Techmeme
March 12, 2018, 3:20 AM

Top News

Paul Roberts / Politico:
A look at Mid-Columbia Basin, WA, where 15-30% of all bitcoins may be mined in 2018 due to cheap power there, as utilities deal with a crazy power demand spike  —  Eastern Washington had cheap power and tons of space.  Then the suitcases of cash started arriving.
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
FBI arrests CEO of Phantom Secure, which allegedly customized smartphones for criminals by removing mic and camera, routing encrypted comms via overseas servers  —  Phantom Secure is one of the most infamous companies in the secure phone industry.  Sources and court documents detail …
Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:
Intel's rumored bid for Broadcom seems suicidal and is likely motivated by fear that a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm will again become Apple's sole modem supplier  —  The Smartphone 2.0 era has destroyed many companies: Nokia, Blackberry, Palm... Will Intel be another victim …
Julia Reinstein / BuzzFeed:
Twitter has suspended several accounts, some with millions of followers, that allegedly engaged in tweet stealing and “tweetdecking”, mass-retweeting each other  —  Continuing their battle against the “tweetdeckers,” Twitter suspended on Friday several popular accounts known …
Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:
The term blockchain needs a universal definition as its general usage has become diluted and has led to many misconceptions about its capabilities  —  'You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means'  —  Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies have entered …
Stef W. Kight / Axios:
Gallup poll: 58% of Americans see AI, robotics, and automation as bigger threats to jobs than immigration and offshoring over the next ten years  —  More than half of Americans (58%) believe that artificial intelligence poses a greater threat to U.S. jobs over the next 10 years than immigration …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Kaspersky Lab details sophisticated Slingshot malware likely used for spying on targeted individuals and organizations, which remained hidden for six years  —  Nation-sponsored Slingshot is one of the most advanced attack platforms ever.  —  Researchers have discovered malware so stealthy …
Bloomberg:
Source: online bulk-order wholesaler Boxed has rejected a $400M acquisition offer from Kroger and will instead pursue a new funding round  —  E-commerce startup said to pursue new round of funding  —  Amazon, Costco, Target all said to have expressed interest
More: TechCrunch
Rian Wanstreet / Motherboard:
American farmers, threatened by big data, proprietary systems, and restrictive EULA agreements, hack their own machines to fight back  —  Big data, proprietary systems, and restrictive EULA agreements threaten farmers, but the right to repair movement shows they are fighting back.

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Earlier Picks

Richard Gao / Android Police: