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The time I yoga-balled an Apple store employee
My personal website and blog
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 952 posts.
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Politics and the English Language (1946)
"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
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How transportation technologies shaped empires
For thousands of years, a hidden rule limited the size of empires, unbeknownst to their rulers.
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Please Sell My Personal Information
I accidentally clicked the "do not sell my personal information" link at the bottom of your website.
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Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend
After the wave of layoffs at Meta (previously known as Facebook) in November of 2022, I recall messages in the Facebook group for former employees discussing how to handle elements of the redundancy process, like if it was possible to max out retirement saving contributions, or spending gym benefits whilst
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Does the world have enough lithium to move to electric vehicles?
The world has enough lithium, but we need to scale up production this decade.
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On-demand learning comes at the cost of conceptual understanding
Everyone has heard about the so-called “types of learning styles” auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and so on. And almost everything has been said about it. But what if there is a different categorization of learning? Maybe one that gives more inside? Well, I think there is. This time we split the act of learning just…
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Globalization is dead and no one is listening
This is the end of the beginning.
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Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement
After almost five years, the Irish DPC decided on a noyb complaint and required Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to stop using the personal data of users for advertisement in the EU.
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The expanding dark forest and generative AI
Proving you're a human on a web flooded with generative AI content
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South Korea’s online security dead end
Websites in South Korea often require installation of “security applications.” Not only do these mandatory applications not help security, way too often they introduce issues.
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The infrastructure behind ATMs
ATMs are connected to banks by networks which operate little-understood payment rails.
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Unearthing a long-ignored African writing system
When BU’s Fallou Ngom found a note written by his late father, in a language that looked like Arabic but sounded like Wolof, it opened the door to a lifetime of discovery in African language and history.
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Welcoming 1927 to the Public Domain
This year we are welcoming works from 1927 into the public domain in the United States, including books, periodicals, sheet music, and movies. Big events of 1927 include the first transatlantic phone call from New York to London, the formation of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the first successful…
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Rant: Year of Linux on the desktop
A rant about "year of Linux on the desktop" from a tired old man. I've been part of the Linux community since before Linux was called Linux. Over the years there's been many people telling me directly that Linux is silly or wrong or imperfect, or that free and open source software is foolish or pointless. A lot more…
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The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant (2005)
An allegory against complacency about aging and death.
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The internet wants to be fragmented
Throwing the whole world into a single room together doesn't work.