by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Cloud Wars: Now Even the CIA Slams IBM’s Technology
Our spoiled American tech heroes yearn to get those big-fat contracts with the Intelligence Community. But it seems IBM is far better at financial engineering than actual engineering.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on I Just Got PayPal’s New Absolutely-No-Privacy-Ever Policy
Sunday, when no one was supposed to pay attention, PayPal sent its account holders an innocuous-sounding email with the artfully bland title, “Notice of Policy Updates.” PayPal didn’t want people to read it – lest they think the NSA is by comparison a group of choirboys.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on IPO Highflyer Hits Sidewalk After Smart Money Bails Out
The IPO scene is sizzling: 25 pre-IPO startups, dogged by puny revenues and hefty losses, have “valuations” from $1 billion to $10 billion. But post-IPO debacles, even in the immensely hyped Cloud and Big Data sector, are already hitting the sidewalk.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Cracks In The Tech Bubble (That Doesn’t Exist)
It’s “a technology everyone is going to have,” said a Bay Area real estate broker as he explained why realtors use drones to shoot aerial videos of high-end properties. And it’s illegal. But no one is going to be able to stop it, he implied.
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on We Are Sleepwalking Towards A Cashless Society
By Don Quijones: Governments are seeking to reduce cash transactions. The reasons are obvious: as most countries struggle to rein in public spending, governments are frantically surveying their surroundings for anything of value to steal or pawn.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Hang On Tight: ‘Merger Monday,’ Which Died in 2008, Is Back
I thought we’d never see “Merger Monday” again, the concept. But now, the unthinkable happened, the zombie phrase has walked back into the scene. Like in the bubble days of 2007: the big numbers were there, the deal exuberance, the craziness, the hoopla.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on But Wait … The PC Industry Hopes That It Hasn’t Lost Hope Yet
Signs of the entire industry in a heap of trouble are everywhere. Rumors just bubbled up that Dell would axe 25% of its global sales staff – over 9,000 souls. HP is sacking 34,000. PC shipments, including laptops, have been awful for three years in a row.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on US Judge Whacks At NSA: Pandemic Phone Spying on Americans ‘Almost Certainly’ Violates Constitution
It finally happened: a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s ravenous “metadata” collection of phone calls made in, to, or from the US violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches. What’s worse, the judge said: it hadn’t even prevented a single terrorist attack.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Unleash the lawyers! Mounting Costs Of NSA Scandal To Bleed US Tech For Years
Blowback: What’s rising for US tech companies like a pile of fuming manure? The costs of working hand-in-glove with the NSA to build a seamless, borderless, indiscriminate spy dragnet. Now add an all-American cost to the pile: class-action lawsuits.
