A team photo of Rooster Teeth Productions. Credit: Brian Huynh, contributed by Rooster Teeth
Sadly, “The Linkdown” was retired a while back, but there’s too much interesting stuff going on this week not to at least mention in a roundup.
Here’s some local tech stuff you may have missed this week:
Rooster Teeth sold: as if those folks weren't busy enough making a movie and putting out their regular stuff, the house that "Red vs. Blue" built had time to make an acquisition deal with Los Angeles-based Fullscreen. Rooster Teeth will remain in Austin, but will expand to L.A.
Ted Cruz raises Internet ire: The U.S. Senator from Texas called net neutrality "Obamacare for the Internet" and it did not take long for techies to unpack that statement as being… well… not entirely accurate in any form or by any stretch of the imagination. The danger of insta-Tweeting!
Amazon adding jobs in Austin, probably: It looks like Amazon may be hiring 250 in town to occupy a 76,000 square foot office at the Domain. That works out to just over 300 square feet per employee by my calculations!
AT&T hates net neutrality THIS much: Not nearly as bad as a Ted Cruz statement on the matter, but still cause for concern — AT&T said it's putting a "pause" on its fiber rollout because of uncertainty about net neutrality. Now, to me a "pause" is something you do for five minutes while you get some cheese and crackers while watching TV, not grinding to a halt a rollout of technology in 100 cities. I think that word might be "Halt" or "Suspend" or "Cease." Pause? Really, AT&T? Luckily, Austin will not be affected since that fiber buildout is well underway, but then most of those 100 cities aren't staring down the barrel of competition from Google Fiber.
Statesman/Austin360 new look: Have you noticed this page looks a lot different than it did last week? Both Statesman.com and Austin360 have been redesigned. Check out this FAQ and story to learn more about the changes. Got suggestions? Send them to feedback@statesman.com.
Internet radio ftw: My beloved "Statesman Shots" podcast had a great guest this week, Ken Herman. Surprisingly, Ken chose as his recommendation to listeners Internet radio, which he says gives you a glimpse of the rest of the world without traveling. You can hear that segment starting at 34:42 on SoundCloud. Bonus: you get to hear me rave about Wurstfest, something I love to perhaps an unhealthy degree.
It feels like we haven't talked in a while? Got things you'd like to see me write about on the Digital Savant blog? Things you hate? Links you want me to share? You can email me and let me know or drop a comment here.
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