Reed Albergotti
@ReedAlbergotti
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Tech editor @semafor . co-author of Wheelmen, retired hockey player, Minnesotan. I like riding bikes.
San Francisco, CA
Joined October 2008
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Scoop:
@OpenAI
has hired about 1K contractors over the past six months around the world, and about 400 of them are programmers who are teaching its models, in granular detail, how to code. w/
@lmatsakis
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2K
Craig Federighi, Apple's own senior vice president of software engineering, just swore under oath that security on Mac computers is unacceptably poor and regularly exploited by malware. Quite surprising to hear coming from one of Apple's own top officials.
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Scoop: Apple has dropped its lawsuit against Corellium, which was scheduled to go to trial and was being closely watched by a security industry that feared it would have a chilling effect on research tools used to make software safer.
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513
Facebook knowingly permitted false information to remain to be published on its site, for fear of a backlash from conservatives.
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I'm writing a newsletter.
You'll get
@semafor
's hottest tech scoops that take you inside the most intriguing companies in the world and help you understand the captivating characters shaping our future, plus a lot more.
Sign up for Semafor Tech here 👇
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@SaraGonzalesTX
I hope these heroes are recognized and the identity of the shooter is never known
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Thread: 1/12 The big scoop in this article with
@nakashimae
is we finally know all the details on how the FBI unlocked the iPhone belonging to a terrorist in the San Bernardino attacks in 2016. But it’s even more interesting
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Please read this article about Cher Scarlett, who is leading a worker uprising from inside Apple. It’s a story about a fascinating and very resilient person, but it’s also about the changes happening right now in tech and the headwinds against the change
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Here’s the new Microsoft-OpenAI dynamic as best I can tell. Microsoft has exclusive rights to use OpenAI models. OpenAI can’t train any new models without Microsoft. OpenAI could go to Amazon or Google and ask them to train new models, but they’d get sued by Microsoft and they ..
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This just in:
@CorelliumHQ
wins its copyright battle against Apple, a pretty surprising defeat in what was a very David v Goliath battle.
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Scoop: Microsoft has an internal Minecraft demo where, instead of manually mining/building, etc., you can describe your vision to an AI (like a ChatGPT prompt) and watch your creation come to life. More details here.
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Elon Musk didn't adhere to SEC rules when he bought Twitter. On paper, that made him $156 million. He's unlikely to face any consequences because the rules aren't that big of a deal for someone who can afford to pay a six-figure fine.
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Scoop: Sundar Pichai addressed the company tonight about the Gemini debacle, calling the responses unacceptable and vowing structural changes to how the company rolls out future products. Full story here:
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SCOOP: The White House is cracking down on China with potentially multiple executive orders that it wants to get out before the midterms. Semafor hasn't launched yet but this one wouldn't hold, so check it out here
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Cydia, created by
@saurik
, was the "app store" before the App Store and it led to a lot of innovation on the iPhone. Apple crushed Cydia's business and more or less stopped "jailbreaking." It's all being revisited in a new lawsuit filed today.
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@micsolana
A lot of what lawyers do is negotiation that isn’t really about the law. How does an AI convince a client not to take certain risk, or know which provisions added by a counterparty are ok and which ones are worth fighting, even if it risks a delay of the deal, etc?
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1
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I’ve got a new job and I’m so excited about it. I’ll be joining the indefatigable
@semaforben
at
@semafor
and leading tech coverage for the yet-to-launch publication. What does Semafor mean, you ask? 1/5
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10
187
The last four years at
@theinformation
have been so wonderful and what
@Jessicalessin
has built is one of the singular accomplishments in journalism. I'm excited to join The Washington Post, but I will truly miss my amazing colleagues here.
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Obviously, this is an attempt to explain why iOS should not be "opened up." But still there was a time when a key marketing point for Macs was that they are safe and viruses are exceedingly rare. Now, we hear their security is "unacceptable" to the company that makes them.
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Of course, Apple is making Macs more like iOS, so Apple knocking its own security on Macs could be an attempt to further "lock down" Macs, pushing out competition.
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Getting a 10/10 here makes not having a guest room so worth it.
Nice book setup. Well framed. The largest fronds ever seen on Room Rater for the 10/10.
