Top all-time · #2075
Phil Windley
Personal blog · windley.comsecurityphilosophy
Phil Windley's personal blog at windley.com covers security and philosophy. Since 2007, 35 different Hacker News readers have linked it 73 times, most often “The CompuServe of Things (2014)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Phil Windley's blog is cited in HN threads on identity systems, software architecture, Lisp and JVM history, and OpenID. Commenters link his posts as sources or pointers to techniques.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Building the Internet of My Things
Most-linked posts?
- The CompuServe of Things (2014)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-07-09
- Tail Optimized Mutual Recursion in Clojure (2008)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-11-03
What Hacker News says?
I believe it was due to limitations of the JVM at the time. Edit: https://www.windley.com/archives/2008/11/tail_optimized_mutu...
Comment linking /archives/2008/11/tail_optimized_mutual_recursion_in_clojure.shtml
on “Differences with other Lisps”Submitted Alan Kay: "We're running on fumes technologically today." as a story · 63 points
HN discussionTry delegation. http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/02/using_openid_delegat...
Comment linking /archives/2007/02/using_openid_delegation.shtml
on “Your Google profile is now also an OpenId”Submitted Worlds: Tabs for Programming by Alan Kay as a story · 55 points
HN discussionSoftware development is like movie making: http://www.silicon-stories.com/movie-making-software-develop... Software architecture is like city planning: http://www.windley.com/archives/2003/09/enterprise_arch_4.sh... Software development is not like manufacturing: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/10/is-software-develop... Software development is like manufacturing: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/03211507…
Comment linking /archives/2003/09/enterprise_arch_4.shtml
on “Don’t build. Compose”Submitted A Programming Model for Personal Clouds as a story · 49 points
HN discussionAlan Kay uses an interesting analogy to explain the distinction between "Computer Science" and "Software Engineering": UCLA has one computer science department, but 25 full departments of biology (not counting medical school stuff). Why? Biologists are smarter then we are. When things are bogging down, the best thing to do is to go create a new department. ( http://www.windley.com/cgi-bin/printthis.pl?url=http://www…
Comment linking /cgi-bin/printthis.pl?url=http://www.windley.com/archives/2006/02/alan_kay_is_com.shtml
on “Why do people discount the importance of a formal education in computer science?”Submitted Alan Kay: Is Computer Science an Oxymoron? as a story · 22 points
HN discussionI've enjoyed the hackers and founders meetup in mountain view. I really do enjoy how unstructured it is compared to Launch Up and the Web Startup Group. Another good group is the CTO Breakfast hosted by Phil Windley at the Novell Cafeteria http://www.windley.com/cto_forum
Comment linking /cto_forum
on “Ask HN: Any interest in a Salt Lake City or Provo, UT Hackers/Founders meetup?”Submitted DSLs expand the solution space, GUIs limit it to the creator's vision as a story · 19 points
HN discussionFor those along the lines of "History of Rome," I would recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (which has a 3 part series on the Fall of the Roman Empire (which goes back several hundred years). He also has a 4 part series on the Eastern Front of WWII, "Toughness" in generations in History, and many other interesting podcasts. He is very engaging and informed (he was / is an investigative journalist and a history b…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What's your favourite podcast?”Submitted The Ukrainian War, PKI, and Censorship as a story · 16 points
HN discussionIs trust. From Self-Sovereign Identity are some essays: - The Domains of Identity Kaliya “Identity Woman” Young http://identitywoman.net/domains-of-identity - New Hope for Digital Identity Doc Searls https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/new-hope-digital-identi... - The Architecture of Identity Systems Phil Windley https://www.windley.com/archives/2020/09/the_architecture_of... - Three Dimensions of Identity Jason La…
Comment linking /archives/2020/09/the_architecture_of_identity_systems.shtml
on “The Scarcest Thing in the World”Submitted The CompuServe of Things (2014) as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted Shopzilla co-founder discusses how .tel will change the way we communicate as a story · 14 points
HN discussionSubmitted ParenScript: A Lispy JavaScript Generator as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Coder to Co-Founder: Entrepreneuring for Geeks (Marc Hedlund talk @ ETech) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Google Plus: On Trust, Reputation, Pseudonyms, and Value as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Alan Kay: Is Computer Science an Oxymoron? as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Starting a High Tech Business: Get a Clubhouse as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ephemeral Relationships as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Coherence and Decentralized Systems as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted From Personal Computers To Personal Clouds (Phil Windley) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fran Allen: Compilers and Parallel Computing Systems as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted There are a lot of "best practices" of Web development that were good decisions at the time but which are no longer needed. as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Human in the Loop Control for OpenClaw as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tail Optimized Mutual Recursion in Clojure (2008) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A New Job at AWS as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted ONDC: An Open Network for Ecommerce as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fixing Web Login as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
