Trust but Verify
It is becoming increasingly difficult to trust the privacy properties of software and services we rely on to use the Internet. Governments, companies, groups and individuals may be surveilling us without our knowledge. This is particularly troubling when such surveillance is done by governments under statutes that…
Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
I think this is a great hack: A man bought a first-class ticket and used it to have free meals and drinks at the airport’s VIP lounge almost every day for nearly a year, Kwong Wah Yit Poh reported. The itinerary for the ticket was found to have been changed more than 300 times within a year, and the owner of the…
1995 Vannevar Bush symposium: Closing Panel
From the closing panel at the 1995 Brown/MIT Vannevar Bush Symposium , featuring Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay, Ted Nelson, and Tim Berners-Lee.
A veteran teacher turned coach shadows two students for two days
Hear from a veteran HS teacher who just became a Coach in her building. Because her experience is so vivid and sobering I have kept her identity anonymous.
What makes for a stable marriage?
Randy Olson reviews a research paper that outlines what makes for a stable marriage in the U.S.
Don't Trust Google (2002)
Many people have been writing about Google this week - either in response to the Newsweek cover story , or to the recent Wired article about Google’s growing pains, and its happy motto: “Don’t be evil”.
There’s a simple alternative to the current web
Via @roundtrip, this conversation from July: There’s actually a pretty simple alternative to the current web. In federated wiki, when you find a page you like, you curate it to your own serve…
Japanese Toilets: The Future Called 30 Years Ago
Japan circa 2006 I stare at the strange looking symbols with trepidation. Fear mixed with equal doses of excitement, is this the time I finally do it? Yes. I gather up the courage and push what I believe to be the start button. There is a whirring noise then nothing, for an excruciating second I think I have made a…
The Slow Web
A popular old essay about finding calm and rhythm online.
Social Psychology Is A Flamethrower
Mark Twain:There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. If this is true of all science, it is doubly true o…
Personhood: A Game for Two or More Players
Being a person is not the essence of humanity, only... one of its many masks. — John Gray
A Statistical Analysis of All Hacker News Submissions
After downloading all 1,265,114 Hacker News submissions from the official Hacker News API, I gathered a few interesting statistics which show the true impact of Hacker News.
The Android Screen Fragmentation Myth
As someone who develops for Android and iOS I get asked the same question over and over again by people: "Is developing for Android screens a huge pain? How ...
Why Apple's iPhone encryption won't stop NSA
Recent news headlines have made a big deal of Apple encrypting more of the storage on their handsets, and claiming to not have a key. Depend...
Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
There's a meme, particularly virulent in educated circles, about how advertising works — how it sways and seduces us, coaxing us gently toward a purchase.
What women in technology really think (150 of them at least)
What women in technology really think (150 of them, at least)
Why Is Peter Thiel Pessimistic About Technological Innovation?
Collection of Peter Thiel's evidence that we're economically stagnating and no longer living in a technologically-accelerating civilization.
A Question
I have a question for all the people that use their iPhone or Android to complain on Twitter, Facebook, or reddit about the lack of innovation… Or message their friends on WhatsApp or Snapchat...
Publish and Perish at Imperial College London: The Death of Stefan Grimm
Jump to follow-up This week’s Times Higher Education carried a report of the death, at age 51, of Professor Stefan Grimm: Imperial College London to ‘review procedures’ after death of academi…
Cantonese Proverbs in One Picture
The Great Canton and Hong Kong Proverbs” : illustrations of 83 Cantonese proverbs in one picture
The disappearing inventor
Mark Bolas , a professor at USC, an astonishingly prolific innovator, has invented or co-invented many things. One of those things was FOV2GO, an ingenious way to make a very inexpensive, very wide angle virtual reality display.