7201
Google takes the FTC to school
Google just issued a response to the Federal Trade commission's staff discussion draft on potential recommendations to support the reinvention of...
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 8,149 posts.
7202
All we want are the facts, ma'am.
I've never been involved in a detective interview, but occasionally I'm interviewed by a journalist. Some publications use a quaint procedure known as fact checking ; for example, the New Yorker had a wonderful piece by John McPhee in their Feb. 9th issue on their fact-checking process. (My favorite part was about…
7203
A Ring of Controversy Around a Black Hole Photo
[Note Added: Thanks to some great comments I’ve received, I’m continuing to add clarifying remarks to this post. You’ll find them in green.] It’s been a couple of months si…
7204
Dear Ad Networks
In 1 week, I plan to benchmark all your advertisment delivery systems from IP address block 184.20/16.
7205
A Little Bit of the Manuals
Of the barrage of advice the world was prepared to give me from the vantage point of the Internet, one unique bit of advice came from a long-time collector and rescuer of older computer documentati…
7206
Tech worker resistance is crucial to preventing human rights abuses in the U.S
Hi, I am Valerie Aurora, systems archictecture consultant, writer, and cat appreciator. At Bow Shock Systems , I solve difficult systems problems in networking, file systems, and operating systems. In 2023 I moved permanently to Amsterdam after 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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How messed up was Germany's energy policy?
It's not as bad as a lot of people are saying
7209
Science is political, and that's a bad thing
People who say “science is political” usually aren’t just stating facts - they’re trying to push something on you. Don’t let them
7210
Let’s Not Have a Beer
For the first time, I won a major raffle at a recent conference. However, I had to give the prize back since it was a beer dispenser and I don’t drink. If your reaction after reading the last line was “Why don’t you drink?” or “Most of us do and it’s your choice that you missed out.”, then this blog is for you. I’m…
7211
Is work necessary?
I saw this bouncing around Facebook, and I would like to endorse the underlying philosophy:
7212
Textbooks Prices: Out of Control
This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics
7213
Cursing the government does not fix potholes. Spray-painting them does
A bit more than a year ago, we did something a bit weird. We took a few cans of spray paint and we went out on the street. Not to pain...
7214
7215
Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)
I often drive between Boston and New Haven. While on the road, I find myself pondering a simple question: If my only goal is to arrive as fast as possible, how fast should I drive? Ignoring things …
7216
Voting from Antarctica
How to vote back home while you're in Antarctica!
7217
7218
Stop saying that AI is just a tool and it only matters how it is used
I’m tired of this phrase and this simple way of thinking about tools. This blog post is a wandering train of thought on the topic of what tools are and why it matters to be even slightly more mature in how we think about them.
7219
Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
Nicholas Kristof in Sunday's New York Times asks a pressing -- often quite pressing -- question. Why are there no public toilets in America? He is right. He calls for a federal infrastructure plan to fix the problem: "Sure, we need investments to rebuild bridges, highways and, yes, electrical grids, but perhaps…
7220
Why Google cares if you use your real name
Over the weekend there was a bit of hoo-hah about accounts swept off Google-Plus, because they didn't have the users' real name.
7221
Reassessing Airport Security
News that the Transportation Security Administration missed a whopping 95% of guns and bombs in recent airport security “red team” tests was justifiably shocking. It’s clear that we’re not getting value for the $7 billion we’re paying the TSA annually. But there’s another conclusion, inescapable and disturbing to…
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7223
Be Worried
Author's note: I wrote this in March 2023, but just published in October 2025. I held back from publishing this originally for fear that I was being sensationalist. But with the launch of Sora 2, I couldn't not share these thoughts. I only regret I didn't publish it 2 years ago.
7224
7225
The Slow Death of the Power User
There’s a certain kind of person who’s becoming extinct. You’ve probably met one. Maybe you are one. Someone who actually understood the tools they used. Someone who could sit down at an unfamiliar system, poke at it for twenty minutes, and have a working mental model of what it was doing and why. Someone who read…
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7227
I'm not addicted to the internet or my smartphone. I'm addicted to information
At first, I thought I was addicted to internet forums. Then Facebook appeared and soon after I discovered Reddit, Hacker News, 9GAG, Instagram and other form...
7228
Repeal the Foreign Dredge Act of 1906
There are a lot of ludicrously terrible government laws, regulations and policies across all the domains of life.
7229
Where Has the Magic Gone?
A big change that I’ve realised during undergrad is that engineering doesn’t feel ‘magical’ anymore.
7230
America Has Become a Digital Narco-State
Social media giants have bought our government, and are trying to bully Europe