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// HAPPENING TODAY
- The Pre-Money Conference kicks off.
- The U.S. Marshals Service is auctioning off 30,000 of the bitcoins it seized from the now-defunct online black market Silk Road.
Clearly We Misunderstood What You Meant by “Shareable Data Plan”
The German government doesn’t trust Verizon to protect its sensitive communications from American intelligence agencies. And frankly who can blame it, given the recurring role Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal cellphone played in the Snowden revelations. Hardly surprising, then, that Germany is ending its contract with Verizon Communications, which provides network infrastructure for the German government. Said the German Interior Ministry’s Tobias Plate, “There are indications that Verizon is legally required to provide certain things to the NSA, and that’s one of the reasons the cooperation with Verizon won’t continue.” Who’ll take Verizon’s place? Deutsche Telekom AG, most likely.
Wait … Was That Marissa Mayer Passed Out at Club 55?
LUMA Partners founder Terence Kawaja:”Enjoy!”
Exclusive: Box Will Launch Highly Anticipated IPO at Some Indeterminate Point in Future
Box CEO Aaron Levie: “When the market is really volatile, which it was in the April/May time frame, it’s certainly a bad time to be trying to go public. So we just decided let’s just wait and see where that ends up. I think things are improving quite a bit over the past month. So we’re kind of waiting for complete stabilization now, and I think you’ll see us going public from there.”
Point/Counterpoint: Neener Neener vs. Bite Me
NYSE: “We are pleased to welcome Alibaba Group to the New York Stock Exchange.”
Nasdaq: “Alibaba is a terrific company, and we wish them well as they pursue their initial public offering.”
U.K. Information Commissioner: Don’t Be a Glarsehole
Google Glass arrived at market in the United Kingdom earlier this week with a price tag of 1,000 British pounds and its privacy-implication-debate peripheral. This morning the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office reminded giddy Glass-wearers that they must comply with Britain’s tough data protection rules. “Like any new technology, wearables must operate in compliance with the law,” Andrew Paterson, senior technology officer at the Information Commissioner’s Office, explained. “In the U.K., this means making sure that these devices operate in line with the requirements of the U.K. Data Protection Act.” Google wouldn’t comment directly on Paterson’s remarks, but it did say it designed Glass with privacy top of mind. Said a spokesperson, “The fact that Glass is worn above the eyes and the screen lights up whenever it’s activated clearly signals it’s in use and makes it a fairly lousy surveillance device.”
Maybe You Can Use It as a Joy Buzzer
Business Insider’s Steve Kovach on Samsung’s Gear Live smartwatch: “New email? Buzz. New text? Buzz. The thing won’t shut up.”
Snapchat, the Choice of Hit-And-Run Trolls Everywhere
Ruby Karp, Mashable: “I try not to say anything risky in text messages, and I think bullies have the same method: They’re saving it for Snapchat. I have received hurtful Snapchats, but I have no proof that they ever said anything to me, because the picture went away in 10 seconds.”
Sound Like a Perfect Time to Put My Pitchfork Startup on Kickstarter
Entrepreneur Nick Hanauer: “If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.”
Spectrum Auction Concerns Eased By Train-Wreck Remark
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on the agency’s 2015 airwave auction: “[It’s] not at all a train wreck.”
In Fact, How About We Print All the Books and You Just Go Out of Business
Benedicte Page, The Bookseller: “Along with improved discounts on wholesale contracts, Amazon has introduced a number of new clauses in publisher contracts. One causing particular worry is a proviso that should a book be out of stock from the publisher, Amazon would be entitled to supply its own copies to customers via its print-on-demand facilities.”
We Call It Gloculus …
DefenseOne’s Patrick Tucker on the Defense Department’s new augmented reality glasses: “The glasses, called simply the X6, are from San Francisco-based Osterhout Design Group. They look like the lovechild of Google Glass and the Oculus Rift, providing more information to the wearer than the small window on Google’s much-maligned headset but not obstructing vision like the Oculus Rift.”
Your Privacy Is Important to Apple — Particularly Our Bottom Line
Rich Mogull, Macworld: “Corporations generally limit their altruism to charity, not to core product and business decisions. Apple likely sees a competitive advantage in privacy, especially when its biggest direct competition comes from advertising giant Google and the enterprise-friendly Microsoft. Apple believes consumers not only desire privacy, but will increasingly value privacy as a factor in their buying decisions.”
Solve for <Epic Shit>
Regina Dugan, former head of DARPA and now leader of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects unit: “For the next 45 minutes, you’re going to get a glimpse of pirates trying to do epic shit.”
Off Topic
“Game of Thrones” — VHS Intro and How to Choose a Public Toilet Using Math.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
