Techmeme
February 28, 2021, 10:30 AM

Top News

Chris Dixon / Andreessen Horowitz:
NFTs are great for creators because they remove intermediaries, enable granular price tiering, and eliminate customer acquisition costs by making users owners  —  In his classic 2008 essay “1000 True Fans,” Kevin Kelly predicted that the internet would transform the economics of creative activities:
Jason Aten / Inc.com:
A look at Clubhouse's privacy flaws: room audio is “temporarily” saved for trust and safety purposes, user accounts or personal data can't be deleted, and more  —  Clubhouse was sort of perfectly made for the pandemic.  People aren't going out, and they're desperately searching for social connections and entertainment.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
How ACLU and activist Kade Crockford convinced Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a police reform bill banning the use of facial recognition tech in criminal cases  —  Massachusetts is one of the first states to put legislative guardrails around the use of facial recognition technology in criminal investigations.
Liat Kaplan / New York Times:
The person behind “Your Fave Is Problematic” Tumblr blog, which listed regrettable actions by celebrities, says she looks back on her blog with shame and regret  —  What was I trying to accomplish with my anonymous Tumblr?  —  If you were on Tumblr in the early 2010s …
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Profile of Roblox, which outsources game development to its own players and says more than 300 of such developers earned $100K+ in 2020, ahead of its March IPO  —  The company runs a free social platform with videogames made by its own players.  Its stock-market debut will test investor appetite …
NBC News:
Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft are having mixed results in building statewide vaccination sign-up websites, due to difficulties in integrating county systems  —  As the nation takes on one of the largest logistical challenges in history with the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program …
Tatiana Cirisano / Billboard:
How platforms like Spotify and tools like Community, Audigent, and Unitea help artists find their superfans and target them for monetization opportunities  —  New tech that allows artists to interact with superfans — and turn their data into dollars — promises to open long-term revenue streams
Financial Times:
Sources: UK is preparing to announce a new tech visa and a £375M fund, with matching VC funding, to be made available to some promising tech startups  —  Up to £375m of state funds to be matched by venture capital and made available for promising companies
Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:
Critics say the policies of Amazon, Google, and Facebook from the early days of the pandemic to restrict the sale of medical-grade masks are now outdated  —  Scientists are urging Americans to upgrade their face coverings.  But Amazon, Google and Facebook restrict the sale of medical-grade masks.
CNN:
In a hearing with US lawmakers, ex-SolarWinds CEO blamed an intern for the “solarwinds123” password leak discovered in 2019 that had exposed a SolarWinds server  —  FireEye CEO on how the SolarWinds hack was discovered  —  Washington (CNN)Current and former top executives …

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:
Top shortcuts to work your way through Zoho Cliq  —  The debate between mouse and keyboard users has been around for years.  Whether it's about efficiency, speed, or productivity, there's always this question …
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

Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
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.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 AM ET, February 28, 2021.

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

Meaghan Tobin / Rest of World:
John Beck / Rest of World:
Cade Metz / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo:
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Wired:
Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: