Sep 27 4:54pm
9Preps Game of the Week: 9/30
The 9Preps Game of the Week is back! Vote to determine which high school football game we showcase on Friday, Sept. 30.
Sep 23 11:06pm
14-year-old boy goes missing
Gerardo Diaz was last seen Friday morning in the area of West 42nd Avenue and North Shoshone Street in Denver.
Sep 23 8:19pm
Moms unite to change climate justice approach
EcoMadres is bringing moms together to support things like air quality monitoring in their communities, many of which are low income, black and brown neighborhoods.
Sep 23 8:18pm
End of summer still means good news
At Rancho Durazno, seasonal workers are coming to the end of their visas, which means saying goodbye to summer and an emotional reunion with their families.
Sep 17 2:29pm
Man killed in Aurora shooting
Police said it happened on South Ironton Street between East Tennessee Avenue and Kentucky Avenue on Saturday afternoon.
Sep 15 7:24am
Fire damages Westminster townhome
A total of four people were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries due to the fire in Westminster.
Sep 14 4:47pm
Mover charged with theft
The owner of H&M Relocation Services is charged with theft in Denver and has an open warrant in Weld County for similar incidents.
Jun 16 2:19pm
U.S. wants face-to-face meeting with Iran on prisoners
The United States would like a face-to-face meeting with Iran to discuss prisoner releases and it wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an indefinite arms embargo on the Islamic Republic, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.
Jun 16 12:55pm
Turkey accuses France of exacerbating Libya crisis
Turkey angrily accused France on Tuesday of exacerbating the crisis in Libya and violating U.N. and NATO decisions by supporting the forces of Khalifa Haftar against the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).
Slashdot Oct 5 1:21pm
Robots Are Making French Fries Faster, Better Than Humans
Fast-food French fries and onion rings are going high-tech, thanks to a company in Southern California. From a report: Miso Robotics in Pasadena has started rolling out its Flippy 2 robot, which automates the process of deep frying potatoes, onions and other foods. A big robotic arm like those in auto plants -- directed by cameras and artificial intelligence -- takes frozen French fries and other foods out of a freezer, dips them into hot oil, then deposits the ready-to-serve product into a tray. Flippy 2 can cook several meals with different recipes simultaneously, reducing the need for catering staff and, says Miso, speed up order delivery at drive-through windows. "When an order comes in through the restaurant system, it automatically spits out the instructions to Flippy," Miso Chief Executive Mike Bell said in an interview. " ... It does it faster or more accurately, more reliably and happier than most humans do it," Bell added.

Oct 5 10:41am
Former Amazon Worker Gets Probation For Massive Capital One Hack
A former Seattle tech worker convicted of several charges related to a massive hack of Capital One bank and other companies in 2019 was sentenced Tuesday to time served and five years of probation. From a report: U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said sentencing former Amazon software engineer Paige Thompson to time in prison would have been particularly difficult on her "because of her mental health and transgender status," the Department of Justice said in a statement. U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said his office was "very disappointed" with the sentencing decision, adding prosecutors had asked for Thompson to serve seven years in prison. "This is not what justice looks like," Brown said in the statement. In June, a Seattle jury found her guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury acquitted her of other charges, including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Oct 4 2:45pm
Wax Worm Saliva Rapidly Breaks Down Plastic Bags, Scientists Discover
Enzymes that rapidly break down plastic bags have been discovered in the saliva of wax worms, which are moth larvae that infest beehives. From a report: The enzymes are the first reported to break down polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could lead to cost-effective ways of recycling the plastic. The discovery came after one scientist, an amateur beekeeper, cleaned out an infested hive and found the larvae started eating holes in a plastic refuse bag. The researchers said the study showed insect saliva may be "a depository of degrading enzymes which could revolutionise [the cleanup of polluting waste]." Polyethylene makes up 30% of all plastic production and is used in bags and other packaging that make up a significant part of worldwide plastic pollution. The only recycling at scale today uses mechanical processes and creates lower-value products. Chemical breakdown could create valuable chemicals or, with some further processing, new plastic, thereby avoiding the need for new virgin plastic made from oil. The enzymes can be easily synthesised and overcome a bottleneck in plastic degradation, the researchers said, which is the initial breaking of the polymer chains. That usually requires a lot of heating, but the enzymes work at normal temperatures, in water and at neutral pH.

Oct 4 12:40pm
Drinking Several Cups of Coffee a Day May Be Linked To Longer Lifespan in Study
Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day could be linked to a longer lifespan, new research suggests. When compared with avoiding coffee, it was also associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, the study found. From a report: The findings applied to ground, instant and decaffeinated varieties of the drink, and researchers say they suggest coffee consumption should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle. According to the study, the greatest risk reduction was seen with two to three cups per day. Compared with no coffee drinking, this was associated with a 14%, 27% and 11% lower likelihood of death for decaffeinated, ground and instant preparations, respectively. Study author Professor Peter Kistler of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Research Institute, Australia, said: "In this large, observational study ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee were associated with equivalent reductions in the incidence of cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular disease or any cause. "The results suggest that mild to moderate intake of ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle." The study examined the links between types of coffee and heart rhythms, cardiovascular disease and death using data from the UK Biobank study, which recruited adults between 40 and 69 years of age. Cardiovascular disease was made up of coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure and ischaemic stroke.

Oct 4 10:22am
Musk Proposes To Proceed With Twitter Deal at $54.20 a Share - Bloomberg
Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk is proposing to buy Twitter for the original offer price of $54.20 a share, Bloomberg News reports. Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to the people who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Oct 4 9:20am
New York Hires McKinsey for Containerization Study
The New York city has hired the controversial consulting firm McKinsey & Company to study its waste containerization needs and design a citywide pilot program, Streetsblog has learned. From the report: For the next 20 weeks, the global management consulting firm will assess streets across the city with an eye toward what could work in a large, diverse urban environment and identify models for a such as program from among the many different solutions around the world -- working with the Sanitation Department to figure out the kinds of containers it needs, find appropriate vendors, and structure costs. New York is decades behind other world capitals in terms of waste collection and containerization, so there are many models from which to choose. (Barcelona and other cities have underground trash bins that are lifted out for collection.) The goal is for McKinsey to design a request for proposal that can ensure that "it is not just another pilot, but something that can actually work all over the city," DSNY spokesman Joshua Goodman said. "In other words, in a matter of months, we will have a final, market-ready Request for Proposals -- including recommended commercial terms, performance requirements, and specifications. The details on widespread, scalable containerization in New York City are finally almost here."

Oct 3 2:01pm
After Chess, Cheating Rows Rock Poker and Fishing
AmiMoJo writes: First it was chess -- now top-level US poker and match fishing have been dogged by their own claims of cheating. A casino is investigating after one player stunned poker fans by making an audacious bet to win a huge pot. Meanwhile, two fishermen have been accused of stuffing their catches with lead weights in order to win a tournament held on Lake Erie, Ohio. And world chess officials are probing whether a teen talent cheated in face-to-face matches -- something he denies. A row erupted following a high-stakes game held at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles on Thursday night. Robbi Jade Lew stunned the table by appearing to successfully call a semi-bluff by her opponent Garrett Adelstein. Lew called an all-in bet by her opponent, risking her chips with an underwhelming hand, apparently convinced her opponent was bluffing and scooping a pot that had grown to $269,000. Pundits commentating during the livestreamed match expressed their incredulity at the gambit, while Adelstein gave his competitor an icy stare.

Oct 2 5:23pm
Netherlands Researchers Break the 30 Percent Barrier In Solar Cells
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Interesting Engineering: A collaboration of researchers from various institutes in the Netherlands broke the 30 percent barrier associated with solar cells. The achievement will help uptakeworldwide solar energy and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, an organizational press release said. [...] To do so, researchers in the Netherlands came together to create a four-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem device. A tandem device can better use solar spectrum since it uses a mix of silicon-based solar cells with perovskite-based solar cells. While the former works well with light in the visible and infrared spectrum, perovskites can use wavelength in the ultraviolet and visible light while being transparent to infrared light. In a four-terminal tandem device, the top and bottom cells can operate independently, allowing bifacial tandems to be used, further boosting the power output of the architecture. The press release said that the researchers improved the efficiency of a semi-transparent perovskite cell with an area of 3x3 sq. mm up to 19.7 percent. Below this, a silicon solar cell, which was 20X 20 sq. mm wide, was placed. The tandem device also had a highly transparent back contact that allowed 93 percent of the near-infrared light to reach the bottom of the device. The silicon device was optimized using a host of features, and its efficiency improved to 10.4 percent. Together with the perovskite solar cell, the device delivered a combined energy conversion efficiency of 30.1 percent, making it the best efficiency achieved so far.

Oct 1 2:20pm
Chernobyl Black Frogs Reveal Evolution In Action
German Orizaola and Pablo Burraco write via The Conversation: Our work in Chernobyl started in 2016. That year, close to the damaged nuclear reactor, we detected several Eastern tree frogs (Hyla orientalis) with an unusual black tint. The species normally has a bright green dorsal coloration, although occasional darker individuals can be found. Melanin is responsible for the dark color of many organisms. What is less known is that this class of pigments can also reduce the negative effects of ultraviolet radiation. And its protective role can extend to ionizing radiation too, as it has been shown with fungi. Melanin absorbs and dissipates part of the radiation energy. In addition, it can scavenge and neutralize ionized molecules inside the cell, such as reactive oxygen species. These actions make it less likely that individuals exposed to radiation will go on to suffer cell damage and increase their survival chances. After detecting the first black frogs in 2016, we decided to study the role of melanin colouration in Chernobyl wildlife. Between 2017 and 2019 we examined in detail the colouration of Eastern tree frogs in different areas of northern Ukraine. During those three years we analysed the dorsal skin colouration of more than 200 male frogs captured in 12 different breeding ponds. These localities were distributed along a wide gradient of radioactive contamination. They included some of the most radioactive areas on the planet, but also four sites outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and with background radiation levels used as controls. Our work reveals that Chernobyl tree frogs have a much darker colouration than frogs captured in control areas outside the zone. As we found out in 2016, some are pitch-black. This colouration is not related to the levels of radiation that frogs experience today and that we can measure in all individuals. The dark colouration is typical of frogs from within or near the most contaminated areas at the time of the accident. The results of our study suggest that Chernobyl frogs could have undergone a process of rapid evolution in response to radiation. In this scenario, those frogs with darker colouration at the time of the accident, which normally represent a minority in their populations, would have been favoured by the protective action of melanin. The dark frogs would have survived the radiation better and reproduced more successfully. More than ten generations of frogs have passed since the accident and a classic, although very fast, process of natural selection may explain why these dark frogs are now the dominant type for the species within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Sep 30 3:00pm
A Two-Year Internet Outage In Ethiopia Continues
Zecharias Zelalem writes via Reuters: Few have been spared the effects of a nearly two-year internet and phone shutdown in Ethiopiaâ(TM)s northern Tigray region, which has been cut off since fighting erupted between Tigrayan rebels and government forces in November 2020. The conflict resumed last month after a months-long humanitarian truce, dashing hopes for communications to be restored. Even the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who hails from Tigray, said he had been unable to reach his relatives back home, or send them money. âoeI donâ(TM)t know even who is dead or who is alive,â Tedros told a recent news conference in London. As fighting continues in Tigray and elsewhere in Ethiopia, the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says shutdowns are needed to curb violence, but critics accuse authorities of using the internet as a weapon of war. âoeAccess to communications and other basic services, and most importantly humanitarian assistance, is explicitly used as a bargaining chip by the Ethiopian government,â said Goitom Gebreluel, a political analyst specialising in Horn of Africa affairs. âoeIt is used as leverage against both Tigray and the international community.â In Ethiopia, sporadic internet and phone blackouts have been used as âoea weapon to control and censor information," the group said, making it difficult for journalists and activists to document alleged rights crimes, and for aid to be delivered. In Tigrayâ(TM)s regional capital, Mekelle, emergency workarounds such as satellite phones have become a vital tool for aid agency operations. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also maintains a satellite phone service for local residents -- giving them a way to get a message to loved ones. So far this year, the ICRC has facilitated some 116,000 phone calls and oral messages âoebetween family members separated by conflict and violence," said spokesperson Alyona Synenko. With almost half of the regionâ(TM)s six million people in severe need of food, the shutdown as well as road blockades have hampered humanitarian aid deliveries, according to the U.N. World Food Program. The lack of mobile phone networks has also âoecrippled both the emergency and regular health monitoring systems," a WHO spokesperson said in emailed remarks. The only way to communicate is âoevia paper reports that need to be delivered by hand. All meetings have to be held in person."

