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The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,065 posts.
It’s common knowledge that Apple doesn’t get the web in general and social in particular. I’ve been thinking a lot about the social part recently and I think Apple’s failure to execute there can shed some light on their failure with the web in general.
An Obviously Critical Response to “Economic Inequality” by Paul Graham
Over the past two years I’ve quietly rebuilt major parts of the OldNYC photo viewer . The result: 10,000 additional historic photos on the map , more accurate locations, and a site that’s cheaper and easier to run—thanks to modern AI tools and the OpenStreetMap ecosystem.
A day after my previous post, and things have been happening. SHORT TERM: First, I asked for people to send money if they couldn’t help any other way, and people have. This took away any conc…
One of democracy's foundations is the fact that all human beings have certain inalienable rights and freedoms. Suspended by trust and shared values. Today, trust and shared values are being replaced by “control and surveillance”.
Protection of your Internet history is up in the air thanks to new, pending legislation. A new bill coming before Senate aims to completely dismantle the
Groucho Marx? Fred Waring? Ed Gardner? Goodman Ace? Jane Ace? Fred Allen? Ernie Kovacs? Deane Binder? Anonymous?
In May, 2014 we were contacted by Andy Lehrer who requested that we takedown the website causepimps.ca because he claimed the page http://causepimps.ca/andy-lehrer/top.html contained defamatory material (queue Streisand-effect in 3-2-1...go!) We reviewed the website to see if there were any material violations of our…
I’m doing a deep dive into the pre-history of the Fourth Amendment, and am continuously amazed at how perfectly the condemnations of the “general warrants” that incensed the Framers apply to the programmatic authority granted the NSA under the FISA Amendments Act. The legal challenge to that statute is currently hung…
Have you ever felt awe and delight upon first experiencing a computer interface? An interface that surprised you with its strangeness, with a sense of entering an alien world?
To address our unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, as of today, March 24, 2020, the Internet Archive will suspend waitlists for the 1.4 million (and growing) books in our lending library by creating a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners…
... and how that provides winning evals
This article outlines some of the federal government of Canada’s successful and unsuccessful attempts to weaken encryption standards.
While the number of job opportunities for software developer skyrockets together with salaries all around the world, fresh grads and junior developers struggle to even get invited for the interviews. Why does it happen and can we do anything about it?
Are GLP-1 drugs the first real threat to the hyper-processed food and alcohol industries?
Non-Judicial Punishment is a key part of democracy and free-market capitalism, and highly problematical, at the same time.
Investigating the use of LLMs in the Android FOSS community
12 Challenges readers Thandeka Xaba and Toby Mather raised some great points in the comments for yesterday’s Typology piece (thanks so much!).
Even if you can’t stop Flock’s use entirely, you can still help protect civil liberties in your community.
(or actually they do, but they don’t use this knowledge effectively)Update, April 26, 2025: the address fix for W 6th Ave is live, mostly. Going forward I wish that Google Maps would make it harder…
Pool your money and give your friends batteries that lower their electricity bills and keep essential devices running during outages.
