Twitter fires millions while Google steals their voices - What I am reading 10/14/2015

Valleywag - The Extremely Shitty Way One Man Learned He'd Been Fired From Twitter -

This morning, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced he’s laying off 336 employees, but would do so “with the utmost respect for each and every person.” Also this morning, Twitter engineer Bart Teeuwisse woke up, checked his phone, and learned that he’d been laid off through iOS notifications.

Was that wrong?  The employee handbook wasn't clear about that.

The Hacker News - Google Secretly Records Your Voice - Here's How to Listen and Delete It -

Of course they do. They record everyone.  How else are terminators supposed to impersonate your mother to lure you out of hiding?

Stratechery - The Facebook Epoch -

This, then, is why I think Facebook is underrated: a company’s potential is first and foremost measured by its market, and Facebook’s potential market is, when you consider both sheer numbers and time spent, an order of magnitude greater than the PC-based Internet market ever was. Then, on top of that, you increasingly have brand advertising dollars — also an order of magnitude more than direct response dollars — looking for somewhere to go other than TV, and it just so happens that Facebook is the perfect brand advertising platform.  The company has the right set of products in the right market at the right time.

I don't actually know enough to intelligently comment on this, but I will anyway.  True Facebook does look unstoppable, but everything does until it it doesn't.  I'm not saying Facebook is in imminent, or even foreseeable long term danger, just that at some point a Facebook killer may come along.

SANS - DoE to Fund Power Grid Cybersecurity Projects (October 9 and 12, 2015) -

The US Department of Energy (DoE) will spend more than US $34 million to establish two research projects that will focus on protecting the country's power grid from cyberthreats. The projects will be based at the University of Arkansas and the University of Illinois. 

-http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/feds-fund-research-centers-protect-power-gr
id-cyberattacks-n443241-http://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-invests-over-34-million-improve
-protection-nation-s-energy-infrastructure  

[Editor's Note (Murray): The fact that the public utilities are regulated monopolies, rather than competitive enterprises, and regulated by the several states, rather than the Federal government, may have contributed to inadequate security in the industry. Federal funds may serve to ameliorate this problem. ]

I think this editor's note is someone talking out his ass.  If people knew how much time and effort goes into securing systems that were never designed with security in mind, their minds would be blown.  It is a constant and people want to do it right (at least the people I work with), but there is a very fine balancing line at which point we start to upset the ability to reliably deliver energy.

OK, Ran out of time so I have to stop here. Although in honor of my Risky Busines rewatch I do want to share this: