UK/Ireland, and from what I've been able to gather pay seems to be really low there? For reference, I'd consider anything below 2500 euro/month _after tax_ to be "really low" for knowledge work where you're doing something useful.

<comment><USER14> Hi e12e, I've messaged the email address in your profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think your drive to learn is what's really valuable (disclaimer, I'm 23). Looks to me like a lot of people give up on learning anything at some point, and just rot away.

The fact you're still learning something radically new for you at 31 means your soul hasn't been crushed. Stay that way!

I took a couple years not coding after a stress attack, and just recently I've been getting back into it. Entire days debugging, writing, learning; it's the biggest joy I have in life besides music and my two guinea pigs. It's also the most creative and powerful tool suite I have. Maybe it's like that for you too.

I had a dilemna in my late teens, I thought it was too late to learn to program. Most of the best people I know of started around age 11. I decided I would never become a programmer, I just couldn't compete. Then I went to university and by chance, took an intro course, had a good prof, and learned anyway. I still can't compete, I only got one short job as a programmer, but I'm a lot happier for understanding how the Internet works, and my computer, and cpu design, and... everything.

So, I don't know at all how your age will affect getting hired. Maybe just don't mention how recently you learned to program :]

Regardless, I'll bet your life is more worth living for having learned more computer science, so at least for that, keep it up.

</comment><comment><USER16> _and i 'm totally addicted to coding - even when i notice my lack of math skills. i spent the nights trying to understand cs concepts and couldn't sleep or stop before i found a solution (sometimes i did not sleep the whole day)._

That sort of thing sounds terrible to people who're recruiting. The fact is being good at making software is about 20% actual coding ability, and 80% being diligent and organised, communicating with other people, and willingness to trudge through boring tasks like writing documentation and attending meetings. Faced with two candidates, one of whom is all "I love coding and I don't sleep if I'm working on something!" and the other who is "I like coding, but I put it to one side in the evenings to socialise, watch movies, read books" it'll be the second candidate who gets the job _every single time_.

If you want to get your first (or second, whatever) job writing software concentrate more on the 'getting a job' part than the 'writing software' part. Demonstrate skills that will show you're a person who is nice to be around. At the beginning of your career that is _far_ more important than being able to solve hard problems, because the 'solving hard problems' bit is going to be someone else's job.

<comment><USER17> I wouldn't employee either. The first one sounds like they have some issues. The second one doesn't sound like they have much passion.

I'd say something like "I'm passionate about coding". :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I got my first job as a programmer at 26, with only a BA in philosophy in my pockets and no previous work experience whatsoever, so I'm pretty sure you can succeed, and you don't need to go back to uni for that. Sure, I was a bit younger than you, but I didn't have previous experiences in IT as you have. I did have some open source contributions to show, and I think they were a determining factor in landing that first job; maybe you could find an interesting project to contribute to as well. But the most important thing you should remember is that your kind of education makes you an oddball in the field, and this can work for you as much as it can work against you. It will raise some suspicion in the interviewer, but it will also give you the opportunity to stand out among other candidate:

\- philosophy is in a way a perfect alternate education path for a programmer, as it trains analytical skills and critical thought.

\- it also usually gives you communication skills that are rare among computer people; you are probably able to express yourself in a more appropriate and fluent way than most other people applying for the same jobs, and this is something that can really work for you during an interview, as long as you go in confident.

\- as a last bonus, it can show that you are really passionate about programming, and you're not another run-of-the-mill guy that got a CS degree as the safest way to be sure to have a paycheck at the end of the month.

If you find a way to make interviewers consider all these things, I think you'll land a job in a reasonable amount of time.

</comment><comment><USER19> Given how many people are uninspired and undirected in their lives, it's a wonderful privilege to have something you know you want to do. On top of that, it's amazing to be in a position where you can make it happen.

I've got a lot of similarities with your story.

I dropped out of EE in 1997 when I was 18. A few years later, in 2003, I was about to begin studying writing and literature when I realized that my hobby- become-job, programming, was what I was truly passionate about.

At first, I tinkered with useless online courses (they were much more useless ten years ago). I finally put life plans in motion so that I could study CS at a university. I began studying CS in 2006 with the goal of becoming a security expert. I got my undergrad degree in CS when I was 30.

While an undergrad, I got involved with research and decided to go to grad school. To give me more experience, meet more people in my field, and generally improve grad school options, I took an extra year doing research in a CS department before applying to grad programs. In that time I published a research paper with people I'd admired from before I went back to school. I got my choice of top research programs and went to grad school in 2010.

In 2012, I realized academia wasn't for me and had a startup idea I wanted to pursue. Now, two years and a huge amount of learning and new experiences later, I've got a quickly growing startup with amazing people on our team. I no longer write much code, but I love my new challenges every day.

You don't know what you'll end up doing, but if you know you want to study CS, then start as soon as you can. Life's too short to delay doing what you know you should do.

</comment><comment><USER20> I had worked as a programmer for 2 years in 2000 and then worked in a completely different job. At 32 I restarted my CS bachelor's which I just graduated. Last year I got hired in a not so demanding CS job. I also took the Java Programmers Certificate. I am 34. I think you should go for it if you like it. Get some experience now and then you could branch into CTO positions.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm 33. I learned web basics at 15 (HTML, JS, eventually CSS) and dabbled in that on a personal website till about 25. Meanwhile, I got an English degree, including a single calculus class. At 30, just after the birth of my daughter, exhausted by my stupid day job (not remotely CS related), I started teaching myself Java, then Android dev, then Python. I was on the verge of going over to the .NET dark side when I found a job that wanted Python and Java and SQL and oh, could I teach myself some Objective-C and write a small iOS app? It's with a small company, the benefits are meh and the pay is average for the area and I absolutely love it.

I feel pretty lucky to have stumbled into this. I think it's mostly repeatable with the right company -- small, probably not a traditional development house or major corporation (the company does a lot of industrial automation, PLCs and such, I do the PC side).

FWIW, you're exactly the kind of person we hire.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey guys, i'm totally surprised and happy about your awesome replies! I read all of your comments and with each post, my motivation raised to jump over my own shadow.

Thanks to your influence, i applied for a cs-study starting in october. I guess within the study i'll have better chances to get job offers in germany (thx @ ThePhysicist).

I really like the strategy, that tinco advised - i'm leaving to a bigger city next month, enhance my coding skills and try to put sth. on github. Managed to get some used versions of "Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach" by Kurose, and "Operating System Concepts" by Silberschatz (+ some math books) :) And i appreciate the troels' objection not to study cs just because of being weak in math. lultimouomo, CalRobert, fillskills, qgi and more motivated me to go for cs, even though i have my background in arts.

</comment><comment><USER22> The best software engineers I know have come from non software backgrounds. Some were musicians, some were MBAs and I even know a sculptor who is a good friend and a Data Scientist now. So I guess in my experience, starting in CS late has been good for them. The most common nature I see among them is that they take their CS career very seriously compared to others.

Because of such friends/collegues I have been doing some research checking out which CS field is in the most demand. So for someone else who switches careers late, it might be easier. My site is not live yet, but here is the research from jobs in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles markets:

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7f4sigbrzhnleu/FillSkill%20Market...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7f4sigbrzhnleu/FillSkill%20Market%20Research%20Chart.png)

Hope it helps

</comment><comment><USER23> Its never too late. Its like picking up painting or writing literature or any other artistic avenue. In some cases the restrictions like languages are like the limitations of a canvas. You will encounter, a number of times, code that will be beautiful enough to be framed up.

Keep at it! And, welcome to the community!

"What hackers and painters have in common is that they're both makers. Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things. They're not doing research per se, though if in the course of trying to make good things they discover some new technique, so much the better." \- [http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html)

</comment><comment><USER24> Definitely! I studied pedagogy at a German university but got into programming and really liked it. I took a vocational course for a CS bachelor's degree here in Germany but even before I finished I got a good job as a software developer in a medium sized company.

From my experience you don't need a university degree to get a decent programming job if you have some patience and can demonstrate that you're passionate about it (which your cs certificates clearly communicate).

If you want a formal education, I can recommend [http://www.oncampus.de/medieninformatik.html](http://www.oncampus.de/medieninformatik.html)

Feel free to send me an email (qgi at offliners dot com) if you want to hear more about this.

</comment><comment><USER25> I just want to point out that you don't need to (formally) study CS to become a programmer. Sure, having some knowledge about how computers work and what different data structures and algorithms are there helps, but you don't need 3/4 years of university for that.

I would suggest you take a semi-ambitious software-related goal that will nicely showcase your skills, and achieve it. For example, if you want to be a web dev, make a web-app that will allow people to order food online/in a restaurant using their mobile phone. You'll learn a lot in the process, and it will serve as a proof that you're capable and not a bullshitter to potential employers.

</comment><comment><USER26> CS has to be one of the only tech field where one came build up a career even after 40.

If you are capable of continuous learning,and computers are a real passion then nothing is impossible.

Prior experience in a sale or management position can even be a plus to your resume.

</comment><comment><USER27> It's never too late. You have shown you possess the desire and drive to learn. I think a good next step is to write some code and put it up on GitHub where prospective employers can see that you have written something. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm going to be 32 and have recently started teaching myself Ruby/Rails in the past couple of months. I get it, one of the biggest insecurities I have is wondering if I'm too old to get the job I want.

Like you, I obsess over the things I've been learning and finding that this is bigger passion than many things I've done in the past.

Just keep learning and keep working on things. It will happen eventually. I have much more to learn but I am just learning now that I need to stop worrying about an age and just go fort he job that I want because it will happen.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's silly, but one of the first things I thought about when I saw you've studied philosophy was (my emphasis):

"Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures

Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of

 _DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY_

in Information and Computer Science by Roy Thomas Fielding (2000)

Dissertation Committee:

Professor Richard N. Taylor, Chair

Professor Mark S. Ackerman

Professor David S. Rosenblum"

Any formal logic in that philosophy degree you have? (Also, every time I look up that dissertation: Wow, look at that dissertation committee!)

</comment><comment><USER29> > and i'm totally addicted to coding - even when i notice my lack of math > skills. i spent the nights trying to understand cs concepts and couldn't > sleep or stop before i found a solution

Yes you can _definitely_ do it. Many, nay most 30+ y.o. treat this profession just as another job without a particular liking to it (not that there's anything wrong with it - I'm just stating facts). I think you will overtake them within a couple of years with this passion.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm currently 33 and I'm planning on getting a degree one day, when I have my feet on the ground and my wallet has enough disposable income to afford it.

That feeling you described is also very familiar to me: After starting a MOOC I caught myself wandering back in the problem I was trying to tackle when in the bus or train.

It's scary that we also share the "lack of math skills" but I'm planning on doing something about it. Maybe Khanacademy is a good start.

</comment><comment><USER31> I have anecdotal evidence that pursuing a full CS degree is not necessary to find a programming job but what might help is following some offline (official) lessons as my girlfriend did or getting certified in a technology you want to work with. So my advice would be to keep searching for a job and to continue learning and make your efforts visible (blog, github, etc.). Bonus tip: add some contact information to your web profiles like this one on hn.

</comment><comment> bulte-rs Personally I don't look at age when considering applicants...

Ok, not true. At this moment the company I work for employs mostly young people; i.e. twentysomethings and an oddball 30-35'er. I would actually prefer to hire a 30-40 y/o at this moment; even when lacking a bit of professional/coding experience.

In my opinion: Don't let the big junior-level hiring pool full of 20-30'ers discourage you.

<comment><USER32> Why, though?

I've heard many canned responses to this, mostly about youngsters having more energy and in some way that extrapolates to having more "potential" or being better for a company. But my question here is, really?

How can age alone tell you about how well a person is going to perform or how valuable of an asset he can be to a company? After some thought, I agree it is _one_ factor, but I still maintain doesn't entirely make a case for or against anyone. In fact, I feel it's kind of unfair to those over who are "less" preferred in startup jobs. If a person is willing to learn, has talent, and is passionate — heck, give him a shot.

I'm not accusing you of doing so, just pointing out a trend. And BTW, I'm 18 years old.

You obviously have more experience in hiring (maybe even firing) people, so could you tell me if I'm right here?

<comment> bulte-rs Not THAT much more experience probably ;-)

You're - again IMO - right about it being only one of the factors.

The reason we hire mostly 'youngsters' (damn, never thought I would say this before reaching 30 myself) is that 'they' are more readily available. I'm in no way saying that young people have more energy, are more driven.

A reason you MIGHT consider - which I consider applicable to myself as well - is that as people 'age' their priorities shift.

I have to young kids at home (2 y/o and 5 w/o) and I consider them my absolute number one priority.

Most people in their early twenties don't have to make these priority considerations and are 'likely' to be more dedicated to your company (or at least appear to be). On the flipside: I guess twentysomethings are easier to ditch your company and leave for a better paycheck as well.

That's why I'm saying that I never really take age into consideration when considering a candidate. It just isn't a factor for me.

For me, most imporant things are (in no particular order):

* Cultural match (/ Social skills)

* Drive (want to learn, want to make stuff)

* Pragmatism

* Tech skills

<comment><USER33> Could you please clarify about "cultural match"? Provided that the person is good and kind, but e.g. likes different music genres, or thinks that hunting is like a killing a human (while some existing teammate is hunter), would you consider this case as a cultural mismatch?

<comment> bulte-rs Although this is more of a personal thing I would never judge people based on their musical preference (that's what headphones are for ;-)) and hobbies. Cultural is - for me - a combination of drive (yes, one of the other factors) and the ability to work with others without driving them to tears. That and a flexible sense of humour ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> My advice: if you already can program in python. Try getting programming job somewhere, if its difficult to get, try building some stuff and put them in github, so people can "See" that you are passionate. You dont need a degree, just coding skills.

