Techmeme: Researchers can construct 90% of a user's web activity by monitoring traffic to ad-trackers (Russell Brandom/The Verge)

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April 6, 2014, 12:55 PM

Top News

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Android TV revealed: Google's simple set-top box interface for movies, shows, apps, and games — Exclusive: this is Android TV — Google's plans for the living room come into focus with a simple TV interface, apps, and games — Every so often, some enterprising computer company will claim they've finally fixed the TV.

Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:

For some, “bro” culture offers one explanation for why there are so few women in tech — Technology's Man Problem — Elissa Shevinsky can pinpoint the moment when she felt that she no longer belonged. — She was at a friend's house last Sept. 8, watching the live stream …

Tweets: @coreyhaines, @glennf, @r343l, @athenedonald, @r343l, @ericries, @mims, @ejacqui, @beep and @nrrrdcore

Rohin Dhar / Priceonomics Blog:

How revenues of publicly-traded RetailMeNot, primarily referral fees, depend largely on SEO — The SEO Dominance of RetailMeNot — You're about to buy a delightful pair of pants from your favorite online store when you notice a small box near the checkout button labelled “Promo Code.”

Tweets: @r0h1n and @jason

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft unveils Windows in the car, battles Apple CarPlay — Microsoft has been powering a lot of different car entertainment systems over the years. Ford, Kia, BMW, Nissan, and Fiat have all used special versions of Windows to create their own interfaces and systems …

More: Gizmodo, WMPoweruser, Digital Trends, iPhone Hacks, Windows Phone Central and AmongTech

Jason Torchinsky / Jalopnik:

Tesla owner scans Model S's internal network through its disguised ethernet port, receives security call from Tesla — The Tesla Model S Is Basically A Good Looking IT Department On Wheels — It's pretty well known that modern cars are full of little computers talking to each other.

More: DragTimes, Tesla Motors Club, SlashGear, Green Car Reports, VentureBeat, Slashdot, atmaspheric and Softpedia News

Tweets: @osma, @1ndus and @fredericjacobs

Robert McMillan / Wired:

NASA to release a searchable database of 1,000+ software projects, make some code open source — Wanna Build a Rocket? NASA's About to Give Away a Mountain of Its Code — Forty years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, NASA open sourced the software code that ran the guidance systems on the lunar module.

More: Gizmodo, Gigaom, Salon and The Connectivist

Brenden Mulligan / Medium:

Apps should wait until the user can be shown the benefits before requesting iOS permissions — The Right Way to Ask Users for iOS Permissions — How Cluster dramatically increased iOS access conversion … Cluster is the first native mobile app I've designed, and the experience has taught …

Tweets: @brezina and @hunterwalk. Thanks:@taylorhughes

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Researchers can construct 90% of a user's web activity by monitoring traffic to ad-trackers — How advertising cookies let observers follow you across the web — Back in December, documents revealed the NSA had been using Google's ad-tracking cookies to follow browsers across the web …

More: Freedom to Tinker and Schneier on Security

Michael Wolf / Forbes:

Future of wearables in general can't be predicted based on survey about fitness tracker usage — Here's What's Wrong With The Guardian Article On Wearables — This week, The Guardian's Charles Arthur wrote an article suggesting the jury is still out on the wearables category …

Thanks:@nextmarketco

Naval Ravikant / Startup Boy:

Cryptocurrencies are more a protocol for value transfer in networks than a currency for humans — The Fifth Protocol … Cryptocurrencies will create a fifth protocol layer powering the next generation of the Internet. — Humans don't *need* math-based cryptocurrencies when dealing with other humans.

Tweets: @andrewchen, @smc90, @mdudas and @rohit_x_

Simon Parkin / New Yorker:

Some indie game developers who suddenly strike it rich are experiencing guilt and depression — The Guilt of the Video-Game Millionaires — One night in March, 2013, Rami Ismail and his business partner Jan Willem released a game for mobile phones called Ridiculous Fishing.

More: The Verge, BGR, Engadget and Polygon

Tweets: @hallstigerts, @helvetica and @helvetica

New York Times:

Meetup, Basecamp, Vimeo, and Bit.ly among startups hit with DDoS attacks after ransom demands — Tech Start-Ups Are Targets of Ransom Cyberattacks — Scott Heiferman and Gary Burns had less than four minutes to decide whether to pay up or go down. — One Thursday morning …

More: TechSpot. Tweets: @heif, @nicoleperlroth, @eastdakota and @kashhill

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