About: blatcho

Shashank Pathak / Entrackr: Bengaluru-based Jiffy.ai, a B2B automation service, raises a $53M Series B led by Eight Roads Ventures, after raising an $18M Series A in June 2020 — B2B automation platform Jiffy.ai has raised $53 million in its Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures.

Biden will sign an EO instructing federal agencies to study the risks posted by digital assets, such as undermining sanctions, and investigate a digital dollar (Andrew Duehren/Wall Street Journal)

Andrew Duehren / Wall Street Journal: Biden will sign an EO instructing federal agencies to study the risks posted by digital assets, such as undermining sanctions, and investigate a digital dollar — Federal agencies to explore financial and environmental concerns and inform regulatory action

An in-depth look at Apple’s M1 Ultra: combines two M1 Max chips using UltraFusion, 800GB/second memory bandwidth, 64 GPU cores to exceed the RTX 3090, and more (Ryan Smith/AnandTech)

Ryan Smith / AnandTech: An in-depth look at Apple’s M1 Ultra: combines two M1 Max chips using UltraFusion, 800GB/second memory bandwidth, 64 GPU cores to exceed the RTX 3090, and more — As part of Apple’s spring “Peek Performance” product event this morning, Apple unveiled the fourth and final member of the M1 family of […]

Encryption meant to protect against quantum hackers is easily cracked

Rainbow, an algorithm that was supposed to protect data from hacking by quantum computers, has been defeated using a standard laptop

Apple’s Mac Studio Is a Mightier Desktop for Creative Pros

The Mac Studio is a compact desktop PC powered by Apple’s newest processors.

Here’s Everything Apple Announced Today

Apple held a product release event on Tuesday. Here’s what the company announced.

The Diminishing Returns of Streaming’s Glut of Grifters

From The Dropout to Inventing Anna, nothing represents this era of television better than the prevalence of scammer programming.

Employment data startup Argyle launches a SaaS tool that lets companies access user-permissioned employment records and raises a $55M Series B led by SignalFire (Chris J. Preimesberger/VentureBeat)

Chris J. Preimesberger / VentureBeat: Employment data startup Argyle launches a SaaS tool that lets companies access user-permissioned employment records and raises a $55M Series B led by SignalFire — Having your updated and accurate personal and financial information under your control and ready to use at a moment’s notice …

SEC charges two siblings with defrauding investors out of $124M+ through their Ormeus Coin offering, alleging they acted as “modern-day snake-oil salesmen” (Mathew Di Salvo/Decrypt)

Mathew Di Salvo / Decrypt: SEC charges two siblings with defrauding investors out of $124M+ through their Ormeus Coin offering, alleging they acted as “modern-day snake-oil salesmen” — The “ground-breaking digital money system” Ormeus Coin was actually a scam, the SEC alleges. — In brief

AWS has stopped letting new customers in Russia and Belarus open accounts; AWS says its biggest customers in Russia are multinational firms with local dev teams (Karen Weise/New York Times)

Karen Weise / New York Times: AWS has stopped letting new customers in Russia and Belarus open accounts; AWS says its biggest customers in Russia are multinational firms with local dev teams — The policy change for Amazon Web Services started over the weekend but was not publicly announced until Tuesday.

Understanding the war in Ukraine

MIT’s Security Studies Program (SSP) presented a special seminar on March 2 entitled, “Understanding the War in Ukraine.” Over 100 alumni and affiliates in far-flung locations tuned in to hear the seminar during a livestream presentation, which featured commentary by four experts in this realm. Participants in the discussion included two MIT professors of political […]

When Women Leaders Leave, the Losses Multiply

Women leaders tend to have more engaged teams and drive better job performance — and their departures can hurt organizations for years to come.

Business Forecasts Are Reliably Wrong — Yet Still Valuable

Six ways savvy leaders can use them to gain a competitive advantage.

You’re Overlooking a Source of Diversity: Age

A conversation with Miami University professor Megan Gerhardt on benefiting from generational differences.

War Is Calling Crypto’s ‘Neutrality’ Into Question

War in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia have made cryptocurrency a hot potato for international politics.

High-Difficulty Games Don’t Have to Be Toxic

Challenging games are often associated with gatekeeping. But designers can use difficulty levels in interesting and valuable ways.

Watch Today’s iPhone Launch Event Right Here

Apple is expected to unveil new hardware, possibly including a new iPhone SE, new iPads, and new laptops.

Google plans to acquire cybersecurity company Mandiant for around $5.4B, or $23 per share, with the deal closing later in 2022; Mandiant will join Google Cloud (Mandiant)

Mandiant: Google plans to acquire cybersecurity company Mandiant for around $5.4B, or $23 per share, with the deal closing later in 2022; Mandiant will join Google Cloud — Acquisition to bring Google speed and scale to Mandiant’s unparalleled intelligence and expertise – at a time when security has never been more important

Linux developers fix Dirty Pipe, a high-severity vulnerability in the kernel that let hackers carry out a host of malicious actions, like installing backdoors (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: Linux developers fix Dirty Pipe, a high-severity vulnerability in the kernel that let hackers carry out a host of malicious actions, like installing backdoors — Dirty Pipe has the potential to smudge people using Linux and Linux derivitives. — Linux has yet another high-severity vulnerability …

Axonius, which provides a cybersecurity asset management service that helps companies analyze IT resources, raises $200M at a $2.6B valuation led by Accel (Krystal Hu/Reuters)

Krystal Hu / Reuters: Axonius, which provides a cybersecurity asset management service that helps companies analyze IT resources, raises $200M at a $2.6B valuation led by Accel — Axonius has raised $200 million from investors led by venture capital firm Accel at a valuation of $2.6 billion …

Endlessly recyclable materials could fix our plastic waste crisis

Untold amounts of plastic waste is polluting our land and seas. Now, we’re using chemical tricks to design infinitely and easily recyclable materials

Chemistry has led to environmental woes, but it can tackle them too

Our indiscriminate development and use of chemicals has left an unwanted legacy, but chemistry’s untapped green potential means it can be part of the solution too

Toward batteries that pack twice as much energy per pound

In the endless quest to pack more energy into batteries without increasing their weight or volume, one especially promising technology is the solid-state battery. In these batteries, the usual liquid electrolyte that carries charges back and forth between the electrodes is replaced with a solid electrolyte layer. Such batteries could potentially not only deliver twice […]

Omega’s Ultra Deep Dive Watch Asks ‘How Low Can You Go?’

The production version works 6,000 meters below sea level, setting a new bar for the industry.

The Amazon Rainforest May Be Nearing a Point of No Return

Satellites spot troubling signals that may portend a transformation from rainforest to savanna, with profound implications for the planet.

What Will Replace Insects When They’re Gone?

The collapse of the insect population could unravel ecosystems. Scientists wonder if robots and drones could stop the gap.

Apple suspends Search Ads in Russia, putting current and future App Store advertising campaigns on hold in the country “until further notice” (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Apple suspends Search Ads in Russia, putting current and future App Store advertising campaigns on hold in the country “until further notice” — Apple Inc. has suspended advertising on its App Store in Russia, a move that bars developers from placing ads in search results …

Cybersecurity firm Resecurity says hackers accessed 100+ computers of current and former staff at 21 major natural gas suppliers and exporters in mid-February (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Cybersecurity firm Resecurity says hackers accessed 100+ computers of current and former staff at 21 major natural gas suppliers and exporters in mid-February — In mid-February, hackers gained access to computers belonging to current and former employees at nearly two dozen major natural gas suppliers …

Instagram removes Boomerang and Hyperlapse from the App Store and Google Play, a week after Meta announced the company would shut down its IGTV app (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Instagram removes Boomerang and Hyperlapse from the App Store and Google Play, a week after Meta announced the company would shut down its IGTV app — A week after Instagram confirmed its plan to shut down its standalone IGTV app in order to better focus on initiatives, like Reels …

