How do people fall for this?

I know that I am contrarian and incredulous as all hell, but just…what?

It’s brave of her to write about it. But my response would’ve been to laugh and hang up the phone. The IRS just doesn’t operate that way.

Automated Scanning of Firefox Extensions is Security Theater (And Here’s Code to Prove It).

This was always, always about control and power and nothing else. Mozilla’s approach is simply not how you do security. Hell, Mozilla’s approach is not how you build a browser that anyone wants to use.

Mozilla has more morons per square meter than anywhere else on the planet outside a Republican debate.

Hello, academics, and welcome to the world that non-academics have been enduring for 15 or so years now.

Not that non-academic job applications ask those specific questions, but along the same lines.

I’ve seen questions like these on job applications, with the responses I wished I’d sent:

Describe why you are a better fit than other candidates?

I don’t know the other fucking candidates. How the hell would I know? Isn’t that your job to figure out?

What makes you excited to work at (insert company here)?

It’s mainly the paycheck. And, you know, the paycheck.

And more. So many more. I’ve abandoned job applications because they wanted me to answer 10-15 essay-length questions.

The trials and tribulations that academics are put through generally lag behind the rest of the world 10-20 years, so it’s been interesting how as the crucible of modern hiring practices reach academia only then do you hear about it in the press (because these days only those who’ve gone to Ivies really are allowed to be in the mainstream press).

So welcome to the rest of the world, guys and gals! It’s not fun but we’re all in it together it turns out.

Why do journalists get assigned to cover topics they know absolutely nothing about?

That Adele’s album was not streamed has nothing to do with why it is or is not on the top of the charts at Pirate Bay. Not streaming it was never likely to drive that many people to pirate it. This is a false dichotomy anyway (or a double-false dichotomy), and is verging into the territory of “not even wrong.”

First, Adele is not interesting to most of the users of sites like The Pirate Bay. That site and file-sharing sites in general are dominated by 90% fairly misogynist men. Adele is a woman — and a woman who sings emotion-laden songs — so therefore icky.

In other words, her album was never as likely to be pirated as others more interesting to that demographic.

Second, Pirate Bay only shows information from trackers. Nearly all clients these days use DHT, which would not show up on Pirate Bay or any other site. Tracking it by going to Pirate Bay and looking at their charts is like sampling how many fish are in the Pacific Ocean by looking in your bathtub.

Hey, journalistic organizations, I know a lot about a lot of things. Send me money and I’ll make you less stupid.