Tag: news

How Many People Still Use Techmeme for Reading Daily Tech News

Yes, Techmeme is still widely used by technology professionals and enthusiasts to stay up-to-date on the latest news and trends in the industry. It is considered to be a highly respected and influential source of information, and its headlines are often cited by other media outlets.

Here are some reasons why people continue to use Techmeme:

  • Its unique approach to aggregating news: Techmeme does not simply collect links to articles from other websites. Instead, it uses an algorithm to rank stories based on their importance, which is determined by factors such as the number of links to the story and the reputation of the sources. This approach helps to ensure that users see the most relevant and important news first.
  • Its strong editorial voice: Techmeme’s editors are experts in the technology industry, and they use their expertise to provide insights and context to the news. They also have a knack for identifying and highlighting important trends that other media outlets may miss.
  • Its focus on breaking news: Techmeme is one of the first places to break news about important developments in the technology industry. This is because its editors are constantly monitoring a wide range of sources, and they are quick to identify and surface newsworthy stories.

As a result of these factors, Techmeme remains a valuable resource for anyone who wants to stay informed about the technology industry. It is a must-read for technology professionals, and it is also a popular source of information for technology enthusiasts and general readers.

Here are some statistics that illustrate Techmeme’s popularity:

  • Techmeme has over 1 million daily visitors.
  • Techmeme’s stories are shared over 1 million times on social media each day.
  • Techmeme is cited by over 1,000 media outlets each day.

Google AI Has Been Testing News Article Generation with NY Times, Washington Post, News Corp and Others

Google is reportedly testing an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can generate news articles.

The tool, codenamed “Genesis,” is still in development, but it has already been demonstrated to a small group of journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and News Corp.

Genesis can generate articles on a variety of topics, including current events, business, and entertainment. It does this by first gathering information from a variety of sources, such as newswires, social media, and public data. It then uses this information to create a “story skeleton,” which is a basic outline of the article. Finally, Genesis uses its AI capabilities to fill in the details of the story, such as the headline, lead paragraph, and body text.

The journalists who have seen Genesis in action have been impressed with its ability to generate accurate and informative articles. However, they have also raised concerns about the potential for bias and misinformation.

SWIFT Network Restrictions Could Cripple Russia in the Ukraine War

I came across this information about SWIFT network posted the other day. This could have a very big impact on the Russian and Ukraine war and instead of trying to put it in my own words I thought I would repost it.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have dropped heavy sanctions on Russian banks, companies, and elites—including President Vladimir Putin himself.

But they’ve yet to move forward with what’s been called the “nuclear option”: banning Russia from using SWIFT.

What is SWIFT?

Belgium’s Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) runs a messaging service that facilitates transactions across 11,000+ financial institutions globally. Think of it as the “Gmail of global banking.”

Entities in every country except North Korea use SWIFT to shuffle trillions of dollars’ worth of funds across borders. And Russia is a SWIFT power user—as a major supplier of energy and other goods, it ranks sixth globally for payment messages sent on SWIFT. So if Russia were cut off from SWIFT, “the nation would essentially be severed from much of the global financial system,” the NYT wrote.

Thing is, not everyone’s prepared for that

While the UK and Ukraine are trying to boot Russia from the global group chat, the US and some EU nations are a little more hesitant. Here’s why:

  1. They’re not ready to go full James Franco in 127 Hours. Their citizens still use Russian energy to keep the lights on, so shutting down Russia’s Gmail account would essentially force financial communications onto a janky platform like 1990s-era AOL, resulting in a colossal headache for everyone involved.
  2. Another worry for the US is how blocking Russia from SWIFT would impact the dominance of the US dollar in the longer term. The US enjoys many benefits from the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, and US officials are concerned that booting Russia from SWIFT would spur Moscow to join up with Beijing and develop alternative payment systems (on the blockchain, for instance) that undermine the dollar.

Of course, workarounds to SWIFT already exist, which is another reason why some sanctions experts say that blocking SWIFT access is an overrated tool for punishing Russia. You could do it, but you might be creating more problems for yourself in the process.