Top all-time · #12273
Micah Kepe
Personal blog · micahkepe.com/blog · on HN as micahkepeprogrammingai
Micah Kepe's personal blog at micahkepe.com covers programming and ai. Since 2024, 6 different Hacker News readers have linked it 8 times, most often “That Time Ken Thompson Wrote a Backdoor into the C Compiler”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-02-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked for the post "Don't fall into the anti-AI hype", on trusting software through unit tests, Lean, typed languages and compilers, plus its Thompson trojan horse post on compiler backdoors.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Micah Kepe is recent computer science graduate from Rice University in Houston, TX. Discover more about Micah's academic journey, projects, and interests.
Most-linked posts?
- That Time Ken Thompson Wrote a Backdoor into the C Compiler4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-10-24
What Hacker News says?
> Unit tests. Not proof. > Lean. Fantastic. But what proportion of developers are ready to formalize their requirements in Lean? > Typed languages. Even more broadly, compilers. For sufficiently strong type systems, sure! But then we're back in the above point. > https://micahkepe.com/blog/thompson-trojan-horse/ I am of course aware. Any malevolent backdoor in your compiler could also exist in your LLM. Or the compi…
Comment linking /blog/thompson-trojan-horse/
on “Don't fall into the anti-AI hype”Submitted That Time Ken Thompson Wrote a Backdoor into the C Compiler as a story · 80 points
HN discussion> Example? Unit tests. Lean. Typed languages. Even more broadly, compilers. > I trust the same people to discover compiler backdoors. https://micahkepe.com/blog/thompson-trojan-horse/ > you're missing the point entirely. Rowhammer, the fdiv bug, they're all mistakes. And sure, malevolence also exists. Rowhammer was a thing because the physics was ignored. Calling it a mistake is missing the point, it demonstrates th…
Comment linking /blog/thompson-trojan-horse/
on “Don't fall into the anti-AI hype”Submitted A Faster Alternative to Jq as a story · 14 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ken Thompson's "Trusting Trust" Compiler Backdoor – Source Code Released (2023) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Git Gud: Setting Up a Better Git Config as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Setting Up a Supercharged Neovim Configuration as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted AI's Augmentation of Software Professionals: Data from AI Index 2024 as a story · 1 points
HN discussion