Techmeme
August 12, 2017, 9:00 AM

Top News

James Damore / Wall Street Journal:
James Damore blames Google's intense echo chamber, exacerbated by outside reactions, for his firing  —  James Damore says that his good-faith effort to discuss differences between men and women in tech couldn't be tolerated in the company's ‘ideological echo chamber.’
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
“This Is Just Like GamerGate”: How The Pro-Trump Media Turned James Damore Into A Hero Overnight  —  A week ago, James Damore was anonymous.  Now, the Google engineer who lost his job after he wrote a viral anti-diversity screed has become an icon of the alt-right, with more than 40,000 Twitter followers …
Paul Mozur / New York Times:
Source: Facebook approved the stealthy release of app similar to Moments in China via a local company that appears to be closely linked to Facebook  —  SHANGHAI — Facebook and many of its apps have been blocked in China for years.  To change that, Mark Zuckerberg has made a big point …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
SoundCloud closes $169.5M Series F funding round led by Raine Group and Temasek to stay afloat; former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor replaces Alex Ljung as CEO  —  SoundCloud has just closed the necessary funding round to keep the struggling music service afloat.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Shervin Pishevar and two other Uber investors demand that Benchmark, which sued Travis Kalanick for fraud, give up its Uber board seat and sell its Uber shares  —  A group of Uber investors has asked that venture capital firm Benchmark step down from the company's board of directors, Axios has learned.
Blair Hanley Frank / VentureBeat:
OpenAI bot has defeated three top professional Dota 2 players in 1v1 play over the last week  —  An artificial intelligence has beaten one of the world's top Dota 2 players in single combat today.  Danil Ishutin, better known by his gaming handle “Dendi,” threw in the towel in the middle …
JC Torres / SlashGear:
Twitch launches desktop app with support for voice and video calls on Windows and macOS  —  Although YouTube is the household name for streaming videos in general, Twitch is still considered the granddaddy of the niche, but also lucrative, game streaming market.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers show how malware encoded into physical strands of DNA can be used to infect computers running gene-sequencing software  —  WHEN BIOLOGISTS SYNTHESIZE DNA, they take pains not to create or spread a dangerous stretch of genetic code that could be used to create a toxin or, worse, an infectious disease.
Már Másson Maack / The Next Web:
European org urges Apple to support Advanced Mobile Location on iPhones, which gives more accurate locations of emergency calls and is supported on Android  —  Despite being relatively easy, Apple keeps ignoring requests to enable a feature called Advanced Mobile Location (AML) in iOS.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Top shortcuts to work your way through Zoho Cliq  —  The debate between mouse and keyboard users has been around for years.  Whether it's about efficiency, speed, or productivity, there's always this question …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
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:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:00 AM ET, August 12, 2017.

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.

Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Edward C. Baig / USA Today: