It’s well known that textbook prices are generally high. That’s in part because academic publishers effectively have a monopoly when it comes to standard texts. Very often, these are texts that students simply must have as part of their course, which means they will pay even exorbitant prices. One such book was John McMurry’s Organic Chemistry. […]
When Mike wrote a post digging into some of the complex questions surrounding Cloudflare banning Kiwi Farms, there was plenty of backlash and disagreement — much of it thoughtful and well worth engaging with. Among the strongest critics was lawyer Mike Dunford, who composed a detailed Twitter thread that lead to a lengthy back-and-forth. This […]
While we’ve been criticizing some of Elon Musk’s actions and statements lately, we still stand by what we’ve said for years: that his view on patents is entirely, unquestionably, correct. In 2014, he pledged to open up all of Tesla’s patents. And when some investors insisted he didn’t really mean it, he clarified that he […]
Judges have plenty of power, especially local judges who can run their jurisdiction as they see fit without fearing too much pushback from higher courts, residents, or area law enforcement. Judge Steven Privette is the presiding circuit court judge in Howell County, Missouri, home to around 40,000 Missouri residents. Privette is currently facing some controversy […]
This refurbished Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is designed to be the perfect companion for your everyday life and/or professional career. Run your favorite programs on the powerful Windows 10 operating system with a high-resolution 12″ screen and 128GB of flash storage – ideal for businesses, students, or anyone who needs quick access to files. With […]
I’ve written a few times lately about the overreaction many people seem to have to claims that “cancel culture” is a “threat to free speech.” Obviously, there are some examples of people overreacting to speech they dislike, but more often than not, the claims of “cancel culture” are really assholes upset that they’re being held […]
Last year, Apple received ample coverage about how the company was making privacy easier for its customers by introducing a new, simple, tracking opt-out button for users as part of an iOS 14.5 update. Apple marketing and press reports heavily hyped the App Tracking Transparency system, which purportedly gave consumers control of which apps were able to […]
This is truly strange. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals somehow decided it was a good idea to redact its decision finding (partially) in favor of a person whose rights were violated by DC Metro police officers. What could have been a straightforward recognition that cops exceeded their boundaries was, at least temporarily, presented misleadingly, […]
While technologies like low orbit satellite can help shore up broadband access, they come with their own additional challenges. One being that services like Space X’s Starlink have cause potentially unavoidable light pollution, harming scientific research. The other being the exponential growth in space detritus, aka space junk, that will make space navigation increasingly difficult. […]
If you don’t like people making “People’s Republic of California” jokes, maybe don’t do stuff like this: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative body for the city, voted 7-4 to test Mayor London Breed’s surveillance camera proposal, which will take effect in 30 days and sunset in 15 months. Under the policy, the San Francisco Police Department […]
Last year, I tried to create a “test suite” of websites that any new internet regulation ought to be “tested” against. The idea was that regulators were so obsessively focused on the biggest of the big guys (i.e., Google, Meta) that they never bothered to realize how it might impact other decently large websites that […]
Germany’s uncomfortable relationship with free speech continues. The country has always been sensitive about certain subjects (rhymes with Bitler and, um, Yahtzee), resulting in laws that suppress speech referring to these subjects, apparently in hopes of preventing a Fourth Reich from taking hold. But the censorship of speech extends far beyond the lingering aftereffects of […]
Go anywhere and stay connected with 4G LTE on the refurbished Galaxy Tab A (8.4″”, 2020). With a long-lasting battery, you can stream your favorite music, shows and movies for over 10 hours on a single charge. Whether you’re traveling, unwinding or enjoying a quick break, Galaxy Tab A’s compact, slim design and vivid display […]
Right after the 5th Circuit’s ruling on Texas’ HB 20 law on content moderation came out, I wrote up a long post going through the many, many oddities (and just flat out mistakes) of the ruling. Since then, one thing that was bothering about this ruling was that it wasn’t just wrong on the law, […]
VPN providers remain a primary target of governments around the world (authoritarian leaning and otherwise) that don’t much like their citizens chatting privately or avoiding government surveillance. We watched it happen in Russia, where strict new data collection and retention rules resulted in a mass exodus of VPN providers (the ones that are actually dedicated […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is That One Guy with a comment further exploring the analogy in our post about making the internet “like Disneyland”: Actually let’s run with that idea, say the internet is Disneyland, would you as a parent take your kids to the entrance, pay the fee […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2017, the Senate was moving ever closer to passing SESTA, as it held a hearing that showcased the issues with the bill. We wrote about the many reasons it was so terrible, and noted that it put just about every single online service at risk, but Senator Blumenthal seemed […]
If you want your rights violated, all you need to do is call a cop. If you want your rights upheld, you’ll probably want your rights to be violated in another federal circuit. We can learn something from this decision. But it won’t be things we want to learn. Instead, it shows how courts (especially […]
We’ve written stories about people having difficulty recognizing people joking around quoting movies. Sometimes it ends up ridiculously, like the guy who was arrested for quoting Fight Club and had to spend quite some time convincing people he wasn’t actually looking to shoot up an Apple store. We’ve also talked a lot about the impossibility […]
What is it with government agencies and the media teaming up to Streisand some dumb thing that almost no one has ever done or heard about, and turning it into a thing that everyone knows about? Back in the heady days of 2018, the American Association of Poison Control Centers released a press release warning […]
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