There's something about the puzzle. Looking at my old, deranged coding workarounds that tried to solve problems that have already been solved a thousand times before with established paradigms; and then moving them toward said best practices; and doing it in a way that no NEW technical debt is created. It's just satisfying.

I think one of the best learning experiences for me has been the fact that I created a bunch of sloppy shit by hand, auth and all, which forced me to learn things the hard way. All along the way, people were shouting from the rooftops: "use established libraries, dummy!", which is the same advice I would give to somebody today. But by doing things the hard way, I learned so much more about the inner workings. And, I've also given myself a decade's worth of refactoring work, which I really enjoy!

What is a "sensitive breach"?

HIBP enables you to discover if your account was exposed in most of the data breaches by directly searching the system. However, certain breaches are particularly sensitive in that someone's presence in the breach may adversely impact them if others are able to find that they were a member of the site. These breaches are classed as "sensitive" and may not be publicly searched.

A sensitive data breach can only be searched by the verified owner of the email address being searched for. This is done by signing in to the dashboard which involves verifying you can receive an email to the entered address. Once signed in, all breaches (including sensitive ones) are visible in the "Breaches" section under "Personal".

There are presently 82 sensitive breaches in the system including Adult FriendFinder (2015), Adult FriendFinder (2016), Adult-FanFiction.Org, Ashley Madison, Beautiful People, Bestialitysextaboo, Brazzers, BudTrader, Carding Mafia (December 2021), Carding Mafia (March 2021), Catwatchful, CityJerks, Cocospy, Color Dating, CrimeAgency vBulletin Hacks, CTARS, CyberServe, Date Hot Brunettes, DC Health Link, Doxbin and 62 more.

[1] https://haveibeenpwned.com/FAQs#SensitiveBreach

- Your program continues running with a corrupted heap - a time bomb that will explode unpredictably later.

- You’re not just getting 64 bytes of memory. You’re entering into a complex contract with a specific allocator implementation.

- The Metadata Mismatch

- If it finds glibc’s metadata instead, the best case is an immediate crash. The worst case? Silent corruption that manifests as mysterious bugs hours later.

- Virtual Memory: The Grand Illusion

- CPU Cache Architecture: The Hidden Performance Layer

- Spoiler: it’s even messier than you might think.

Problem is, it's only useful if you're using those specific fonts. Now I've gotta teach my grandpa how to install a font and switch to using it on every single device and application.

Seriously, I would highly recommend tinkering around with a hobby OS. I used it as an opportunity to learn Rust and I got more than I bargained for. Now, I feel somewhat comfortable in Rust AND I can throw more double and triple faults than most people in the world.

Is there one framework that stands out from the rest from an "investment risk" perspective? In other words, if my company is going to choose a framework to build a website, which one has the lowest odds of burning me by becoming abandoned or unsupported?

I don't know about that part... those red ball caps are pretty goofy looking.

I thought that after 2016...

I really had a difficult time parsing that, and I'm still not quite sure I fully understand it. I found myself losing concentration when I knew it was going to require my full attention to understand it. I still don't think I understand it. Perhaps I'm not trained to read this style of writing, or perhaps my brain just isn't capable.

At any rate, I'm glad other people seem to enjoy it!

What is the best Pandora-adjacent service these days? In other words, where can I plug in "Artist X" and get a great platter of recommendations?

Spotify doesn't cut it for me -- the recommendations are either hyper-generic or songs that I've listened to many times in the past. Last.fm doesn't seem to have many lights on these days.

Pandora, in its early days, was a great place to discover new music because it would find songs that were roughly similar to what you requested but by often unheard-of artists.

...also known as... clothes, I guess?

I've been living here for almost half a century and I know next to nothing about how it works. I've read and enjoy Grapes of Wrath, have heard about the Pinkertons, and have seen one or two picket lines in the streets of Downtown Austin. But I still have no clue how any of that stuff works. It seems like a vastly different world to me.