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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 490 posts.
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Not an Amazon Problem
The NY Times profile quotes me saying “We don’t really have an Amazon problem. What we have is a deep, societal problem with an unacceptable imbalance of power and wealth.” But the URL contained the string “amazon-critic-tim-bray” and the HTML <title> says “Tim Bray Is Not Done With Amazon”. I feel like I’m being…
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I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since
The problems with social media platforms in 'human' and 'data' terms. Deleting Facebook (Meta), WhatsApp, and Instagram will have a net positive effect.
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I Love MDN, or the cult of the free in action
Yesterday or so a new initiative I Love MDN was unveiled. People can show their appreciation for the MDN staff and volunteers by leaving a comment.
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US Border Patrol says they can create central repository of traveler emails
The U.S. government has taken the opportunity during the global pandemic, when people aren't traveling out of the country much, to roll out a new platform for storing information they believe they are entitled to take from people crossing the border. A new filing reveals how the U.S. Border Patrol will store data from…
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Mozilla’s Uncertain Future
Some thoughts on Mozilla for people who don’t know Mozilla.
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United States vs. Google
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google is appropriately narrow, and if it fails it gives a template for Congressional action.
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Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces
Usenet was what the Web is missing nowadays: a genuinely public space, with unclear ownership
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How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy
How Germany Is Able To Run The World’s Second Largest Export Economy In The Post-Industrial Era “ The Germany Shock ” describes European growth & the efficiency-maximizing centralization of European manufacturing activity after the launch of the Single Market and the Euro . Two questi
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Assange Trial Day 18
It is hard to believe, but Judge Baraitser on Friday ruled that there will be no closing speeches in the Assange extradition hearing. She accepted the proposal initially put forward by counsel for the US government, that closing arguments should simply be submitted in writing and without an oral hearing. This was…
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So much of academia is about connections and reputation laundering
1. Statistics / numerical analysis / data science is a lot harder than you, the reader of this blog, might think.
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Funding for Covid-19 Projects
I’m trying to fund startups/projects helping with COVID-19, because it’s basically the one thing I know how to do that can help. I think we will soon have enough testing capacity, so now I’d like...
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The Global Dollar Short Squeeze
Published February 2020 There is currently a short squeeze affecting most of the global economy, slowing its growth. This has been the case well before the impacts from the trade war and the coronavirus. A short squeeze occurs when something that is heavily shorted goes on to rise sharply in price for one reason or […]
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I Want to Fix Goodreads
I use goodreads a lot because I like to read books and want to find more books to read. This morning I was reading a thread on hackernews on Sarah Manavis’s ...
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Weirdos in the depression
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
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Apple gave me the Hey treatment back in 2014
I’ve been reading the news this week about Hey, Apple, and in app purchases. Many people have offered their takes on the situation, and I can’t help but feel déjà vu.
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Inrupt, Tim Berners-Lee's Solid, and Me
For decades, I have been talking about the importance of individual privacy. For almost as long, I have been using the metaphor of digital feudalism to describe how large companies have become central control points for our data. And for maybe half a decade, I have been talking about the world-sized robot that is the…
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The US is using the Guardian to justify jailing Assange for life
Julian Assange is not on trial simply for his liberty and his life. He is fighting for the right of every journalist to do hard-hitting investigative journalism without fear of arrest and extradition to the United States. Assange faces 175 years in a US super-max prison on the basis of claims by Donald Trump’s administ
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“Why Using WhatsApp Is Dangerous“
A few months ago I wrote about a WhatsApp backdoor that allowed hackers to access all data on any phone running WhatsApp [1]. Facebook, its parent company, claimed at the time that they had no proof the flaw had ever been used by attackers [2]. Last week it became clear that this backdoor had been exploited to extract…
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Why I Quit Using Google
So I was recently asked why I prefer to use free and open source software over more conventional and popular proprietary software and services. A few years ago I was an avid Google user. I was deep…
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Assange Hearing Day 2
This afternoon Julian’s Spanish lawyer, Baltasar Garzon, left court to return to Madrid. On the way out he naturally stopped to shake hands with his client, proffering his fingers through the narrow slit in the bulletproof glass cage. Assange half stood to take his lawyer’s hand. The two security guards in the cage…
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Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
Ahmad Haghighi’s personal page.
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Banning facial recognition is missing the point
Spanish translation Communities across the United States are starting to ban facial recognition technologies. In May of last year, San Francisco banned facial recognition; the neighboring city of Oakland soon followed, as did Somerville and Brookline in Massachusetts (a statewide ban may follow). In December, San…