MSI Net, Inc. & mCloudServ

November 27, 2018

Red Hat announces it has acquired early-stage startup NooBaa, a Tel Aviv-based hybrid cloud data management service, amid Red Hat's own acquisition by IBM (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Red Hat announces it has acquired early-stage startup NooBaa, a Tel Aviv-based hybrid cloud data management service, amid Red Hat’s own acquisition by IBM — Red Hat is in the process of being acquired by IBM for a massive $34 billion, but that deal hasn’t closed yet and in the meantime

November 27, 2018

Ex-Facebook staffer Mark Luckie posts 2,500-word memo detailing Facebook's "black people problem", originally shared internally before his last day in November (Charlie Warzel/BuzzFeed News)

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed News: Ex-Facebook staffer Mark Luckie posts 2,500-word memo detailing Facebook’s “black people problem”, originally shared internally before his last day in November — In a 2,500 word internal memo released publicly this morning, former Facebook employee Mark S. Luckie delivered … Ex-Facebook staffer Mark Luckie posts 2,500-word memo detailing Facebook's "black

Treasure Trove of Projects Provides Endless Examples

Sometimes, traveling the internet feels a little like exploring an endless cave system looking for treasure. Lots of dark passageways without light or life, some occasional glimmers as you find a stray gold doubloon or emerald scattered in a corner. If we take the metaphor too far, then finding [Paul]’s “Little Arduino Projects” repository is

November 27, 2018

Google has blocked gender-based pronouns from its AI-driven text suggestion feature called Smart Compose, after preventing bias proved too difficult (Paresh Dave/Reuters)

Paresh Dave / Reuters: Google has blocked gender-based pronouns from its AI-driven text suggestion feature called Smart Compose, after preventing bias proved too difficult — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google in May introduced a slick feature for Gmail that automatically completes sentences for users as they type. Google has blocked gender-based pronouns

November 27, 2018

Sony’s cartridge patent raises questions about the PS5 (and the Vita)

A recently-discovered patent implies Sony might be working on a new kind of game cartridge. Whether this is an idea for its upcoming console, tentatively called the PlayStation 5, or an as-yet-unknown successor to the poor old PlayStation Vita, we don’t know — but it’s also possible it could be both. Dutch site TechTastic today revealed

November 27, 2018

The curious case of the 1,600 Bitcoin ATMs Argentina might never see

Contrary to what was promised, Argentina might not be getting thousands of Bitcoin ATMs (BATMs) by the end of 2019 after all. Back in October, Reuters reported US-based financial solutions provider Odyssey Group was gunning to roll out 150 Bitcoin-enabled ATMs in Argentina by the end of 2018, with plans to distribute over a thousand

November 27, 2018

Twitter finally banned misgendering transgender people

Last month, Twitter banned misgendering transgender people as a part of a wider update to its hateful conduct policy. The previous policy banned “repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.” The new rewording is far more protective in what it considers to be a threat, and now encompasses “media

November 27, 2018

Chair of UK fake news inquiry: seized trove of Facebook docs shows FB engineer flagged Russian "entities" as pulling billions of FB data points per day in 2014 (Mark Di Stefano/BuzzFeed)

Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed: Chair of UK fake news inquiry: seized trove of Facebook docs shows FB engineer flagged Russian “entities” as pulling billions of FB data points per day in 2014 — Facebook claimed engineers later “found no evidence of specific Russian activity”. Chair of UK fake news inquiry: seized trove of Facebook

Zuckerberg conspicuous in his absence at international hearing – CNET

A symbolic chair was left empty at the disinformation session, where politicians from nine countries expressed annoyance at the Facebook chief’s absence. Zuckerberg conspicuous in his absence at international hearing – CNET Source: CNet

What will NASA InSight find on Mars? (The 3:59, Ep. 494) – CNET

We break down the momentous Mars landing, run through Cyber Monday and question whether “classic” consoles have hit a wall. What will NASA InSight find on Mars? (The 3:59, Ep. 494) – CNET Source: CNet

YouTube offers student discount for Premium and Music services – CNET

Eligible college students can save big on YouTube’s streaming subscription services. YouTube offers student discount for Premium and Music services – CNET Source: CNet

Google employees say company must drop project Dragonfly – CNET

The project would allegedly provide the Chinese government with tools it could use to track people’s searches. Google employees say company must drop project Dragonfly – CNET Source: CNet

