Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending April 4, 2014)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago
This one is a fun read about the history of Gmail.
—Rachel Metz, IT editor, Web & social media
Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk’s Industrial Empire
Here’s a fascinating interview with Elon Musk from this week’s 60 Minutes. My favorite quote from this interview: “If something’s important enough you should try. Even if the probable outcome is failure.”
—David W.M. Sweeney, marketing communications manager
Album Launch: John Frusciante Sends New LP into Space on Rocket
Chili Peppers in space! (Say it like the sketch intro to the Muppets’ “Pigs in Space!”)
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant
Meet the Man Building an AI That Mimics Our Neocortex—and Could Kill Off Neural Networks
The inventor of the Palm Pilot, Jeff Hawkins, says he knows how to make software that works like the human brain, and that Google’s approach to artificial intelligence is all wrong. But is he right?
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT
U.S. Secretly Built “Cuban Twitter” to Stir Unrest
How the U.S. secretly built a Twitter clone in Cuba that it could mine for information.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
Big Data: Are We Making a Big Mistake?
Tim Harford takes a hard look at our infatuation with “big data,” enumerating the factors that limit the insight to be drawn from it.
—Nanette Byrnes, senior editor, Business Reports
The Wolf Hunters of Wall Street
In this excerpt from his new book, Michael Lewis offers a colorful, and critical, look at the impact high-frequency trading is having on the financial markets.
—Will Knight, online news & analysis editor
The Newsonomics of Digital First Media’s Thunderdome Implosion (and Coming Sale)
A deep dive into the imminent demise of Digital First Media’s project Thunderdome and the legion of newspapers that will soon be on the auction block.
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer