Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Uber’s Tactics to Avoid Law Enforcement Mike Isaac speaks on CNBC about Uber’s tool, “Greyball.” SAN FRANCISCO — Uber has for years engaged in a worldwide program to deceive the authorities in markets where its low-cost ride-hailing service was resisted by law enforcement or, in some instances, had been banned. The program, involving a tool…
A real-estate startup called Compass Inc. has hired hundreds of sales agents away from older rivals, collected $225 million from marquee investors and amassed a valuation of over $1 billion, all with the pitch that its software can make brokers more efficient. Real-estate veterans say they’re baffled by how the four-year-old firm, active in only…
While I think this new situation might be a weak case to object to Uber on, I would still argue that they broke a union-run work stoppage in order to perform the work of that union. This would be enough to consider them scabs. Now, we can debate if it was a strike or not…
Constantly looking for people to punish doesn’t square with a commitment to liberty. Everything went to hell over the weekend for the immigrants and refugees who had been legally approved to live and travel in the United States but were then caught up in President Donald Trump’s terrible executive order banning them from returning back…
If you involve yourself with Airbnb in any way, you’re killing us all. Thanks. via Why Airbnb Is Terrible – Cracked Explains – YouTube.
Image: AP This morning, the Guardian published a story with an alarming headline: “WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages.” If true, this would have massive implications for the security and privacy of WhatsApp’s one-billion-plus users. Fortunately, there’s no backdoor in WhatsApp, and according to Alec Muffett, an experienced security researcher who spoke to Gizmodo,…
Apple Music isn’t the most perfect music streaming service, but I like it fine. What I cannot tolerate, however, is shelling out $9.99 each month to a company which does business with the offensively mediocre James Corden. So with a heavy heart, I must announce that I am cancelling my Apple Music subscription. I just…
An ex-Snapchat employee says the company is misleading investors to drive up its IPO and he was fired for being a whistleblower, according to a heavily redacted complaint filed Wednesday in L.A. County Superior Court. Anthony Pompliano says “the avarice of the small group of executives at the helm” of Snapchat and his refusal…
A woman using her phone on a ferry in Xiamen, Fujian Province. Apple removed mobile news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month. Credit European Pressphoto Agency Apple, complying with what it said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New…
One of the lesser-known casualties of Newt Gingrich’s ghoulish Contract with America was the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), a small government agency charged with producing impartial reports for Congress and other officials about issues of scientific and technological concern. From 1972 until 1995, the OTA produced studies, often with the help of academic experts,…