last thursday
Should one attend the funeral of a 'virtual friend'? | Edward Collier
www.guardian.co.uk
As I mourn the death of a friend I made on a cricket forum, I am left pondering when a cyber friendship becomes a 'real' oneLast Thursday I learned that my friend George had died after a short illness. My first thoughts were for his family; George was one of...
Yahoo Employees Are 'LIVID' Over Thompson's Resume Scandal (YHOO)
www.businessinsider.com
Yahoo employees are angry, disappointed, and feeling pushed to the limit because of CEO Scott Thompson's resume scandal. For at least eight years, Thompson allowed people – employers, employees, and shareholders of eBay and Yahoo – to believe that he had a computer science degree from Stonehill College when he...
TED launches its TED-Ed YouTube channel: Short, animated videos for teachers and students
thenextweb.com
TED, the global nonprofit whose missions is “Ideas Worth Spreading” has today announced its latest efforts in the education space: TED-Ed. At a press conference last Thursday, TED Curator Chris Anderson said, “Over the past few years… we’ve seen these talks spread over the Web and a recurring theme from people...
This RBS chaos was no 'inconvenience'. Missing the bus is an inconvenience | John Crace
www.guardian.co.uk
Stephen Hester treats us like morons with his Panglossian euphemisms. But it's RBS that ends up looking stupidRBS boss Simon Hester has called it an inconvenience. Others have called it a glitch. The million or so customers whose bank accounts have been affected by the still unsolved problems that hit...
Right Before Acquisition, Instagram Closed $50M At A $500M Valuation From Sequoia, Thrive, Greylock And Benchmark
techcrunch.com
I’m as shocked as you are, namely because I was working on this as a funding story all morning. Anyways, right before its billion dollar acquisition from Facebook, Instagram closed a $50 million Series B round from Sequoia, Thrive Capital, Greylock and Benchmark at a $500 million valuation. The round...
Right Before Acquisition, Instagram Closed $50M At A $500M Valuation From Sequoia, Thrive, Greylock And Benchmark
Twitter's tales of sexism
www.guardian.co.uk
On International Women's Day last week, Linda Grant tweeted her thoughts about why feminism still matters. Thousands of shocking responses – from women and men – proved her point@jobellerina: Whilst delivering a strategic planning event, a male attendee comes in, walks past the young male intern, and hands me his...
Did Facebook panic?
finance.fortune.cnn.com
Why Facebook is buying Instagram. Last week, mobile photo-sharing site Instagram raised $40 million from venture capitalists at a $500 million valuation. Today, the company agreed to be acquired for $1 billion by Facebook. So what happened in the intervening days? For starters, the venture capital round had been in...
Obama admin wants warrantless access to cell phone location data
arstechnica.com
A Maryland court last week ruled that the government does not need a warrant to force a cell phone provider to disclose more than six months of data on the movements of one of its customers. Two defendants had been accused of armed robbery, and a key piece of...
FACEBOOK BUYS INSTAGRAM FOR $1 BILLION: What You Need To Know (FB)
www.businessinsider.com
Facebook bought Instagram, a company that makes a photo-sharing app for iPhone and (very recently) Android for a whopping $1 billion in cash. Instagram has only been around for less than two years, has only 13 employees, and has never made a dime of revenue. But it's a good...
WTF is CISPA?
www.bgr.com
The United States House of Representatives voted last Thursday to pass a piece of legislation called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. The controversial bill now sits in the hands of the Senate and faces further modifications if it hopes to gain approval from the White House, which...
Another webOS Executive Heads for the Exits at HP
allthingsd.com
Hewlett-Packard’s webOS ranks continue to thin as another executive has left the company. The latest to depart is David Gee, an 8-year HP veteran who had been head of marketing for the webOS business. Gee is leaving to become executive VP of marketing for Infoblox, an enterprise IT company that...
In Fight With Google, Oracle Bids To Reincarnate Dead Java Patent
www.wired.com
UPDATE: On Wednesday Judge Alsup denied the patent as part of the case saying “Oracle’s argument that the patent “trial” has not yet started is wrong.” Federal judge William Alsup is set to decide whether Oracle can resurrect one of its dead Java patents as it attempts to prove...
Volcano 40 miles east of Mexico City rumbles back to life
arstechnica.com
Popocatépetl, the nearly 18,000 foot volcano straddling the border of Puebla and Moreno states in central Mexico, has started a series of small eruptions, which could presage something more violent. And that could be a serious problem, since it's the second highest peak in Mexico, looming above the plain...
WikiLeaks publishes 2.4 million emails from Syrian government and business, Anonymous claims responsibility
www.theverge.com
The beginning of Anonymous' quest to hack the Syrian government began back in February, and last Thursday the group announced the results of its efforts: the transfer of over 2.4 million emails from 680 Syrian domains to WikiLeaks, including emails from the Ministries of Presidential Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance,...
WikiLeaks publishes 2.4 million emails from Syrian government and business, Anonymous claims responsibility
Apple patents Siri-like system for controlling cameras, PMPs through a computer or smartphone
www.engadget.com
"Siri, turn on the flash and take three pictures with my camera after waiting two seconds." Apple's intelligent voice control system has been wildly popular amongst consumers in the U.S., and abroad, but Siri could be making her way to other devices in the future, including iPods, cameras and...
Angry Birds Space reaches 10 million downloads in less than three days
www.bgr.com
Rovio on Monday announced that the company’s latest Angry Birds installment has been downloaded 10 million times in less than three days. Angry Birds Space launched last Thursday on iOS and Android devices, as well as on OS X and Windows PCs. In the fourth major Birds release, users...
NatWest and RBS customers face another weekend without money
www.guardian.co.uk
Irate NatWest and RBS customers claim IT problem still not fixed, despite RBS claim that 99% of accounts now up to dateHundreds of NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland branches will open with extended hours for a second weekend to tackle the ongoing problems faced by what appears to be...
What Is Wrong With Facebook's IPO? (FB)
www.businessinsider.com
Facebook's stock had been in a free fall since it hit the public markets. This morning, it's actually up, but the company isn't out of the woods just yet. What exactly is happening here? Why was the stock still falling? And why does the IPO suddenly look like a...
Viacom says there's 'no deal in sight' to get channels back on DirecTV
venturebeat.com
It’s hard to distinguish whose behaving like the bigger drama queen when it comes to the recent carriage fee dispute between DirecTV and Viacom. For the moment, DirecTV seems to be inching ahead, according to a Viacom blog post published this afternoon. Last week, satellite TV service provider DirecTV...
Tesla says reservations of Model X have hit $40M worth of cars
gigaom.com
Tesla Model X with falcon wings fully open Tesla’s flashy unveiling of its Model X electric SUV/minivan last week looks like it’s paid off in reservations. The car company announced on Tuesday that just a day after the launch, Tesla had accumulated reservations for more than $40 million worth of...
Splunk's 10-Year Road to a Successful IPO
www.readwriteweb.com
The tech IPO is back in fashion, with the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and GroupOn dominating the headlines over the past year. One of the lesser known technology brands to have gone public is Splunk, a company hyped by its CEO Godfrey Sullivan as "the Google of Big Data." Splunk...
Why It Could Make Sense for Instagram to Take Sequoia Funding During Facebook Acquisition Talks
www.christine.net
Debate is already starting around Instagram's recently-announced acquisition by Facebook. e.g., Why the heck would Instagram sell a stake of its soon-to-be-acquired company to Sequoia (and Thrive, and Greylock, and Benchmark?) The reason is simple: playing chicken with a potential acquirer can drive a much higher valuation. And more importantly,...
This Guy's Instagram Add-On App Has Gotten More Than 150,000 Downloads In Six Days
www.businessinsider.com
Instagram is one of the hottest startups in San Francisco. Its Android version hit 1 million downloads in just 24 hours. But the popular photo sharing app doesn't have a direct messaging service like Twitter does. To fix that, 27-year-old Mexican entrepreneur Cristian Castillo decided to make a messaging...
Righthaven Completely Stops Showing Up In Court, Loses Key Case, Key Appeals And 'Big Name' Lawyer Who It Still Owes Money To
www.techdirt.com
Over the past few weeks there's been some more Righthaven news, as the company has continued the trend it started last year of not showing up and missing deadlines. Now it appears that it's just completely given up. CEO Steve Gibson is working at another job (while being investigated by...
Righthaven Completely Stops Showing Up In Court, Loses Key Case, Key Appeals And 'Big Name' Lawyer Who It Still Owes Money To
Modified electric airplane breaks speed record with 202mph flight
www.theverge.com
Chip Yates, who previously set the record for fastest electric motorcycle, claims to have broken the record for fastest electric flight — a title that was previously held by the Cri-Cri. At a top speed of 202.6mph, Yates' modified Burt Rutan Long-EZ took off and landed at the Inyokern...
Instagram Inches Closer To Having a Web App
www.readwriteweb.com
Instagram has made a small move toward fulfilling one of its fans' biggest demands - making the service available on the Web, rather than solely through a mobile app. Instagram updated its website last Thursday, letting users interact with its community through a browser window. The change doesn't amount to...
The confusing language around programming languages
www.guardian.co.uk
The language of technology is all around us - but writing about programming for a non-technical audience isn't without potential problems. Max Harlow and Lindsey Dew explainWith the rise in the importance of technology in everyday life, a certain amount of technical vocabulary has slipped into common language – words...
The WELL stares into the abyss as Salon says it will pull the plug
www.guardian.co.uk
San Francisco-based online community is up for sale and won't accept further subscriptions, leaving its patrons worriedThis is what an online apocalypse looks like: "Don't break anything! There's no one left to fix it!"Last Thursday night, members of The WELL, the 27-year-old San Francisco-based online community, were shocked to receive...
Vibram Boss: IP Enforcement Is A Waste Of Time; You're Better Off Building A Relationship With Customers
www.techdirt.com
Last year, we wrote about a ridiculous bit of javascript coding on the website for Vibram (makers of the famed "five finger" shoes) in Italy -- in which if you merely right-clicked on an image, you were accused of trying to illegally copy their images. I was thinking about this...
Vibram Boss: IP Enforcement Is A Waste Of Time; You're Better Off Building A Relationship With Customers
Budget 2012: could this be the year for the UK games industry?
www.guardian.co.uk
We chat to Tory MP Justin Tomlinson and TIGA CEO Richard Wilson about the chances of games industry support in this week's budgetRichard Wilson is feeling optimistic. Again. The CEO of video game industry trade body, Tiga, has spent the last three years lobbying parliament for tax credits and other...
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