Hello, welcome. In Techscape for this week: the cost of reducing costs from Elon Musk, the emotional closure of Skype, and a new documentary on immigration and monitoring.
The cost savings for Elon Musk will be very expensive for the United States
On Saturday, Elon Musk targeted his next goal in the federal government: the automatic technology department in Public Services Management (GSA), which the Guardian was among the first to be informed.
GSA, according to Website“It runs federal property and provides contracting options for government agencies.” Its technology department was known as 18F – and it consisted of about 90 employees, and many of them are software engineers devoted to simplifying the federal bureaucracy (a task that does not seem very far from what Musk claimed to be trying to do with Doge).
You may not know about 18f, but you may have heard about their most famous products: free tax supply programs. Sub -agencies have created the IRS Direct file, a program that aims to solve one of the most frustrating and connected examples of bureaucratic transgressions: having a thorn to criticize to be able to give the government money.
However, musk was not a fan. He tweeted a few weeks ago that he “delete” the direct IRS file, although he has been available so far. The fate of the program is unclear. Because of Musk’s work with DOGE, more people in the United States are likely to spend money that they have not spent before arriving in Washington. Efficiency efforts will personally cost American taxpayers.
It is just one of the countless ways that the Americans end up to a bill to provide musk costs.
my colleague Michael Scino Reports:
The Donald Trump administration can raise a “huge” bill and penetrate the law by shooting at government workers for false reasons, according to the senior work lawyer.
Officials were martyred with “weak performance” when thousands of federal workers ended. In many cases, this is not true, according to the employees involved in Blitz, many of them are now seeking legal advice.
She said that Susan Samlin, the lawyer of the employment, summarized matters: “These extinguishing they run without following the law will lead to hundreds of thousands of former federal employees who owe payment, in addition to the benefits, in addition to law fees.” “When the bill comes it will be huge.”
Read the full story.
It is Diga Fu in Muskworld. After Musk acquired Twitter and launched the majority of its employees and its entire executive list, it allowed both groups to demand that it be cut in court if they were happy. They filed a lawsuit.
Bloomberg said that Musk has lost all its battles due to the separation with the former Twitter employees so far: “Four former workers have prevailed in a series of closed arbitration procedures on closed doors on the allegations that were illegally rejected, according to a note that Bloomberg News saw.
“Shannon is not Ryuardan, a lawyer who represents the former arbitration employees, in the memo that the twenty cases that it won so far cost the company at least twice the amount of disputed service salaries because the prizes also included interest, arbitration expenses and legal fees. It represents more than 2000 former employees in legal battles against musk.”
More about musk …
Share your memories from Skype
Microsoft announced on Friday that it will close Skype. More than 20 years ago, the producer was once everywhere and originally so that his name became a general actually to call a person via video.
More than most parts of technology, Skype caused emotion. It was a piece of culture as well as technology. There were a few other well -known programs for video calls, a procedure that a daily person uses in a specific era except Skype. Films created Knockoff Skype when the characters spoke in a video with each other to strip the set Skype tone To excite 2012. With any of the approach, the viewer used to say that the people on the screen were Skying.
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You may have more exactly associated memories to Skype more than your headphones, for example. There are many sound delivery versions; There was, for some time, only one Skype.
We would like to share it with us for a story. Where were you when you made your first video call? Can you remember the best skype call you have ever, and the worst? What feelings raised by the Skype tone? Who are you thinking when you think about a video call in 2012, and why? Did you live your relationship with Skype when you live away?
Responding to this email and telling your memories about Skype for us. One of the readers has already sent us a song they composed on the ringtone. We hope to share it with you soon.
A new documentary is looking for monitoring works
My colleague Johanna Bhawyan writes about a new movie about immigration and a wide network of surveillance enforcement agencies that I created in response:
The deployment of the Trump immigration campaign is chaos, confusion and fear throughout the country since its inauguration. But many tools and tactics have been used by the administration by each administration at least in 2004.
A new documentary was called in a timely manner over the first Trump administration, Borderland: Line insideIt brings some clarity to the roads in which the “IDP” weapon is carried out in Trump’s first state as a president and how it affected asylum seekers and migrants working in the system. Specifically, the documentary film, directed by Pamela Yates and Baku de O’unis, follows Skylight Pictures, the migrant journey that turned into Kaxh MURA’L and Gabriella Castañeda activists.
MURA’L is Maya from the indigenous population, he left Guatemala, where he was a defender of environmental lands, Castaida or lost her position in DACA during the roaming epidemic. When MURA’L was released after months of detention, he was obligated to wear ankle control by a private company called BI Inc, which was widely reported by the trustee. He said although he was no longer detained, he was still not free.
The documentary focused on companies and companies that benefit from monitoring migrants in the United States. A group of data scientists, who worked in Colombia at the time, looked at many billions of dollars granted to companies by the Ministry of Internal Security, both for private detention centers or ankle control system. The film is shown through a point that we are trying to produce in many of our reports: There is a complete industry that competes for very profitable contracts to enable the United States government to track and deport immigrants. Only this week, the largest private contractor for immigration and customs in the United States said he was planning a premium surveillance with a continued Trump immigrant campaign.
In a question and answer with the Guardian employees, Yits said she believed that the cruelty of the regime is part of this point because it creates an environment of fear that may discourage immigrants from fighting for their rights. “People who do not have documents in the United States have this fear within themselves … they can be arrested and deported,” said Yates. “And I think the amir is the cruelty that is afraid.”