From there, once you start working, you can choose to work 35h per week, and spend the rest of the time teaching yourself more skills.

</comment><comment><USER35> Are you askin whether it is better for you to get a CS qualification, or whether you should get experience? (For example, by contributing to open source projects)?

Real work with real people should be useful. You get to demonstrate ability to collaborate, sometimes with difficult people.

</comment><comment><USER36> I wrote a programming book. Excellent source of instant credibility. Computer science is a bit of a waste of time in many respects, lots of self taught people around (I did 2 semesters of comp sci courses, and a bit of AI stuff when I was a psych undergrad).

<comment><USER37> Care to share a link?

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> [http://zd.net/1mqiA02](http://zd.net/1mqiA02) \- Nice article somehow related to this topic.

</comment><comment><USER39> I went back to school at 33 to learn about programming. It worked out for me.

</comment><comment><USER40> Yes You Can.

</comment><comment><USER41> Try and become a DBA. They are kind of expected to be old (as in 40+) and can rake in the $$$. Although the kind of "coding" you will do will be limited to scripting, SQL, and maybe some ORASQL/APEX.

<comment><USER42> I'd like to echo to disregard this advice as well.

I work for a company with a lot of young programmers and I recently hired a bright guy in his 30's who decided change career paths.

Do what you love and work on side projects that you will love. It will go a long way in an interview if you can bring us and show off something that you loved working on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I'm the exact same age. It's too late to _restart_ your career. You don't want to be lumped in the same pool with the clueless 22-year-olds with little skill, little life experience, and lots of mindless energy. They will beat you at the grunt game. Chances are, you have an edge over them in other things (due to your life experience) but you may not have figured out exactly what that is yet.

Though it's too late to _restart_ , it's not too late to _resume_ your career. It's a matter of how you present yourself and what you are trying to do. You can't devalue your own career path to this point. You have to be able to make the case that it's relevant to the job. Literature: you developed an aesthetic sense by reading well-crafted fiction, and you have a sense of narrative. Philosophy: you're used to ordered, logical, methodical thought and you've applied it to a wide array of human problems. Failed IT startup: you've seen how companies operate in good times and bad (OK, maybe just bad) and developed leadership skills (transfer over different experience if you have to). EdX/Coursera: you're capable of learning hard material on your own. A lot of people play around in Coursera, but people who actually finish hard courses are pretty rare (and that's not a flaw of Coursera; it's just an artifact of how people explore and think).

I think every programmer in machine learning feels a "lack of math skills". I was very strong in math in high school and college, placed in a few national math competitions, and sometimes even I struggle with machine learning papers. Keep in mind that you're trying to absorb a month or few (or years) of someone's work in a few hours. (I studied pure math, so I hadn't gotten "down and dirty" with linear algebra for years when I started studying ML.) Except for the full-time category theorists and advanced probabilists to whom gnarly integrals come naturally, we all feel inadequate here. If you just keep studying and keep sharp, you can get yourself ahead of 95% of professional programmers quite quickly.

 _do you think, it makes sense to study computer science at the age of 31? or is it too late?_

Fuck no, it's not too late. If anything, 31 is too early to _stop_ learning challenging things (which many people do, sometimes even before then).

 _do you work at a human resources department and can tell me if there is a chance for those kind of people?_

As you get older, your best bet is less often to go directly through HR. If you're at an HR wall, you're more likely to face prejudice and harsh age- grading than if you meet someone at a conference. Certainly by 40, almost all of your jobs will be found through networking rather than job sites or front- door applications. Is it ideal that things are that way? No. It's something to keep in mind. The good news is that you're probably way more socially capable and confident than you were at 22, so the networking is less scary.

</comment><comment><USER44> So presumably it takes 10.000 hours of practice to succeed in a field ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_\(book\))). Assuming you only have to became 1/3 successful (a wild guess) to get a job in the field, you need 3.333 hours of learning. If you spend 4 hours a night studying, it'll take you two years.</comment>


Ask HN: Is 60GHz used in Pixel 4 safe for humans? - <AUTHOR> I see we are increasingly adopting high frequency EMF in mobile technology (5G in case of 20+GHz, now with Soli 60GHz). Can someone qualified comment/guide on safety? <comment><USER2> UV rays have 10^15 ~10^16 Hz, that is 1000000GHz ~ 10000000GHz. At low power, everything below that frequency is safe.

(If you put a cat in a microwave, with a power of ~800W it will get hot and burned and perhaps die. The WiFi or similar connections have typically 2W or less. It's less than the energy in a led lamp, with a lower frequency.)</comment>


Ilya Starinov – The godfather of modern insurgent IED warfare - <AUTHOR> http://www.standingwellback.com/home/2019/5/29/ilya-starinov-the-godfather-of-modern-insurgent-ied-warfare.html <comment><USER2> Wow, I had no idea.

This reminds me a bit of some of the American Revolution's more guerrilla tactics- shooting the enemy's generals directly, hiding behind more-or-less impenetrable trees, and the like.

It's unfortunate that now we're on the receiving end of these attacks- home soil advantage is _huge_ \- but it feels like there are better ways of dealing with IED's than what we're curgently doing.

That was a really _interesting_ read.

<comment><USER3> > but it feels like there are better ways of dealing with IED's than what > we're curgently doing.

Filtration camps?

<comment><USER4> > > but it feels like there are better ways of dealing with IED's than what > we're curgently doing.

> Filtration camps?

Reading briefly about the filtration camps, I couldn't find anything IED related. Could you elaborate?

<comment><USER3> I was talking about dealing with insurgency in general, to prevent insurgents from laying IEDs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What an interesting read as a SVBIED attack survivor.

</comment><comment><USER6> His role in the Spanish civil war sounds like a model for the protagonist of Hemingway's "For whom the Bell tolls".

</comment><comment><USER7> "Bizarrely he described how he would rather work making IEDs rather than accompany his colleagues to watch the spectacle of the bullfight 'where innocent animals were killed'."

Cognitive dissonance at its finest.

<comment><USER8> I think the key word there is "innocent".

<comment><USER9> I agree with you in theory but let's not pretend that ieds don't have high collateral damage and that that's not painfully obvious (so there's still probably cognitive dissonance involved in saying something like that).

<comment><USER10> But there is still a big difference between also blowing up lots of innocent bystanders because $cause is deemed more important and having bloodshed done for show and paying for the privilege of cheering it on. I find it quite unsurprising if someone who does violence professionally isn't turned on by violence for entertainment.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Commodore 64 BASIC inside a USB Connector - <AUTHOR> https://www.pagetable.com/?p=956 <comment><USER2> Only 6380 basic bytes free?

Edit: the device only has 8KB

[https://tomu.im/](https://tomu.im/)

<comment><USER3> 6400 bytes ought to be enough for anybody!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17459041](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17459041)

<comment><USER5> Above blind link goes to:

Analysis of USB fan given to journalists at North Korea-Singapore Summit [pdf] (cam.ac.uk)

161 points by danso 3 days ago

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It would be nice to see some photos of the package made to adapt the miniboard to the USB connector. (Or the upper part in the photo has the right wires to just fit in a USB slot?)

