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The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 8,148 posts.
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…
Frustrated by a sense of global mispriorities , I blurted out some snarky and mildly regrettable tweets on the lack of attention to climate change in the tech industry (Twitter being a sublime medium for the snarky and regrettable). Climate change is the problem of our time, it’s everyone’s problem, and most of our…
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about how penny auction sites make you money. As a reaction, some readers sent me links to day trading brokers that promise easy returns. These brokers allow private investors to hold stocks or currencies positions for a short time which makes it possible to speculate on small…
🏡 My home automation setup built with Home Assistant
Do we have any idea how many people there are in the world?
A note from the author This is an older version of this story, from 2007. Here's the latest version, from 2022. Tim already had his bag and overcoat on and his keys in his hand and was about to leave when Diane stopped him at the door. "I just got this thing working....
The frozen pizza aisle has become the national security risk du jour
Edward Snowden recently released his memoirs. In some parts of the Internet, this has rekindled an ancient debate: namely, was it all worth it? Did Snowden’s leaks make us better off, or did …
Stop Using Fandom 2024-06-16 fandom is a wiki website (allegedly) if you are unfortunate enough to browse a fandom wiki without an ad blocker, you will experience what i like to call "attention assault" upon opening a fandom page (for me, it was the hollow knight wiki), you will note the very subtle aroma of a 1/3…
[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 …
On technological grief
Retrogames revised.
In human history, there have been three great technological revolutions and many smaller ones. The three great ones are the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the one we are...
The strange transformation of a criticality accident into dark Internet humor
Caitlin Callenson’s courage in the face of insane danger is just remarkable.
Just before black friday I was surfing some major retailers sites and on a whim wanted to see how they were using jav...
An honest look at what it looks like to be cancelled, one year after it happened. A hopeful yet realistic message for everyone.
Learn what triggers Germany’s exit tax for business owners, how it’s calculated, and why growing a profitable company can make leaving Germany costly.
BitTorrent used to dominate not just piracy, but the internet. Now, it’s barely noticed in traffic studies. What happened to the platform?
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…
A conversation with a Wizard
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said today it will be transitioning away from requiring biometric data from taxpayers who wish to access their records at the agency’s website. The reversal comes as privacy experts and lawmakers have been pushing the IRS and other federal agencies to find less intrusive methods for…
