Long-time Slashdot reader serviscope_minor wanted to remind us that 2020 also saw the death of science fiction/fantasy author Debra Doyle at the age of 67 from a sudden cardiac event. “Her works were co-written with her husband, James D. Macdonald,” notes her entry on Wikipedia: Her first work written with Macdonald was “Bad Blood” in 1988. Their novel Knight’s Wyrd was…
Tag: rally
EFF Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Account of the Fight to Save .ORG
As part of its “Year in Review” series, the EFF shares their dramatic behind-the-scenes details about 2020’s fight over the future of .org domains. It begins when the Internet Society (ISOC) announced plans to sell the Public Interest Registry — which manages the .org top-level domain (TLD) — to private equity firm Ethos Capital. “If you come at the nonprofit sector,…
Tech’s Top Seven Companies Added $3.4 Trillion in Value in 2020
Tech’s biggest companies just wrapped up a huge year. From a report: The seven most valuable U.S. technology companies — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Tesla and Nvidia — picked up a combined $3.4 trillion in market cap in 2020, powering through a global pandemic and broader economic crisis. Between continued optimism over iPhone sales, Microsoft’s growing Teams collaboration product, Amazon’s…
Bitcoin Miners in Nordic Region Get a Boost From Cheap Power
The Nordic region once again has become a lucrative place to mine crypto-currencies, thanks to a plunge in electricity prices. From a report: The wettest weather in at least 20 years boosted production from hydro-electric plants, leaving Sweden and Norway with some of the lowest power prices in the world. The resulting glut in the most important raw material for making…
XRP Cryptocurrency Crashes Following Announcement of SEC Suit Against Ripple
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The value of one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies is crashing and a recently filed SEC complaint is at the root of the free fall. According to CoinMarketCap, the XRP token’s value has declined more than 42% in the past 24 hours and is down more than 63% from its 30-day high…
Bitcoin Is Gunning for a Record and No One Is Talking About It
Three years ago, Bitcoin’s historic surge dominated Thanksgiving dinner conversations. This year, the cryptocurrency is in the midst of another notable rally and yet almost no one’s talking about it. From a report: How fevered has Bitcoin’s latest leg higher been? With the coin trading around $16,300, it’s been more expensive in only eight other instances in the past decade, Bloomberg…
SoftBank Unmasked As ‘Nasdaq Whale’ That Stoked Tech Rally
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Japan’s SoftBank was reportedly the “Nasdaq whale,” that bought billions of dollars in individual stock options in big tech companies over the past month, driving up volumes and contributing to a trading frenzy. Softbank declined comment on a Financial Times story that quoted unnamed sources who said it was buying equity derivatives on…
Elon Musk Passes Mark Zuckerberg To Become Third-Richest Person In the World
Elon Musk is now the third-richest person in the world. Musk passed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg Monday as shares of Tesla continued their unrelenting rally after undergoing a forward stock split. Musk is now worth $115.4 billion compared with $110.8 billion for Zuckerberg. Yahoo Finance reports: Also Monday, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott became the world’s richest woman, passing L’Oreal SA…
Trump and Biden Attack Social Media – By Running Ads on Social Media
In 100 days the U.S. will vote on whether Donald Trump, Joe Biden or somebody else should be America’s president. But both candidates are also running political ads attacking social media — on social media. “They’re shooting the messenger while giving it lots of money,” reports the Associated Press: Biden has focused on Facebook, with a #MoveFastFixIt campaign that admonishes Facebook…
Tesla Becomes Most Valuable Automaker in Latest Stock Rally
Tesla on Wednesday became the highest-valued automaker as its shares surged to record highs and the electric carmaker’s market capitalization overtook that of former front runner Toyota Motors. From a report: Tesla shares gained 5% in early morning trade to a record of $1,133, boosting the company’s market cap to $209.47 billion – roughly $6 billion more than Toyota is currently…