Best of 2016

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2016. 354 posts.

Society, Policy & Culture
92

Visiting Chelsea Manning in prison

On the day that I am scheduled to see my friend Chelsea for the first time in six years, I wake up at 4:51pm to a shrieking fire alarm in my hotel room. Semi-conscious and disoriented, I leap out of bed and spin around wildly grabbing at all the things I care about – my phone and passport, the precious slip of paper…

95

Penny Auctions

Unless you use an ad blocker, you probably notice ads for penny auction sites from time to time. They usually advertise with sketchy messages like “iPhone sold for $14.21.” They can sell iPhones such low prices because of their unusual auction system where each bid increases the auction price by only one cent. This…

120

Why I don't like smartphones

They are unequal devices. Smartphones are unapologetically devices for consumption. In this regard they differ critically from PCs, because PCs are equal devices in the sense that the same device is used for creation and consumption. This means that anyone with a PC can create as well as consume, if they so wish. This…