<comment><USER7> The underside of the PCB has the necessary contacts: [https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio- kosagi/tomu/](https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/tomu/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It runs the real C64 basic on top of 6502 processor emulator.

</comment><comment><USER9> $30 + $5 shipping is "super cheap"? _And_ I have to make my own case for it to be usable? I can buy like 20 ESP8266s for that price. Neat device, and I'll probably still end up buying one at some point, but that's pretty damned expensive for what it is, in my opinion.

<comment><USER10> Well, it's an $1.5 chip on $0.1 board (add $0.4 for leds, solder, ets). The rest is for manual work (assembly) and a nice margin.

Anyway, if you are looking for best price, try chinese "blue pill" controller boards (<$2 a piece), they have more processing power (with similar ARM CM3 cpu). But not that nice form-factor.

<comment><USER11> What does "blue pill" mean in this context?

<comment><USER12> It's this microcontroller board: [http://wiki.stm32duino.com/index.php?title=Blue_Pill](http://wiki.stm32duino.com/index.php?title=Blue_Pill)

They are dirt cheap and can be found for around $2 on sites like AliExpress etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> $30??

Digispark is kind janky in comparison but same specs (attiny85) and not much bigger, and it's like a buck a part on aliexpress.

I guess it kinda looks like a yubikey, so if you're DIYing something like that maybe the price point isn't so bad.

<comment><USER14> Not to justify the price, but attiny85 is a much smaller micro - it's a little 8-bit AVR, where the yubikey is using a 32-bit ARM M0+.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is the Microsoft Easter egg there? Try "WAIT 6502, 1"...

<comment><USER16> For those interested, this would write "MICROSOFT!" over top of "COMMODORE" on the PET startup screen.</comment></comment>


Twitter removes character limit for photos, videos and quotes - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/19/twitter-removes-character-limit-photos-videos-quotes/ <comment><USER2> Finally Twitter did it!</comment>


Show HN: Password.ly - Per site password generator from a master password - <AUTHOR> https://password.ly <comment><USER2> It is not safe to enter your master password on a random website like password.ly. The risk is simply too high that it gets hacked someday and your master password will fall.

That it is not stored in a database is only a small advantage. If whoever controls password.ly wants to have all passwords, she could do so whenever she wants, a matter of a simple extra request. It could even be hidden in the params of any link on password.ly (to prevent you from noticing the extra request).

And that reveals the second big problem with this: The master password is basically every password. If it falls in the wrong hands you are worse off than you would be if you have a small set of passwords, which isn't a highly recommended strategy in itself.

But the idea itself isn't too bad, if you would instead of using password.ly use a terminal bcrypt command to bcrypt your password+sitename it would be very decent indeed.

The only way sites like this could be safe to use is if there would be a code- signing standard for the web.

edit: This service actually sends your password to their service! At first I thought it was an innocuous enough javascript password generator, but this is so stupid it borders on malice..

<comment><AUTHOR> There is a command line client too, and the entire website is open source (links at bottom.)

If you're worried about not trusting anyone, then you would need to set up your own solution - but for most people thats completely out of their league. This is intended for people who _would_ be typing their master password in different websites, and now instead only need to type their master password into one.

I can't argue against the problem of only having one password, but the small set never worked for me. I have a couple plans to integrate password migration into password.ly.

<comment><USER3> > and the entire website is open source (links at bottom.)

How do I know the code released for review is actually the code they're running on their server? There is no way they can adequately prove this to me.

<comment><USER4> Simple solution is to self-host it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Since all this can be done client side, you don't really want/need to give your master password away. We built an app like this - its a chrome app and everything happens in your browser.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/password- generator...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/password- generator/nnjgaeekiplalipomfgacalgehhcckbp)

Source: <https://github.com/agiliq/forgot-me-password>

Its not as good as this as we use use MD5 to hash the generated passwords - reason being this was proof of concept, and built mostly for our use. If anyone wants to add bcrypt - pull request is gladly accepted.

<comment><USER6> MD5 is a no go, SHA-256 would at least be better. I will look at your sorce though. Bcrypt might be too heavy in plain JS if chrome doesn't offer it as a part of its api.

But I agree, this should be a browser extension, not a website.

Edit: btw, found this: [http://www.lorrin.org/blog/2011/06/15/a-fruitless- search-for...](http://www.lorrin.org/blog/2011/06/15/a-fruitless-search-for-a- password-bookmarklet/)

<comment><USER5> Absolutely agree. Using something saner, has been on my todo for a long time.

Looks like there are a few bcrypt js library - why would using them be too heavy?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The passwords generated by this do not have enough entropy. The code that does the generation is:

      def generatePassword(password, site):
        letters = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
        u_letters = letters.upper()
        all_letters = letters + u_letters

        numbers = '0123456789'
        symbols = '!@#$%*-?+='
        length = 10

i.e. a 10 character password is generated from an alphabet with 72 characters in it. That gives 10 * log_2 72 which is roughly 61.7 bits.

Currently you'd want to have at least 80 bits for a good password.

Of course, it's trivial for them to fix this given that they are generating the passwords: just change length to 13 or greater.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm curious to know where the 80 bit number comes from? The 61 bits seems like a crazy large number to try and brute-force, but perhaps there are other issues besides brute force that I'm not considering?

Unfortunately while changing the 10 to 13 was a rather trivial change yesterday, now that the site has launched its not really possible. It would change and break everyones password on the site.

That said the entire thing is open-source, so anyone 'could' set up a version of password.ly with length=13 for themselves if they wanted.

<comment><USER8> Probably from NIST Special Publication 800-63. Level 3 authentication requires cryptographic keys with an entropy of at least 80 bits. [http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-63/SP800-63V1...](http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-63/SP800-63V1_0_2.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Have a look at your competition such as; <http://supergenpass.com/>

Your system is creating the passwords server side and so taking the user's "master" password in. Where as SuperGenPass is purely javascript based and runs completely in the browser; thus is safer.

Also being a bookmarklet make's it more convient, as you can just click the button from within your browser toolbar, rather than having to go to a sepearte site, remember exactly what you put in the "Create password for:" input, did you put the domain with a www or without? with <http://> or <https://> ?

<comment><USER10> That's something I didn't like about it either -- my tin-foil hat clamped on a little tighter when I realised that your entry is fed into the server, mangled, then your new password pops out. That seems like a possible insecurity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It appears like you're using the flawed '2a' bcrypt implementation from 2011, ex:

        <input type="hidden" name="hash" value="$2a$11$1aRIk1567CsvOEGMEKlalOteGiqsy9APgBfI/5ZtPJvQgQkvxC1.G">

Use the '$2y$' form to ensure you're using the fixed version, at least, though I recommend something more along the lines of scrypt to be more robust against attack. And do you really need to pass the value in plaintext in the returned form? Just pass the hash value of the master password and put some fake stars in the form field to reduce the possibility of an attacker gaining the plaintext version of the master password from the browser.

