The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 1,050 posts.
Too often, a popular consumer app unexpectedly gets worse: Some combination of harder to use, missing features, and slower. At a time in history where software is significantly eating the world, this is nonsensical. It’s also damaging to the lives of the people who depend on these products.
When tech companies take it upon themselves to arbitrate what is or isn't misinformation they think they're the patricians of internet discourse. The reality is they're the plumbing. Meanwhile, most of the mainstream media coverage around the pandemic can be classified into five logical fallacies.
A newly formed patent troll is looking for big money from small business websites, just for using free, off-the-shelf login verification tools. Defenders of the American Dream, LLC (DAD ), is sending out its demand letters to websites that use Google’s reCAPTCHA system, accusing them of infringing...
The stakes are incredibly high, and Apple knows it. Whatever you think of Apple’s decision to implement these features, they’re not doing so lightly.
Apple has announced the new client-side content scanning (based on parameters received from the center) to find child sexual abuse materials to be reported to law enforcers.
These efforts will evolve and expand over time. – Apple on their “Expanded Protections for Children” I am broke “non-liquid” right now. Normally, that sentence doesn&#…
How the Internet Transforms the Individual into a Conspiracy of One
Apple has announced impending changes to its operating systems that include new “protections for children” features in iCloud and iMessage. If you’ve spent any time following the Crypto Wars, you know what this means: Apple is planning to build a backdoor into its data storage system and its messaging system.
The United States trails far behind other high-income countries on measures of health care affordability, administrative efficiency, equity, and outcomes.
The Mozilla Common Voice initiative has released a new, expanded data set featuring 16 new languages — like Basaa and Kazakh — and 4,622 new hours of sp…
Recently the Surgeon General of the United States weighed in on the spread of disinformation on major platforms and its effects on people and society. He e
The long view of economic history says we're in the midst of a huge, unsustainable acceleration. What happens next?
I’ll be taking some time in the next months to talk about the newly hostile-by-default nature of technology, and how I deal with it.
An essay about life pre-iPhone addiction, why you're wrong about Salt Bae, an Indian butter chicken Instant Pot adventure, and a new Hell & Wellness pod discussing Marie Kondo.
Maybe because what countries think of as a "tech industry" isn't always the same
Selling your soul has never been easier. Today, there are plenty of demonology books that teach you how to bargain with Lucifer, written by authors who have probably done this themselves on multiple occasions.
The supreme court’s refusal to hear Craig Murray’s appeal against his unprecedented conviction for ‘jigsaw identification’ means the British state is now effectively credentialising journalists. Only corporate journalists will be safe from state retribution.
Why hasn't new technology made us more productive than it has?
The untold story of the hole in Bitcoin's heart
A couple of months ago a new paper was released that examined the lead-crime hypothesis. Its conclusion is that there's little evidence for an association, and if there is one it's pretty small. I haven't commented on it, but not because of its negative conclusion. It's because the paper is a meta-analysis. I'm fairly…
Well I'm in the working world again. I've found myself a well-paying gig in the engineering industry, and life finally feels like it's returning to normal after my nine months of traveling. Beca...
Restaurant prices in the 19th century (followed by 20th, below) Note: Until the mid-19th century prices were often quoted in shillings and pence, or in Spanish dollars. One Spanish bit = 12½¢; One …
Does my name belong to me? Does my face? What about my life? My story? Why is my name used to refer to events I had no hand in? I return to…
