Here’s a summary of the interesting startup links I came across today:

Join us for an exciting evening of quick inspiration with Rose City Techies at the most beautiful co-working space in all of Portland, Kiln. At Tech Sparks, local innovators, developers, designers, founders and creatives will each have 10-15 minutes to share their technology-related stories, ideas, experiences and ideas. No slides are needed (but you can if you wish) – just short, punchy talks designed to spark conversation and connection.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) as a national securities exchange, paving the way for the first new, fully integrated U.S. exchange in decades — and the only exchange headquartered in Texas.

Where the hurried and anxious often come together to agree and coordinate about the same things, because the rest of the world has gone blind and crazy. In some ways, the technical solutions seem relatively promising, and we’ve gone from “it might actually be impossible” levels of impossible to “shut up and do the impossible” levels of impossible, all you have to do is beat the game on the impossible difficulty level. Like fast running. On your first try. good luck.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and technology founder Michael Dell were among the executives who reached out to President Donald Trump or his top aides to talk up Tan’s credentials and patriotism after the president publicly called for his firing, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Seattle-based startup organization — known for producing companies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and real-world applications — has closed a third $80 million fund to support about 70 new technology projects over the next four years.

When a Guardian reporter pointed out on social media that the photo wasn’t a real photo of the small and generally tame protests outside the ICE field office in Portland, the Oregon Republican Party’s X account responded: “We’re not reporters, just bad memories.”

Our survey in six countries (Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the US) explored how people use generative AI in their daily lives, what they think its impact will be on different areas of society, and what they think of its use in news and journalism specifically.

SXSW Pitch is a leading startup showcase highlighting the most ambitious entrepreneurs and revolutionary technologies from around the world. Now in its 18th year, this dynamic event invites startups to apply through an open call process for a chance to appear as a finalist.

Stratesea’s product targets customers dealing with huge amounts of data coming from seafloor mapping. These are corporate and government users who look for dangers at the bottom of the ocean. This can include everything from unexploded ordnance or mines to natural terrain hazards, said Brice Doucet, an oceanographer by training. She said her scientific research focused on machine learning and computer vision applied to audio data.

The TiE Collegiate Startup Challenge is a new statewide competition for entrepreneurs at Oregon and Southwest Washington colleges and universities—including students, faculty, and alumni—who are ready to showcase their startups and gain knowledge.

In 2000, the ‘network became an increasingly more diverse and social place to hang out. Flash animated pages were everywhere, bloggers were discovering and connecting with each other, and social news sites like Slashdot and MetaFilter were growing in popularity. So, despite the declining economy, creativity in web design as well as community in blogging and social news became what defined the year 2000.