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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 1,047 posts.
Tunneling Wikipedia through WhatsApp to (maybe?) get around WiFi restrictions
In-flight messaging I was on a Delta flight the other day, and I was thinking about how they offer free messaging from your smartphone. How do they limit the wifi? Maybe they have some basic filter that says “deny everything except the urls for these 3 messaging apps”, which makes sense conceptually. What if we don’t…
Notes on Ukraine: I spent most of April and some of May traveling around Ukraine
I spent most of April and some of May traveling around Ukraine, visiting the cities of Uzhgorod, Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odessa. As with my other travels, I’ll write down thoughts and obse…
How to Paint a Crosswalk
A step-by-step guide to paint a crosswalk and keep your community safe.
My Favorite Liar (2008)
[the following recounts an exceptionally powerful teaching technique employed by an economics professor of mine at university; teaching fact-checking and skepticism by salting it into the content of his delivery]
OSI to the European Commission: make space for patent-free standards too
One of the biggest hidden challenges facing the software and technology world is the evolving conflict between old electronics vendors and the new software-defined universe. It’s arising because of…
Happy Birthday, Libera Chat
The state of the network after one year of operation.
Long-Term Building in Japan
It is striking that this part of Japan houses two sets of structures, both of nearly equal age, and both made of largely ephemeral materials that have lasted over 14 centuries through totally different mechanisms and religions.
Senators Urge FTC to Probe ID.me over Selfie Data
Some of more tech-savvy Democrats in the U.S. Senate are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate identity-proofing company ID.me for “deceptive statements” the company and its founder allegedly made over how they handle facial recognition data collected on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service …
My deepfake DALL-E 2 vacation photos passed the Turing Test
I went on a real vacation, and created photos of a fake vacation using DALL-E 2. Most people couldn't tell the difference.
Plagiarized in a plagiarism atonement essay
News broke this morning that upcoming author Jumi Bello plagiarized from Plagiarism Today when drafting a plagiarism explainer essay.
Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious
In my writing on technology and culture I try to be judicious about citing scientific studies. The issues involved in our ongoing wrangling with digital ... Read more
The end of Roe will bring about a sea change in the encryption debate
With the Supreme Court poised to rip away a constitutional right that’s been the law of the land for nearly half a century by overturning Roe v. Wade, it’s time for the gloves to come off in the encryption debate. For a quarter of a century, it has
The Worst (2012)
I don’t really know who Dustin Curtis is, but he blogs a lot, and those blog entries often end up onHacker News. Not too long ago, he wrote a blog post titled “The Best,” in which he explains that he has nice stuff. That in fact, everything he owns is actually the very best of its kind.Dustin’s...
Court Ruling shows the GPL is both copyright license and contractual agreement
For Immediate Release — IRVINE, CA, USA — Software Freedom Conservancy announces it has succeeded in federal court with its motion to have its lawsuit against Vizio, Inc. remanded back to Superior Court in Orange County, California. Vizio, Inc. previously filed a request to “remove” the case from California State…
Nearly 20% of active Twitter accounts likely to be fake or spam
TL;DR - From May 13-15, 2022, SparkToro and Followerwonk conducted a rigorous, joint analysis of five datasets including a variety of active (i.e.
Web3 is expensive P2P
Web3 claims to be the only way to save us from commercial entities defining what we can see and what not. Yet, it does exactly this: It results in commercialized entities defining what we can see and what not. More on the blockchain ecosystem in this overview and especially in the simple, hum
I finally got Twitter after years of not getting it
I finally got Twitter after years of not getting it. Here's what I know.
The problem with Bitcoin miners
Disclosure: I hold short positions in companies mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.
Who owns the copyright to my medical images? (2018)
I popped round to an NHS dentist a few months ago - and they stuck my head on one of these contraptions. The Kodak 8000C takes a panoramic X-ray, giving a superior view of your teeth. Nifty. The dentist showed me where my wisdom teeth were and I was impressed with how high resolution the image was. Afterwards, I asked…
The scourge of Rec dot gov (2021)
Recreation DOT gov gets managed by the multi-billion dollar DC beltway firm of Booz-Allen-Hamilton. And here’s why I think it’s awful.
We asked 100 humans to draw the DALL·E prompts
Where do human artists fit in a world of rich, creative AI? We asked 100 Surgers to draw the DALL-E prompts.
Scarcity Truthers
Artificial Scarcity and the Semmelweis Reflex
EU Commission is planning automatic CSAM scanning of private communications
This would be the worst surveillance apparatus outside of China, and completely disproportionate.
Finland will seek NATO membership immediately
Tasavallan presidentin kanslia Valtioneuvoston kanslia Tiedote 30/2022 12.5.2022 Kevään ajan on käyty tärkeää keskustelua Suomen mahdollisesta Nato-jäsenyydestä. Aikaa on tarvittu kotimaiselle kannanmuodostukselle sekä eduskunnassa että koko yhteiskunnassa. Aikaa on tarvittu...