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Member of The European Union
For several reasons, I am instinctively in favour — strongly so — of remaining in the EU: I have a French wife and two bilingual children, and I am an academic living in the age of the …
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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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UCOP Ordered Spyware Installed on UC Data Networks
The San Francisco Chronicle has coverage of an issue that has been circulating on faculty email networks at UC Berkeley for a few days. ...
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Apple can comply with the FBI court order
Earlier today, a federal judge ordered Apple to comply with the FBI’s request for technical assistance in the recovery of the San Bernadino gunmen’s iPhone 5C. Since then, many have argued whether these requests from the FBI are technically feasible given the support for strong encryption on iOS devices. Based on my…
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ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit
ICQ is turning 20 (and that is no small potatoes). A whole generation has already grown up with the forerunner of all messengers. For this…
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The Trouble with Tor
The Tor Project makes a browser that allows anyone to surf the Internet anonymously. Tor stands for "the onion router" and that describes how the service works. Traffic is routed through a number of relays where each relay only knows the next hop, not the ultimate destination.
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FBI Breaks into iPhone. We Have Some Questions
The FBI has successfully accessed data on an iPhone that has been the subject of a legal battle between the Justice Department and Apple, according to a court filing. EFF is pleased that the Justice Department has retreated from its dangerous and unconstitutional attempt to force Apple to subvert...
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The Math Myth
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 Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp
In Saturday’s edition of the New York Times, Matt Apuzzo reports that the Department of Justice is locked in a “prolonged standoff” with WhatsApp. The government is frustrated by its lack of real-time access to messages protected by the company’s end-to-end encryption. The story may represent a...
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Unsafe levels of toxic chemicals found in drinking water for 6M Americans
The latest public health news delivered right to your inbox.
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San Francisco Bubble
The other week I spent some time visiting friends in San Francisco. I’ve been going to SF on and off every year for about ten years now. However on this journey, the weirdness of the city a…
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No tipping means better business
Friendly and helpful customer support that goes above and beyond. We help you get the perfect domain name.
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Amazon Has Just Registered to Sell Ocean Freight
Flexport has obtained information that Amazon China has registered with the FMC to operate as an ocean freight forwarder in the United States.
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The US Government has no credibility to compel anybody to weaken security
This is my belated obligatory post about the entire "Apple vs the FBI" episode and whether it should help decrypt the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. People have commented that I should write something, and I've been reluctant in case I go off in full-rant-mode. I wrote the entire post and…
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House Passes Bill to Sabotage Net Neutrality
H.R. 2666 Would Undermine FCC’s Charge to Protect the Open Internet In a disappointing turn of events, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 241 to 173 to pass H.R. 2666, the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act, a bill that would undermine the FCC’s ability to enforce key net...
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Confessions of a Necromancer
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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Trump
I'm going to say something very unpopular in my world: Trump is right about some big things. He's right that many Americans are getting screwed by the system. He’s right that the economy is not...
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Belarus finally bans Tor
Country: Belarus Probed ISPs: Beltelecom (AS 6697) Censorship method: TCP injections We have recently heard of network anomalies in Belarus. Tor has been finally blocked in December 2016, although it had been explicitly declared that Tor should be blocked since February 2015. An anonymous cypherpunk has helped to…
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Facebook is wrong, text is deathless
It’s a throwaway line in a longer talk and we probably shouldn’t make too much of it, but I will anyway. In five years time Facebook “will be definitely mobile,
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Classism in America
This post has moved to https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1237182.html
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Don't Read the Comments
I sent this email to the current YC batch this morning: I've talked to some of you who are really bummed about negative press coverage or online comments about your company. Often this takes...