Category: Big Tech Companies

Big Tech Companies Donald Trump Russia Tech

Russian trolls pushed the California and Texas secession movements

sudshr47 November 7, 2017

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Texans and Californians who supported their state’s secession in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election may have been duped by the Russian government. 

The Internet Research Agency has recently been linked to secession efforts in Texas and — as the BBC reported late last week — California.

Perhaps you remember #Calexit. 

Styled in the way of #Brexit, the campaign for the United Kingdom to remove itself from the European Union, #Calexit is a California secession “movement” that seemed to gain some traction right as President Donald Trump was elected, with the apparent aid of a Twitter bot network.  Read more…

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Big Tech Companies Innovations Millennials Tech Twitter

Twitter’s 280 character limit is exactly what tweets didn’t need

sudshr47 November 7, 2017

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No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

I cannot put it in 280 characters more plainly than that.

Giving every single Twitter user 280 characters to blather on is a big mistake, and like many, I blame millennials for this change.

Twitter was created by Gen X-er Jack Dorsey, who’s actually about to celebrate his 41st birthday. As the children of Baby Boomers, Generation X-ers typically still appreciate something about scarcity and compromise. Dorsey exemplified this by building Twitter on the incredibly limited backbone of SMS and figured out how to make it work within the 160-character limit, which is how we ended up with that precious 140 characters. Then Twitter turned each tweet into a virtual Matryoshka doll, nesting more and more stuff — photos, Twitter handles, and video — inside the same 140-character space. It was quite a trick. Read more…

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Amazon Big Tech Companies Blue Apron Business HelloFresh

Blue Apron’s future could be in question after stock plummets yet again

sudshr47 November 7, 2017

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Things just keep getting worse for Blue Apron.

After reporting yet another disappointing set of earnings last week, the company is now saying that a move from one New Jersey fulfillment center to another is incurring “unexpected costs.”

That was the last straw for many investors, who sent the company’s stock careening to new lows on Tuesday. 

Here’s the Blue Apron’s stock chart since going public at the end of June.

Image: google finance

Blue Apron chief financial officer Brad Dickerson told investors that the company is still training workers, and it could be months before the new facility is fully operational. Read more…

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Big Tech Companies Business Dara Khosrowshahi Transportation Uber

New Uber CEO: No more excuses for assholes

sudshr47 November 7, 2017

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UPDATE: Nov. 7, 2017, 2:59 p.m. EST Updated with confirmation that Uber employee photos were lifted from its website.

New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been tasked with changing Uber’s culture. 

On Tuesday, he announced just how he plans to do that. It starts with tossing out the old rules—including some pushed by co-founder and now-disgraced former CEO Travis Kalanick.

“As we move from an era of growth at all costs to one of responsible growth, our culture needs to evolve. Rather than ditching everything, I’m focused on preserving what works while quickly changing what doesn’t,” Khosrowshahi in a post on LinkedIn. Read more…

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Amazon Big Tech Companies Business Walmart

Buying stuff at Walmart and selling it on Amazon nets this guy millions of dollars

sudshr47 November 3, 2017

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There may be untapped millions to be made in the clearance racks of your local Walmart.

That’s according to a 28-year-old former accountant who told CNBC that he makes six figures raiding the big-box store’s discount aisles and flipping the items on Amazon.

Ryan Grant told the site he simply browses the store, smartphone in hand, comparing the price tags to those listed in the Amazon Seller app to gauge potential profits. He then uses Amazon’s fulfillment service to ship items in bulk at cheaper rates afforded by the online shopping giant.

Grant, who lives in Minneapolis, first perfected this system selling textbooks in college. But it wasn’t until he quit his accounting job four years ago that he really ramped up the operation, eventually renting out a 725-square-foot warehouse to store the boxes upon boxes of products. Read more…

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Big Tech Companies Business Facebook Russia

Facebook admits to nearly as many fake or clone accounts as the U.S. population

sudshr47 November 3, 2017

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Amid the distraction of Facebook’s blockbuster earnings this week, the company quietly admitted to hosting more phony accounts than previously revealed.  

The social network upped its estimate of the portion of fake accounts from 2 to 3 percent and the number of duplicates from 6 to 10 percent, Business Insider first reported.

That means that as many as 270 million of the platform’s 2.1-billion-strong user base could be fraudulent — a population verging on the size of the United States. 

Facebook said the change was due to better tools for tracking illegitimate activity rather than a sudden spike in fishy sign-ups.   Read more…

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Big Tech Companies Business Mexico Social Media Companies Tripadvisor

TripAdvisor scrutinized for deleting warnings of rape at Mexico resorts

sudshr47 November 2, 2017

TripAdvisor has apologized to a sexual assault survivor after an investigation revealed the website had deleted posts alleging assaults at resorts in Mexico. The belated apology comes seven years after the attack.
SEE ALSO: Hotel has an incredibly st…

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Big Tech Companies Slack Tech

Slack went down, and naturally workers ran to Twitter to vent about it

sudshr47 October 31, 2017

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Slack went down, and workers were left scrambling.

The popular workplace collaboration client suffered “connectivity issues” late Tuesday afternoon (PDT), affecting access to the service worldwide.

Slack responded to tweets about the outage on Twitter, and on its status page — which had also been working intermittently — it said they were “actively investigating” the problem.

We’re sincerely sorry for the service disruption you’re seeing at the moment. We’re working on it with top priority: https://t.co/hlhV4ZiG7E

— Slack (@SlackHQ) October 31, 2017 Read more…

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