1
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 569 posts.
2
Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
The views expressed in this newsletter are solely my own, and do not represent the views of my employer.
3
The Fraying of the US Global Currency Reserve System
Published December 2, 2020 Since autumn of 2019, I’ve been bearish on the dollar, meaning I have a longish-term outlook towards a weaker dollar. This view began forming when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates in summer 2019, and then the view solidified with a catalyst after an overnight repo rate spike in…
4
5
Systems design explains the world: volume 1
"Systems design" is a branch of study that tries to find universal architectural patterns that are valid across disciplines. You might thin...
6
APIs All the Way Down
Going down the API-First Ecosystem Rabbit Hole with Shopify, Stripe, Twilio, and more
7
Lawyers automate this, so why don't airlines?
My working title for this blog post was “Why I’ll Never Fly With easyJet Again”, but that was far too clickbaity. Also it’s probably worth prefixing this post with two things. The first being the caveat that whether or not i ever fly with easyJet again is immaterial to their business, given that the model of budget…
8
Trading Time for Money
Paying someone else to do your work isn't such a great deal, and you should probably learn to do it yourself.
9
The impact of Apple Silicon Macs on Broadway
Apple Silicon changes everything for Broadway electronic music designers. The new M1 Mac mini is capable of running high-end sample libraries and virtual instruments in a stable manner, and it's only going to get better with M2, M3, and M4-series chips in the future.
10
11
12
Great Hacker != Great Hire (2004)
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Paul Graham's recent essay Great Hackers . His sermon is well-written, and I assume it played very well when he preached it to the choir at OSCON .
13
Paper about Herbalife-related patient death removed after legal threats
A paper describing the death of a young woman trying to lose weight by consuming Herbalife® products has been withdrawn after the company threatened to sue the journal.
14
Crime Shouldn't Pay: Why Big Tech Executives Should Face Jail
Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai need to be indicted.
15
Building the Middle Class of the Creator Economy
The American Dream exists, but what is the reality?
16
Operation Elop: The final years of Nokia’s mobile phones (2017)
The final years of Nokia’s mobile phones
17
Facebook: Free as in Bullshit
This whole ad reads more like an ad *for* Apple’s privacy initiatives than against.
18
Selling a Tiny Project
How I sold my tiny online store builder One Item Store, and how I think anyone can sell their tiny projects online.
19
It took two days to develop Moderna’s vaccine
As the first crop of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are being rolled out, we can start to see the light at the end of this pandemic tunnel. Still, in the US alone there will probably be another 200,000 deaths before we reach herd immunity. Further, as fast as this vaccine development and deployment was, it's not clear
20
I Have Resigned from the Google AMP Advisory Committee
As per the AMP AC charter, I have resigned with immediate effect. As I was a non-corporate representative, I will not be nominating a replacement. I have loved working with the AC. They are a team of brilliant individuals who are all committed to trying to make AMP better, and I'm sorry to leave them. I've been a…
21
Facebook's Hypocrisy on Apple's New iOS 14 Privacy Feature
In their latest attempt to disrupt the iOS anti-ad tracking feature, Facebook has stooped to a new low
22
Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
I recently bought a webcam from Amazon (late to the party, I know), and when it came it was fine but not amazing. When I went through the packaging I saw a little card saying “send us a scree…
23
Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy
Apple isn’t blocking the ability for Facebook to personalize ads, in any way. Apple is just providing *users* with control over their own privacy.
24
When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet
Writings on artificial intelligence, personalization, recommendations, and the tech industry.
25
The biggest competitor to your digital service? The Mars Bar
This post has been languishing in my drafts folder for about a decade. It has recently become relevant again. When I was at Vodafone, selling ringtones was our top priority. They cost almost nothing to produce, supply, and market. Yet people would pay through the nose for them. I say people. I mean kids. We saw a huge…
26
Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX
Dec 14, 2020 I’ve been writing for probably a decade about how bad Google’s GUI is for Google Analytics, Google Apps, and countless of their other p
27
U.S. Treasury, Commerce Depts. Hacked Through SolarWinds Compromise
Communications at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments were reportedly compromised by a supply chain attack on SolarWinds , a security vendor that helps the federal government and a range of Fortune 500 companies monitor the health of their IT networks. Given the breadth of the company’s customer base, experts…
28
Technical Copywriting:What Engineers Can Learn from Apple’s M1 MacBook Marketing
Notes on building, technology, health, and living deliberately by Ayush Kumar.
29
Tesla's market cap now accounts for roughly 1/3rd of the global automaker market
I wasn’t really paying attention, so maybe I’m the only one that hadn’t noticed, but Tesla’s market cap as of December 9th 2020 is a touch over 616 billion US dollars. That makes it kind of a big deal. In fact, it accounts for a full third of the global automaker market cap:
30
The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system
Published December 2, 2020 Since autumn of 2019, I’ve been bearish on the dollar, meaning I have a longish-term outlook towards a weaker dollar. This view began forming when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates in summer 2019, and then the view solidified with a catalyst after an overnight repo rate spike in…