Techmeme: In a Mood? Call Center Agents Can Tell (Natasha Singer/New York Times)

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October 13, 2013, 1:55 PM

Top News

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Why US government IT fails so hard, so often — The rocky launch of the Department of Health and Human Services' HealthCare.gov is the most visible evidence at the moment of how hard it is for the federal government to execute major technology projects. But the troubled “Obamacare” …

More: New York Times, Ars Technica and Business Insider

Tweets: @hblodget, @johnmcquaid, @digiphile, @thegarance, @bbaiiey, @tomskitomski, @about__blank and @maryjofoley

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Coming from Apple in 2014: 12-inch Retina MacBook, sharper iPad, cheaper iMac? — According to typically-reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple has a slew of new products in the works for 2014. The analyst has summarized his expectations for these new products in a new research note …

More: AppleInsider, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Electronista, SlashGear, I4U News and CNET. Tweets: @markgurman

Artem Russakovskii / Android Police:

Nexus 5 Bares All In Leaked Crystal Clear 7-Minute HD Video — A crystal clear 7-minute video of the Nexus 5 (I think we can accept that's going to be the name at this point) was just leaked on the web. It's an older build than the one leaked by TuttoAndroid yesterday, but look …

More: Engadget, 9to5Google, T3 News, PhoneArena, SlashGear, Android Central, The Next Web, Electronista and Android Beat

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Bilton Book: Twitter's Dick Costolo Was Fired (And Rehired) in 2010 — Twitter's founding tale keeps getting more and more complicated. — Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was briefly fired from the company by an advisor to the board in 2010, according to a new book detailing the early, tumultuous days of the microblogging service.

More: USA Today and Business Insider. Thanks:@fefoslayer

Walter Frick / HBR.org:

How Twitter's Leadership Drama Explains its Success — One founder pushed aside in the early days of the company, his name scrubbed from its founding story. Another ousted from the CEO role by a co-founder, former boss, and seed investor. That founder himself booted from the CEO role later on by VCs …

More: The Verge, Business Insider and Fortune

Tweets: @mikeisaac and @davemcclure

Thanks:@wfrick

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

In a Mood? Call Center Agents Can Tell — IN a YouTube clip from one of Steve Jobs's last interviews, he appears to be enjoying reminiscing about how he first hit upon the idea for the keyboardless tablet that eventually became the iPad. — “I had this idea of being able to get rid of the keyboard …

More: Fortune. Tweets: @qhardy

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Google CIO Ben Fried on the company's internal tools and restrictions — Google CIO Ben Fried on How Google Works — It was the former Google employee's first day out in the real world. He removed the enterprise security settings from his iPhone, and installed the apps he wasn't allowed …

Tweets: @dtunkelang, @canuckflack, @kmonson and @eugenedesigns

Kurt Wagner / Mashable:

Iconic Homebrew Computer Club to Reunite Thanks to Kickstarter — The legendary computer club where Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak first showed off their early retail computers is reuniting next month — Tech-savvy members of the Homebrew Computer Club are scheduled …

More: CNET, The Verge, TUAW and The Next Web

Tweets: @nytimesbits and @applespotlight

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Laptops Snowden took to Hong Kong, Russia were a ‘diversion’ — (Reuters) - The four laptop computers that former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden carried with him to Hong Kong and Moscow were a “diversion” and contained no secrets, according to an ex-CIA official who met with Snowden in Russia this week.

More: Daily Dot, New York Times and PE Hub Blog

Tweets: @nikcub, @jayrosen_nyu, @nikcub and @binarybits

Joseph Walker / Wall Street Journal:

State Parole Boards Use Software to Decide Which Inmates to Release — Programs look at prisoners' biographies for patterns that predict future crime — At the Hutchins State Jail in Dallas, corrections officials collect biographical data on inmates that will be evaluated by the state parole board.

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Try as it might, San Francisco based EFF can't avoid Washington — Try as it might, anti-surveillance group can't avoid Washington — SAN FRANCISCO — A jolt of pride and panic flashed through the Electronic Frontier Foundation when the first images of Edward Snowden appeared …

Tweets: @lorenzofb, @evacide, @tonyromm and @csoghoian

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

The Internet's best hope for a Do Not Track standard is falling apart. Here's why. — Should businesses be forced to stop tracking your movements on the Internet? — It sounds like a simple question. But judging by the growing despair among members of a diverse group assigned …

More: IEEE Spectrum Recent …

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