Top all-time · #574
Sealed Abstract
Personal blog · sealedabstract.com · on HN as drewcrawfordprogrammingbusiness
Sealed Abstract is a personal blog at sealedabstract.com about programming and business. Since 2009, 104 different Hacker News readers have linked it 145 times, most often “Why mobile web apps are slow”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-12, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 12 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for its writing on mobile web performance and garbage collection, and for its reply to the xkcd free-speech comic.
- Recommended for · 12 comments
- One calls a post 'an excellent writeup', another 'a fantastic job' and 'thorough', and another 'the best write-up'.
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.
Recent posts
Most-linked posts?
- Why mobile web apps are slow27 people · 28 mentions · first linked 2013-07-09
- Set up an email server in two hours11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2013-07-15
- RE: xkcd #1357 free speech6 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2014-10-30
- Nanomsg postmortem and other stories4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-02-08
- /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/index.html3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-01-12
- Do Hard Things3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-12-29
- How in-app purchase is not really destroying the games industry3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-02-02
- Google, Our Patron Saint of the Closed Web3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-02-27
- Hey programmers, we need to talk3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-07-11
- /wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-14-at-10.15.29-PM.png3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-07-09
What Hacker News says?
http://sealedabstract.com/rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/
on “Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo”Submitted Why mobile web apps are slow as a story · 458 points
HN discussionI disagree. Swift and its accompanying libraries are designed for automatic reference counting rather than tracing garbage collection. I think that's a big deal for mobile apps (see Drew Crawford's take on GC in mobile apps, http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow... ). In that light, Swift projections for WinRT would be great.
Comment linking /rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow/
on ““Swift will be open source later this year””Submitted Google, Our Patron Saint of the Closed Web as a story · 297 points
HN discussionNo. It conflates the principle free speech with a narrow legal reading of the first amendment. Whether on purpose, or accident, I cannot say. The alt-text is also only illuminating in the sense that the CCP might heartily agree with it as well, as they see their crusade against free speech as nothing more than maintaining the public order and peace. In publishing the comic and leaving it up, Munroe has done more to…
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/index.html
on “Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’”Submitted Why I stopped reading HN (2010) as a story · 254 points
HN discussionA comic response to the original comic: https://sealedabstract.com/rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/in...
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/index.html
on “Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’”Submitted Why I stopped reading HN as a story · 245 points
HN discussionYeah that was my first guess. My second guess would be the articles around the demise of nanomsg. http://sealedabstract.com/rants/nanomsg-postmortem-and-other...
Comment linking /rants/nanomsg-postmortem-and-other-stories/
on “I gave commit rights to someone I didn't know”Submitted Set up an email server in two hours as a story · 220 points
HN discussionWorst xkcd ever. http://sealedabstract.com/rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/ is a decent reply if less pithy.
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/
on “GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'”Submitted Hey programmers, we need to talk as a story · 149 points
HN discussionThis XKCD sucks and is essentially a thought-terminating cliche. https://sealedabstract.com/rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/in...
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/index.html
on “EU to greenlight Chat Control tomorrow”Submitted Why Software Projects Are Terrible And How Not To Fix Them as a story · 136 points
HN discussionThank you, I'll try rebooting the phone. I recently read an article here on HN that briefly touched on memory management under iOS and especially the problem of apps getting killed, maybe it is interesting for you: http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow... (scroll down to "How much memory is available on iOS?")
Comment linking /rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow/
on “Scientific Breakthrough Lets SnappyCam App Take 20 Full-Res Photos Per Second”Submitted Of Wizards and Magical Machines (2012) as a story · 116 points
HN discussionInteresting point, but as per the chart[1] and discussion in the article, the relative memory footprint does have a big effect on performance. This is mostly felt when you get more complex object graphs. If the GC only needs to run once when you finish your calculation, it only needs to sweep once. If ram is limited and the GC is forced to run 100 times, then it must sweep 100 times. This is a lot of extra work and…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-14-at-10.15.29-PM.png
on “Why mobile web apps are slow”Submitted Hey programmers, we need to talk (2013) as a story · 115 points
HN discussion>> I've never owned a phone with more than 2GB of RAM and I'm not sure what I'm missing out on. > It's Linux under the hood which will always make use of more memory, Linux won't really be the beneficiary of all the extra RAM in this case. The motivation behind the extra RAM is Java. It is well known (i.e. researched) that garbage collection system performance is heavily dependent on free RAM. You typically want aro…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-14-at-10.15.29-PM.png
on “Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone”Submitted NSNotificationCenter with blocks considered harmful as a story · 90 points
HN discussionThat argument gets increasingly flimsy when all public spaces that matter are owned by private corporations, both online and off. The quotes from Alexander Hamilton and J.S. Mill in the below link sums it up well, IMHO: http://sealedabstract.com/rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/
on “Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture”Submitted Nanomsg postmortem and other stories as a story · 80 points
HN discussionhttp://sealedabstract.com/rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/ If you are legally required to take something down it is kind of different from when you freely choose to do so because you find the content objectionable on ideological grounds. In this case you decided to act against the principles of free speech and network neutrality of your own free will. Some for instance (GitHub, BitBucket, Google Code) also decided to…
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/
on “Almost Everything We Do Will Be Open”Submitted NSA-proof your e-mail in 2 hours (2013) as a story · 69 points
HN discussionIdeally yes... But then Google wants to purchase the whole .dev TLD for their own private, internal use http://sealedabstract.com/rants/google-our-patron-saint-of-t...
Comment linking /rants/google-our-patron-saint-of-the-closed-web/
on “elgooG”Submitted Why Software Projects are Terrible and How Not To Fix Them as a story · 45 points
HN discussionWhat isn't? Every single stepping stone on that path uses someone else's infrastructure, who are able and willing to shut you down for any or no reason. To activate your free speech rights, first buy a computer and build your own datacenter. Next, start your own ISP. Finally, tell others about your site, without piggybacking on any existing sites. In this way, all citizens can express their views without fear of cen…
Comment linking /rants/re-xkcd-1357-free-speech/index.html
on “Notes on Web3”Submitted On the enforceability of laws as a story · 42 points
HN discussionI used to think that the Redhat security guides were good [1], but would also go through the NSA guide to securing Redhat [2]. Seems a little ironic nowadays. Recently, we had Bryan Kennedy's "first 5 minutes" [3], linked from Drew Crawford's guide to "NSA proofing" email [4] (pretty good guide to securing a mail server). [1] https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/Red_Hat_Enterpr... [2] http://www.nsa.gov/ia/m…
Comment linking /code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-in-2-hours/
on “Securing a Linux Server”Submitted The joy of electronic books as a story · 42 points
HN discussion
