Techmeme: Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal (Harry McCracken/TIME)

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May 4, 2014, 8:50 PM

Top News

Fred Wilson / AVC:

Square and Box face a combination of high valuations, equally high burn rates, and a disappearing IPO market — The Valuation Trap — There is a long article on Square and Box in TechCrunch this weekend. I am not sold on the arguments the author makes about the commodity nature of both products.

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @karaswisher, @howardlindzon, @davidmarcus, @dannycrichton, @bgurley and @bhorowitz

Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:

With IPO Hopes Fading, Square And Box Face Reality Of Commodity Products — Square and Box would seem to be the very epitome of every startup founder's dream of reaching the pinnacle of entrepreneurial success. Take a kernel of an idea and turn it into a massive, multi-billion-dollar company that publicly debuts in an IPO.

Will Oremus / Slate:

Twitter isn't dying: active users and timeline views don't capture the platform's vast reach — Twitter Is Not Dying — Well, that's it folks: Twitter is dead. It had a good flight. A short flight, but a noisy one. Sadly, it is now headed the way of Flappy Bird.

More: The Atlantic Online, Reuters, Vox, TIME, ReadWrite and BuzzFeed

Tweets: @lorenb, @meryn, @hornokplease, @mikeisaac, @eric_andersen and @digiphile

Thanks:@anprtweets. See also Mediagazer

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

Twitter's problem: the initial idea was so great that they never needed to learn their market — Twitter's Marketing Problem — Twitter's unconventional path is well-documented at this point. From failed podcasting company to playground sketch (actually, probably not) …

More: Trends. Tweets: @simonowens, @carnage4life, @joshelman, @lorenb, @hershberg, @norrisnode and @monkbent

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Facebook Woos Mobile Developers, but Is It Too Late? — Not so long ago, the key to building a successful app business required piggybacking on an existing big network like Facebook. — But relying on Facebook for your paycheck also meant being subject to the whims of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Tweets: @qthrul and @bokardo

TechCrunch:

Everything Facebook Launched At f8 And Why — This year's f8 didn't see comedian Andy Sandberg bumbling around on stage parodying Mark Zuckerberg. And that was smart, because Facebook is no joke to the millions of developers that earn their livelihoods on the social network.

More: Wired and The Digital Letter

Harry McCracken / TIME:

Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal — Knowing how to program a computer is good for you, and it's a shame more people don't learn to do it. For years now, that's been a hugely popular stance. It's led to educational initiatives as effortless sounding …

More: Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Inquirer and MSDN Blogs. Thanks:@srikardr

Jessica Goldstein / ThinkProgress:

Researcher's attempt to hide her pregnancy from big data described as inconvenient, expensive — Meet The Woman Who Did Everything In Her Power To Hide Her Pregnancy From Big Data — They see you when you're sleeping, they know when you're awake... CREDIT: Flickr/Robert Scoble

Tweets: @chouxsalad and @stevesi

David Segal / New York Times:

Problem for advertisers: more than half of online video ads go unwatched below the fold, in tiny players, or played simultaneously with other ads — The Great Unwatched — Some of the biggest names in Internet media have been gathering in New York City at the third annual Digital Content NewFronts …

Tweets: @simonkhalaf, @rafat, @pkafka and @rafat. See also Mediagazer

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Cops who use Vigilant's vehicle tracking system must agree to secrecy TOS — Cops Must Swear Silence to Access Vehicle Tracking System — It's no secret that police departments around the country are deploying automated license plate readers to build massive databases to identify the location of vehicles.

More: Techdirt and Ars Technica. Tweets: @ashk4n

Ryan Whitwam / Android Police:

Updated Google Drive app now requires separate Docs and Sheets apps to edit files — Google Drive App Updated To v1.3 - Now Requires New Docs And Sheets Apps For Editing Capability [APK Download] — Google is sneaking one more update in this week, and it's an odd one.

More: 9to5Google, PC Magazine, TechnoBuffalo, Engadget, The Verge, Gotta Be Mobile and iPhone in Canada Blog

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

PayPal's Strategy Exec: I Quit Before Twitter Tirade — Rakesh “Rocky” Agrawal, the PayPal strategy exec who unleashed on a couple of coworkers in a late-night Twitter rant earlier this weekend, said in a tweet on Sunday morning that he had resigned from the payments giant before his tirade.

More: Valleywag, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, Re/code, PC Magazine, CNET, Reuters, Re/code and Business Insider

Tweets: @rakeshlobster, @paypal, @rakeshlobster, @rakeshlobster, @alex, @mikeisaac, @ryan, @edbott and @joshconstine

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Jury Finds Samsung Phones Infringe on Several Apple Patents, Awards $119.6 Million — A federal jury ruled Friday that Samsung infringed on at least one of the patents that Apple had sued over in its latest patent case. — The jury found all accused Samsung phones infringed on the first patent at issue …

More: Wall Street Journal, CNET News, Softpedia News, Ars Technica, CNET, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, TUAW, The Verge, Greenbot, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, Android Police, AppleInsider, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac, Fortune, CNET, Electronista, I4U News, App Advice, MacRumors, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Droid Guy, Reuters, Reuters, Techdirt, The Register, MacNN, Android Authority, NEWS.com.au, Guardian, Gotta Be Mobile, Phandroid, iPhone Hacks, Mercury News, VentureBeat, The Next Web, The Mac Observer, AppleInsider, MobileSyrup.com, Associated Press, Gizmodo UK, iMore, ZDNet, NPR, TechnoBuffalo, BGR and Redmond Pie

Lynn La / CNET News:

Apple v. Samsung 2014 infringed devices scorecard

More: Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog and Tech Trader Daily. Thanks:@jenguevin

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Apple wins $119 million in patent damages from Samsung, wanted $2.2 billion: mixed verdict

More: Re/code, USA Today, SlashGear, SamMobile, SammyToday, Forbes and AppleInsider

Tweets: @jchengwsj and @fosspatents

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