Network Support Blog

Allison Parshall / Quanta Magazine: An interview with Yael Tauman Kalai, a Microsoft cryptographer who won the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing, on cryptography, “post-quantum” security, and more  —  Yael Tauman Kalai's breakthroughs secure the digital world, from cloud computing to our quantum future. http://www.techmeme.com/230730/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230730p3

Billy Perrigo / TIME: A look at Indian nonprofit Karya, which sells AI training data and redirects all the profit to its workers, who retain ownership of the data they create  —  In the shade of a coconut palm, Chandrika tilts her smartphone screen to avoid the sun's glare.  It is early morning in Alahalli village … http://www.techmeme.com/230729/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230729p5

Jenny Leonard / Bloomberg: Sources: President Biden plans to sign an executive order to limit US investments in semiconductors, AI, and quantum computing in China by mid-August  —  - Limits to cover deals in China chips, AI, quantum computing  — Rulemaking means order won't take effect until next year http://www.techmeme.com/230728/p12?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230728p12

Todd Spangler / Variety: Roku reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to $847.2M, vs. $773.5M est., platform revenue up 11% YoY to $744M, and active accounts up 16% YoY to 73.5M; ROKU jumps 8%+  —  The company reported Q2 revenue of $847.2 million, up 11%, and a net loss of $107.6 million (-$0.76 per share). http://www.techmeme.com/230727/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230727p31

Sheila Chiang / CNBC: Samsung reports Q2 revenue of ~$47.21B, a 22% YoY drop and below analyst expectations of ~$47.7B, and operating profit of ~$525M, a 95% YoY drop  —  - Samsung is the world's largest maker of dynamic random-access memory chips, which are found in consumer devices such as smartphones and computers. http://www.techmeme.com/230726/p53?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230726p53

Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal: Meta hasn't labeled propaganda accounts of state-backed media from Russia and other authoritarian governments on Threads, unlike on Facebook and Instagram  —  State-backed media accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers without the labels they are made to carry on Instagram and Facebook http://www.techmeme.com/230725/p40?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230725p40

Kim Zetter / Wired: Researchers find flaws, likely backdoors, in encryption algorithms from the TETRA standard used in radios commonly deployed by police and military orgs globally  —  A secret encryption cipher baked into radio systems used by critical infrastructure workers, police, and others around the world is finally seeing sunlight. http://www.techmeme.com/230724/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230724p19

Kevin Roose / New York Times: An analysis of the potential impact of the eight AI commitments to the White House made by OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Anthropic, and Inflection  —  Seven leading A.I. companies made eight promises about what they'll do with their technology.  Our columnist sizes up their potential impact. http://www.techmeme.com/230723/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230723p4

Washington Post: South Korean and Indian filmmakers are hoping the Hollywood strikes will give them more bargaining power with US streaming services and a precedent to follow  —  SEOUL — When Netflix launched in South Korea in 2016, it was a breath of fresh air for filmmakers jaded by a local industry notorious for labor abuses and penny-pinching. http://www.techmeme.com/230722/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230722p4

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg: Sources: Amazon plans to force some remote corporate employees to relocate as part of a mandate requiring workers to be in the office three days a week  —  - Requirement comes amid souring morale in wake of layoffs  — Company requires workers to be in office three days a week http://www.techmeme.com/230721/p16?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230721p16

Wall Street Journal: Sources: China-linked hackers accessed the emails of the US ambassador to China and the assistant secretary of state for East Asia in a recent Microsoft breach  —  Spying campaign also compromised State Department official who oversees East Asia  —  Hackers linked to Beijing accessed … http://www.techmeme.com/230720/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230720p31

Mike Oitzman / The Robot Report: Beijing-based ForwardX Robotics, which makes autonomous mobile robots for warehouses, raised an additional $30M on July 7, bringing its Series C total to $61M  —  ForwardX Robotics, a global leader in vision-based AMR technology, is thrilled to announce the successful completion of its latest funding round … http://www.techmeme.com/230719/p42?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230719p42

Jennifer Elias / CNBC: Sources: Google is internally piloting an opt-in program where some employees will be restricted to internet-free PCs to reduce the risk of cyberattacks  —  - Google is enlisting employees for a pilot program to work without internet access.  — The search giant, which is undergoing … http://www.techmeme.com/230718/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230718p38

Reuters: The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal pauses Microsoft's hearing, starting on July 28, of its appeal against the CMA blocking the Activision deal, for two months  —  Microsoft's (MSFT.O) appeal against Britain's block on its $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) … http://www.techmeme.com/230717/p20?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230717p20

Zac Larkham / Wired: A look at ~123 police-run US real-time crime centers, which use CCTV, facial recognition, and social media monitoring, as critics warn of creeping surveillance  —  Cities across the US have established RTCCs that police say protect the rights of innocent people, but critics warn of creeping surveillance. http://www.techmeme.com/230716/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230716p4

