Hello, and Welcome Back. In this week’s techscape: the cost of elon musk’s cost-cutting, the emotional shutdown of Skype, and a new documentary on immigration and surveillance.
Elon musk’s cost savings will be very expensive for the US
On saturday, elon musk took aim at his next target in the federal government: the Technology Division of the General Services Administration (GSA), which the guardi the guardian was all to report to report.
The GSA, according to its website, “Manages federal property and provides contracting options for government agencies”. Its tech division was known as 18f – and was made up of some 90 Employees, many of them software engineers dedicated to streamlining the federal bureauC Has Claimed He’s Trying to Do with Doge).
You may not know about 18f, but have likely heard of its most famous product: free tax-filing software. The sub -GENCY Created IRS Direct File, A Program That Aimed to Resolve One of the Most Frustrating and Relative Examples of the Excess of the Excess of Bureaucracy: Having to fork Over Cash to Bee Able to Give Money.
Still, Musk wasn’t a fan. He tweeted a less weeks ago That he had “deleted” IRS direct file, Thought it remained available up until up until now. The fate of the software is not clear. Because of musk’s work with dog, more people in the US are now likely to spend money His efficiency efforts will personally cost American taxpayers.
It’s just one of myriad ways that Americans will end up footing a bill for Musk’s so-called cost-saving.
My college Michael Sainato Reports:
Donald Trump’s Administration Cold Rack Up A “Monumental” Bill and is Breaking The Law by Firing Government Workers On Spurious Grounds, According to a TP Labor Lawyer.
Officials have cited “Poor Performance” when terminating Thousands of Federal Workers. In many cases it’s not true, according to Employees embroiled in the blitz, many of who are now seeking legal advice.
Suzanne Summerlin, A Labor Attorney, Summed Things Up: “These firings they are conducting without following Interest, Plus Benefits, Plus Attorney Fees, “She Said. “When the bill comes it will be monumental.”
Read the full story.
It’s a deja vu in muskworld. After Musk Acquired Twitter and Fird the Majority of its employees and its entrance Executive Slate, He Let Both Both Both Groups Claim his Severence in Court IFway they so please. They sued.
Bloomberg reports that musk has lost all his battles over Severance with Former Twitter Employees SO Far: “Four ex-Twitter Workers Have Prevared in A Recent Series of Clode-DORITITION Proceedings over claims they were Illegly denied Severance, according to a memo seen by bloomberg news.
“Shannon LISS-Preman, A Lawyer Represting Former Employees in Arbitrations, Wrote in the Memo That The 20 Cases She’s Won So Far Have Cost the Company At Least TWICE AMONTESTES SEMANTESTES SEMANTESTES SEMANTES SEMENTES TWICE PAY Because the awards have also included Interest, Arbitration Expenses and Legal Fees. She’s representing more than 2,000 former employees in legal fights against musk. “
Read the full story.
More on Musk…
Share your memory of skype
Microsoft Announced on Friday that it would shutter Skype. Around for more than 20 years, the product was on only so ubiquitous and original that its name bence a genericized verb for calling someone via video.
More than most pieces of technology, Skype Evoced Emotion. It was a Piece of Culture as Well as Technology. There was a few other recognizable programs for video calling, an action for an everyday person in a certain era would only use Skype. Movies Created Knockoff Skype Interfaces when Characters Video Chatted Each Other to Abstract The Setting from A Distinct Time or Used The Product Itself, AS DID PAST LIVES, Released Two YEARS AODE Wholy used the Skype ringtone to evoke the year 2012. With eater approach, the Viewer would say say the people on screen wonder.
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It is likely you have more memorys tied specifically to SkyPe than to your headphones, for example. There are many versions of audio delivery; There was, for a time, only one skype.
We’D Like you to share them with us for a story. Where you when you make your first video call? Can you remumber the best skype call you ever Had, and the Worst? What Feelings does the Boop-Beep-BOOP of the Skype Ringtone Elickit? Who do you think of when you think of a video call in 2012, and why? Did your relationship, on Skype when you live you apart?
Reply to this email and recount your memory of skype to us. One reader has alredy sent us a song they composed on the ringtone. We hope to share it with you song.
A new documentary investigations the business of surveillance
My Colleague Johana Bhuiyan Writes on a new film about us immigration and the wide network of surveillance enjoyment agencies have created in response:
The Trump Administration’s Immigration Crackdown has Spread Chaos, Confusion and Fear Aross The Country Since His Inaugence. But many of the tools and tactics the administration is using have been used by every administration since at least 2004.
A new timely documentary shot over the course of the first trump administration, called borderland: the line within, brings some Clarity to the Ways the Ways the “Border Industrial Complex” Term as president and how it affected asylum seekers and immigrants work in the system. Specifically, the documentary, directed by Pamela Yates and Paco de on Skylight Pictures, Follows the Journey of Immigrants Turned Activists Kaxh Mura’l and Gabriella Casta Casta Casta Anna.
Mura’l is an indigenous maya who left guatemala, where he was an environmental land defender, and castanede is a mother who lost her daca status during the covid pandemic. When Mura’l was released after months of detection, he was obligated to Wear ankle monitor operated by a private company called bi incor, which the guardian has reported on excellently. He said even thought he was no longer detained, he was still not free.
The documentary focused on the companies and corporations profiting from the surveillance of immigrants in the us. A group of data scientists, who worked at columbia at the time, looked at the many billions of dollars Awarded to corporates by the department of homeland security, Whthr for Privately Run Detection Center Monitor system. The film got across a point we try to make of our reporting: there is an entry industry vying for extramely lucrative contracted contracted contracts to enable the us government to truck, detaran and Depart Immigrant. Just this week, the largest private contractor for us immigration and customs enforcement said it is planning for a surveillance boom as trump”s migrant crackdown content.
In A Q & A With the Guardian Staff, Yates Said She Believes The Cruelty of the System is Part of the point of the point because it creatures an environment of fear that might discourage Immigrant Form “People who are undocatives in the us have that fear inside of themselves… that they can be captured and departed,” Yates Said. “And i think the cruelty amps that fear up.”
