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-[{"headline": "SwiftUI", "content": "SwiftUI is a method of building user interfaces across all Apple platforms using Swift. It uses declarative syntax, so developers can easily state what the UI requirements are. Xcode 11\u2019s design tools work seamlessly with SwiftUI, so changes are displayed immediately in the preview as soon as code is typed. It also works in reverse, so code is updated as soon as design elements are changed in the preview."}, {"headline": "JavaScript Performance in the Wild 2020", "content": "This article analyzes the top 1 million pages on the web to find out what makes the web slow. A scripted web browser was used to browse to the root page of the top 1 million domains and log render times, request counts, repaints, JavaScript errors, libraries used, and other data. The analysis provided support for several optimization tricks, such as making as few requests as possible, using HTTP2 or greater, and avoiding render blocking requests and using async where possible. JQuery is the most popular library, but the data says it significantly slows down performance."}, {"headline": "Jeff Bezos took the controls of some 'weirdly natural' giant robot hands but could not solve the riddle of a Rubik's cube", "content": "Jeff Bezos demonstrated a pair of remote-controlled robotics hands at Amazon\u2019s re:MARS conference in Las Vegas this week. The robot hands were able to perform delicate tasks, such as stacking cups. Bezos described using the hands as \u2018weirdly natural\u2019 and that the haptic feedback provided by the gloves was \u2018tremendous\u2019. The robot exhibit was a collaboration between Shadow Robot, HaptX, and SynTouch. Shadow Robot specializes in building dexterous robotic hands, HaptX develops technologies for touch feedback, and SynTouch makes robots that can sense touch. A 44 second video is available showing Bezos using the device."}, {"headline": "Travelex being held to ransom by hackers", "content": "Hackers have forced Travelex to turn off its computer systems and resort to pen and paper. The attack occurred on New Year's Eve and it forced Travelex to take down its websites across 30 countries. A ransomware gang called Sodinokibi has claimed responsibility for the attack, demanding $6 million from Travelex. It claims to have obtained 5GB of sensitive customer data, including dates of birth, credit card information, and national insurance numbers. The Information Commissioner's Office has not received a data breach report from Travelex. Travelex has been working with police and has deployed IT specialists and external cyber-security experts to investigate the issue. Many businesses that rely on Travelex's services have been affected by the attack."}, {"headline": "Following criticism, Robinhood backtracks on checking and savings feature", "content": "So the Robinhood checking and savings account that was in Friday's TLDR that offered 3% interest turned out to be a bit too good to be true. The accounts claimed to be covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, but evidently they were not. Robinhood is now going back to the drawing board with the product."}, {"headline": "Truffle", "content": "Truffle is a development environment, testing framework, and asset pipeline for Ethereum. It features built-in smart contract compilation, linking, deployment, binary management, and more. A default set of contracts are included for developers to quickly test and build custom contracts."}, {"headline": "GrubHub+ gets you free deliveries and cashback for $10 a month", "content": "GrubHub+ is the new subscription for GrubHub that includes unlimited free delivery, 10 percent cash back on orders, and other perks. The perks will only be available with restaurants that enroll in the program. There are currently approximately 100,000 restaurants participating in the program in the US. A 14-day free trial is available, and GrubHub is offering a 30-day free trial for customers subscribed to a competing service. There is a $12 minimum for an order to qualify for free delivery."}, {"headline": "I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page", "content": "Ibrahim Diallo, a freelance web-designer who was used to hopping from project to project, talks about his experience where he was offered a fairly easy project at a large company. The project involved designing a static HTML page, a job which he estimated would take him only a few hours, but the company also wanted his exclusive attention to the project. After quoting the company 20 hours, he then spent most of his time waiting for the work to be sent to him. The project ended up taking seven weeks due to delays in receiving the required materials to complete it. After everything was done, Diallo calculated that if he went with his original quote, $1,500 for a 20 hour project, he would\u2019ve ended up being paid a total of $5.35 an hour. In the end, he quoted the company for $18,000, the same rate he originally quoted, accounting for the extended time. A manager wrote back breaking down the actual time he worked and it resulted in a quote of $21,000, which he was asked to confirm. Diallo quickly confirmed the quote."}, {"headline": "Peter Thiel to step down from board of Facebook parent Meta", "content": "Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor and board member since 2005, is leaving the company's board. Thiel made his initial fortune as the co-founder of PayPal. He started a Founders Fund, which has backed companies like Stripe, Affirm, and Airbnb. Thiel is still chairman at Palantir Technologies, which he co-founded in 2003. He will continue to serve on Meta's board until the company's 2022 annual stockholder's meeting. Facebook's recent first-quarter forecast sent the company's stock down by 26%, its worst drop on record."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk says Twitter deal \u2018on hold\u2019 after spam / fake account report", "content": "Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter has been put temporarily on hold while Musk waits for the company to show how it calculated the number of false or spam accounts on its platform. Musk is still committed to the acquisition and it will proceed after Twitter provides satisfactory information on its numbers. Twitter has miscalculated the number of daily users on its platform in past reports. The number of false or spam accounts could be higher than estimated. Cutting down on false and bot accounts is a key part of Musk's pitch for improving the business."}, {"headline": "Astronomers discover new 'fossil galaxy' buried deep within the Milky Way", "content": "A 'fossil galaxy' has been discovered in the Milky Way. It would have collided with the Milky Way when it was still in its infancy, with its remnants accounting for about one-third of the Milky Way's spherical halo. Despite its size, it was previously hidden from view by clouds of interstellar dust. The fossil galaxy was discovered by measuring spectra for more than half a million stars across the Milky Way in near-infrared light. A patch of stars had a chemical composition and velocity that could only come from another galaxy. The fossil galaxy would have been one of the earliest to merge with the Milky Way."}, {"headline": "Isn\u2019t it good, Swedish plywood: the miraculous eco-town with a 20-storey wooden skyscraper", "content": "Skellefte\u00e5 is a town in the far north of Sweden with a climate-conscious focus. It runs on 100% renewable energy and recycles 120,000 tonnes of electronic waste a year. The town recently erected a 20 story wooden skyscraper. It is made up of glued laminated timber and cross-laminated timber. The nature of the wood made construction incredibly fast and there was practically zero waste on-site. Many more details about the building, including photos, are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Netflix rolls out Top 10 feature to help show what people are actually watching", "content": "Netflix has introduced a Top 10 row to its homepage. It will be updated daily with the most popular titles in the subscriber's country. There will also be top 10 lists for each category. The feature was trialed in the UK and Mexico last year. Netflix's list of top shows from last year was mostly dominated by Netflix original shows as the company has lost much of its top licensed content."}, {"headline": "China has done human testing to create biologically enhanced super soldiers, says top U.S. official", "content": "China has conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army, according to a top US intelligence official. Western scientists consider it unethical to manipulate genes to boost the performance of healthy people, but there are indications that Chinese military researchers are starting to explore its potential. On top of the military consequences, tampering with the human genome may have unintended effects."}, {"headline": "DoorDash is testing a feature that lets you return packages to post offices, FedEx, or UPS", "content": "DoorDash is testing a feature called 'Return a Package' that allows customers to book a delivery person to return packages to the nearest post office, UPS, or FedEx location. Customers will have to have their packages fully sealed with the prepaid shipping label attached before collection. DoorDash Dashers will be paid the same way for Return a Package returns as they would be for any other marketplace order. Other companies have tested similar services in the past but weren't successful."}, {"headline": "TabFS", "content": "TabFS is a browser extension that mounts browser tabs as a filesystem on macOS and Linux systems. It has full support for Chrome, with lesser support for Firefox. TabFS allows you to apply all the existing tools on your computer that deal with files and use them to control and communicate with your browser."}, {"headline": "Talk like an Egyptian: mummy's voice heard 3,000 years after death", "content": "Nesayamun was an ancient Egyptian priest that was in his 50s when he died from an allergic reaction. Researchers have created a 3D-printed reproduction of Nesyamun's over 3,000-year-old vocal tract to hear what his voice would have sounded like. A team from the University of London took a series of CT scans of Nesyamun's mummified body to create the 3D model. Some parts, such as the tongue that had shriveled, were virtually filled in. The model was attached to an electronic larynx and loudspeaker. Using this method, the team recreated the sound of Nesayamun's voice. The team is working on a way to move the vocal tract to form different sounds."}, {"headline": "Nasally-Injected Brain Drug Can Help Treat Depression in 20 Minutes", "content": "Getting drugs into the brain is challenging due to obstacles like systemic absorption, rapid drug degradation, axonal transportation, and invasive treatments. Japanese researchers have improved a drug known to exhibit therapeutic effects on depression so that it can be administered nasally and be effective within 20 minutes. The results were similar to using more invasive techniques. The breakthrough could have far-reaching implications for neuro-pharmaceutical research, nanobiotechnology, and genetic engineering."}, {"headline": "Verily\u2019s coronavirus screening pilot website is already at capacity", "content": "Google's sister company Verily's website is unable to schedule more appointments less than 24 hours after launch. Appointment availability is limited as it is a small pilot test for California's Bay Area. All applications will receive a call-back confirmation to schedule an appointment. Google will launch its own website later today, but it will not include screening questions or the ability to find a drive-thru testing facility. The website will be mostly informational, directing people to trustworthy sources."}, {"headline": "Amazing video shows 10-story high-rise built in a day", "content": "A Chinese company recently assembled a 10-story residential high-rise in just under 29 hours. Broad Group makes prefabricated building modules that when folded have the same dimensions as a shipping container, making them easy to transport. Each module has a stainless steel structure that includes wiring, insulation, glazing, and ventilation systems. The modules can be stacked up to 200 stories high and they are ready to use once they are connected to power and water. A 5-minute video showing the residential building being put together is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Zero", "content": "Zero is a graphics pipeline implemented in JavaScript and rendered to the terminal. It uses JavaScript to replicate the functionality of a GPU, so no GPU is required. Zero is available for Windows, OSX, and Linux terminals."}, {"headline": "Starship chilled. Starship pressurized. And for the first time, it didn\u2019t explode", "content": "SpaceX has finally completed a successful cryogenic test of a Starship prototype. The test was completed on Sunday in South Texas. SpaceX has lost three full-scale Starship prototypes during cryogenic and pressure tests since November 2019. The next step for SpaceX is to attach a single Raptor engine to the Starship prototype and conduct a static fire test. If this static fire test is successful, the vehicle will make a 150-meter 'hop' test. Most parts for the next prototype have already been created."}, {"headline": "Coinbase removes \u2018backed by US dollars\u2019 claim for USDC stablecoin", "content": "Coinbase has made an important update on the USD Coin page following an audit. The page previously stated that all of the coin's reserves were held in cash, but the audit found that USDC's reserves were not fully backed by US dollars held in a bank account. Coinbase's USDC page now states that each USDC is backed by one dollar or asset with equivalent fair value. Users can always redeem one USDC for one US dollar. Circle, the company that oversees USDC, recently announced plans to become a full-reserve national digital currency bank in the US."}, {"headline": "Become a Better Software Architect", "content": "A software architect is a software expert who makes high-level design choices and dictates technical standards. Software architecture is the fundamental organization of a system and the principles that determine the design and evolution of the system. There are three levels of architecture: application level, solution level, and enterprise level. A software architect needs to be able to design software, make decisions regarding projects, simplify problems and solutions, code, write clear documentation, communicate with others, estimate and evaluate time and skills required for projects, balance the needs of a project, consult with others, and market their own ideas. A roadmap for professional development in software architecture is provided."}, {"headline": "Codextended", "content": "Codextended is a suite of extensions that aims to make Swift\u2019s Codable API easier to use. While Codable is great, it becomes increasingly verbose once customization is introduced into the project. Codextended simplifies the code required and it is completely compatible with vanilla Codable code. Only one file is required for Codextended to be added to an Xcode project."}, {"headline": "Denver Voters Approve Measure To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms", "content": "A vote on the decriminalization of psychedelic mushrooms in Denver, Colorado was passed on Tuesday. Many news outlets reported that the legislation had failed, but final results of the ballot resulted in a final 51 percent to 49 percent victory. Citizens in Denver will now be allowed to possess psilocybin for personal use, and prosecuting people for mushrooms is now on the city's lowest law enforcement priority list. Other cities and states are also pursuing the decriminalization of psychedelic mushrooms after the successful decriminalization of marijuana."}, {"headline": "Facebook Connect: all the news about \u2018Meta\u2019 and Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s VR dream", "content": "Facebook has rebranded as Meta. The announcement was made during the company's virtual reality labs Connect event. A new high-end headset, fitness-focused accessories, and a VR remake of GTA: San Andreas were also announced at the event. The Oculus name will be replaced with the new company branding. Facebook has changed its iconic sign at HQ to reflect the rebrand."}, {"headline": "How to put machine learning models into production", "content": "Effectively deploying a machine learning model can be more of an art than a science. Most data science projects never make it to production due to failed teamwork. There can be a disconnect between software engineers and data scientists, and bridging this gap is key to ensuring that you have a good model that can actually be put into production. This article covers practices and methods for getting machine learning models into production, bringing up important questions to consider through each step of development."}, {"headline": "AI system outperforms experts in spotting breast cancer", "content": "An AI system has outperformed expert radiologists in detecting breast cancer in mammograms. The system was able to detect cancers that the radiologists missed while ignoring features that radiologists falsely flagged as possible tumors. Developed by Google Health, the software could help ease the burden on health services as radiologists are in short supply. One in eight women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and there are many cases of misdiagnosis. AI could help assist radiologists in making a diagnosis, acting as a second opinion."}, {"headline": "Neuroscientists Have Followed a Thought as It Moves Through The Human Brain", "content": "Scientists at the University of California used a technique called electrocorticography (ECoG) to track the movement of thought through the human brain. ECoG requires hundreds of tiny electrodes to be placed against the cortex. The technique is used to monitor patients undergoing surgery for epilepsy. In the study, 16 epilepsy patients performed several tasks while having their neural activity monitored and tracked. The results clearly emphasized the role of the prefrontal cortex in directing activity."}, {"headline": "Redwood", "content": "Redwood is an opinionated, full-stack, serverless web application framework that can build and deploy JAMstack applications with ease. It uses React, GraphQL, Prisma, Babel, and Webpack. Redwood features opinionated defaults for formatting, routing with dynamic parameters, automatic page-based code-splitting, boilerplate-less Graph QL API construction, and more."}, {"headline": "SpaceX's Starlink sees the in-flight internet market as ripe for an overhaul", "content": "SpaceX is testing aviation-specific Starlink terminals and is in the process of getting the terminals approved with a variety of aircraft. It will make the terminals smaller and lighter to provide high-speed internet globally without disruption. Current satellite broadband providers for inflight Wi-Fi use satellites in distant orbits with slow speeds. Starlink's vice-president envisions a future where every passenger can stream on planes just like at home."}, {"headline": "DeepMind scientists: Reinforcement learning is enough for general AI", "content": "Scientists from DeepMind have published a paper that argues that artificial general intelligence can be developed from reinforcement learning, a branch of AI that is based on reward maximization. The idea is based on how natural intelligence developed. Natural intelligence developed through billions of years of natural selection and random variation, where those that had the right traits to survive lived and passed on their attributes, and those that didn't were eliminated. That system has led to intelligence with all kinds of skills and abilities."}, {"headline": "Pornhub Is \"Extremely Interested\" In Acquiring Tumblr", "content": "Pornhub\u2019s Vice President Corey Price has said that the porn-streaming giant is extremely interested in buying Tumblr. Tumblr was bought by Yahoo in 2013 and then by Verizon in 2017, and its value has been steadily declining. Last December, Tumblr banned all adult content on its platform, a move which was heavily criticized, as NSFW content was one of the cornerstones of Tumblr\u2019s user base. Restoring the NSFW edge will be a key factor in Pornhub\u2019s acquisition of Tumblr if it were to happen."}, {"headline": "Facebook alters video to make people invisible to facial recognition", "content": "Facebook AI Research has created a machine learning system to de-identify people in videos. Previous work by other startups has made de-identification for still images possible. Facebook's technology works by mapping a slightly distorted version of a person's face on the video. It was able to thwart state-of-the-art facial recognition systems during initial tests. The technology works on live video. Facial recognition can lead to a loss of privacy, so de-identification technology needs to be developed. Facebook's approach to de-identification pairs an adversarial autoencoder with a classifier network. It uses an encoder-decoder architecture to generate both a mask and an image. There are no plans to apply the technology to any of Facebook's apps at this time. Facebook is currently battling a $35 billion facial recognition lawsuit after making facial recognition a default on its platform earlier this year."}, {"headline": "Waymo\u2019s driverless taxi service can now be accessed on Google Maps", "content": "Waymo One can now be accessed and booked through Google Maps. It will be the first fully autonomous ride-hailing option available in the app. Waymo has about 600 vehicles in its US fleet, with about 300 to 400 of those in the Phoenix area. Waymo One only uses driverless vehicles, so any vehicle that pops up on Maps will be driverless. Users will still need the Waymo app to book rides."}, {"headline": "The UAE is Using Drones to Control Dubai's Weather", "content": "The United Arab Emirates often sees high temperatures and little rainfall. It has invested $15 million in nine different rain-enhancement projects. One of those projects involves using drones to jump-start rain production through cloud seeding, a process where clouds are zapped with an electric charge, charging the droplets inside. The technique makes the droplets inside the clouds big enough to fall out, creating rain. Potentially carcinogenic chemicals are sometimes used in cloud seeding."}, {"headline": "Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th", "content": "Yahoo Answers will shut down on May 4. After that day, the website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage and all of the platform's archives will cease to exist. New submissions will no longer be accepted on the site after April 20. Users will have until June 30 to request their data before it becomes inaccessible. The service has become less popular over the years, so the company has decided to shift its resources away to focus on other products."}, {"headline": "Tesla will unveil its Cybertruck pickup on Nov. 21 in LA, Elon Musk says", "content": "Elon Musk has announced that Tesla's Cybertruck will be unveiled on November 21 in Los Angeles, the same location and month as in the opening credits of the movie 'Blade Runner'. The truck includes features such as a power outlet that will allow the use of heavy-duty 240V high power tools in the field all day without the use of a generator. Tesla currently sells three vehicles: the Model S, Model 3, and Model X. It is planning to release the Model Y by the end of 2020. A Tesla Roadster and a Semi truck have been planned for release after the Model Y. Tesla delivered a profit in Q3. It is ahead of schedule for its new factory in Shanghai and its Model Y crossover. Tesla will start manufacturing cars at its European Gigafactory in 2021."}, {"headline": "Bill Gates is obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets", "content": "Bad sanitation kills 525,000 children per year and costs over $223 billion per year in lost wages and extra healthcare. Bill Gates has invested $200 million into developing a toilet that doesn't require a central sewage system to operate, and the first prototypes are here. One developed at Caltech extracts clean water from human waste and reuses it for future flushing. The University of South Florida's NEWgenerator uses feces-digesting anaerobic bacteria. Cranfield University's toilet burns waste in the toilet's combustor to create energy. None of the toilets are cheap enough for widespread use, but Bill Gates wants to spend another $200 million developing the second generation of toilets, and eventually hopes to get these toilets into 4.5 billion homes around the world. Gates said, \"A decade ago, I didn't think I would be able to tell you so much about poop.\""}, {"headline": "Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers", "content": "Six4Three is a software company currently in a lawsuit with Facebook. They got some internal Facebook documents regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal in the suit's discovery process, including confidential emails between Zuckerberg and senior executives. After Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to testify before UK Parliament, Parliament used its legal powers to detain the CEO of Six4Three, who was in London for a business trip, sending a sergeant at arms to his hotel to force him to give up the documents. Parliament member Damian Collins who is leading the inquiry into fake news says \"We are in uncharted territory. This is an unprecedented move but it's an unprecedented situation. We've failed to get answers from Facebook and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest.\" Richard Allan, Facebook's VP of policy will testify before Parliament in a special session that Zuckerberg declined to attend."}, {"headline": "Diagram generation tool", "content": "The Diagram generation tool allows users to describe diagrams with a simple text language and automatically generate an exportable image. Users do not need to spend time positioning elements, as the layout is re-adjusted automatically. There are seven diagram layout types available."}, {"headline": "Meet the creature that eats its own brain", "content": "The sea squirt belongs to a group of undersea animals called tunicates. Tunicates are saclike filter-feeders that live on plankton and organic matter. While they are squishy, they are part of the phylum chordata as they have many of the anatomical features of vertebrate animals in their larval stage. Sea squirts come in many shapes and sizes. They hatch into tadpole-like larvae that can swim for a short time. After they settle, they begin absorbing all the tadpole-like parts, including its brain, and becomes its adult form. There are many pictures of sea squirts available in the article."}, {"headline": "git-fuzzy", "content": "git-fuzzy is a CLI interface that allows developers to interact with GitHub. Users can interact with stage and unstaged changes, search for, checkout, and look at branches, interact with pull requests, and more."}, {"headline": "A World Without Work by Daniel Susskind review \u2013 should we be delighted or terrified?", "content": "Writers have long been imagining a world where machines replace humans, freeing humans up from having to work and the consequences of the switch to an automated world. Many of these imaginings end up in a dystopian world where the majority of humans are doomed to live empty lives of poverty and despair. Daniel Susskind is an economics scholar and a former government policy advisor. His book, 'A World Without Work', paints the picture of the future with predictions borne from reason. Automation has replaced human labor in routine tasks throughout the last couple of centuries without destroying entire occupations. It has even created new types of jobs. However, as technology improves, it seems inevitable that the number of jobs will start to decrease. Different ways of wealth distribution will need to be implemented, as well as ways to distribute the amount of work left. People will need to rethink what a 'meaningful life' actually means, as the importance of work will start to fade away."}, {"headline": "Reddit users are the least valuable of any social network", "content": "Reddit\u2019s recent funding of $300 million puts the company at valuation of $3 billion. However, its 330 million monthly active users have an average revenue per user (ARPU) of around $0.30. This is significantly lower than other social networks. For example, Twitter\u2019s ARPU sits around $9.48 and Facebook\u2019s ARPU is around $7.37. Half of Reddit users are between 18 and 24, and Reddit plans to use its valuable demographic to appeal to advertisers."}, {"headline": "Amazon rolls out its telehealth service nationwide", "content": "Amazon Care is rolling out its telehealth service nationwide. It will also expand in-person care to 20 cities. Amazon Care provides virtual care visits, free telehealth consults, and in-home visits for a fee. The virtual care market is becoming increasingly crowded as insurers are also trying to enter the market. Amazon has already signed up several employers to the service."}, {"headline": "Google Podcasts in-episode search is coming, shows now being fully transcribed", "content": "Google Podcasts is now automatically transcribing some podcasts and then inserting the transcripts into the podcast\u2019s page metadata. This makes content from the podcasts searchable, which means podcasts can now be found by entering certain phrases or topics into the search field. The technology behind the transcripts may be used to help more people consume content if they prefer text over audio mediums."}, {"headline": "How to Recreate the Ripple Effect of Material Design Buttons", "content": "Material Design's button component uses a ripple effect to give users feedback, with the animation changing position depending on where each button is clicked. An example of this is at the beginning of the article. This article explains how to build the button component using JavaScript. Other approaches to build the component are discussed."}, {"headline": "Facebook is rolling out the new design for its website", "content": "Facebook has been working on a redesign since before May last year, when screenshots of the new design appeared on the internet. Users are now being invited to test the new design. The invitations appear to be completely random. Facebook's new design changes the overall look of the site and makes it appear much more modern. It also includes a dark mode. Screenshots of the new design are available. There is no official release schedule for the update."}, {"headline": "gotestfmt", "content": "gotestfmt outputs Go test results in a beautifully formatted fashion. It can be easily installed and set up in a CI system. gotestfmt supports several CI systems, or users can add their own CI. Output examples are available through the link in the about section."}, {"headline": "React v18.0", "content": "React 18 is now available on npm. This article gives an overview of what's new in React 18. React 18 features automatic batching, new APIs, streaming server-side rendering, Concurrent Rendering, and more."}, {"headline": "Early stage startup hiring SF-based firmware engineer", "content": "Impulse is hiring a firmware engineer in SF to help build a next-generation home energy system. Looking for someone interested in fighting climate change and decarbonizing the home. Started by ex-Waymo/Oculus engineers, raised a seed round from top investors. Please direct resumes and questions to [email\u00a0protected]"}, {"headline": "miniboss", "content": "miniboss is a Python application for managing containers locally. It can run a collection of interdependent docker services locally, individually rebuild and restart them, and manage application state with lifecycle hooks. Using Python allows for lifecycle hooks, a mechanism that executes scripts when the state of a container changes."}, {"headline": "Tinder Has Become A News Service About Coronavirus, Which Is Not What God Intended", "content": "China has put Wuhan on lockdown and has censored much of the information surrounding the area. Some people have found a creative way to get around the block by using Tinder to contact people within the area. Using one of Tinder's premium features, Passport, users can change their location to Wuhan and start talking to people in the city. Tinder is banned in China, but some users are reporting success in chatting with residents and hearing their stories. Users in Wuhan and around the world are receiving warnings from Tinder to take precautions to contain COVID-19."}, {"headline": "Sweden: How to Live in the World's First Cashless Society", "content": "Sweden plans to be the world\u2019s first completely cashless society by 2023. Already, many places in Sweden do not accept cash as a form of payment, including Stockholm\u2019s public transport system. Swedish banks issue debit cards to customers ages 7 and over, and it is likely some of the current younger citizens will never see cash used in real life. Cash is currently used in under 1% of transactions in Sweden. Moving to a cashless society means that money is more secure and traceable. Sweden has seen a drop in bank robberies and also a decrease in its drug, counterfeiting, and weapons markets."}, {"headline": "openpilot", "content": "openpilot is an open-source driving agent. It is able to perform Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keeping Assist System for many selected models of vehicles. openpilot is about on par with Tesla Autopilot and GM Super Cruise. The codebase is designed so developers can quickly build prototypes to test."}, {"headline": "The UAE is adopting a 4.5-day workweek and a Saturday-Sunday weekend", "content": "The United Arab Emirates is transitioning to a 4.5-day workweek. It will be moving from a Friday to Saturday weekend schedule to a Friday afternoon to Sunday weekend. The UAE is the first nation to formalize a workweek shorter than five days. The changes apply to federal government entities and will take effect at the beginning of next year. Private industry, schools, and universities will likely follow the government's lead. The changes are expected to bring economic and lifestyle benefits."}, {"headline": "ffmpeg.wasm", "content": "ffmpeg.wasm is a pure Web assembly/JavaScript port of FFmpeg. It can record audio and video, convert files, and stream, right inside the browser. A live demo is available."}, {"headline": "btop++", "content": "btop++ is a resource monitor that shows processor, memory, disks, network, and process usage and stats. It features a game-inspired menu system, full mouse support, a function to send any signal to selected processes, themes, and much more. Screenshots are available."}, {"headline": "fullstack.ai", "content": "fullstack.ai is an end-to-end machine learning project that shows key aspects of developing and deploying a real-life machine learning-based application. The example used in the project is a web-based bike trip advisor with trip time prediction."}, {"headline": "Instagram is developing its own version of Twitter\u2019s Super Follow with \u2018Exclusive Stories\u2019", "content": "Instagram is building a feature that will allow creators to publish exclusive content to their Instagram stories that will only be available to their fans. Access to Exclusive Stories will likely come with a subscription payment of some kind. Screenshots of the feature were leaked and confirmed as authentic by Instagram, but the company has declined to share any details about it. The leaked screenshots are available in the article. Instagram has been working on more features to help creators monetize their work."}, {"headline": "OpenDrop: an Open Source AirDrop Implementation", "content": "OpenDrop is a command-line tool for sharing files between devices directly over Wi-Fi. It is protocol-compatible with Apple AirDrop. OpenDrop is currently only capable of sending to Apple devices that are discoverable by everybody. Contacts only mode is not possible as it requires Apple-signed certificates."}, {"headline": "Wearing someone else's face: Hyper-realistic masks to go on sale in Japan", "content": "A Japanese retailer has produced a hyper-realistic human face mask. They cost 98,000 yen ($950) each. The masks are based on real human faces. The retailer plans to add more faces to the lineup. Pictures of the masks are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Amazon's latest advertising play involves free samples delivered right to your door", "content": "As part of its push into advertising, Amazon is now sending free samples of products to customers based on their order history and profile data. Amazon's website says \"Amazon surprises select customers with samples that we think will be delightful and helpful.\" You don't have to purchase or review anything and you can opt out of the program anytime you want."}, {"headline": "The Navy Plans to Put HELIOS Laser Weapon on Destroyer by 2021", "content": "The High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system is a 60-kilowatt laser system that is able to burn boats, shoot down drones, and damage electro-optical sensors. A $150 million contract had been awarded to Lockheed Martin to build two systems for the US Navy, one which will be sent to a testing faculty and another that will be mounted on an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. The weapon will theoretically be able to fire unlimited shots using a ship's onboard electrical generation system. A two minute video shows HELIOS in action."}, {"headline": "Architects are planning a beautiful Martian city in the Dubai desert", "content": "A group of architects in Dubai were commissioned to design an experimental Martian city that covers 176,000 square meters of desert. The United Arab Emirates government budgeted $135 million for the Mars Science City project. It will help engineers and scientists understand how we can best mitigate risks associated with living on Mars. Renders of the design are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Maybe you should do less 'work'", "content": "Some developers finish their assigned workloads faster than expected and then they ask for more similar work to do. Part of the reason for this is to try to reach a standard that they have already met. Constantly overworking can lead to burnout. Finding other activities to do along with work that can benefit both you and your employer, such as skill development, will help prevent burnout while improving your value as an employee."}, {"headline": "We Broke Into A Bunch Of Android Phones With A 3D-Printed Head", "content": "Security researchers have managed to break into four Android phones (2 Samsungs, an LG and a OnePlus) using 3D printed heads made for about \u00a3300. They used about 50 cameras, then combined the images into a single 3D model. Then they put it into editing software to iron out any errors. They were unable to break past the iPhone's Face ID security or the Windows Hello facial recognition. There's a picture of the 3D printed head in the article, it looks surprisingly realistic."}, {"headline": "Exclusive: London will be overwhelmed by covid in a fortnight says leaked NHS England briefing", "content": "According to an official briefing given to London's most senior doctors, the city's hospitals are less than two weeks from being overwhelmed by covid, even under the best scenarios. Even at the lowest likely infection rate, the National Health Service in London would still be short of nearly 2,000 beds by January 19. The report looks at different scenarios for both general and intensive care capacities. Due to this, senior clinical leaders have considered significantly reducing the number of elective work or sending patients to other regions or private providers. Other regions are also seeing rapid growth in covid occupancy caused by the new strain spreading across the country."}, {"headline": "Amazon will establish a new headquarters for its Kuiper satellite broadband project", "content": "Amazon has added a new HQ and R&D facility to its Kuiper project. Kuiper's aim is to provide internet connectivity to people who lack access. Other companies such as SpaceX, Google, and OneWeb are also launching satellites to provide global internet coverage. Kuiper has not released a timeline around deployment or availability for customers. Its new facilities are in Redmond, Washington, which is near Amazon's overall home base in Seattle. It will cover 219,000 square feet across two separate buildings. Kuiper team members will start moving into the new site sometime next year."}, {"headline": "I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb", "content": "While on a trip to Chicago, Allie Conti had an experience that led to her discovering a nationwide Airbnb scam. 10 minutes before the allotted check-in time, the host called Conti and told her that the property she had booked was currently having issues with plumbing, and asked whether it was possible for Conti to move to a different property temporarily while the issue was fixed. The backup property was significantly different from the pictures the host had provided and was run down and dirty. After only staying one night, the host said that Conti had to change properties again as the next tenants who had booked the room was set to move in - the plumbing issue was still ongoing. Conti booked a hotel room and was only able to receive $399 out of the $1,221.20 she paid for the Airbnb room as a refund. The host requested a five-star review for the experience. Upon investigation of the host's profile, Conti found that they had fake profile images, fake reviews, and that other suspicious hosts had used the same photos for their listings. Conti discovered at least 94 properties in eight different cities that were linked to this network of fake accounts. Despite the potential for scamming, Conti concludes that Airbnb's easily exploitable system may still be cheaper than renting a hotel in the long run."}, {"headline": "ESNext News", "content": "This is a newsletter about advanced topics in Javascript. If you're an experienced programmer and want to learn more about Typescript, the V8 runtime, build toolchains, and stuff like that, definitely check this out. Curated by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer and Johannes Weber, two serious javascript experts."}, {"headline": "Amazon debuts Showroom, a visual shopping experience for home furnishings", "content": "Amazon has launched Showroom, a visual design tool that lets you put furniture and decorations into a virtual living room. You can tweak the wall color, flooring, and any of the items in the room. When you're done you can add all of the items to your cart in one click. Amazon says \"The result is a photorealistic rendering of a room that answers the question: 'How will this all look together?'\""}, {"headline": "How a Berkshire Hathaway company is quietly disrupting the construction industry", "content": "The MiTek Modular Initiative is a joint venture between MiTek, a construction software and building services company, and Danny Forster & Architecture, a firm that designs modular buildings. The initiative's goal is to develop a new approach to factory-based modular construction. It has an undisclosed amount of backing from Berkshire Hathaway. Volumetric modular building is a form of prefabrication that uses factories to build boxes that can be combined into rooms and stacked into buildings. Modular construction companies usually fail due to a lack of funding. Photos of the Initiative's modular buildings are available in the article."}, {"headline": "US Navy bans TikTok from mobile devices saying it's a cybersecurity threat", "content": "The US Navy has banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices. It claims that the short-form video app is a cybersecurity threat, but declined to describe in detail what dangers the app presents. Devices that have the app installed will be blocked from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet. TikTok has been hugely popular but has come under scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers in recent months. ByteDance Technology Co acquired TikTok's owner Musical.ly for $1 billion shortly after its launch in 2017. The sale is currently being investigated by the US government. Naval and Marine personnel are generally allowed to use popular commercial apps, but some specific programs are banned."}, {"headline": "tiptap", "content": "tiptap is a renderless and extendable rich text editor for Vue.js. It was built from Prosemirror, a toolkit for building text editors used by companies such as the New York Times. Developers have almost full control over the markup and styling. Data can be stored as a raw HTML string or in a JSON serializable representation."}, {"headline": "Report: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day", "content": "A recent survey found that, out of the employees from the 42 tech companies who participated, 31% of them were only putting in three to four hours of work a day. The survey did not measure productivity, which can vary widely between people. Some companies are reportedly working their employees harder, but others report significantly less work. The pandemic has not impacted everyone equally."}, {"headline": "The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to Compression", "content": "This project is a resource for people who want to learn about compression algorithms. While the world focuses on its efforts in making internet speeds faster, the art of lossless compression is becoming lost. There are still some active projects, but compression isn't really mainstream. The benefits of compression are endless, including all the benefits of faster internet speeds but with less cost as it uses existing infrastructure."}, {"headline": "Study suggests that most fishes communicate with sound", "content": "A new study has found that approximately two-thirds of all fish species probably use sound to communicate. The study looked at fish that shared anatomical features similar to fish that can vocalize, such as sound-specific muscles, an air bladder, and distinctive bones. The majority of communication is centered around attracting mates, guarding food sources and territories, and announcing their location. A link to a recording of a longspine squirrelfish making sounds is available at the end of the article."}, {"headline": "Microsoft\u2019s new $249 Surface Laptop SE is its first true Chromebook competitor", "content": "Microsoft has unveiled a new $249 Surface Laptop SE. It will be sold exclusively to schools and students. The laptop will be running Windows 11 SE, a new student edition designed to compete with Chrome OS. It will feature an all-plastic body, an 11.6-inch display with 1366x768 resolution, a 1-megapixel front camera, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, and more. Schools will be allowed to replace components inside the laptop and it will come with standard screws."}, {"headline": "A career ending mistake", "content": "Engineering management is primarily about leading, supervising, hiring, and developing the skills of other technical people. Good managers are rare. This article gives some advice on how to be a good manager. It also discusses the decision to get into management itself. The default career destination of being a manager may not be what everyone wants. It is better to make plans for what you really want to do."}, {"headline": "What\u2019s a five-letter word for \u201cacquire\u201d? NYT buys Wordle for \u201clow 7 figures\u201d", "content": "The New York Times has announced that it will purchase Wordle for a number in the low seven figures. It will remain free to play and no changes will be made to its gameplay. Current players' win records and streaks will be retained. While NYT has many free games that can be played without signing in or registering, some games require a subscription to play a full version or for more features."}, {"headline": "Ransomware gang tries to extort Apple hours ahead of Spring Loaded event", "content": "Quanta Computer, the biggest laptop manufacturer in the world, was hacked by the REvil crew, who stole large quantities of confidential designs and data from several major brands. REvil attempted to extort Apple with the release of the data after Quanta refused to pay a ransom. The group has threatened to publish new data every day until the ransom has been paid. It hinted that it may leak the data of other companies. The extortion attempt was timed to coincide with Apple's Spring Loaded event for maximum visibility. Apple is investigating the incident."}, {"headline": "Deep Learning Models", "content": "This repository contains a collection of various deep learning architectures, models, and tips. Each topic is divided into subsections for TensorFlow and PyTorch in Jupyter Notebooks."}, {"headline": "China to start building 5G satellite network to challenge Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink", "content": "China is building a network of satellites to provide 5G coverage. Its first satellites have already been produced, tested, and launched. The network will compete with Starlink in the market for high-speed internet services in remote areas. China's constellation will have 1,000 satellites and offer download speeds of more than 500 megabits per second with low latency. China has identified the Starlink network as a threat to its national security."}, {"headline": "Scientists Just Observed Warm Matter Emanating From a Black Hole", "content": "Warm gas has been observed emitting from an active black hole for the first time. The structures look like the smoke streams seen on Earth during volcanic eruptions. They were observed through the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) frequency radio telescope, the largest of its kind in the world. The activity in the supermassive black hole at the center of every galaxy directly determines the evolution of that galaxy. These expanding heat bubbles have a heavy influence on the intergalactic medium and the rate of star formation."}, {"headline": "Lab-grown fish just got real. San Diego startup shows off first slaughter-free yellowtail", "content": "BlueNalu, a San Diego based food-tech startup, unveiled its lab-created yellowtail fish product at a small event in San Diego Bay last week. The fish meat is grown through cell cultures in a food manufacturing facility. Making food in labs is already common practice and produces popular products such as Greek yogurt, Oreos, ketchup, and more. BlueNalu's fish can withstand different cooking methods, including steaming, frying, and marinating. It can even be eaten raw. The startup hopes to launch its product into a test market within two years. Pictures of the meat prepared in dishes, as well as an infographic about how the fish meat is produced, are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Uber pushes into on-demand public transit with its first SaaS partnership", "content": "Marin County in the San Francisco Bay will pay Uber a subscription fee to use Uber's management software for its high-occupancy vehicle fleet. Marin Transit provides six-seater and wheelchair-accessible vans to Marin County. Uber's software will facilitate requesting, matching, and tracking of vehicles, and allow Marin Transit trips to show up in the Uber app. There is no booking fee and passengers will pay $4 per mile or $3 for Marin Access riders. The service will run down the Highway 101 corridor between Mill Valley and Novato."}, {"headline": "Next Gen CSS: @container", "content": "@container is a property within the CSS Working Group Containment Level 3 spec that allows developers to style elements based on the size of their parent container. It will be the biggest change in web styling since CSS3. Elements will be able to target their parents and apply their own styles accordingly. This article contains several examples of how to use the @container property."}, {"headline": "Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based \u2018chicken\u2019", "content": "KFC customers at one Atlanta location on August 27 will receive a free sample of fried plant-based nuggets and boneless wings when they purchase something on that day. Beyond Meat and KFC are testing the product with customers before broader testing or a potential national rollout. Many fast-food chains have tested and implemented plant-based food options recently, including Burger King, Subway, Carl's Jr., and White Castle. Beyond Meat also sells plant-based meat products in grocery stores. Its main competitor, Impossible Foods, has just had its key ingredient approved for consumption by the FDA."}, {"headline": "Chrome can now instantly caption audio and video on the web", "content": "Google's Live Caption feature is now available to anyone using Chrome browser. The feature uses machine learning to create captions for audio or video. It first appeared on Pixel phones in 2019. Captions will appear with muted audio. The feature only works in English."}, {"headline": "A Hacker Group Has Been Framing People for Crimes They Didn't Commit", "content": "A hacker group that researchers have dubbed 'ModifiedElephant' has been planting evidence to frame human rights activists, defenders, academics, and lawyers throughout India. The group is largely focused on spying, but it sometimes intervenes to frame its targets for crimes. They use common hacking tools and techniques to access victims' computers, for example, phishing emails loaded with malicious documents. While the group's actions sharply align with Indian state interests, their identity is still unknown."}, {"headline": "Here\u2019s what Google Chrome\u2019s upcoming Reader Mode looks like, how to enable it in Canary", "content": "Chrome Canary v75 brings reader mode to the desktop browser, a feature that has been very popular on other browsers. The new version has a hidden setting which will add a \u2018Distill page\u2019 option in the drop-down settings menu. Instructions and screenshots showing how to use reader mode are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Cube.js", "content": "Cube.js is an analytical API platform for building internal business intelligence tools and adding customer-facing analytics to existing applications. It was designed to work with serverless data warehouses and query engines. Cube.js can be used to quickly and easily create semantic API layers, manage access controls, aggregate data, and cache queries for real-time performance."}, {"headline": "A drone with a nail gun for autonomous roofing", "content": "Engineers at the University of Michigan mounted a nail-gun onto a DJI S1000 Octocopter and installed a modified version of open-source autopilot software so that the drone could navigate to waypoints and operate a nail-gun. The video shows the drone in action nailing tiles to a roof. Future improvements include adding an onboard sensing system to recognize shingles, upgrading to a pneumatic nail gun, and adding a power tether for extended operation."}, {"headline": "Inside Google\u2019s Rebooted Robotics Program", "content": "After Andy Rubin left Google in 2014, Google\u2019s robotic\u2019s program, nicknamed \u2018Replicant\u2019 at the time, had been stagnant. In the last few years, Google has rebooted its program, and the new effort is called \u2018Robotics at Google\u2019. Robotics at Google is made up of many of the same members of Rubin\u2019s team, and it focuses on applying machine learning to robotics. They have developed robots in the lab that can learn to move and sort objects on their own, which may interest companies such as Amazon, as while these tasks seem simple they are actually quite hard to program manually. While Google has not yet announced its strategy on how it plans to commercialize their research, it is clear that the aim of the development of these robots is to automate more jobs."}, {"headline": "Managing people \ud83e\udd2f", "content": "It is easy to burn out employees as you learn how to manage groups of people. This article contains advice for managers of small teams and startups on how to manage people. It covers topics such as responsibility, leadership, processes, trust, decision layering, and much more."}, {"headline": "MoviePass Changed Some Users\u2019 Passwords on Purpose So They Couldn\u2019t Use the Service", "content": "MoviePass, a movie ticket subscription service that was extremely popular in 2018, was built on an unsustainable model and it started having problems when the userbase grew too quickly. Instead of trying to offset costs, CEO Mitch Lowe ordered his employees to change the passwords of heavy-use premium users as they were costing the company too much money. This was done discreetly without the members finding out. Eventually, the company implemented an automatic shutdown system if it surpassed a certain budget on that day. The company is technically still running but it is suspected that many legal hurdles await. Some critics believe that the story behind the rise and fall of MoviePass has what it takes to be made into its own movie."}, {"headline": "Tulsi Gabbard sues Google, claims 'election interference' over suspension of ad account", "content": "Google is facing legal action by member of Congress and Democratic presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard, due to the suspension of Gabbard's campaign advertising account during the first Democratic presidential debate. It is alleged that Gabbard's account was suspended for several hours during the first Democratic debate when Gabbard was briefly the most-searched candidate on Google. Google claims that the suspension was due to an automated system that flagged the account for unusual activity, and that the account was reinstated shortly after the suspension. Gabbard claims that the suspension was a threat to free speech, fair elections, and to democracy."}, {"headline": "SpaceX Launching Satellite to Display Billboard Ads in Space", "content": "Canadian startup Geometric Energy Corporation has announced a partnership with SpaceX to launch a digital billboard into orbit. The advertisement satellite will have a massive screen on one side where people can bid to have images displayed. Anyone will be able to purchase digital advertising space through a bidding process. There will be five tokens available that determine how the ads are displayed. SpaceX has yet to comment on the partnership."}, {"headline": "React Preview", "content": "React Preview can preview any React component in a codebase. It can provide instant feedback inside the IDE without writing any extra code. GIF examples are available."}, {"headline": "This colorful printed patch makes you pretty much invisible to AI", "content": "Adversarial examples are patterns that are able to fool AI systems. A team of engineers from Belgium created and printed colorful patterns that were able to successfully fool an AI that detected people. The engineers only had to wear the image and they became essentially invisible to the computer. While these patterns only worked on one specific type of AI, it is possible that other patterns can be found and used to effectively disguise people from other systems."}, {"headline": "Uncanny Music Box", "content": "Happy Halloween folks! This is an AI based tool by MIT's media lab trained on thousands of soundtracks from cult horror movies in order to create new spooky music. You can use sliders to add in your own sound effects as well."}, {"headline": "Nintendo Switch Online is getting an \u2018expansion pack\u2019 with N64 and Genesis games", "content": "The Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will let Nintendo Switch Online members play Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games. There is no info on pricing, but it will launch in late October. The company will be releasing Switch versions of the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis controllers. A list of the games playable at launch is available in the article."}, {"headline": "AI deepfakes are now as simple as typing whatever you want your subject to say", "content": "Students at Stanford University used a combination of techniques to create software that allows users to edit a text transcript of a video to generate realistic deepfake edits. The software matches the sounds made by the actor in the video with facial expressions, and this information is used to create a 3D model of the lower half of the face. The software then changes the 3D model of the face based on the edited text transcript and then pastes it into the target video. Changes in expression, emotional content, and visual interruptions, such as a hand obstructing a clear view of the face, heavily affect the believability of the deepfakes. The development of this software is an indicator that deepfake technology is becoming increasingly accessible. Deepfakes could significantly impact our ability to trust the media we see. A nine minute video is available that demonstrates and explains the software."}, {"headline": "Ground-Penetrating Radar Reveals Entire Ancient Roman City", "content": "Archaeologists were able to preliminarily map the entire underground city of Falerii Novi, an ancient Roman city, using ground-penetrating radar. The 28 billion data points collected in the project to generate the full map are still being processed. Researchers were able to document the locations of buildings, monuments, passageways, and even water pipes without having to dig. Falerii Novi is well documented in historical accounts. It has an unorthodox layout compared to other ancient Roman cities. Images of the city are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Book Excerpt: Inside Spotify\u2019s Ill-Fated Flirtation With TV and Hardware", "content": "A book published by Swedish journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud, 'Spotify Untold', has material from over 70 interviews conducted with former top Spotify executives and investors, record company heads, and competitors. It reveals the story of Spotify's rise from a tiny start-up to the biggest streaming music company in the world. Included in the book are stories about how Spotify considered entering into the streaming video market between 2011 to 2015, Spotify's almost acquisitions of Tidal and SoundCloud, how Microsoft, Google, and Tencent all offered to buy Spotify, and more."}, {"headline": "Partytown", "content": "Partytown is a library that helps relocate resource-intensive scripts into a web worker. It helps speed up sites by offloading third-party scripts off the main thread. Partytown can also sandbox third-party scripts, allowing developers to control what the scripts can execute."}, {"headline": "Moore's Law for Everything", "content": "The costs for technology have dropped over the last few decades, and AI is set to make everything even cheaper. Machines will be able to do everything in the next few decades, including changing what we mean by 'everything'. With the drop in costs looming, we need to start thinking of new ways to distribute wealth in society. This article discusses one potential option for the distribution of wealth in the future."}, {"headline": "Pricewise", "content": "Firefox has launched an open beta for Pricewise, their price-tracking browser extension. You can add products to your watch list and it will give you a notification when the price drops. The extension currently works on Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, eBay, and Walmart, and Mozilla plans on adding more stores in the future."}, {"headline": "Plasmid, Virus or Other? DNA \u2018Borgs\u2019 Blur Boundaries", "content": "Scientists from the University of California have discovered unique genomic structures within fragments of DNA obtained from samples of mud from wetland environments. The unknown DNA may be from a new type of genetic entity called Borgs. Borgs are able to pick up DNA from their hosts and carry them to the next host. Scientists are still debating whether Borgs are really a new genetic entity, or whether they are another type of large virus or plasmid."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk makes deal with SEC not to discuss Tesla's finances without a lawyer's approval", "content": "Elon Musk has reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his use of Twitter. The agreement, which outlines what kind of information requires formal legal review prior to being published, still requires approval by a judge. It includes topics regarding the company\u2019s decisions, financial position, and other topics that may affect shareholders. Tesla shares rose after the news. The full proposed agreement between the SEC and Musk is available to read at the end of the article."}, {"headline": "Nearby Sharing \u2014 Android's AirDrop competitor \u2014 is rolling out now in beta", "content": "A beta test for Android's Nearby Sharing feature is rolling out via the Play Services beta. The feature allows users to share content between Android devices, similar to Apple's AirDrop. Users will be able to share content with contacts or anyone in the local vicinity with Nearby Share open. The current test seems very limited, so most people won't be able to access it even with the latest Play Services beta. Screenshots of the feature are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Testing Amazon Kitchen: Here\u2019s our hot take on the tech giant\u2019s first hot food bar at Amazon Go Grocery", "content": "The Amazon Go Grocery in Redmond features a hot food section with burritos, chicken wings, soup, and other options. Amazon automatically tracks purchases in the store, so customers can just grab items off the shelf and walk out. While the technology used to create the shopping experience is impressive, the food is apparently not as great. Amazon has offsite kitchens where it prepares food, but the food is heated up in-stores daily. It also sells cold food and other pre-packaged meal options. A review of some of the food options, photos included, is available in the article."}, {"headline": "How browsers work", "content": "Web browsers are probably the most widely used software in the world. Their main function is to present web resources by requesting them from a server and displaying them on the browser window. This article explains how web browsers work behind the scenes. It explores what happens from when a user types an address into the address bar to when the browser renders a page on the screen. The article uses examples from Firefox, Chrome, and Safari."}, {"headline": "US, UK and, Australia urge Facebook to create backdoor access to encrypted messages", "content": "The US, UK, and Australian governments plan to pressure Facebook to create a backdoor in its encrypted messaging to allow them to access the contents of private communications. Facebook plans to implement end-to-end encryption across its messaging services in order to stop unwanted parties from viewing user conversations. The US and UK have signed the world's first data access agreement that will allow law enforcement agencies to obtain data directly from the other country's tech firms. Facebook strongly opposes the government's attempts to build backdoors as it would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere. When a backdoor is opened up for a specific government, it also opens up the possibility for malicious parties to steal information from the same backdoor."}, {"headline": "SpaceX reveals the grand extent of its starport plans in South Texas", "content": "SpaceX's proposed plans for its spaceport have been made public as part of the federal review process. The US Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comments on the changes. A detailed architectural drawing of the site is included in the documents. The facility is compact, with all of the buildings concentrated within a couple dozen acres. The plans provide more evidence that Elon Musk is all in on Texas for the future of SpaceX. A list of the major hardware that will be at the site is in the article."}, {"headline": "PHP Insights", "content": "PHP Insights was designed for developers to assess the quality of their PHP projects directly in terminal. Developers can analyze their coding quality and style, and there are tools to help make code reliable, simple, and clean. Users can create their own custom Insights to contribute to the project."}, {"headline": "Doctors plan to test a gene therapy that could prevent Alzheimer\u2019s disease", "content": "Studies have shown that the APOE gene may be related to the development of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Those with type 4 of the gene are extremely likely to be affected, while those who carry type 2 are at significantly less risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease. A gene therapy which floods the brain with the type 2 APOE gene will be tested in humans, and scientists hope that it will slow down or reverse the effects of Alzheimer\u2019s disease in affected patients. While this may not cure existing patients, the study may pave the way for people who carry the type 4 APOE gene to start receiving preventative treatment."}, {"headline": "Twitter for iOS begins testing dislike button for some users", "content": "Twitter is in the early stages of testing a dislike button for some users on iOS. Dislikes will not be shown publicly and they won't be visible to the author. Twitter is using the button to see what people think is valuable to a conversation. It is unknown whether Twitter will expand the feature."}, {"headline": "Physicists have created \u201ceverlasting bubbles\u201d", "content": "In 2017, French physicists created spherical shells made up of plastic microspheres that could store pressurized gas in a tiny volume. These gas marbles could roll around on a solid surface without breaking apart. A recent study tested the longevity of the gas marbles and found that bubbles made from them could last between six and 60 minutes. Adding glycerol to the solution created gas marbles that could last from five weeks to 465 days. A lot of information about bubble science is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Facebook cancels F8 developer conference due to coronavirus concerns", "content": "The in-person portion of Facebook's F8 developer conference has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns. Facebook will replace the main F8 conference with locally hosted events, videos, and live-streamed content. While Facebook considered allowing the conference to continue, many international developers would not be able to attend. Many companies have pulled out of GDC 2020 and the Mobile World Congress was canceled earlier in February due to the coronavirus outbreak."}, {"headline": "SSH To Anywhere With Tailscale", "content": "SSH To Anywhere With Tailscale (Sponsor)\n\n\nNo additional hardware to manage. No complicated firewalls. Tailscale keeps it simple & secure. Learn more."}, {"headline": "New \u201cGlowworm attack\u201d recovers audio from devices\u2019 power LEDs", "content": "Glowworm is a passive attack that converts the fluctuations in LED signal strength into audio signals. The fluctuations aren't perceptible to the naked eye, but they can be read with a photodiode coupled to a simple optical telescope up to 35 meters away. Glowworm can only decode audio signals from electronic systems, so it can't be used to spy on real-world conversations. The attack requires a clean line of sight to the target system's LEDs. It won't work with a recording of the LEDs as even a high-definition close-up video would barely be able to capture the fluctuations. A link to the full research paper is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Dark Lightning: Uncovering the Strongest Energy Discharge on Earth", "content": "Dark lightning are bursts of gamma rays that can happen during thunderstorms. When it was first detected, scientists thought the gamma rays were coming from space, but later observations confirmed that they came from a terrestrial phenomenon. Dark lightning could be dangerous to people traveling on a plane during a thunderstorm, but pilots tend to evade storms and dark lightning is rare, only occurring once for every thousand visible lightning bolts. It usually dissipates before becoming dangerous to living things on Earth. The only way to tell if passengers are exposed to dark lightning is by flying with radiation detectors on board."}, {"headline": "Some praise, some doubts as Facebook rolls out a prayer tool", "content": "Facebook has rolled out a new prayer request feature for groups. Users can post prayer requests and other members of the group can press a button to indicate that they have prayed for the person. The feature has been in testing since December in the US as part of an effort to support faith communities. Religious leaders have mostly responded positively to the feature, but there are concerns with privacy and how Facebook will use the data. Facebook says that advertisers aren't able to use prayer posts to target ads."}, {"headline": "Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century", "content": "The 28 fastest days since 1960 all occurred in 2020. Earth completed its revolutions around its axis milliseconds quicker than average on these days, causing problems for international timekeepers. Timekeepers use ultra-accurate atomic clocks to measure Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC is adjusted when the time it takes the Earth to make one full rotation deviates by more than 0.4 seconds. Usually, a 'leap second' is added to correct for Earth's rotation speed, but this time, scientists are talking about a negative leap second."}, {"headline": "Tedium", "content": "This is a newsletter about the long tail of the internet. It's full of weird, quirky stuff you won't find anywhere else, like what happens when \"lost\" films and television shows become found once again, hardcore use cases for Google, etc. Curated by Ernie Smith, who some of you might remember from ShortFormBlog on Tumblr."}, {"headline": "n8n", "content": "n8n is a free, node-based workflow automation tool. It can be self-hosted, easily extended, and integrated with internal tools. There are more than 50 different nodes to automate workflows. A short video is available to show how n8n can be used to create a simple workflow."}, {"headline": "Scientists Predict Fish Behavior from Real-Time Brain Monitoring", "content": "Scientists studied the activity patterns of zebrafish brains in order to predict the decisions that they make. Using the patterns found in the data they collected, the scientists were able to predict the timing and direction of a fish's movement with brain imaging techniques. Larval zebrafish have much simpler brain systems, so they are the best place to start to look for activity patterns that might be distributed and hard to connect. Brains do not execute the exact same responses every time, even for the same activity. The scientists monitored neural activity simultaneously from about 5,000 individual neurons in the brains of the fish during training. Results from the study suggested that the cerebellum was a major contributor to decision-making, despite its well-known role in motor control."}, {"headline": "Scripts", "content": "This repository contains five small scripts to make life better. The scripts can help generate ssh keys from passwords, bypass AMSI for VBA, send text to speech using the Windows Speech interface, automate Excel, and load shellcode with SYLK."}, {"headline": "20,000 Startup Ideas", "content": "This site contains a general list of current economically important human activities that can be used as ideas for startups. There are just over 18,000 ideas on the list."}, {"headline": "How To Develop A Cryptocurrency \u2013 The Complete Guide", "content": "This tutorial teaches developers how to create a cryptocurrency using Solidity and the ERC20 Token standard. Readers will learn how to develop and deploy Ethereum Smart Contracts, create ERA20 Tokens, set up local Ethereum development environments, deploy on Polygon Mumbai, and visualize custom tokens on MetaMask. No previous Solidity knowledge is required."}, {"headline": "Showcase", "content": "Showcase is a sample project that applies a modern approach to Android development using Kotlin and the latest tech-stacks. The aim of the project is to demonstrate best practices, present guidelines, and to present a modern Android application architecture that is modular, scalable, maintainable, and testable. While the application is simple, it builds a solid foundation for larger apps suitable for bigger teams and a long application lifecycle."}, {"headline": "Would You Trust a Cartoon Cat with Your Money?", "content": "eGirl Capital is a crypto investment firm staffed by 12 anonymous cartoon characters and two real identities. It started as a joke in 2019, but it has since made an impression in the crypto VC world, investing up to $10 million in a range of serious projects. The group does not take money from outside investors, preferring to spend the money that its partners made through cryptocurrency trading. While traditional markets might not accept a group of anonymous investors, the crypto space has been receptive."}, {"headline": "How Malicious Tor Relays are Exploiting Users in 2020", "content": "Tor exit relays are the only type of relay that gets to see the destination chosen by the Tor browser user. Whether the user decided to use http or https will determine whether a malicious exit relay can see and manipulate the transferred content or not. In May of 2020, 23.95% of Tor exit relays were controlled by malicious actors. There are no requirements for Tor relay operators so anyone can add malicious relays. Some effort has been made to remove these malicious relays but the attackers have been persistent. The attackers' primary goal was to steal bitcoin, mainly targeting bitcoin mixer services. There are indicators that the attackers still run over 10% of the Tor network exit capacity. This vulnerability has led to calls for the Tor Project authorities to act to prevent further harm."}, {"headline": "Google is giving Android on tablets another shot", "content": "Google has released a developer preview for Android 12L, a new version of Android designed for larger screens like tablets and foldables. The public version will arrive early next year. Android 12L features a two-column layout for the notification shade and lockscreen on wider screens, a taskbar that simplifies the process of launching things in split-screen mode, an API for developers to make apps aware of hinges, and much more. Screenshots from the preview are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Spotify is testing interactive podcast ads so you never have to remember a promo code again", "content": "Spotify will be testing a new feature that allows podcasts to embed a link on their episode pages that leads directly to an advertiser's webpage. The system will load pages with promo codes automatically inserted to remove the work from users. Spotify is looking for more ways to create more of a direct funnel for brands. Streaming Ad Insertion was introduced in January for Spotify's exclusive shows. The technology targets users based on their demographics and other data points in real-time and then inserts ads into podcasts as they are being listened to."}, {"headline": "Russia claims new missile is 27 times faster than sound", "content": "Russia has developed a new intercontinental weapon that can fly at 27 times the speed of sound while carrying a nuclear weapon of up to two megatons. The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle has been described as a technological breakthrough. It can make sharp maneuvers in the atmosphere, making it hard to intercept. The first missile unit with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle was put on combat duty in the southern Ural Mountains. Russia claims that US efforts to develop a missile defense system eroded Russia's nuclear deterrent, so it had to develop advanced weapons as a response. For the first time, Russia is developing an entirely new class of weapons, unlike in the past when it was catching up with the US. China has tested its own hypersonic glide vehicle. US officials have discussed adding additional sensors or interceptors in space, so that enemy missiles can be detected and destroyed sooner."}, {"headline": "Turn any SQL database into an API and no-code app", "content": "Directus is an open-source library built using TypeScript that installs on top of any SQL database, automatically creating a REST+GraphQL API and no-code app that enables anyone to connect, manage, and visualize data.\"Tripadvisor is using Directus to bring our products, data and content closer together.\" - Antoine Veliz, VP Design, TripadvisorLearn more or check us out on GitHub!"}, {"headline": "Discord\u2019s new Premium Memberships let creators monetize servers", "content": "Discord is testing a new Premium Memberships feature that allows creators to monetize their servers. The feature is currently only available for around 10 creators. Creators will be able to use the feature to offer more content or access to community members. Discord communities will be able to create tiered perks and lock channels or servers to paying subscribers. Discord will give 90 percent of subscription revenue to creators."}, {"headline": "Glassmorphism", "content": "Glassmorphism is the name for the popular Frosted Glass aesthetic based on background blur and transparency. The effect uses stacked layers to show the depth and context of the interface. This site contains resources on Glassmorphism for designers and developers. It has a generator for creating Glassmorphism-style CSS."}, {"headline": "Samsung caught throttling 10,000 phone apps\u2014and its own home screen", "content": "Samsung has been accused of throttling 10,000 Android apps. It uses an app called the Game Optimizing Service to throttle non-benchmark apps, dropping performance by up to 45%. The behavior has been observed on the Galaxy S10, S20, S21, and S22. Users have been able to produce wild performance changes by changing app package names. The throttling applies to many apps, not just games. It even applies to Samsung's own apps and home screen."}, {"headline": "Tablet-focused Android 12L update rolls out, just not to any tablets", "content": "Google has released Android 12L without any tablet hardware to run it on. The hardware will come later this year. Android 12L features a new taskbar UI, dual-pane UIs for the notification panel and system settings, and a new recent-apps view for bigger screens. An update will also roll out to Pixel 3a, 4, 4a, 5, and 5a devices. A Pixel 6 update will roll out later this month."}, {"headline": "Uber will now deactivate riders with below average ratings", "content": "Uber drivers have always had to keep a rating above 4.6 in order to continue driving for the service. Riders will now need to keep an above average rating as well, otherwise, they risk being banned from using Uber. Uber has been experimenting with ways for drivers to give riders feedback for years, for example, giving drivers the opportunity to leave additional comments about the rider, which would trigger a warning for the rider if they had too many negative interactions. A list of bannable offenses is documented in Uber\u2019s community guidelines. Last month, the app was updated to give riders the confidence that their driver has been properly vetted for safety."}, {"headline": "LittleJS", "content": "LittleJS is a 2D JavaScript game engine with fast WebGL rendering. It has everything necessary to make high-quality games. LittleJS features positional audio effects, a particle effects system, a very small footprint with no dependencies, and much more. Several example starter projects are available."}, {"headline": "Apple secures first states to support digital driver\u2019s licenses, but privacy questions linger", "content": "Apple plans to support digital driver's licenses and state IDs in its iOS 15 update expected later this year. So far, only Arizona and Georgia have agreed to accept digital IDs, with six other states expected to follow. The TSA will be the first agency to accept digital IDs, as only a state ID is required for traveling by air within the US. The identity readers that the TSA will use are secure and don't require passengers to hand over or unlock their phones. Apple has been secretive about how it built this technology and what it gets out of it."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk - Tesla will hold a super fun AI party/hackathon at my house", "content": "Elon Musk has tweeted that Tesla will be holding an AI party/hackathon at his house in about four weeks. The event appears to be invite-only, and the only requirement for invitees is that they have a deep understanding of AI and the ability to implement practical neural networks. A degree is not necessary. In the thread, Musk mentions that Tesla recruits engineers from anywhere in the world."