Sep 29 5:20pm
NSA Employee Leaked Classified Cyber Intel, Charged With Espionage
A former National Security Agency employee was arrested on Wednesday for spying on the U.S. government on behalf of a foreign government. Nextgov reports: Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, was arrested in Denver, Colorado after allegedly committing three separate violations of the Espionage Act. Law enforcement allege that the violations were committed between August and September of 2022, after he worked as a information systems security designer at the agency earlier that summer. Dalke allegedly used an encrypted email account to leak sensitive and classified documents he obtained while working at the NSA to an individual who claimed to have worked for a foreign government. The individual who received the documents was later revealed to be an undercover FBI agent. Dalke was arrested in September upon arriving at the location where he and the undercover agent agreed to exchange documentation for $85,000 in compensation. "Dalke told that individual that he had taken highly sensitive information relating to foreign targeting of U.S. systems, and information on U.S. cyber operations, among other topics," the press release from the Department of Justice reads. "To prove he had access to sensitive information, Dalke transmitted excerpts of three classified documents to the undercover FBI agent. Each excerpt contained classification markings." "Should Dalke be found guilty, his sentence could include the dealth penalty or any term of years up to life imprisonment," notes the report.

Sep 29 8:49am
Japan Should Consider Allowing Medical Cannabis, Health Panel Says
Japan -- which has strict laws against the use of marijuana -- should consider approving the import, manufacture and use of medicines derived from cannabis, subject to the same approval process as pharmaceuticals, a health ministry panel said. From a report: At the same time, the country should do more to discourage recreational use of the plant, the committee said in its findings following a meeting Thursday. Possession of cannabis is illegal but not its use; the panel recommended that unsanctioned use should also be made a criminal offense. While Canada, several US states and some European countries have decriminalized the recreational use of marijuana, penalties for possession, cultivation and sales of the substance in Japan can carry prison sentences of as long as 10 years. Just 1.4% of the population have ever tried cannabis, according to one study with 2017 data. Celebrities caught for possession often become front-page news.

Sep 28 3:21pm
NFT Trading Volumes Collapse 97% From January Peak
Trading volumes in nonfungible tokens -- digital art and collectibles recorded on blockchains -- have tumbled 97% from a record high in January this year. From a report: They slid to just $466 million in September from $17 billion at the start of 2022, according to data from Dune Analytics. The fading NFT mania is part of a wider, $2 trillion wipeout in the crypto sector as rapidly tightening monetary policy starves speculative assets of investment flows.

Sep 27 10:04am
FTC Should Probe Payroll Data Deals By Brokers Like Equifax, Rival Says
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission should investigate how data brokers including Equifax and Experian have amassed payroll records about most Americans, a small rival urged in a letter to the agency on Monday that was seen by Reuters. From the report: For decades, companies such as Equifax have acquired employee work histories and compensation data from employers to help lenders, landlords, hiring managers and other customers perform background checks of individuals. But these big databases are vulnerable to theft and error, and workers are sometimes surprised their records are included, according to privacy activists. Equifax said it follows all laws and welcomes additional voices in the industry. In the letter to the FTC, San Mateo, California-based startup Certree said that Equifax and Experian are providing financial incentives like a slice of their revenue to employers to gain exclusive access to payroll data. Equifax also has deals with payroll software vendors that help employers process paychecks. The letter describes the agreements as anticompetitive and potentially unlawful.

Sep 26 10:45am
Putin Grants Russian Citizenship To Whistleblower Snowden
New submitter nunya_bizns writes: President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA). Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked. U.S. authorities have for years wanted him returned to the United States to face a criminal trial on espionage charges.

Sep 25 8:14am
Mozilla Reaffirms That Firefox Will Continue To Support Current Content Blockers
Martin Brinkmann writes via gHacks: From next year onward, extensions for Google Chrome and most other Chromium-based browsers, will have to rely on a new extension manifest. Manifest V3 defines the boundaries in which extensions may operate. Current Chromium extensions use Manifest V2 for the most part, even though the January 2023 deadline is looming over the heads of every extension developer. Google is using its might to push Manifest v3, and most Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, will follow. [...] Mozilla announced early on that it will support Manifest v3 as well, but that it would continue to support important APIs that Google limited in Manifest v3. Probably the most important of them all is the WebRequest API. Used by content blockers extensively to filter certain items, it has been replaced by a less powerful option in Manifest v3. While Manifest v3 does not mean the end for content blocking on Chrome, Edge and other Chromium-based browsers, it may limit abilities under certain circumstances. Users who install a single content blocker and no other extension that relies on the same relevant API may not notice much of a change, but those who like to add custom filter lists or use multiple extensions that rely on the API, may run into artificial limits set by Google. Mozilla reaffirmed this week that its plan has not changed. In "These weeks in Firefox: issue 124," the organization confirms that it will support the WebRequst API of Manifest v2 alongside Manifest v3. Again, a reminder that Mozilla plans to continue support for the Manifest v2 blocking WebRequest API (this API powers, for example, uBlock Origin) while simultaneously supporting Manifest v3.

