Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Indian students gather for a protest against Free Basics in Hyderabad, on Dec. 29.Image: Mahesh Kumar A/Associated Press In a significant move, India’s telecom regulator has banned the differential pricing for different kinds of data according to the principles of net neutrality. This implies that zero-rating initiatives like Facebook’s Free Basics platform, which offers a…
Facebook is one of the most downloaded apps on iOS but it has long been cited as a cause of fast-draining iPhone batteries. Last year it was accused of using background tricks to stay active even when it wasn’t being used. Facebook admitted bugs existed, and fixed them, but questions of the app’s impact on…
You may notice that a lot of things happen to do with sexism on the internet. Sometimes someone has done a sexist thing and people are talking about it. Sometimes someone has written an article about the time they experienced sexism and other people are having feelings about it. Sometimes a particular woman or women…
The problem with Twitter, and especially the reason why it has so many dormant users, is that using Twitter for long periods of time is a fundamentally unpleasant experience. The product is not a joy to use. When users have an unpleasant time with a product, they don’t always complain loudly, they just sort of stop… using… it… The…
Begin: WordPress Article Content Include: Need For Transparency And Accountability Tech companies have gotten better about disclosing their diversity data, but there are still a ton of companies that haven’t done so. In the reports that do exist, what’s often missing are insights around retention rates, which can be good indicators of a company’s culture and what…
The Facebook “like”—a cornerstone of the service—is evolving into a cadre of six emotions. The social networking giant—which just reported that it has 1.59 billion users worldwide—is rolling out Facebook Reactions. Soon, American users will be able to choose between angry, sad, “wow,” “haha,” “yay” and love emojis to express how they feel about a…
Who cares how Yahoo’s business performed in its fourth quarter? The main point: It’s officially for sale. Said Yahoo chairman Maynard Webb: “The Board also believes that exploring additional strategic alternatives, in parallel to the execution of the management plan, is in the best interest of our shareholders. Separating our Alibaba stake from our operating…
In corporate America, the most persistent refuge of outright charlatanism is “branding.” The only thing more offensive to honesty than a “rebranding” campaign is a breathless feature story about a rebranding campaign. What do we have in Wired today… ah, it’s a breathless feature story about a rebranding campaign! “The Inside Story of Uber’s Radical…
Photo Donald J. Trump at the University of Iowa in Iowa City on Tuesday. On any day, Mr. Trump’s entry on Wikipedia usually attracts more views than those any of his Republican rivals. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times For a website with no paid writing staff that is still overcoming an out-of-date…
Photo Gregory Anderson’s lawsuit provides a peek inside Yahoo’s controversial quarterly performance review system. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO — One of Marissa Mayer’s signature policies as chief executive of Yahoo has been the quarterly performance review, in which every employee at the company is ranked on a scale of…