Top all-time · #15990
Miguel Rochefort
Personal blog · miguelrochefort.com/blog · on HN as miguelrochefortprogrammingproductivitycareer
Miguel Rochefort's personal blog at miguelrochefort.com covers programming, productivity and career. Since 2020, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 23 times, most often “I got a computer science degree in 3 months for less than $5000 (2020)”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this post about earning an accredited computer science degree quickly through Western Governors University, which uses test-based courses and charges per semester.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Software developer based in Montréal, Canada
Most-linked posts?
- I got a computer science degree in 3 months for less than $5000 (2020)4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2020-12-18
What Hacker News says?
There aren’t that many different ways to design an immunity passport. Their design looks very similar to mine [1], but they use a compact and custom schema instead of FHIR and W3’s Verifiable Credentials standard. Looks like they might be using LOINC code though. [1] https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/immunity-passport-2/
Comment linking /blog/immunity-passport-2/
on “What's Inside the EU Green Pass QR Code?”Submitted I got a computer science degree in 3 months for less than $5000 (2020) as a story · 470 points
HN discussionIn contrast, Western Governors University allows students to test out of any course. For example, I completed my CS degree in 3 months: https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/cs-degree/
Comment linking /blog/cs-degree/
on “There’s no speed limit (2009)”Submitted I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months as a story · 425 points
HN discussionI predicted those features weeks ago [1], but I still feel they could do so much more. If anything, their implementation feels like a rushed afterthought. In their demos, they use the action button to capture an ambient song for Shazam, the power button to capture a voice command for Siri, and the camera button for an image for Visual Intelligence. All 3 captures should be performed using the same button. And screen…
Comment linking /blog/capture-button
on “iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max”Submitted Fitness Camera: Turn Your Phone's Camera into a Fitness Tracker as a story · 11 points
HN discussionI’ve been manually recording every 15-minute increment of my life in Google Calendar for the past 3 years. While studying at WGU, I also tracked 100% of my computer/phone/TV usage with ActivityWatch. I wrote a paper showing that over 80% of my learning sessions could be accurately detected and classified from my computer usage logs: https://miguelrochefort.com/Rochefort_2021_Academic_Time_Tra...
Comment linking /Rochefort_2021_Academic_Time_Tracker.pdf
on “I got a computer science degree in 3 months for less than $5000 (2020)”Submitted Tracking My Water Intake with NFC Tags as a story · 6 points
HN discussionLooks like we've still got: - Snapchat Stories - YouTube Stories (Google) - LinkedIn Stories (Microsoft) - Instagram Stories (Facebook) - WeChat Time Capsule (Tencent) - Weibo Stories (Alibaba) - Naver Snow https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/tech-giant/#65-stories-35
Comment linking /blog/tech-giant/
on “Goodbye, Fleets”Submitted Apple's Next Big Thing Might Be a Button as a story · 5 points
HN discussionI saw a blog post a few years ago about a Canadian dude getting an exception to go to WGU. You might just email WGU and ask if you can get an exception. https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/cs-degree/
Comment linking /blog/cs-degree/
on “The EdTech Revolution Has Failed”Submitted Big Tech Spreadsheet - How Tech Giants Compare (900+ projects) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionFor those unfamiliar with ByteDance, they’re actually much bigger than you might think, and have become serious competitors to China’s leading tech companies (BATX + H) [1]: - Baidu - Alibaba - Tencent - Xiaomi - Huawei You can see how their offering compare in this Big Tech Spreadsheet [2]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATX [2] https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/big-tech
Comment linking /blog/big-tech
on “TikTok's co-founder to step down as chief executive”Submitted What Does It Take to Be a Tech Giant? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIt's amazing how big these tech companies are getting: https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/tech-giant/
Comment linking /blog/tech-giant/
on “Amazon has acquired Facebook's satellite internet team”Submitted Apple's Next Big Thing Might Be a Button as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWestern Governors University is a place where courses are completed by taking tests. This person got their degree in 3 months. https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/cs-degree/
Comment linking /blog/cs-degree/
on “Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy”Submitted I Put Everything on My Calendar as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI would at least like to have a degree of some sort, even if it's computer science If you just want to get an accredited computer science degree in the shortest possible time, and are willing to work hard, WGU (Western Governors University) is a good option. You pay per semester rather than per course, so the faster you do it, the cheaper it is. Miguel described how to do it here: https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/cs…
Comment linking /blog/cs-degree/
on “Ask HN: Difficulties with going back to school”Submitted I Put Everything on My Calendar as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI've wrote a bit more about it here: https://miguelrochefort.com/blog/fitness-camera/
Comment linking /blog/fitness-camera/
on “Show HN: Fitness Camera – turn your phone's camera into a fitness tracker”Submitted Apple's Next Big Thing Might Be a Button as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Does It Take to Be a Tech Giant? (2021) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion