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Tech Week: Look At The Cloud, Aereo In Court, Net Neutrality

Paul Hopkins of DuPont Fabros stands on the roof of company's newest Silicon Valley data center. "It's about the same size and length as a Nimitz aircraft carrier," he says.
Steve Henn
/
NPR
Paul Hopkins of DuPont Fabros stands on the roof of company's newest Silicon Valley data center. "It's about the same size and length as a Nimitz aircraft carrier," he says.

It was another busy week in the technology and society space, so we'll dive right into your weekly roundup:

ICYMI

Cloud Week: As we do every once in a while, the tech reporting team reported on a single theme together, with stories sprinkled throughout the week. This week, Steve Henn took a look at to power the data centers that make up the cloud, I reported on between Amazon and Google over cloud computing and Laura Sydell chronicled for your personal data.

Losing Our Religion: A new study by a computer scientist links the rise of the Internet with the post-1990 decline in religious affiliation. The Internet doesn't explain all or even most of the decline, but at how the statistics back up the finding.

Buyer Behavior: How does adding state taxes to purchases on Amazon affect sales? Business correspondent Yuki Noguchi on the effects, and found that yes, adding "Amazon taxes" does make a difference.

The Big Conversation

The Future of TV: Aereo is a startup that lets you stream broadcast programming over your computer, but it's not paying rebroadcasting fees to the big networks for that programming. Needless to say, the networks aren't happy and say their content is basically being stolen. Their , which heard arguments in the case on Tuesday. The high court is expected to rule by summer.

Net Neutrality Rules: The Federal Communications Commission chairman is proposing to let Web companies pay for faster Internet access, which critics say creates the haves and have-nots that they feared. , some Internet entrepreneurs are wondering how they would have fared under such rules.

Curiosities

Gawker:

You gotta love the Internet. This is what happens when crowdsourcing goes wrong.

Reuters:

It's one of the many flashpoints over regulation of the short-term housing offered by the startup.

On the Road: I'm writing this roundup from downtown Las Vegas, where I'm doing a reporting trip on tech founder Tony Hsieh's bid to revitalize the urban core of Vegas in the same way tech startups work — huge infusions of cash and building a strong brand and culture. The story won't air for another month or so, but I'm sharing behind-the-scenes photos on .

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Elise Hu is a host-at-large based at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Previously, she explored the future with her video series, Future You with Elise Hu, and served as the founding bureau chief and International Correspondent for NPR's Seoul office. She was based in Seoul for nearly four years, responsible for the network's coverage of both Koreas and Japan, and filed from a dozen countries across Asia.