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I Am Deleting the Blog
[EDIT 2/13/21: This post is originally from June 2020, but there’s been renewed interest in it because the NYT article involved just came out. This post says the NYT was going to write a posi…
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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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When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number
Do not get arrested challenge 2020
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Your Computer Isn't Yours
There have been several updates appended to this page as of 2020-11-16, please see below. Also available in: Türkçe Français Español Português Português…
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My Resignation from the Intercept
The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.
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On the Use of a Life
First, to dispense with the philosophical argument: Yes, this is my life, and yes, I'm free to use — or waste — it however I please; but I don't think there's anything wrong with asking if this is how my time could be best spent. That applies doubly if the question is not merely about the choices I made but is rather…
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Not everyone has an internal monologue
My day was completely ruined yesterday when I stumbled upon a fun fact that absolutely obliterated my mind. I saw this tweet yesterday that said that not everyone has an internal monologue in their…
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DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
Google recently launched a desktop redesign. The favicon and URL breadcrumbs were turned into a header for organic search results. Ads had the same design, but were identified using the string "Ad" instead of the favicon. This design wasn't new. Google's mobile web search has served this design since May 2019. But…
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Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) would improve everyone’s lives, increase our free time, empower workers, and ensure everyone has food and a roof over their head. These are noble goals, but obviously there’s a downside or it would already be implemented, right?
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Forget Google, time to end the Visa-MasterCard duopoly
In the last few years, you’ve likely seen a fair few comments about monopolies in the tech industry, and suggestions for breaking them up…
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Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
I recently bought a webcam from Amazon (late to the party, I know), and when it came it was fine but not amazing. When I went through the packaging I saw a little card saying “send us a scree…
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Patio11's Law: The software economy is bigger than you think
@mmcgrana: Patio11’s Law: The software economy is bigger than you think, even when you take into account Patio11’s Law.1 A few years ago, I woke up in Sunriver, OR, and went to make coffee. The house had one of those bed-and-breakfast-type coffee trays. Drip
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Firefox Was Always Enough
There are many concerns about Mozilla right now, and reason to be concerned. While I am no longer with Mozilla, it’s still a place that supported me for many years; I believe in Mozilla and want the project to succeed.
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The Decline of Usability
If you find this text interesting, please consider also reading The Decline of Usability: Revisited or some of my other many ramblings on modern user interfaces.
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Who’s behind the “reopen” domain surge?
The past few weeks have seen a large number of new domain registrations beginning with the word “reopen” and ending with U.S. city or state names. The largest number of them were created just hours after President Trump sent a series of all-caps tweets urging citizens to “liberate” themselves from new gun control…
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Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible
AndreGarzia.com website
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Software Disenchantment (2018)
Everything is going to hell and nobody seems to care
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DigitalOcean's Hacktoberfest Is Hurting Open Source
A plea for DigitalOcean to stop making open source maintainers' lives miserable, once a year every year.
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One Guy Ruined Hacktoberfest 2020
If you aren't familar, Hacktoberfest is an annual event that occurs every October. It is held by Digital Ocean and encourages developers to submit Pull…
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Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn
Ruminations on outsourcing our values
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A (possible) solution to Covid-19
Notice. Since this seems to be such a common question I think I should describe my background. I have a PhD in molecular microbiology and I was once a tenured academic (professor). I now work in the biotech sector. I have published a number of peer reviewed papers in virology. If you really want to know more about me…
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The EARN IT act is an attack on end-to-end encryption
Yesterday a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a new bill called the EARN IT act. On its face, the bill seems like a bit of inside baseball having to do with legal liability for informati…
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CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)
When I was a small child, I took an IQ test. One of the first questions I stumbled on was "A piece of candy costs 25¢. Jonny has a dime. How many nickels does he need to buy the candy?" My 7-year old brain popped. WTAF is a nickel? Or a dime for that matter? We don't have those coins in my country! We don't spend in ¢…
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If founders treated their investors the same way they treated their employees
Founder: Hey Joe! How are you doing? Everyone here loved meeting you, and we would really love to have you on board as our investor! We really respect your expertise, and think this could be a grea…
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US Secret Service: “Massive Fraud” Against State Unemployment Insurance Programs
A well-organized Nigerian crime ring is exploiting the COVID-19 crisis by committing large-scale fraud against multiple state unemployment insurance programs, with potential losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new alert issued by the U.S. Secret Service .
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Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA
A weblog about Signals Intelligence, Communications Security and top level telecommunications equipment
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Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font
A s*** font that f***ing censors swearing automatically