All of this of course ignoring the problem of just generating lists of passwords based on commonly-used master passwords and service names, but i'm sure you all realize that problem.

</comment><comment><USER12> If I want to change a non-master password (some random forum I use gets hacked, for example, or an admin forces a password change), how would I do that?

<comment><USER13> have to change the name of the website, there are only 2 inputs

<comment><USER12> So now I need to seperately track which name I actually used for each website on password.ly ... This doesn't scale.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> <http://keepass.info/>

<comment><AUTHOR> The biggest difference between password.ly and most other tools (including keepass), is that each password on password.ly is generated _from_ your master password.

There is no database to lose, or not have access to if you're on another machine. It also has a command line client which works completely offline (though has sync if you're signed up and want to save sites/comments)

<comment><USER15> That is also a significant weakness, as revoking or changing passwords becomes very difficult.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I think this is a good idea for a site, but I'd caution that it could give users a false sense of security. As the site gains popularity, the site- specific passwords are only as secure as the master password used to generate them. Therefore it is still important to choose a strong master password when using this tool.

This may be obvious to users here, but to most people the fact that the generated passwords seem random may lead to a false sense of security in this matter.

</comment><comment><USER17> The site seems to suggest it will only generate passwords in the moment. But the text of the site mentions you guys saving them, and your comment mentions a command line tool. How can I find out the extent of password.ly?

My initial impression was "no thanks" because 1Password will type my passwords in for me, a huge benefit. But maybe password.ly can or soon will do this?

In other words, IMO the landing page doesn't have enough info.

EDIT: ahh, now I see the link to the command one tool at the bottom.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey,

It's really just a MVP at the moment. There are quite a few improvements planned, and definitely a browser extension if there is any interest.

At the moment it is limited to the password generator, site names along with comments saved when you've signed up and a simple command line tool.

<comment><USER17> Cool, just trying to give honest feedback. Which can be hard to do with out sounding like a jerk :) I'm glad to see more people in this space, solving the password problem is something that interests me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> What do you guys think about the security of 1password? I've been using it for a while and now have a unique password for every site, as long as the site will allow. The chrome extension is pretty good except sometimes I have to click it a few times before it opens.

Though I recently had to wipe my android phone and getting those long passwords in to every app was NOT fun.

</comment><comment><USER8> This merely gives the user a false sense of security. What if a hacker get hold of your master password? I rather advocate the use of different high- entropy passwords divided in security tiers. A junk password for places you don't care about or fully trust, a generic password to use on trusted services and secure passwords for crucial services.

<comment><USER17> The master password is an Achilles heal in all of these systems. Granted, it is even more of a weak point in password.ly.

<comment><USER8> Which is why I am against such services. Imho, they do more harm then good.

<comment><USER17> People would have to gain access to my machine, plus figure out my master password to compromise me. But I gain unique, random, 24-32 character long passwords for all my log ins. I think the benefit greatly outweighs the risk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't know a lick of Python, so I can't check properly, but does the CLI client[1] work entirely offline, or does it also send the password to the server for processing?

I think I already know the answer (it does), but maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

[1] <https://github.com/passwordly/pw>

<comment><AUTHOR> No, it doesn't.

There is a 'pw sync' command which does send your password to the server (in order to confirm your access while updating saved comments/etc) but that is all.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the answer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm a bit low-tech in regards to my password scheme, but here's how I do it:

First, I generated an 8 character password using pwgen (great program, btw) that is just mixed-case. I then add several characters based on the name of the website/service I'm logging into.

Using this, I can easily remember my password to everything, and each one is unique.

<comment><USER20> Even that is not particularly secure since if someone discovers your password is "j8t3$£$hackn", they could easily guess your amazon password is "j8t3$£$amzn" and your reddit pass is "j8t3$£$rddt". Or brute force just those last few chars and benefit from a much reduced search space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Not sure, why this hasn't been mentioned: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/passwordmaker- pro/...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/passwordmaker- pro/ocjkdaaapapjpmipmhiadedofjiokogj) It is a port of Password maker pro for firefox. It has been working great for me.

</comment><comment><USER22> Vault – <https://getvau.lt/> – is basically the same idea, taken much further: it lets you control the character classes used in the generated password, and the command-line version can save per-site settings if you choose.

<comment><USER23> I second this. I have used this solution since I first saw it and it works perfect. The source is open so I can host my own version and it is all done in javascript. I think this is the most secure way do to this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I feel like this is no different than passwordchart.com but is a bit less configurable. I use 1password myself after using passwordchart for a while. Ever thought about how to handle services that require you to change your password every few months?

</comment><comment><USER13> I would love to see something like this or a browser tool integrated with a Yubikey. Yubikey has a static password generator. Could it be combined in a browser plugin or does it need a client executable to be secure?

</comment><comment> james-singh Good one if you'd never change your password. Say I generated a password for my HSBC account with this. Later, if they ask me to change the password, I'm out of options because it's one password per account.</comment>


How spammers are gaming the podcast charts - <AUTHOR> https://chartable.com/blog/chartbreakers <comment><USER2> A podcaster (and Youtuber) who I really enjoy is CGP Grey. He has been proposing allowing voluntary _removal_ of view numbers from Youtube and similar platforms.

I think Apple should fix or remove their rankings but, _please_ , don't add any more metrics.

The podcast world is currently mostly immune from so much of the clickbaity trash on Youtube (that arguably isn't even YT's fault).

I admit it's very counterintuitive or almost subversive these days to suggest that internet points be kept secret.

Edit: Here's a CGP Grey video where he talks indirectly about how he sees the internet fracturing his (our?) ability to pay attention and focus. [https://youtu.be/wf2VxeIm1no](https://youtu.be/wf2VxeIm1no)

<comment><USER3> > I admit it's very counterintuitive or almost subversive these days to > suggest that internet points be kept secret.

Media popularity rankings are toxic for everyone but distribution middlemen and advertisers. They turn what should be heterogeneous markets for content producers and their audiences in many different niches (geographic area, interests, subcultures, etc), into a global winner-take-all popularity race in a single market (owned by the distribution middlemen, like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, etc). The kind of market where every seller is ranked by a single metric and only the top few are rewarded makes sense for things like professional sports, but very little else.

<comment><USER4> Which of the two groups of people are benefitting from Hacker News showing metrics? Stories show points and total number of comments. Anyone can see anyone's total karma. And you personally can see your comment karma.

YouTube and and other social media would still get advertising and such without public metrics since you could give private access to them when trying to make deals.

So overall I don't see how either groups of people mentioned are benefitting much from HN showing metrics.

<comment><USER3> > Which of the two groups of people are benefitting from Hacker News showing > metrics?