@ReedAlbergotti
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Apple is starting to promote its new advertising offerings. This will no doubt raise a lot of eyebrows in the ad tech world. Apple effectively cleared the way when it implemented new privacy policies last year. Good scoop from
@kifleswing
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12/12 If there is a market for iOS exploits, Apple should win. It’s worth $2.25 trillion and has enough cash to outspend nearly anyone on paying for security exploits. It can hire whoever it wants. This isn't just about money or protecting iPhone customers. It's also about power
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scoop:
@Replit
becomes a unicorn, thanks to fresh funding from
@a16z
,
@khoslaventures
,
@coatuemgmt
and others. It's added >2 million developers in a month, making it a fast-growing competitor to GitHub.
@semafor
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Even if Twitter grossly underestimates the number of bots on its platform, a judge wouldn't let Elon Musk slip out his merger agreement as a result. That doesn't stop Musk from using it as a negotiating tactic. Twitter doesn't want a lengthy legal battle
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There's an irony in Elon Musk's criticism of OpenAI and its decision to become a for profit company: He bailed (along with his money) after his desire to take control of OpenAI was rebuffed. At the same time, costs were skyrocketing after transformer ...
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The team at
@theinformation
is really hitting on all cylinders. very impressive
@Jessicalessin
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Desperately searching for a GPU to train your AI model? You might find one ... on the blockchain. New from me:
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Scoop with
@lizrhoffman
: With a $10 billion investment, Microsoft could soon double down ( tenfold down?) on OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT and other mind blowing AI tools. Microsoft would also get 75% of all OpenAI profits for a time.
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On the day of Apple's testimony in front of the senate, when Apple said it does everything in its power to stop scams on the App Store, we found about 2% of the top 1k grossing apps were tricking consumers and taking their money. (thread)
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@JimmyOrr
@BullandBaird
of all the crazy stuff I've read on twitter, for some reason this comment made me squirm the most
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New: Sam Altman was raising a new venture fund right before he was fired. It was focused on hard tech. Unclear whether this had anything to do with his ouster
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The Altman firing is a truly unique turning point in business history. We may have just witnessed a small group of tech founders essentially blow up a company, forgoing hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars because they are concerned about where the tech may lead.
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Earlier this months,
@Post_AG
and I investigated a Covid ventilator contract overseen by the White House. Now a House subcommittee has opened up an investigation, requesting documents and communications with former Trump administration staffers
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I looked into the genesis story of Alameda research, and it's fascinating. If there wasn't an organized Effective Altruism movement, there never would have been an Alameda. The juicy details of how it came together. w/
@lizrhoffman
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Interesting blog post by famous Apple thinker
@gruber
on a story I wrote about how Apple uses the power and data of the App Store to replicate the best ideas of developers. Here's my article and here's Gruber's post:
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This comes just days after uproar in the security research community over Apple's decision to create photo scanning software that will look for child pornography on iPhones.
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Apple tried to water down the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would hold companies accountable for slave labor in their supply chains
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Last week, Apple's Craig Federighi said independent security researchers could examine iPhones to verify Apple's claims on CSAM scanning. It's ironic that
@CorelliumHQ
, a company Apple has tried to destroy, is to first to take him up on that offer
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Twitter just became a platform where everyone has to be very careful about what they Tweet.
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Another reporter is banned from Twitter, this time after asking
@elonmusk
for what appears to be comment on an article. This doesn't seem to be related to ElonJet or doxxing.
I reached out to Elon for comment for a story
@DrewHarwell
and I are working on. Here’s what I tweeted (below),
@ElonMusk
banned me for it lmaoo
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Apple's been criticized by congress and developers for its strict control of the App Store and its defense has revolved around one fundamental truth that most people believe: The App Store is safe because Apple tightly controls it. (It's 2021 and this is my first thread ever)
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5/12 Later, Apple tried unsuccessfully to acquire Corellium, a company Wang co-founded. If you can't hire them or acquire them, you can always sue. That’s what Apple did to Corellium, claiming a copyright violation. Apple nearly outed Azimuth's role in the unlock in that lawsuit
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Scoop from me and
@lizrhoffman
Twitter wants to raise more money at $44 billion valuation. Emails went out last night, of all nights.
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But what if the App Store is not safe? What if anonymous criminals can create apps, get them approved, and then change them into elaborate phishing scams without Apple knowing? In fact, they can, as this article details.
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Another astonishing fact in this article: Sam Altman owns no equity in OpenAI. Imagine founding a $30 billion company and basically doing it for free.
This isn't a mistake. He felt the company's mission was not about making money.
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A bit of courtroom drama this morning as Apple CEO Tim Cook takes the stand in the Epic v Apple trial. Because Covid, the public can actually listen to it live. But if you just want to read the important updates, we'll be posting them live here.
