Recommended:
Law, Tech and Policy
An Updated Readers’ Guide on Section 215 and the USA Freedom Act – Just Security
Concerns of an Artificial Intelligence Pioneer – Quanta
All Job Increases Since 2001 are in Non-Routine Work – FuturePundit, commenting on Is Your Job ‘Routine’? If So, It’s Probably Disappearing – Wall Street Journal. But with a bit of the contrary view – Be Calm, Robots Aren’t About to Take Your Job, MIT Economist Says – Wall Street Journal. Also: ProfessorDavid H. Autor’s (MIT) paper Polanyi’s Paradox and the Shape of Employment Growth (pdf; 47 pages), which is cited in the WSJ article. From the abstract: “A key observation of the paper is that journalists and expert commentators overstate the extent of machine substitution for human labor and ignore the strong complementarities. The challenges to substituting machines for workers in tasks requiring adaptability, common sense, and creativity remain immense.”
The Computers are Listening; How the NSA Converts Spoken Words Into Searchable Text (part 1) and (part 2) – The Intercept
With Lock Research, Another Battle Brews in the War Over Security Holes – Wired
Tor Browser 4.5 is Released – The Tor Project; plus there’s a relatively recent new version of SecureDrop (0.3) – Announcing the New Version of SecureDrop, with the Results from our Third Security Audit (March 23rd) – Freedom of the Press Foundation and related commentary at BoingBoing. Also: The People Who Risk Jail to Maintain the Tor Network – Motherboard/Vice
Smartphone Secrets May Be Better Than a Password – MIT Technology Review, and the related academic paper ActivPass: Your Daily Activity is Your Password (pdf; 10 pages)
Encrypting Your Laptop Like You Mean It and Passphrases that You Can Memorize, but that Even the NSA Can’t Guess – Micah Lee at The Intercept
SEC Adopts Rules to Facilitate Smaller Companies’ Access to Capital – the SEC’s press sheet and fact sheet on its revisions to Regulation A. Also: pdf of the Final Rules and supplementary information (454 pages).
The Mission to Save the Internet by Rewiring it from the Name Up – Motherboard/Vice
China Rates its Own Citizens, Including Online Behavior – Volkskrant; and Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020) – China Copyright and Media
General Interest
Where the Real Skyscrapers Are; Hint: North Dakota – ArchDaily on TV masts as some of the tallest structures in the world
The Messy Business of Reinventing Happiness: Inside Disney’s Radical Plan to Modernize its Cherished Theme Parks – FastCompany
ZPM Expresso and the Rage of the Jilted Crowdfunder – New York Times; but see Professor James Grimmelmann Riskstarter; Kickstarter is a Tool for Managing Risk. Also: A Crowdfunded Startup Explains why Crowdfunding can be a Complete Disaster – Verge
New Study Shows that People Stop Listening to New Music at 33 – A.V.Club