Business, Spoken

Latest Episodes:

Google Will Now Require Suppliers to Give Benefits to Workers Apr 10, 2019

Show notes

Silicon Valley’s use of nontraditional employment arrangements, where workers typically aren’t afforded the same privileges as employees, has grown faster than full-time jobs, even as tech giants come under fire for their treatment of Uber drivers, Google cafeteria workers, or Facebook content moderators.

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How Github Is Helping Overworked Chinese Programmers Apr 09, 2019

Show notes

Two Chinese software developers are trying to harness the power of open source software to improve working conditions for coders. Last weekend, Katt Gu and Suji Yan, published the “Anti-996 License,” which requires any company that uses the project's software to comply with local labor laws as well as International Labour Organization standards, including the right for workers to collectively bargain and a ban on forced labor.

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A Fight Over Specialized Chips Threatens an Ethereum Split Apr 09, 2019

Show notes

In July 2016, Ethereum endured an early test of faith. The people behind the barely year-old blockchain had taken Bitcoin’s idea of decentralized money and run with it, building a digital landscape where users, based on a mutual trust in code, could interact and create applications. Then hackers emptied $50 million from one of those applications, the DAO. Facing a crisis, a core group of developers swiftly altered Ethereum’s code to return the lost funds.

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How Google Is Cramming More Data Into Its New Atlantic Cable Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

Google says the fiber optic cable it's building across the Atlantic Ocean will be the fastest of its kind. When the cable goes live next year, the company estimates it will transmit around 250 terabits per second, fast enough to zap all the contents of the Library of Congress from Virginia to France three times every second. That's about 56 percent faster than Facebook and Microsoft's Marea cable, which can transmit about 160 terabits per second between Virginia and Spain.

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Microsoft Employees Revolt, Beheaded Mosquitos, and More News Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

Tech news you can use, in two minutes or less: Microsoft employees protested the company's treatment of women After a female employee posted about hitting a "brick wall" for promotions, Microsoft employees protested CEO Satya Nadella in a meeting this morning. The CEO was reportedly empathetic to their concerns, and promised more transparency about advancement within the company going forward.

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Microsoft Employees Protest Treatment of Women to CEO Nadella Apr 05, 2019

Show notes

A group of Microsoft employees appeared at an employee meeting with CEO Satya Nadella Thursday to protest the company’s treatment of women. The protesters asked Nadella to address claims of discrimination against women in promotion and advancement, as well as claims of sexual harassment, raised as part of a widespread discussion that has been building steam on internal company forums for the past two weeks.

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This Montana County Wants to Crimp Bitcoin to Save the Earth Apr 05, 2019

Show notes

It’s a well-worn idea that bitcoin is helping to trash the planet, throwing fuel on an already burning world while providing value to very few people. By one recent estimate, the energy used to keep the network going, a process known as mining, is enough to power Hungary. But now a Montana county in the heart of crypto-mining territory is taking matters into its own hands, invoking a local climate emergency in a bid to make bitcoin greener.

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For Potential Investors in Lyft and Uber, It's Buyer Beware Apr 04, 2019

Show notes

After a long drought, the go-go days of hot technology IPOs appear to be back. The new age began last week with the long-awaited public offering of shares in ride-hailing service Lyft, which raised more than $2 billion for the company with a valuation climbing to over $26 billion before falling back to earth on Monday. To put that in perspective, Lyft’s valuation after the IPO rivaled those of Snapchat, Dropbox, and Spotify; it’s larger than all of this year’s IPOs combined.

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Facebook Had an Incredibly Busy Weekend Apr 04, 2019

Show notes

While millions of Americans were enjoying a warm spring weekend, Facebook employees were hard at work responding to an avalanche of news about their company.

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Cloudflare Says Its New VPN Service Won’t Slow You Down Apr 02, 2019

Show notes

Virtual private networks (VPNs) can help protect your internet traffic from prying eyes. VPN services route your email, web browsing, and other internet activity through the service provider's servers, making it appear to outsiders that you're only accessing those servers. VPN services help users in China, for example, reach blocked sites by making it appear they’re accessing something else.

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