Best of 2023

EU member states still cannot agree about end-to-end encryption

Stanford Center for Internet and Society2023119 points147 commentscited by 3Society, Policy & Culture details

Recently, Wired reported on documents leaked in May from the Council of the European Union’s ongoing deliberations over the draft Child Sex Abuse Regulation. The proposal is controversial because, as presently written, it would require online service providers to proactively scan their services – including users’…

The Cargo Cult of the Ennui Engine

medium.com/@max.p.schlienger2023119 points59 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

Double Standards

Raspberry Pi2023119 points45 commentsTech Industry & Business details

Once people had recovered from the shock of seeing both a power button and a real-time clock on a Raspberry Pi, one of the most commented-on features of the new platform was the small, vertical, 16-way FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) connector on the left-hand side of the board, which exposes a single-lane PCI Express…

Yes, it's OK to be mad about crime in San Francisco

Noahpinion2023118 points197 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

Let's not make excuses for Chaos City.

Google Makes over $92B per Year by Owning Android

interestingcontent.substack.com2023118 points105 commentsTech Industry & Business details

Harvard: Student Use Cases for AI

Harvard Business Publishing2023118 points104 commentsAI & Machine Learning details

A successful example of "adversarial collaboration"

We synthesized the vast, contradictory scholarly literature on gender bias in academic science from 2000 to 2020. . . . Claims and counterclaims regarding the presence or absence of sexism span a range of evaluation contexts. Our approach relied on a combination of meta-analysis and analytic dissection. We evaluated…

George Orwell's 6 rules for writing (2018; originally published in 1946)

Infusion Media Blog2023117 points108 commentsLife, Learning & Writing details

George Orwell was greatly concerned with truth and language and how deliberately misleading language is used to conceal disagreeable political facts. To guide writers into writing clearly and truthfully, he proposed six writing rules.

Researchers mined Erowid and fed the entries to an AI

Pioneer Works2023117 points106 commentsAI & Machine Learning details

Researchers mined an old drug forum and fed the entries to an AI. The result could augur a new class of psychedelic-based antidepressants.

Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

Indeed2023117 points68 commentsTech Industry & Business details

Framework – We are not sustainable

Robots have been about to take all the jobs for 100 years

Pessimists Archive2023116 points211 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details

We will be exploring the history of fears about technological unemployment.

Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

Matteo Mazzarolo2023116 points190 commentsWeb & Frontend details

Just venting. Between GDPR dialogs, dark patterns, and invasive ads, browsing the web nowadays — especially from EU — is a miserable experience.

The Limits to Growth (1972)

The Donella Meadows Project2023116 points123 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

The complete original Limits to Growth study is now freely accessible online, thanks to the Donella Meadows Institute and the Dartmouth College Library.

Ofcom proposes to refer UK cloud market for investigation

“Forbidden-word” lists are a symptom of administrative bloat

How many people have ever lived on Earth?

Population Reference Bureau2023115 points171 commentscited by 11Society, Policy & Culture details

The global population milestone of 8 billion represents nearly 7% of the total number of people who have ever lived on Earth.

The downfall of National Geographic

Pryor Conversations2023115 points113 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

When the pages stop turning

Reversing 'France Identité': The New French Digital ID

Reverse Mode2023115 points89 commentsSecurity & Privacy details

-------------- Update from 06/10/2023 : following my publication, I’ve been in contact with France Identité CISO and they could provide mo...

Citymapper Joins Via

Citymapper Blog2023115 points87 commentsTech Industry & Business details

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Highway to Ruin: The crash of Southern Airways flight 242 (2022)

Admiral Cloudberg2023115 points81 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details

When a Southern Airways DC-9 loses both engines during a storm, an attempt to land it on a rural highway goes horribly wrong.

Explore the Silk Roads

Into Far Lands2023115 points17 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details

Experience history's greatest journey along the veins of the world. Relive the interactive journey from Europe to China, explore the map of the Silk Roads, or choose an outpost to trave back in time to.

Why Finland Selected the F-35A (2021)

Corporal Frisk2023114 points442 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

Back in 2017 I was fortunate enough to travel to RAF Lossiemouth together with a bunch of Finnish media courtesy of BAE Systems to get up and close with the Eurofighter Typhoon group operating ther…

Why I always hit the crosswalk button (2015)

klittlepage.com2023114 points299 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

An examination of Kitty Genovese and the Volunteer's Dilemma

Social engineering campaign targeting tech employees spreads through NPM malware

Socket Blog2023114 points87 commentsSecurity & Privacy details

One of America's most corporate-crime-friendly judges forced to recuse himself

Cory Doctorow2023114 points31 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

"I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one." The now-famous quip from Robert Reich cuts to the bone of corporate personhood. Corporations are people with speech rights. They are heat-shields that absorb liability on behalf of their owners and managers.

UK Online Safety Bill threatens encryption, secure communication, and reporting

Committee to Protect Journalists2023114 points25 commentsSecurity & Privacy details

Does the image above, depicting the rescue of a child who attempted to reach the U.K. by sea, present the act of immigration in “a positive light”? It’s an absurd question, of course. It’s journalism – an effort to convey in visual terms the stark truth that tens of thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers try to…

The iOS option to charge battery to "80% Limit" shouldn't just be for iPhone 15

Key Discussions2023113 points165 commentsHardware & Electronics details

[There is very lively discussion on Reddit, where it’s trending at #1 both on r/ios and r/apple . There are a bunch of worthy suggestions there on how to improve the feature even more, but one thing’s clear: iPhone users would love to see this come to more devices.]

Banks as collateral damage in a class war

Ann Pettifor2023113 points155 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

Central Bank obsession with holding down wages has consequences for fin stability

For police PR flacks, quack lives matter

Radley Balko2023113 points153 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details

Police seem to be heroically rescuing baby ducks . . . pretty much everywhere