misterfergusson

18/11/2023

Some legal news about AI and legal practice

+++ Google Sues Vietnamese Scammers Over BardAI Malware +++ AI-Powered Legal Service “DoNotPay” Wins Lawsuit Over Practice Without A License Google Sues Vietnamese Scammers Over BardAI Malware Goog…

03/04/2023

Insightful breakdown by of the subpoena to force GitHub to reveal the leaker of Twitter's source code (that wasn't voluntarily released) and why copyright law is exempted under Section 230 CDA

Twitter Inc. has turned to copyright law to expose the identity of the person who leaked its platform’s source code on GitHub Inc.'s website, relying on a process the social media giant has fought in the past to protect its own users.

02/04/2023

All Things Considered recently took a look at the conspiracy theory about bugs in our food

The conspiracy theory alleges that a shadowy global elite conspires to control the world's population, in part by forcing them to eat insects. It's being cited by politicians in several countries.

31/03/2023

Trump's indictment will affect his presidential campaign to regain office in 2024 in either one of these three scenarios

On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump, making him the first president in U.S. history to be indicted. As of now, tho…

30/03/2023

‘Vulkan files’ leak reveals Putin’s global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics

Vulkan engineers have worked for Russian military and intelligence agencies to support hacking operations, prepare for attacks on infrastructure and spread disinformation

30/03/2023

A new European regulation will likely kill any incentive to host political ads on social media, according to the Financial Times

https://buff.ly/3ZmKpMN

30/03/2023

"Currently, many of our online interactions take place in the digital equivalent of a shopping mall. Controlled by corporations and designed to maximize advertising revenue, they sometimes host civic discussions, but they aren’t real civic spaces."

“The Three-Legged Stool” is the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure’s banner white paper: the culmination of our work here at the lab so far and our roadmap for our efforts in the coming years. It was written primarily by Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci and Michael Sugarman under the editori...

30/03/2023

A simple sidebar shall suffice. Last month, I was excited to test writing on Substack. I took notes of some metrics important to my message, and, after failing to find future value in writing on Substack, I decided to kill it. That doesn't mean Codifying Chaos is dead. I'll continue to write here, on WordPress, as a sidebar. More centered around small business. Less focused on the platform. That's it.

A simple sidebar shall suffice. Last month, I was excited to test writing on Substack. I took notes of some metrics important to my message, and, after failing to find future value in writing on Su…

29/03/2023

Twitter is dying. What will take its place?

Since Musk took over Twitter he has set about dismantling everything that made it valuable while rewarding bad actors who thrive in an information vacuum.

29/03/2023

Service, sound, and an unwavering spirit for curiosity. The amazing story of Jason Everman

Jason Everman was kicked out of two bands that went on to incredible fame. Then his life became even more interesting.

28/03/2023

German regulators crack down on Twitter over failure to age-restrict pornographic content https://buff.ly/42GQPJr

28/03/2023

What is the point of banning TikTok?
https://buff.ly/3TPEsXs

27/03/2023

The final season of Succession is here, and it had us wondering: Why aren’t there any family dynasties in tech? https://buff.ly/3JGVBxS

24/03/2023

Ahead of new European regulation that would impose a network fee on Meta, the former Facebook explains the as mere virtual reality

Meta, the self-styled "metaverse company" formerly known as Facebook, has taken on a novel role de-hyping the virtual world technology its founder bet the farm on just a few short years ago...

21/03/2023

A retired Manitowoc County sergeant sued Netflix for defamation in ‘Making a Murderer’. The Eastern District of Wisconsin dismissed the lawsuit stating that the First Amendment “protects the media’s ability to cast the plaintiff in a less flattering light.”https://buff.ly/3YYMrCs

20/03/2023

Nurture your insurgent spirit. A reflection with Airbnb's Brian Chesky

The high-flying founder reflects on what it took to build a company that went public in 2020 at a more than $100 billion valuation.

19/03/2023

How does Apple manage its cost? Will it be able to avoid layoffs? Inside One Infinite Loop

https://buff.ly/3JRJyiE

19/03/2023

All the ways the most common bit of climate misinformation is wrong

We've looked at natural cycles and causes. None of them can produce this warming.

18/03/2023

Is it better to build your home or to buy an existing structure? A recent study highlights California counties that are more affordable to build in

A study released last month revealed surprising details about the cost-benefit of building a home in California. The study, published by StorageCafe and Yardi, a California-based real estate and pr…

18/03/2023

Do solar farms lower property values? A new study has some answers

Researchers looked at sale prices of 1.8 million homes near utility-scale solar plants.