That is a bit of a nonsense question. Neither benefit, because there is no advertising on HN, and HN is not a media distribution business. HN is an online forum, and the original point of post ratings on forums was crowdsourced moderation. The point of online forum moderation is to remove spam, trolling, kooks, and other things that waste your reading time. So moderation is a strictly negative system. Using post ratings for online reputation is what turns it into a positive system.

IMO online reputation based on upvotes is a game with no winners, only losers. Problems include gamification and addiction, groupthink, privacy risks (it is very easy to correlate bits of information to deanonymize pseudonyms, the persistent use of which the point system encourages). What's the benefit? It is much more valuable to focus on the moderation aspects. The problem with online communities today is keeping out spam, trolls, kooks, idiots, and other bad actors. Modding down inane and ignorant postings so that they don't waste people's time is much more valuable in keeping forums interesting and relevant than another 10 upvotes. "Harmless" but useless and time-wasting posts will drive participants away and erode the community. That is the one of the lessons of Eternal September.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think this article should be retitled to remove the word "How" at the beginning, since it doesn't even really speculate how one would go about doing this. It's interesting nonetheless.

Any ideas? Assume that someone decided to harness one of the many click-farms to do automated podcast subscriptions?

I suppose it's also possible that Apple did an ill-advised algorithm change or something that changed the weights very heavily, and the spammers who had been quietly doing their thing for months suddenly all got promoted.

<comment><USER6> We can't say for sure how the charts are being gamed, but there is strong evidence that its related to a pay per play scheme to pump subscription numbers in a small time window. The implication of the graph visualization is that the same iTunes users are subscribing to all of the suspect shows, and all on one storefront (the U.S.).

<comment><USER7> I'm reminded of the images from China where one person is in front of rows and rows of phones clicking on stuff and that is their job. Would that do the job here?

<comment><USER6> Apple doesn't publicly comment on how the chart rankings are calculated, which is why we can't draw strong conclusions, but our understanding is that this would do the job. Since the somewhat catastrophic failure of the charts a week ago its clear that Apple did update their algorithms, but its not clear how (and some of the same players identified in the blog are still ranking highly).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's going to be just like record charts. People are looking for those popularity lists to find the interesting and good stuff that other people are listening to. We'll have scandals, companies will be pushing up their own ratings via nefarious means. Then you get more viewers, more money from advertisers, your network benefits - there must be podcast celebrities who get the equivalent of payola to say they like another podcast. History repeats itself.

</comment><comment><USER9> The algorithm seems to be weighted to boost new subscriptions - looking at the Chartable top US-all there is one at #20 which recently launched (has 6 episodes) which is above This American Life at #28

<comment><USER6> While Apple doesn't comment on how the rankings are calculated, the common knowledge is indeed that its heavily biased towards recent subscriptions.

<comment><USER10> Maybe it should be more weighted towards regular releases over a longer period of time... points for releasing on average of once a day, or once a week for over 2 years after hitting X subscribers. I can't speak for anyone else, but those are the podcasts that I would be most inclined to want to hear/see.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have never used a podcast top X chart before. I usually think, hmmm, I wonder if there's a podcast about <some subject> and search the internet for that.

I guess I care more about a subject than popularity.

</comment><comment><USER12> Startup idea for anyone so inclined: Create a podcast distribution service where podcasters pay the current cost of a postage stamp per listener to push podcasts onto devices. If the recipient listens to the podcast, the money is refunded to the podcaster. If they delete it or ignore it for 30 days, they keep the money. The podcasters are allowed to see anonymized metrics for who listens to what. Listeners can use their earnings to tip their favorite podcasters, or just cash out.

<comment><USER13> Sweet! I can now sign up to as many podcasts as I want, never listen to anything, and make money.

And so can everyone else.

And podcasters would love to use this distribution system that will net them $0 after risking capital, ONLY if they magically achieve a 100% listen rate in spite of the incredible incentives to have the listen rate be 0%. Otherwise it'll cost them money.

And for all that hassle and risk, they get a distribution system no better than the free and open one they enjoy now.

Perhaps I've misunderstood something, otherwise I don't think this idea is viable :)

<comment><USER12> You don't have to sign up for any podcasts. You just sign up and start receiving recommendations. At first, recommendations are free or virtually free for the podcaster, since there is no data about your interests. You start accepting the ones that interest you and rejecting the ones that don't.

Podcasters get access to the entire data set for every listener and can run clustering and regression to their hearts' content. As you listen to podcasts and perhaps rate them, the cost to target you (i.e. your random ID) goes up because the podcasters have better data to work with and should know better than to send you politics podcasts when all you listen to is vampire erotica.

If you become a listener, then they've acquired a listener and you've acquired a podcast that you like. If you're not interested, then they pay the cost of poor targeting, and you are compensated for the inconvenience. _Proper incentives all around!_

The net cost to the podcaster doesn't have to be $0 for the service to be worthwhile. It only has to be more effective than AdWords and other venues where they pay to expose themselves.

<comment><USER13> Sorry, this would never work. Maybe if Apple launched this so that you had already overcome chicken and the egg. But I'd never ever sign up for this as a podcaster (or any kind of audience builder) unless there was literally no other choice because that's where ALL the listeners are. Even then, I'd probably just do something else rather than allow some sleazy middle-man to screw me over while trying to connect with my fans.

You're totally missing the point that podcasts are pull, not push. I listen to dozens of them, none of them have ever "spammed" me. That literally makes no sense. I subscribed to them. There's no way for them to push their podcast on someone who doesn't want it.

<comment><USER12> It's not a chicken-and-egg problem. Clearly, building the audience is the harder problem and the priority. When you have an audience, podcasters pay to reach that audience, which is usually done by pestering people with web ads until they install an ad blocker or by hiring sleazy "PR consultants" to spam the ratings and reviews and social media. This would just cut out those middlemen and compensate the audience directly whenever the messaging misses the mark.

<comment><USER13> No users will sign up for a podcast app / network that has no podcasters on it. And no podcasters are going to pay to reach a non-existent userbase.

<comment><USER12> You're in such a rush to shoot down the idea that you haven't taken 3 seconds to realize how trivial it is to create a podcast site/app with thousands of podcasts but no users. Users are the chicken and the egg, just as they are for the podcasters who spend more time and money on audience-building than on podcasting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> or: How to Game to Podcast Chart

<comment><USER15> There is no "how" in the article other than "click farms". It should be "Spammers are gaming podcast charts".</comment></comment>


Macedonia Agrees to Change Its Name to End Bitter Dispute with Greece - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/macedonia-agrees-to-change-its-name-to-end-bitter-dispute-with-greece-1528820594 <comment><USER2> This is pay-walled, but here's a summary:

The country we now call "Macedonia" (i.e. The Republic of Macedonia) was formed in 1991 after Yugoslavia broke up. Greece didn't like the name, because "Macedonia" was already the name of a large region in Northern Greece. This would be similar to a region of Quebec bordering the US breaking away from Canada and calling itself Maine. Some Greeks apparently felt that the Republic of Macedonia's name implied that it had territorial ambitions for parts of Northern Greece. As a compromise, the country will now be called North Macedonia.