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9/12 The reason Apple believes Corellium is dangerous is that it allows researchers to examine that impenetrable wall Apple thinks can keep hackers out. Of course, examining the wall is also the only way to find flaws to fix
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New: The Apple Store in Manhattan could be the first one to make its union effort official. Organizers there have been working on this for months and say they’ve already endured union busting tactics from Apple
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Today marks the first tech newsletter with
@katyanna_q
, who just joined us. I'm so excited to work with her. I met her soon after Semafor launched at a tech dinner. I think ChatGPT had just launched and everyone was pretty clueless, honestly, about AI. Katynna knew so much and I…
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My first official story for
@semafor
unearths a tragic accident at SpaceX, but the whole point is to celebrate the unsung heroes of the industry - the technicians who sometimes put their lives on the line to build the rockets.
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Lyft and Uber are hitting the public markets essentially telling investors that the financials make sense when self-driving cars exist. So ride share stock prices are really a proxy for whether investors think that technology is possible.
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All have their own models anyway. Why muddle the IP waters? So OpenAI is stuck with Microsoft. But any time OpenAI trains a new model using Microsoft’s compute, they’ll be giving Sam Altman and Greg Brockman valuable information that they can use to help build internally ..
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Microsoft is highlighting a pretty interesting use case right now for Bing with GPT: Travel recommendations. "create an itinerary for a 5 day trip to Mexico City for me and my family" and Bing creates an itinerary instantly.
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FYI, there’s been a security breach at Las Vegas airport. The entire airport is on lockdown and the TSA is sending passengers who just arrived back to their planes and locking the doors. Anybody know what happened?
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My small part in the Pegasus Project, which shows just how widespread hacking of human rights workers, journalists and politicians has become, thanks to NSO Group tech. Many victims had iPhones, which are meant to be secure. Here's why they're not (Thread)
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We just had the biggest moment of the Epic v Apple trial, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers grilling Tim Cook on its lack of competition. It was brutal.
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.
@Semafor
is in the market for a new technology reporter. Media startups with staying power are rare, but this is one of them. I joined
@theinformation
as employee
#10
. Semafor has the same kind of feel to me, but at global scale.
3
8
43
Sam Bankman-Fried was trying to acquire Twitter at the same time Musk was building up a position. Why? And why was a philosopher involved in brokering a deal to invest $100 million of SBF's money in Musk's bid. Great scoop by
@lizrhoffman
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Scoop: OpenAI is building a mobile app for ChatGPT. And it's getting ready to launch GPT-4, which is not just smarter (more human sounding and detailed), but is faster, too, suggesting some real innovation on Microsoft's cloud.
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OpenAI's new CEO Emmett Shear seems to have a profile more aligned with the OpenAI board and its top researcher. And that raises all kinds of questions about the future of the company/nonprofit. w/
@lmatsakis
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@ZoeSchiffer
I’ll second what Patrick said. I’ve never received an email quite like that. It must be discouraging. You’re doing great work and I hope you are able to brush it aside. I know that can be difficult.
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scoop:
@Replit
is launching a new Teams feature for collaborative software development, and its first "AI agent" will auto-correct coding errors in milliseconds. Story here:
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5
40
@zachklein
True of basically any city in the world. People who live in NYC would hate it if the tourists invaded the real parts.
10
0
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Configured my new Mac Pro with all the best components and added a new Apple monitor. The more expensive version is still "coming soon."
12
7
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I’m at
@Replit
developer day and they just announced they’re open sourcing a new AI model trained on its data. Pretty interesting!
1
8
39
Apple's closed off culture has really hurt its ability to run a successful bug bounty program, which requires more openness and transparency. And that's not good for the security of Apple products.
2
14
38
News: Andreessen Horowitz is the investor behind Andy Rubin's new startup.
@pmarca
is on the board. It's interesting to try news in this format, where the story can also be kind of a discussion. I'd welcome thoughts, opinion, criticism on it.
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13
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New: Apple retail stores, where employees struggle to make a living wage, could soon be union shops. I talked to organizers of two stores that are close to filing. Others are earlier in the process. This would have been unthinkable just a couple years ago
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15
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8/12 The iPhone may be the most secure consumer product ever. As a result, ironically, we know very little about how many exploits exist for the iPhone and who is using them. We find out about zero-day exploits for iOS regularly. How many are out there that aren't reported?
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@micsolana
Yeah, that's definitely true. I think AI will replace some legal work (Which could actually be good for lawyers because it will allow them to take on more clients). But I think there are just certain tasks lawyers do that we'll never entrust to computers.