Sep 23 6:02pm
Compute North Files For Bankruptcy As Cryptomining Data Center Owes Up To $500 Million
Compute North, one of the largest operators of crypto-mining data centers, filed for bankruptcy and revealed that its CEO stepped down as the rout in cryptocurrency prices weighs on the industry. CoinDesk reports: The company filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas and owed as much as $500 million to at least 200 creditors, according to a filing. Compute North in February announced a capital raise of $385 million, consisting of an $85 million Series C equity round and $300 million in debt financing. But it fell into bankruptcy as miners struggle to survive amid slumping bitcoin (BTC) prices, rising power costs and record difficulty in mining bitcoin. The filing is likely to have negative implications for the industry. Compute North is one of the largest data center providers for miners, and has multiple deals with other larger mining companies. "The Company has initiated voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings to provide the company with the opportunity to stabilize its business and implement a comprehensive restructuring process that will enable us to continue servicing our customers and partners and make the necessary investments to achieve our strategic objectives," a spokesperson told CoinDesk in an emailed statement. CEO Dave Perrill stepped down earlier this month but will continue to serve on the board, the spokesperson added. Drake Harvey, who has been chief operating officer for the last year, has taken the role of president at Compute North, the spokesperson said. Compute North has four facilities in the U.S. -- two in Texas and one in both South Dakota and Nebraska, according to its website.

Sep 23 8:00am
France Sets Minimum Delivery Fee For Online Book Sales To Help Independent Stores Compete
France plans to impose a minimum delivery fee of 3 euros ($2.93) for online book orders of less than 35 euros to level the playing field for independent bookstores struggling to compete against e-commerce giants, the government said on Friday. From a report: A 2014 French law already prohibits free book deliveries, but Amazon and other vendors such as Fnac have circumvented this by charging a token 1 cent per delivery. Local book stores typically charge up to 7 euros for shipping a book. Legislation was passed in December 2021 to close the one-cent loophole through a minimum shipping fee, but the law could not take effect until the government had decided on the size of that fee. "This will adapt the book industry to the digital era by restoring an equilibrium between large e-commerce platforms, which offer virtually free delivery for books whatever the order size, and bookstores that cannot match these delivery prices," the culture and finance ministries said in a joint statement. They added that France will notify the European Commission of its plan and the minimum delivery fee will take effect six months after the EU grants approval.

Sep 22 3:00pm
DocuSign Names Former Google Executive Allan Thygesen As New CEO
DocuSign shares rose almost 5% in extended trading after the electronic signature software maker announced it has hired an Alphabet executive, Allan Thygesen, to be its next CEO. CNBC reports: The announcement comes three month after DocuSign said its CEO for the past five years, Dan Springer, was stepping down. Like other cloud software companies, DocuSign enjoyed a wave of greater interest among investors during the Covid pandemic as consumers and corporate workers became more reliant on digital ways to sign documents. But the interest has died down. Notwithstanding the after-hours move, DocuSign shares have fallen 64% so far this year.

Sep 22 2:40pm
Mozilla Urges Action To Unpick Platform Browser Lock-ins
As antitrust regulators around the world dial up scrutiny of platform power, Mozilla has published a piece of research digging into the at times subtle yet always insidious ways operating systems exert influence to keep consumers locked to using their own-brand browsers rather than seeking out and switching to independent options -- while simultaneously warning that competition in the browser market is vital to ensure innovation and choice for consumers and, more broadly, protect the vitality of the open web against the commercial giants trying to wall it up. TechCrunch: "Billions of people across the globe are dependent on operating systems from the largest technology companies. Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta each provide their own browser on their operating systems and each of them uses their gatekeeper position provider to preference their own browsers over independent rivals. Whether it is Microsoft pushing Firefox users to switch their default on Windows computers, Apple restricting the functionality of rival browsers on iOS smartphones or Google failing to apply default browser settings across Android, there are countless examples of independent browsers being inhibited by the operating systems on which they are dependent," Mozilla writes in a summary of its findings. "This matters because American consumers and society as a whole suffer. Not only do people lose the ability to determine their own online experiences but they also receive less innovative and lower quality products. In addition, they can be forced to accept poorer privacy outcomes and even unfair contracts. By contrast, competition from independent browsers can help to drive new features, as well as innovation in areas like privacy and security."

