Techmeme: Former Twitter employees and people in Elon Musk's orbit detail his erratic leadership; Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant (Faiz Siddiqui/Washington Post)

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December 26, 2022, 10:55 PM

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Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:

Former Twitter employees and people in Elon Musk's orbit detail his erratic leadership; Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant — Musk's intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars. Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:

How Elon Musk's finances got more complicated as TSLA dropped 65%+ in 2022, shrinking his borrowing power and his fortune from an estimated $340B peak to $140B — Billionaire's borrowing power has shrunk with Tesla share decline — Elon Musk's Unconventional Management Style: Former Employees Share Stories

More: Livemint. Tweets: @techwontsaveus, @jimpethokoukis, @ryanbethencourt, @brian_henderson, and @peterbakernyt

Freddy Brewster / Los Angeles Times:

FOIA emails detail Sam Bankman-Fried's courtship of US federal regulators, including hiring former regulators and dining with ex-CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz — Before his mid-December arrest, cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly claimed that he was a responsible business leader …

More: Insider and Yahoo Finance

Tweets: @denniskelleher, @bitboy_crypto, @foiafeed, @attorneyjeremy1, @jeffbercovici, @nkulw, @markamesexiled, @denniskelleher, and @johnlothian

Timmy Shen / Forkast:

IntoTheBlock: the Bitcoin network hash rate fell by 38.8%+ on December 24 from its December 21 peak as many US-based miners paused operations due to blizzards — The Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped by more than 38.8% from its peak on Wednesday, as many U.S.-based miners have been forced …

More: CoinDesk, The Block, Wu Blockchain, Cryptopolitan, Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist.com, Decrypt, Bitcoin News, and crypto.news

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @lopp and @peterktodd

Jaran Mellerud / Hashrate Index:

Analysis: publicly listed bitcoin mining companies collectively owe $4B+, led by bankrupt Core Scientific with $1.3B as of September 30 and Marathon with $851M

More: The Block

Thomas Claburn / The Register:

Stanford study: programmers who used AI tools like GitHub Copilot to solve a set of coding challenges produced less secure code than those who did not — At the same time, tools like Github Copilot and Facebook InCoder make developers believe their code is sound

More: arXiv and WinBuzzer

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @divergencearran, @timmisiak, and @weldpond

Omer Benjakob / Haaretz:

A look at Tel Aviv-based Toka, which helps governments, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement hack security cameras to alter live feeds and past recordings — Meet Toka, the Israeli cyber firm founded by Ehud Barak, that lets clients hack cameras and change their feeds - just like in Hollywood heist movies

Tweets: @haaretzcom, @spyblog, @haaretzcom, @haaretzcom, @omerbenj, @marwasf, @omerbenj, and @evacide

Ben Hunte / VICE:

A look at the Central African Republic's decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in April 2022 and launch a half-baked “Sangocoin” cryptocurrency in July 2022 — The Central African Republic heralded its status as the only country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as legal currency …

More: Reuters, Cointelegraph, BeInCrypto, and CoinGeek

Mastodon: @deivudesu@mastodon.social. Tweets: @cfr_org and @viceworldnews

Justin Garrison / Justin Garrison:

Stack Overflow's 2022 Developer Survey: 40.2% use a Linux-based system, up from 25.3% in 2021 and 23.2% in 2018, compared to 62.3% for Windows and 31.1% for Mac — Thanks to the 2022 StackOverflow developer survey we can finally say 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop!

More: WebProNews, Slashdot, and Stack Overflow

Tweets: @thom_wolf, @sspaeti, @akien, @akien, @akien, @akien, @cfkschaller, @rothgar, and @shomikghosh21

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

Experts warn of a months-long disruption risk to Apple's iPhone production, operations, and Chinese consumer demand caused by China's latest COVID-19 wave — Supply chain experts warn outbreak following reversal of zero-Covid curbs creates uncertainty for iPhone maker

More: Techaeris, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, Gizchina, Bloomberg, SiliconANGLE, Nikkei Asia, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iLounge, Yahoo Finance, The Register, and New York Times

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @dnystedt, @barrypavel, @levinepmc, @catherinemary0, @aadilbrar, @finestyew, @danharris, and @patrickmcgee_

Qianer Liu / Financial Times:

Experts say Hua Hong, China's second-largest chip foundry, is barely affected by US sanctions and its focus on older chips could make it Beijing's new favorite — US restrictions on advanced tech help foundry benefit from Beijing's shifting view of the semiconductor supply chain

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired:

A look at Flipper Zero, a $200 portable security penetration testing device for hackers to intercept and replay signals from IoT sensors, garage doors, and more — Don't be fooled by its fun name and Tamagotchi-like interface—this do-everything gadget is trouble waiting to happen and a whole lot more.