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@andymstone
Thank you for your comments. The first six paragraphs of the article describe 1) False information on the platform. 2) Concern of a conservative backlash. 3) The decision to leave "most" of the false information on the platform.
1
1
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3/12 One surprising reveal: After the San Bernardino unlock, Apple tried to hire David Wang, the hacker at Azimuth security who wrote the exploit that unlocked the iPhone. Apple says it didn’t know Azimuth was behind the unlock at the time
1
4
34
Based on the demo I'm watching, Bing just became the best search engine by a mile. Of course, we know Google is working on a competitor. As
@satyanadella
said earlier, "The race starts today."
0
8
37
Bottom line: Apple might have restrictions on mobile software distribution and it might collect big commissions. But when it comes to safety, the App Store is a lot more like the open internet than the company likes to admit. The assertion that control = safety is simply false.
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And the board of OpenAI’s main goal is essentially to keep this technology out of the hands of Sam Altman. So if you’re OpenAI, the best move here is to just keep new developments to yourself and not pass them on to Microsoft. But now you’re back to being sort a …
1
0
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10/12 So what are we really talking about here? Making iOS more secure or making it appear to be impenetrable?
1
2
35
loved this Q&A from
@lizrhoffman
with Igor Jablokov in today's
@semafor
Business newsletter. He's full of very colorful analogies:
1
13
34
The vultures have landed, seeking to capitalize on cash-strapped startups. from
@lizrhoffman
and me
2
21
34
Musk’s tweet about the Pelosi hammer attack is probably the most expensive tweet in the history of twitter. As
@semaforben
reports, digging out of the hole Musk created with advertisers is gonna be a long slog.
2
9
35
I recently 'discovered' the work of Philip Agre, and I found myself wondering why his name is not more known in the tech industry. It's decades old now, but helped me better understand a lot of the debates we're now having about tech and society.
4
17
33
Fascinated by this story.
@natfriedman
came up with a $250k prize to decipher these ancient texts, destroyed by Mount Vesuvius and found in Julius Caesar's brother-in-law's villa.
3
8
34
Bornstein is now questioning Tim Cook about Apple's targeted advertising business that uses its customers app search history and usage data to show ads. Cook says he's not familiar with that.
3
6
34
Why does Apple change the job title for every employee who either departs or takes a leave of absence to "associate?" No other company to my knowledge does this, and it indirectly cost one former employee a job recently.
4
16
32
Non profit research lab. Which is great, but in order to do your research, you need massive amounts of compute power and there are really only a handful of companies that can provide it. Well, you could take Microsoft’s money and pay retail to train your models on another …
1
0
33
People's Nest Cameras are getting hacked in horrific ways, but the reason why is less about security holes and more about choices that large companies are forced to make in the messy connected home industry. My story here:
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11/12 Apple said in the Corellium case that it wants security researchers to turn bugs into Apple because it’s the right and moral thing to do. But Apple surely understands there is a market for this kind of research and people aren’t going to give exploits away for free
2
1
33
This is a research project inside Microsoft and there are no immediate plans to make this a part of the consumer Minecraft experience. But it’s interesting to think about how AI might change gaming and to know these are ideas companies are mulling. That’s the point of the article
1
5
33
We used
@CorelliumHQ
to figure out how one of the ratings scams worked. It turns out apps were forcing users to rate their app and using a bug to create an invisible layer, blocking the user's ability to rate an app anything but four or five stars. Apple should have caught this
1
3
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Scoop: Tome, a new kind of AI-powered slideshow, is a hit with Gen Z, helping it gain > 10 million users in less than a year.
@magicaltome
@semafor
0
4
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7/12 Maybe security is the one area in which tight control is good for everyone. But maybe it’s not. Tight control also means less transparency and less visibility into when and how hacks happen
1
4
32
Elon Musk said worrying about Coronavirus was stupid. Then he sent ventilators to hospitals that weren't really ventilators. Interesting piece from
@faizsays
5
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The name Ingrassia is synonymous with the ideals of journalism. I was heartbroken to hear of Paul Ingrassia's passing today. We should all aspire to live up to the integrity, decency and skill that he demonstrated in his career and life.
0
2
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Hello from Seattle. I'm heading to the big Microsoft event today for
@semafor
and excited to see what gets announced.
3
2
30
I’m at
@Cisco
offices where we’re being piped in to a big crowd at our DC offices. Big props to our events team for making this work
0
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