Business, Spoken

Just before 9 am last Thursday, an unusual speed dating scene sprang up in San Francisco. A casually dressed crowd, mostly male, milled around a gilt-edged Beaux Arts ballroom on Nob Hill. Pairs and trios formed quickly, but not in search of romance. Ice breakers were direct: What’s your favorite programming language? Which data analysis framework are you most expert in? More delicately, conversations drifted toward rankings on Kaggle. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Rolling your eyes is not allowed at TED. There’s no rule in the conduct policy (I assume, I haven’t actually checked), it’s just one of those powerful unspoken maxims that goes ignored at your peril. When they hand you your TED badge, you’re consenting to check your cynicism at the door. The TED Conference, which has taken place annually since 1990, was founded on the principle that spreading ideas from passionate people can change the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

President Trump Friday confidently declared that the US will lead the world in deploying the next generation of wireless services known as 5G. “The race to 5G is a race that the United States must win,” Trump said at a White House event, flanked by farmers in cowboy hats and workers in hardhats. “It’s a race that we will win. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Facebook is trying to redefine authoritativeness on the internet as part of its efforts to fight the spread of misinformation and abuse on its platforms. On Wednesday, the company rolled out a slew of announcements that aim to promote more trustworthy news sources, tamp down on Groups that spread misinformation, and give the public more insight into how Facebook crafts its content policies writ large. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Legislation to restore the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules passed a big hurdle Wednesday. But it’s far from becoming law, and faces long odds. The House of Representatives approved the bill in a 232 to 190 vote. No Democrats voted against the bill. Representative Bill Posey of Florida was the only Republican to vote in favor of it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on the rise of hate crimes and white nationalism devolved into a four-hour squabble over who’s most hated, and who’s doing the hating, in America. The members of the committee and some of the eight witnesses who sat before them battled over whether anti-semitism or anti-black hate is most deserving of their attention, and whether it’s white supremacists or Muslims or Democrats or the President who harbor the most hate. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Big Disruption, a satirical novel written by Jessica Powell, Google’s former head of communications, is set inside the lush and bountiful Silicon Valley headquarters of Anahata, a massive 10-year-old tech giant in love its own mythology about open-door board meetings and profound yet “napkin-able” ideas. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Verizon launched its mobile 5G network last week in "select areas" of Minneapolis and Chicago, and a speed test shared by a Verizon spokesperson showed an impressive download speed of 762Mbps. But the single speed test displayed by Verizon was conducted near a tower with clear line of sight to that tower. Actually finding a 5G signal elsewhere in Verizon's launch areas is much more difficult, according to tests by The Verge and CNET. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tech news you can use, in two minutes or less: Congress held a hearing on hate, and it went exactly as you thought it might Congress called the leaders of tech to a hearing on the rise of hate crimes and white supremacy, but instead of illuminating solutions and building bridges, the haters got their way and the tech giants got off scot free. The hearings were mostly full of arguments and partisanship, an unfortunate par for the course that led to no real answers or progress on the issue. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Facebook was designed for the living, but as the social network grew older, it also needed to decide what should happen when users die. In 2015, Facebook began allowing people to assign a legacy contact to be in charge of their account in the event they pass away, but the system wasn't perfect and users found some of the associated policies upsetting. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices