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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 8,148 posts.
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People who've received a black bar on Hacker News
I'm not sure when Hacker News started adorning a black bar on top of the website after a significant person passed, but I compiled a list of people who've received it.
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American Chemical Society bans university after "spider-trap" is clicked
The society (closed access) journal ‘Copeia’ also has these spider trap links in it’s HTML, e.g. on this contents page: http://www.asihcopeiaonline.org/toc/cope/2013/4
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That’s not why I did it
It has been a very long time since I’ve dealt with a major loom screw up. A really long time. Like I don’t remember the last time? And it isn’t because I’m so very good at this whole weaving thing, but it sort of is. I’ve been weaving since the mid 70’s. If there is a mistake, or screw up, I can assure you I made it…
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Hidden Messages in Emojis and Hacking the US Treasury
On December 30th, while most of us were preparing for a New Year’s Eve celebration, the US Treasury was prepping a notice to lawmakers to notify them that their systems, which (obviously) contain highly sensitive, confidential data, had been compromised.
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Making is show business now (2020)
Nadia Eghbal’s new book, Working In Public: the Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, may not have been on your short list of books to read this year. It’s admittedly a nerdy topic: …
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Verizon, caught red-handed
Verizon has now on multiple occasions refused to connect my Google Nexus 7 LTE tablet, though the device was publicized widely as working on Verizon and...
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Learning from Twitter
An issue popped up on Twitter this past week that caused the web site to be generally unusable for many users. It appears as if attempts to scroll were unbearably slow and caused the site to be unresponsive.
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Dating, education, and sex ratios
Men floundering, women most affected
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The Casino-Chip Society
Why learning to see the layers of money will reveal the politics of 'cashless society', and much more
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I miss Facebook
I'm 35. Before Facebook, I had to use different tools depending on whom I wanted to chat with. I'm not talking about the early era of the Internet, but rather the period after everybody started getting online. Chat was just getting popular, but it
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Machine learning’s crumbling foundations
Technological debt is insidious, a kind of socio-infrastructural subprime crisis that's unfolding around us in slow motion. Our digital infrastructure is built atop layers and layers and layers of code that's insecure due to a combination of bad practices and bad frameworks.
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PayPal’s Objectionable Terms Are Back, $2500 Fines for Content They Don’t Like
Two weeks ago Paypal introduced language into its terms and conditions that allowed them to withdraw $2500 from your account for each time they believed you "promot[ed] misinformation" or you sent, posted or published "messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene…
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Perfect example of real-life hacking
In 1999, UC-Davis civil engineer David Phillips was grocery shopping when he noticed something peculiar. Healthy Choice Foods was offering frequent-flyer miles to customers who bought its products. But a 25-cent pudding would bring 100 miles — the reward was worth more than the product itself. Recognizing a good…
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Simple questions to help reduce AI hype
AI is a young field full of amazing potential. This mystery and lack of understanding allows for hype to grow unchecked.
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Science fiction hasn’t prepared us to imagine machine learning
It resembles the Library of Babel more than HAL.
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Punk, or why I don't stream anymore
If you’re the sun, I’m a black hole – The Stephen Hawking, Say Anything
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Web3 doesn’t care about privacy
In web2, we are beholden to centralized entities that monopolize and profit off of our data. Web3 promises to release us from these shackles by enabling everyone to access data living on the blockchain. While it is certainly appealing that institutions no longer have the power to hold our data hostage, it is still…
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How Paul Graham Gets It Wrong in “Economic Inequality”
Paul Graham (PG) is one of my favorite writers. His Essays are just about all well worth the time to read (and sometimes re-read). It’s not…
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Swearing
Written pieces, talks, and other bits by Zach Holman.
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The Web Is More Than Enough
Web browsers enable incredibly rich app development—and that’s radically easier than it used to be.