Weekly Links #12

Here is a weekly selection of important information bits, thoughtful opinion pieces and interesting analyses from the digital and technology world. Published every Thursday.

If you want to make sure not to miss this link collection, sign up for the weekly newsletter. It is published each Thursday right after this list goes live.

The selection does not contain links to articles about the Apple Watch because you most likely have read a lot about it already.

• I Tried VR Porn, And It Was Weird
  
  Fascinating and thought-provoking account.
• I Can’t Stop Using This Shitty App That I Hate
  
  The author coins the term “hate tap”, describing the strange habit of having to open an app on the smartphone that one for different reasons does not like to use, yet somehow cannot stop opening.
• The Secrets of Writing Smart, Long-form Articles That Go Absolutely Viral
  
  The headline is a bit misleading. This is not another quickly churned out post promising something that won’t be delivered, but a profile about Wait But Why, an unconventional site that manages to create viral long-form content.
• Inside GigaOm’s VC-driven demise
  
  The sudden closing of GigaOm, one of the first major tech blogs that appeared back during the Web 2.0 days, came as a surprise and shock to many. Personally I subscribed in 2008 and stopped in September last year when GigaOm truncated its RSS feed and overall felt less and less relevant. Probably there are more details to be uncovered about what happened in the background over the past year, after the latest round of funding.
• Google CFO retires with a candid memo about work/life balance
  
  This is a pretty good and inspiring memo, even though most people cannot afford to retire with 52 years.
• European Parliament backs cap on card processing fees
  
  Considering that this means that processing fees will end up at only 1/5 or 1/4 of what they are now in some European countries, this is kind of a big deal with consequences on commerce, e-commerce and the Fin-Tech sector.
• An incredibly shrinking Firefox faces endangered species status
  
  This is a sad trend and not good if the goal is to defend an open web which is independent from the commercial interest of a few giant tech companies.
• One billion Dollars
  
  A lot of tech companies are valued at $1 billion today. Not 850 million or $1.5 billion, but exactly $1 billion. Philipp Moehring of Anglelist explains how this can happen.
• The REAL Death Of The Music Industry
  
  A telling visualization of the decline of music sales in the U.S.
• Inside Big Taxi’s Dirty War with Uber
  
  It is widely known that the taxi industry has its fair share of questionable characters and business practices. If Uber would be nice, it would have failed long time ago, pushed out of the market by the taxi cartel. Still it is sad that one asshole is being replaced by another asshole.
• Just published: Digital Tailspin – Ten Rules for the Internet After Snowden
  
  I have read the German original version of this book and enjoyed it a lot. Truly recommended.
• Benedict Evans wants you to know that Google is a tiny company
  
  Profile of Benedict Evans, a mobile analyst who works for the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and who nowadays is cited in seemingly every second article about the mobile boom.
• The Uber of Myanmar
  
  About the challenges of creating an on-demand transport service in a country that just recently opened up to the outside world and to commercial mobile carriers.
• Pirates Iceland’s Third-Largest Political Party
  
  Iceland is a country always worth a unexpected event or trend.
• The thing killing open-source is the people
  
  Apparently there are a lot of unpleasant people and bullies working in the open source community.