}, {"headline": "Institute Breaks Transmission World Record With 125,000 Gbps Using an Optical Fiber", "content": "Researchers from Japan have achieved the world's first transmission exceeding 1 petabit per second in a single-core multi-mode optical fiber. At 125,000 Gbps, the experiment broke the current record transmission in a multi-mode fiber by 2.5 times. The researchers now plan to increase the distance of the transmission and integrate it with multi-core technology."}, {"headline": "Google is bringing Chrome OS to PCs and Macs", "content": "Chrome OS Flex is a new version of Chrome OS designed to run on PCs and Macs. It is designed for businesses and schools and can be installed within minutes. The OS looks and feels identical to Chrome OS on a Chromebook, but some features may be dependent on the hardware that it is running on. Chrome OS Flex is still in early access mode. It can be booted from a USB drive without being installed."}, {"headline": "Windows 11 leak reveals new UI, Start menu, and more", "content": "An early version of Windows 11 has leaked online ahead of its unveiling on June 24. It features a new user interface, Start menu, and more. The OS reuses many parts of Windows 10X, an operating system for dual-screen devices that was canceled. Microsoft is overhauling its Windows app store to allow developers to submit any Windows application and it is considering allowing third-party commerce platforms in apps. It is also improving the Xbox experience by integrating the Xbox app to offer quick access to Xbox Game Pass games, the social parts of the Xbox network, and the Xbox store. Screenshots from the leak are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?", "content": "As a solo developer, you are in control of everything in your projects, including planning and managing development. There are tools available to help in planning development, like Trello, but many developers still prefer to just use a simple .txt file with notation formatting. A lot of the time, it is mostly preference, and some developers even change tools depending on the project requirements. When planning development, it is important to also consider the social milestones. As a solo developer, building the wrong thing can be costly, so you should set checkpoints to confirm that the project is going in the right direction."}, {"headline": "Rolls-Royce Is Building Snake Robots to Fix Jet Engines", "content": "Rolls-Royce has designed new robots to inspect and repair its turbofan engines as part of its IntelligentEngine vision. Two types of snake-like robots were revealed. COBRA is controlled by an engineer using fully-immersive virtual reality equipment in order to view what is inside an engine, and FLARE is able to make repairs to thermal coatings inside of jet engines without the need to remove the engine from the aircraft wing. A third type of robot called SWARM is a small machine that allows engineers to view a jet engine in action from the interior without needing to dismantle any parts. These robots are still in testing phases, but the results have been promising, and they demonstrate what the future of aircraft repair might look like."}, {"headline": "UseHooks.ts", "content": "UseHooks.ts is a React hook library written in Typescript. It contains many useful code snippets that can be easily copied to the clipboard. A hosted version is available."}, {"headline": "Hello", "content": "Hello is a super simple video chat tool that works without any sign up, you just go to the URL and it will give you a share link to invite any friends you want to the chat."}, {"headline": "Read Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Tab S8 press release two days before it\u2019s live", "content": "Samsung's next Unpacked event is set for February 9, but details about the Galaxy Tab S8 have already leaked. Three new models are expected: an 11-inch Galaxy Tab S8, a 12.4-inch S8 Plus, and a 14.6-inch S8 Ultra. All models will support Wi-Fi 6E and 45-watt fast charging. The S8 Plus and Ultra will come with a new S Pen stylus and have OLED screens. Renders of the devices are available in the article. The Tab 8 lineup will launch on February 25 beginning with select markets."}, {"headline": "As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support, and this is what happened", "content": "This article talks about the experience of a solo developer who decided to offer phone support for a couple of their apps in Japan. As the user base was small, the developer didn't receive a large number of calls, but most users were polite. Offering phone support allowed the developer to hear the problems that customers experienced directly and understand them more. The feedback helped them prioritize better and make better decisions. The article ends with tips on how to improve your listening skills."}, {"headline": "Bacteria live despite burial in seafloor mud for 100 million years", "content": "Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology dug up some 100 million-year-old mud from the seafloor, and after adding some food to it, they discovered ancient bacteria still living in the mud. The sample was taken from deep sediments in the middle of the South Pacific where extremely little organic matter is available for life to grow on. The mud still contained oxygen, nitrates, and phosphates due to the lack of food. Researchers believe that the bacterial communities had slowed their metabolism and have been present in the mud for over 100 million years."}, {"headline": "Google is absorbing DeepMind\u2019s health care unit to create an 'AI assistant for nurses and doctors'", "content": "Google is absorbing DeepMind's Health division into it's Google Health division. DeepMind currently has an app called Streams, which helps manage patients in hospitals in the UK. Google will be turning Streams into an \"AI-powered assistant for nurses and doctors\". DeepMind will continue to work on a number of ambitious research projects applying AI to healthcare, such as using AI to spot eye disease."}, {"headline": "Google's open sources low-bandwidth Lyra audio codec for data calls", "content": "Google has published the code for Lyra, an audio codec that uses machine learning to power voice calls with low bitrates. It can compress raw audio down to 3kbps while retaining quality. Lyra is still in development, so the API and bitstream may change as developers send their feedback."}, {"headline": "New Yubico security keys let you use fingerprints instead of passwords", "content": "Yubico just announced its new YubiKey Bio Series, its first hardware security key to offer fingerprint logins. The new key supports the latest FIDO2/WebAuthn and U2Fopen authentication standards. It comes in both USB Type-A and USB Type-C models. The key works with OSes that support WebAuthn and browsers based on Chromium. It is crush resistant and water resistant. Yubico promises the key will work out of the box with various enterprise-facing platforms."}, {"headline": "Apple will reportedly fund Apple-exclusive podcasts", "content": "Apple has been focusing on providing services and original content recently and is now reportedly investing in exclusive shows for Apple Podcasts. In the past, Apple has been neutral with podcasts, allowing anyone to upload their podcast RSS feeds onto Apple\u2019s platform for distribution. While there were curated lists, none of these shows were funded directly by Apple. Once Apple starts releasing its own podcasts, it may start promoting its own shows over others. Other podcast platforms have also been moving toward the same business model."}, {"headline": "Mind-Controlled Flamethrower", "content": "Nathaniel F built a mind-controlled flamethrower by combining brain-computer interface technology with machine learning. The system fires the flamethrower when it detects the correct thought patterns. It was created using a Mindflex, a Raspberry Pi 4, an Arduino, and a flamethrower. A 7-minute video showing how the flamethrower was made is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Apple asks developers to place its login button above Google, Facebook", "content": "Apple\u2019s new Human Interface Guidelines suggest that developers place the new \u2018Sign in with Apple\u2019 button in iPhone and iPad apps above other sign-in options. Users generally select the default or first option available in apps, and the \u2018Sign in with Apple\u2019 option will soon be compulsory if users are required to provide login details. While developers are not required to follow Apple\u2019s Human Interface Guidelines, many believe that following the guidelines is the surest way to gain approval."}, {"headline": "Facebook\u2019s new fantasy sports-like prediction games let you blast your boldest picks to everyone you know", "content": "Facebook Fantasy Games are fantasy sports-like prediction games that let users guess what will happen in sports, TV shows, and pop culture. The games will roll out first for mobile users in the US and Canada. Games will have public leaderboards, but users can make their own public or private leagues. Users won't be able to wager real money on the games through Facebook. Facebook launched a website for its cloud gaming service in July, and it also offers a game streaming service."}, {"headline": "This Startup Wants You To Eat All Your Food In Cube Form", "content": "SquarEat is a company that sells cubes of food made from 100 percent natural ingredients. The cubes have all the features of regular food but with a longer shelf life, better preservation of nutrients, and more convenience. SquarEat offers meal plans with different meal sizes, flavors, and combinations of nutrients. The company wants to revolutionize meal planning with its new concept of food. It has algorithms for recommending meals for customers. A link to SquarEat's pitch deck is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Facebook releases a report on the most-viewed content in News Feed", "content": "Facebook has released a report that shows what content was most widely viewed by Americans between April and June. It contains sections showing the top 20 domains, links, pages, and posts in terms of views. A companion guide that describes how the data was gathered and analyzed was also released. Facebook released the data in response to reports that posts from right-wing sources had the most interaction. The top posts only account for less than 0.1 percent of the content viewed by US users, and the data only accounts for public posts, not posts made in private groups. A link to the report is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Lyft's monthly subscription plan is now available nationwide", "content": "Lyft now has a monthly subscription, for $299 a month you can get 30 free rides valued at $15 or less. If any of these rides goes over $15, you just pay the difference. You can use this for single passenger or carpool rides, and for a limited time subscribers will get an additional 5% off additional rides."}, {"headline": "Dropbox to cut 11% of its global workforce", "content": "Dropbox is letting go of 315 employees, about 11% of the company. Its chief operating officer will leave the company on February 5. Dropbox shifted to remote work in October and plans to continue to do so after the pandemic ends. It will open Dropbox Studios in San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, and Dublin for its employees to work together in person when it is safe to do so. Dropbox's stocks have dropped by more than 6% since Wednesday."}, {"headline": "NLP Best Practices", "content": "As natural language processing grows in quality and usability, clarifying and developing best practices for building NLP systems will help in significantly reducing time to market by simplifying the experience and providing guidelines. This repository contains examples and best practices for building NLP systems through Jupyter notebooks and utility functions. It focuses on state-of-the-art methods and common scenarios."}, {"headline": "We asked some of the boldest thinkers what the world will be like in 50 years. Here\u2019s what their answers tell us about the future", "content": "Thinkers around the world were asked questions about the future of our world. These questions include: Who will run the world? Which country will have the most powerful economy? What kinds of companies will be most important? What will cause the biggest conflicts? How will people earn a living? There are many more questions. The top three answers are displayed on the main page. More answers are linked to provide deeper insight into how people think the future will turn out."}, {"headline": "How to eat TensorFlow2 in 30 days", "content": "How to eat TensorFlow2 in 30 days is a book designed to reduce the difficulty of learning Tensorflow for students and researchers. It presents the information found in the official documents of TensorFlow in a simple manner. Basic knowledge of machine/deep learning and experience with modeling using Keras or Tensorflow is recommended before reading this book."}, {"headline": "Software Architecture is Overrated, Clear and Simple Design is Underrated", "content": "When the Uber app's payment system was rewritten, it had to replace two existing payment systems and be deployed and used by millions of people every day without any business impact. The software was designed without using any of the standard software architecture planning tools. There were no software architects or references to common architecture problems used. The team followed a simple approach to the design by defining the problem, brainstorming and whiteboarding solutions, writing simple documentation and diagrams, discussing tradeoffs and alternatives, and then getting feedback within the team and organization. As an engineer, it is better to solve solutions and learn through them rather than picking a particular architecture pattern hoping it will solve the problem. The goal should be to make everything as simple as possible."}, {"headline": "NASA's OSIRIS-REx successfully collected bits of an orbiting asteroid", "content": "Tuesday afternoon marked the first time that a NASA mission has managed to intercept, interact with, and collect samples from an asteroid. The $800 million OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a small sample of regolith from the passing asteroid, 101955 Bennu. Asteroids like Bennu contain original materials from the solar nebula that collapsed to form our sun and planets. They may also give clues to how life started. Carbonite minerals were found on Bennu, suggesting that the asteroid was once part of an even larger asteroid with liquid water."}, {"headline": "awesome-mobile-security", "content": "This repository contains resources on mobile security. There are two main sections, Android and iOS. Each section contains links to general resources, books, courses, tools, labs, talks, and some other miscellaneous information."}, {"headline": "Uber will now let you see how many one-star ratings you got from drivers", "content": "Uber is allowing its customers to see what ratings they have received from drivers. Customers will be able to see their ratings in the app's new privacy menu. Uber uses the rating system to police its users. A low rating can result in both drivers and riders being kicked off the platform. Uber released a list of cities with the highest and lowest ratings. New York City came in first for the lowest average rider rating among large US cities."}, {"headline": "Vultr Delivers Kubernetes Without The Costs", "content": "Vultr Delivers Kubernetes Without The Costs (Sponsor)\n\n\nVultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE) has landed, making it easier than ever to provision clusters with a free, fully-managed control plane and worker nodes powered by Vultr Cloud Compute instances conveniently located in any of 24 locations. Try VKE for free today with this $200 code!"}, {"headline": "The World Is Losing Fish to Eat as Oceans Warm, Study Finds", "content": "A study published in January found that oceans were warming a lot faster than previously thought. As fish are very climate sensitive, they are moving to cooler waters, resulting in a decrease in fish populations in many areas. Overfishing is happening faster in certain areas as fish populations decline. Fish and seafood make up 17 percent of the animal protein consumed worldwide, and it is important to maintain sustainable levels fishing to prevent a loss of this important food source."}, {"headline": "Coinbase dives deeper into banking by letting users deposit paychecks into their accounts", "content": "Coinbase users will soon be able to use a direct deposit service to deposit any percentage of their paycheck into the platform. The service can hold the money in dollars or convert it to cryptocurrency for no fee. Other popular finance apps already allow for direct deposit. Coinbase recently canceled plans for a high-interest lending product due to legal threats by the SEC. The SEC has called for more crypto oversight, arguing that most digital assets traded need to register with the agency."}, {"headline": "Qualcomm surges after announcing a settlement with Apple over patent royalties", "content": "The disputes between Apple and Qualcomm have ended, with the companies reaching an agreement that involves payment of an unknown sum from Apple to Qualcomm. All litigation between the companies will end. The companies have also signed a six year licensing agreement with each other, with an option to extend for another two years. Apple will now be purchasing chips from Qualcomm. Qualcomm stocks rose sharply by more than 20% after the news was released."}, {"headline": "Build In-App Chat + Feeds, Faster", "content": "Activate your free Stream Chat trial to start building today. Qualifying small teams and personal dev projects can also apply for the free-forever Stream Maker Account."}, {"headline": "DeepMind\u2019s New AI With a Memory Outperforms Algorithms 25 Times Its Size", "content": "While larger language models perform better, they are expensive and harder to analyze than the average neural network, which are already known for being black boxes. DeepMind has built a language model called the Retrieval-Enhanced Transformer (RETRO), which has the ability to look up information on a database. RETRO was able to outperform language models multiple times its size. The model is still quite large, but the project demonstrates how scaling models may not be the best route to better performance."}, {"headline": "How to mentor software engineers", "content": "We're rarely taught how to mentor. Mentoring is different from coaching. While both involve improving skills, a coach's role is to assess and not just to advise. Mentors give advice that is usually not just tied to day-to-day work, with conversations usually centering around goals, situations, and skills. This article discusses mentoring and gives tips on how to become a better mentor."}, {"headline": "Xsolla lays off 150 after an algorithm ruled staff 'unengaged and unproductive'", "content": "Xsolla laid off roughly one-third of its workforce after an algorithm employed by the company decided that they were unengaged and unproductive employees. The company had increased its revenue by 80 percent last year, but growth has slowed down in the last six months. Xsolla decided to cut its salary budget using the algorithm, which analyzes employee's work activities. The CEO has blamed reduced productivity on remote work and has defended the use of the algorithm. Xsolla promised to help find new jobs for the laid-off workers."}, {"headline": "Disney Assumes Full Control of Hulu in Deal With Comcast", "content": "Disney now has complete control over Hulu after a deal was reached with Comcast to sell the platform for at least $5.8 billion. Comcast\u2019s NBCUniversal will continue to license content to Hulu until 2024. However, after next year the content will no longer be exclusive to Hulu, and by 2022, NBCU will be able to cancel most of its licensing agreements with Hulu. NBCU will launch a free, ad-supported streaming service in 2020. With Disney in control of Hulu, they will be able to set a new strategic map for the service, including launching it internationally. Comcast continues to hold a 33 percent share of Hulu, but in 2024 either Comcast can demand that Disney purchase this share, or Disney can require Comcast to sell its share for fair market price."}, {"headline": "Drago Anguelov", "content": "Waymo is a self-driving technology development company, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Self-driving technology is developed through obtaining a large amount of data, creating machine learning models from the data, and then a lot of testing. While there has been huge leaps in the last few years with the development of the technology, there is still a lot to be done, as the problems needed to be solved before a safe, reliable, self-driving car are vast and complex, requiring a lot of testing in multiple environments. Drago Anguelov presents the results of these tests and also discusses the problems that need to be solved before self-driving cars become a viable reality."}, {"headline": "Israeli Startup Nanox Gets FDA Approval for Digital X-ray System", "content": "An Israeli startup, Nanox, has developed a new type of X-ray machine that generates 3D images. It emits less radiation and costs a fraction of the price of conventional imaging devices. The Nanox.ARC uses a proprietary silicon chip embedded with 100 million nanocones that generate X-rays. The FDA has granted clearance for the single-source Nanox.ARC, and Nanox expects to get the same approval for its multisource Nanox.ARC and the Nanox.CLOUD. Nanox plans to deploy the multisource Nanox.ARC across the globe. The device will expand access to imaging services to the roughly two-thirds of the world's population who currently have limited or no meaningful access to imaging."}, {"headline": "Huawei\u2019s foldable Mate X2 leaks just before launch", "content": "Huawei has unveiled the Mate X2, a new foldable device with a large screen that unfolds from the inside. The phone features a second screen on the outside for use when the device is folded. As it is a Huawei device, the Mate X2 will launch without support for Google's apps or services. The phone will be available in China starting at around $2,785 for 256GB of storage or around $2,940 for 512GB of storage. Images of the device are available in the article."}, {"headline": "More Cloud for Less Money", "content": "More Cloud for Less Money (Sponsor)\n\n\nNow with more than 20 global locations and better price-to-performance than the other guys, it's no wonder Vultr is the preferred cloud infrastructure provider for developers like you. TLDR readers can redeem $100 in credit just for signing up with this link!"}, {"headline": "AI-based traffic management gets green light", "content": "A California-based company called NoTraffic is rolling out smart traffic lights in Phoenix at a few key intersections to improve traffic flow and reduce vehicle and pedestrian delays. NoTraffic claims up to a 40% reduction in vehicle delay time once its system has been deployed. One feature of the traffic grid management system is that it can give first-responders a clear path through busy commuter corridors. NoTraffic's system tracks road assets and calculates the most optimal configuration for an intersection, taking into account safety considerations like vehicles' blind spots."}, {"headline": "Reusable \"Microballoons\" could give satellites a run for their money", "content": "Urban Sky's Microballoon system can take high-res aerial photographs at a much lower cost than satellites, drones, or full-sized aircraft. Each Microballoon consists of a reusable stratospheric balloon and a payload module that houses a high-res optical camera. The system can image approximately 1,000 square kilometers per hour. Microballoons are already being used by a handful of paying clients. Urban Sky recently won a contract from the US Air Force to develop Microballoons for real-time monitoring of forest fires."}, {"headline": "Netflix to charge global members sharing their accounts an additional fee, following tests", "content": "Netflix is expanding its test to charge members for sharing accounts with people outside their household to include global markets. The company will iterate on the feature over the next year to create a balance for customers. Subscribers can now add sub-accounts to their service, each with its own profile and login details. Sub-accounts will retain their recommendations, history, and watch list if they choose to move to their own accounts. Netflix will use IP address and other device information to identify household members."}, {"headline": "Lasers can send a whispered audio message directly to one person\u2019s ear", "content": "Scientists have been able to send targeted, quiet messages from several meters away, in a way that nobody else nearby would be able to hear. Using a laser beam, sound was transmitted at 60 decibels over a distance of 2.5 meters. In theory, this technique can be used to directly send messages without any special receiving equipment, and further research will continue to increase range and working conditions."}, {"headline": "Driverless electric truck starts deliveries on Swedish public road", "content": "A driverless electric truck has received permission to start making deliveries via a public road in Sweden. The truck does not have a driver cabin, which reduces the freight operating costs by an estimated 60 percent compared to a diesel truck with a driver. Freight operators are under pressure to reduce delivery times and cut emissions, and the industry is seeing a growing shortage of drivers. The T-Pod will operate between a warehouse and a terminal at a maximum speed of 5 km/hr."}, {"headline": "Google remotely disables The Great Suspender Chrome extension after malware accusations", "content": "The Great Suspender, a popular Chrome extension that automatically suspended open tabs that haven't been used for a while, has been removed from Google's Chrome Web Store. Apparently, some sketchy changes happened when the extension changed owners last year. Google warns that the extension is dangerous and may contain malware. The extension was open source, and there have been no changes on its GitHub repository for months. The last few releases have not been published to the repository."}, {"headline": "I attended a virtual conference with an AI version of Deepak Chopra. It was bizarre and transfixing", "content": "The AI Foundation creates avatars with artificial intelligence that look and sound like the people they are meant to represent. Each avatar is trained by the person they emulate in order to learn to become digital extensions that can communicate on behalf of their real selves. If an AI doesn't know the answer to a question, it will ask its human about it at another time. Instead of replacing people, the idea is to use the digital personas to allow one person to do more work. The article describes a scenario where five of the digital personas are put together into a simulated meditation session."}, {"headline": "Amazon to pay $1 billion+ for self-driving tech firm Zoox", "content": "Amazon is set to announce a deal to purchase Zoox for upwards of $1 billion. Self-driving technology is important to Amazon as it could potentially lower the costs of delivering goods to customers. Zoox aims to develop a fully integrated vehicle, not just core autonomous technology. Developing a car costs billions of dollars, and Zoox will require a lot more funding if it wants to continue on its mission. Amazon's plans for Zoox's technology are still unclear."}, {"headline": "Building the world's brightest X-ray laser", "content": "The Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) will be the second world-class X-ray laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It will be capable of firing up to 1 million light pulses per second, with beams 10,000 times brighter than its predecessor. The beams are run through a series of alternating magnets to produce X-rays, which are then used to create molecular movies. LCLS-II will allow scientists to answer questions regarding energy transfer, possibly leading to the improvement of technologies like solar power. A video that shows what it is like inside the more than 2-mile long tunnel that houses LCLS-II is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Lossless Image Compression through Super-Resolution", "content": "This repository contains the official implementation of SReC in PyTorch. SReC applies neural networks to compress images, achieving state-of-the-art compression rates on large datasets with practical runtimes. Training, compression, and decompression are fully supported."}, {"headline": "Amazon announces 11 new and refreshed Echo-branded gadgets\u2014like a wall clock", "content": "Amazon announced 11 Echo branded products. There is a new Echo Dot speaker for $50 that is 70% louder than the previous Echo Dot. Echo Input is a Chromecast Audio competitor, it doesn't have a speaker itself, but it plugs into other speakers and gives them Alexa capabilities (it does come with built in microphones). Echo Sub is a $130 subwoofer. Echo Plus is a $150 all in one speaker hub with a built-in temperature sensor. Amazon Smart Plug is a $25 dongle that helps you set up other Echo devices. Echo Auto is a $25 dongle that can connect to your car's audio either via Bluetooth or an auxiliary jack. Fire TV Recast is a $230 DVR. AmazonBasics Microwave is a $60 microwave. Echo Wall Clock is a $30 wall clock that has Alexa integration for no apparent reason. A new Echo Show is available, it's basically an iPad attached to a speaker for $230."}, {"headline": "Pglet", "content": "Pglet is a web UI framework for backend developers. It supports Python, Bash, PowerShell, and Node.js. Other languages can easily be added. Pglet can be used to build web apps without knowing any HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. Tutorials are available."}, {"headline": "SpaceX successfully launches cargo mission to the International Space Station", "content": "On Saturday, SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo capsule to deliver supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station. Two weeks ago, a passenger version of the Dragon spaceship exploded during tests due to a failure in one of the eight SuperDraco engines on the spacecraft. The SuperDraco engines are designed to propel the spaceship away from a dangerous rocket in case of emergencies. As the cargo version of the spacecraft was not fitted with the SuperDraco engines, both SpaceX and NASA were confident in the success of the mission."}, {"headline": "Explorers Wanted: NASA to Hire More Artemis Generation Astronauts", "content": "NASA will be accepting applications for the next class of Artemis Generation astronauts between March 2 and 31. The basic requirements to apply include US citizenship, two years of related experience or 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft, and a master's degree in a STEM field or equivalent. Applicants will be required to take an online assessment that could take up to two hours to complete. Successful applicants who complete training could be launched into space in future programs to work aboard the International Space Station and other projects. A link to apply is available."}, {"headline": "Estonia to Empower AI-Based Judge in Small Claims Court", "content": "An AI-based judge will be used in Estonia to settle small claims cases. The AI will take case submissions from both parties in a trial and determine the outcome without an actual human judge making the decision. If the parties disagree with the decision made, then they can further appeal to a human judge and a full case. The government is planning up to 50 different applications for AI in the public sector by 2020."}, {"headline": "Bill Gates explains why we should all be optimists", "content": "In an interview with Bill Gates, climate change and technology are discussed, focusing on how technology has benefited humans. While humans have damaged the planet with our technology, there has also been a lot of positive outcomes, such as the extended and improved quality of life that almost all humans experience. Gates sees a bright future, as we build upon what we already have and continue to develop better technologies."}, {"headline": "TikTok crosses 2 billion downloads after \u2018best quarter for any app ever\u2019", "content": "TikTok was downloaded 315 million times during Q1 2020, officially crossing 2 billion total downloads across iOS and android. The company has generated $435.3 million in lifetime revenue from user spending on iOS and $21.4 million in revenue on Android. China is the top source of revenue for TikTok, followed by the US. A chart showing TikTok\u2019s growth per quarter since 2017 is available."}, {"headline": "Open Source Maintainer Sabotages Code to Wipe Russian, Belarusian Computers", "content": "A software developer who maintains a repository for a popular networking tool, node-ipc, recently updated the software to make it add a file containing a message of peace to users' desktops. While the developer claims that the update only added the file, users in Belarus and Russia reported that it overwrote files on their computers with a heart emoji. The reaction to the update was extremely negative. The developer is now being targeted by hackers."}, {"headline": "Google\u2019s latest virtual tour lets you walk the Great Wall of China", "content": "Google's Arts & Culture team has launched an online experience that lets users virtually walk the Great Wall of China. It features a 360-degree virtual tour of one of the wall's best-preserved sections, 370 images of the Great Wall, and 35 stories. The experience lets users learn about the Great Wall's history and experience parts of it that might be otherwise hard to access. Google has launched numerous 360-degree virtual tours, and students can create their own VR tours using Google's Tour Creator tool. A link to the Walk the Great Wall of China tour is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Single Cells Evolve Large Multicellular Forms in Just Two Years", "content": "Researchers were able to evolve single-celled yeast into complex multicellular organisms in just a short period of time by growing them in environments that favored clumpy growth. The yeast would evolve to stay together to survive the selection pressure exerted by the scientists. Further experiments revealed that removing the ability for the yeast to use oxygen resulted in massive clusters that could be viewed with the naked eye. The team continues to evolve the yeast to see whether they can develop sophisticated differences in their tissues."}, {"headline": "React Native Newsletter", "content": "React Native Newsletter offers a curated list of blog posts, libraries, and important updates about the React Native ecosystem. It's curated by Infinite Red, these guys really know their stuff, I've used some of their open source projects in the past and it's always been top notch. Definitely worth checking out if you're interested in React Native."}, {"headline": "Laws of UX", "content": "Laws of UX is a collection of 20 maxims and principles for designers to think about when building user interfaces. Each section contains an overview, key takeaways, a poster, a history of the concept, and further reading. The posters on the site are designed to be printable."}, {"headline": "Moving Gradient animation with CSS", "content": "This article shows you how to make a complete page background animation with CSS moving gradients. It explains how the code works, and then it shows how the code can be modified to make more complex effects."}, {"headline": "How Node.js Works: A Look Behind The Scenes", "content": "Node.js provides a layer of abstraction that allows developers to write 100% pure JavaScript code and still access functions that are implemented in other libraries in the C++ language. This article explains how Node.js works, looking at its architecture and dependencies and how code is executed in the system."}, {"headline": "UltraRAM Breakthrough Brings New Memory and Storage Tech to Silicon", "content": "UltraRAM is a memory technology that combines the non-volatility of a data storage memory with the speed, energy efficiency, and endurance of working memory. It can be used as both RAM and storage on devices. Scientists from Lancaster University in the UK have made a breakthrough in the mass production of the technology. The technology could help push forward the popular trend towards in-memory processing."}, {"headline": "NASA \"Sonification\" project lets us hear the cosmos", "content": "A 'Sonification' project from NASA's Chandra X-ray Center translates telescope data into sound, letting us hear some of the most recognizable features in the sky. Many images of the cosmos are composite images of different elements or types of light to make it easier to visualize structures. The project produced three sonifications, each created with slightly different techniques and producing different sounds and qualities. A 3-minute video is available in the article that plays a sample of the sonifications."}, {"headline": "Justice Department reportedly authorized to investigate Apple under antitrust rules", "content": "The US Department of Justice has been given the green light to investigate Apple for potential antitrust violations. Google is also currently under scrutiny by the DOJ for antitrust violations in its advertising and search businesses. The Federal Trade Commission has also recently been authorized to investigate Facebook and Amazon. Apple is currently facing investigation in the European Union over its music streaming service. It will have to face an antitrust lawsuit brought on by iPhone app buyers. Apple is one of the companies that Senator Elizabeth Warren says should be broken up as they own both the products and the platform that the products are sold on."}, {"headline": "500 Free Computer Science Courses from the World\u2019s Top CS Universities", "content": "This page lists the best online courses for studying computer science. There are 500 online courses listed from 50 of the world's best universities for studying computer science. Subjects listed include AI & Machine Learning, Algorithms & Data Structures, Cybersecurity, Software Development, and Quantum Computing."}, {"headline": "98.css", "content": "98.css is a design system for building faithful recreations of old UIs. It doesn't use any JavaScript and it is compatible with all frontend frameworks. Examples of 98.css being used with React and with JavaScript are available."}, {"headline": "Rocket Lab aims to launch private Venus mission in 2023", "content": "Rocket Lab, a Californian-based spaceflight company, is planning a robotic astrobiology mission to Venus in 2023. Venus used to be a planet with oceans, lakes, and rivers, before the planet became hot and dry. Scientists believe that there could be life in the planet's atmosphere, where potentially habitable pockets have temperatures and pressures similar to the Earth's surface environment. The Venus mission will involve deploying probes into the planet's atmosphere using Rocket Lab's Photon satellite platform. When Photon becomes available for customers, it will significantly lower the cost of doing science in space."}, {"headline": "Cirrus", "content": "Cirrus is an SCSS framework for the modern web. It doesn't require JavaScript for interaction or functionality and all components are configurable. Cirrus' design system uses utility functions, which allows developers to create consistent user interfaces. Examples are available."}, {"headline": "A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy", "content": "Antibiotics have been used to treat infections for many decades, and this has caused the evolution of \u2018superbugs\u2019 that have developed resistance to these drugs. An antifungal resistant fungus has caused outbreaks all over the world, killing nearly half its patients within 90 days. When testing the hospital rooms of these patients, it was found that the fungus was present on every surface tested. Despite these outbreaks, there has been little attention drawn to this fungus. Some scientists have theorized that the outbreak is caused by the use of pesticides, some of which are molecularly similar to antifungal medication."}, {"headline": "npm is joining GitHub", "content": "GitHub has signed an agreement to acquire npm, a critical part of the JavaScript world. It is home to over 1.3 million packages with 75 billion downloads a month. npm will still be always available and always free. The npm team will now seek to invest in the registry infrastructure and platform, improve the core npm experience, and engage with the community. GitHub and npm integration will improve the security of the open-source software supply chain and allow users to trace changes from a GitHub pull request to the npm package version that fixed it. npm Pro, Teams, and Enterprise customers who host private registries will continue to receive support and will be able to move packages over to GitHub Packages later in the year."}, {"headline": "Ikea and Sonos made the ultimate speaker lamp", "content": "Ikea and Sonos have been working for years to design and produce a pair of speakers, and they will be available this August. The Symfonisk is a speaker combined with a table lamp, and the bookshelf speaker is the smallest speaker that Sonos has ever made. Both speakers are fully compatible with the rest of Sonos\u2019 range, and Ikea will integrate controls for the speakers into their smart home app. Ikea and Sonos will each handle a different part of the manufacturing process. Sonos will create the speaker parts and ship them to Ikea, who will then further assemble the parts and enclosure."}, {"headline": "The World's First Carbon Concrete Building Is Under Construction", "content": "The Cube is the world's first carbon concrete building. Its concrete is reinforced with carbon fibers rather than steel rods, making it four times stronger and lighter than traditional concrete. As carbon fiber doesn't rust, the concrete is more durable over a longer period. It also allows for the same structural strength while using far less material. Carbon concrete can reduce CO2 emissions from construction by up to 50 percent. A video outlining the construction process of The Cube is available in the article."}, {"headline": "A List of Post-mortems", "content": "This repository contains a list of post-mortems. Each item has a link to the incident report as well as a description of the cause of the system error."