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We should have the ability to run any code we want on hardware we own
Refuting the common and flawed argument of
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 666 posts.
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What if we made advertising illegal?
What if we banned all advertising? Not regulate it—abolish it. This proposal would transform manipulation machines, and maybe save democracy itself. A thought experiment worth considering.
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LLM Inevitabilism
Have you ever argued with someone who is seriously good at debating? I have. It sucks. You’re constantly thrown off-balance, responding to a point you didn’t expect to. You find yourself defending the weak edges of your argument, while the main thrust gets left behind in the back-and-forth, and you end up losing…
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Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help
Summary: A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple …
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But what if I want a faster horse?
But what if I really want a faster horse? | exotext
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The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
Trust me, I counted.
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Someone at YouTube needs glasses
Opened YouTube and was greeted with this abomination:
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It is no longer safe to move our governments and societies to US clouds
The very short version: it is madness to continue transferring the running of European societies and governments to American clouds. Not only is it a terrible idea given the kind of things the “King of America” keeps saying, the legal sophistry used to justify such transfers, like the nonsense letter the Dutch cabinet…
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Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image
Make Search Great Again (or just kill it)
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I Went to SQL Injection Court
Chicago argued that answering a FOIA request with a database query means creating a new record. Matt Chapman sued, I wound up on the stand explaining SQL, and now there's a bill to fix it.
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Everyone knows all the apps on your phone
Until a few years ago, any app you installed on an Android device could see all other apps on your phone without your permission.
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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn
A Christmas Eve journey. Deutsche Bahn. 35 kilometers.
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How each pillar of the First Amendment is under attack
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” -U.S. Constitution, First Amendment.
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Anthropic’s paper smells like bullshit
offensive security & software engineering
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ChatControl: EU wants to scan all private messages, even in encrypted apps
The EU is pushing legislation that would scan all our private messages, even in encrypted apps.
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Careless People
I never would have read Careless People , Sarah Wynn-Williams's tell-all memoir about her years running global policy for Facebook, but then Meta's lawyer tried to get the book suppressed and secured an injunction to prevent her from promoting it:
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That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus
It's just normal crime
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Canon wants us to pay for using our own camera as a webcam
$30 billion company want's you to pay $5 for using your own camera as a webcam
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Google is dead. Where do we go now?
It’s anecdotal, I know, but my main entertainment business revenue is down 50% over the past 3 months. Our main paid source of leads was Google Ads, which have served us well over the past 10 years or so – I think I know what I am doing in adwords by now. Once per month … Continue reading "Google is dead. Where do we…
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Judge rules Apple executive lied under oath, makes criminal contempt referral
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rebuked the phone giant, opened the app store, and made a criminal contempt referral to an Apple executive for lying under oath. Plus, a bad antitrust bill goes down.
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I won't connect my dishwasher to your cloud
This weekend I had to buy a new dishwasher because our old GE died. I bought a Bosch 500 series because that's what Consumer Reports recommended, and more importantly, I could find one in stock. After my dad and I got it installed, I went to run a rinse cycle, only to find that that, along with features like delayed…
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Someone at YouTube Needs Glasses: The Prophecy Has Been Fulfilled
In my recent analysis of YouTube’s information density I included the results from an advanced statistical analysis on the number of videos present on the home page, which projected that around May 2026 there would only be one lonely video on the home screen.
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Surnames from nicknames nobody has any more
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
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Luigi Mangione's account has been renamed on Stack Overflow
The saga on Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange, and how tech always serves the ruling class.
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More on Apple's Trust-Eroding 'F1 the Movie' Wallet Ad
Sending this ad is completely destructive to all the hard work other teams at Apple have done to make Apple Wallet actually private — and, more importantly, *to get users to believe that it’s private*.