Techmeme
November 15, 2020, 7:30 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
A look at Parler, which is backed by Rebekah Mercer, has doubled its user base to 10M in a week, but unlike Facebook and Twitter, leaves moderation to users  —  The libertarian-minded platform aims to challenge tech giants through a focus on free speech; surge in users since the election
Phil Vachon / Security Embedded:
A deep dive into OCSP responder Apple uses to verify integrity of Mac apps, which is a critical part of macOS security, but could benefit from more transparency  —  On November 12, 2020 Apple released macOS Big Sur.  In the hours after the release went live, somewhere in Apple's infrastructure …
Max Weinbach / Android Police:
Whitney Kimball / Gizmodo:
Airbnb says 1.4M users have rejected its non-discrimination agreement, foregoing their use of the platform, since it implemented the policy in 2016  —  In the four years since it implemented an agreement to promote equitable treatment of its users, Airbnb claims that 1.4 million individuals …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Sales readiness service MindTickle raises $100M in a round of debt and equity led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2; source: MindTickle is now valued at ~$500M  —  MindTickle, a startup that is helping hundreds of small and large firms improve their sales through its eponymous sales readiness platform …
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Qualcomm has received a US license to sell some 4G smartphone chips to Huawei  —  (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc on Friday received a license from the U.S. government to sell 4G mobile phone chips to China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, an exemption to U.S. trade restrictions imposed amid rising tensions with China.
Cyrus Farivar / NBC News:
Report: most major tech companies in Silicon Valley have kept paying their thousands of unionized blue-collar workers for now, but future remains uncertain  —  Nora Morales, 57, an overnight janitor at Google's main campus in Mountain View, California, knows better than anyone else how empty Silicon Valley's offices have become.
Barry Collins / Forbes:
A year after promising to create a way for people to memorialize accounts of deceased users, Twitter has yet to launch such a system  —  When Twitter threatened to automatically close inactive accounts, it sparked a furious response from users who feared the accounts of their dead friends and family were about to disappear forever.
Tweets: @martinsfpThanks:@bazzacollins
FinSMEs:
Thoughtexchange, which hosts large group conversations while shielding participants' identities to reduce gender and ethnicity biases, raises $34M Series B  —  Thoughtexchange, a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based advanced platform for scaling conversations, received an investment from HarbourVest Partners.
Lisa Stiffler / GeekWire:
Profile of Tom Alberg, an early investor in Amazon, the founder of Madrona Venture Group, and a key figure in shaping the Pacific Northwest's tech economy  —  It was the mid 1990s, and Tom Alberg had a decision to make.  —  Jeff Bezos had arrived in Seattle and was looking for investors for his nascent virtual bookstore.
Owen Hughes / TechRepublic:
Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, who first began work on the language in 1979 and still remains very much involved in its development  —  Powerful, flexible, complex: The origins of C++ date back 40 years, yet it remains one of the most widely used programming languages today.

Sponsor Posts

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Zoho:
Zoho Books Launches CT600 & Final Accounts Filing for Micro-Entities in the UK  —  Tax compliance is the fulcrum of accounting and Zoho Books has come a long way in helping different business structures in the UK stay compliant with their tax obligations.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Home robots are coming faster than you think, with Sunday's Tony Zhao
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
An Intro to Data Centers
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Big Technology Podcast:
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis: AI's Next Breakthroughs, AGI Timeline, Google's AI Glasses Bet
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Vinod Khosla and Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won't Forever)
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

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Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Ken Shirriff / @kenshirriff:
Dan Levin / New York Times:
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: