The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 1,045 posts.
Someone left a comment on my blog recently asking if I'd mind making my language more inclusive. They didn't get some of the cultural references I'd used and suggested it would be easier if I used tropes which were more globally known. Here's the thing. No. All my blog posts start with a simple declaration: Copied…
A 4-year study of 100 successful blogs reveals how Google's updates and AI transformed blogging. See which sites survived and which disappeared.
How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it
Nym CEO Harry Halpin responds to Palantir manifesto with one that defends human freedom and privacy against techno-fascism.
I am a software engineer, and I used to enjoy arguing with people for technical correctness. Code reviews, design meetings, mailing-list threads, dinner tables. If someone was wrong, I wanted them to know it, and I wanted them to know exactly why. I collected counterarguments the way I collected patches. I believed…
On July 1, 2026, arXiv will spin out from Cornell University, its home for the past 25 years, to become an independent nonprofit organization. With this next…
What China’s jet engine program tells us about the limits of industrial policy
A Pew Research Center study found that 38% of webpages from a decade ago, and about 25% of pages sampled across the decade, are now inaccessible; our analysis shows that the Wayback Machine has rescued roughly 15% of those otherwise dead pages.
What we lose when we no longer have to learn how our computers work.
A look at the decline of the labor share of income that occurred post-COVID, comparing its dynamics to declines in earlier periods.
Our presence in the ATmosphere – Bluesky’s protocol – is no longer dependent on the platform’s standard infrastructure. Instead, our data now runs on Eurosky’s Personal Data Server (PDS).
European governments are rolling out digital identity wallets, which are to be used by citizens to access services, and to verify their age online. There is a serious problem with this: these wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple.
The US Supreme Court decided that the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may not be independent anymore – with major implications for EU-US Data Transfers.
According to a new analysis by Stanford Medicine scientists, changing clocks twice a year disrupts circadian rhythms, leading to higher rates of stroke and obesity.
In 2022, I wrote about the damning fall of events tech company Pollen. The short of it: Pollen seemed to have pulled off the improbable feat of building a business in the notoriously low margin industry of events, surviving Covid-19, and building a solid software engineering organization. In April
Lots of US states, European countries, and Australia have introduced "age verification" regulations. They present it as the classic "save the children" talking ...
Withdrawing its opposition under behind-the-scenes pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawless threats from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the California legislature has agreed to fund and revise state law to authorize the upload of information about all driver’s licenses and ID cards issued by the…
Civil rights activist Dr. Patrick Breyer warns of an unprecedented "double-attack" on secure messaging ahead of critical Friday and Monday EU meetings. Ahead of a highly critical weekend for digital civil rights in Europe, former Member of the European Parliament Dr. Patrick Breyer is sounding th
Buried inside the KIDS Act are provisions that will push online services to verify all users’ ages, require government-directed moderation policies for online speech, and even create new rules about private and encrypted communications. While supporters continue to claim this bill protects minors online, its…
There's a moment in the movie Good Will Hunting which perfectly summarizes all the problems with AI slop and online noise and infinite advice content. Sean (played by Robin Williams) is sitting next to Will (Matt Damon) on a bench in Boston Public Garden. I live here, so I know it well. The area
More than a decade ago, a group of young, internet-connected Belarusian dissidents launched a series of increasingly high-stakes, increasingly surreal confrontations with the corrupt, authoritarian government of Alexander Lukashenka, a man who is often called "the last Soviet dictator."
An overview of physical media ownership, streaming shutdowns, content removals, and the limits of digital licenses.
Ignoring EFF’s warnings about the dangers and impossibility of implementing a new mandate for 3D print surveillance software, the California State Assembly has signed off on legislation to do just that. In the process, legislators amended the bill to make it even more confusing, while failing to address the risks to…
Plus: Fiery resistance to a nuclear AI data center and A24's Google debacle. Welcome to the first episode of BLOOD IN THE MACHINE: THE SHOW, with the great AI and crypto watchdog, Molly White.
An open letter from the technology industry, and the launch of Akrites - a coordinated effort to remediate vulnerabilities in the open source software the world runs on.
Last week, I posted a visual demonstration of the sameness of AI-generated content.
Americans, be warned: Age verification is identity verification.