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Shen Lu / Wall Street Journal:

Sensor Tower: Pinduoduo's marketplace Temu app had 10.8M US installations since September 1 and became the most downloaded US app from November 1 to December 14 — Temu, a marketplace with deep discounts and copious coupons, has become the most downloaded mobile app in the U.S. — Copy Link

More: The PhilaVerse. Tweets: @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @shenlulushen, and @timcohn

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About This Page

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From Mediagazer

CNN:

CNN employees and viewers have serious concerns about whether Ellison will uphold CNN's editorial independence amid severe political pressure

Chris Gardner / The Hollywood Reporter:

Equalpride, parent company of LGBTQ+ outlets like Out and The Advocate, cuts staff, including the EICs of Pride.com and The Advocate

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Spotify launches Audiobook Charts in the US and the UK, which will be updated weekly and highlight the top audiobooks overall and by genre

More News

Iris Deng / South China Morning Post:

Chinese government data for January to October 2022 shows domestic smartphone shipments fell 22% YoY from 275.3M to 214.5M units

More: PingWest and Reuters

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:

Jon Peddie Research: there are 18 companies globally developing and producing GPUs; eight out of the 11 PC and data center GPU designers are based in China

More: The Windows Club and Business Wire

Matthew Field / Telegraph:

Source: Magic Leap raised $450M in 2022, across $150M in equity and $300M in debt, giving Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund majority control of the company

Mastodon: @caseynewton@mastodon.social. Tweets: @ballmatthew. Thanks:@matthfield

Financial Times:

Internal memo: Xiaomi President Wang Xiang and co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan step down, as the company battles slowing sales from COVID-19 disruptions

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @baxiabhishek

Jennifer Conrad / Wired:

Q&A with author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel on AI's ability to help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation, privacy regulation trade-offs, and more

Tweets: @wired and @jenniferconrad

Earlier Picks

Ricardo Cano / San Francisco Chronicle:

A new California law effectively bans dealers and carmakers like Tesla from “deceptively naming or marketing” semi-autonomous vehicles as full self-driving

More: TESLARATI, PCMag, and Notebookcheck.net

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @chuckbaggett, @sfchronicle, @wholemarsblog, @scottmoura, @sfchronicle, and @jacktwhitlock

CyberScoop:

Current and former CISA employees and sources detail an agency that lacks a clearly defined strategic direction and whose leadership seems more focused on PR

Tweets: @igpalert, @dcuthbert, @kellymnyc, @mariambaksh, @mikebfarrell, @suzannemsmalley, @jimlangevin, @ericgeller, @tarah, @cyberscoopnews, @mideastxmidwest, @danielkennedy74, @mayhuangwrites, @gavinbwilde, @tonyajoriley, and @brfreed

Simon Hill / Wired:

A look at XRAI Glass, an Android app for the deaf and hard of hearing that can caption real-life conversations when paired with the $379 Nreal Air AR glasses

More: Weekly Metaverse. Tweets: @wired

Kenneth Li / Reuters:

Twitter restores a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources, after removing it reportedly following Elon Musk's order

More: The Guardian, BGR India, Livemint, Engadget, Neowin, and New York Post

Tweets: @elonmusk, @ajpennyfarthing, @malpern, @annecollier, @janlindyjames, @alexwgoldenberg, @elonmusk, @kwilsonmg, @tomcoates, @joshraby, @jasonleopold, @skwrlz, @jamesrbuk, @jacobtwop, @dukestjournal, @bestofdyingtwit, @jules_su, @jamesrbuk, and @martinsfp