Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
“We Will Literally Predict Their Life Outcomes” Scientist Vivienne Ming says she can foretell a child’s earning potential, happiness, even longevity. But not all her claims add up. Earlier this year, I met an entrepreneur who believed people could become better parents by texting with a software program she’d built. To me, a new mother,…
As Monday morning arrives in Austin, Texas, the thousands of people who’ve come to rely on Uber and Lyft (as both passengers and drivers) in this car-oriented city are waking up to a new reality. The two ride-hail leaders lost a major vote on Saturday, one they collectively spent more than $8 million trying to…
Moderators of Reddit’s popular technology subreddit, which boasts more than 5 million subscribers, are considering banning links from publishers, specifically Wired and Forbes, that force users to disable ad-blocking tools to access their sites. In a message posted yesterday, r/technology moderator “cerq” signaled out Forbes for reportedly serving users malware when ad-blockers are turned off resulting…
Austin, Texas voters have rejected a measure called Proposition 1 that would have shielded ride-hail drivers from stricter background checks, and now Uber and Lyft are threatening to cease operations entirely in the city. Uber says it will “stop” its Austin operations at 8AM Monday though it’s unclear if that’s a permanent withdrawal. Lyft says…
Social media firm cuts access to Dataminr, a service used to identify unfolding terror attacks, political unrest ENLARGE Dataminr says it first notified clients about the March attacks in Brussels 10 minutes ahead of news media. PHOTO: GEERT VANDEN/ZUMA PRESS By CHRISTOPHER S. STEWART and MARK MAREMONT May 8, 2016 7:54 p.m. ET 53 COMMENTS Twitter Inc. cut off U.S. intelligence agencies…
Dear Adobe, Please buy Flickr This photo of the San Juan River Utah is among dozens of thousands I’ve put up on Flickr. it might be collateral damage if Yahoo dies or fails to sell the service to a worthy buyer. Flickr is far from perfect, but it is also by far the best online…
A cache of internal documents shows that despite growing revenue, Palantir has lost top-tier clients, is struggling to stem staff departures, and has recorded cash collections at just a fraction of its customer bookings. A trove of internal documents and insider interviews has pulled back the curtain on one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive and highly-valued…
First of all, I’m speaking of webpage referral. Second, let me quote Wikipedia: The misspelling referer originated in the original proposal by computer “scientist” Phillip Hallam-Baker to incorporate the field into the HTTP specification.[1] The misspelling was set in stone by the time of its incorporation into the standards document Request for Comments (RFC) 1945;…
The minus sign above isn’t a typo. Think of Yahoo as a traditional enterprise (with all the assets just mentioned) stuck on top of a small safe deposit box. Inside that box: a huge pile of cash, plus stock certificates of two Asian tech companies. Yahoo owns about 15 percent of Internet giant Alibaba, a…
Far off in a hidden part of Reddit, a conversation about lipstick is about to turn ugly. The commenters have noticeably girly names, like “PrincessBatman,” “BaroquePrincess,” “KittenBeauty” and (ahem) “MindVagina.” Above them is a banner decorated with a mildly deranged collage, like something a teenage goth would blu-tack inside her school locker. It features…