<comment><USER3> Instead of Maine, you can find a better analogy at the opposite end of the United States.

There's a Mexican state named Baja California and a US state named simply California. Exact same thing as this Macedonia business.

<comment><USER4> I know this is always unpopular but, how about the name America?

I refer to the country south of me as "the US" or "the USA". To me as a Canadian I live in the Americas so I could be an American. Growing up nobody I knew called the US "America" you'd even hear "the Boston States", I have no clue how that originated.

But I've noticed over the past decade or two it's become more common for people in the US to refer to their country as America. I know it's a shortened form but still, to me, it's weird because:

Europe, Europeans Africa, Africans Asia, Asians Americas, ? (demonym for people of the entire region?)

I know some people counter with it's "North America dummy!" but wouldn't that mean the USA should be the USNA?

<comment><USER5> To be fair, the USA is the only country with America in it's name. And what would you call people who live in the United States other than Americans? Hop, skip and a jump to calling the place Americans live America.

<comment><USER6> I see more and more write USAnians. All from people that dislikes everything US but I like it!

<comment><USER7> How do you say that out loud?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have been to Northern Greece. I have friends from Macedonia. This is the stupidest international dispute I think our reality can support.

<comment><USER9> No, it's not as stupid as you might think. FYROM was part of Bulgaria for a very long time. Lots of history of the empires happend there, they claim that it's theirs. Same for Alexander Macedon(he's obviously greek). If you claim some identity in front of many people you must be able to support it otherwise you end up looking like a fool. Imagine a nation of such deluded by the system people.

<comment><USER8> > _Same for Alexander Macedon (he 's obviously greek)_

Alexander III of Macedon died in 323 B.C. That's 2,300 years ago. Turning a millennium-and-a-half footnote into a geopolitical issue is stupid.

> _If you claim some identity in front of many people you must be able to > support it otherwise you end up looking like a fool_

Greece's per-capita GDP is three-quarters that of Europe's average [1]. Macedonia's is less than one-third that of Greece's. This is a stupid thing for two poor countries to create economic, political and geopolitical hurdles out of.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Eu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Europe_by_GDP_\(nominal\)_per_capita)

<comment><USER9> A lot of these things are not about wealth, they are about identity. Wealth is much easier to create than identity.

<comment><USER10> Things get a bit more difficult when the identity is standing in the way of creating wealth. This seems to be the case here, assuming EU/NATO memberships would be largely positive economic forces for Macedonia.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For anyone interested, wikipedia has a surprisingly in-depth account of the whole ordeal over the years: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_naming_dispute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_naming_dispute)

</comment><comment><USER12> [http://archive.li/a9rda](http://archive.li/a9rda)

</comment><comment><USER13> Here in the Bay Area there is a smaller scale issue of the same kind between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. In this case the former does not like the latter to have anything similar in its name... oh well.

<comment><USER14> The latter name is just nonsensical -- EPA is _northwest_ of PA and in a different county altogether.

When the Four Seasons opened in EPA, they initially gave the address as just "Palo Alto" but with the proper EPA Zip code, knowing that the USPS would still deliver the same. Media later called them on it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is this the real reason for Brexit: that it was intolerable to have "Bretaigne" and "Great Britain" next to each other in the EU?

</comment><comment><USER16> This is a great (but now dated) video covering the history of the dispute between Greece and North Macedonia and it reviews some of the reasons why it was disputed for so many years: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWgq48jPgP8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWgq48jPgP8)

</comment><comment><USER17> Naming themselves "North Macedonia" kind of implies that they are strongly connected to the other three Macedonia (administrative) regions of Greece (Western, Central, Eastern). The reason they're not going to join Greece is that there are no ethnic Greeks there, so why not call themselves Slav Macedonia instead?

[added after downvotes] what is wrong with asking why "North" is the chosen distinction? it seems that the more substantial distinction is the slavic vs greek culture and population _when one considers the four regions that use the name "Macedonia"_!

<comment><USER18> I can only guess because around a quarter of the population is Albanian, and they currently (and probably will also in the future) constitute the parliamentary majority. The Albanian population is currently in a surge, and Albanians don't really like to be mixed up with Slavs...

<comment><USER19> "Around a quarter of the population is Albanian" \- is this also your educated guess, or something you "read" online?

The FACT is that the last Census was done in 2002. According to conservative estimates pulled from the Health Ministry, there are less than 20% of Albanians currently residing on the territory of Macedonia.

And a little free lesson in history for you: The Slavs you are referring to, in the 6th century did in fact invade and conquer present day Macedonia and whole of Greece, all the way down to Peloponnesus. Byzantine historians stated that the Macedonians did not disappear with the Slavic invasion but continued to exist. In the 10th century Salonica is described as the "largest city of the Macedonians".

<comment><USER20> According to the 2002 Census, 46.5% of the children aged 0–4 were Muslim. Macedonians will be minority very soon. It might come a time when this country will be called Eastern Albania.

Given the extreme nationalism of the Macedonians I do not think this country will resist history very long in this configuration. And if they do not accept the Albanians and do not live in peace with them they will be soon a tiny joke country.

<comment><USER19> By your bias and derogatory comment, it is evident that you lack a very basic understanding of the weight and proud nature Macedonians and Albanians feel as people, as neighbors, and as individuals.

Having grown up with Macedonian-Albanian friends, to this day, we both have respect for each others traditions. The common people living in Macedonia, regardless of their ethnic background, want one thing, and that is: peace and prosperity. Not war, nor divide, and not putting down, one another.

The conflict of 2001 is still a fresh reminder what can happen, where KFOR and NATO had to rescue the terrorist cowards surrounded by the Macedonian military. This is a fact.

Define "extreme nationalism", I challenge you.

Macedonians are all people born in Macedonia. Everyone else, is a tourist, on a tourist visa.

Therefore, calling one self Albanian, while born in Macedonia is the same as a person of African descent born in the US, calling him/her self African, instead of African-American.

See how what you "think" makes no sense.

<comment><USER20> Your analogy sucks. But I am not here to increase your intellectual capabilities. And I do not think that is possible.

The Albanians are native in that region whereas you are the newcomers. So, if you think a little bit more (which I highly doubt you can) you will understand why your analogy is just nonsense.

The Albanians are Albanians and they will remain Albanians. They are of course citizens of Macedonia, a joke sate which does not even have an acceptable name, but they are Albanians.

You want examples? Boban Ilic killed a 4-year old Albanian. I am not talking about other incidents, but killing with your car a 4-year old is just an act of a coward criminal/animal. And most of the Macedonians/Bulgarians supported him. Moreover, he is free to go.

[https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/people-protest- th...](https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/people-protest-the-release- of-boban-ilic-pending-trial-on-news-footage/936618540)

Anyway, as I said, you are a joke state, and very soon you will be a minority in that joke state.

Let me see then if you can kill 4 years old child.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Well at least it's clearer than Outer and Inner Mongolia.