Sep 21 12:05pm
IT Services Group Wipro Fires 300 Employees Moonlighting For Competitors
IT services giant Wipro has fired 300 employees in recent months who were found to be moonlighting for competitors, a top executive said Wednesday, weighing in on a practice that has gained momentum across the globe as firms incorporate work-from-home norms. From a report: Rishad Premji, the chairman of Wipro, which employs over 250,000 employees in over five dozen nations, said at a conference Wednesday that the company finds moonlighting for competitors an "act of integrity violation."

Sep 21 11:35am
Cutting Reliance on China, Apple To Move 25% iPhone Production To India By 2025 - JPM
Apple began assembling some of its devices in India and Vietnam a few years ago, slowly cutting its reliance on China. The Cupertino-giant is now gearing up to make the two nations key global manufacturing hubs, according to analysts at JP Morgan. From a report: In a report they sent to clients Wednesday, JP Morgan analysts said Apple will move 5% of global iPhone 14 production to India by late 2022, and expand its manufacturing capacity in the country to produce 25% of all iPhones by 2025. Vietnam, on the other hand, will contribute 20% of all iPad and Apple Watch productions, 5% of MacBook and 65% of AirPods by 2025, the report said, which was reviewed by TechCrunch. India has attracted investments from Foxconn and Wistron in recent years by offering lucrative subsidies as New Delhi moves to make the country a manufacturing hub. The presence of the foreign production giants, coupled with "ample labor resources and competitive labor costs," make India a desirable location, the analysts said.

Sep 20 1:20pm
Apple To Hike App Store Prices Across Europe and Some Parts of Asia Next Month
Apple says it will increase App Store prices across Europe and in some Asian markets next month as currencies weaken against the strong US dollar. The price increases will effect both in-app purchases and regular apps on the App Store starting on October 5th. From a report: All countries using the Euro, Sweden, South Korea, Chile, Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Japan will be affected by the price hikes. All Euro markets, except Montenegro, will see the base $0.99 app pricing move to $1.19 next month, a 20 percent jump. In Japan the hikes are more than 30 percent, amid the yen dropping to a new 24-year low against the US dollar.

Sep 16 5:20pm
EVGA Abandons the GPU Market, Reportedly Citing Conflicts With Nvidia
UnknowingFool writes: After a decades long partnership with Nvidia, EVGA has announced they are ending their relationship. Citing conflicts with Nvidia, EVGA CEO Andrew Han said the company will not partner with Intel nor AMD, and will be exiting the GPU market completely. The company will continue to make existing RTX 30-series cards until their stock runs out but will not release a 4000 series card. YouTube channels JayZTwoCents and GamersNexus broke the news after sitting down with EVGA CEO Andrew Han to discuss his frustrations with Nvidia as a partner. Jon Peddie Research also published a brief article on the matter.

Sep 15 5:50am
Adobe Near Deal To Buy Online Design Startup Figma, Sources Say
Adobe is nearing a deal to acquire Figma, a startup that makes online design collaboration tools, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. From the report: An agreement may be announced as soon as Thursday, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The parties have been discussing a valuation of more than $15 billion for Figma, one of the people said.

Brad Feld Oct 3 8:57am
Book: The Rise of the Rest

Steve Case’s new book, The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream, is out. I read it on Sunday, and it is outstanding. If you are interested in understanding how high-tech entrepreneurship has evolved from a primarily coastal phenomenon to one that covers the entire US in […]

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AVC Oct 3 4:11am
Is It A Computer Or A Car?
In the spring of 2014, I walked across the street from our apartment building to our parking garage to get our car and drive somewhere. I can’t recall where I was headed that morning. But as I walked into the garage, I saw two EV charging kiosks had been installed in our parking garage. I […]
Sep 26 4:08am
Demand Response
At USV, our climate thesis is about both mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis. One way we can adapt to the climate crisis is by building a more resilient energy supply system. Demand Response is one of many approaches that will be necessary to do that. Demand Response is when consumers of energy voluntarily […]
Sep 18 2:48pm
Changing Public Perception
Nuclear power (both fission and fusion) has the potential to provide much of the energy the world needs without the damaging effects of carbon emissions which are warming our planet. And yet nuclear power is politically unpopular in many parts of the world and that has led to a massive underinvestment in nuclear power over […]
Sep 12 4:15am
Regenerative Finance (ReFi)
I’ve always been interested in tapping into the “crowd” to fund things that need to happen and that our current institutions can’t figure out how to support. Our investment in Kickstarter back in 2009 is an excellent example of that. In the last thirteen years, Kickstarter has helped direct $6.2bn towards creative work that would […]
Brad Feld Sep 8 8:40am
Talking About Entrepreneurship and Mental Health With David Cohen

David Cohen and I have co-hosted the Give First podcast for 71 episodes. I think our host ratio is 80/20 David/Brad, and he’s covered everything in 2021 because I was burned out on all things public-facing and needed a break. He figured a good way to get me back in the mix would be to […]

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Sep 6 11:58am
Back to School

I got the following email from Barry Schuler this morning. We’ve known each other for many years, and he’s one of my favorite VCs to work with. He described exactly how I feel this morning. The fall is my favorite season of the year. By labor day, I’m ready for summer to end. The stretch […]

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AVC Sep 6 4:48am
Face To Face
As we all prepare for the fall back to school/back to work season, I thought I’d touch on a topic that has been top of mind for me for the last six months. The covid pandemic taught many of us that we can be productive and our companies can succeed in a fully remote work […]
Brad Feld Aug 30 11:03am
Founder’s Choice VC Firm Ranking

There have been many different approaches to ranking VC Firms over the years I’ve been an entrepreneur and a VC. Each approach I’ve seen has issues. Most are easily gamed or have statistical bias issues. I got the following note from Roy Bahat at Bloomberg Beta a while ago about a new approach called Founder’s […]

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AVC Aug 29 5:12am
Deep Dives
We like to do a lot of deep dives at USV. We pick areas that we think will present interesting investment opportunities over the next five to ten years and then spend time researching them. We like to talk to lots of experts, academics, investors, entrepreneurs, and industry. We generally spend a few months on […]
Brad Feld Aug 24 9:16am
Venture Deals Fall 2022

Registration for the Venture Deals Fall 2022 course is open. The course is free and starts on September 20, 2022. This is the second time we are running the new version of the course (v2!) that was co-created with Techstars and Kauffman Fellows. If interested, sign up now. I hope to see you there in […]

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AVC Aug 22 4:54am
Going From One Hundred To Four
Joe Hovde wrote a blog post about AVC last week. He analyzed all of the blog posts on AVC to find trends and other interesting tidbits. He charted the number of posts a month I have written here over the last nineteen years. He observed: he treated the blog similarly to a twitter account before […]
Aug 15 4:17am
The Merge
In about a month, an important moment will happen in the world of crypto/web3. The Ethereum blockchain will move from a proof of work consensus mechanism to a proof of stake consensus mechanism. This event is known as “The Merge” in Ethereum land. There are many reasons why this is an important moment for the […]
Aug 8 4:56am
Bridge Loans
When fundraising gets tougher for startups, the existing investors (insiders) will often provide a bridge loan to the company to extend the runway for getting another round done. There is more of this sort of thing happening in today’s fundraising market and I thought I’d share some of the things I have learned about setting […]
Aug 1 5:00am
Innovation Indicators
Tech:NYC is the industry association for NY’s tech sector. They play a number of important roles and one of them is to educate and inform about the impact of the tech sector in NY. To that end, they launched a valuable resource last month called Innovation Indicators. Innovation Indicators is a dashboard that shows the […]
Brad Feld Jul 31 3:36pm
Reboot 2022 Q4 Leadership Bootcamp

Registration is open for the 2022 Q4 Leadership Bootcamp, which is happening in Boulder, Colorado, on Nov 10-13, 2022. Regular readers of this blog know about my long-time (back to 1996) friendship with Reboot co-founder and CEO Jerry Colonna. What you may not know is that several years ago, Jerry and his partner Ali Schultz […]

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AVC Jul 25 5:56am
Remote, Hybrid, or In-Person?
We have been watching our portfolio of ~130 technology companies wrestle with this decision for the last two and a half years. Brought on by the covid pandemic and the work from home moment that it created, there has been a sea change in the way that technology companies organize themselves to get work done. […]
Brad Feld Jul 18 8:16am
The Brilliance of Bloomberg’s Matt Levine

Of all the business and technology writers out there, including bloggers, I think the best one, at this moment, is Matt Levine. He’s the only person currently writing on Planet Earth that I find myself reading every word of everything he writes. For the last few months, he has been mostly writing about three topics: […]

