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Let's all meet up in the Y2K
Back in 2024 I posted a few of these on Twitter (thread reader) after digging out old photos from the dot-com boom. I was working in London at a digital agen...
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 8,147 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
212
When online commenters detect my art as AI
Here is a collection of screenshots (obfuscated) of dozens and dozens of online comments from many platforms (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook) containing accusations or confusion that my artworks and comics are AI-generated. Despite creating every piece by hand, despite sharing timelapses, the comments keep…
213
Born Against, or why hobby programming communities are against LLM usage
I came across a GH thread related to chess engine development that made me think of why hobby programming communities are increasingly hostile toward LLM development. While the thread doesn’t give a lot of insight into answering the question, it prompted me to think about it a bit. I’ve seen similar sentiments…
214
The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You
A fabulously gay blind Romance author.
215
Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck
Confessions of a naive hamster: why the smartest people in the room keep missing that intelligence is often not the main bottleneck in the real world
216
TIME Is Serving AI Bots a Different Website, with Ads Built In
TIME is now serving two different versions of its website. Humans get the magazine. AI crawlers get a stripped down markdown copy with ads baked in that no person will ever see. I fetched one ordinary…
217
Three Six Mafia – Data about "6/6/6 dating" (2024)
Most guys my age have "the chat". The one with your college buddies that only exists to share memes, argue, bully, and occasionally announce that you got a promotion or had a kid. I am like most guys.
218
Helsinki Hacker News Meetup
A casual, roughly bimonthly Sunday coffee meetup for Hacker News posters in Helsinki. Open to anyone with 64+ HN karma.
219
Most tech revolutions made work worse for employees
Every productivity wave since the PC made work faster and piled on more of it, so companies gained more than workers did. AI does the work itself, which is why this one could land differently.
220
AI-Generated Images Discourage Me from Reading Your Blog
If you’re willing to use AI-generated images, how do I know the text isn’t AI-generated?
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Why Book Corners won't sync contributions back to OpenStreetMap
I wanted Book Corners to contribute newly submitted public bookcases back to OpenStreetMap. After researching the operational and community requirements, I decided not to implement it.
223
The myth of Snow Leopard
It was a hot mess, but the myth is useful today.
224
A Rant About “Technology” (2005)
Ursula K. Le Guin on the presence of technology in her work
225
Google has abandoned Google News?
You know that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest sees Lieutenant Dan on the shore and is so distracted by him that he jumps off and swims to shore, allowing the boat to crash into the dock? ...
226
A directory of people who love RSS
Today, I launched I ♥ RSS, a directory for people who love RSS. I've already added the badge to my footer and submitted my site to the directory. It also shows a nice live blogroll on the homepage (powered by FeedLand). If you love RSS as much as I do, take a look and add …
227
A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: Canada Signs UN Cybercrime Convention
Last week, the government announced that Canada has signed the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, with Ministers Anita Anand, Gary Anandasangaree and Sean Fraser touting the treaty’s child protection provisions and human rights safeguards, which were described as “among the strongest found in an…
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Severance
» Mark has joined the call.
229
Online Friends Are Real Friends
A few days ago I booked my flights to not only attend a professional event, but also visit and stay with one of my best friends next month. This will be the ...
230
The most official water costs $120k a gallon
We all learned in science class that water freezes at 0 °C or 32 °F at atmospheric pressure. But what water, exactly? Even after you distill out all the dissolved salts and minerals to get pure H2O…
231
The Religion of Speed
At some point, “moving fast” stopped being a practical concern and became a moral position. You see it damn near everywhere now. How fast can we ship this...
232
The AI Aesthetic
Every zeitgeist comes with new design idioms unique to its challenges. Many of them disappear as fads change, but others bake themselves into deeper parts of…
233
I flagged two research papers for fake authors and both were accepted as orals
We reviewed 22 ML conference submissions this summer. Fifteen had fabricated citations, hallucinated authors, or clear LLM slop, so we complain about that a bit, and release the paper references audit we now run.
234
So you want to use plants to reduce CO₂
You face certain challenges
235
RFC 8890 – The Internet is for End Users (2020)
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) has published RFC8890, The Internet is for End Users, arguing that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) should ground its decisions in what’s good for people who use the Internet, and that it should take positive steps to achieve that.
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After the AI Crash
Everything I read about the AI industry leads me to think there will be an AI crash. Consider the following: Unsustainable Capital Expenses. It’s hard to imagine there can ever be enough revenue to…
238
Twenty-five years ago it was cryptography, today it's model weights
Twenty-five years ago, I made my first donation to an open source project and purchased a CD with an operating system as downloading a few hundred megabytes over a 14.4kbps dial-up wasn't very fun.
239
How Hollywood stopped making movies in Hollywood
The economics behind where movies are filmed, why Hollywood left Los Angeles, and whether audiences can tell the difference.
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I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore
Disability, shame, and the hidden violence of a culture that equates productivity with value