121
Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles
With the Fall 2025 anime season, Crunchyroll demonstrates zero respect for anime as a medium as the presentation quality of its subtitles reach an all-time low.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 666 posts.
122
The force-feeding of AI features on an unwilling public
This isn't innovation, it's tyranny
123
124
To buy a Tesla Model 3, only to end up in hell
Four months ago I decided to buy a Tesla Model 3. What promised to be an exciting adventure in the world of electric cars, and some of the most advanced technology brought directly from Silicon Valley, ended up becoming a nightmare from which I still have not found my way out.
125
Hacker News Hug of Deaf
About three years ago, I set up a tiny netcat loop on one of my Debian servers to accept arbitrary connections from the Hacker News (HN) community. The loop ran for 24 hours and did exactly three things whenever a client connected:
126
Building supercomputers for autocrats probably isn't good for democracy
The shameless spin around Stargate UAE
127
My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster
Romance fraud has been growing as an issue for years. It's not uncommon to see news stories with bewildered victims explaining just how deeply they'd been sucked in. After receiving a number of opener
128
The web does not need gatekeepers: Cloudflare’s new “signed agents” pitch
Do you register with Google, Amazon or Microsoft to use the web?
129
Game theory illustrated by an animated cartoon game
an interactive guide to the game theory of why & how we trust each other
130
It’s been a very hard year
Unlike a lot of places in tech, my company, Set Studio/Piccalilli has no outside funding. Bootstrapped is what the LinkedIn people say, I think. It’s been a hard year this year. A very hard year. I think a naive person would blame it all on the seemingly industry-wide attitude of “AI can just do this […]
131
The slow collapse of critical thinking in OSINT due to AI
This isn’t a rant against AI. I use it daily, ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini. They’re in my workflow like everyone else’s. But the tradecraft is slipping. Analysts are skipping the hard parts. They’re trusting GenAI to do the heavy cognitive lifting, and it’s changing how we operate at a foundational level.
132
"A computer can never be held accountable"
This legendary page from an internal IBM training in 1979 could not be more appropriate for our new age of AI. A computer can never be held accountable Therefore a …
133
I Am An AI Hater
I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.
134
Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
So many sci-fi movies, anime, and video games owe a massive debt of gratitude to William Gibson's seminal 1984 novel.
135
The death of partying in the USA
Young Americans today spend 70 percent less time attending or hosting parties than they did at the beginning of the 21st century. Why?
136
Open Source is one person
The Register recently published a story titled Putin on the code: DoD reportedly relies on utility written by Russian dev. They should be ashamed of this story. This poor open source developer is getting beat up now to score some internet points. It’s very upsetting. But anyway, let’s look at some receipts. If you’re…
137
Google de-indexed Bear Blog and I don't know why
Preamble: The whole affair is Google’s fault and not Bear Blog’s. Huge thanks to Herman—Bear Blog’s founder and dev—for his patience and help. A month afte...
138
139
Don't push AI down our throats
AI is being done wrong.
140
DOOMscrolling: The Game
Can a game work where all you do is scroll?
141
What really happens inside a dating app
I have been working inside a dating app for a few months and there are a lot of interesting things. This article is going to be without any structure as there are many things to say. I will mostly ignore homosexual interactions. Not because they don't exist, just because it …
142
Apple squandered the Holy Grail
Why Apple Intelligence failed even though everything it's built upon is nearly perfect
143
Cities can cost effectively start their own utilities
Most PG&E ratepayers don't understand how much higher the rates they pay are than what it actually costs PG&E to generate and transmit the electricity to their house. When I looked into this recently I was shocked. The average PG&E electricity charge now starts at 40 cents per kilowatt hour and goes up from there …
144
145
I do not want AI to "polish" me
I was sending an email when a little magic wand popped up that said “Polish” and I thought that was weird because why would I want to translate my email into Polish? I tried to click on…
146
Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?
A small change to operations may undermine a key differentiator for the anime streamer.
147
DOGE as a National Cyberattack
In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history—not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national…
148
149
The email they shouldn't have read
A real-world horror story about contracts, control, and the dark side of managed open source.
150
Where do the children play?
On the need for a world without us