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I don’t like computers
AdamW on Linux and more
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 658 posts.
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A man overrides his camera's firmware to bring rare pictures of North Korea back
A collection of photos from my trip to North Korea, with historical context.
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The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
<p>Would you believe that there is a conspiracy theory about the way we tune musical instruments? And that this theory even involves the Nazis, chakras, and whatnot? No? Then sit down and enjoy
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A Brief History of Who Ruined Burning Man
In 1986, at the very first Burn, a crowd of complete strangers gathered around the Man once it was lit it on fire. Nobody had invited them. They didn’t know anything about the 10 Principles, or understand what The Man was...
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Income inequality is not the problem, it's a symptom
Paul Graham today published two essays in which he challenges the idea that economic inequality is a problem. Since the 1970s, economic ...
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“But he does good work.”
Right now, my inbox holds media requests from Buzzfeed, Daily Dot, Guardian, Associated Press, and newly, La Repubblica, Italy’s largest…
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A Facebook Sixth Sense
I use Facebook every day — probably too much for my own good — and I’ve always been tempted to dive into their internals. That is, the…
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A Response to Paul Graham’s Article on Income Inequality
While perusing HackerNews today, I encountered this article and this comment thread by Paul Graham (PG for short), founder of Ycombinator. I think that a lengthy response is in order. I originally …
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Housing in the Bay Area
Jerry Brown has proposed legislation that would allow a lot more housing to be built in the Bay Area, and hopefully significantly reduce the cost of housing here. More supply should lead to lower...
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I wrote a small piece on planned death
Kind people already sent donations that will make my childrens' lives easier, when I'm not there any more. Thank you enormously! :-)
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Almost 80% of Private Day Traders Lose Money
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about how penny auction sites make you money. As a reaction, some readers sent me links to day trading brokers that promise easy returns. These brokers allow private investors to hold stocks or currencies positions for a short time which makes it possible to speculate on small…
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LinkedIn password leak
CES 2015 was a superb event in terms of the amount of new technology per square foot. But, from an information security standpoint, it did not appear all that positive.
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How Web Scraping Is Revealing Lobbying and Corruption in Peru
How Web Scraping is Revealing Lobbying and Corruption in Peru - Discover how web scraping is shedding light on lobbying and corruption issues in Peru.
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How Elon Musk Stole My Car
A personal story detailing a Tesla purchase gone wrong, deposit dispute, and lessons learned from dealing with Tesla’s direct sales model.
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Online Dating and the Death of the 'Mixed-Attractiveness' Couple
People tend to date people who are just as attractive as they are. And thanks to the rise of online dating, that is only becoming more true.
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Why Stack Overflow Doesn’t Care About Ad Blockers
Hi! I’m Steve Feldman, Senior Ad Ops Manager at Stack Overflow. My whole life I’ve been fascinated by advertising. Even as a kid, I wondered what a company was trying to tell me by using one word instead of another in an ad. Over time, I developed a strong (read: subjective) opinion of what makes an ad ’good,’ and…
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Why do old statues have such small penises?
Reader question: “Why do all old statues have such small penises?” The reader who sent me this felt that it was a question that was maybe too silly for my blog, but – firstly – there ar…
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Sculpture of Housing Prices Ripping San Francisco Apart
This data sculpture depicts a map of housing prices in San Francisco. It's a map of the city, torn at the seams. The height of each area represents the average price per square foot for recent home sales. Where neighboring areas are close in value they are connected, but if neighboring areas are too far
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Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% from Panama Leak
Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive…
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Dear Al-Jazeera: Why Steal Our Code?
Our AI transforms your ideas into immersive, interactive stories in just a few clicks — built to drive 17x more engagement than static pages.
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Unnecessariat
I remember AIDS. I’m older than you probably think I am, and I remember what AIDS in America meant in the eighties, when William F. Buckley suggested all “carriers” be tattooed, a…