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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 695 posts.
Using Silk Road
History, background, visiting, ordering, using, & analyzing the drug market Silk Road 1
Bose founder, Amar Bose, has died at 83
Entrepreneur served on faculty for 45 years; championed long-term corporate research.
The NSA: An Inside View
In which I relate my experience as an NSA employee and impart my thoughts on the policies in place, my former coworkers, and the current cyber war.
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014? Under the law that existed until 1978 . . . Works from 1957 The books On the Road, Atlas Shrugged, and The Cat in the Hat, the films The Bridge on the River Kwai, Funny Face, and The Prince and the Showgirl, the play Endgame (“Fin de Partie”), […]
San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
It's impossible to argue that San Francisco hasn't changed my life dramatically. When I moved to the Bay Area four years ago, I was an inexperienced kid who was working at a Genius Bar in an Apple Store. I didn't know JavaScript at all—hell, I could barely program and my useless liberal arts degree was doing nothing…
Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success
Recently I was going through some old things I had put away for safekeeping, and I found these: In 1993 I interviewed film director Ang Lee before the US premiere of his second movie, “The Wedding …
Coin: A step in the wrong direction
This website is for sale! techendo.co is your first and best source for information about techendo. Here you will also find topics relating to issues of general interest. We hope you find what you are looking for!
Our Newfound Fear of Risk
We’re afraid of risk. It’s a normal part of life, but we’re increasingly unwilling to accept it at any level. So we turn to technology to protect us. The problem is that technological security measures aren’t free. They cost money, of course, but they cost other things as well. They often don’t provide the security…
Thousands dead, millions deprived of civil liberties? (2001)
If we are not careful, the deadly attacks on New York and Washington will lead to far worse secondary damage, if the U.S. Congress adopts "preventive measures" that take away the freedom that America stands for.
NSA Spying Documents to be Released As Result of EFF Lawsuit
In a major victory in one of EFF's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, the Justice Department conceded yesterday that it will release hundreds of pages of documents, including FISA court opinions, related to the government’s secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the law...
Pain of the New: The Hobbit at 48 fps
[Translations: Japanese] New media technologies often cause an allergic reaction when they first appear. We may find them painful before we find them indispensable. I watched the movie The Hobbit. Twice. First I saw it in its “standard” mode. A … Continue reading →
LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network
The primary reasons LinkedIn is the mustached, trench coat and wire frame glasses wearing mouth breather of the internet are the “People You May Know” and “People Also Viewed” features.
You commit three felonies a day
In a book called Three Felonies A Day, Boston civil rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate says that everyone in the US commits felonies everyday and if the governmen
Thoreau 2.0
This is a written version of a talk I gave on September 21, 2013 , at the XOXO conference in Portland.
Government Says Secret Court Opinion on Law Underlying PRISM Must Stay Secret
In a rare public filing in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Justice Department today urged continued secrecy for a 2011 FISC opinion that found the National Security Agency's surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act to be unconstitutional. Significantly, the...
First Victim of Amazon Drones: The Credibility of CBS and 60 Minutes
Confused about AI? Discover how artificial intelligence will transform the way you work, your marketing and sales strategy, and your customers' shopping habits.
Severing Ties with the NSA
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…
No more remote work at Yahoo
Employees at Yahoo have had a rough decade. The company has been drifting aimlessly with little vision, an endless parade of CEOs, and a flatlined stock price. That’s not exactly a conducive environment to be inspired and motivated within, let alone do the stellar work that Yahoo needs to pul…
Mozilla Recognized as Most Trusted Internet Company for Privacy
I’m very happy to share that Mozilla has been named the Most Trusted Internet Company for Privacy in 2012, according to a study performed by the Ponemon
Whatever happened to due process?
This morning I received the following email: Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED Dear Sir or Madam, Re: Website domain name suspension request #2 On the 24th September 2013, EasyDNS Technologies was emailed a domain suspension request for the following domain(s) that to date we have not received a reply nor seen…