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I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet
Since 2020, I've taken on a Steve Jobs alter-ego (on a very, very part time basis, and often for humor purposes ). The firs...
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,066 posts.
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The 'intellectual property' oxymoron
“ If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the…
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I don't know if my job will still exist in ten years
In 2021, being a good software engineer felt great. The world was full of software, with more companies arriving every year who needed to employ engineers to…
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Tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10k individuals may be neurotypical
Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity.
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My 2026 Open Social Web Predictions
Predictions for 2026 include growth forecasts for various social media platforms, advancements in federated technologies, and anticipated shifts in how …
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New Mexico: Psychologists to dress up as wizards when providing expert testimony
New Mexico’s state senate took up a startling amendment in 1995 — it would have required psychologists to dress up as wizards when providing expert testimony on a defendant’s competency: When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a…
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All His Life Has He Looked Away, to the Future...
It’s one thing to look at today’s Windows 8 on a tablet and say that it has a lot of potential. It’s another thing altogether to look at it and declare victory.
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The downfall of National Geographic
When the pages stop turning
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Leading with Wikipedia: A brand proposal for 2030
A few months ago, people across the world were asked “What is Wikimedia?” Almost no one answered correctly. But while “Wikimedia” may not be widely recognized outside our movement, there is a clear way to use our existing brands to better bring in the billions of people who have yet to join us in our….
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“Raiders of the Lost Ark” Story Conference Transcript (1978)
G We’ll just talk general ideas, what the concept of it was. Then I’ll get down to going specifically through the story. Then we will actually get to where we can start talking down scenes, in the end I want to end up with a list of scenes. And the way I work generally is I figure a code, a general measuring stick…
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Tesla Gave Me Control of Their Site Forums
Update, 3/6/21: 2.5 years after they gave me a wild ride with admin access to their forums, Tesla announced that they will be killing off the Tesla
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UK'S shadow Internet minister says she is "particularly stupid"
I remarked earlier about Helen Goodman MP and her total lack of technical knowledge. An MP being a bit behind the times isn't the greatest shock - but she's Labour's Shadow Minister for Culture, Media, and Sport - that's a big deal! This year, Claire Perry MP produced an "independent" report into online child…
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Yes it's a bubble, so what?
Syzygy Asset Management
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Behind Silicon Valley and the GOP’s campaign to ban state AI laws
Inside the effort to de-democratize AI
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Reversing 'France Identité': The New French Digital ID
-------------- Update from 06/10/2023 : following my publication, I’ve been in contact with France Identité CISO and they could provide mo...
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Automated License Plate Readers Threaten Our Privacy
Co-Authored with Peter Bibring, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Southern California Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using sophisticated cameras, called “automated license plate readers” or ALPR, to scan and record the license plates of millions of cars across the country. These...
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Unicode is, in 2012, still “cutting edge.”
Note: These pages make extensive use of the latest XHTML and CSS Standards . They ought to look great in any standards-compliant modern browser. Unfortunately, they will probably look horrible in older browsers, like Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x. Moreover, many posts use MathML, which is, currently only supported in…
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Why is there no semantic ontology of sentiment in academic citations?
About a million years ago, I was discussing the FOAF (Friend of a Friend) ontology with its early proponents. It allowed you to define a machine-readable semantic relationship like "Alice is married to Bill" and "Bill is Carol's child" and "Carol works for David". That sort of thing. At the time, all the FOAF…
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Huawei proposes to replace TCP/IP at ITU
The Internet continues to evolve at a rapid pace. New services, applications, and protocols are being developed and deployed in many areas.
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A Reply to François Chollet on Intelligence Explosion
This is a reply to Francois Chollet, the inventor of the Keras wrapper for the Tensorflow and Theano deep learning systems, on his essay "The impossibility of
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Why admitting Covid is Airborne is so hard
Evidence for airborne spread of Covid-19 is strong, but authorities underemphasize airborne protections. The curious history of infectious disease reveals how this anti-airborne bias emerged.