</comment><comment><USER22> They should change their name to Western Bulgaria. It will be more accurate and Bulgarians won't mind.

<comment><USER11> I'm quite sure macedonians would consider that statement offensive and disrespectful.

<comment><USER23> If they're offended, they can be speak for themselves. They don't need an outsider being proxy-offended for them.

<comment><USER11> I saw it as my duty to notify you of something offensive you've said. I don't have to be 'them' to know that. Take it as you will.

<comment><USER23> _I saw it as my duty to notify you of something offensive you 've said._

I said nothing offensive.

You're so interested in SJW-championing other people's causes to make yourself feel morally superior that you didn't even bother to notice that I'm not the OC.

 _Take it as you will._

I don't need your permission.

<comment><USER11> I'm glad you know me so well, we should hang out. Then we can talk about my involvement with macedonian (and bulgarian and greek) people, historians, politicians, film workers and 'common people' over the past few years while I was working on a TV series regarding the topic we are currently discussing. Can't wait to tell you about albanian position within republic today and how that story trumps over what we're talking about here, regarding Greece and even Bulgaria. Also, how important Macedonia (as an entity) is to the whole region and how key people and things developed there which influenced world politics. How special relations Bulgaria has with Macedonia (VRMO for example, which is key to Bulgaria and where M stands for Macedonia) and lots of other interesting things.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Can the world quench China's bottomless thirst for milk? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/29/can-the-world-quench-chinas-bottomless-thirst-for-milk <comment><USER2> Yet another Western hypocritical "oh no, Chinese want to consume almost as much as we do, think of the consequences!".</comment>


Google Chrome harder to hack than other browsers - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1334

<comment><USER2> Actually, if you read all the way to the end of the article it says that it wasn't too challenging. The other browsers were just easier.

<comment><USER3> Yes, that is the jist of the last sentence. However that was clearly not the message the bulk of the post was intending to express:

 _He_ [Charlie Miller] _did mention, in his interview with Ryan Naraine, that Chrome was pretty much in another league. Their 'sandbox' makes it extremely difficult to exploit_

<comment><USER4> Two hikers are running from a grizzly. One of them asks, "Do you really think we can outrun the bear?" The other says, "No, but I think I can outrun you!"

<comment><USER5> My CS professor told us that before our final exam. :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is the trend with anything that comes out.

The Hack-ability tends to be directly proportional to it's popularity. Nothing has been ever built that was 100% secure (if you did, more power to you). My point is, the the more popular something gets, more minds will be focused on it to break it, and more information be available publicly regarding possible attack vectors, and eventually it will break.

Chrome is a new player, people haven't had much time to play with it, or the motivation to since it doesn't have as much market share at the moment.

<comment><USER7> I think Chrome and IE are both on track to become _proved-secure_. I think they are both close to being able to use automatic tools to prove that malware cannot get out of the sandbox without an operating-system exploit.

Microsoft seems to be working on a provably-secure micro-kernel for Windows. In a few years they will be able to legitamately claim that privilege escalation is literally impossible without the user's consent. That is such a big and expensive task that I'm not sure their mainstream competitors will be able to match that claim in any reasonable time frame (except maybe Symbian, because it already has a micro-kernel architecture).

After that, security on Windows will be all about UI. How can we prevent programs from tricking the user into letting them do something bad. How can we prevent programs from doing bad things without the user knowing? How can the user be sure that a program will not violate his privacy? How can the user be sure that a program won't cause data loss?

<comment><USER4> _How can the user be sure that a program won't cause data loss?_

An easy way to do it: never delete anything. This isn't too different than my OS X setup at home with Time Machine. I have exceptions set up for things like my VirtualBox images and movies. A more advanced system that can keep deltas of binary data would be even better. A solution designed for the clueless end- user would have some sort of function that would automatically keep less frequent backups for larger files.

Run out of room? The salesperson talks you into a hard-drive upgrade. HP, Dell, and Apple would be happy about this!

More accurately, never _completely_ delete anything. The system would always keep around at least one version of everything. Yes, this would mean that secure delete is impossible, but this sort of system is for the casual home user. If you need secure delete, use a different system. If you are doing esoteric things with lots of large files, use a different system.

<comment><USER7> That is very similar to what Windows Vista does with "Previous Versions", except "Previous Versions" automatically gets rid of old versions when disk space gets low.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What makes the Google Chrome sandbox better than the IE7 sandbox or the IE8 sandbox? AFAICT, they are all using the same techniques.

<comment><USER8> Chrome is process-per-tab; there's architecturally almost no shared state between two different render contexts. Contrast that with Firefox, where there's a application-layer permeable membrane connecting content-driven code to browser core state.

<comment><USER7> I understand how process-per-tab protects against cross-domain attacks. In protecting against cross-domain attacks, Chrome's architecture is safer than IE's since IE will often put multiple tabs in the same process. But, I don't think the number of tabs per process has an effect in the ability to prevent exploits of the local system.

The feature of Chrome and IE Protected Mode that protects against local expoits is basically the same. There is a "main" process that has access to the local system (files, registry, other processes). And, there are some "sandboxed" processes that do not have access to the local system except for a communication channel to the main process. Any time these browsers interpret some input from the internet, they do so only in the sandboxed processes. The only way a sandboxed process can access local resources is by asking the main process to give it the local resource through the communication channel. The main process asks the user to approve the request before accessing the local resource on behalf of the sandboxed process. As long as the main process implements its side of this communication channel correctly, there is no way for malicious web content to break out of the sandbox. That is the case whether there is one tab per process or more than one tab per process.

<comment><USER8> They're different threat models.

Vista Protected Mode (IIRC, it only works on Vista, because of XP's session security flaw) is like privsep SSH. It's primary job is to keep malware from persisting.

On Windows, my understanding is that Chrome Sandboxes do the same thing. But what the process-per-tab model is most notable for is defending against cross- domain attacks. Which, if you ask me --- and I'm a Microsoft booster --- is the more important threat model. Browser-resident malware is where we're headed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A linkbait headline and half of the article is quotes. Is this really news material?

<comment><USER10> The original interview was news. <http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2941>

@ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=524349></comment></comment>


The GitHub Threat - <AUTHOR> https://carlchenet.com/the-github-threat/ <comment><USER2> Also another thing is when Github changed its licensing model it really hurt those of us working on small budgets like at non-profits or in education. [https://venturebeat.com/2016/05/11/github-changes-pricing- un...](https://venturebeat.com/2016/05/11/github-changes-pricing-unlimited- private-repos-cost-7-per-month-for-personal-accounts-9-per-user-per-month-for- organizations/) For example, I worked at a public university where we had student workers. I could convince our dean to pay per repo but once it was per user we had to migrate off Github because we couldn't afford it. Migrating off took up a lot of my time.

</comment><comment><USER2> I agree with this, also another issue with Github's dominance is silly recruiters now think a github profile is the best way to evaluate candidates. Sucks for those of us who use self-hosted revision control, Gitlab, or Bitbucket at work.</comment>