Technology: What Geeks are talking about from The New York Times

Here is the latest Tech News from The New York Times.

For Indian Start-Ups, Tenacity Beats High Tech Venture capitalists looking to fund start-ups in India place more emphasis on execution than on intellectual property.

Arms Control Groups Urge Human Control of Robot Weaponry In a report issued at a United Nations meeting, the groups said technology that leaves killing decisions to machines was “profoundly disturbing.”

Daily Mail Considering Bid for Yahoo Assets The British tabloid newspaper and website confirmed that it had “very early stage” discussions with other buyers on a potential bid.

Bits: Intuit, a True Survivor, Relocates to the Cloud The company, famous for its personal finance and tax programs, has sold off its traditional software business and reinvented itself as an online service.

Tech Tip: Marking Up Web Pages in Windows 10 Microsoft’s Edge browser comes with a tool that lets you scribble, highlight and make other notations on your personal copy of an open web page.

Intuit Sheds Its PC Roots and Rises as a Cloud Software Company Intuit’s willingness to change course was an asset when Xero established itself as a clear alternative to QuickBooks, especially in foreign markets.

Bits: Billing by Millionths of Pennies, Cloud Computing’s Giants Take In Billions This economics of tiny things demonstrates the global power of the few companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google, that can make fortunes from the small.

Bits: The Week in Tech: Facebook Live, a More Civil Reddit and Yahoo’s Odd Deal-Making Michael de la Merced, of DealBook, fills in for Farhad Manjoo and joins Mike Isaac for a discussion of all that and Twitter’s football deal.

Op-Ed Contributors: Why Apple’s Stand Against the F.B.I. Hurts Its Own Customers Privacy advocates applauded the decision not to hack into a terrorist’s phone, but the iPhone is more vulnerable as a result.

For Some Top Nonprofits, Changing the World Begins in Seattle Philanthropic efforts of those who made billions in the tech industry have put the Pacific Northwest at the epicenter of a push to improve global health.

Vivendi and Mediaset Join Forces to Consolidate Europe’s Media Industry The French and Italian companies announced a share-swap deal that will give each a 3.5 percent stake in the other.

Job Hunting in the Digital Age Robots may be scanning your résumé for keywords, but that doesn’t mean you have to think like one.

Once a Bright Spot, Afghan Telecoms Face Unsustainable Losses Cellphone providers challenged by the loss of potential customers and hurt by new taxes are trying to expand services and bring more Afghans online.

Tech Tip: Blogging on the Road You do not have to be tied to the computer to keep your blog updated while you see the world.

Bits: Amazon Encounters a Bumpy Road in India Amazon and some of its rivals appear to have run afoul of new rules around foreign ownership of e-commerce companies operating in India.

2 Twitter Directors to Be Replaced Twitter is adding an executive from PepsiCo and an Internet entrepreneur as it faces pressure to remake its board.

U.S. Presses Bid to Force Apple to Unlock iPhone in New York In a letter to a federal judge, the Justice Department said it still required help despite its success in gaining iPhone data in a separate case.

In Reddit’s Unruly Corners, Trump Finds Support Sites like Reddit and 4chan have become a sort of proving ground, where an extreme, Internet-amped version of Donald Trump’s message is shared and refined.

Amazon May Violate India’s New Rules on Foreign E-Commerce The government added regulations related to pricing and the sourcing of sales on sites that Amazon and several rivals appear to break.

Uber Settles Suit Over Driver Background Checks The settlement brings to an end a long-running headache for Uber over whether it does enough to scrutinize its drivers.

Wheels: Start-Stop Technology Is Coming to Cars (Like It or Not) The system saves fuel by cutting the engine when the car comes to a stop, but many drivers find it disruptive and disable it.

Tesla’s Model 3 Already Has 325,000 Prospective Owners The depth of enthusiasm for Tesla’s first mass-market electrified model, as measured by pre-orders, stunned industry analysts.

Gay Talese Goes Through the Twitter Wringer Asked which ‘women who write’ had inspired him, the 84-year-old nonfiction writer said, ‘None.’ That’s when he started trending.

Bits: Reddit’s Small Step to Tame the Internet’s Toxic Culture The online discussion forum introduced a tool that lets users block others from sending them harassing messages, in a shift away from the laissez-faire web.

Tech Tip: Keeping the Bluetooth Connection Alive If your wireless mouse or other Bluetooth device keeps breaking up with your computer, a few troubleshooting steps may reunite the two.