Bill Gross On Why Your Startup Will Succeed

Bill Gross is one of the great heros when it comes to technology incubators. Twenty years ago, he founded Idealab, a business whose business plan is to create more businesses. This started out with just a handful of companies in 1996, and has since gone on to found 150 companies, that have collectively raised three

The 30 best Cyber Monday 2018 deals still available – CNET

Cyber Monday and Black Friday are done, but the deals are not. The 30 best Cyber Monday 2018 deals still available – CNET Source: CNet

November 27, 2018

Sources: Spotify has signed deals with major Indian music labels, clearing a path to enter the major market as soon as Q1 2019 (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg: Sources: Spotify has signed deals with major Indian music labels, clearing a path to enter the major market as soon as Q1 2019 — – Streaming service is said to launch as soon as first quarter — Swedish company seeks faster Asian growth to placate investors Sources: Spotify has signed deals

A Manhattan start-up’s new strategy for attracting top talent: Free electric scooters.

Technology companies are notorious for attracting talent with alluring perks designed to make life easier. To attract talent, a Manhattan transportation startup is introducing a new perk for employees: electric scooters. A Manhattan start-up’s new strategy for attracting top talent: Free electric scooters. Source: Washington Post Tech

November 27, 2018

Apple's case before SCOTUS is about standing, and its argument is strong, but that doesn't mean App Store isn't a monopoly and rent-seeking isn't on the rise (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)

Ben Thompson / Stratechery: Apple’s case before SCOTUS is about standing, and its argument is strong, but that doesn’t mean App Store isn’t a monopoly and rent-seeking isn’t on the rise — Yesterday the Supreme Court held a hearing in the case Apple Inc. v. Pepper. “Pepper” is Robert Pepper, an Apple customer who …

November 27, 2018

Amazon says Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in its history, topping Prime Day's 100M+ products sold, with the new Echo Dot as the best seller (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Amazon says Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in its history, topping Prime Day’s 100M+ products sold, with the new Echo Dot as the best seller — Amazon said on Tuesday it just had its biggest shopping day in the company’s history on Cyber Monday (Monday, November 26), based on

November 27, 2018

Pixel Slate review: nice hardware, including great speakers, but its Chrome OS software is riddled with bugs, and Android app integration still needs work (Dieter Bohn/The Verge)

Dieter Bohn / The Verge: Pixel Slate review: nice hardware, including great speakers, but its Chrome OS software is riddled with bugs, and Android app integration still needs work — Great hardware undone by a hundred tiny software indignities — The tricky thing about Google’s new Pixel Slate is that it checks … Pixel Slate

November 27, 2018

Leak: Supposed PlayStation 5 prototype hits the web

By all indications, the PlayStation 5 is not supposed to arrive until 2020, but that isn’t stopping the internet from doing its thing. We may have just gotten our first glimpse at what the console will look like thanks to images of an alleged prototype posted on Russian tech site Rozetked. While I’d be highly skeptical

Google employees go public to protest China search engine Dragonfly

More than thirty Google employees have joined a public petition protesting the company’s plans to build a search engine that complies with China’s online censorship regime. Google employees go public to protest China search engine Dragonfly Source: Washington Post Tech

November 27, 2018

Meet Silicon Valley’s most unlikely venture capitalist

It’s very difficult to find an hour of Arlan Hamilton’s time — besides for running Backstage Capital, a VC firm “investing in underestimated founders,” she’s lately been the subject of countless high-profile interviews and features. Hamilton was featured on the cover of Fast Company‘s October issue, making her the first black woman who is neither an

November 27, 2018

You need a VPN? We got deals on five of ‘em

You may not think you need a VPN. If you’re laboring under that assumption, we’d like to counter with this: You’re wrong. If your IP isn’t masked by a VPN connection, there’s a good chance your Internet service provider is compiling information on you. Maybe it’s for security purposes, maybe it’s so they can sell

The Most-3D-Printed 3D Printer

The most awesome things about having a 3D printer is that you can create almost anything which includes parts for the 3D printer itself. Different materials give power to your imagination and allow you to go beyond the 3D printed vase. So much so that one maker has gone as far as 3D print the

November 27, 2018

Les Peas de Résistance: A French supermarket giant is blockchainifying organic carrots

Another major European supermarket is getting in on the distributed ledger (DLT) fun. Auchan, a global leader in food distribution, is set to roll out a blockchain platform to allow customers to track goods from plate to fork. Following successful trials in Vietnam, French supermarket giant Auchan says it’s chosen grocery-tracking blockchain solution is now

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