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Society, Policy & Culture

The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 580 posts.

2012
305

The secret guild of Silicon Valley

A couple of weeks ago, I was drinking beer in San Francisco with friends when someone quipped: “You have too many hipsters, you won’t scale like that. Hire some fat guys who know C++.” It’s funny, but it got me thinking. Who are the “fat guys who know C++”, or as someone else put it, “theContinue reading "the secret…

322

Sexual Harassment at DefCon (and Other Hacker Cons)

Excellent blog post by Valerie Aurora about sexual harassment at the DefCon hackers conference. Aside from the fact that this is utterly reprehensible behavior by the perpetrators involved, this is a real problem for our community. The response of “this is just what hacker culture is, and changing it will destroy…

326

The Minimum Wage Machine

Minimum Wage Machine (Work in Progress) (2008-2010) Custom electronics, change sorter, wood, plexiglas, motor, misc. hardware, pennies. (approx. 15 x 19 x 72 inches) The minimum wage machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 4.00 seconds, for $9.00 an hour, or NY…