Report: NSA paid RSA to make flawed crypto algorithm the default  —  Security company RSA was paid $10 million to use the flawed Dual_EC_DRBG pseudorandom number generating algorithm as the default algorithm in its BSafe crypto library, according to sources speaking to Reuters.

Almost Human: The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing  —  This is a story about how the future gets weird.  —  It's about how humans interact with each other, and machines, and systems that can only properly be called cyborg.  —  Let's start, though, with a man sitting on a couch.

Overstock.com to Begin Accepting Bitcoin Second Half of 2014  —  In late October, there was a brief mention of retailer Overstock.com in a New York Times piece that noted the online retailer was considering accepting bitcoin, but decided they would put a hold on that objective …

Amazon Bought GoPago's Mobile Payment Tech And Product/Engineering Team, DoubleBeam Bought The POS Business  —  Last week, we wrote about how Amazon had quietly acquired mobile payments startup GoPago.  Today, some more details about the deal: A source close to the situation confirms …

Microsoft gifts 20GB of extra SkyDrive storage to Windows Phone users for a year  —  Microsoft is distributing some holiday cheer to Windows Phone owners today with an email inviting them to activate a bonus 20GB of SkyDrive storage.  The bump in cloud storage will be active for a year …

Avegant Glyph: the virtual reality headset made for the mainstream  —  Part Google Glass, part Oculus Rift — part Beats by Dre  —  Picture it: you're sitting on the plane or in the doctor's waiting room, listening to music on a large, good-looking set of headphones.

Protesters vandalize Google bus, block Apple shuttle  —  Gentrification backlash targeting tech firms escalates in San Francisco and Oakland.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — As tech-driven housing costs and evictions soar, anti-gentrification protesters in San Francisco and Oakland …

Details of the ‘Mega Conspiracy’ Behind Megaupload … Some lively new details arrived today in the long saga of Megaupload, the file-sharing site whose founder, Kim Dotcom, is currently suing the New Zealand police while the U.S. government attempts to extradite him to face charges of criminal conspiracy.

Snapchat for iOS gets a replay option, front camera flash, filters and up to 7 best friends  —  Ephemeral messaging service Snapchat just got an interesting update that adds the ability to replay a message once per day, “flash” your front camera by whiting-out the screen …

Intel Robot Puts Touch Screens through Their Paces  —  A robot able to play touch screen games like Cut the Rope can judge whether humans will find a new device responsive.  —  In a compact lab at Intel's Silicon Valley headquarters, Oculus the robot is playing the hit game Cut the Rope on a smartphone.

Deals We Lost: Homebrew's Two 2013 Misses  —  When do you officially get christened a “VC?”  Is it when you successfully raise your first dollar or finish the fundraising?  Is it when you write your first check or see your first exit?  With Homebrew, Satya and I both consider ourselves a startup in its “product-market fit” phase.