Techmeme
December 24, 2013, 1:25 PM

Top News

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:
Snowden says “the mission's already accomplished”, and he first shared concerns with numerous NSA co-workers  —  Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission's accomplished  —  MOSCOW — The familiar voice on the hotel room phone did not waste words.
Nitasha Tiku / Valleywag:
Google's Investigating Rap Genius For Using Spammy SEO to Grow Traffic  —  How has Rap Genius distinguished itself all the other lyrics sites?  With sweet, sweet old school spam techniques, or at Silicon Valley likes to call it “growth hacking.”  The tactic is so shady that Matt Cutts …
Rap Genius:
Rap Genius apologizes for SEO tactics, asks Google to investigate whole lyrics search business  —  Open Letter to Google About Rap Genius SEO  —  On Rap Genius, userAnnotates and the artists themselves explore lyrics interactively via line-by-line annotations that they can read, create, and edit.
Bloomberg:
Italy Approves ‘Google Tax’ on Internet Companies  —  Italy's Parliament today passed a new measure on web advertising, the so-called “Google tax,” which will require Italian companies to purchase their Internet ads from locally registered companies, instead of from units based in havens such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Bermuda.
More: Forbes and SlashGearTweets: @jessedrucker
Dana Wollman / Engadget:
Apple Mac Pro review (2013): small, fast and in a league of its own  —  It would be an understatement to say that Apple's Mac Pro workstation was getting a little long in the tooth.  As of summer 2012, it was missing Apple's own Thunderbolt ports, not to mention 802.11n WiFi.
Dennis Fisher / Threatpost:
Stanford Researchers Find Connecting Metadata With User Names is Simple  —  One of the key tenets of the argument that the National Security Agency and some lawmakers have constructed to justify the agency's collection of phone metadata is that the information it's collecting …
Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Justine Sacco And The Self-Inflicted Perils Of Twitter  —  A few weeks ago, I had a drink with my friend Justine Sacco and we talked about what makes for a good Tweet.  —  Justine is an easy person to like — frank, funny, quick to laugh.  To a reporter, she's the kind of flack who's all too rare …
BBC:
Mariposa botnet ‘mastermind’ jailed in Slovenia  —  A hacker accused of masterminding one of the biggest ever botnets has been sentenced to just under 5 years in jail.  —  Matjaz Skorjanc was arrested in 2010 after a two-year investigation into malware that had hijacked about 12.7 million computers around the world.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Prestigious speaker Mikko Hypponen cancels RSA talk to protest NSA deal  —  Friday's report that RSA received $10 million to make an NSA-favored random number generator the default setting in its BSAFE crypto tool aren't yet creating any problems on Wall Street, with stock for parent company EMC rising 2 percent on Monday.
Jeremy C. Owens / Mercury News:
Apple hits 2013 high after China Mobile deal, Facebook and Twitter reach records  —  A woman using a phone walks past Apple's logo near its retail outlet in Beijing Monday, Dec. 23, 2013.  Apple and China Mobile announced a long-anticipated agreement Monday to bring the iPhone to the world's biggest phone company.
BBC:
Royal pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing  —  Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon.  —  It overturns his 1952 conviction for homosexuality for which he was punished by being chemically castrated.  —  The conviction meant he lost …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:25 PM ET, December 24, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Will Connors / Digits: