Did the dam just open for internet TV? What the FCC news means for the cable industry and you

Gigaom

Why can no one figure out how to sell TV over the internet? Some of the biggest names in tech have tried and flamed out, like Intel, or offered only half-hearted solutions, like Apple TV. The reason these companies have come up short has less to do with technology than it does with a business and regulatory logjam that protects incumbents.

Now, that logjam is about to break. This week, the FCC announced a process that is poised to change the TV business and let everyone from [company]Apple[/company] to Aereo line up to compete with the cable companies.

What exactly did the FCC announce?

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post he is passing around a proposal that would allow would-be internet TV providers to operate the same way that cable and satellite companies do. The goal is to create a “technology-neutral” regime for TV.

Why is this a big deal?

This…

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Technology And The Challenge Of Democracy

White House names two ex-Googlers to top technology posts

Gigaom

The Obama Administration on Thursday announced it is naming Megan Smith (pictured above), an engineer who overseas Google X “moonshot” projects, as its new chief technology officer, while naming Alex MacGillivray, a former lawyer for Google and Twitter as her deputy.

Smith will replace outgoing CTO Todd Park, who will continue to serve the White House from Silicon Valley, and who is best known for helping to repair the disastrous launch of the HealthCare.gov site.

The arrival of Smith and MacGillivray, both of whom are very highly regarded in Silicon Valley, suggests the Obama Administration remains committed to revamping the federal government’s benighted IT system, while addressing a growing host of tech-related privacy and free speech issues.

Smith is an MIT-trained engineer who has worked on projects like “Project Loon,” which aims to put deliver blimp-based internet service and helped develop familiar services like Google Earth and Google Maps.

MacGillivray is known…

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UK Startups Call On Politicians To Improve Visas, Broadband, Skills, Regulation

Why Founders Should Know How to Code

Steve Blank

“By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.”
Book of Five Rings

A startup is not just about the idea, it’s about testing and thenimplementing the idea.

A founding team without these skills is likely dead on arrival.

—-

I was driving home from the BIO conference in San Diego last month and had lots of time for a phone call with Dave, an ex student and now a founder who wanted to update me on his Customer Discovery progress. Dave was building a mobile app for matching college students who needed to move within a local area with potential local movers. He described his idea like “Uber for moving” and while he thought he was making real progress, he needed some advice.

Customer Discovery
As the farm fields flew by on the interstate I listened as Dave described how he translated his vision into

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What Happened To Jennifer Lawrence Was Sexual Assault

The Belle Jar

TW for talk of sexual assault, victim blaming, misogyny

You’ve probably heard about the nude photographs of Jennifer Lawrence that were leaked online yesterday. The leak also included nude pictures of Kirsten Dunst, Ariana Grande, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and several other women, but, naturally, it’s Lawrence who’s drawing most of the heat because she’s super-famous right now. She’s also known for being charmingly awkward and honestly if I had to place any bets I would guess that most people were hoping that she would respond to this with some kind of hilariously crass Real Talk about sex and her body and being naked. I keep seeing comments by people who want her to provide the punchline to this joke; what they don’t seem to understand is that this is not a joke, this is a form of sexual assault.

Jennifer Lawrence and the other women involved in this leak were photographed…

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