IBM guilty + more news

2 minutes estimated reading time

IBM guilty of age discrimination

I, Cringely Is IBM guilty of age discrimination? – Part two – I, Cringely – this could get very interesting, IBM guilty in a court of law would pose a wide range of problems from a political and regulatory point-of-view. There will also be issues in terms of skillsets for looking after large legacy systems. More on IBM here.

Consumer behaviour

Has Desktop Internet Use Peaked? – WSJ – Data from the research company indicate overall time spent online in the U.S. from desktop devices—which include laptop computers—has fallen for the past four months, on a year-over-year basis. It dipped 9.3% in December 2015, 7.6% in January, 2% in February and 6% in March (paywall)

Culture

A Japanese guy remade The Life of Pablo without hearing it | Dazed – I think its better than the real thing

Media

Copyright fight club – POLITICO – Hollywood in one corner, internet companies in the other

6 Reasons BuzzFeed’s Revenue Miss Is OMG! – BuzzFeed’s supposed to be the media company that holds the answer to the media business’s future in a post-banner world

Online

UC Davis pepper spray: PHOTOS – Business Insider – interesting case study of online PR clean-up that didn’t quite work out

Rocket Internet Vows to Limit Losses After 2015 Cash Burn | BoF – just wow

企鹅智酷 | Tencent Penguin Intelligence – great online research resource in Chinese

The CIA Is Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos – (paywall)

Security

FBI hasn’t learned anything from unlocked San Bernardino iPhone, says report – CNET – quelle surprise, I can’t even believe that this is news

Daring Fireball: Motherboard: How Canadian Police Intercept and Read Encrypted BlackBerry Messages – basically if you aren’t running your own Business Enterprise Server, your BlackBerry messages and email are up for grabs. If the police have the key you can bet other people can get their hands on it as well – a la the criminal record database access that is acquired by private investigators through nefarious means

Web of no web

Why New York Subway Lines Are Missing Countdown Clocks – The Atlantic – if you look at the lifespan of the equipment deployed, how would Intenet of Heavier Things last as long?

The return of the QR code? | The Digerati – the QRcode never really went away, what is interesting is how Facebook has gone for something proprietary in its code design for Messenger