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Internet 3.0 and the Beginning of (Tech) History
The actions taken by Big Tech have a resonance that goes beyond the context of domestic U.S. politics. Even if they were right, they will still push the world to Internet 3.0.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,065 posts.
8912
Definitive Account of the CIA/Media/BigTech Fraud
An axis of the CIA, Big Tech and the DNC-allied wing of the corporate media spread an absolute lie in the weeks before the 2020 election. We now have definitive proof.
8913
The AI Great Leap Forward
In 1958, Mao ordered every village to produce steel. The steel was useless. The crops rotted. Today's top-down AI mandates are producing the same pattern: ba...
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How I found a data leak of a company during a college lecture
A few weeks ago I gave a guest lecture at the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. Being a Windesheim graduate myself I’ve always kept in touch with my former teachers. One of them told me recently that a lot of students want to learn more about IT security & hacking and invited me to give a…
8917
Assange Hearing Day 8
The great question after yesterday’s hearing was whether prosecution counsel James Lewis QC would continue to charge at defence witnesses like a deranged berserker (spoiler – he would), and more importantly, why? QC’s representing governments usually seek to radiate calm control, and treat defence arguments as almost…
8918
We consistently underestimate kids.
I've long believed that we seriously underestimate kids. Hanging around with my friend's daughters who were 2, 3, and 5 when I was in college was really illuminating as I found myself interacting and conversing with his (admittedly smart) 2 year o...
8919
FBI Returns Seized Devices to EFF Client
EFF is pleased to announce that our client, Chris Roberts, is now in the possession of all of his digital devices that had been held by the FBI since April 2015. Earlier this year, Mr. Roberts was detained for tweeting about airplane network security. When he landed in Syracuse, the FBI escorted...
8920
Psychology of food menu design
You sit down at an upscale restaurant and scan the menu, banter with the waiter, and make your selection. You feel sure you’ve chosen what you want, based on your appetite, your budget, or your culinary preferences. But have you really? Behind the scenes, some restaurants have cleverly designed their menus to steer…
8921
A Note to My Readers
One of the things I’ve always tried to do at the Dish is to be up-front with readers. This sometimes means grotesque over-sharing; sometimes it means I write imprudent arguments I have to withdraw;…
8922
Fixing Italy, a little bit at a time
Italy has so many wonderful, beautiful amazing places and things, and all if it in an area about the size of California. And yet, it’s got a lot of problems too. What drives me crazy in pa…
8923
Finally, on CBS, the football matches the business cards
The score bar at the bottom of the screen during a football game has an obvious function: It tells you how many points a team has scored. In some cases, such as the 2021 Chicago Bears, this function is ceremonial. Nonetheless, we primarily use the score bar as an information
8924
Wikipedia pageviews this year for each line of ‘We Didn't Start the Fire’
The modern relevancy of every line of 'We Didn't Start the Fire'
8925
Twitter and Facebook Both Quietly Kill RSS
Last year I shared how Twitter was moving more and more towards a closed, less-standards oriented model of sharing content as they upgraded their design to bring more people to the Twitter.com website. At that time, they removed the prominent RSS icons and made it only possible to access an RSS feed for an individual…
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Malthusianisms
(See also: Umeshisms, Anthropicisms) Why, in real life, do we ever encounter hard instances of NP-complete problems? Because if it’s too easy to find a 10,000-mile TSP tour, we ask for a 9,0…
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FOSDEM 2022 will be online
FOSDEM 2022 will take place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 February 2022. It will be an online event.
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A Business Insider retrospective
After reading Ryan McCarthy’s post at Reuters about Business Insider, I wanted to run some numbers.
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The Math Myth (2016)
Math professor David Edwards sent me this short essay on mathematical education. Printed with his permission. The Math Myth Themath myth is the myth that the future of the American economy is dependent upon the masses having higher mathematics skills. This myth goes back to at least Sputnik, when the Russians were…
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The US fiscal mess: Some unpleasant fiscal simulations
Based on recent projections, the US federal debt is expected to grow to historic highs over the next decade. This column uses the FRB-US model to simulate fiscal scenarios for the US. Across all fiscal consolidations considered, the debt/GDP ratio and interest bill increase at least until 2026-2027. Growth is not a…
8933
Challenging the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators
In this article Andrew Sayer revives some concepts - ‘unearned income’, ‘rentiers’, ‘functionless investors’, and ‘improperty’ - to explain why the very rich are unjust and dysfunctional. We need to challenge the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators, he argues. In light of the news that the…
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We need more optimistic science fiction
We cannot create a better world if we cannot imagine it.
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Pandemic Villains: Robinhood
Have a pair of gangly Stanford grads built the perfect mousetrap?
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What women in technology really think (150 of them at least)
What women in technology really think (150 of them, at least)
8937
Debt Collectors Are Transforming the Business of State Courts
The business of state civil courts has changed over the past three decades. In 1990, a typical civil court docket featured cases with two opposing sides, each with an attorney, most frequently regarding commercial matters and disputes over contracts, injuries, and other harms.
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Global capital is the tail that wags the U.S. economic dog
Although Wall Street would be ferociously opposed to policies that limit the unfettered flow of capital around the world, the right polices could sharply reduce the economic disruption wreaked on workers, producers, farmers, and the middle class.
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Samsung and other manufacturers disable phones bought on gray markets
In a shocking turn of events, several smartphone manufacturers, including industry giant Samsung, have taken a drastic step that has left customers outraged. These companies have remotely disabled phones purchased through gray markets, effectively holding the users’ data hostage until they buy new phones from official…
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Academics, we need to talk
Although I made the move to industry a bit more than five years ago, I still serve on program committees and review articles for journals a...