Welcome to Reading List, a weekly collection of great tech reads from around the web. This week explores the history of the Border Gateway Protocol, how our music recommendation algorithms are studying us, whether Seoul is becoming the new Silicon Valley, and more! Enjoy.
- Despite years of dire warnings about its vulnerabilities, a protocol developed in 1989 still directs most long-haul traffic on the internet. This fascinating exploration into the “three-napkins” or Border Gateway Protocol details new efforts to fix security weaknesses that are almost as old as the internet itself. [The Washington Post]
- The rapid rise of recommendation algorithms has revolutionized the way we listen to music. But more than just mapping users’ tastes, it seems that the future of music curation will lie in tracking our individual behavior. [NPR]
- It’s no longer clear that Silicon Valley is forging the future of technology. A number of cities around the world are now giving the California tech hub a run for its money, none more so than Seoul, which is home to a growing number of startups building chaotic, multifunctional, and decidedly original apps. [The New York Times]
- We’ve all encountered chumboxes: Those grid-like banner ads that sit at the bottom of web pages offering up a slew of content you probably couldn’t care less about. But these smorgasbords of botox, fat celebrity pics and questionable diet pills are really just the gateway into a vast sewer of internet schlock. Into the chumpools we go! [The Awl]
- Style companies like Stitch Fix, which use algorithms and data science to sell women clothes, are trying to bring the convenience of the on-demand economy to fashion. But do technology-driven personal stylists distract from the deeper problems plaguing the women’s fashion industry? [Buzzfeed]
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