Jahnavi Nidumolu / Reuters: Elon Musk says a ~50% ad revenue drop and a heavy debt load kept Twitter cash flow negative; he said in March 2023 the company could be cash flow positive in Q2  —  Elon Musk said Twitter's cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load. http://www.techmeme.com/230715/p9?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230715p9

Lora Kolodny / CNBC: In a Twitter Spaces chat, Elon Musk says xAI plans to collaborate with Tesla on silicon and AI software, use public tweets for AI training, and more  —  - During a live audio session on Twitter, owner and chairman Elon Musk said his new AI startup, xAI, will use Twitter data for training the … http://www.techmeme.com/230714/p20?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230714p20

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Twitter starts paying Twitter Blue creators who earned 5M+ impressions per month for three months a revenue cut from the ads beside the replies to their tweets  —  Twitter is now paying creators for a share of the ad revenue earned from ads served in the replies to their posts. http://www.techmeme.com/230713/p35?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230713p35

The Verge: The FTC files to appeal a US court ruling that cleared the way for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard; the existing TRO expires at 11:59pm PT on July 14  —  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is appealing a recent US federal court order that cleared the way for Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard. http://www.techmeme.com/230712/p36?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230712p36

Ben Thompson / Stratechery: Twitter's best defense against Threads may be to refocus on news and reactions from people you follow, leaving growth via algorithmic feeds to Threads  —  If you're only going to tweet once every 11 years, then you better make it count; the best way to do just that is to pull off a well-executed meme: http://www.techmeme.com/230711/p50?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230711p50

Alex Konrad / Forbes: Flexport's former CEO Ryan Petersen is joining Founders Fund as a partner; Petersen will continue to serve as Flexport's executive chairman  —  The 42-year-old former CEO of $8 billion-valued logistics startup Flexport will invest in early- and growth-stage startups for the firm founded by Peter Thiel. http://www.techmeme.com/230710/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230710p18

Washington Post: Civil rights groups and academics say the ruling limiting the US government contacting tech companies could undermine 2024 election misinformation initiatives  —  Civil rights groups warn limits on government contacts could be a boon for election lies ahead of ‘the biggest election year the internet age has seen’ http://www.techmeme.com/230709/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230709p4

Masha Borak / The Verge: How Telegram became a key channel for news about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but its hands-off moderation turned the messaging app into a misinformation tool  —  The messaging app has become a key channel for news about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  But the government's relationship with it is complicated. http://www.techmeme.com/230708/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230708p7

Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post: A look at the US' bipartisan push to pass Big Tech antitrust bills in 2022, derailed by industry lobbying, ads, PR, donations, and congressional dysfunction  —  CORRECTION  —  An earlier version of this column incorrectly included a reference to Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) … http://www.techmeme.com/230707/p17?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230707p17

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: OpenAI releases its GPT-4 API in general availability, giving all paying developers access and planning to give new developers access by the end of July 2023  —  OpenAI today announced the general availability of GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, through its paid API. http://www.techmeme.com/230706/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230706p28

Mark Zuckerberg / @zuck@threads.net: Mark Zuckerberg says Threads passed 2M sign ups in the first two hours of availability  —  Threads just passed 2 million sign ups in the first two hours. http://www.techmeme.com/230705/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230705p33

Wall Street Journal: A look at Spill, an invite-only Twitter alternative designed as a safe destination for LGBTQ and Black people that added 100K+ users over the past three days  —  Designed by former Twitter employees, the app has attracted users including Questlove and garnered interest from Lizzo http://www.techmeme.com/230704/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230704p19

Bloomberg: BlackRock refiles for its spot bitcoin ETF through Nasdaq, saying Coinbase will provide market surveillance to address the US SEC's insufficient info objection  —  BlackRock Inc. has refiled paperwork with US regulators through Nasdaq to add new details to its proposal for a exchange-traded fund that invests directly in Bitcoin. http://www.techmeme.com/230703/p22?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230703p22

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: Thousands of performers who signed their voice rights away in perpetuity years ago are now being forced to compete with AI-cloned versions of their voices  —  Performers forced to compete with themselves as companies' use of technology for cloning prompts calls to update copyright law http://www.techmeme.com/230702/p6?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230702p6

New York Times: Drone shows are increasingly replacing fireworks displays; research: the global drone light show market is projected to grow from $1.3B in 2021 to $2.2B in 2031  —  The light displays are quieter, safer and better for the environment.  —  Like many in the fireworks industry, Stephen Vitale is in the family business. http://www.techmeme.com/230702/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230702p5

Caroline O'Donovan / Washington Post: Former Amazon and Goodreads employees detail how Amazon let the book review site languish with limited resources while mining it for user-generated data  —  A prominent author's decision to pull her new novel from publication after being ‘review bombed’ highlights Goodreads's power in publishing … http://www.techmeme.com/230701/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230701p8

AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal: Sources: Goldman Sachs is in talks to have American Express take over its Apple ventures, including Apple Card, Apple's “buy now, pay later” offering, and more  —  American Express in talks to take over Goldman's card deal, other ventures with tech giant http://www.techmeme.com/230630/p29?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230630p29