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AVC Jul 18 5:02am
Valuing a Venture Capital Portfolio
Every quarter our firm goes through a process to value our entire portfolio. Those values, on a schedule of investments we publish to our investors every quarter, flow through to our financial statements and capital accounts and establish how much an interest in our partnerships are worth at that time. We have always taken this […]
Jul 10 5:22am
Some Thoughts On Twitter (continued)
I wrote the post at the bottom and linked here when Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter in late April. I am relieved that Musk has decided he does not want to own Twitter. I never thought he would be a good shepherd of the Twitter network and maybe now we have the […]
Brad Feld Jun 30 9:07am
Navigating Choppy Waters

In the last seven months, the venture / entrepreneurial world has gone from “the only thing that matters is massive growth” to “the world is going to end.” For perspective, all you need to do is look at a dozen high-flying IPOs from 2020 or 2021 to see that the peak happened just before Thanksgiving. […]

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Jun 23 9:36am
The Evolution of Apple macOS

My partner Ryan shared this with me. It’s a 10-minute video showing the evolution from System 0.97 to macOS 13 Ventura. I had an original Macintosh 128K which is now enjoying its retirement at the Media Archaeology Lab. Enjoy!

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Jun 15 10:18am
Book: Startup Boards, 2nd Edition Is Available

The 2nd Edition of my book Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors launched today. My co-authors, Matt Blumberg, the CEO of Bolster, and Mahendra Ramsinghani, were a joy to work with. While the 1st Edition was a good book, I wasn’t particularly proud of it because I […]

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Jun 14 4:45am
Summer Vacation

This blog has decided to take a summer vacation. I’ve been blogging regularly since 2005 (typical 15 – 20 posts a month.) I’m going to take a break for a while. Now that The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors is out, I’ve started working on my next book. I’m trying some different stuff […]

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Jun 11 6:12am
Why Philosophy and Entrepreneurship?

Since releasing my newest book The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors I’ve been continually getting the questions “Why Philosophy and Entrepreneurship?” and “Why Nietzsche?” Dave and I cover this right off the bat in the book, so I thought I’d toss up an excerpt that addresses the question with part of my own […]

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Jun 9 6:42am
Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company’s Critical Functions and Teams

Matt Blumberg has a new book out titled Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company’s Critical Functions and Teams. It’s a follow-up to his previous book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000. That year, we merged two companies: Return Path and […]

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Jun 8 9:21am
Investment vs. Speculation

I reread Enough.: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John C. Bogle over the weekend. I’d read it in 2012 and it had a huge impact on me. If you aren’t familiar with John C. Bogle, he founded The Vanguard Group, is credited with inventing the index fund and is a spectacular writer […]

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Jun 7 12:07pm
Twitter Spaces and Nietzsche

Last week I was scheduled to do a live interview with Eliot Peper about The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche. He opted to use Twitter Spaces and diligently tested it out a couple of days beforehand to confirm that it would work. Nevertheless, we immediately ran into difficulties, and after ten minutes, we decided to bail on […]

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Jun 2 6:31am
Colorado Startup Summer 2021 – Request for Companies

CU’s Silicon Flatirons Center Startup Summer is back! Startup Summer provides a fantastic experience for college-age students and interns interested in entrepreneurship and the Front Range emerging company scene. Startup Summer is a free offering that enhances your company’s internship program. Your company hires and pays your intern(s). You can hire an intern out of your own […]

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Jun 1 6:47am
No TV Summer

“Turn off the TV and go outside and play.” I expect these are words that have been said in almost every household in America. Amy and I hit the bottom of the TV barrel last week while watching Army of the Dead. It was so awful it was good. But it was awful. And … […]

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May 26 12:41pm
Monsters

Most of the quotes we discuss in The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche we found by reading his work, but a few are well-known lines that you may have heard before. This is one, used in our chapter “Monsters”: He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze […]

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May 25 11:05am
Shipped! The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche

My newest book, The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors, shipped today. It’s available on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover. If you are so inclined, go buy a copy today! I’m particularly proud of this book, as it is a more philosophical approach to entrepreneurship than my other books. I wrote it with […]

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May 24 10:22am
Google Enters Hologramland

Six months ago I wrote When The Big Companies Show Up about Sony releasing their first holographic display and what I thought about that development, given my role as an investor via Foundry and board member in the 40-person purveyor of fine holographic interfaces in Brooklyn called Looking Glass. In that post, I wrote: “When […]

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