Bill Gates Makes a Darn Good Secret Santa

A participant in Reddit’s gift exchange got quite a shock after opening her present and realizing that it was from none other than the Microsoft chairman and philanthropist.

N3twork Wants to Reshape Online Discussions Around Interests

It’s all about the hashtag.

News Byte

Holiday Shopping for Your Favorite Astronomer? Perhaps a 3-D Printout of Cosmic Stellar Death.

Last week, the Smithsonian released 3-D scans of 21 of its 137 million artifacts, from small to the impossibly massive — an orchid, a limestone Buddha, the Wright brothers’ plane … a supernova remnant. The models were built with methods including lasers, CT scans and photogrammetry via a sponsorship from Autodesk. Everyone is invited to explore them online and, when possible, 3-D print them. As you might imagine, this went over pretty well on Reddit — “We just printed and were able to hold an example of cosmic stellar death in our hands,” said the Smithsonian 3-D team in a Q&A on the site.

New Blippy Mobile App Will Help You Find the Perfect Reaction GIF

Basically: GIFs on mobile.

Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Needs No Permission (Video)

The serial entrepreneur talks about his new book, “Without Their Permission.”

Does Social Media Help Videogame Developers Find Fans? It Depends on Whom You Ask.

“At least two-thirds of the people who use Reddit have acne.”

As Suitors Swarm, Imgur Partners With Yahoo to Host Images

“People are literally — literally — sliding term sheets under their door,” said one source.

News Byte

Tech Firms Rally, Expecting Justice Department to Oppose Transparency Requests

Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo and other tech companies today sent a letter to the heads of the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of proposed legislation that would allow them to publish statistics about secret national security surveillance orders. The Center for Democracy & Technology, which organized the group, said the letter was timed to coincide with the U.S. Justice Department’s filing of a brief with the FISA court today opposing many of those companies’ requests to disclose information about when it asks them for user data.

Photomattic

It’s really hard not to be distracted by the things you think you should be doing, or that you see other businesses doing, and focus in on what actually matters to your chosen business day in and day out.

— WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, during his Reddit AMA session, offering advice on running a startup

Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Others Call for More NSA Transparency

The alliance includes 63 companies, investors, non-profits and trade organizations.

Reddit, Brought to You by YouTube

Happy Internet Freedom Day, Y’all