So much software is dual purpose, though. "We need this moving object recognition for, uh, cars. So it knows where a moving person is, so it can avoid them."
This has been a huge part of academic investment by government too. Yes we'll sponsor your PHD in this area because (often without the academics direct knowledge) we have a need in a certain area and we think this might help.
That might be signal reflection calculation (like more precise GPS in a place with tall buildings).
It might be a new kind of harder material (carbon nanotubes/ graphene).
Or perhaps it's a better understanding of a drug / mental health / the mind that has a side-effect of having nefarious applications as well as helpful ones being considered.
Even if the result is that it doesn't work, the armed forces and clandestine services are very interested in the outcomes of research that might fix a piece of their puzzle.
I just read that article: it was super interesting.
The author there found that many people recommend using cookies over web storage -- that's actually the exact opposite of the advice I've seen. This was written a few years ago, however.
Anyhow: I disagree with the author. I think what he's missing out on in his analysis is how common/easy/widespread XSS actually is.
XSS is far harder to defend against than CSRF. Because of this the surface area of what you have to protect against is much greater and usually out of the control of an individual developer on a project. I'm actually doing a more thorough writeup of this currently which I plan to publish sometime tomorrow.
So in summary, the garbage collection is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your [trash] in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
A "knock-off" like the dozen or so companies who have been selling weighted blankets for years? Forget six months, you could have one before this campaign ends.