}, {"headline": "How the Entertainment Industry Solved Piracy, Then Made It Popular Again", "content": "For the last few decades, the entertainment industry has been fighting piracy by suing and vilifying potential customers or lobbying for copyright laws like DMCA, rather than offering better, cheaper products. The introduction of streaming services saw a drop in piracy as people had an attractive, legal alternative. As more and more streaming services enter the market, consumers are forced to sort through the many different offerings to find the shows that they want to watch. If consumers want to watch shows that are on different platforms, they have to pay for both. This is causing some consumers to return to piracy. Data suggests that piracy is an invisible competitor and a metric of consumer dissatisfaction."}, {"headline": "Avoid These Common Data Privacy Pitfalls in 2022", "content": "Avoid These Common Data Privacy Pitfalls in 2022 (Sponsor)\n\n\nInnovating and delivering products quickly is essential to any company\u2019s survival, but taking shortcuts on data security and privacy is very costly in the long run. As you aim to balance speed and security, don\u2019t lose sight of the most common privacy pitfalls and how you can avoid them. Download the free white paper today."}, {"headline": "Large Hadron Collider Creates Matter From Light", "content": "Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider observed photons merging and transforming into W bosons. W bosons are particles that carry the weak force which governs nuclear decay. The research illustrates the concept that energy and matter are two sides of the same coin."}, {"headline": "Boeing\u2019s Self-Flying Air Taxi Completes First Test Flight", "content": "Boeing announced the first successful test flight of NeXt, its autonomous, short-range taxi. This prototype was unveiled at CES 2019, and has a range of 50 miles. It's 30 feet long and 28 feet wide. Boeing's CEO says that this could shape the future of urban infrastructure, with fleets of autonomous air taxis hovering above city streets within a decade."}, {"headline": "Google says the built-in microphone it never told Nest users about was 'never supposed to be a secret'", "content": "Google has come under fire again with the revelation that its Nest Secure product had a built-in microphone. The microphone has existed in the product since launch but was never listed in the product specifications. Google has apologized for the oversight, saying that they had made a mistake in not announcing the existence of the built-in microphone. It claims the microphone was built into the device for future updates, such as the current Assistant upgrade, and for the possibility of integrating other security features such as detecting broken glass."}, {"headline": "NYC subway riders will be able to swipe in with Apple Pay starting Friday", "content": "New Yorkers on the 4, 5, 6 line will be able to start using Apple Pay to catch a ride. The system will be trialed in 16 stations between Grand Central and 42 Street in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Commuters will only be able to purchase single-ride passes during the trial. More fare options will be available in 2020, and the city expects to have expanded their Apple Pay capabilities to all subways and buses by that time."}, {"headline": "Unlayer - Embeddable Email Editor & Page Builder", "content": "Unlayer is an easy way to add a drag-n-drop email editor and page builder into your product. With Unlayer your users can create awesome emails and websites with ease without you having to build and support a home-built creative tool."}, {"headline": "Leaked pics reveal Google smart debit card to rival Apple\u2019s", "content": "Google is developing its own physical and virtual debit cards. The cards will be co-branded with different bank partners, including CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union. Combined with Google Pay, it will be Google's answer to Apple Pay and the Apple Card. This might mean that Google will become a financial services company and start offering other services that banks usually offer. Google's vast access to data means it could more accurately manage risk than traditional financial institutions."}, {"headline": "The military is funding a \"living pharmacy\" scientists can stick inside you", "content": "NTRAIN (Normalizing Timing of Rhythms Across Internal Networks of Circadian Clocks) is a device that is currently being developed by researchers from Northwestern University for controlling the body's circadian clock to eliminate jetlag, fatigue, and gastrointestinal issues. The project is being funded by DARPA for use in soldiers as fatigue and diarrhea are two major problems for military personnel. NTRAIN will allow the wearer to control the timing and doses to administer targeted and personalized peptide therapy by shining a light on it. It uses genetically engineered cells to produce peptides from the body's resources. Installing the device will involve an incision and an outpatient procedure."}, {"headline": "This 2-Acre Vertical Farm Out-Produces 720 Acre \u2018Flat Farms\u2019", "content": "Plenty is a startup in San Francisco that focuses on vertical farming technology. It uses robots and artificial intelligence in its vertical farms to optimize the farming process, with a focus on eliminating plant stress. There are limited areas in the world that can grow fresh fruits and vegetables economically, and all of that land is used up. Vertical farming can be achieved anywhere in the world as it is indoors and the environment can be controlled, producing better fruits and vegetables while using 95% less water and 99% less land. It could give independence to many areas that have to rely on imports for food."}, {"headline": "Sombras.app", "content": "On this site, users can place a square on two 6x6 grids and a corresponding cube will appear in 3D space to match the pattern of the grids with the shadows on the wall. Users can change the color of the lights, choose to display more or less cubes, as well as shoot the model to make the cubes fly around. The design can be shared or saved to disk."}, {"headline": "The Atlantic Ocean is getting wider every year, pushing the Americas away from Europe and Africa. We may finally know why.", "content": "The Atlantic Ocean is growing 1.5 inches wider every year because the tectonic plates under the Americas are separating from those beneath Europe and Africa. This is due to the formation of a large underwater mountain range in the middle of the ocean called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the North American plate from the Eurasian plate, and the South American plate from the African plate. It sits on a convection hotspot on the Earth's crust. The process started about 200 million years ago."}, {"headline": "Facebook\u2019s TransCoder AI converts code from one programming language into another", "content": "Facebook researchers have developed a neural transcompiler that can convert code from one high-level programming language into another, unsupervised. Migrating a codebase takes expertise in both languages, a lot of time, and is often expensive. Transcoder can translate between C++, Java, and Python. It was trained on over 2.8 million open source repositories on GitHub. Many of the mistakes generated by the model were minor."}, {"headline": "How I Might Have Hacked Any Microsoft Account", "content": "Until recently, hackers could change the password of any Microsoft account by sending all of the possible security codes concurrently. To do so wouldn't be easy for anyone, as it would require a lot of computing resources and thousands of IP addresses. This article follows how the vulnerability was discovered. It was reported to Microsoft and patched in November. A $50,000 bounty was rewarded for reporting the issue."}, {"headline": "Remove This! \u2702\ufe0f AI-Based Video Completion is Amazing!", "content": "For over 10 years, people have been able to remove objects from pictures using machine learning algorithms. While removing and changing still objects in pictures is now possible, achieving the same results in video has been a difficult task. A team of scientists has recently presented a new technique for removing moving objects from videos. The flow-based video completion algorithm can completely remove moving objects from videos, with significantly better results than any previous attempts. Many examples of the algorithm at work are shown throughout the video."}, {"headline": "How We Build a Design System", "content": "Bit is a platform that helps developers build, share, and collaborate on components. It uses a design system driven by components. This article explains the process of how Bit created its design system. It discusses the development of tools and components with examples along the way."}, {"headline": "Google's Fi VPN is coming to iPhones soon", "content": "Google's Fi VPN is a service available to subscribers of its Fi network. VPNs are services that give users a private connection while using the open internet, ensuring that traffic is encrypted. A decent VPN usually costs money, but Google is offering Fi VPN to its customers for free as a shield against attackers and tracking software. The service is moving out of beta for Android users, and it will be coming to iPhone in Spring. Google is also taking steps to protect Fi users from various mobile scams."}, {"headline": "The Day AppGet Died", "content": "In August last year, Microsoft made an offer to hire the developer of AppGet and acquire the software. Microsoft had wanted to make changes to how software was distributed on Windows. After a series of meetings, Microsoft went silent, until they announced the launch of WinGet. The core mechanics, terminology, the manifest format and structure, and the folder structure of the repository were very similar to what AppGet had. AppGet is an open-source project, so code-copying or using the idea wasn't an issue, but the developer was upset that they never got credit for their work."}, {"headline": "Meta goes into lockdown", "content": "Meta has started pulling talks at its summits due to risks of leaks. The company had always adhered to an open culture, but leaks have become an increasing problem in recent years. Meta recently rolled out a new Integrity Umbrella system designed to thwart leakers by limiting access to private Workplace groups. Employees who need access to a group can request it through a specific form. Employees at Meta claim that isolating company discussions will harm users in the long run."}, {"headline": "Maximizing Your Next Salary", "content": "This is advice from a development team lead on how to maximize your salary in your next salary negotiations. Have a range you're comfortable with. Don't sign any contract immediately, take a day or two to look it over thoroughly. Research the salary ranges for people with your experience level at each company online, and ask for somewhere in the upper end of that range. Mostly common sense stuff, but worth going over if you're currently looking for a new job."}, {"headline": "Harvard and Sony built a tiny surgery robot inspired by origami", "content": "Researchers from Harvard and Sony have created a surgical robot inspired by origami that is around the size of a tennis ball and weighs about the same as a penny. The mini-RCM was built using a custom manufacturing technique. Three linear actuators are used to control the mini-RCM's movements in multiple directions. The mini-RCM is 68 percent more accurate than a hand-controlled tool and was able to perform some precision medical maneuvers successfully."}, {"headline": "Relativity Space's massive 3D printers are reinventing rockets, and building the factory of the future", "content": "Relativity Space is a company that uses 3D printing to build rockets. The company has the world's largest 3D printers, capable of printing metal pieces up to 32-feet tall. 95 percent of the parts for its Terran 1 rocket are 3D-printed, making the rocket many times less complex compared to traditional rockets. The company aims to eventually be able to turn raw materials into a rocket on the launchpad in under 60 days. A video with footage of the printing process is available in the article."}, {"headline": "'Radically new' wing from NASA and MIT automatically changes shape", "content": "A new type of wing created by NASA and MIT is made from hundreds of small identical pieces. This design allows the wing to change shape using motors and cables. Different maneuvers require different wing shapes, and modern wings are usually a compromise. The new wing design can respond to changes in aerodynamic loading by changing shape, making the wing perform more optimally. Researchers aim to apply this technology to other structures, such as turbines, bridges, and space antennas."}, {"headline": "Compliance Doesn't Have to be Complicated", "content": "Compliance Doesn't Have to be Complicated (Sponsor)\n\n\n\u201cBut are you SOC 2 compliant?\u201d Don\u2019t let that question hold up deals.Drata has built the world\u2019s most advanced continuous automation platform for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, & PCI DSS. With 50 + integrations, you can connect to your tech stack, start collecting evidence, and gain a real-time view of your security posture.TLDR subscribers: save 10% and get your free compliance assessment."}, {"headline": "Water.css", "content": "Water.css is a way to quickly style up your demo pages or simple websites. Developers can style their pages by adding a line of code in the tag. There are a few options of styling available and developers can build custom themes."}, {"headline": "Nine-year-old kids are launching DDoS attacks against schools", "content": "A study by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed that the number of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks launched against school networks and websites more than doubled from 2019 to 2020. Many of the culprits were secondary school children, with the youngest being just nine. The NCA has launched a new initiative to educate kids on the consequences of launching DDoS attacks. Students who search for terms associated with cybercrime will see a page with information about the Computer Misuse Act and some encouragement to use their technical prowess in an ethical career. A video from the campaign by the NCA is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Google launches CallJoy, a virtual customer service phone agent for small businesses", "content": "Google has combined several technologies including virtual phone numbers, virtual assistants, automated audio transcriptions, and reporting and analytics to create CallJoy, a virtual customer service agent for small businesses. CallJoy is able to receive calls from customers, provide basic information, and redirect customers to complete their requests, for example, sending the customer an SMS with the link for bookings. At $39 a month, CallJoy is also able to record phone calls and help filter out spam callers. The reporting provided by CallJoy can indicate peak call times and common requests by customers. CallJoy is currently operating on an invite-only basis, and will eventually be open to all."}, {"headline": "Apple Glasses Patent Suggests Any Surface Could Become a Virtual Touch Interface", "content": "Apple Glasses could have the ability to transform any surface into a virtual touch interface, according to a patent that the company filed back in 2016. The patent describes using infrared heat sensing to detect where a user has touched a real-world object. Apple could use this system to allow Apple Glasses to project controls over real-world objects. As with all patents, Apple might not end up using the technology in its final product."}, {"headline": "Yale scientists restore cellular function in 32 dead pig brains", "content": "Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine used an artificial perfusion system called BrainEx to restore cellular function in the brains of 32 dead pigs killed hours earlier. BrainEx is a system that pumps an experimental solution into the brain to mimic blood flow. Some brains were kept alive for up to 36 hours. The brains never approached neural activity anywhere near consciousness due to preventative measures. This technology raises many ethical issues. Its use could shrink the pool of eligible organ donors."}, {"headline": "China suspends Tencent from updating existing apps or launching new apps", "content": "Tencent Holdings will not be able to update existing apps or launch any new apps as part of a temporary administration guidance measure against the tech giant. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ordered app stores and platforms to implement the measure. Tencent is cooperating with authorities, but it is unknown how long the suspension will last. China has been ramping up its legislative efforts to regulate data in the country, introducing increasingly stringent laws and regulations concerning data sovereignty and content censorship."}, {"headline": "Microsoft\u2019s Edge for Mac browser now available in preview", "content": "Microsoft\u2019s Edge for Mac is now officially supported and is available for preview by Mac users. Mac keyboard shortcuts will be supported, and users will be able to switch tabs and access media controls from the Touch Bar. New privacy control settings and a feature that allows users to more easily collect images, text, and notes from the web have been announced but are not available yet. A link to the download page is available."}, {"headline": "Cruise opens driverless robotaxi service to SF public", "content": "Cruise is opening up its driverless cars in San Francisco to the public. The rides will be free for now. People who want to sign-up for a ride can do so on Cruise's website, which is linked in the article. Cruise currently operates five of its robotaxis around certain parts of San Francisco between 10 PM and 6 AM. The vehicles are authorized to travel at a top speed of 30 MPH. Cruise plans to expand to more cities soon. A video from Cruise showing its first few riders experiencing the driverless robotaxis is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Google Pixel phones will soon track heart rate using only the camera", "content": "Google's latest Pixel-exclusive feature is the ability to track heart rate and respiratory rate using only the existing cameras. Some Samsung phones have been able to track heart rate for a while now, but they use a special sensor to achieve this. Pixel users will be able to measure their heart rate by placing a finger on their phone's rear camera, and they will be able to measure their breathing rate using the selfie camera. Google claims the heart rate sensor is accurate within two percent, but it doesn't have FDA approval for any of these new features."}, {"headline": "Infrastructure as Code: Free Video Series", "content": "Infrastructure as Code: Free Video Series (Sponsor)\n\n\nLearn the fundamentals of leading Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools by deploying Docker-based Python web applications. In this video course from Coding for Entrepreneurs, learn Terraform, Ansible, Salt (SaltStack), Puppet Bolt, and Chef. Watch it for free today!"}, {"headline": "ZenML", "content": "ZenML is a MLOps framework for using production-ready Machine Learning pipelines. It features guaranteed reproducibility of training experiments, guaranteed comparability between experiments, built-in and extensible abstractions for all MLOps needs, and more. ZenML is centered around extensible interfaces to accommodate complex pipeline scenarios in a simple way."}, {"headline": "Uber lays off 3,000 people in second big round of cuts", "content": "Uber has laid off 3,000 workers in addition to the 3,700 workers that it let go earlier this month. Uber drivers are not directly affected. The pandemic has caused Uber's rides business to go down by 80 percent compared to last year. Losses were offset slightly by strong demand for Uber Eats but this did not come close to covering expenses. Uber has estimated that it will spend another $110 to $140 million in severance packages and $65 to $80 million on expenses related to shutting down 45 office locations. The cuts will reduce Uber's overhead by more than $1 billion."}, {"headline": "Netflix was the best-performing stock of the decade, delivering a more than 4,000% return", "content": "Netflix had just over 12 million subscribers paying $9 a month at the beginning of the 2010s. Today, the company has a market cap of close to $148 billion, making it one of the most valuable US companies. The stock has risen 4,181% since it was listed. Netflix runs on a thin operating margin as it is expensive to buy and invest in entertainment, and competitors are forcing Netflix to spend more to stop customers from moving to other services. It projected that it would spend $15 billion on content in 2019. Netflix has borrowed close to $10 billion in the past two years, more than doubling its debt. Some shareholders are concerned as competitors, such as Disney+, are introduced to the market. Netflix is projecting that its cash burn will drop off starting next year."}, {"headline": "A Good Place: The fake town where everybody knows your name", "content": "Tribes in the Amazon have a special relationship with dogs as they are important hunting companions and can protect people from jaguars. When dogs are injured or ill, the tribes use plants as veterinary medicines. The use of psychedelics in the region is commonplace and ingrained into the culture. Dogs are also given psychedelics in rituals which both increase the bond between the dog and its owner, as well as its ability to hunt. When humans take psychedelics, they can experience tunnel vision, time distortion, or synesthesia, and it is possible that this also happens in dogs, narrowing their visual focus and boosting their sense of smell. Research into this area can potentially change how dogs are trained, but so far no one has expressed interest."}, {"headline": "Search Atlas Shows How Google Results Differ Around the Globe", "content": "Search Atlas is a tool that shows what Google results look like from around the world. Instead of returning one set of results, Search Atlas returns three columns of results selected from the more than 100 geographically localized versions of the search engine. The results show how differently the internet is experienced in other countries. Search Atlas aims to dispel the myth that search engines are neutral arbitrators of information. The different results can be due to attempts at localizing information. It is not always the result of information suppression."}, {"headline": "CSS Layout News\nThis is a newsletter about CSS layouts", "content": "This is a newsletter about CSS layouts (flexboxes, grids, modals, and all that good stuff). If you often find yourself googling stuff like \"vertical align not working\", you might want to take a look at this. Curated by Rachel Andrew, cofounder of Perch CMS."}, {"headline": "A16z, Coinbase-Backed Startup Looks to Distribute Crypto to Everyone on Earth by Scanning Their Eyeballs", "content": "Worldcoin has designed an orb-shaped device that can create unique personal identifiers from iris scans. Sam Altman, Worldcoin founder and former head of Y Combinator, devised the concept when experimenting with universal basic income. Altman's interests lie in finding ways to distribute wealth globally using technology in a way that circumvents the role of the government. Worldcoin recently raised around $25 million from investors."}, {"headline": "Learn Javascript", "content": "This is an introduction to modern Javascript with very small lessons and an online code editor where you can immediately apply those lessons. It requires a GitHub account to get started, but the design is nice and the exercises are really easy to follow."}, {"headline": "Terraforming Mars with strange silica blanket could let plants thrive", "content": "Two main issues with living on Mars is that the temperature can drop down to below -100 degrees Celsius at night and that there is no protective atmosphere to shield against harmful UV radiation. The solid-state greenhouse effect is observed when sunlight passes through layers of snow or ice and is absorbed, which insulates the covered area and warms it up at the same time. Scientists tested a 2-centimeter thick silica aerogel covering and found that it blocked more than 60 percent of UV radiation while allowing the area underneath to warm up by 50 degrees Celsius. By combining the aerogel with other materials, structures can be created that could support life on Mars without permanently changing the environment on the planet."}, {"headline": "Metal wires of carbon complete toolbox for carbon-based computers", "content": "Using transistors based on carbon rather than silicon could potentially boost computer performance by more than a thousandfold. Previously, working with carbon circuits was impossible due to insufficient technology, but a team of scientists at the University of California has finally created wire made entirely of carbon. It is a type of graphene nanoribbon, designed to conduct electrons between semiconducting nanoribbons in all-carbon transistors. The nanoribbons allow chemical access to a wide range of structures that wasn't possible with nanotubes. Carbon-based computers can compute many times faster than silicon computers using only a fraction of the power."}, {"headline": "BZip3", "content": "BZip3 is a better, faster, and stronger spiritual successor to BZip2. It features higher compression ratios and better performance. BZip3 excels in compressing text or code. Benchmark results that compare BZip3 with BZip2, gzip, and lzma are available."}, {"headline": "Amazon's new boxes can be transformed into cat condos and rocket ships", "content": "Amazon has introduced a new initiative called 'less packaging, more smiles' that will see the company reduce the materials used for sending out items as well as provide instructions for reusing boxes in fun ways. The new boxes will feature directions on how to use them to build a cat condo, a rocket ship, a robot costume, and more. Amazon plans to start using the packaging this week. The company aims to be net-zero carbon by 2040."}, {"headline": "Google announces a new $999 Glass augmented reality headset", "content": "Google has announced a new Glass augmented reality headset that is targeted at enterprise users. The $999 headset is now classified by Google as an official product rather than an experiment. It has a new processor, an improved camera, a USB-C port, and advanced machine learning capabilities. Google has partnered with Smith Optics to produce a safety frame for the Glass. While it was originally built for consumers, pushback due to privacy concerns made Google change its strategy and start marketing the device to businesses only. Google boasts that businesses have reported faster production times, improved quality, and reduced costs by using Glass."}, {"headline": "Google raises its GSuite Prices", "content": "Google is raising the prices for GSuite from $5 and $10 per user per month for its basic and business plans to $6 and $12 per user per month respectively. The Enterprise plan will stay at $25 per user per month. The new pricing will go into effect on April 2. There are now 4 million businesses on GSuite."}, {"headline": "A New Hurricane-Resistant Floating Solar Farm Could Help Replace Fossil Fuels", "content": "The Demonstrator is a solar platform from SolarDuck that can withstand the hurricane forces experienced in and around Bermuda and Florida. It is optimized for natural harbors, estuaries, and other near-shore regions. These types of platforms could help power many significant communities around the equator, where there is constant sun but low wind, making wind power impractical. SolarDuck aims to eventually build a plant that can generate 10-MW, which will require 100 platforms connected together."}, {"headline": "This human genome does not exist: Researchers taught an AI to generate fake DNA", "content": "A team of researchers from Estonia has developed a machine learning system that can generate unique human genome sequences. These fake genomes could play a vital role in the future of DNA research. Generative neural networks have been used in many different domains, producing surprising results in some cases. The artificial genomes are indistinguishable from actual human genomes. While the technology will be used for good in this case, it opens up the possibility of people using it to create highly convincing fake personas."}, {"headline": "Google Chrome's new Journeys feature helps you find that tab you just lost", "content": "Journeys is a new feature in Google Chrome that groups items in a user's search and browsing history by subject or topic. Users will see an option to resume their research when typing related words into the search bar. The option will show a list of relevant sites from their history. It will show sites with the most interaction at the top. The feature will only group search history on individual devices. It will roll out with the next update."}, {"headline": "SpaceX Acquires Swarm, a 'Nano Satellite' Startup for Low-Cost Connectivity", "content": "SpaceX is acquiring Swarm, a startup that provides low-cost internet connectivity using small orbiting 'nano satellites'. Swarm has been mainly focused on supplying internet connectivity to IoT devices on farms, oil platforms, and energy grids. It currently has 150 satellites in orbit. The company's satellite technology is designed to relay small packets of data. It is unknown how SpaceX plans to use Swarm's technology in its network."}, {"headline": "Kernel Helmet That Is Claimed to Read Human Mind Starts Shipping for $50,000 in US", "content": "Kernel will start shipping its mind-reading helmet over the next few weeks. The helmets contain sensors for measuring and analyzing a brain's electrical impulses and blood flow at the speed of thought. While the technology has existed for some time, it was expensive and impractical. The helmet design allows people to walk around while still being monitored. They are lightweight and relatively inexpensive. The first helmets will be going to brain research institutions and companies for product development. A picture of one of the helmets is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Vultr's New Plans are Truly EPYC", "content": "Tired of Big Tech's unpredictable and convoluted pricing models? You're not alone. Vultr now offers Optimized Cloud Compute plans, powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, for as low as $28.00/mo. Get started with $200 toward your first 30 days with this TLDR-exclusive offer."}, {"headline": "Cuttlefish remember the what, when, and where of meals\u2014even into old age", "content": "Cuttlefish seem to exhibit a form of episodic memory that doesn't decrease with age. They can remember what they ate, where, and when, and use this information to make decisions in the future. The ability may help cuttlefish avoid past mating partners. Cuttlefish are not completely free from age-related memory decline, with some studies finding signs of age-related deterioration of long-term memory."}, {"headline": "Karate", "content": "Karate is a tool that combines API test-automation, mocks, performance-testing, and UI automation into a single framework. It uses BDD syntax and has powerful JSON and XML assertions built-in. Developers can use Karate to write tests in a simple and readable syntax designed for HTTP, JSON, GraphQL, and XML. Examples and detailed documentation are available."}, {"headline": "Join Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, Neil Hoyne, for a moderated Q&A", "content": "Join Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, Neil Hoyne, for a moderated Q&A (Sponsor)\n\n\nWe have new and exciting developments in store for you during our upcoming Digital Experience Summit, February 16-17! We're hosting an exclusive, live \"Ask Me Anything\" with Neil Hoyne, Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, author of \"Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers\u2019 Hearts\". Register today!"}, {"headline": "Google and India\u2019s Jio Platforms announce budget Android smartphone JioPhone Next", "content": "The JioPhone Next is a new affordable Android smartphone from one of India's telecom providers and Google. Jio Platforms received $20 billion in funding from Google, Facebook, and others last year to work on the low-cost smartphone. It is aimed at the roughly 300 million users in India who are still on 2G devices. The phone will launch in September. It will eventually be released outside of the country. A picture of the phone is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Solid", "content": "Solid is a new decentralized internet designed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited with inventing the original internet. As far as I can tell (I am very dumb, so please take a look for yourself if you're interested), the goal here is to create a new set of internet protocols that allows users to remain in control of their own data. For example, if you had a note taking app today that needed to sync data across multiple devices, a service like Google Docs or Evernote or whatever would run a central server in the cloud, and all of your devices would request data from and send data to the central cloud server when you wanted to take notes. In this new internet, you would run your own Solid POD (basically just a server I think?) and Solid would define a set of protocols for you to grant read/write access to your Solid POD to all of these third party applications. Thus, if you wanted to write a Google Docs/Evernote for this new internet, you would essentially only write front end code that interacted with each individual's Solid POD as a backend (instead of having your backend servers) through the Solid POD APIs. Solid PODs can also be used for authentication, and you can have multiple PODs to prevent data loss."}, {"headline": "Samsung\u2019s next Galaxy Unpacked device lineup may have been entirely spoiled in huge new leak", "content": "Noted leaker Evan Blass unveiled a lot of the upcoming news from Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked event in a series of tweets recently. The tweets revealed two new Galaxy foldables, a new Galaxy FE phone, two new Galaxy Watches, and a new set of Galaxy Buds. Each tweet includes a GIF that shows off the device. The event will likely take place on August 11. The tweets are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Microsoft is building a Chromium-powered web browser that will replace Edge on Windows 10", "content": "It looks like Microsoft is throwing in the towel on the Edge browser and it's rendering engine EdgeHTML and is now building a new browser based on Chromium, the open source rendering engine that powers Google's Chrome browser. This new browser, code named Anaheim, will eventually replace Edge as the default on Windows 10."}, {"headline": "Concorde 2.0: NASA shares incredible video of 'quiet' supersonic jet with 925mph speeds", "content": "NASA's X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) is an experimental supersonic jet designed to reach speeds of Mach 1.4 (925mph). It is slower than the Concorde, but its cutting-edge design allows it to emit a sonic boom about as loud as the sound of a car door closing. Lockheed Martin was awarded a $247.5 million contract to assemble the aircraft in 2018. A timelapse clip that shows the aircraft being assembled is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Audi created an autonomous off-roader that uses flying drones to illuminate the road instead of headlights", "content": "Audi recently revealed its concept AI:TRAIL Quattro which uses five LED drones instead of headlights. Its cabin is mostly glass and it uses a smartphone as the display and control center screen for the car's functions and navigation. The designers aimed to give those inside the car the best view of nature and their surroundings. It can hit a top speed of 81 mph and has a range between 248 and 310 miles on easy terrain, 155 miles on rougher paths. The vehicle is optimized for trail-traveling, with removable seats that can be used as portable outdoor seating. A gallery of photos showing the concept car is available."}, {"headline": "Google Interview Problems: Ratio Finder", "content": "This article is part of a series that discusses interview questions that have been asked at Google in the past, with the other articles discussing dynamic programming, matrix exponentiation, and query synonymity. Interview questions should be designed so employers can make a decision of whether a candidate is worth hiring. The Ratio Finder question was chosen because it was a little easier, but still showed the candidates' strengths and weaknesses. Candidates were asked to design a system to convert between two units, for example, hands to light-years. While many will start thinking of a solution to the problem, strong candidates would think about how the program could fail. The success of the candidates depends on their ability to plan forward for potential problems, how complete the solution is, and what ideas they have to improve the code design."}, {"headline": "Dockerfile Security Best Practices", "content": "One of the easiest ways to mitigate security risks is by following some rules when writing Dockerfiles. This article explains several basic security issues and how to detect them."}, {"headline": "DeepMind tests the limits of large AI language systems with 280-billion-parameter model", "content": "Large language models (LLMs) are being used for a wide range of applications, but these programs have serious problems, including biases and failing tests of logical reasoning. DeepMind recently conducted research on whether adding more data and computing power would overcome these limitations. It created a language model with 280 billion parameters called Gopher and confirmed that scaling up LLMs offers improved performance on benchmark tests for sentiment analysis and summarization. There are still some issues inherent to language models that scaling does not seem to fix, such as models perpetuating stereotypical biases."}, {"headline": "Microsoft purchases Bethesda Softworks in industry-changing acquisition", "content": "Microsoft has announced that it is buying the corporate parents of Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media. The acquisition cost Microsoft $7.5 billion. Elder Scrolls Online will continue to be supported exactly as it was. Bethesda is currently working on two of the PS5's biggest console exclusives for next year. All of Bethesda's gaming lineup will be a part of the Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft has purchased a string of game studios in recent years, including Double Fine, Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, and Obsidian Entertainment."}, {"headline": "Cost Cutting Algorithms Are Making Your Job Search a Living Hell", "content": "In the past few years, job seekers have noticed that companies are responding to their applications with automated responses that direct them to online tests. Many of these tests contain questions that the applicant has already answered, and they are sent so quickly to the applicant that no human could've possibly assessed the applicant prior. This experience can be demeaning, and the automation of the process of hiring is just beginning. Some companies are now using automated recorded phone interviews or video interviews where an AI is assessing the applicant based on vocal and facial cues. The career-training industry now teaches applicants strategies and techniques for beating bots. Job applicants consider these systems tedious, but companies claim that it saves them valuable time. There have been cases of biases from some of these bots, mainly caused by the data that the bots were trained on."}, {"headline": "SpaceX is hosting a new fellowship on space-based surgery. It could save lives", "content": "SpaceX has partnered with the University of Arizona and Banner Health to host an Aerospace Surgery Fellowship. It will be the first-ever fellowship training program in the US that delves into the field of aerospace surgery. The program will train astronaut surgeons for future space programs. Graduates of the program will be eligible for board certification in aerospace medicine. Fellows have the opportunity to spend six months conducting research with SpaceX."}, {"headline": "Apple releasing iOS 12.1 tomorrow with Group FaceTime, new emoji, more", "content": "Apple is updating FaceTime with today's new iOS release, with features like group calling (whoever is talking will remain in focus while everyone else will be smaller in the background) for up to 32 users, stickers, Memoji and Animoji, and filters. iOS 12.1 will also include dual SIM card functionality so it will be really easy to toggle between two different phone numbers, real-time depth control (a blurring effect that gives the appearance of depth to photos), and new emojis including emojis for red heads and bald people!"}, {"headline": "First Restaurant With Fully Automated Kitchen Opens In Beijing", "content": "Haidilao, a Chinese hotpot chain, opened the world's first fully automated restaurant on Sunday. Robots will take orders, prepare food, and deliver it to customers. There's an automated restaurant in the US as well, in Boston 4 MIT grads have created a mostly automated kitchen at Spyce, a fast casual restaurant that serves meals for $7.50 and has them ready within 3 minutes. Humans are still required for putting the final garnishes on food. There's a video in the article giving a tour of Spyce's automated system of kiosks and woks used to automate delicious asian fusion looking food."}, {"headline": "IBM's debating robot argues it out with human for first time", "content": "Project Debater is an AI that IBM spent six years developing that is able to draw from a bank of several hundred million articles to construct arguments. It also uses speech recognition to analyze its opponent's arguments. In its first public debate, it scored 1-1 against a human opponent. While it performed well, it had some un-human slip-ups, including sentences that didn't follow naturally from the previous statement and phrases that it included from the source text that were annotations."}, {"headline": "SpaceX gets FCC license for 1 million satellite-broadband user terminals", "content": "SpaceX has received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to deploy up to 1 million Starlink user terminals in the United States. It applied for the license in early 2019, and the license is now valid for 15 years. SpaceX's user terminals will look like a UFO on a stick and will be able to self-orientate. The design of the terminals is simple. Users will only need to point it to the sky and plug it in for the device to work. The Starlink network currently consists of 362 satellites. SpaceX plans to grow the network, so it will likely apply for a license for more terminals in the future."}, {"headline": "Google, Meta, and others will have to explain their algorithms under new EU legislation", "content": "The EU's new Digital Service Act will force tech companies to take greater responsibility for content on their platforms. The new rules will distinguish between companies of different sizes, with the largest companies facing the most scrutiny. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to six percent of a company's annual turnover. The act still needs to be officially voted into law, but the last step is mostly a formality. More details about the new rules are available in the article."}, {"headline": "From floating guts to 'sticky' blood \u2013 here's how to do surgery in space", "content": "While humans haven't needed surgery in space yet, the time is coming near when it will be necessary as spaceflight is becoming more accessible. Current procedures on the ISS are to stabilize patients enough to transport them back to Earth for surgery. However, that procedure won't work for longer missions, such as trips to Mars. Space travel changes many aspects of how the body works due to changed physics. Experimental surgeries have already been performed on rats in microgravity, resulting in innovations such as magnetic surgical tools. A specialized surgical enclosure could help solve many of the issues associated with the lack of gravity. 3D printing will be an important technology when it comes to equipping space surgeons. Robotic surgery is also another option, but the lag in communications in space is an issue."}, {"headline": "EventNative", "content": "EventNative is an event collection service. It can capture events generated by an application and stream to any Data Warehouse. EventNative can capture events stopped by AdBlock, push data to multiple destinations at once, determine location from a user's IP address, and more. A demo page is available."}, {"headline": "NASA must rework planetary protection plans, panel advises", "content": "NASA's rules for preventing the spread of earthly microbes, as well as the spread of alien life on Earth, require rethinking, according to an independent agency advisory panel. Current rules are costly and some procedures do not make sense, considering the scientific knowledge we have gained since the rules were created. The Moon is classified as potentially of interest for research on the origins of life, but few scientists now see it as an important site for studying these questions, except for at its poles. Reclassifying the Moon as nonessential for biological studies would simplify exploration for space agencies. Mars has been treated as if microbes could survive on the planet, but many scientists now think that it is unlikely. Earth has been bombarded by meteorites that originated from Mars with no known biological harm in the past, so its guidelines for returning samples should be reviewed. NASA is not a regulatory agency, and commercial actors, for example, Tesla, have launched objects into space with no planetary protection evaluation in the past. Humans will eventually contaminate Mars, so research into water-rich regions should be explored as soon as possible."}, {"headline": "This Stunning Image of Our Galaxy's Center Reveals a Mysterious Phenomenon", "content": "Daniel Wang, a professor of astronomy, has stitched together hundreds of images to create a panorama of the center of the Milky Way. The resulting map captures some of the processes that occur at the galactic core. It is hard to observe the Milky Way's core due to the vast amounts of dust and gas surrounding its supermassive black hole. Wang used X-rays and radio observations to probe the region. Central regions of galaxies are believed to play an essential role in galaxy formation and evolution. The image can be viewed in the article."}, {"headline": "Google is testing Memory, an upgrade for Assistant to \u2018save and find everything\u2019", "content": "Memory is a new feature for Google Assistant that uses a digital locker to store things like to-do lists, notes, reading lists, images, and more. It is designed so users can save nearly anything and then search, sort, and revisit everything that was saved. Memory will also show contextual information about the data if it is available. The feature is still being tested, and Google has not announced any plans for when it will be released."}, {"headline": "Inside China\u2019s Plan to Power Global Blockchain Adoption", "content": "China is about to launch its national blockchain platform, the Blockchain Service Network. The BSN is designed so developers will be able to build blockchain-based applications as easily as assembling lego sets. It will be the first global infrastructure network innovated and controlled by China. Experts compare the initiative to how China has provided other countries with infrastructure in order to gain an advantage. BSN could potentially be used for smart city applications, energy conservation, and many other identity registration and data storage applications."}, {"headline": "Modern.js", "content": "Modern.js is a meta-framework suite for frontend-focused modern web development. It can be used to develop mobile and desktop websites, desktop apps, micro-front ends, API services, UI components, and more. The documentation is only in Chinese for now, but English versions will be added soon."}, {"headline": "awesome-baremetal", "content": "This repository contains a list of bare-metal tools. All items on the list have been recently updated within the last 6 months or are still deemed relevant by the curator."}, {"headline": "Watch Robots Make Pizzas From Start to Finish at an Automated Pizzeria", "content": "Pazzi Pizzeria is a restaurant in Paris where customers can watch their pizzas being made by a team of robots. It took eight years to develop the pizza bots. The robots ensure a consistent product. They are remotely monitored and can be manually controlled to fix any issues. The restaurant opened last week and it plans to expand internationally. A one-and-a-half-minute video featuring the robots in action is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Apple sues company known for hacking iPhones on behalf of governments", "content": "Apple is suing NSO Group, seeking a permanent injunction to ban the firm from using Apple software, services, or devices. NSO Group is an Israeli firm that sells software that allows the user to hack iPhones and read the data on them. It sells its software to government agencies and law enforcement, allowing them to surveil anyone through a zero-click attack that is delivered through a text message. Meta is also separately suing NSO Group, alleging that it helped hack users through WhatsApp."}, {"headline": "Signal Private Messenger team here, we support an app used by everyone from Elon to the Hong Kong protestors to our Grandpa\u2019s weekly group chat, AMA!", "content": "Signal is a private messaging app that doesn't track or store data on its users. In this thread, the Signal development team answers questions by Redditors. The team plans to implement a user ID system in the future so users can add each other without knowing their phone numbers. Signal was built from the ground up to not know anything about its users, and it is owned by a non-profit entity, so it is unlikely that the app will end up like WhatsApp. A chat backup feature is in the works. The Signal team is hiring people within US time zones."}, {"headline": "How Elon Musk got everything he wanted out of Twitter", "content": "Elon Musk had already decided not to take a board seat at Twitter before he spent the weekend making a series of tweets questioning Twitter's business and future. If Musk had joined the board, he would have had a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, which he has so far shown no interest in. Musk is already dealing with many legal issues. This article looks at Musk's recent purchase, why he may have decided not to become a Twitter board member, and what will likely happen next."}, {"headline": "Christmas Is Win for Meta: Oculus VR App Is Most Downloaded on Apple Store", "content": "Meta's Oculus virtual reality app was the most downloaded application on Apple\u2019s App Store charts over Christmas. While Meta doesn't provide official data on how many Oculus VR headsets it has sold, the app charts provide an insight into the popularity of the device. Meta has declared an investment of at least $10 billion to create a metaverse, but VR technology is still in a very early stage of adoption. The increased sales will help Meta gain data and insight into what their audience wants with a VR experience."}, {"headline": "Microdiff", "content": "Microdiff is a zero-dependency object and array comparison library. It is fast, extremely lightweight, and easy to use. Microdiff features support for Deno, Node, the web, service workers, TypeScript, and more."}, {"headline": "The Ultimate FREE Machine Learning Study Plan", "content": "This repository contains a complete study plan to become a Machine Learning Engineer. It is designed to equip students with enough theoretical and practical experience to get started in the industry. The course only links to free resources."}, {"headline": "logo-ls", "content": "logo-ls is a modern ls command with icons and Git integrations. It features over 250 icons, True Color support, Git Status integration, near-native speed, and language agnostic binaries. The project attempts to balance speed and aesthetics. Screenshots are available."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk\u2019s Boring Company gets green light for Las Vegas tunnel system", "content": "The Boring Company has won approval from Las Vegas officials to build a network of vehicle tunnels underneath the city. The Vegas Loop will allow passengers to travel to and from several landmarks inside Tesla vehicles. As many as 57,000 passengers will be able to travel through the tunnels every hour. A smaller version of the system already operates underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Boring Company will foot the bill for building the 29 miles of tunnels, but it has asked casinos and other businesses to pay for the 51 planned stations."}, {"headline": "Stadia lets you play people's screenshots, and it feels kinda like the future", "content": "Stadia's State Share is a feature that allows users to share links to screenshots or video clips of their games which other players can click on to play on the captured level. Some games that feature procedural generation use this feature to allow others to share the same experience. Players have been using the feature creatively to help each other. Only a few games support the feature at the moment."}, {"headline": "A click-on bionic arm could revolutionize how amputees do simple tasks: 'We think of it like a USB connector from the body", "content": "Edmund Rath is an amputee who underwent a new procedure called \"osseointegration\", in which surgeons implant a metal rod onto an amputee's residual limb. Then, nerves used to control his hand are connected to muscles in his upper arm. Now, when he imagines moving his hand, the muscles in his shoulder contract, and electrodes in his prosthetic arm perform the intended hand movement. It took six weeks for the implanted nerves to grow into his muscles and he can now open and close his prosthetic hand. Pretty awesome stuff, there are pictures of the prosthetic arm in the article."}, {"headline": "Web Animation Performance Fundamentals \u2013 How to Make Your Pages Look Smooth", "content": "Web pages are interactive animations played back by the web browser. Every movement, including scrolling, zooming, text selection, and hovering over a button is technically an animation. This guide explains how browsers turn code into pixels and how to work with them to make pages look smoother."}, {"headline": "Google launches Android 11 Developer Preview 2 with foldable, call screening, and Neural Networks API improvements", "content": "Google has released the second Android 11 developer preview. It features hinge angle detection, call screening improvements, and new ops in the Neural Networks API. DP2 is only available on eight Pixel phones, and it can only be installed via a manual flash. Android 11 is still not ready for early adopters to try. Google will likely release Android 11 to more phones in DP3 or by the first beta."}, {"headline": "Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?", "content": "This thread is about the career paths of engineers who left Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google. A lot of interesting stories, perspectives on what's importance in ones career, and advice for finding a job that fits you."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk reveals Boring tunnels as he aims to eliminate city traffic", "content": "Elon Musk has revealed renders of the first commercial station being built by his tunnel-digging company. The Boring Company's first commercial Loop system is set to open later this year under the Las Vegas Convention Center. It will have the capacity to transport up to 4,400 passengers per hour around the convention center's 200-acre campus. The system could potentially be expanded to connect other areas of Las Vegas and can be adapted to other cities around the world."}, {"headline": "How To Contribute To Open-Source Projects As A Beginner", "content": "This article explains how to make contributions to open source projects. It steps the developer through each step, from forking the repository and cloning the project, to committing the changes and opening pull requests. It is important to read the code of conduct and contribution guidelines before contributing to a project."}, {"headline": "Picture perfect images with the modern img element", "content": "Images are important for the web. The img element has gained superpowers since it was created almost 30 years ago. This article looks at what the img element can do and how it can be used to improve user experience and Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals are a set of page experience signals that Google Search uses for ranking pages."}, {"headline": "Why NASA wants to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon", "content": "TLDR: Kilopower is a lightweight, mobile nuclear fission reactor developed by NASA, it can pump out 10 kilowatts of electrical power continuously for at least 10 years, more than twice as much as NASA thinks will be needed to run an outpost on the Moon or Mars. Lead engineer Marc Gibson says \"Kilopower gives us the ability to do much higher-power missions, and to explore the shadowed craters of the Moon. When we start sending astronauts for long stays on the Moon and to other planets, that's going to require a new class of power that we've never needed before.\" Kilopower has already passed rigorous testing that included simulated power reduction, failed engines, failed heat pipes, and a 28-hour, full-power test that simulated a mission. It will first be used on a spaceflight mission in 2020."}, {"headline": "Learn Go with Tests", "content": "This repository contains a course to teach developers how to explore the Go language through writing tests, as well as get a grounding with TDD. The course teaches the fundamentals of the Go language and application building backed by tests."}, {"headline": "Prisma", "content": "Prisma is an ORM that makes it easy for two services with incompatible types to communicate. It can be used in any Node.js or TypeScript backend application. Prisma provides a clean and type-safe API for submitting database queries that return plain JavaScript objects."}, {"headline": "Halley Game Engine", "content": "Halley is a lightweight game engine written in C++ designed to create high performance, easy to maintain, cross-platform games. It has been tested on Windows 10 Professional 64-bit, Mac OS 10.9.6, and Ubuntu 16.04. Full documentation is not yet available for the engine."}, {"headline": "GM reveals Ultra Cruise \u2018hands-free\u2019 system that covers \u201895 percent\u2019 of driving scenarios", "content": "General Motors has unveiled its next-generation 'hands-free' driver-assist technology, Ultra Cruise. Ultra Cruise can be used in 95 percent of driving scenarios. A light bar will communicate to the driver when they need to take control. Ultra Cruise will be available in a handful of premium vehicles in 2023. GM's driver-assist systems have been praised as safer and more capable than Tesla's Autopilot thanks to its camera-based driver monitoring system that ensures drivers keep their eyes on the road. Ultra Cruise is a Level 2 system, which means that a human is required to be ready to take control in the driver's seat at any time."}, {"headline": "Reddit says it wants to build the biggest creator economy on the internet using its own NFT platform", "content": "Reddit believes that NFTs will rewrite how we think about digital goods. The company recently posted a job listing looking for a senior engineer to design, build, and ship an NFT platform. There is only one NFT-related job opening at Reddit, but the post suggests that there will be more. Applicants do not have to have a background in crypto or NFTs. A link to the job listing is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Solid.js", "content": "Solid is a declarative JavaScript library for creating user interfaces. It compiles templates down to real DOM nodes and wraps updates in fine-grained reactions. Solid follows the same philosophy as React without using Virtual DOM. It works in serverless environments and supports modern features like JSX, Fragments, Context, Portals, and Concurrent Rendering."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk doesn\u2019t back down after Ford challenges Tesla to an \u2018apples to apples\u2019 tug-of-war rematch", "content": "Ford unveiled its Mustang Mach-E last week, the company's first battery-powered SUV. Elon Musk had tweeted out his congratulations, but then later in the week he tweeted a video of the Cybertruck pulling an F-150 uphill. The clip has been viewed almost 13 million times. Critics have pointed out that the F-150 is a rear-wheel drive and that there was no payload to put more weight on its rear wheels to give it more traction. Sundeep Madra, the vice president at Ford X has tweeted back at Musk, saying that Ford would complete a real comparison if Musk would send him a Cybertruck. Musk has accepted the challenge."}, {"headline": "Resilience engineering notes", "content": "This repository contains a list of people who have contributed significantly to the field of resilience engineering. People from related fields such as cognitive systems engineering and naturalistic decision-making have also been included. Each listing contains a summary of the person\u2019s work, a list of their publications, and links to information about the concepts they introduced into the field. The readings in this repository are ones that the author has read or is planning to read so it may not be comprehensive."}, {"headline": "Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name", "content": "Facebook is planning to change its company name next week. The rebrand will reflect the company's focus on building the metaverse and will likely position Facebook and its current apps under a parent company. Facebook recently set up a dedicated metaverse team and plans to hire 10,000 more employees to work on the metaverse in Europe. The new company name is a closely guarded secret and not widely known even among the company's senior leadership. Other tech companies, such as Google and Snapchat, have also changed names as their ambitions expanded."}, {"headline": "Meta hiring freeze for E4-E6", "content": "Meta is cancelling scheduled virtual onsite interviews. Not all interviews are being canceled, but Blind users are reporting that some interviews between E3 to E6 were canceled. The hiring freeze suggests that Meta may be taking defensive measures against a potentially disappointing quarterly earnings report."}, {"headline": "Flickr-Faces-HQ Dataset", "content": "Flickr-Faces-HQ (FFHQ) is a high-quality image data set of human faces. It contains 70,000 PNG files at 1024x1024 resolution with a large variation in age, ethnicity, and image backgrounds. Photos also have people wearing glasses, hats, or other accessories. The images are able to be used under a Creative Commons license by NVIDIA Corporation. All files contain original metadata to acknowledge the original content creators."}, {"headline": "Bionaut Labs launches with plans to attack brain tumors with tiny, guided robots", "content": "Bionaut Labs has unveiled tiny remote-controlled devices designed to travel through the human body to deliver medicine where it is needed the most. The robots are smaller than a millimeter and have few moving parts. They can navigate through tissues and go where surgeons cannot. The Bionauts work like miniature screws, pushing their way through the body while being guided by magnetic fields generated outside the body. Once they are in the body, the Bionauts can't turn. So far, they have shown great promise as a new targeted treatment modality for severe brain disorders."}, {"headline": "Twitch is going to fund new reality programming", "content": "Twitch is looking to fund a slate of new unscripted series to help broaden its audience in a time when its audiences are bigger than ever. The company wants live, interactive programming that airs a few times a week. It will spend between $50,000 to $250,000 a week on the project. A large part of Twitch is the interactivity with the audience. Twitch chat can get fairly chaotic, so it will be interesting to see how the format fares with unscripted TV."}, {"headline": "New Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit Uses Augmented Reality to Race Inside Your Home", "content": "Nintendo has announced Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, a game where players use their Nintendo Switches to pilot a physical kart around their home. Players can set up various gate markers to create tracks. The game will add power-ups and traps and the physical cart will respond to them accordingly. Home Circuit is set to launch on October 16. A 2-minute long announcement trailer is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Amazon's second headquarters clears blocks in Virginia funding vote", "content": "Local officials unanimously voted to clear a $51 million financial package for Amazon if it decides to build its second headquarters in Virginia. After Amazon abruptly pulled out of its plans to build their HQ2 in New York, other states that had previously been on the shortlist are now being considered. There was a vocal minority opposition in Virginia still, with the opposition protesting against Amazon\u2019s business practices, including its treatment of employees. Housing prices have already started rising amidst speculations that Amazon will bring their headquarters into the state. The project will cost Amazon approximately $2.5 billion and create more than 25,000 jobs, generating more than $3.2 billion in tax revenue."}, {"headline": "AT&T Jacks Up TV Prices Again After Merger, Despite Promising That Wouldn\u2019t Happen", "content": "AT&T will discontinue their $40 per month DirecTV Now streaming video plan and replace it with two new options, a $50 per month and a $70 per month plan. These new options will include an HBO subscription, which was previously a $5 add-on to the old plan. The Department of Justice had previously sued to prevent the merger between AT&T and Time Warner, claiming that it would create price increases, but AT&T repeatedly denied these claims. AT&T has fallen into a lot of debt due to the merger, and the price increases are an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure. Experts say the strategy will not work as they were losing subscribers due to previous price increases already, and the new hikes will only encourage subscribers to use other, cheaper services."}, {"headline": "Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine shows positive results, moves to larger studies", "content": "Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based vaccine manufacturer has completed phase 1 clinical trials on a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with encouraging early results. The trial had 45 participants, eight who developed neutralizing antibodies at levels seen in patients who had recovered from COVID-19. Phase 1 trials are designed to evaluate the safety of a drug rather than to measure its effectiveness. The only side effect of the vaccine was a redness in the area where the person was injected. Antibodies that the patients developed were effective at limiting viral replication in the lab. Moderna is using a messenger RNA vaccine approach that has never been marketed in the USA. Phase 2 trials are now underway and Moderna expects to begin a phase 3 clinical trial as early as July."}, {"headline": "Tesla reaches milestone of 100,000 Model 3 vehicles", "content": "Tesla is now consistently making 5,000 Model 3s per week, and just made its 100,000th unit. Tesla is expected to release the $35,000 base version of the Model 3 by the end of this year. This is expected to move Tesla from being a niche automaker into a mainstream one. Tesla is already producing electric vehicles faster than any legacy automaker."}, {"headline": "Second Life founder returns to revamp his original metaverse", "content": "Second Life's founder, Philip Rosedale, has formed a team to work on evolving the virtual space. Rosedale co-founded a company that worked on VR tech in 2013 but became disappointed with the state of the industry. He feels that the technology hasn't reached a form that is good enough for most people to use. While the VR headset industry waits for its iPhone moment, Rosedale will focus on Second Life, a metaverse platform that doesn't require headsets. Second Life still has around 900,000 active users, with 73 million accounts created since launch."}, {"headline": "Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus are down. Here\u2019s what we know", "content": "Facebook and all of its services went down today. Investigations revealed major DNS failures at Facebook. Cloudflare reported that all BGP routes for Facebook had been pulled, making Facebook's DNS and application servers unreachable. Some Facebook employees were unable to enter buildings due to badge access being down from the outage. A Reddit user claiming to be a Facebook employee reported that the problem was likely due to a configuration change that was pushed shortly before the outages began."}, {"headline": "Darling", "content": "Darling is a runtime environment for macOS applications. It can be used to run macOS applications on most 64-bit x86 Linux distributions. It implements a complete Darwin environment and attempts to fully integrate apps into the Linux desktop experience by making them look, feel, and behave just like native Linux apps."}, {"headline": "NASA's InSight successfully lands on Mars after 'seven minutes of terror'\nNASA successfully landed its InSight mission on Mars, after six and a half months of travelling through space, using a supersonic parachute to decelerate from 12,000 miles per hour to just 5 miles per hour on impact. The probe will deploy a seismometer to listen for earthquakes and a drill to dig beneath the Martian surface and explore the Martian interior.\nTools, Media, & Open Source\nSites, tools, podcasts, videos, open source libraries, and other interesting stuff you should check out\n)", "content": "NASA successfully landed its InSight mission on Mars, after six and a half months of travelling through space, using a supersonic parachute to decelerate from 12,000 miles per hour to just 5 miles per hour on impact. The probe will deploy a seismometer to listen for earthquakes and a drill to dig beneath the Martian surface and explore the Martian interior."}, {"headline": "My Third Year as a Solo Developer", "content": "In the first two years of working on his own business, Michael Lynch earned less than $10k total. His goal for the third year was to earn $20k, but he exceeded the goal by earning $63k in revenue by the end of the year. This article follows his projects throughout the third year, documenting the successes, failures, and lessons learned."}, {"headline": "Universal Radio Hacker", "content": "The Universal Radio Hacker (URH) is a suite for wireless protocol investigation. It allows for easy demodulation of signals and automatic detection of modulation parameters, making it easy to identify data in the air. Guides on how to hack stuff with URH are available in the repository."}, {"headline": "The Best Imitation-Meat Burgers", "content": "The success of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods has led to other plant-based meat replacements appearing in the market. 18 vegetable-based burgers, seven black bean burgers, and eight meat-analogue burgers were rated for their taste, texture, and appearance. The Impossible burger outperformed every other contender in every category, with tasters commenting on how all aspects of the plant-based meat was similar to a real meat burger. Beyond Meats burger came second, losing points on appearance. The Grillers Original Burger from MorningStar Farms was third place. Tasters thought that the flavor was bland, its appearance was unappealing, and said that the patty felt dry. Generally speaking, tasters were unenthusiastic about burgers that were not produced by Impossible or Beyond."}, {"headline": "Words Are Hard - An Essay on Communicating With Non-Programmers", "content": "The ability to correctly communicate an idea or concept in a way that others can understand is by far the most important skill to have as someone working in a software-based small business. Programmers have developed their own jargon to communicate with each other which people outside of the programming world might not understand. The simplest explanation that includes the most important information is usually the best. Using jargon to try to demonstrate intelligence and superiority is usually the wrong way to go about conveying an idea. Being respectful to others goes a long way in getting them to want to understand you. Practicing pitching ideas to non-technical friends can help you receive useful feedback. Techniques like analogies, anecdotes, and metaphors are great tools for getting ideas across. It's ok to admit when you don't know something, and it is often better than losing respect for getting something wrong, as long as you take the initiative to self-educate."}, {"headline": "Snapchat\u2019s new feature lets creators build AR experiences for landmarks in their communities", "content": "Snapchat's new Custom Landmarkers feature lets creators build unique AR experiences for local places. It is now accessible in Lens Studio after first being teased at an event in December. Custom landmarkers are discoverable through physical Snapcodes or through creator profiles. Snapchat has a community of 250,000 Lens creators building experiences for its platform. Some creators received early access to the feature and have already launched AR experiences in their communities."}, {"headline": "Teens are anxious and depressed after three hours a day on social media", "content": "A study has suggested that teenagers who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to develop mental health problems. 6,600 12 to 15-year-old Americans self-reported on the time they spent on social media, as well as whether they had mental health issues. Those with three hours of social media had a high correlation with mental health problems, even after accounting for history. Teens who did not use social media did not exhibit aggressive behavior or antisocial behavior. Other studies on the subject show conflicting results, with some studies showing no correlation between screen time and mental health. Social media is changing faster than studies can catch up, with different platforms and formats appearing all the time, making it difficult to get an objective view on its effects."}, {"headline": "6 Best Practices for Kubernetes Audit Logging", "content": "Running Kubernetes is challenging and complex. Learn how to set up Kubernetes audit logging to troubleshoot your deployment."}, {"headline": "New Spring-Loaded Screw Turns Drywall Into Sound-Absorbing Panels", "content": "The Sound Screw is a new type of spring-loaded screw that can reduce sound transmission through drywall by up to nine decibels. Drywall is flexible and can easily transmit sounds. The screws add a slight gap that allows the spring to expand and compress, dampening the energy of sound waves hitting the walls. It is a more economical alternative to other sound-proofing methods. The creator is still looking for manufacturers to put the Sound Screw into mass production."}, {"headline": "Hyperapp", "content": "Hyperapp is a JavaScript framework for building web interfaces. It uses a declarative syntax that is readable and natural to write. Hyperapp is a modern VDOM engine, state management solution, and application design pattern all-in-one. Tutorials, guides, and other resources are available on the site."}, {"headline": "Japan Aims To Automate All Convenience Stores By 2025 With A New RFID Technology", "content": "A new type of RFID tag is able to be microwaved for up to 5 minutes. This technology may help Japan develop convenience stores that are completely automated. As Japan\u2019s population declines, a labor shortage is expected. Convenience stores may not be able to maintain the required two or three employees at all hours of the day that they currently need. A microwaveable RFID tag is important as it allows items to be scanned at a distance and also prevents accidents, as current tags may spark when microwaved."}, {"headline": "Student Builds Life-Saving Device That Can Instantly Stop Bleeding From Stab Wounds", "content": "A student has developed a device that can prevent severe blood loss resulting from deep stabbing wounds or impalement. The device consists of a silicon balloon sleeve and an actuator. The balloon is inserted into the wound and inflated to create pressure. It can stop hemorrhaging in less than a minute. The device is still in its prototype stage, but the creators have filed for a UK patent and plan to make it available in a few years."}, {"headline": "Chinese city 'plans to launch artificial moon to replace streetlights'", "content": "Chengdu plans on launching an artificial moon into the sky by 2020, which will be eight times as bright as the real moon. The idea is to use this \"illumination satellite\" to replace street lights. Officials say that it will not be bright enough to harm night-time wildlife."}, {"headline": "MQTT vs Kafka to build an IoT architecture", "content": "This tutorial is a walkthrough of an experiment where an IoT advocate pushed time series data to InfluxDB with a MQTT publisher and Kafka producer to understand the core mechanics behind each.Learn how he did it and which solution he found more powerful."}, {"headline": "The Terror Queue", "content": "Google and YouTube hire contractors to moderate the content on its platforms. Accenture, one of these contractors, splits the content into three different categories for its hundreds of moderators: copyright, hate and harassment, and adult. Moderators are paid around $37,000 a year to view five hours of gruesome video per day. It is common for workers to report mental health issues such as anxiety and depression after working as a moderator for several months. Contractors are often told to keep working during breaks and are offered little time off and almost no medical leave. Potential employees are not informed about the mental health consequences of content moderation roles. Google has been experimenting with ways to lessen the impact of disturbing content, such as playing videos in grayscale."}, {"headline": "Encore", "content": "Encore is a Go backend framework for creating APIs and distributed systems. It reduces the boilerplate required to set up a production-ready backend application. Encore makes it easy to monitor, provision, and secure apps. It can automatically generate documentation from source code."}, {"headline": "Genius Steals", "content": "This newsletter is full of off-the-beaten path stories about technology and media. Basically anything interesting on the internet is fair game. It's also curated by a husband and wife team (both internet entrepreneurs), which I really love!"}, {"headline": "eBay is suing Amazon over allegedly poaching its third-party sellers", "content": "eBay is suing Amazon for allegedly using eBay's messaging system to lure third party sellers to Amazon's marketplace. eBay wants to ban Amazon from ever using its messaging system in this manner again, and is also seeking unspecified monetary damages. eBays terms of service prohibit using the messaging system to promote outside businesses, and Amazon's employees were sending up to 120 messages a day without purchasing anything."}, {"headline": "Finally, useful engineering metrics you define. Meet Code Insights", "content": "Transform your code into a queryable database to create customizable, visual dashboards in seconds. You can track everything in your codebase, from migrations to code smells, in a seamless and precise way based on the power and accuracy of Sourcegraph Code Search. Learn more."}, {"headline": "TUIC", "content": "TUIC is a high-performance proxy built on top of the QUIC protocol. QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections) is a general-purpose transport layer network protocol that improves the performance of connection-oriented web applications that use TCP. TUIC features two relay modes, user-space congestion control, smooth session transfer on network switching, and more."}, {"headline": "Facebook CEO may have known of questionable privacy practices: WSJ", "content": "Facebook has been under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for inappropriate handling of customers\u2019 private information. It has fully complied with the investigation so far and has provided tens of thousands of documents, emails, and files. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that people who were familiar with the case have discovered emails which prove that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg was involved in the problematic privacy practices of the company. Facebook has previously stated that they are prepared to pay a fine of up to $5 billion in order to settle the case with regulators."}, {"headline": "World's fastest camera captures 70 trillion frames per second", "content": "The new record holder for the world's fastest camera boasts a rate of 70 trillion frames per second, fast enough to capture light waves in motion. Compressed Ultrafast Spectral Photography uses extremely short pulses of laser light combined with a system of optics and a specialized sensor. The technology could be used to study fundamental physics and help create smaller and more sensitive electronics."}, {"headline": "Project Templates for Data Scientists", "content": "Stop going to multiple online forums to hack together solutions. ProjectPro has ready-made professional project templates for data extraction, data analysis, data visualization, model deployment, and more. Learn more."}, {"headline": "Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers' Traps\u2014A First", "content": "Bush-meat hunters have been setting up rope-and-branch snares in Rwanda\u2019s Volcanoes National Park, where endangered mountain gorillas live. Last week, an infant was caught in one of the traps and died due to snare-related wounds. Trackers from the Karisoke center comb through the forest for snares in order to dismantle them to protect the gorillas. During an expedition this week, trackers attempted to dismantle a snare near a known gorilla tribe but the gorillas warned the trackers to stay away from the trap. The gorillas then dismantled the trap and another one near it, which the trackers had missed. While gorillas have demonstrated intelligence and the ability to learn, it is against the ethos of aid groups to teach the gorillas skills as it would mean interfering with the populations and affecting their natural behavior."}, {"headline": "Twitter launches voice tweets on iOS to test \u2018a more human touch\u2019", "content": "A limited group of iOS users are now testing Twitter's latest voice tweet function. The new function allows users to broadcast audio of up to 140 seconds long. Audio that goes over the 140-second limit will automatically create a thread. While the feature is available only to select users, all users will be able to see and hear voice tweets. Twitter hopes that the feature will reduce misunderstandings and create a more human experience."}, {"headline": "Basecamp Personal", "content": "Basecamp Personal is a free way to run Basecamp for freelancers, students, families, and personal projects. Basecamp is a way to show the required information in a project all in one place so that developers can communicate what is being done and what needs to be done next in an effective way. It\u00a0can fundamentally improve how project workflows are managed."}, {"headline": "Exclusive: Tinder breaks into scripted original content, wraps filming first video series", "content": "Tinder will be launching its own original content in the form of a television series with an apocalyptic storyline that has a relationship subplot. The story will not involve Tinder's dating app. Tinder is owned by Match, who is owned by IAC, a company founded by Hollywood legend Barry Diller. Swipe Life is a lifestyle website launched by Tinder that includes articles and videos about dating and relationships. Offering original content is an increasingly popular and effective strategy for attracting devoted users as it engages customers even when they are not using a company's services. Walmart, Airbnb, and Costco are also developing original videos. It is unknown when Tinder's first series will be available or how it will be promoted."}, {"headline": "dlaicourse", "content": "This repository contains notebooks for deep learning. Each notebook contains practical exercises and explanations related to deep learning, starting from a \u2018Hello World\u2019 exercise and delving into deeper topics, such as Natural Language Processing."}, {"headline": "Cube.js", "content": "Cube.js is an open source modular framework to build analytical web applications. It is designed to work with large-scale datasets and has implemented various optimization techniques. Businesses can easily build custom intelligence tools or customer-facing analytics without having to worry about performance, SQL code organization, or infrastructure. Data visualization is simple with customizable dashboards."}, {"headline": "Apple is reportedly cutting iPhone production by 10% between January and March", "content": "For the second time in two months, Apple has cut iPhone production, this time dropping iPhone production by 10% from January to March of 2019. They will now be producing 40-43 million units instead of 47-48 million units as previously planned. Both Apple and Samsung have been hit hard by a slowdown in China's economy, causing both to drop earnings forecasts."}, {"headline": "Oculus announces a VR subscription service for enterprises", "content": "Oculus has announced business versions of their VR headsets, designed for enterprise use. The Oculus Go for business will start at $599 (64 GB) and the Oculus Quest for enterprise will begin at $999 (128 GB). Oculus for Business also provides enterprise device management and support at a fee of $180 per year per device. The fees for the first year of the Oculus for Business subscription is included with the purchase of a device."}, {"headline": "These are the 20 most common passwords leaked on the dark web \u2014 make sure none of them are yours", "content": "Cybersecurity experts say that the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict could result in an increase in cyberattacks around the world. Choosing a strong password helps prevent hackers from accessing online accounts. It is recommended that people use passwords with uncommon characters that are longer than the minimum length required. A different password should be used for every account. A list of the 20 most commonly leaked passwords is available."}, {"headline": "'We've bought the wrong satellites': UK tech gamble baffles experts", "content": "The UK government is planning to invest hundreds of millions of pounds into OneWeb, a company that is building a network of satellites in low Earth orbit to connect people to the internet. OneWeb lobbyists convinced the government that the satellites could be redesigned to piggyback a navigation payload on them. Every major positioning system currently in use is in medium Earth orbit, while OneWeb's satellites are in low Earth orbit, which is not suitable for military-grade GPS systems. The UK government has been accused of choosing OneWeb for nationalistic reasons, ignoring industry policies. OneWeb filed for bankruptcy in the US in March."}, {"headline": "Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI to pursue holy grail of artificial intelligence", "content": "Microsoft is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will provide cloud computing services to the artificial intelligence research lab in order to develop new technologies. Originally, OpenAI started as a nonprofit research lab focused on developing AI in a safe and democratic fashion, but earlier this year OpenAI announced that it needed more money to continue work. A new for-profit firm to seek outside investment was created, with clear rules to restrict the amount of potential return that investors could expect. OpenAI is dedicated to creating artificial general intelligence and has so far created many impressive projects, but none that come close to actual AGI."}, {"headline": "In A 1st, Scientists Use Revolutionary Gene-Editing Tool To Edit Inside A Patient", "content": "Scientists have used CRISPR for the first time to edit a gene while the DNA is still inside a person's body. The gene-editing tool was injected into the eye of a patient blinded by a rare genetic disorder. CRISPR has been used previously on patients who have cancers and rare blood disorders, but it is too soon to know whether the treatments have worked, despite promising results. In these cases, cells were removed from the body and treated first before being implanted back into the patient's body. If the treatment is safe and successful, it could open up a world of possibilities for scientists to be able to treat thousands of other genetic diseases."}, {"headline": "Dutch surgeon wins landmark 'right to be forgotten' case", "content": "A Dutch surgeon won a case that forced Google to remove mentions of her medical negligence from their search results. The judge said that while information about her 2014 negligence on a web forum was correct, it had her name on a blacklist suggesting she was unfit to treat people, which was not what the disciplinary panel said (she only had a minor disciplinary action). About 3 million Europeans have asked to have links removed from search engines under the EU's \"right to be forgotten\" law."}, {"headline": "Watch as Royal Marines Test Out a Flying Jet Suit", "content": "The Royal Marines are testing a jet suit for use as a way to fly and land on ships quickly and with precision. Gravity Industries developed the suit to provide rapid access and exit to and from target areas while retaining the ability to handle a weapon. An earlier version of the suit featured a helmet-controlled shoulder-mounted pellet rifle. A 3-minute video showing the jet suits in action is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Experts Agree: Smart Investing Now = Earlier Retirement", "content": "Experts Agree: Smart Investing Now = Earlier Retirement (Sponsor)\n\n\nIf you\u2019re a business owner or high earner, investing in solid financial assets should be your #1 priority. With the stocks and crypto on life support, the most sought-after investment by those looking for long-term growth is art.Here\u2019s why:Helps protect your cash from inflationNear 0 correlation to stocks according to CitiContemporary art outpaced the S&P 500 by 164% (1995-2021)No wonder over 440,000 members signed up for this white-hot art investing app.Bonus: TLDR subscribers can get priority access to this smart app hereSee important Reg A disclosures"}, {"headline": "Apple App Store breaks records, customers spent $1.22B in one week", "content": "Apple's App Store had it's biggest week ever with $1.22 billion in sales between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It then had it's biggest day ever on New Year's Day, when customers spent $322 million. Gaming and self-care were the most popular categories, with Fortnite being the most popular game."}, {"headline": "The product analytics suite you can host yourself", "content": "With PostHog's open source analytics platform, customer data never has to leave your infrastructure.Featuring product analytics, session recording, feature flags, heatmaps, and more - all available for free.The best part is everything is seamlessly integrated, so you can spend less time configuring different tools and more time getting valuable insight into user behavior. Learn more."}, {"headline": "You\u2019ve heard of lab-grown meat. Now there\u2019s lab-grown ice cream", "content": "A Bay Area-based startup called Perfect Day has created a lab-grown ice cream that uses whey protein from genetically modified yeast. While there are plenty of dairy-free ice cream alternatives in the market, they generally don\u2019t taste as creamy as traditional ice cream. Perfect Day\u2019s ice cream is reported to taste exactly like traditional ice cream as it contains the same exact proteins, just produced in a different way, which the company claims uses 98 percent less water and 65 percent less energy than traditional methods. Last week, Perfect Day sold 1,000 three pint samples of the ice cream at $60 each. Perfect Day hopes that it will be able to sell animal-free proteins to big manufacturers. The market for meat and dairy alternatives is growing fast."}, {"headline": "World\u2019s largest nuclear fusion project begins assembly in France", "content": "The world's largest nuclear fusion project has begun in France. It will weigh 23,000 tonnes, with 200km of superconducting cables connecting 3,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets. All the components will be kept at -269C inside the cryogenic plant. The Iter project will cost \u20ac20bn and promises clean, unlimited power. It is intended to be a proof-of-concept of large-scale fusion rather than a design for a commercial reactor."}, {"headline": "Best Practices for Writing a Dockerfile", "content": "Docker has revolutionized the way we use Containers by allowing anyone to use Containers without dealing with any of the advanced topics related to it. This article discusses best practices for developing better Containers. It covers identifying cacheable units, reducing image size, image maintainability, and reproducibility."}, {"headline": "Delta\u2019s \u2018parallel reality\u2019 display sounds like sci-fi, but it\u2019s coming soon", "content": "A display created by Misapplied Sciences and partially funded by Delta is able to produce multiple displays at different angles, meaning that multiple people viewing the same screen are able to see different displays. It works by having pixels aim colors at certain angles. Delta has combined the display with AI technology to create a screen that can show individual flight information at airports. Customers will be able to view a special screen which will, to the individual, appear to only show their personal flight information. The display is currently limited in the number of colors it can show, and people need to be a certain distance away from the screen in order to view the display correctly. Delta will be deploying its first parallel-reality display at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport later this year."}, {"headline": "The Brain Can Recall and Reawaken Past Immune Responses", "content": "Scientists from Israel have recently proved that mice brains can remember immune responses. The study involved giving mice a bout of colitis and then marking neurons active on the day the inflammation peaked. After the mice recovered, the scientists were able to trigger the immune response by stimulating the same neurons. Mice that had those neurons inhibited showed less severe disease symptoms. The study shows that the brain is inseparable from the immune system and this finding could have far-reaching implications."}, {"headline": "QuantumScape\u2019s New Solid-State Battery Is Twice as Energy-Dense as Lithium-Ion", "content": "QuantumScape's solid-state lithium metal battery can charge to 80 percent capacity in just 15 minutes, has nearly double the energy density of top commercial lithium-ion cells, retains more than 80 percent of its capacity after 800 cycles, and doesn't set on fire. The increased energy density makes it possible to create electric vehicles with similar ranges as gasoline-powered ones. It may even be possible to use the batteries to power electric aircraft. QuantumScape has more than $1 billion in funds to take the technology through to production, with $300 million from Volkswagen, who plans to start using the batteries in its cars by 2025."}, {"headline": "State of Startups 2018", "content": "First Round Capital surveyed 529 founders about the tech industry. 89% believe there is ageism in tech, and on average they believe it starts at 46 years old. They were most bullish on Stripe, followed by SpaceX, Coinbase, Slack and Airbnb. 39% believe China will be the center of tech by 2028, while 57% believe it will be the US. 77% say tech giants are perceived as evil, 50% believe they actually are evil. 87% are blockchain skeptics."}, {"headline": "\u2018Incredible\u2019 gene-editing result in mice inspires plans to treat premature-aging syndrome in children", "content": "Progeria is a rare, fatal genetic disease that causes symptoms much like early aging. It affects an estimated 400 people in the world. Scientists have used a technique similar to CRISPR to correct the condition in mice. Treated mice lived twice as long as untreated animals, giving the scientists hope for its use in humans. The scientists aim to treat a human child with the technique within the next 3 years."}, {"headline": "Minecraft API", "content": "Minecraft is a really popular computer game where players build stuff with blocks (sort of like the digital version of Legos). The Minecraft Scripting API is now in public beta, it allows you to write scripts in JavaScript to listen and respond to in game events and modify parts of the game. I feel like Minecraft is the perfect game to allow user scripts on, I bet people are going to build crazy stuff with this."}, {"headline": "Spacecraft DAPPER will study 'Dark Ages' of the universe in radio waves", "content": "The Dark Ages Polarimetry Pathfinder (DAPPER) is a spacecraft designed to look for faint radio signals from the early universe while operating in low lunar orbit. Scientists can learn more about the early dark period of the cosmos and understand how and when the first stars began to form by studying the energy produced by hydrogen clouds in the form of radio waves. Most of these waves are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere, so DAPPER will go to the far side of the Moon, which is radio-quiet. DAPPER will be part of the NASA Artemis program, which aims to land the next humans on the Moon by 2024."}, {"headline": "An Amazon Programmer's Perspective", "content": "Working with one of the FAANG companies is a dream for many devs. The first few months at working for Amazon are standard in the industry as a developer learns the ropes, but eventually devs are put onto an on-call rotation. Being on-call means that a dev is required to respond to emergencies within 15 minutes for 24 hours a day 7 days a week when on the roster. Developers are occasionally 'loaned' to other teams, which is usually a negative experience. Amazon has a moving and signing bonus that must be paid back to the company if the developer leaves the company or is fired within two years, so many younger developers can not leave their roles as it represents a large amount of their income. This can have negative mental health consequences for employees. Amazon does provide many perks to employees and working there can be a rewarding experience, but developers need to learn to balance out their lives in order not to burn out."}, {"headline": "Acoustic Tweezers Can Pick Objects Up With Sound Waves \u2013 Without Any Physical Contact", "content": "Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a technology that uses sound waves to pick up objects. Scientists have been using light to move microscopic objects around for many years using a technique called optical trapping. Acoustic trapping can manipulate larger, millimeter-sized objects. The new technique achieves more accuracy and control over previous attempts. An 11-second video demonstrating the acoustic trapping technique is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Hibiki HTML", "content": "Hibiki HTML is a web framework for creating frontend applications that can be fully scripted and controlled by backend code without JavaScript. It is compatible with any backend language or framework. An interactive tutorial is available."}, {"headline": "Microsoft Challenges U.S. Government\u2019s Sneak and Peek Warrant", "content": "Microsoft will pursue an appeal against a decision from a federal judge who ruled that the company was not allowed to inform a large corporate customer that the US government had issued a warrant for its data. Subjects of sneak and peek warrants do not need to be informed of data requests under US law, a practice that Microsoft has disagreed with in the past. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft have sued the government over sneak and peek warrants. The US government has previously asked Microsoft why it wouldn't use its data to spy on other nations. Microsoft has made it clear it would not use its services and data to spy on users."}, {"headline": "BrainNet is The World's First Non-Invasive Brain-to-Brain Interface", "content": "Researchers have created the world's first non-invasive brain-to-brain interface called BrainNet. It uses EEG to record brain signals and transcranial magnetic stimulation to deliver information to the brain. In an experiment, one person sees a game of Tetris and decides whether to keep or rotate the block. They then send this information through BrainNet to a second person who can't see the game screen, who must then decide whether to turn the block or keep it in position. The players were able to play the game with 81.3% accuracy. The researchers believe that this technology could eventually be used to create a '\"social network\" of connected brains.'"}, {"headline": "Scientists Made a Biohybrid Nose Using Cells From Mosquitoes", "content": "Scientists at the University of Tokyo have created an artificial nose using mosquito odor receptors. The team placed the mosquito receptors on a chip and monitored the setup with a computer. Using the sensors, the scientists could detect odors with unprecedented sensitivity. The technology was able to detect a chemical often found in cancer patients' breath with over 90 percent accuracy. The team hopes to eventually use their bionic nose as a way to detect the early stages of diseases."}, {"headline": "Eva Design System", "content": "The Eva Design System is a free and open source customizable design system that easily adapts to your brand. It is available for Sketch with mobile and web component libraries. Eva makes sure that designs stay consistent across all applications and platforms without the need to spend thousands of hours on implementation, testing, or maintenance."}, {"headline": "Excalidraw", "content": "Excalidraw is a whiteboard tool that allows you to sketch diagrams that have a hand-drawn feel to them. A web version is available to use. It is built using React and Rough.js."}, {"headline": "Tesla has a new product: Autobidder, a step toward becoming an electric utility", "content": "Autobidder is software from Tesla that provides companies with the ability to autonomously monetize battery assets. It features price, load, and generation forecasting, dispatch optimization, and smart bidding for energy systems. The software has been used to drive down energy prices where Tesla has deployed its Powerpacks. Tesla is looking to start introducing the software in the UK. A screenshot of Autobidder's UI is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Here's the Massive Kit Apple Will Send to Your House So You Can Fix Your iPhone", "content": "Apple has launched its Self Service Repair program. Customers in the US will now be able to repair their iPhones from home. The unexpectedly large kits will have all the tools required to repair an iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 lineup model or the third-generation iPhone SE. They will be rented to customers for $49. A picture of the repair kits is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Designer babies aren't futuristic. They're already here", "content": "The article starts off with a story of a couple where the husband has Dystonia, a non-fatal disease that may cause joint or spinal deformities. They opted to use in vitro fertilization so they could pick an embryo that didn't have Dystonia. IVF cost $20,000, and testing the embryos cost $10,000. The number of IVFs with genetic testing to select healthy embryosin the US rose from 1,941 in 2014 to 3,271 in 2016. Because insurance doesn't cover IVF, only well off couples can afford these procedures. If this trend continues, we risk creating a society where genetic disease is something that only happens to the poor and less-educated."}, {"headline": "Machine Learning from Scratch", "content": "Machine Learning from Scratch is a book that covers the building blocks of the most common methods in machine learning. It covers the concepts, construction, and implementations of Ordinary Linear Regression, Linear Regression Extensions, Discriminative Classifiers, Generative Classifiers, Decision Trees, Tree Ensemble Methods, and Neural Networks. The book was written for readers interested in seeing machine learning algorithms derived from start to finish. It does not review best practices or discuss in depth when certain models are more appropriate than others."}, {"headline": "Tesla dissolves its PR department \u2014 a new first in the industry", "content": "Tesla has dissolved its PR department, becoming the first automaker who doesn't talk to the press. The company hasn't responded to press inquiries in months. Tesla's PR team dissolved after Keely Sulprizio, the person in charge of PR/communications at Tesla, left Tesla to join Impossible Foods last December. There are still PR managers working in Tesla's European and Asian markets and test-drive promotions for YouTubers. No official reason has been given for the move, despite CEO Elon Musk's past complaints about unfair treatment by the press."}, {"headline": "This edible blob filled with water means you don\u2019t need a plastic bottle", "content": "Notpla is a startup that creates edible packaging made from seaweed and plant extracts. Water-filled pods will be available for runners at a half-marathon in London on March 1. The pods are made by dipping a sphere of ice in a mixture of calcium chloride and brown algae extract. The extract forms an edible membrane that holds everything in place as the ice melts. These packets of water can be opened by biting and then eaten or thrown away. The packaging will quickly biodegrade. While the design can replace plastic bottles in some situations, they are biodegradable and can only hold small amounts of water, so a more long-term solution for plastic bottles still needs to be found."}, {"headline": "Peloton CEO steps down as the company cuts 2,800 jobs", "content": "Peloton's John Foley will be stepping down as CEO. Former Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy will take over the role. Foley will remain on as Executive Chair. Peloton is cutting 2,800 jobs globally, around 20% of its corporate workforce. The company invested heavily in production in 2021 but saw a decrease in demand this year. It has now halted all production of its treadmill and bike products."}, {"headline": "A New Sunflower-Like Solar Panel Tracks the Sun for Maximum Energy", "content": "SmartFlower Solar is a Boston-based company that makes smartflower solar panels that track the sun to generate more energy. The smartflowers stand 16 feet high and generate about 5,000 kWh of power annually. They come with their own battery source that is viable across temperature extremes. Over 2,000 smartflowers have been installed worldwide. A picture of a smartflower is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Google Earth Reverse Engineering", "content": "Some guy reverse engineered Google Earth's API so you can extract 3D images from Google Earth. He's still pushing commits pretty fast but it's already usable."}, {"headline": "This ailing scientist is trying to save his life by becoming world's first full-fledged cyborg", "content": "Peter Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in 2017. Since then, Scott-Morgan has embarked on a mission to become a cyborg, developing an exoskeleton that he hopes will eventually be able to give him superhuman strength and the ability to communicate while being paralyzed. People with MND eventually become locked inside their bodies, with fully alert minds but unable to move. Scott-Morgan has undergone several surgeries already, including a series of surgeries to reconfigure his digestive system to make the MND more manageable."}, {"headline": "Robot pole dancers to debut at French nightclub", "content": "SC-Club, a nightclub in Nantes, France, will soon feature two robot pole dancers wearing high heels with CCTV cameras for their heads as part of its fifth-anniversary celebrations next week. The bots have their metal parts covered with parts obtained from mannequins. Giles Walker, the creator of the robots, came up with the concept a decade ago and has toured and loaned out the robots over the past few years. The dancers at the venue do not feel that their new coworkers pose any threat to their jobs."}, {"headline": "Uber is laying off 3,700 as rides plummet due to COVID-19", "content": "Uber has disclosed plans to lay off 3,700 employees, about 14% of its workforce. The job cuts were in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Uber's bottom line has taken a massive hit as governments issue stay-at-home orders. The cuts will come from community operations and recruiting. Uber's CEO has agreed to waive his base salary for the rest of 2020."}, {"headline": "K9s", "content": "K9s is a command-line interface for interacting with Kubernetes clusters. It makes it easy to navigate, observe, and manage applications in the wild. K9 watches Kubernetes for change and offers options for interacting with observed resources. It is available on Linux, macOS, and Windows."}, {"headline": "Zoom\u2019s Immersive View could make video calls feel a bit more in-person", "content": "Zoom's new Immersive View will make video calls look more like an office meeting by placing meeting attendees in a realistic-looking location. The feature is available for calls with up to 25 participants. Calls with more attendees will show participants in a strip of video thumbnails at the top of the scene. Hosts can resize attendees and move them around."}, {"headline": "typejuice", "content": "typejuice is a documentation generator for TypeScript Declaration Files. TypeScript Declaration Files are used commonly as a means of enhancing the autocomplete behavior of exposed APIs. typejuice provides godoc-like comment extraction from TypeScript Declaration Files while also inferring on types and signatures."}, {"headline": "Framework\u2019s new laptop means the promise of modular gadgets might be coming true", "content": "Framework has released a new version of its ultra-repairable, upgradeable laptop. It features a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 chip, a more rigid top cover, and Wi-Fi 6E support. The new laptop's parts are completely backward-compatible with first-generation devices. Customers who purchased the first version of the laptop can upgrade their device without having to buy a new one."}, {"headline": "A Meta prototype lets you build virtual worlds by describing them", "content": "Mark Zuckerberg recently showed off a prototype of an artificial intelligence system that lets people build parts of virtual worlds by verbally describing them. Builder Bot can create 3D scenes with sound effects and background audio. It is unknown if it generates the designs or if it uses a library of human-created models. Many unique moderation problems will come with the tech, so it probably won't be available any time soon. A video from Meta with Zuckerberg demonstrating the technology is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Responder", "content": "This is a Python web server framework by Kenneth Reitz (the author of the excellent Python requests library). It comes with a lot of nice stuff out of the box like GraphQL support, SPA support, and built in OpenAPI schema generation."}, {"headline": "Could the Great Resignation force techies to get career agents?", "content": "Free Agency is a startup that provides career representation to mid to C-level candidates across product, engineering, marketing, and design. It helps candidates secure jobs and negotiate salary offers. The company estimates that it has so far set up 4,700 interviews and secured $200,000,000 in negotiated compensation. Candidates are charged 5% to 10% of their first year's salary as a fee. Employers can subscribe to a free service where Free Agency will share up to five candidates per week with them."}, {"headline": "Microsoft unveils Windows Terminal, a new command line app for Windows", "content": "Windows Terminal was unveiled at the Microsoft Build Developer Conference and will be available around mid-June. It is designed to be a central hub to access environments such as PowerShell, Cmd, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Windows Terminal will support multiple tabs, themes, emojis, and GPU-based text rendering. Microsoft has been working to improve the developer environment on Windows. They have previously released a Linux command line for Windows and listed Ubuntu on the Windows Store."}, {"headline": "Unprofessional Landing Pages: How To Make Your Pages Look Like a Design Team Was Behind It", "content": "First impressions matter for professional pages. It only takes a very short amount of time for someone to form an opinion about a website. Clarity is important because there isn't much time to get a message across, so it is important not to add clutter. This article discusses how to make more professional-looking pages with above-the-fold design patterns, some UX open secrets, and tips on how to improve the scan-ability of pages."}, {"headline": "Firm raises $15m to bring back woolly mammoth from extinction", "content": "Bioscience and genetics company Colossal recently raised $15 million to recreate the wooly mammoth. The project involves taking skin cells from Asian elephants and reprogramming them into more versatile stem cells that carry mammoth DNA, then carrying embryos to term in a surrogate mother or artificial womb. The researchers hope they have their first set of calves in six years. While reintroducing herds of elephant-mammoth hybrids to the Arctic tundra may help convert landscapes to grassland and keep the ground cool, some scientists argue that it is not the most effective way to restore the tundra."}, {"headline": "Announcing WWDC21", "content": "The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference will be held online from June 7 to 11. There will be announcements, sessions, and labs at no cost. Students are now invited to submit their Swift playgrounds to this year's Swift Student Challenge for a chance to win exclusive WWDC21 outerwear and a customized pin set."}, {"headline": "Chinese Scientists Create System to Care For Embryos in Artificial Womb", "content": "Scientists from China have developed an AI system that can monitor and care for embryos as they grow inside artificial wombs. It has already been used to care for a number of animal embryos. Experimentation on human embryos is forbidden under international law, but the scientists claim that the system would be safer than natural childbearing. Despite its potential ethical issues, the technology could one day help couples that are struggling to have children finally become parents."}, {"headline": "Following the money in a massive \u201csextortion\u201d spam scheme", "content": "A massive 'sextortion' spam scheme sent millions of messages between September 2019 and January 2020 and generated nearly $500,000 in profits. The messages informed recipients that their computers were hacked and that the hacker had footage of the person viewing pornographic websites. It threatened to share the footage with the target's contacts unless the target paid a ransom of around $800 using Bitcoin. As the transactions were made using Bitcoin, they can be traced. An infographic is available in the article that shows where the money generated from the scam has been sent."}, {"headline": "Google has quietly added DuckDuckGo as a search engine option for Chrome users in ~60 markets", "content": "It appears that the Chromium 73 update released yesterday included an update to the list of default search options, which now includes the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo. The search engine is now available as an option in around 60 markets. Another privacy search engine, French-based Qwant, has also been added, but only in its home market, France. Pro-privacy search engines have been growing steadily in popularity in the last few years, and DuckDuckGo has recently received outside investment in order to scale its efforts and increase in size. Google has also finally released the Duck.com domain-name to DuckDuckGo, where it previously had it pointing back to Google.com."}, {"headline": "Amazon built an Alexa cuckoo clock and wants your help backing new projects like this one", "content": "Amazon's 'Built It' program is a Kickstarter-like effort where customers can choose to back a product, and if there is enough support within 30 days, Amazon will build it. Customers will only be charged if the product is developed and ships. Prices are raised once the product has been released. There are currently three concepts available, and more ideas are coming."}, {"headline": "Toyota announces new capabilities for domestic robots", "content": "The Toyota Research Institute has developed new capabilities for its line of domestic robots, including the ability to recognize and manipulate transparent objects and to wipe down counters and tables. Japanese robot manufacturers have made it clear that they plan to create robots that will serve as domestic helpers. Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world. Robots will be able to perform tasks that people find more challenging as they get older. A video from Toyota showing off the new capabilities of its robots is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Cerebras\u2019 wafer-size chip is 10,000 times faster than a GPU", "content": "Cerebras Systems is the maker of the WSE, the world's largest computer chip. It recently announced that its CS-1 system is 10,000 times faster than a graphics processing unit (GPU). This means that AI neural networks that would previously take months to train can now train in minutes. The CS-1 system has 1.2 trillion transistors, much more than Nvidia's largest GPU, which has 54.2 billion transistors. A single chip is 26 inches tall and requires a custom wafer-scale processing engine for power."}, {"headline": "Uber releases its long-awaited IPO filing", "content": "Uber will list on the New York Stock Exchange as UBER around May this year. Its IPO prospectus contained the first official record of its financials. The company reported $11.27 billion in revenue and $997 million net income in 2018. Names of major shareholders were released, revealing that co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick still owns 8.6% of the company. Drivers who had done a certain amount of trips will receive a cash reward. While Uber is a giant in the ride-sharing industry, there are still challenges that the company faces that may affect its valuation."}, {"headline": "A New Strain of Drug-Resistant Malaria Has Sprung Up in Africa", "content": "Global malaria deaths declined to 409,000 in 2019, compared to 585,000 in 2010. Several countries have eliminated the disease, or are about to. A new strain of the parasite has shown resistance to one of the most commonly used malaria treatments. The new strain could lead to more deaths, an increased spread in the resistance itself, and a loss of confidence in malaria treatments. Increased funding for more testing and research capacity, as well as more effective use of drugs by providers and patients, will help limit the spread of the new strain. The mutation was seen in Southeast Asia in 2013, and it is being held at bay there with the careful use of drugs."}, {"headline": "Walmart drone delivery service will bring your orders by air", "content": "Walmart has partnered with DroneUp to deliver items via drone to customers within a 1.15-mile radius from a base in Farmington, Arkansas. Customers will be able to use the service seven days a week from 8 am to 8 pm. Flight engineers will control the drones to ensure orders arrive safely. The service will be expanded to more areas in the coming months."}, {"headline": "Death by black hole: Astronomers spot flare from \u201cspaghettification\u201d of star", "content": "A tidal disruption event (TDE) is when a star strays too close to a supermassive black hole and tears apart, forming a rotating ring of matter around the black hole that emits powerful X-rays and visible light. Astronomers have recently recorded a TDE, managing to capture data before dust and debris obscured their view. The nature of the emissions from black holes has been previously debated, and this is the first direct evidence showing the source of the emissions. A 25-second artistic animation of a star being sucked into a black hole is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Apple took us on a surreal walk through San Francisco, looking at digital art on an iPhone", "content": "Apple's AR[T] Walk is a new program at Apple stores that takes people on an actual walk through a city while displaying digital art that can only be seen through an iPhone. The aim of the project is to promote augmented reality technology. AR[T] walk is available in six Apple stores in major cities, including New York, Hong Kong, and Paris. It takes about two hours to complete the walk. Reservations are made online, but if there are available spots, Apple will accommodate people who are there, so it is worth seeing if there are open spaces even if you can't make a reservation. During the walk, everybody is allocated a loaned iPhone XS Max with the non-public AR[T] app and a pair of Beats Solo headphones. The tour guides are able to control the experience from an iPad pro, and they also lead discussions about the artwork that is displayed. The walks will be available until at least the end of 2019."}, {"headline": "OnlyFans says it will no longer ban porn in stunning U-turn after user backlash", "content": "OnlyFans has suspended its plans to ban pornography. It had previously said it was being forced to prohibit porn due to pressure from its banking partners, but it now says that it has secured the necessary assurances it needs to continue allowing sexually explicit content. Many sex workers had condemned OnlyFans for its earlier decision. OnlyFans' success has largely been due to adult performers selling their content through its platform."}, {"headline": "I Used to Work for Google. I Am a Conscientious Objector", "content": "A former research scientist at Google speaks out against the company\u2019s practices as it complies with China\u2019s demands for increased powers to monitor its citizens\u2019 data. Executives argued that government requests were common for the company and that complying with their legal requirements was the right thing to do. However, compliance with these demands raised questions of whether it was right to use their technology to aid China in infringing on human rights."}, {"headline": "Kickstarter\u2019s staff is unionizing", "content": "The staff at Kickstarter announced their intention to unionize today, and if recognized, Kickstarter will be the first major tech company in the US with union representation. Staff are working with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), an organization that has experience in unionizing companies both domestically and internationally. Union leaders claim the aim of forming the union is to uphold Kickstarter\u2019s values of inclusion, solidarity, transparency, and accountability, which they feel have failed to manifest. A spokesperson for Kickstarter has said that Kickstarter is open to listening to the concerns of its employees."}, {"headline": "Scientists Use CRISPR to Delete Fearful Memories in Rats", "content": "Researchers at Peking University have used CRISPR gene editing to remove fearful memories from rats. The new technique could be used to treat pathological memories and memory-related conditions such as PTSD, drug addiction, chronic pain, and chronic stress. While negative memories could be essential for survival, too much focus on them can cause psychological and physical disorders. The study isn't clear on how memories are targeted and what safety measures are used to ensure other memories aren't accidentally removed."}, {"headline": "Tesla is adding remarkable detail in its Full Self-Driving Visualizations", "content": "Full Self-Driving on Tesla vehicles works for highway driving, but when it comes to inner-city streets, it still has some ways to go. The most recent update shows that more and more aspects of city driving are becoming recognized by the company\u2019s neural networks. A small clip is available showing a Model 3 rendering details, such as directional lights, on a stop light signal. Elon Musk recently said in a tweet that the release of Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving functionalities is still looking good for this year."}, {"headline": "Tesla got hauled in by Chinese government after it quietly downgraded the chips in some of its Model 3 cars", "content": "Tesla Model 3 owners in China recently started to notice that their cars were being equipped with an older generation computer chip despite being told that the cars came with the newest chip installed. The Chinese government had ordered Tesla to shut down its Shanghai Gigafactory at the end of January. It re-opened on February 10, but the company is still trying to recover from the disruption. Tesla executives were summoned to explain the issue to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, who ordered them to rectify the problem according to related regulations. Tesla has offered a free hardware upgrade for customers once production recovers, but some owners are looking at forming a class action suit. The newest chip is 21 times faster than the older generation chip, but Tesla insists that this makes almost no difference to the driver experience."}, {"headline": "Make your app enterprise-ready", "content": "What do products like Slack, Zoom, and Asana all have in common? They became enterprise-ready faster than their peers.Developers use WorkOS' APIs to quickly integrate enterprise features to their app. Implement Single Sign-On (SAML), SCIM user provisioning, and more in minutes, not months."}, {"headline": "China\u2019s \u2018artificial sun\u2019 is five-times hotter than the real thing", "content": "The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor in China reached temperatures of 70 million degrees Celsius, five times hotter than the Sun, for more than 17 minutes during a recent experiment. EAST aims to deliver near-limitless clean energy by mimicking the natural reactions occurring within stars. The project has already cost China more than \u00a3700 billion. The EAST team will provide technical support for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) currently being constructed in France. ITER will be the world's largest reactor once completed."}, {"headline": "Facebook is testing a video speed-dating app called Sparked", "content": "Sparked is a new video speed dating app from Facebook's New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team. During events, the app cycles people through speed video dates that last four minutes. If the date goes well, the pair can schedule a longer meeting. Users have to fill in questions when signing up that indicate that kindness is a major factor when qualifying for the app. The NPE Team has launched many apps with little success, so it is unclear how committed Facebook will be to this project."}, {"headline": "Find a job through Hired", "content": "Hired is home to thousands of companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500s that are actively hiring the best and brightest developers, data scientists, mobile engineers, and more. Here\u2019s how it works: once you create a profile, hiring managers can extend interview requests based on desired salary, top skills, and career preferences. Sign up today - it\u2019s completely free for job-seekers!"}, {"headline": "CandyGraph", "content": "CandyGraph is a 2D plotting library for rendering datasets on the GPU at interactive speeds. It can handle huge datasets, performing all rendering on the GPU, including axes and text. Tutorials and examples are available in the repository."}, {"headline": "Ungrabbed", "content": "This is a cool site that periodically puts out a list of good domain names that aren't taken. For example today they put out a bunch of one word .ai domains, like kept.ai and fossil.ai that (as I'm writing this) are still available. Pretty cool site if you like to window shop domains."}, {"headline": "A Snapchat-owned location app just added a leaderboard comparing who stays home the most", "content": "Snapchat-owned location app Zenly is gamifying social distancing with a leaderboard for people who have spent the most time at home. Zenly usually encourages people to share locations to meet up with friends, but it has switched up its incentives and is now encouraging people to stay at home. The app also shows an overlay that shows the number of coronavirus cases in a state or country."}, {"headline": "HQ, maker of the once-popular HQ Trivia, is shutting down", "content": "HQ, the makers of HQ Trivia, is closing down its business and laying off its 25 employees. CEO Rus Yusupov sent a note to employees informing them of the company's closure. HQ had received an acquisition offer from an established business but the deal didn't go through. The HQ Trivia app launched in 2017 and it quickly became popular due to its novel live nature, real cash prizes, and Scott Rogowsky playing the game's host. As the game became less popular, HQ tried to keep users engaged through extra in-game lives and an in-person event with a cash prize, but eventually, the game's novelty wore off and the company wasn't able to keep its users interested in its games."}, {"headline": "Chinese scientists harness fourth state of matter to create \u2018air plasma\u2019 jet engine that runs on electricity alone", "content": "Chinese scientists have created a carbon-neutral prototype jet engine that could allow for a new era in fossil-fuel-free manned flight. The prototype engine compresses air and ionizes it with microwaves, generating plasma that expels out the back of the engine to generate thrust. Previous attempts at plasma engines weren't powerful enough, but this type of engine could potentially produce the same amount of thrust as a conventional commercial jet engine."}, {"headline": "Researchers Create Soil Catalyst to Make Farming on Mars a Reality", "content": "Perchlorate is a dangerous chemical compound that is found in abundance in Martian soil. It is also used in rocket propellants and other explosives. The contaminant can cause thyroid and lung problems. Breaking down perchlorate on Mars could provide useful ingredients for rocket fuel and life support. A team of scientists has developed a bioinspired catalyst that can destroy 99 percent of perchlorate at ambient temperatures and pressures. Some microbes can break down perchlorate, but it can take weeks or months. The new catalyst can complete the process much faster and can work for very challenging concentrations."}, {"headline": "Amazon jumps into virtual tourism, offering live one-on-one experiences around the world", "content": "Amazon Explore is Amazon's new tech platform and marketplace that offers access to live virtual experiences with people from around the world. The platform was in the works long before global travel restrictions took effect. A public beta of the service will launch soon for Amazon's US customers. Prices on the platform are set by the host and can be between US$10 to US$200 for a session that lasts around 35 minutes to an hour. Amazon uses its own tech platform for Amazon Explore. It displays audio and video and customers can easily save images from the experience and download them afterward. When the global pandemic finally ends, Amazon will have established relationships with tour guides around the world, allowing the company to expand its service into in-person tours and experiences."}, {"headline": "Apple expands authorized repairs to ~1,000 Best Buy stores", "content": "In the last three years, Apple has expanded its repair coverage to around 800 locations around the US, courtesy of third-party partnerships. Now, up to 1,800 locations will be able to perform certified repairs, as Apple has authorized repairs at around 1,000 Best Buy stores. For Apple, this means that its customers in more rural areas will still receive quality service, and for Best Buy, this will be another endorsement from a large tech company for their services. Samsung has also authorized Galaxy repairs for Best Buy. Apple strives to maintain a high-quality service, and it wants its customers to feel confident in knowing that repairs are being done safely and correctly."}, {"headline": "MoviePass test reactivates accounts if users don't opt out", "content": "MoviePass has been sending out emails to customers who had previously cancelled, saying that their subscriptions would be restored unless they opted out of a \"test\". If they don't opt out by October 4th, then the credit card MoviePass has on file will automatically be charged $10 on a monthly basis again. Early responses on Twitter indicate that this is not going to be a popular idea."}, {"headline": "World\u2019s First Airport For Flying Cars And Drones Opens This Year", "content": "Urban Air Port will build its first Air-One transport hub for autonomous delivery drones and electric flying cars in Coventry, UK. The facility will launch later this year and support delivery drone and air taxi technology, and it will eventually transport cargo and people across cities. Urban Air Port aims to install over 200 similar sites worldwide by 2025."}, {"headline": "Alexa will help pay for your gas at ExxonMobil pumps", "content": "ExxonMobil and Fiserv are developing an Alexa skill that will help users pay for gas at Exxon and Mobil stations across the US. When it is activated, the voice assistant will confirm both the location and pump number. It will then activate the pump and use Amazon Pay to pay for the gas. The skill is scheduled to be released in 2020 at 11,500 stations. A short video is available that demonstrates the process."}, {"headline": "M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion", "content": "MIT announced that it is planning a $1 billion college called the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, named after Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman who donated $350 million. The new college will create an additional 50 faculty positions. MIT's president L. Rafael Reif says that the goal is to \"educate the bilinguals of the future\", meaning people in fields like biology, chemistry, politics, history and linguistics who are also knowledgeable about computing. Former Google CEO and visiting innovation fellow Eric Schmidt says \"It's a major fund-raising mechanism that gives M.I.T. a huge resource to apply A.I. to other fields.\""}, {"headline": "Viewer Data Suggests Many Netflix Hits Go From Sizzle to Fizzle Quickly", "content": "Data from viewers show that virtually all of the 10 most viewed new Netflix titles of 2021 saw significantly lower viewership after their debut month. Multiple TV analytics platforms confirm the data. These findings could explain why it is uncommon for English TV series to make Netflix's top 10 rankings for extended periods. Netflix will likely spend over $19 billion on content this year."}, {"headline": "Stanford engineers team up with Michelin-star chef to build modular restaurants", "content": "Mezli is a company that builds fully autonomous modular restaurants. Its prototype robot restaurant in San Mateo is showing promise, with 44% of people becoming repeat customers after trying the food. Mezli is working on a third version of its prototype that will be launching next year. It plans to 3D-print its modular restaurants to deploy them quickly at a fraction of the cost it takes for traditional restaurants to get up and running."}, {"headline": "Snapchat Cameo edits your face into videos", "content": "Snapchat will launch a new feature that will allow people to replace faces in videos with their own. Cameos will be an alternative to Bitmoji for conveying emotions, reactions, or silly situations in Snapchat messages. Some French users were recently able to access a test version of the feature. Users will be able to access Cameo through the Bitmoji button. Several short looping videos are available, and users will be able to choose from a few generated videos that will show different facial reactions. Cameos might keep Snapchat messaging interesting, which is critical since other apps have started to gain success by copying Snapchat's other core features. Snapchat has only started monetizing its messaging service by placing ads inside social games."}, {"headline": "Meta Programming GPT: A route to Superintelligence?", "content": "While GPT was only trained using samples of what humans think, it was able to learn the underlying principle behind some concepts and extrapolate to tasks that it had never seen before. This suggested that GPT exhibited primitive intelligence of the same type as human intelligence. It was able to imitate the underlying type of thinking of what it was trained on rather than just copying observed behavior. GPT-4 has the potential to imitate superintelligence, potentially creating hypotheses and ideas for potential scientific breakthroughs."}, {"headline": "CRISPR might be the banana\u2019s only hope against a deadly fungus", "content": "The Colombian government has confirmed that a banana-killing fungus has invaded the Americas. Farmers cannot breed disease resistance into commercial bananas as these bananas are sterile and are populated by cloning. The most popular variety of banana in the first half of the 1900s was nearly wiped out by a fungus. It was replaced with the Cavendish banana, which had a natural resistance to the fungus. The Cavendish is not resistant to the new type of fungus, but scientists are working out how to give the banana resistance. To save the Cavendish, scientists are looking into adding genes for resistance, switching on existing but dormant genes that will give resistance, or shutting off the genes affected by the disease. Even if scientists are successful with creating bananas that are resistant against the fungal outbreak, it will still be some time before they are approved for sale by government regulators."}, {"headline": "Crypto Exchange Goes Dark: Near 400,000 Users Fear Possible $2B Fraud", "content": "Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex abruptly ceased operations on Wednesday. The exchange announced that it would be closed for five days as the company finalized an investment deal. Numerous local news outlets reported that Thodex's CEO fled to Thailand with $2 billion worth of digital assets. Its 400,000 users have been unable to access their accounts. The CEO made a statement on Thursday saying that he plans to return to Turkey and that the losses of users will be compensated. Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies last week. Citizens can hold crypto, but can't use it to make payments for goods or services."}, {"headline": "Visualize Critical IT Data End-to-End", "content": "Single monitoring platform with easy to use out-of-the-box dashboards to correlate metrics, traces and logs. Start a free Datadog trial."}, {"headline": "This Conversation Between A Passenger And An Airline Should Absolutely Terrify You", "content": "A passenger boarded a flight without having to provide any ticket information or identification, using only a face scan at the gates, and this prompted a conversation on Twitter about how this was possible. It appears that JetBlue Airways is using a system that scans customer\u2019s faces and matches them against a database owned by the Department of Homeland Security. They claim that none of the information is stored on their side. Customers can opt out of the experience, but their photos will still be linked with bookings in the system. People are concerned with the use of facial recognition technology in this way as boarding a flight may eventually become cause for a law enforcement search."}, {"headline": "Google continues to tighten its belt as it enters a 'difficult' few months, and that includes telling employees they can't expense perks like food", "content": "Google employees will not be able to expense on food and other perks like home office furniture and fitness subscriptions while working from home. Employees will not be able to use unused budgets towards these expenses nor donate any surplus cash to charities. Google doesn't usually reimburse employees for food expenses while working at home. Employees receive free meals while working on campus. Since everyone has been working from home due to the pandemic, Google has had to clarify its rules."}, {"headline": "Epic 2019 Cross-Platform Online Services Roadmap", "content": "Epic Games (the company behind Fortnite) has built a bunch of internal tools in order to bring Fortnite to 200 million players across 7 platforms. Over the next year, it is planning on opening up all of this cross-platform functionality for free to other game developers (stuff like cross-platform voice comms, matchmaking, saved games, achievements and trophies, logins, profiles, etc.). If you're a game dev you should definitely check this out."}, {"headline": "Microsoft and Nvidia team up to train one of the world\u2019s largest language models", "content": "Microsoft and Nvidia have trained what they claim is the largest and most capable AI-powered language model to date. Megatron-Turing Natural Language Generation (MT-NLP) contains 530 billion parameters and achieves unmatched accuracy in a broad set of natural language tasks. It was trained on a data set with 270 billion tokens from English sources. As with other language models, MT-NLP has picked up biases and stereotypes from its training data. The amount of computing needed to train a model has dropped significantly over time, but there are still large environmental costs for training models and data storage."}, {"headline": "Introducing Piranha: An Open Source Tool to Automatically Delete Stale Code", "content": "Piranha is an open-source tool developed by Uber that can automatically remove old code. Removing old code can be time-intensive for engineers, preventing them from working on new features. Uber uses Piranha to remove features by identifying code related to feature flags once they become obsolete. It is currently implemented for Objective-C, Swift, and Java programs."}, {"headline": "SpaceX will now let you book a rocket launch online starting at $1 million", "content": "Customers who want to reserve space on a Falcon 9 launch can now do so through SpaceX's new web-based booking tool. SpaceX is offering rideshare services for $1 million per payload ranging up to 200kg, with an additional $5 per extra kilogram of cargo. Customers can select the desired orbit and the launch date, input the total amount and size of cargo, and select a specific rocket to book a ride on. The website will return an estimated cost. Customers can then choose some extra options, such as insurance. A small deposit is required, after which the customers can pay the rest of the fee in up to three installments. A Rideshare User's Guide has been released by SpaceX that contains more details about the program. Screenshots of the booking tool and a link to the Rideshare User's guide are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Orchest", "content": "Orchest is a browser-based IDE for Data Science. Users can visually construct pipelines, run any subset of a pipeline directly or on a schedule, set parameters to try out different modeling ideas, and define custom runtime environments. A GIF preview showing how to create pipelines in Orchest is available in the repository."}, {"headline": "Laser Destroys Cancer Cells Circulating in the Blood", "content": "Scientists from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have developed a system that can accurately detect cancer cells in the bloodstream and destroy these cells in real time as they pass through the body. The machine could mean that doctors will eventually be able to destroy cancer cells in the bloodstream before they form new tumors in the body with a harmless, noninvasive, and thorough procedure. In the study, the machine was able to detect cancer cells in 27 out of the 28 patients, with a sensitivity that is about 1,000 times better than current technology. It works by aiming a laser at a vein, where it heats up circulating tumor cells faster than normal cells, causing them to expand quickly and die, a process which produces sound. The sound produced indicates how many cells have passed through the laser."}, {"headline": "go-zero", "content": "go-zero is a web and rpc framework. It features built-in middlewares, chained timeout control, rate limiting, microservice management and concurrent toolkits, and more. go-zero integrates many engineering practices to ensure stability with resilient design."}, {"headline": "Meet Cosmo, a Bull Calf Designed to Produce 75% Male Offspring", "content": "Cosmo is a genome-edited bull calf produced by scientists at the University of California, Davis. It was created by inserting the gene responsible for initiating male development into a bovine embryo. Any embryo treated with this process will grow and look like a male, regardless of whether it inherited a Y chromosome. Cosmo's offspring that inherit the gene will also grow to be males. Male cattle are about 15 percent more efficient at converting feed into weight gain and tend to be heavier, making them more efficient for farming."}, {"headline": "My Frantic Life as a Cab-Dodging, Tip-Chasing Food App Deliveryman", "content": "Restaurants are being forced into the e-commerce business by food-delivery app services, an industry which is creating many jobs for delivery riders. While ride-hail drivers successfully lobbied for a $17 minimum wage, most delivery-app couriers aren't guaranteed any payment. Many couriers use multiple apps, trying to earn bonuses and tips. If they miss certain deadlines, they lose these bonuses, and many customers do not tip. While apps claim certain minimum incomes, drivers say they do not earn these rates regularly. Pay rates have been declining as more people start working for the platform. Restaurant drivers are entitled to a minimum wage plus tips but claim that they are only paid a fraction of that amount. The job can also be dangerous, and workers have been injured during deliveries."}, {"headline": "Fitness app Supernatural is becoming part of Meta after Facebook touts VR fitness", "content": "The studio behind VR workout game Supernatural is joining Meta's Reality Labs. Meta has purchased many popular VR studios over the last few years. While the company is doing this to add popular games to its roster, it is raising concerns that Meta may end up owning the entire virtual reality market. Meta says that the purchase will help the company make better hardware for VR fitness apps."}, {"headline": "Airbus to build 'first interplanetary cargo ship'", "content": "After the first Martian rock samples are mined by NASA's Perseverance rover, they will be blasted into orbit by a rocket, where an Airbus satellite will grab them and then ship them home. The joint American-European project will cost billions and take over a decade to complete. A physical sample will allow scientists to use tools only found in Earth laboratories for analysis. The Earth Return Orbiter will weigh 6.5 tonnes and launch in 2026. It will use an ion engine powered by immense solar arrays, giving the satellite a wingspan of more than 120ft."}, {"headline": "SoftBank to take control of WeWork: Sources", "content": "SoftBank is in advanced talks to take control of WeWork. It plans to spend up to $5 billion in new funding and existing shares. WeWork will be valued up to $8 billion after the deal, which could be announced as soon as Tuesday. SoftBank will have 70 percent or more control of WeWork. Last month, WeWork terminated plans to go public after its IPO prospectus revealed a $900 million loss in the first six months of 2019. There were also concerns over its corporate governance which resulted in Adam Neumann leaving the CEO position. WeWork has since started focusing on raising new capital and becoming profitable. Up to 15,000 employees may be laid off in the coming weeks."}, {"headline": "Ddosify", "content": "Ddosify is a high-performance load testing tool. It is protocol-agnostic and scenario-based and it can test system limits across different load types. Examples are available."}, {"headline": "Top 10 Frontend Frameworks of 2018", "content": "There are a wide array of frontend frameworks available, and new ones are always emerging. This article contains a list of frontend frameworks, including a description of each framework and some pros and cons of each one. When considering a framework, it is important to consider your skill level, compatibility, CSS preprocessors, appearance, prototyping, and how the framework simplifies and speeds up the website design and development process."}, {"headline": "Disney announces $12.99 bundle for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+", "content": "A bundle package from Disney including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ will be available from the 12th of November for $12.99 a month. The pricing is cheaper than or on par with competitor streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. While Disney plans to launch Disney+ internationally, details have yet to be released. The bundle may not be available for an international audience due to licensing issues. Disney is still in talks with distributors for where Disney+ will be available, but it is likely to be at least available through Apple and Amazon."}, {"headline": "The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV", "content": "Our phones are now TVs, with more and more shows to watch on them all the time. Media companies such as HBO, who have always strived to produce premium, high-quality shows, are now pressured to create a higher volume of content at a lower cost to compete with other streaming services. HBO is now experimenting with creating a game show, which may be released under a different brand name. Streaming services are now competing for attention. New formulas for shows are being created to continue capturing the attention of audiences. The media world seems to be changing, with a wide variety of shows being created, but it may eventually result in a scenario where a few large companies dictate a certain formula of shows being released."}, {"headline": "Gmail\u2019s next big redesign starts rolling out next week", "content": "Google is rolling out its integrated view Gmail redesign next week. The new design adds Google Chat and Google Meet into Gmail. It will add a new navigation panel on the left side of the page for users to jump between Gmail, Google Chat, Spaces, and Google Meet. The rollout will begin by letting people opt-in to the changes, but the interface will become the standard by the end of Q2 2022. A screenshot showing some of the new changes is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Bake data privacy into your app from day one by avoiding these common mistakes", "content": "Bake data privacy into your app from day one by avoiding these common mistakes (Sponsor)\n\n\nYour business needs to move fast, but not at the expense of data privacy. As you aim to balance speed and security, don\u2019t lose sight of the most common privacy pitfalls and how you can avoid them. Learn more about data privacy and what your company should avoid doing with the free white paper: Avoiding the Five Cardinal Sins of Data Security and Privacy."}, {"headline": "origamisimulator", "content": "origamisimulator can simulate how any origami crease pattern will fold. Rather than folding paper in steps, it attempts to fold every crease simultaneously. Users can import example models, create their own models, and export models in STL or OBJ."}, {"headline": "Great Barrier Reef to be restored by 'coral IVF'", "content": "Rising sea temperatures due to climate change have been killing off the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists in Australia are attempting to restore the Great Barrier Reef by using in-vitro fertilization style techniques on coral. They're taking millions of eggs and sperm from the annual coral spawning, then putting them in these floating pools for about a week until the larvae are ready, then reintroducing these larvae to the most damaged parts of the reef. Coral spawning happens once a year and began earlier this week for about a 48-72 hour period. Professor Harrison, one of the project leaders, says the project is \"the largest larval restoration project that's ever been attempted not only on the Great Barrier Reef but anywhere in the world\"."}, {"headline": "forgit", "content": "forgit is a tool designed to help people use git more efficiently. It provides a UI and makes many of git's functions interactive. Screenshots are available."}, {"headline": "A Bay Area startup is working to make 'air meat' using protein-producing microbes discovered by NASA", "content": "Most meat alternatives rely on soy or pea protein to mimic the taste and texture of burger patties. A startup called Air Protein is using a technique discovered by NASA to convert carbon dioxide into protein the same way plants do. The process requires 1,000 times less land and water than soybean production as the protein is created inside a lab rather than on a farm. It uses microbes called hydrogenotrophs, which convert carbon dioxide into a flavorless protein powder. The resulting protein can be made into pasta, cereals, shakes, and now, a meat alternative. Similar technology is being used by other companies to create different types of foods. The biggest hurdle for this technology will be to win consumers over with taste."}, {"headline": "SpaceX seeks FCC approval for up to 1M Starlink satellite earth stations", "content": "SpaceX has filed an application with the FCC to approve its Starlink service. Starlink aims to bring high-speed, reliable, and affordable broadband to consumers in the US and around the world. If everything goes according to plan, SpaceX expects the service to be launched in 2020."}, {"headline": "Oya", "content": "Oya allows developers to bootstrap easy to work with, deployable projects. Developers can create their own packs or browse a wide range of available packs from other projects. Confidential data can be stored via Oya secrets using PGP and other encryption methods."}, {"headline": "Gimli", "content": "Gimli is a Visual Studio Code extension that enables visual tools for front-end developers. It simplifies the process of creating complex layouts. Gimli works with a range of frameworks and has been tested with React, Wordpress, Bootstrap, VueJS, Angular, and Stencil. There are videos available showing how Gimli can be used."}, {"headline": "Taylor Swift tracked stalkers with facial recognition tech at her concert", "content": "Taylor Swift is now using facial recognition at her concerts to scan crowds to find potential stalkers. She has hundreds of stalkers in a database, data was streamed from the Rose Bowl to a \"command post\" in Nashville to monitor. This is permitted because concerts are technically private events."}, {"headline": "China's New Space Station Will Be Powered by Ion Propulsion System", "content": "China's Tiangong space station's first module will have an ion propulsion system that will greatly improve energy efficiency and slash journey times to Mars. While ion thrusters have been used since the 1970s, this will be the first time a crewed spaceship is propelled by one. Ion drives use electricity to accelerate ions as a type of propulsion. Using ion thrusters is more efficient than using chemical propulsion, so spacecraft will be able to carry significantly less mass in fuel on missions. While ion thrusters sound good on paper, they so far haven't been used as the thrust created has not been significant enough."}, {"headline": "Apple Unveils Updated MacBook Air, iPad Pro", "content": "Apple has announced updates to the MacBook Air and iPad Pro product lines. The new MacBook Air has a starting price of $999, with twice the microprocessor performance and 80% faster graphics performance than the previous edition. It will have the new Magic Keyboard, a 13-inch Retina display, and at least 256 gigabytes of storage. The new iPad Pro will start at $799 for the Wi-Fi-only model of the 11-inch version. It will have an ultrawide camera, studio-quality microphones, and a LiDar scanner. The new iPad OS will add trackpad support."}, {"headline": "Meet the Guy Selling Wireless Tech to Steal Luxury Cars in Seconds", "content": "New luxury cars now use keyless entry technologies to enter and start vehicles. As with all other technologies, some people have developed methods of breaking through the security used in car technologies in order to break into or steal cars. Devices that can perform these hacks sell for thousands of dollars each. Police departments have seen an increase in vehicle robberies which involve a variety of electronic tools. These devices use different techniques and they can work on many vehicles as long as they have the same vulnerability. The devices can be very cheap to make as long as you have the knowhow. It is not illegal to buy or sell them in the US."}, {"headline": "LG claims its \u2018Real Folding Window\u2019 beats folding glass, will ship in 2023", "content": "LG's Real Folding Window is a new material that is as hard as glass while being foldable. The new material can make folding screens that last longer and with a less noticeable crease than current folding devices. It should work on tablets, laptops, and rollable-screen phones. The new material could unlock a lot more phone designs as screens will be able to fold outwards. LG plans to commercialize the tech in 2023."}, {"headline": "Ford's designers are learning to create 3D cars in virtual reality", "content": "Gravity Sketch is a program that allows people to \u2018paint\u2019 in 3D in Virtual Reality. Ford has recently started to explore the technology and they have a customized version designed to aid their engineers. A typical rendering of a concept car may take months, but with Gravity Sketch, an engineer at Ford was able to render a new concept in 40 hours. There is a video in the article showing the design process using Ford\u2019s Gravity Sketch."}, {"headline": "Metarank", "content": "Metarank is a machine learning tool that personalizes product listings, articles, recommendations, and search results to boost sales. It can be integrated into apps without any machine learning expertise. A demo is available."}, {"headline": "How Lord of the Rings changed big screen battles forever", "content": "Massive is a software that creates computer-generated armies using artificial intelligence to simulate realistic battles at tremendous scales. It was designed specifically for Lord of the Rings and has since been used for many other productions, including Game of Thrones and Marvel's Avengers: Endgame. This article tells the story of how Massive was developed and used in several productions. The software has evolved and gotten better over the years, but the core elements have stayed the same, showing how far ahead of its time the software was when it was made 20 years ago."}, {"headline": "The Army's New Night-Vision Goggles Look Like Technology Stolen From Aliens", "content": "The army's new Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars are a huge upgrade from traditional night vision goggles. They use white tubes that produce better contrast and brighter images. The goggles offer stereo vision and can see through obstructions like dust and smoke even with zero illumination. Augmented reality enhancements allow the goggles to enhance and outline objects, and they can wirelessly communicate with an electronic scope so soldiers can aim without exposing themselves. Images of the goggles are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Google traffic misdirected to China & Russia today, resulted in downtime for some services", "content": "Google Search, Youtube, and Google Cloud all experienced intermittent downtime for about an hour, due to their traffic being misrouted to locations in China, Russia, and Nigeria. This incident was due to BGP's flawed design, BGP (the protocol that defines how internet packets are routed) was designed to be a chain of trust between well-meaning ISPs and universities that blindly believe the information they receive. However, malicious actors can sometimes take avantage of it to hijack traffic (hackers hijacked Amazon's Route 53 DNS traffic in April to steal a bunch of Bitcoin). All data was encrypted, and Google does not believe that this was the result of a malicious attack, but they are investigating the issue."}, {"headline": "Colossal marine skull reveals Earth's earliest known giant animal", "content": "Cymbospondylus youngorum may have been the first giant animal that ever lived on Earth. The new type of ichthyosaur was discovered in the Augusta Mountains of Nevada with a skull measuring 2 meters long. It existed around 246 million years ago. Ichthyosaurs dominated the oceans for about 150 million years, with some species stretching over 20 meters long. The new ichthyosaur was not the largest of its family, but it may have been the largest animal Earth had seen up until that point. A picture of the skull, with a researcher for scale, is available in the article."}, {"headline": "GPU.js", "content": "GPU.js is a JavaScript Acceleration library for General-purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPU) in JavaScript for Web and Node. It automatically transpiles simple JavaScript functions so they run on the GPU. If a GPU is not available, the functions will still run in regular JavaScript. Demos, benchmarks, and documentation are available in the repository."}, {"headline": "The LG Wing could have a surprisingly thin flip-around screen, as shown in new leaks", "content": "The LG Wing is a dual-screen device with a swiveling mechanism. Early images and videos show that the Wing has a triple-camera setup, will come in two colors, and will have 5G support. The rotating screen appears to be quite thin. LG will launch the device on September 14th. An 8-second video showing the device from different angles is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Seed", "content": "Seed is a Rust front-end framework for creating fast and reliable web apps with an Elm-like architecture. It uses a templating system with a macro syntax that makes linting, formatting, and commenting work like in Rust. Clear and extensive documentation is available."}, {"headline": "Discord is testing forums, new mod tools and homepages that surface hot topics in some servers", "content": "Discord is testing three new features starting this week aimed at helping users stay on top of the conversation. It will test a forum-like channel for more organized conversations, a homepage-style feature that collects hot topics, and automated moderation tools. The experimental features will only be available via a close beta on some large servers. A screenshot showing the forum-like feature is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Amazon pauses new grocery signups, hires another 75,000 workers", "content": "Amazon is attempting to catch up with demand by hiring 75,000 new part and full-time employees and by limiting new signups to its services. Third-party sellers will be able to resume shipping non-essential items through Amazon\u2019s fulfillment service later this week. Amazon has increased Whole Foods\u2019 online order capacity by more than 60 percent since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, but it still expects that customers will have difficulty finding open delivery slots. Customers are encouraged to shop in-person if they are able to. Employees are not immune to the virus, and tensions within the company are high. Science &"}, {"headline": "YouTube is finally coming back to Amazon\u2019s Fire TV devices", "content": "YouTube and Amazon have finally ended their feud after a year of negotiations. The YouTube app will now return to Amazon\u2019s Fire TV products, and the Amazon Prime Video app will be adding Chromecast support. No dates have yet been set for when these changes will occur, but Amazon users can still access YouTube through the built-in browser while they wait. There are still disputes yet to be resolved between Amazon and Google, for example, Amazon still won\u2019t stock some of Google\u2019s devices on their marketplace."}, {"headline": "Enormous balloon could help astronomers get clear view of space", "content": "SuperBIT (the Superpressure balloon-borne imaging telescope) is a helium balloon that floats up to 25 miles above the surface of the Earth and expands to a football-stadium size when fully inflated. It can take pictures as clear as a space telescope, but at a fraction of the cost. The design can be tweaked and improved over time. SuperBIT will circumnavigate the Earth several times starting next April. Its first mission will be to watch collisions between clusters of galaxies."}, {"headline": "Sourcetrail", "content": "Sourcetrail is an open-source cross-platform source explorer that helps developers become productive with unfamiliar source code. It indexes code and gathers data about its structure, then it provides a simple interface that allows developers to search code, display the structure of the source code, and view the source locations of currently selected code snippets. It supports C, C++, Java, and Python. Sourcetrail can be connected to many popular IDEs."}, {"headline": "Amazon Web Services adds macOS on bare metal to EC2", "content": "Amazon Web Services has partnered with Apple to bring macOS to the cloud. mac1.metal instances are Intel-based Mac mini systems, each with a Core i7-8700B 6c/12t CPU, 32GB RAM, and 10Gbps network interface. The instances rely on Elastic Block Storage rather than local storage. mac1.metal systems can be spun up and down almost as rapidly as virtual systems. Every instance is provisioned with an SSH keypair and the default image includes all of the normal desktop-oriented macOS components, such as VNC. Customers can build and deploy their own custom MacOS images using AMI."}, {"headline": "Amazon reportedly planning 3,000 cashier-less Go stores by 2021", "content": "Amazon says that it plans on opening as many as 3,000 of its cashier-less Amazon Go convenience stores by the year 2021. Jeff Bezos envisions Amazon Go stores coming in many different configurations with some serving freshly made meals while others look more like a cashierless 7-Eleven with limited grocery selections and pre-made food options. Amazon reportedly plans on having 10 stores open by the end of the year, 50 locations in major cities by next year, and then an exponential growth in locations in 2020 and 2021, so long as it doesn't hit any roadblocks."}, {"headline": "\u2018I lost my \u00a3193,000 inheritance \u2013 with one wrong digit on my sort code\u2019", "content": "Peter Teich gave his solicitor the wrong sort code, and as a result, his \u00a3193,000 inheritance from his father was transferred to another Barclays customer. In the UK, banks are not required to check names along with account numbers for transfers. The banking industry had promised that it would start checking names from mid-2019, but this has been delayed and will not come into force until the end of March next year. Barclays refused to reverse the transfer as the bank had done nothing wrong with the processing on its end. Teich pursued the case through the court system, paying \u00a346,000 upfront in legal costs. He was able to recover the money. Eventually, after contacting the media, Barclays agreed to refund the legal costs, including interest, with some compensation."}, {"headline": "SpaceX Flexes Giant Starship-Catching \u201cChopsticks\u201d for the First Time", "content": "SpaceX flexed the 'Chopsticks' arm of its Mechazilla tower for the first time recently at the company's testing facilities in South Texas. The tower is designed to catch Starship and its accompanying Super Heavy booster to ensure a soft landing. SpaceX successfully completed a static fire test on a Starship prototype last week, indicating that the company may soon be ready for its first orbital test launch. A link to an animation showing how Mechazilla will likely work is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Tesla confirms plan to open Supercharger network to other automakers next year", "content": "Tesla will open up its Supercharger network to other automakers by September 2022. The network is the most extensive electric vehicle fast-charging network in the world. It has over 25,000 Superchargers at over 2,700 stations globally. The decision to share the network will depend on how costs will be divided. Tesla uses a proprietary plug on its vehicles and charging stations in North America. It will be easier to open up its network in Europe, where there is a standard connector for the region."