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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 453 posts.
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Elsevier's profits alone could fund all academic publications as open access
[This post is mostly a rehash of a comment I made on the last one, but I guess more people see posts than comments. Oh, and I will try to post something about sauropod vertebrae Real Soon Now.] &#…
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Google doesn't get 'social', but Apple doesn't understand the Internet
It's been said that Google doesn't get 'social' and, though I think that is vastly overstated, there is truth there. Similarly, I'd say that Apple doesn't understand the internet. Well I have a simple theory about it. There's a cliché that everyone's greatest strength is also their greatest weakness, and I believe…
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The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
Jean Hsu - Fractional VP Engineering | Engineering Leadership for Startups
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How I Dealt with Student Plagiarism
Panos Ipeirotis , a colleague at the NYU Stern School of Business , received considerable media attention when, in a blog post he subsequently removed , he discussed how his aggressive use of plagiarism detection software on student assignments poisoned the classroom atmosphere and tanked his teaching evaluations. As…
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Google Surrenders in the Nymnwars
Proponents of pseudonymity scored a major victory today, when Google executive Vic Gundotra revealed at the Web 2.0 Summit that social networking service Google+ will begin supporting pseudonyms and other types of identity. The news comes after several months of what has been dubbed Nymwars, in...
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Yet Another "People Plug in Strange USB Sticks" Story
I’m really getting tired of stories like this: Computer disks and USB sticks were dropped in parking lots of government buildings and private contractors, and 60% of the people who picked them up plugged the devices into office computers. And if the drive or CD had an official logo on it, 90% were installed. Of course…
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Internet Community Shut Out of Stop Online Piracy Act Hearing - Again
This morning, EFF’s staff and concerned netizens across the country tuned into the live webcast of the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261). At least we tried to. Unfortunately, we were confronted with an incredibly poor webcast stream for much of the...
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Quirksmode is seeking to raise € 2,500 in donations
I have no idea if this is going to work. I’ve never tried it before. But if I never try I’ll never know, so here it goes. And I’ll give you fair warning: there’s a blackmail aspect to all of this.
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What Location Tracking Looks Like
Your cell phone company knows everywhere you go, twenty-four hours a day, every day. How concrete is this fact for you? It's very concrete for Malte Spitz, a German politician and privacy advocate. He used German privacy law — which, like the law of many European countries, gives individuals a...
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FBI chastened by court for lying about existence of surveillance records
An order from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has revealed the FBI lied to the court about the existence of records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), taking the position that FOIA allows it to withhold information from the court whenever it thinks...
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After 24 centuries, Google puts the Dead Sea Scrolls online for the world to see
(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google.org Blog ) It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and histo...
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How SOPA Affects Students, Educators, and Libraries
Big media groups like the MPAA and the RIAA have historically targeted college campuses with “anti-piracy” measures, and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — the blacklist bill they’re trying to push through Congress — is no exception. The bill’s supporters insist that it targets only “rogue”...
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There Is No Magic
The scene was a post-seminar dinner at a homely Vietnamese joint. We had just listened to Jacquet speak at the University of Chicago. A soft-spoken grandfather-like figure, he enjoyed the nearly un…
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Dilbert and Bogart On “F#(& You” Money
Trying to think of a good name for your retirement fund? Here’s a funny Dilbert comic about a colorful option: