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2016 Was the Year Silicon Valley’s Hype Machine Sputtered Jan 04, 2017

Show notes

Fourwords sum up the Silicon Valley hype machine at the end of 2016: “squirrels and sea monkeys.” That was the repeated responsefrom Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz when Reed Albergotti ofThe Informationasked about the technology behind the startup’s augmented-reality glasses.

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The Year in Housing: The Middle Class Can’t Afford to Live in Cities Anymore Jan 03, 2017

Show notes

In the center of Boston rises the small neighborhood of Fort Hill, on top of which sits Highland Park, designed in the 1700s by Frederick Olmsted. Patriots stored gunpowder here during the Revolutionary War, and a tower fit for Repunzel commemorates their efforts. The abolitionist writer William Lloyd Garrison fought against slavery from a house on this hill. And now the battle for urban housing affordability rages on these streets.

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This Was the Year Tech Stocks Became Sure Bets Dec 30, 2016

Show notes

2016 was the year tech got “fangs.” Well, not literally. FANGs wasa term coined by CNBC business guru Jim Cramer in 2015 to describe the high-performing stocks of the massively successful tech companies Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (now called Alphabet). Today, it’s not these particular companies that are technically at the top of the Wall Street leaderboard—that distinction falls to Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook.

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The Cloud Needs to Get a Whole Lot Greener in 2017 Dec 23, 2016

Show notes

Streaming music and movies over the internet may seem more eco-friendly than stocking up on CDs and DVDs. After all, you’re saving the plastic needed to make the physical media, the trees needed to print the liner notes, and the gasoline needed to ship all those discs across the country. But there’s a hidden cost to online streaming: the coal needed to power the computer data centers that deliver all that content.

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Overstock Begins Trading Its Shares Via the Bitcoin Blockchain Dec 22, 2016

Show notes

Online retailer Overstock.com has became the first publicly traded company to issue stock over the internet, distributing more than 126,000 company shares via technology based on the bitcoin blockchain. Through a subsidiary called tØ, the Salt Lake City-based Overstock has spent the past two years building the technology that facilitates this new way of trading financial securities.

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Tech’s Alcohol-Soaked Culture Isn’t a Party for Everybody Dec 21, 2016

Show notes

It’s office holiday party season again, and as usual that means alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. For many employees, the holidays are the one time of year that it’s appropriate to have a drink at work. But for tech workers, the annual Christmas party is just another boozy day in the office. Kegerators, or at least well-stocked beer fridges, are standard fixtures at tech companies, right up there with ping-pong tables and beanbag chairs.

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Facebook Finally Gets Real About Fighting Fake News Dec 20, 2016

Show notes

After coming under heavy public criticism for not taking full responsibility for how it may have affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, Facebook has finally laid out how it plans to crack down on fake news. The social network’s corrective updates are starting to roll out right now, and while they won’t solve the problem overnight, they’re an important first step.

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Amazon and Netflix Look to Their Own Shows As the Key to World Domination Dec 19, 2016

Show notes

This week, Amazon Video, the commerce giant’s answer to Netflix, invaded 200 countries. That expansion, too, was itself a sort of response: Netflix had pulled a similar globe-spanning stunt in January. Both moves were audacious, expansive, and potentially highly profitable. An neither would have been remotely possible had each company not spent the last several years investing heavily original content.

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Tech’s Biggest Showdown Is Unfolding in Your Living Room Dec 16, 2016

Show notes

Microsoft is joining Google and Amazon in the race for your home. This week, at an event in China, the venerable tech giant trumpeted the arrival of Project Evo, a sweeping plan to build hardware devices that work a lot like Google Home or the Amazon Echo. But this race is much bigger than some gadgets that sit on your coffee table. It’s a race not only for the hearts and minds of consumers, but for a world of business customers, too.

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How Simple Software Could Help Prevent Sexual Assault Dec 15, 2016

Show notes

Bill Cosby has been accused of drugging and raping dozens of women over several decades. Roger Ailes is accused of harassing multiple women as far back as the 1960s. And then there’s all those Catholic priests. Indeed, when sexual predators, especially those in positions of power, get away with such crimes once, they often do it again and again until an overwhelming preponderance of accusations, evidence, and outrage brings them down.

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