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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 338 posts.
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Enough Is Enough
I believe that software patents should not exist. They are a tax on innovation. And software is closer to media than it is to hardware. Patenting software is like patenting music. The mess around the Lodsys patents should be a wake up call to everyone involved in the patent business (government bureaucrats…
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In defense of the Google chef
I'm on the road with very limited internet connectivity so I can't do the homework I normally would before posting this, so it's possible th...
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Daring Fireball: Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot
Rest in peace.
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Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies
a blog about genomes, DNA, evolution, open science, baseball and other important things
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Bullshit
Everyone has their bullshit. You can simply decide whose you’re willing to tolerate.
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Carnegie Mellon CS Professor challenges Sony by mirroring Geohot's PS3 hacks
Request for materials: I would like to receive tutorial information on: Sony PS3 access protection mechanisms, the Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm ( ECDSA ), the structure of the PS3 hypervisor, METLDR, signing tools, and any other topics necessary for a person reasonably skilled in computer science to be…
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Kind of Screwed
TL;DR version: Last year, I was threatened with a lawsuit over the pixel art album cover for Kind of Bloop. Despite my firm belief that I was legally in the right, I settled out of court to cut my losses. This ordeal was very nerve-wracking for me and my family, and I’ve had trouble writing […]
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24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook
If you are interested in social networks, don't miss the slick video about Max Schrems’ David and Goliath struggle with Facebook over the way they are treating his personal information. Click on the red “CC” in the lower right-hand corner to see the English subtitles.
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Facebook is scaring me
Yesterday I wrote that Twitter should be scared of Facebook. Today it's worse. I, as a mere user of Facebook, am seriously scared of them.
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STFU About What Women Want
In a recent post on TechCrunch , Penelope Trunk tells us (again) that most women don’t want to do startups. First, I’d like to extend that...
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Time-zone database used by Unix shut down due to IP litigation
Today (2011-10-06), the time-zone database was closed down . It is perhaps easy to read that line, think it doesn't affect you, and then ...
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Why Arabic is Terrific
I just finished a summer studying Arabic at the Monterey Institute for International Studies, an enjoyable adventure that I hope to write about in more detail later. MIIS offers a nine-week program in a bunch of languages and is just down the road from a grim military counterpart called the Defense Language Institute…
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Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter
Dear Dr. Stallman, Thank you for coming to Penn and giving a talk on A Free Digital Society; it was an honor meeting you. You mentioned that what you expected of us was to help the Free Software Foundation however we could; I'd like to take you up on that and offer both yourself and the FSF the following advice: Stop…
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