MIT community stands with Ukraine at candlelight rally

People from across MIT gathered outside the Student Center on March 3 for a candlelight rally to support MIT’s Ukrainian community and condemn attacks on Ukraine by Russian forces. “It was great to see so many people that I’ve never met before come together,” said Ukrainian third-year student Mariia Smyk. “It was such a powerful […]

Objection: No one can understand what you’re saying

Legal documents, such as contracts or deeds, are notoriously difficult for nonlawyers to understand. A new study from MIT cognitive scientists has determined just why these documents are often so impenetrable. After analyzing thousands of legal contracts and comparing them to other types of texts, the researchers found that lawyers have a habit of frequently […]

How to Talk to Your Team About Distressing News Events

Three steps for managers to open up a dialogue.

Is Remote Work Actually Better for the Environment?

Commutes aren’t the only factor at play.

To Drive Diversity and Inclusion, Ask Tough Questions and Listen to Tough Answers – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM SIEMENS ENERGY

Sponsor content from Siemens Energy.

DDoS attacks are using TCP Middlebox Reflection, an amplification technique utilizing a fleet of 100K+ misconfigured servers to deliver large-scale attacks (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: DDoS attacks are using TCP Middlebox Reflection, an amplification technique utilizing a fleet of 100K+ misconfigured servers to deliver large-scale attacks — 100,000 misconfigured servers are creating a new way to knock sites offline. — Last August, academic researchers discovered …

Current and former esports players and agents say many contracts are predatory, have time-based gimmicks, allow trading players without their consent, and more (Noah Smith/Washington Post)

Noah Smith / Washington Post: Current and former esports players and agents say many contracts are predatory, have time-based gimmicks, allow trading players without their consent, and more — Even as esports blossoms into a billion dollar industry, player contract negotiations are a veritable Wild West

A look at Apple’s power over suppliers, which don’t include its name in public filings and presentations to avoid accidentally revealing competitive information (Yang Jie/Wall Street Journal)

Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal: A look at Apple’s power over suppliers, which don’t include its name in public filings and presentations to avoid accidentally revealing competitive information — A tech giant is known to billions, but suppliers hardly ever mention its name; ‘the honored North American customer’

New maps show airplane contrails over the U.S. dropped steeply in 2020

As Covid-19’s initial wave crested around the world, travel restrictions and a drop in passengers led to a record number of grounded flights in 2020. The air travel reduction cleared the skies of not just jets but also the fluffy white contrails they produce high in the atmosphere. MIT engineers have mapped the contrails that […]

22 Great Wireless Chargers to Refuel Your Phone (or Watch)

Stop fumbling for cables in the dark. These WIRED-tested stands and pads will take the hassle out of recharging your iPhone or Android phone.

The Most Complete Simulation of a Cell Probes Life’s Hidden Rules

A 3D digital model of a “minimal cell” leads scientists closer to understanding the barest requirements for life.

The Balldo Made Me Rethink Sex in the Most Absurd Way Possible

The “world’s first ball-dildo” is less of an erotic toy, more of a dadaist interrogation of the very concept of pleasure.

Activision Blizzard and Epic Games suspend sales of their games in Russia; Activision Blizzard will also pause offering in-game microtransactions in the country (Igor Bonifacic/Engadget)

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: Activision Blizzard and Epic Games suspend sales of their games in Russia; Activision Blizzard will also pause offering in-game microtransactions in the country — Activision Blizzard and Epic Games have joined a growing list of publishers suspending sales of their games in Russia due to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Netflix says it is shutting down its service in Russia, which operates through a joint venture with the country’s National Media Group, and has 1M+ subscribers (Brent Lang/Variety)

Brent Lang / Variety: Netflix says it is shutting down its service in Russia, which operates through a joint venture with the country’s National Media Group, and has 1M+ subscribers — Netflix has suspended its service in Russia to protest the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

TikTok suspends livestreaming and new content uploads in Russia in response to the country’s new law that would impose prison terms for spreading “fake news” (Bloomberg)