17/03/2023

From one of the worst pitch decks to a billion dollar valuation: the story of Databricks https://buff.ly/3leZSR5

16/03/2023

Layoffs are bad for business https://buff.ly/3JooDSB via

16/03/2023

Biden Administration threatens to ban TikTok nationwide

The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners divest their stakes in the popular video app or face a possible U.S. ban, the company told Reuters on Wednesday.

15/03/2023

Pinterest is under scrutiny over its content moderation practices and efforts to protect children and minors from sexually suggestive or harmful content

Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) on Tuesday questioned the social media platform Pinterest about its practices for identifying, moderating and r…

15/03/2023

Dutch Court finds that Meta (nee Facebook) unlawfully shared personal user data with third parties for advertising purposes without notifying affected users and failing to obtain consent

A Dutch court hearing a class action lawsuit on Wednesday found that a European subsidiary of Meta , Facebook Ireland, improperly used personal data of Dutch citizens between 2010 and 2020, saying the company had "violated the law".

14/03/2023

Meta claims engineers who joined Meta in-person perform better than those who joined remotely.

via

Mark Zuckerberg says engineers who joined the company in an in-person capacity performed better than those who joined remotely.

13/03/2023

Facebook’s parent is planning job cuts in multiple rounds over the coming months that in total would be roughly the same magnitude as the 13% reduction in its workforce last year

Meta Platforms is planning additional job cuts in multiple rounds over the coming months that in total would be roughly the same magnitude as the 13% reduction in its workforce last year.

12/03/2023

Do you have a screen time limit for your apps? It might not be the solution to less app use but fool you into more use, according to recent research
https://buff.ly/3LcJIlI

12/03/2023

Cleaning fee, or no cleaning fee, that is the question. And, is Hawaii an outlier for incredibly high cleaning fees, or, will other (high-cost) States see similar increases too?

"Upping our fees didn't decrease bookings much," says Airbnb manager Kayla Laatz, who uses the fees to pay cleaners a good wage at her beach property.

10/03/2023

Some SQL use cases for startups and larger businesses

This blog post explains the most intricate data warehouse SQL techniques in detail.

10/03/2023

Silicon Valley Bank’s shares are tanking as a mess unfolds via

Given recent banking-related carnage in the tech and tech-adjacent worlds, there’s concern in the market that not all is well at SVB.

09/03/2023

"Don't work for somebody else's company, start your own company." A great story about the history of modern venture capital by Planet Money

In 1957, a group of scientists fed up with their boss set the modern venture capital model in motion. Today, the story of the unconventional investment idea behind Silicon Valley startup culture and so much of the technology we use today. For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money,...

09/03/2023

A new California Bill would align the WARN Act requirements with New York worker protections increasing employee rights
https://buff.ly/3YyOugj

07/03/2023

Some of my favorite pastimes are getting lost in a Barnes & Noble store. I love to randomly discover new authors, new books, and new stories. Glad to see Barnes & Noble is coming out of the economic woods and expanding stores for the first time in years

https://buff.ly/3F23HzD

07/03/2023

More layoffs at Meta. https://buff.ly/3SWnCWf

06/03/2023

The fascinating story of Oakland’s Ellen Kenna House. An 8,500-square-foot, original Victorian home in the Clinton neighborhood built in 1888.
https://buff.ly/3L2LV30 via SFGATE

The historic Ellen Kenna House has been an asylum, a set for a Netflix documentary, a...

05/03/2023

The City of Oakland is currently held hostage by ransomware. Some of the stolen data of private citizens have already been released online, but basic government services continue to be interrupted

An ongoing cyber attack on the city of Oakland, allegedly by the group Play Ransomware, may have left city residents' personal information vulnerable to fraud.

04/03/2023

Applause to Airbnb for (finally) standing firm with property owners. On the other hand, an opaque policy without clear protocol invites those unwanted travelers with a record to tag along "off the record"

As a safety precaution, the tech company sometimes bans users because the company has discovered that they “are likely to travel” with another person who has already been banned.

03/03/2023

With almost 1 in 3 Airbnbs listed illegally and fines failing to deter homeowners, New York City is cracking down and requiring hosts to register https://buff.ly/3kKsmSh

03/03/2023

Secret Service and ICE conducted warrantless stingray surveillance, says watchdog https://buff.ly/3KQXp9y