Top all-time · #1620
Gavin D. Howard
Personal blog · gavinhoward.com · on HN as gavinhowardprogrammingsystems
Gavin D. Howard's personal blog at gavinhoward.com covers programming and systems. Since 2019, 43 different Hacker News readers have linked it 308 times, most often “I Believe Zig Has Function Colors”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-03-15, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 1 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Gavin Howard's posts on software licensing against ML training (Copilot), finishing and maintaining software, and C development. Most comments cite his posts as his own prior writing.
- Recommended for · 1 comments
- One commenter found the article on C and discipline helpful and said they wished they had built their own tools in C earlier.1
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a husband, and a computing system designer. This is my professional blog and has only my professional writing.
Most-linked posts?
- I Believe Zig Has Function Colors4 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2022-04-09
- What Rust Got Wrong on Formal Verification4 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2024-05-22
- A New Architecture for a GUI Framework4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-05-29
- Why I Use C When I Believe in Memory Safety3 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2023-02-05
- How to Fund FOSS, Save It from the CRA, and Improve Cybersecurity3 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2023-11-29
- The Scourge of 00UB3 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2023-08-19
- Structured Concurrency Definition3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-11-03
- My Code Conquered Another OS3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2023-02-04
- Rust Is Dead to Me3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-04-11
- I Have Blocked OpenAI3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-08-18
What Hacker News says?
This is the first year that I will do AoC. I have never wanted to, but I have a working language of my own now. https://gavinhoward.com/2024/11/advent-of-code-2024-getting-...
Comment linking /2024/11/advent-of-code-2024-getting-started/
on “Advent of Code 2024”Submitted Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore? as a story · 163 points
HN discussionYou are correct. I just want to say that I believe the fair use argument only applies for training , but not for distribution. I make the case for that in [1]. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/uploads/copilot.pdf
Comment linking /uploads/copilot.pdf
on “Microsoft forked MIT licensed repo and changed the copyright [fixed]”Submitted I Believe Zig Has Function Colors as a story · 142 points
HN discussionI made this decision as well. https://gavinhoward.com/2020/08/the-software-industry-is-bro...
Comment linking /2020/08/the-software-industry-is-broken/
on “I no longer build software”Submitted Rewriting Rust: A Response as a story · 140 points
HN discussion@antirez, if you manage to see this, can you tell me what you think of [1] as a funding model? [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2023/11/how-to-fund-foss-save-it-fro... , though just read until you get to https://gavinhoward.com/2023/11/how-to-fund-foss-save-it-fro... .
Comment linking /2023/11/how-to-fund-foss-save-it-from-the-cra-and-improve-cybersecurity/
on “From where I left”Submitted “Static Linking Considered Harmful” Considered Harmful as a story · 115 points
HN discussionLess permissive licenses protect users more. https://gavinhoward.com/2023/12/is-source-available-really-t...
Comment linking /2023/12/is-source-available-really-that-bad/
on “Ladybird Web Browser becomes a non-profit with $1M from GitHub Founder”Submitted I Hope Rust Does Not Oxidize Everything as a story · 99 points
HN discussionThe analogy goes even further if you consider compiler optimizations: https://gavinhoward.com/2021/07/poisoning-github-copilot-and... .
Comment linking /2021/07/poisoning-github-copilot-and-machine-learning/
on “All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot”Submitted Replacing CVE as a story · 59 points
HN discussionI made new licenses [1] [2] that attempt this. The problem with adding a clause against ML training is that that is (supposedly) fair use. What my licenses do is concede that but claim that the output of those algorithms is still under the copyright and license. I hope that even if it wouldn't work, it puts enough doubt in companies' minds that they wouldn't want to use a model trained by code under those licenses.…
Comment linking /2021/07/poisoning-github-copilot-and-machine-learning/
on “All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot”Submitted The Slippery Slope Is Not a Fallacy as a story · 58 points
HN discussionThis is why I relicensed my code [1] yesterday to a license I wrote [2], which is designed to poison the well for machine learning. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2021/07/poisoning-github-copilot-and... [2]: https://yzena.com/yzena-network-license/
Comment linking /2021/07/poisoning-github-copilot-and-machine-learning/
on “All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot”Submitted My Programming Journey as a story · 33 points
HN discussionI actually agree with you, even though my Internet isn't as slow. Can you do me a favor and go to my website? If you do, please give me feedback about what you like and don't like. Thank you. https://gavinhoward.com/
Comment linking /
on “Microfeatures I love in blogs and personal websites”Submitted Is Crowdstrike the Final Straw? as a story · 29 points
HN discussionI think this applies to more than just apps too; it would apply to software in general. "Update or perish" is a bad model for software. https://gavinhoward.com/2019/11/finishing-software/
Comment linking /2019/11/finishing-software/
on “Outdated vs. Complete: In defense of apps that don’t need updates”Submitted Windows Will Die: 90 Minutes to Do 5 Minutes of Work as a story · 25 points
HN discussionMy thoughts: https://gavinhoward.com/2022/01/the-social-contract-of-open-... . I submitted that link here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29876749
Comment linking /2022/01/the-social-contract-of-open-source/
on “Dev corrupts NPM libs 'colors' and 'faker', breaking thousands of apps”Submitted Rust, Zig, and the Futility of “Replacing” C as a story · 24 points
HN discussion> Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. > I'm not familiar with the exact data set they used for SD and whether or not Disney art was included, but my understanding is that their claim to legality comes from arguing that the use of images as training data is 'fair use'. They could argue that. But since the American court system is currently (almost) de facto "richest wins," their argument will probably not mean much. The way…
Comment linking /uploads/copilot.pdf
on “GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code”Submitted Is "source available" that bad? as a story · 21 points
HN discussionMy thoughts: https://gavinhoward.com/2019/12/replication-and-retraction-c... .
Comment linking /2019/12/replication-and-retraction-crises-in-science/
on “Time to assume that health research is fraudulent until proven otherwise?”Submitted How to Fund FOSS, Save It from the CRA, and Improve Cybersecurity as a story · 20 points
HN discussionI had a doctor chew me out for expressing skepticism about something the medical industry was saying. This is why I have skepticism. This is also why there are some conspiracy theories. This was a conspiracy, and who knows what other conspiracies there are. If scientits want people to trust the body of knowledge that people wrongfully call science (science is a process, see https://gavinhoward.com/2019/11/what-scien…
Comment linking /2019/12/replication-and-retraction-crises-in-science/
on “50 Years Ago, Sugar Industry Quietly Paid Scientists to Blame Fat (2016)”Submitted Lobste.rs Will Become an Echo Chamber as a story · 11 points
HN discussionIt's not lost on me at all. I prefer to finish software. [1] I get it to where it needs to be and put it in maintenance mode. I don't accept outside contributions. [2] I prefer to work alone to keep the scope of my software manageable and to reduce communication overhead. And to avoid working with people. People are too complicated. I obsessively document my software. [3] I comment all of my code. I wrote design doc…
Comment linking /2019/11/finishing-software/
on “It's time to halt starting any new projects in C/C++”Submitted A New Architecture for a GUI Framework as a story · 7 points
HN discussion
