61
The contagious visual blandness of Netflix
And how to treat it
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 598 posts.
62
63
When your classmates threaten you with felony charges
A few weeks ago, I was part of a talk at DEF CON 31 called The Hackers, The Lawyers, and the Defense Fund. I was asked to share my experience receiving a legal…
64
The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012
This is not just “Kids these days”
65
The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy
Why I've gotten more and more pessimistic about my relationship with Twitter.
66
Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
We have come to a point where end-to-end encrypting all your private data and private communications
67
Play deprivation is a major cause of the teen mental health crisis
Allowing more unsupervised free play is among the most powerful and least expensive ways to bring down rates of mental illness
68
Why don’t more people live close to friends?
A few theories why
69
Archive your Reddit data before it's too late
I've written a tool for creating a searchable archive of all your Reddit data.
70
71
What I Think About LeBron Breaking My NBA Scoring Record
Everything You Wanted to Know About LeBron and Me and the Scoring Record
72
Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes
When China's prodigious tech influencer, Naomi Wu, found herself silenced, it wasn't just the machinery of a surveillance state at play. Instead, it was...
73
Why human societies developed so little during 300k years
Why human societies developed so little during 300 000 years
74
The UK is wasting a lot of wind power
The UK discarded 6% of its windpower last year, at a cost of almost £1bn. What’s going on, and how can we fix it?
75
76
The expanding dark forest and generative AI
Proving you're a human on a web flooded with generative AI content
77
‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin
Why the Austin airport situation was so dangerous.
78
The Twitter API is now effectively unmaintained
Posted on the Twitter Developers forum and IndieNews. Hi all! I don’t have much new to say about the ongoing chaos at Twitter or the impending death of the free API tier. I’d just like …
79
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…
80
Kids who get smartphones earlier become adults with worse mental health
New global study from Sapien Labs finds consistent links, stronger for girls
81
82
The ten year anniversary of the Healthcare.gov rescue
Ten years ago today, on Friday, October 18, 2013, the effort to fix HealthCare.gov began in earnest. At 7:15 A.M. Eastern time, a small group assembled next to the entrance to the West Wing of the White House. The group included Todd Park, Brian...
83
84
Google Search Is Dying (2022)
(There is good discussion on this article on Hacker News and Reddit)
85
Netscape Meteors
I went on a small journey the last couple days to find the original Netscape Navigator “meteors” animation. This one has a special place in my head and heart because it is so clearly connected to my memories of discovering the web as a kid. Here it is in its original 60×60 px glory:
86
The FCC responds to my ATSC 3 encryption complaint – they want to hear from you
The FCC reached out to me and is asking all of you who signed the petition to also file a comment in their docketing system for the ATSC 3 petition. This is very easy to do and will just take a few minutes. So far there are only about a dozen or so complaints filed. … Continue reading The FCC Responds to my ATSC 3…
87
88
Nakatomi Space
[Image: From Die Hard, directed by John McTiernan based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe].While watching Die Hard the other night—easily one of the best architectural films of …
89
Meta blocking news links in Canada
For months, supporters of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, assured the government that Meta and Google were bluffing when they warned that a bill based on mandated payments for links was unworkable and they would comply with it by removing links to news from their platforms. However, what has been readily apparent for…
90
Defamed by ChatGPT
Yesterday, President Joe Biden declared that “it remains to be seen” whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) is “dangerous.” I would beg to differ. I have been writing about th…