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How are you, Crunchy readers!
True crime has gripped us all, and Lorenzo‘s review of “Tracers in the Dark” is fascinating. In the book, the author discusses how the police go after cybercriminals, and it shows that there is hope to stop drug dealers, dark web market leaders and child abusers. And it’s all thanks to the immutable, persistent nature of the Bitcoin blockchain, the perfect place to track the money.
Our Black History Month entry of the day is Ijeoma Oluo’s “So you want to talk about race,” which Haje read last year which was a bit of an eye-opener for all the things he thought he knew but didn’t actually know about how race shows up, ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the myth of the model minority. For white people, it’s 100% worth reading before you start asking stupid and embarrassing questions to your friends of color.
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The businessroundups.org Top 3
- The first close is the best close: Global venture capital firm Partech has closed a new fund of €245 million for the first time, making it the largest Africa-focused fund. Tage writes that “overwhelming interest from LPs meant that Partech Africa II outperformed what was initially set for the whole fund at first close.”
- Bing, not Chanandler Bong: Frederick writes that Microsoft is celebrating “another search day” by launching the new Bing, complete with ChatGPT.
- Capture this: Drone image company DroneBase is now called Zeitview. It also landed $55 million to further develop its airborne and ground data capture technology. Kyle reports.
Startups and VC
You wait ages for a real-world application of AI image generation, and then suddenly two come at once. Brian writes about how FRIDA’s robotic arm is trying to bring DALL-E style AI art to real canvases, and Haje describes how 3D laser cutting company Glowforge is adding AI image generation to its software suite.
Almost a year ago today, 50-year-old investment powerhouse Sequoia Capital announced that it had reorganized itself around a single, permanent structure, Connie reports. Now, thanks to an SEC form filed Friday, we know how much is in the Sequoia Capital Fund. And because we are sneaky capitalists who do it for the clicks. If you want to know how much, you should read the article.
And we’ve got five more for you, complete with a soundtrack that cuts between some unlikely genres:
Cybersecurity teams, beware: the defender’s dilemma is a lie
Image Credits: A. Martin UW Photography (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
The defender’s dilemma is one of the touchstones of cybersecurity: “Defenders should always be right. Attackers only have to be right once.”
It may sound authentic, but David J. Bianco, a security strategist for staff at Splunk, says it’s actually a false narrative that makes systems less secure.
“Defenders rightly expect attackers to lie and cheat to achieve their goals, but sometimes we forget that lying and cheating can work both ways.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
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Big Tech Inc.
What’s your status? Well, if you are a WhatsApp user, now you can give voice status update, Jagmeet writes. Each voice note can last up to 30 seconds and then be set as your status. So now people have a vote to match your picture.
Today was all about the OnePlus smartphone: Brian gives you an overview of the $699 OnePlus 11, arriving on February 16, and also looks at some of OnePlus’ add-on products, such as a tablet and mechanical keyboard. Than Ivan writes about the Buds Pro 2, which will run you a cool $179 but has improved sound and noise cancellation.
And we have five more for you:
