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Automattic offered employees another chance to leave – this time with nine months of severance pay

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Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers

Days after 159 people accepted Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s offer of six months of severance pay for employees who wanted to leave, the corporate late October 16 made a brand new offer of nine months of severance pay to anyone who would leave immediately. Employees had 4 hours to determine whether or not they wanted to join the contract.

In a Slack message seen by TechCrunch, Mullenweg wrote that those that accept the offer will lose access not only to Automattic but additionally to WordPress.org. This effectively means that folks leaving won’t give you the chance to contribute to the open source project – not less than under their existing ID. This would also mean that they’d be effectively banned from the WordPress community. The transaction was previously announced by, amongst others, 404 Media.

In addition to being the CEO of Automattic, Mullenweg also owns and controls the open source website WordPress.org.

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Mullenweg gave him 4 hours’ notice and told him that those that wanted to accept the offer should send him a non-public message: “I am resigning and would like to take advantage of the 9-month buyout offer.”

“You don’t have to give any reason or anything. I will reply, “Thank you.” Automattic will accept your resignation, you can keep your office belongings and work on your laptop. You will lose access to Automattic and Worg,” Mullenweg said.

He said, “I think some people were sad that they missed the last window,” and that is why he introduced a brand new, short window.

Automattic didn’t comment on this story by press time. It is unclear whether any of the employees took advantage of the brand new offer. According to the corporate’s website, employment currently totals 1,731 people; a couple of hours ago it was 1732.

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The WordPress co-founder’s first offer was addressed to individuals who didn’t agree with his views on Automattic’s fight against the hosting provider WP Engine. The first group of people to leave Automattic included several of the corporate’s top employees, including the pinnacle of WordPress.com (Automtic’s business WordPress hosting arm), Daniel Bachhuberhead of programs and co-creator of the experience Naoko Takanochief AI architect, Daniel Walmsleyand Executive Director of WordPress.org Joseph Haden Chomphosa.

The battle began almost a month ago when Mullenweg called WP Engine the “cancer of WordPress” and accused the independent company of not contributing enough to the WordPress open source project. Over the past few weeks, the fight has included stop-and-desist letters, Automattic accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement, a lawsuit filed by WP Engine, and WordPress.org blocking WP Engine’s access and seizing the plugin it maintains.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Automattic was preparing to defend its trademarks by retaining “nice and not-so-nice” lawyers, according to an internal post published earlier this yr by the corporate’s then-chief legal officer.

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Palantir Exec defends work in the company’s immigration supervision

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One of the founders of the Y startup accelerator Y Combinator offered this weekend the Palantir Data Analytical Company that doesn’t describe the controversial analytical company, running the company’s director to supply a broad defense of Palantir’s work.

Then it appeared forward federal applications He showed that American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) – the task of conducting the aggressive strategy of the deportation of the Trump administration – pays Palantir $ 30 million for creating What does this call the immigration system operating systemSo immigration to assist ICE resolve who to direct to the deportation, and likewise offer “real -time visibility” in self -complacency.

Y founding father of Combinator Paul Graham divided the headlines about the Palantir contract on the subject of XWriting: “It is now a very exciting time in technology. If you are a first -rate programmer, there is a huge number of other places where you can work, and not in a company building infrastructure of a police state.”

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In response, the global business head of Palantir Ted Mabrey wrote that “he is looking forward to the next set of employees who decided to submit a request to Palantir after reading your post.”

Mabrey didn’t discuss the details of the current work of Palantir with ice, but said that the company began cooperation with the Internal Security Department (in accordance with which ICE works) “in an immediate response to the assassination of agent Jaime Zapata by Zetas in an effort called Fallen Hero surgery. “

“When people live because of what you built and others were not alive, because what you built was not good enough yet, you develop a completely different view on the meaning of your work,” said Mabrey.

He also compared Graham’s criticism with protests on the Google Maven project in 2018, which ultimately prompted the company to stop the work of drone photos for the army. (Google then signaled that he again became more open to defense works.)

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Mabrey called everyone interested in working for Palantir to read the latest book CEO Alexander Karp “The Technological Republic”, which claims that the software industry must rebuild its relationship with the government. (The company was Recruitment at university campus With signs declaring that “the moment of counting arrived west”)

“We employ believers,” Mabrey continued. “Not in the sense of the homogeneity of religion, but in the internal ability to imagine in something greater than you

Graham then Pressed Mabrey “To publicly commit himself on behalf of Palantir, so as not to build things that help the government violate the US constitution,” although he confirmed in one other post that such a commitment “would not have legal force.”

“However, I hope that if (they make a commitment) and a Palantir’s employee is one day asked to do something illegal, he will say” I didn’t join for it “and refused,” wrote Graham.

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Mabrey in turn compared Graham’s query In order for “or” you promise to stop beating a trick in court, but he added that the company “has made so many ways from Sunday”, ranging from the commitment to “3,500 thoughtful people who polish only because they believe that they make the world a better place every day because they see their first hand.”

(Tagstotransate) palantir

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Congress has questions about 23andme bankruptcy

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Low-angle view of logo on facade of personal genomics company 23AndMe in the Silicon Valley town of Mountain View, California, October 28, 2018. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

3 The leaders of the Energy and Trade Committee said that they’re investigating how 23ndme’s bankruptcy can affect customer data.

Representatives of Brett Guthrie, Gus Biliakis and Gary Palmer (all Republicans) He sent a letter On Thursday, Joe Selsavage, Joe Selsavage, ask a variety of questions about how 23andme will serve customer data if the corporate is sold.

The letter also says that some customers have reported problems with deleting their data from the 23ndme website, and notes that corporations directly for consumption, reminiscent of 23andme, are generally not protected by the Act on the portability and accountability of medical insurance (Hipaa).

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“Considering the lack of HIPAA protection, a patchwork of state regulations covering genetic privacy and uncertainty related to customer information in the case of transmitting the sale of company or clients data, we are afraid that this best -confidential information is threatened with a player,” representatives write.

23andme, which has decided to violate data For $ 30 million last 12 months, he applied for bankruptcy in Chapter 11 in March, and the co -founder and general director Anne Wojciki said he was resigning from the corporate’s private bidder.

(Tagstotransate) 23andme

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The White House replaces the Covid.gov page with the theory “Lab Leak”

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The Covid.gov government website has used Covid-19, tests and treatment to store information. Now, under the sight of President Trump, page redirects to the side of the White House Talking to the unverified theory that Covid-19 comes from the Chinese laboratory.

A theory during which many virologists have objected to in the report Through House Republicans last yr, which found that Pandemia began with a laboratory leak in China. House democrats He spent the overthrow At that point, the statement that the probe didn’t define Cavid’s real origin.

Covidtes.Gov website, during which people could order free coronavirus tests before, can be redirected to this New page.

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The latest website of the White House also includes medical disinformation on the treatment of the virus, falsely claiming that social distance, mask and lock fines should not effective in alleviating the spread of Covid-19. However, Hundreds of research They showed that these preventive measures In fact, reduce respiratory infections equivalent to Covid-19.

In the months, since Trump again confirmed his role of the US president, many web sites have been edited to reflect the program of his administration. With the help of Doge Elona Musk, the government tried to remove tons of of words related to diversity from government documents. This Include Words equivalent to “black”, “disability”, “diversity”, “sex”, “racism”, “women” and lots of more. The government also removed the mention of scientifically proven climate change from environmental sites.

(Tagstotranslate) covid

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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