Tips and tricks for all

Antonio Garcia-Martinez / The Pull Request : Q&A with Lambda School's Austen Allred on how the company helps bridge the class divide for students, like setting up bank accounts for those who don't have one   —  Austen Allred and the class escalator  —  Austen Allred is the CEO and founder of Lambda School, a unique coding school … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3q5mCPy

Andy Greenberg / Wired : The Wikileaks-style group DDoSecrets claims that Parler-like site Gab has been breached and is now set to share 70GB of passwords, private posts, and more   —  The transparency group DDoSecrets says it will make the 70GB of passwords, private posts, and more available to researchers, journalists, and social scientists. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Ob3By8

Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg : Pres. Biden says there should be “no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda” by Amazon amid its warehouse workers' vote on whether to form a union in AL   —  - ‘The choice to join a union is up to the workers,’ Biden said  — Mail-in voting for 6,000 workers began in mid-February from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3r3QRrH

Bob Davis / Wall Street Journal : A look at Biden's efforts to partner with allies to boost key tech sectors and counter China, going beyond Trump-era measures like restricting sales of SMIC   —  Combined efforts in semiconductors, artificial intelligence seen as way to thwart Beijing's ambitions from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3bQ0lQK

Tom Krazit / Protocol : An oral history of #hugops and the growing community of operations engineers who offer support for their peers before and during major cloud service outages   —  When something breaks on the internet, the people who know how to fix it just want to give their colleagues a hug — even if they're a rival. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/301Jxku

Microsoft gets a new leader for its Greater China business. Yang Hou, a former executive at Qualcomm, will take over Alain Crozier as the chairman and chief executive officer for Microsoft Greater China Region, according to a company announcement  released Monday. More to come… from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3kvK87n

Will Oremus / OneZero  : Twitter Super Follows and Clubhouse portend a shift from algorithmic, scale-focused, low-attention feeds to low-volume, high-attention relationships with users   —  Products like Clubhouse and Twitter's “Super Follows” offer a new kind of engagement  —  Open Facebook, Instagram, TikTok … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/37V3SfF

Skydio has raised $170 million in a Series D funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund. That pushes it into unicorn territory, with $340 million in total funding and a post-money valuation north of $1 billion. Skydio’s fresh capital comes on the heels of its expansion last year into the enterprise market, and it intends to use the considerable pile of cash to help it expand globally and accelerate product development. In July of last year, Skydio announced its $100 million Series C financing , and also debuted the X2, its first dedicated enterprise drone. The company also launched a suite of software for commercial and enterprise customers, its first departure from the consumer drone market where it had been focused prior to that raise since its founding in 2014. Skydio’s debut drone, the R1, received a lot of accolades and praise for its autonomous capabilities. Unlike other consumer drones at the time, including from recreational drone maker DJI, the R1 could track a t

Ben Smith / New York Times : Profile of Discovery+, which has hit 12M paid subscriptions globally and offers a reality TV-focused catalog with 55K episodes, rivaling Netflix in sheer volume   —  Discovery's new app has taken off largely because viewers love watching people fix houses, tour diners and bicker about their relationships. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3uBoMu1

Japanese space startup Gitai has raised a $17.1 million funding round, a Series B financing for the robotics startup. This new funding will be used for hiring, as well as funding the development and execution of an on-orbit demonstration mission for the company’s robotic technology, which will show its efficacy in performing in-space satellite servicing work. That mission is currently set to take place in 2023. Gitai will also be staffing up in the U.S., specifically, as it seeks to expand its stateside presence in a bid to attract more business from that market. “We are proceeding well in the Japanese market, and we’ve already contracted missions from Japanese companies, but we haven’t expanded to the U.S. market yet,” explained Gitai founder and CEO Sho Nakanose in an interview. So we would like to get missions from U.S. commercial space companies, as a subcontractor first. We’re especially interested in on-orbit servicing, and we would like to provide general-purpose robotic solu

Ed Siddons / The Guardian : Profile of lawyer and activist Cori Crider who is suing Facebook and outsourcing company CPL in Ireland's High Court on behalf of traumatized content moderators   —  Whether it's the CIA or Facebook, lawyer and activist Cori Crider is never one to shy away from a fight from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3uHGo7u

Mario Gabriele / The Generalist : How Reddit, at ~$6B arguably one of the most undervalued companies in world, can unlock the next step-change in valuation and protect against niche competitors   —  One of social media's oldest companies is also its most undervalued. … ‍  —  “You ever stop to realize how fragile all this is?” from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2PbQY6e

Patrick McGee / Financial Times : Skydio raises $171M led by a16z at a valuation of $1B+, the first significant fundraising by a US-based drone maker after China's DJI was blacklisted by the US   —  Placement of DJI on trade blacklist has opened new opportunities for US manufacturers  —  California-based Skydio has become … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2O7dZXJ

Kim Lyons / The Verge : Verizon support is now advising its users on Twitter to “turn on LTE”, which would turn off 5G, to preserve battery life   —  This, despite the carrier's relentless promotion of its 5G network  —  Despite its relentless promotion of 5G phones and the fact that it spent … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3q7jCSJ

Naomi Klein / The Intercept : Modi's government is abetting a vicious campaign against Indian climate activists simply for using organizing tools like shared Google Docs and WhatsApp groups   —  The bank of cameras that camped outside Delhi's sprawling Tihar jail was the sort of media frenzy you would expect to await … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2ZVc4rI

It may be tough to remember, but there was a time long ago when Justworks wasn’t a household name. Though its monthly revenue growth charts were up and to the right, it had not even broken the $100,000 mark. Even then, Bain Capital Venture’s Matt Harris felt confident in betting on the startup. Harris says that, with any investment (particularly at the early stage of a company), the decision really comes down to the team and more importantly, the founder. Two of the main reasons this deck “sings” is the line it draws to the Justworks culture and that the deck isn’t “artificially simple.” “Isaac is a long-term mercenary, but short- and medium-term missionary,” said Harris. “The word that really comes to mind is ‘structured.’ If you ask him to think about something and respond, he’ll think about it and come back with an answer that has four pillars underneath it. He’ll create a framework that not only answers your specific question, but can prove to be a model that will answer futur