Open Blog: Learning and Exploring on 100% Day When you hear “hackathon” you envision a scene from “The Social Network”: bleary-eyed developers working into the early morning, slamming energy drinks, furiously typing away on keyboards; the end goal being to best your competition, and be showered in glory from your peers. When I joined The New York Times two years ago, I assumed my first 100% Day would be similar; nothing could be further from the truth.

Glenn Schiffman, Veteran Media Investment Banker, Joins IAC Mr. Schiffman, a former co-head of media banking at Lehman Brothers, will be the Internet conglomerate’s chief financial officer.

U.S. Adds China’s Internet Controls to List of Trade Barriers American officials cite blocked websites and other limits on information as bad for foreign companies doing business in the vast market.

Misconceptions: When Is the Singularity? Probably Not in Your Lifetime Most artificial intelligence researchers still discount the idea of an “intelligence explosion” that will outstrip human capabilities.

Samsung Profits Are Up, Thanks to Its Galaxy 7 Smartphone In a return to form, the South Korean electronics maker benefited from sales of smartphones, its recent Achilles’ heel.

Hedge Funds Are the New Venture Firms Funds are pouring millions into start-ups, particularly financial tech companies using the Internet and automation to replace traditional banking.

Yahoo Paints Grim Financial Picture as Deadline for Bids Nears The Internet giant warned potential bidders about a projected decline of $600 million in revenue this year, as it prepares to sell its core business.

App Smart: What the Apple Watch Does, One Year Later A selection of apps have added to the uses for the smartwatch, while one literally puts a new face on it with an assortment of images.

From Wall Street Banking, a New Wave of Fintech Investors Onetime stars of banking are betting millions on new financial technologies that range from lending to payments to investing.

Homeland Security Dept. Struggles to Hire Staff to Combat Cyberattacks The department has trouble recruiting computer experts because it pays less than the private sector and lacks the allure of intelligence agencies.

Why We Are Still Reaching for Wallets, Not Phones, at the Checkout Tech companies, banks and stores have bet big on the future of mobile payments, yet a tiny fraction of total purchases are being made with phones.

Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Revamps 401(k) Accounts in New Job The ex-banker, Greg Smith, now oversees marketing and business development as the president of Blooom, a start-up that guides savers to appropriate retirement investments.

‘Fintech’ Loses Some of Its Attraction for Investors In recent years, money has poured into financial technology start-ups, but some have trouble keeping their lofty valuations when they go public.

For Fintech Start-Ups, Efforts to Rethink Rules That Cramp Innovation Many current laws were built for older forms of finance, like Western Union, meaning that modern companies must adapt to 19th-century regulations.

Investing With a Conscience, but Done by a Robot It’s called ESG investing, for environmental, social and governance factors, and firms are feeding this data to an algorithm to decide where to invest.

DealBook: Fintech Firms Are Taking On the Big Banks, but Can They Win? A spate of mergers and acquisitions that puts the disrupters squarely inside the institutions they were supposed to overtake is one possible outcome of the fintech frenzy.

Facebook Groups Act as Weapons Bazaars for Militias Facebook posts suggest evidence of large-scale efforts to buy and sell weapons as large as guided missiles in the Middle East and North Africa.

Reddit Steps Up Anti-Harassment Measures With New Blocking Tool The discussion site is hoping that less negative speech will encourage users to engage more with the community.

Technology Transforms How Insurers Calculate Risk New methods of collecting and evaluating information allow insurers to determine more precise premiums based on each customer’s particular risk.

Start-Ups Aim at Overlooked Demographic: The Unbanked An organization called the Financial Solutions Lab teaches interested start-ups how to address the problems of low-income consumers.

Ripple Aims to Put Every Transaction on One Ledger Companies are moving beyond the new currency idea of Bitcoin to focus on “distributed ledgers” where every piece of a global transaction is recorded.

Timeline: The Evolution of Fintech Starting in 1865, the structures, networks and ideas that are the foundation for financial technology today began to take shape.

Gadgetwise: How to Switch to iPhone From Android: Patience and Persistence Transitioning from one operating system to another should in theory be simple, but as one technology reporter learned, in reality, many things can go wrong.

Bits: F.B.I. May Have Put Down Sword, but Privacy Debate Goes On The F.B.I. won’t say what it found on the San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone, and WhatsApp says it has encrypted all communications, as the push-pull over digital privacy continues.