Techmeme
March 31, 2014, 7:50 AM

Top News

Adam Levitin / Credit Slips:
Last week's IRS ruling means bitcoins are not fungible, therefore unworkable as a currency  —  Bitcoin Tax Ruling  —  The IRS has spoken: Bitcoins are property, not currency.  This was hardly a surprise, but it has some important implication that tells us a lot about what it takes to make a currency work.
Danny Bradbury / CoinDesk:
What the IRS Bitcoin Tax Guidelines Mean For You  —  The US Internal Revenue Service finally announced its guidance for virtual currencies yesterday, explicitly referring to bitcoin (see the announcement here and notice here).  The increased clarity - provided three weeks before the end of the US tax year …
Eat24:
A marketer's amusing “Breakup Letter” to Facebook over News Feed algorithm changes  —  A Breakup Letter to Facebook from Eat24  —  Hey.  It's Eat24.  Look, we need to talk.  This isn't easy to say since we've been together so long, but we need to break up.
Marcella Bombardieri / The Boston Globe:
Court documents reveal ambivalence in how MIT assisted Aaron Swartz's prosecution  —  The inside story of MIT and Aaron Swartz  —  More than a year after Swartz killed himself rather than face prosecution, questions about MIT's handling of the hacking case persist
Tim Harford / Financial Times:
Big data's challenge: gain new insight without making the same old statistical mistakes  —  Big data: are we making a big mistake?  —  Big data is a vague term for a massive phenomenon that has rapidly become an obsession with entrepreneurs, scientists, governments and the media
Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Dropbox clarifies takedown policy, compares file hashes to identify infringing shared links  —  How Dropbox Knows When You're Sharing Copyrighted Stuff (Without Actually Looking At Your Stuff)  —  Late last night, a tweet was spread far and wide showing that a DMCA notice had blocked a file …
Laszlo Bock / Harvard Business Review:
Google is two years into gDNA, a long-term study to understand employees' work-life balance  —  Google's Scientific Approach to Work-Life Balance (and Much More)  —  More than 65 years ago in Massachusetts, doctors began a longitudinal study that would transform our understanding of heart disease.
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Online learning company Coursera launches an Android app  —  Online learning company Coursera has finally come to Android after launching an app for the Google-owned mobile platform.  The launch comes just over three months after Coursera debuted its iOS app, its first native mobile app …
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Review: Asus crafts a tiny $179 Chromebox out of cheap, low-power parts  —  The Asus Chromebox (bottom) is a mini desktop molded in the image of Intel's NUC.  —  Specs at a glance: Asus Chromebox CN60 OS  —  Chrome OS  —  CPU  —  1.4GHz Celeron 2955U  —  RAM  —  2GB 1600MHz DDR3 (should support upgrades up to 16GB)
Julian Sanchez / The Daily Beast:
Of the three main NSA reform proposals, the USA Freedom Act limits the NSA powers the most  —  The Best NSA Fix Comes From the Patriot Act's Author  —  The White House would stop NSA's phone dragnet, but leave the power behind it intact.  An unlikely Republican's bill does better.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Deep dive into SalesIQ's Summer '26 release: 40+ features for the agentic era  —  We've already introduced you to Zoho SalesIQ's Summer '26 release, our annual release, and the one where SalesIQ enters a new territory: the era of agentic intelligence.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Plan To Merge Chat And Agents — With Greg Brockman
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:
Encore: Inside Joe Weisenthal's brain
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Taking Drugs to Get Fat', With John Moltz
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Invest Like the Best:
Etched - Building AI Hardware to Make Inference Faster and Cheaper
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Trae and Delian from Founders Fund
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:50 AM ET, March 31, 2014.

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

Martha Mendoza / Associated Press:
Threes:

Earlier Picks

Larry Seltzer / ZDNet:
Julie Zhuo / Medium:
George Anders / Forbes: