Open source laptops – ones not running any commercial software whatsoever – have been the holy grail for free software fans for years. Now, with the introduction of libreboot, a truly open source boot firmware, the dream is close to fruition. The $730 laptop is a bog standard piece of hardware but it contains only […]
Airbnb looks to be making a key strategy change with regards to its global lobbying efforts. After a failed lawsuit that made the company little progress in the State of New York, Airbnb is rallying behind an age old political tool — the compromise. Any good negotiation comes with table strategy. In Airbnb’s case, this takes the form of […]
If you were thinking of getting your kid a little doll or robot that they can talk to — and, critically, that responds — you should probably hold off for a few years. A complaint to the FTC filed by consumer watchdog groups highlights ongoing privacy and security concerns with this creepy class of toy. […]
Can social media even exist without political debate? What about trolls? HackerNews, the social news site run by Y Combinator, is trying to find out. The head of the HackerNews community since 2014, Daniel Gackle (whose HN handle is “dang”) on Monday initiated a site-wide “Political Detox Week.” To introduce the temporary ban on political content, Gackle wrote: […]
Not all debt is bad debt. It’s conventional wisdom in the world of finance that the strategic use of debt builds better companies. The same is true for software. Companies that are strategic in their use of debt — in this case, technical debt — can develop products quicker, push them out faster and win in […]
Tom Hadfield Crunch Network Contributor Tom Hadfield is the CEO of Message.io, the bot syndication service backed by Khosla Ventures, Eniac Ventures and Y Combinator. More posts by this contributor: How to join the network Bots made big headlines in 2016. They’ve been hailed variously as the future of commerce and a revolution in customer […]
From woefully underpaid internships to legendary hiring bonuses at huge Silicon Valley companies, it’s hard for job seekers to know what they’re worth in tech. It’s even harder when they’re new to the rat race. One undergraduate computer science student at Purdue University, Jesse Collins, has taken it upon himself to gather data from undergrads and recent grads […]
Two key things we learned during a Motorola press event in Chicago this week. 1. The company’s bullish on modular phones and 2. Not so much with smartwatches. The Lenovo-owned smartphone maker’s head of global product development Shakil Barkat told the audience that, “We don’t see enough pull from the market at this point to […]
Tesla has won the right to open and operate its own dealership in Virginia, after the state Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner reversed a ruling from September denying it a license. In his decision, the commissioner cited overwhelming public support, as well as unique sales and service requirements as reasons for his finding that “no […]
Revenge is sweet, but irony is sweeter. Apparently, the hacker who infiltrated San Francisco’s Muni transportation system late last week fell victim to his own horrible personal cyber hygiene. According to security reporter Brian Krebs, a separate individual infiltrated the Muni hacker’s own email using nothing more than the ransom note provided by the hacker himself. And he pulled it […]