Techmeme
December 24, 2013, 11:00 AM

Top News

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:
Snowden says “the mission's already accomplished”, and he first shared concerns with numerous NSA co-workers  —  Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission's accomplished  —  MOSCOW — The familiar voice on the hotel room phone did not waste words.
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
The National Security Agency's oversharing problem  —  The National Security Operations Center at NSA, photographed in 2012—the nerve center of the NSA's “signals intelligence” monitoring.  —  National Security Agency  —  In the days after the attacks on September 11, 2001 …
Bloomberg:
Italy Approves ‘Google Tax’ on Internet Companies  —  Italy's Parliament today passed a new measure on web advertising, the so-called “Google tax,” which will require Italian companies to purchase their Internet ads from locally registered companies, instead of from units based in havens such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Bermuda.
More: Forbes and SlashGearTweets: @jessedrucker
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Prestigious speaker Mikko Hypponen cancels RSA talk to protest NSA deal  —  Friday's report that RSA received $10 million to make an NSA-favored random number generator the default setting in its BSAFE crypto tool aren't yet creating any problems on Wall Street, with stock for parent company EMC rising 2 percent on Monday.
Bloomberg:
Apple-Backed Rockstar Said to Hold Discussions to Sell Patents  —  A consortium created by Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies to acquire $4.5 billion of patents from Nortel Networks Corp. in 2011 is holding discussions to sell a portion of those patents, according to people with knowledge of the plans.
BBC:
Royal pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing  —  Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon.  —  It overturns his 1952 conviction for homosexuality for which he was punished by being chemically castrated.  —  The conviction meant he lost …
Dennis Fisher / Threatpost:
Stanford Researchers Find Connecting Metadata With User Names is Simple  —  One of the key tenets of the argument that the National Security Agency and some lawmakers have constructed to justify the agency's collection of phone metadata is that the information it's collecting …
BBC:
Mariposa botnet ‘mastermind’ jailed in Slovenia  —  A hacker accused of masterminding one of the biggest ever botnets has been sentenced to just under 5 years in jail.  —  Matjaz Skorjanc was arrested in 2010 after a two-year investigation into malware that had hijacked about 12.7 million computers around the world.
Jeremy C. Owens / Mercury News:
Biz Break: Apple hits 2013 high after China Mobile deal, Facebook and Twitter reach records  —  A woman using a phone walks past Apple's logo near its retail outlet in Beijing Monday, Dec. 23, 2013.  Apple and China Mobile announced a long-anticipated agreement Monday to bring the iPhone to the world's biggest phone company.

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Featured Podcasts

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
All about Interest Rates
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.
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Google DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick: Why the Model Eats the Harness
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Big Technology Podcast:
What Should An AI Device Look Like? — With Alex Himel
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Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
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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.
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Earlier Picks

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac: