Business, Spoken

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At F8, Zuckerberg Explains Facebook's Shift Toward Privacy May 08, 2019

Show notes

Mark Zuckerberg once promised Facebook would move fast and break things. Now Zuckerberg says Facebook is trying to fix the things it broke. Standing on stage before an audience of developers at the annual F8 Conference on Tuesday, Zuckerberg—the same guy who spent years convincing billions of people to share their every thought and action with the world—explained all the ways Facebook is going to help people keep that same information under wraps.

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Facebook's Cryptocurrency Might Work Like Loyalty Points May 08, 2019

Show notes

If Facebook’s pivot from town square to private living room wasn’t laden with enough irony, here’s a new twist: Big business, it appears, has been invited to join us by the fireplace. Gregory Barber covers cryptocurrency, blockchain, and artificial intelligence for WIRED. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported new potential details about Facebook’s long-awaited cryptocurrency plans.

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This Programming Tool Makes It Easier for Apps to Work Anywhere May 07, 2019

Show notes

For programmers, building a new application is never as simple as writing the code. That's because most software depends on other software, such as database management systems, to work. Just because an application works on your laptop doesn't mean it will work well on your company's data center, which might lack some of the software it depends on.

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Facebook Is Finding Problems With Artificial Intelligence Too May 07, 2019

Show notes

One day at work last year, Lade Obamehinti encountered an algorithm that had a problem with black people. The Facebook program manager was helping test a prototype of the company’s Portal video chat device, which uses computer vision to identify and zoom in on a person speaking. But as Obamehinti, who is black, enthusiastically described her breakfast of french toast, the device ignored her and focused instead on a colleague—a white man.

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Facebook Bans Extremists, Jakarta Is Drowning, and More News May 06, 2019

Show notes

Facebook took down some conspiracy theorists, Indonesia has to move its capital because of climate change, and Mother's Day is coming. Here's the news you need to know in two minutes or less. Facebook banned Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, and others After stating that it wouldn't ban accounts that push conspiracy theories, Facebook did exactly that today when it banned a handful of extremists from the platform.

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We Launched a Paywall. It Worked! Mostly. May 06, 2019

Show notes

A little over a year ago, we introduced a paywall at WIRED. The idea, as I wrote back then, was largely about us. To start, we wanted to give ourselves stronger structural incentives to do great reporting. When your business depends on subscriptions, your economic success depends on publishing stuff your readers love—not just stuff they click.

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OpenAI Wants to Make Ultrapowerful AI. But Not in a Bad Way May 03, 2019

Show notes

One Saturday last month, five men ages 19 through 26 strode confidently out of a cloud of magenta smoke in a converted auto showroom in San Francisco. They sat at a line of computer keyboards to loud cheers from a crowd of a few hundred. Ninety minutes of intense mouse-clicking later, the five’s smiles had turned sheepish and the applause consolatory.

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Facebook Wants to Connect You With Your 'Secret Crush' May 02, 2019

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Facebook is channeling its earliest days as a hot or not website for college students with a new feature called Secret Crush. To be announced today at the social network’s annual F8 developer conference, Secret Crush will allow Facebook Dating users to select up to nine friends they want to express interest in. Think of it like matching on Tinder or Bumble, except you get to hand-pick the specific friends you want to date ahead of time, instead of hoping their profiles show up in the queue.

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Facebook Wants to Know Who You Want to Sleep With, and More News May 02, 2019

Show notes

Facebook wants to know which of your friends you'd like to date, there's a new wireless VR headset, and we're teaching you how to land a plane in an emergency. Here's the news you need to know in two minutes or less. Facebook wants to connect you with your "secret crush" At Facebook's developer conference, the company announced a new feature: Secret Crush. Secret Crush will allow Facebook Dating users to select up to nine friends they want to express interest in.

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For Open Source, It's All About GitHub Now May 01, 2019

Show notes

Google shuttered its source code hosting service Google Code in 2015. Like Facebook, Twitter, and most other major technology companies, Google primarily shifted to a similar service called GitHub to host its own open source projects. Microsoft followed suit and closed its CodePlex service in 2017. It acquired GitHub the next year.

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