}, {"headline": "Pepper the robot set to appear before U.K. Parliament as witness", "content": "The UK Parliament will be questioning Pepper, a robot capable of recognizing human emotions and mood, as part of its inquiry into robots and artificial intelligence. Pepper was originally designed to care for the elderly, and while the particular lines of questioning are unknown, the chair of the committee doing the questioning expressed concern about robot and AI driven job losses, saying \"The fourth industrial revolution is possibly the most important challenge facing our nation over the next 10, 20 to 30 years. This is not about someone bringing an electronic toy robot and doing a demonstration, it's about showing the potential of robotics and artificial intelligence and the impact it has on skills.\""}, {"headline": "Kamikaze Bacteria: Dying Bacteria Self-Sacrifice to Save their Colony", "content": "Bacteria have several strategies for surviving antibiotics, including developing genetic resistance, hiding in protective biofilm, or delaying their own growth. Scientists at Princeton and California State University-Northridge have found a new tactic that involves bacteria self-sacrificing themselves to save others. The scientists found that some bacteria would absorb large amounts of antibiotics so that other bacteria can survive. Identifying this behavior has potentially paved the way for research into new ways to develop antibiotics that can specifically target cells that aren't already dying."}, {"headline": "Twitter takes on Facebook Groups with invite-only Communities", "content": "Twitter has launched Communities, a feature that allows its users to form niche groups around specific interests. Users can tweet directly to other members once they join a Community. Each Community will have its own moderators that can set rules and invite or remove people. Anyone can apply to create their own community. The feature is invite-only for now as Twitter works on ways for people to discover and join Communities they want to be part of. A GIF demoing the feature is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Samsung leaks images of its new Galaxy S20", "content": "Samsung accidentally revealed the Galaxy S20 through a set of marketing images posted on one of Samsung's online stores in a European country. The posts were quickly removed but they confirmed a few details about the new phone, including its Galaxy S20 name, a hole-punch selfie camera, and a tall camera bump. A new gray case with LEDs similar to the LED case for the Galaxy S10 was also included in the leak. Samsung's Unpacked event is on February 11 and it is expected that Samsung will be revealing three variants of the S20 and a new vertically folding phone."}, {"headline": "Kings of Leon Will Be the First Band to Release an Album as an NFT", "content": "Kings of Leon's new album will be released in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). There will be three types of tokens with different perks, such as front-row seats for life or audiovisual art. The smart contracts and tokens were developed by YellowHeart. The album will be available on all the usual platforms, but the NFT versions with perks will only be available on YellowHeart. 18 unique golden ticket NFTs with special perks will be minted and auctioned as part of the release. The value of the NFTs is expected to increase over time."}, {"headline": "Google Duo video chat is now available on the web", "content": "Google Duo now works on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, but Microsoft Edge appears to not be supported. Users can make phone calls directly from their browser to other users who are registered with the Google Duo service. The video chat service has proven to be popular and has outlived Google Allo, which was launched alongside it. OnePlus has announced deep integration of Google Duo in its phones."}, {"headline": "NASA simulation shows kaleidoscope of sunsets on other worlds", "content": "Geronimo Villaneuva, a planetary scientist from NASA, created a collection of sunset simulations while making a computer modeling tool for a possible future mission to Uranus. The simulation can display the known sky colors of Uranus, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Titan, showing the Sun setting from the perspective of someone standing on these worlds. The simulations have been implemented into the Planetary Spectrum Generator, an online tool that helps scientists replicate how light is transferred through the atmospheres of planets, exoplanets, moons, and comets. Videos of the simulations are available in the article."}, {"headline": "A visual guide on troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments", "content": "A flowchart for debugging deployments in Kubernetes is provided. When deploying an application in Kubernetes, a developer usually defines three components: a Deployment, a Service, and an Ingress. When troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments, one should check that the Pods are running, then focus on getting the Service to route traffic to the Pods, and finally, check that the Ingress is correctly configured. It is important to remember to approach the problem bottom-up, starting with the Pods and moving up the stack with Service and Ingress. The same debugging technique can be applied to other objects."}, {"headline": "China's brightest children are being recruited to develop AI 'killer bots'", "content": "31 of China's top students have been recruited straight from high school to begin training as AI weapons researchers. Each student will be mentored by two senior weapons scientists, one from academia and one from the defense industry. After four years, the students will enter Phd programs and eventually lead China's AI weapons program. One instructor says \"We are looking for other qualities such as creative thinking, willingness to fight, a persistence when facing challenges. A passion for developing new weapons is a must...and they must also be patriots.\" Berkeley CS professor Stuart Russell expresses his concern at the program, saying \"Machines should never be allowed to decide to kill humans. I hope all these students will begin their course by watching the movie Slaughterbots.\""}, {"headline": "A Cure for Baldness May Lie in Engineering Stem-Cells That Regenerate", "content": "Scientists in Japan have made an important breakthrough when working on ways to regenerate lost hair from stem cells. Mammalian hair develops in a cyclical process where it grows, falls out, and grows again. By using a special cultured medium, the researchers were able to grow mice fur and whiskers that could recycle themselves. 81% of hair follicles grown in the medium went through at least three hair cycles. The next step in the research is to run clinical trials with humans."}, {"headline": "USS Portland Fires Laser Weapon, Downs Drone in First At-Sea Test", "content": "The USS Portland recently shot down a drone with a laser weapon during a test of one of the Navy's high-energy laser weapon systems. The Navy is currently developing and testing a portfolio of laser weapons, some of which are more powerful than the one mounted on Portland. Portland's laser is expected to ultimately become a 150-kilowatt laser weapon. The development of the laser required advances in spectral beam combining, a technique that takes many lasers of different wavelengths and combines them into a more powerful beam. A 14-second video of the weapons test is available."}, {"headline": "age", "content": "age is an encryption tool and Go library with small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability. An alternative Rust implementation is available. age can encrypt files to multiple recipients using keys or passphrases. It can also encrypt/decrypt using SSH keys."}, {"headline": "2020 Machine Learning Roadmap", "content": "This repository contains a roadmap that connects the most important concepts in machine learning, how to learn them, and what tools to use to perform them. It covers the types of problems machine learning solves, the processes to solve these problems, the tools used to build the solution, and the mathematics behind machine learning. Extra resources are also provided. An interactive version and a feature-length film video walkthrough is available."}, {"headline": "htmlq", "content": "htmlq can extract content from HTML files using CSS selectors. It can be used to find all the links in a page, the text content of a post, pretty print HTML, and more. Examples are available."}, {"headline": "The 5 biggest announcements from Apple\u2019s \u2018One More Thing\u2019 hardware event", "content": "Apple announced new versions of the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini at its 'One More Thing' live stream. The new hardware will use Apple's new M1 chip, which features an octa-core processor containing the fastest CPU cores of any processor ever made and the best performance per watt of any CPU in its class on the market. It also has an eight-core integrated graphics processing unit. The new MacBook Air will start at $999, the Mac mini at $699, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro at $1,299. They are available for pre-order now. macOS Big Sur will launch on November 12."}, {"headline": "SpaceX successfully catches both fairing halves for the first time on its latest launch", "content": "SpaceX has managed to catch both halves of the fairing used on one of its Falcon 9 rocket launches for the first time. The fairing is the two-piece protective cover that surrounds the cargo on the launch vehicle. SpaceX uses two ships equipped with special nets to catch the pieces as they fall. The company can save as much as $6 million per launch by recovering and reusing the fairing halves. The ships need to be positioned correctly to recover the fairing pieces as they fall to the ground without a guidance system. The fairing recovery system could be adapted to also catch Crew Dragon capsules."}, {"headline": "Toyota\u2019s robot butler prototype hangs from the ceiling like a bat", "content": "Toyota has unveiled some of the prototypes it has been testing in mock-up home environments. The aim of Toyota's robotics division is to develop mechanical helpers for the home to keep older generations healthy and happy. One of the robots hangs from the ceiling so it can complete tasks without adding to the limited floor space in many homes. Another robot that was demoed had a 'soft bubble gripper' that was able to grab a variety of objects using air-filled cushions. Toyota uses virtual reality to train the machines, getting a human to perform actions and then programming the movements into the robots. At the moment, these robots are still prototypes and Toyota has no plans to commercialize them. A 37-minute long 360-degree virtual presentation showing Toyota's machines is available at the end of the article."}, {"headline": "Lidar reveals hundreds of long-lost Maya and Olmec ceremonial centers", "content": "A recent airborne lidar survey revealed 478 Maya and Olmec ceremonial sites hidden beneath vegetation or too large to recognize from the ground in southern Mexico. Lidar surveys have revealed tens of thousands of irrigation channels, causeways, and fortresses across Maya territory over the last several years. The technology is transforming archaeology. The new findings reveal more about the ancient civilizations, showing that they were more extensive and densely populated than previously realized."}, {"headline": "Chinese netizens curious of Japanese AI blind date program", "content": "The Japanese government has a matchmaking project that uses AI to recommend partners based on the potential fit between people, rather than on conditions such as age and income. Chinese netizens have begun asking if China could also use the technology to find marriage partners for its citizens. The marriage rate in China has continued to decline since 2014. Experts say the low marriage rate is a result of changing lifestyles, the high cost of marriage, and a loss in confidence about marriage due to an increasing divorce rate. While AI might improve efficiency and save on labor costs associated with setting up blind dates, it cannot control how people will feel about someone else."}, {"headline": "PDM", "content": "PDM is a modern Python manager with PEP 582 support. It installs and manages packages without the need to create a virtualenv. PDM features a simple and fast dependency resolver, a PEP 517 backend, and PEP 621 project metadata."}, {"headline": "This microbe no longer needs to eat food to grow, thanks to a bit of genetic engineering", "content": "Synthetic biologists have engineered a bacterium that builds its cells by absorbing carbon dioxide. The microbes could eventually be engineered to turn carbon dioxide into medicines and other high-value compounds. Scientists could not engineer bacteria that could photosynthesize, as the process is too complex. Instead, the bacteria were given the ability to eat formate and transform it into ATP. The energy from the ATP is then used to activate enzymes that convert carbon dioxide into sugars and other organic molecules. Initially, the bacteria still preferred their natural metabolism, but after placing the bacteria in environments that heavily restricted their diet, the bacteria eventually evolved the ability to be autotrophic. A total of 11 new genetic mutations were observed in the evolved bacteria."}, {"headline": "The US Army's New Goggles Let Troops See Through Solid Walls", "content": "The US army is developing Integrated Augmented Vision System (IAVS) goggles for infantry forces. The goggles will enable soldiers to check around corners, see in the dark, and see maps and other data on the goggles' lenses. Soldiers inside armored vehicles will be able to see through the walls of the vehicle using feeds from the cameras outside. The IAVS goggles are designed to perform like the heads-up displays used in fighter jets."}, {"headline": "Oxford VR uses virtual reality to treat social anxiety", "content": "Oxford VR is a UK-based virtual reality startup that has recently launched a VR-based therapy to help people overcome social anxiety. VR technology has found a place in health care, with major health organizations like the UK's National Health Service already using the technology for social engagement. Around 15 million people in the US are estimated to have social anxiety disorder. With social engagement therapy through VR, people can train to be more confident, feel safe, and overcome trigger situations in safe and controlled environments. The program is automated and doesn't require the presence of a qualified clinician, which means that anyone who can access a VR headset can receive treatment."}, {"headline": "Meet Doggo: Stanford\u2019s cute open-source four-legged robot", "content": "Doggo is a four-legged robot that costs less than $3,000 to build and is completely open source. It was designed to be accessible so that labs around the world could build it and use it for their own experiments. Doggo performs better than many more expensive models available on the market while being less expensive. Legged robots are becoming more and more useful in the real world, and increasing accessibility to the technology will allow labs and universities to develop more applications for the technology."}, {"headline": "Apple reportedly wants to make its own wireless chips for the iPhone", "content": "Apple is opening an office in southern California and hiring engineers to work on wireless radios, radio-frequency integrated circuits, and a wireless SoC. The area is home to Broadcom and Skyworks' engineering offices. It appears Apple is attempting to recruit talent from these companies so it can develop its own hardware and lessen its reliance on them. Apple has long-term supply and licensing agreements with Qualcomm and Broadcom that extend until at least 2023, so it will be some time before Apple will have its own chips in its iPhones."}, {"headline": "Typehole", "content": "Typehole is a tool for Visual Studio Code that automates creating static typing. It can generate TypeScript types and interfaces for all serializable runtime values. A GIF preview that shows how Typehole works is available."}, {"headline": "Bizarre 890-Million-Year-Old Fossils May Be Earliest Known Animal Life", "content": "Tiny traces of what may be ancient sponges that date back around 890 million years have been discovered in Canada's northern McKenzie Mountains. It will still take a lot of work to confirm whether the rocks are really animal fossils, but it could be evidence that animals emerged before the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event that began around 700 million years ago. Scientists have long hypothesized that life had begun before the oxygenation event due to evidence from molecular clock data, but this is the first bit of physical evidence discovered that supports the idea."}, {"headline": "MIT Researchers Make New Chips That Work On Light", "content": "Lightelligence is a startup from MIT that makes high-speed optical chips with low power consumption and low latency. Its processors have orders of magnitude better performance than standard architectures. The chips generate very little heat due to their low power consumption. Servers for computationally intensive AI processing take up a huge chunk of data center capacity, so there is a lucrative market for chips that reduce running costs while increasing computational capability."}, {"headline": "Biden declares state of emergency over fuel cyber-attack", "content": "The US government declared a state of emergency after the Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the US, was hit by a ransomware attack on Friday. The pipeline was knocked offline and Colonial is still working to restore services. It carries 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. Multiple sources have confirmed that the attack was caused by a cyber-criminal gang called Dark Side. The gang is threatening to leak the data onto the internet if the ransom is not paid by Friday."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk's SpaceX will 'make its own laws on Mars'", "content": "Elon Musk revealed plans to create a self-sustaining city on Mars last week. It will likely use Starlink satellites for internet connectivity. According to the terms of Starlink's internet project, SpaceX will not recognize international law on Mars. The space company will adhere to a set of self-governing principles defined at the time of Martian settlement. The position is similar to a declaration put forward by the Earthlight Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to preparing for the expansion of humanity beyond Earth."}, {"headline": "Meetings suck. Not at Shopify. See how they run efficient meetings and 1:1s", "content": "Shopify's teams run short, effective meetings through collaborative agendas and time-saving automations. Shopify uses Fellow.app, the G2 top rated meeting agenda software. Fellow comes packed with customizable templates and integrates with all your tools including Slack, Jira, Trello, and more. Stop attending meetings that are a waste of time. Try Fellow for free today."}, {"headline": "Sinuous", "content": "Sinuous is a small, blazing-fast, reactive UI library. It uses declarative views, making code clear, more predictable, and easier to debug while matching the performance of direct DOM manipulation. Sinuous is currently ranked in the top 80+ of UI libraries."}, {"headline": "Can COVID-19 Genes Integrate With Human DNA? More Evidence Says Yes", "content": "Some people who have had Covid-19 in the past still test positive on a polymerase chain reaction test even though they show no evidence of Covid-19 replication in their systems. A team of scientists believes that Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, can reverse integrate into human chromosomes, a process that is common for viruses. Recent experiments have strengthened the case for reverse-integration of Covid-19 RNA genes into human DNA. The studies have been widely criticized and there is still debate about whether reverse-integration occurs."}, {"headline": "There are an insane amount of cool space things happening in 2021", "content": "2020 was a big year for the space industry, with three missions launched to Mars, NASA getting back into the human spaceflight game, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touching an asteroid, a Japanese vehicle returning with several grams of asteroid regolith, China bringing back some Moon rocks, and many Starships in Texas. In 2021, the three Mars missions will reach the planet. There will be more Starship flights, with SpaceX rapidly producing Starship vehicles at its Boca Chica Launch site. The James Webb Space Telescope will likely stick to its launch date in October."}, {"headline": "Next-generation spinal implants help people with severe paralysis walk, cycle, and swim", "content": "A new spinal stimulation device has enabled three men paralyzed in motorcycle accidents to stroll outside with a walker within a few months. The device stimulates nerves to send signals beyond the injury site to trigger leg movements. For now, users have to select a desired movement on a tablet, which then routes the command to a pulse generator implanted in the abdomen that activates electrodes along the spine. The process can take up to ten minutes. A clinical trial for the device with up to 100 participants is scheduled for 2024."}, {"headline": "Researchers from Columbia University use 3D printing to grow human hair follicles", "content": "Researchers from Columbia University have established a method for growing human hair in a dish using 3D printing without the need for implantation into human skin. The method uses a 3D printed mold and may open up potential avenues for hair restoration surgery to more people. Previous research has been successful in growing mouse and rat hair in labs, but these techniques were not effective at growing human hair. The new technique involves recreating the environment in which human hair usually grows by using a 3D printed model implanted with keratin-producing cells. 3D printers are now being used to create many different materials, for example, food, wood, and advanced medicines."}, {"headline": "Dropbox is adding folders that will automatically organize for you", "content": "Automated Folders is a new feature from Dropbox that can automatically rename files in folders, group items into subfolders, and more. It can be configured with various rules, which are currently predefined, but Dropbox is working on making the system more customizable. Dropbox has also added a new tagging system, a feature called Naming Conventions that can batch rename files, and a Multi-file organization feature that can sort files into subfolders based on how often people make changes to them. The new features are available now for Dropbox for Teams users and will be available for people with individual or family plans soon."}, {"headline": "drgn", "content": "drgn is a programmable debugger that exposes the types and variables in a program for easy, expressive scripting in Python. drgn aims to make scripting as natural as possible to make debugging feel like coding. It was developed for debugging in the Linux kernel but it can also debug userspace programs written in C."}, {"headline": "Growing gold nanoparticles inside tumors can help kill cancer", "content": "Researchers have found a way to grow gold nanoparticles directly inside cancer cells. The particles can help with imaging and can be heated up to kill the tumors. Scientists have previously tried to use gold to fight cancer, but it is a challenge to get the material inside tumors. The new method uses polyethylene glycol as a delivery vector for ionic gold. The acidic cellular microenvironment in cancer converts the gold from its ionic form into plasmonic gold nanoparticles. After the initial tests, the scientists in the study used an existing technique to heat the gold nanoparticles up with lasers to kill the cancer cells."}, {"headline": "Anti-aging molecules safely reset mouse cells to youthful states", "content": "As the body ages, it becomes less efficient at repair, resulting in diseases like Alzheimer's, heart disease, and cancer. Scientists from the Salk Institute have reversed the aging process in mice by using four reprogramming molecules called Yamanaka factors. The molecules reset the mice's cells to more youthful states, making them resemble younger animals in many ways. Mice that were treated for longer periods showed more beneficial effects. The next steps in the research will be to improve the delivery of the molecules and see how long the effects of the therapy can last."}, {"headline": "Tesla Says Deliveries in Quarter Set a Record", "content": "Tesla announced that it had delivered 95,200 vehicles in the last quarter, making it the best quarter on record for the company. The Model 3 was released in Europe and China halfway through the first quarter, resulting in 77,550 Model 3 deliveries worldwide. A total of 87,048 vehicles were produced in the second quarter. The company is set to increase production and deliveries in the third quarter. Tesla\u2019s sales target for the year is 400,000 vehicles, but it has been cutting prices to reach sales targets, which could result in losses for the company. The federal tax credit available to Tesla customers fell by half at the start of the financial year, which effectively raised the price of the vehicles."}, {"headline": "The attention economy is dead", "content": "As people start using more engaging content such as Netflix, or play games such as Fortnite, the efficacy of advertisements through \u2018attention seeking\u2019 media is starting to decrease. Fortnite has grown significantly in the last few years, mainly by being effective at capturing users\u2019 time and attention. By making Fortnite an environment where users can socialize, attend concerts, and have fun in an ever-changing environment, Epic Games has retained an active database which has become an attractive target to advertisers. Netflix has acknowledged Fortnite as a competitor, as users usually can\u2019t pay attention to both mediums at the same time."}, {"headline": "Tesla is letting non-Tesla EVs use its Supercharger network for the first time", "content": "Ten Supercharger stations in the Netherlands are being made available to non-Tesla EVs. Elon Musk has long talked about opening up Tesla's vast Supercharger network to other electric vehicles. Other European countries will likely follow before Tesla opens up its Superchargers in the US as the company uses a proprietary connector in North America. Non-Tesla vehicles in North America will need an adapter to use Tesla's Superchargers."}, {"headline": "New AI fake text generator may be too dangerous to release, say creators", "content": "OpenAI, a research company backed by Elon Musk, has produced a new AI fake text generator which is so impressive that the company has declined to release a full report on its capabilities for fear of misuse. The AI, GPT2, is able to generate plausible text that matches the style and subject of its inputs, without the common quirks of other previous AI systems such as forgetting what it is writing about midway through paragraphs or creating mangled sentences. For example, it is currently able to generate an infinite number of positive (or negative) reviews for products. There are examples of its outputs in the article, and a video demonstrating a version of the AI."}, {"headline": "Diagrams", "content": "Diagrams was originally developed for prototyping new system architecture design without any design tools. It allows developers to draw new cloud system architecture or to describe and visualize existing system architecture in Python. Diagrams supports AWS, Azure, Alibaba Cloud, and other main major providers. It supports On-Premise nodes, SaaS, and major programming frameworks and languages."}, {"headline": "Liquid-in-liquid printing method could put 3D-printed organs in reach", "content": "Replicating organs such as gastric tracts, windpipes, and blood vessels is a major challenge as they can be difficult to construct without supporting scaffolding, which can be difficult or impossible to remove after construction. Previous attempts to create support structures with liquids have failed. Researchers from China have been able to create a stable membrane using hydrophilic polymers. These liquid structures are able to hold their shape for up to 10 days."}, {"headline": "Helping autonomous vehicles see around corners", "content": "A team of engineers at MIT have developed a system called ShadowCam that can sense changes in shadows to determine if there is a moving object coming around the corner. The system can be used in autonomous cars to quickly avoid potential collisions. ShadowCam was able to detect approaching vehicles and stop faster than traditional LiDAR systems by more than half a second. It has only been tested in indoor settings where speeds are limited and lighting conditions are consistent. ShadowCam works by detecting changes in light intensity over time, which may indicate object movement. Early versions of ShadowCam required the use of simplified QR codes for the camera to determine its location, but later versions used Direct Sparse Odometry, a technique that is able to plot features of an environment on a 3D point cloud."}, {"headline": "Google is kicking \u2018sugar dating\u2019 apps out of the Play Store", "content": "Google has announced a series of policy changes that will take place from September 1. Apps that relate to compensated sexual relationships will be removed from the Play Store. Apps that promote sexual services are already banned, but many apps get around these rules by claiming that they are only providing dating services for wealthy men. Google will delete developer accounts if they remain inactive for a year, with exceptions for accounts that have apps with over a thousand installs or recent in-app purchases. Developers will be notified multiple times before their accounts are removed."}, {"headline": "Software Tools for Hobby-Scale Projects", "content": "Computers can be a vehicle for personal enrichment rather than strictly as a tool for business or research. Some noteworthy projects started out as hobby projects, for example, the Linux Kernel. A list of useful tools for hobby projects that are free, easy to learn, and that are focused on ease of use and prototyping speed is provided. The tools include a cloud storage for JSON APIs, a tool to create mobile alerts, cheap VPS hosting, and more."}, {"headline": "Pinpoint and prevent bugs with the New Relic infrastructure monitoring experience", "content": "The new and improved New Relic infrastructure monitoring experience helps SRE, DevOps, and ITOps teams quickly pinpoint offending infrastructure components, determine incident impact radius, and identify root cause. Learn more."}, {"headline": "NES.css", "content": "This is a new open source CSS framework that makes your whole site look like an old school Nintendo game. If anybody decides to use this in a real project please let me know because it looks really cool!"}, {"headline": "JPMorgan Provides Banking Services to Crypto Exchanges Coinbase and Gemini", "content": "JPMorgan Chase has taken on US-based cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Gemini as customers. The bank is not processing cryptocurrency transactions but is providing cash-management services. It will process all wire transfers, dollar deposits, and withdrawals. JPMorgan's CEO has been a vocal Bitcoin critic in the past but the bank has been positive about blockchain's potential, even creating its own digital currency in early 2019."}, {"headline": "My Next Act: Building The First Startup Accelerator Designed for Bootstrappers", "content": "For those of you who don't know him Rob Walling is an OG internet small business entrepreneur, cohost of the Startups for the Rest of Us, and cofounder of Microconf. He's now starting his own accelerator Tinyseed, which will give you a year's worth of runway so you can work on your startup full-time. Definitely worth checking out if you're currently running a side project, I've been listening to his podcast for a long time and he's a really smart guy with tons of good advice."}, {"headline": "Epic\u2019s new RealityScan app can make 3D models from smartphone photos", "content": "RealityScan is an app from Epic Games that can construct 3D models of objects using a series of smartphone photos. It can be used to scan real-world objects and bring them into games or other projects. The app is in a limited (and currently full) beta. Epic is hosting a 'State of Unreal' event today at 11 AM ET. A video that shows how RealityScan works is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Poparazzi hypes itself to the top of the App Store", "content": "Poparazzi is a new social networking app that lets users create accounts that only their friends can post to. It used TikTok to launch itself into the number one spot in the App Store. The app requires users to give permission for the app to access their camera, contacts, and notifications. It demands a full address book upload, despite offering other ways to add friends. The app automatically matches users' with the contacts in their phone books. This practice, among others, has raised concerns with security experts."}, {"headline": "Scientists develop 10-minute universal cancer test", "content": "Scientists have developed a test that detects traces of malignant cells in a patient's bloodstream anywhere in a patient's body in less than 10 minutes. It's super cheap and simple, and detects about 90 out of every 100 cases of cancer, so this could serve as routine check for cancer in the future. The trick is that cancer DNA and normal DNA stick to metal surfaces in different ways, so this test uses tiny gold nanoparticles to detect the cancer cells."}, {"headline": "Greg Kroah-Hartman bans University of Minnesota from Linux development for deliberately buggy patches", "content": "Software supply chain attacks have become an important issue since the Solarwinds security breach. Students from the University of Minnesota tried to put a vulnerability into the Linux kernel for a study, which resulted in the university being banned from all future contributions to the project. The group had previously published a paper on submitting buggy patches and had a history of submitting purposefully buggy code. Introducing vulnerabilities into open-source code on purpose can be extremely dangerous, especially in the case of the Linux kernel codebase."}, {"headline": "Programming Languages for Enthusiasts", "content": "This repository contains a catalog of programming languages, environments, and tools. It features cool indie projects."}, {"headline": "Apple Watch Series 6 and watchOS 7 to include \u2018Infograph Pro\u2019 with tachymeter, Schooltime and kids mode, sleep tracking, more", "content": "The Apple Watch will gain new features with the upcoming Apple Watch Series 6 and watchOS 7. Users will be able to start sharing their watch faces and create personalized digital watch faces using images from the Photos app. A tachymeter will be built into the watch, allowing it to measure speed of movement. The new watch will also gain the ability to detect blood oxygen saturation, as well as sleep tracking. Parental controls will allow what apps and communications can be used."}, {"headline": "Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program", "content": "An investigation into what the US government knows about UFOs has confirmed that UFOs are undoubtedly real. The US Navy has captured footage of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and the Pentagon has secretly funded research into UFOs. A report in 2009 covered plans for studying UAPs and any biological organisms recovered from one, plans to create a medical physiological UAP effects program, a possible UAP landing report, sighting and witness reports, and much more. One of the difficulties in finding information about the government's UAP programs is that each department is wrapped in layers of secrecy. There are many mysterious companies with large government research contracts. A quick summary timeline of publicly known UFO programs in the US is available."}, {"headline": "Robotic fish powered by electronic blood can swim for 36 hours", "content": "Researchers at Cornell University have developed a robot that is powered by its own artificial circulatory system. The robot can swim at a rate of 1.5 body lengths per minute, which is around 10 meters per hour. It is powered by flow batteries, so power is generated as liquid moves through the robot. The flow of the liquid to certain areas can also change the pressure in these areas, for example, it can cause the structure on one side of the robot\u2019s tail to inflate, resulting in a bending motion. While the robot was only tested for a few hours, it could theoretically swim continuously for 36 hours. Two short videos are available showing the robot in action."}, {"headline": "Clerk", "content": "Clerk creates local-first notebooks for Clojure. Clerk notebooks use regular Clojure namespaces, so they can be stored in source control. They are always evaluated from top to bottom. Clerk runs inside your Clojure process, giving Clerk access to all code on the classpath. A screenshot is available."}, {"headline": "How the United Arab Emirates Launched a Mars Probe in Six Years", "content": "The United Arab Emirates launched its first interplanetary orbiter, Hope, to Mars in July. It took over six years for the UAE Space Agency to launch the Mars-bound spacecraft, which is expected to arrive in February. Hope will remain in orbit and study the Martian weather system and how it varies across the planet. The mission is part of a wider effort within the UAE to engage the nation's younger generations in STEM fields."}, {"headline": "lego", "content": "lego is a fast static site generator that generates optimized, performant websites. It is built with NodeJS, supports Nunjucks and Liquid templates, automatically generates a sitemap and RSS feeds, generates images for various resolutions, live-reloads during development, and more. A demo website is available."}, {"headline": "Reddit files to take the company public", "content": "Reddit has started the process of going public by filing a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has been rumored to be considering an IPO for some time. It made $100 million in ad revenue in the second quarter of 2021, an almost 200 percent increase from last year. Reddit plans to double its staff by the end of 2021 to around 1,400 employees. The site has around 52 million daily users with more than 100,000 active subreddits."}, {"headline": "Tinder is releasing a new \u2018Plus One\u2019 feature to help users find a wedding date", "content": "Tinder is rolling out a new Plus One option for users to signal that they are looking for a date to a wedding or are willing to be one. Plus One will be accessible within the app's Explore section. Tinder is partnering with WeddingWire to give the first 100 eligible Tinder users to join Plus One $460 to help cover the costs associated with attending weddings. The company has been rolling out new features and safety tools in recent months to give users more options to find and interact with dates."}, {"headline": "What\u2019s Observability and Why does it matter?", "content": "What\u2019s Observability and Why does it matter? (Sponsor)\n\n\nAngry tweets are a fact of life if you run a business \u2013 but what if you could find problems before your customers do? Observability is the secret sauce to knowing what\u2019s happening in your product from start to finish, in real-time. Learn more about Observability in the award-winning Beginner\u2019s Guide to Observability from Splunk. Download for free."}, {"headline": "Aggressive testing, contact tracing, cooked meals: How the Indian state of Kerala flattened its coronavirus curve", "content": "In the Indian state of Kerala, more than 30,000 health workers are part of the Communist state government\u2019s robust response to the coronavirus epidemic. The effort involves aggressive testing, intense contact tracing, long quarantines, building shelters for migrant workers, and distributing cooked meals to those in need. Kerala\u2019s efforts appear to be working and could prove instructive for the Indians government, who has largely shut down the country to stop the spread of the coronavirus. India continues to see an uptrend in cases."}, {"headline": "The world finally has an approved vaccine against Ebola", "content": "Europe has granted approval for the world's first Ebola vaccine. Ervebo was developed in 2014 and has been used during the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo based on a compassionate use protocol. The current outbreak in the DRC is the second-largest recorded, with nearly 3,300 cases and 2,200 deaths. Preliminary vaccine data shows that Ervebo is 97.5 percent effective at preventing Ebola. It protects against one of the four species of Ebola known to infect humans. The vaccine is expected to be approved in the US in the first half of 2020. Ervebo has been prequalified by the World Health Organization, which means that it meets WHO standards for safety, quality, and effectiveness. Five years ago, there was no vaccine or therapeutics for Ebola. The disease is now preventable and treatable."}, {"headline": "Lazydocker", "content": "Lazydocker is a terminal UI for docker and docker-compose, written in Go. Instead of memorizing commands and aliases while keeping track of multiple terminal windows, Lazydocker has all the information you need in one terminal with a macro for every common command. Users can also add custom commands as required."}, {"headline": "European Union Wants All Smartphones To Have A Standard Charging Port", "content": "The European Union is again pushing for the development of a common charging port for all smartphones available on the market. A large amount of electronic waste is generated from smartphones requiring different charging ports, and the change to a standardized port would make users' lives easier. The Radio Equipment Directive demanded the change in 2014, but the initiative was turned down. Apple has stated that changing to a common charger for all smartphones would be bad for the environment and freeze innovation. Around a billion Apple devices are using the lightning port, and the introduction of a common charger will result in an immediate increase in electronic waste, defeating the motive behind the directive. Apple may adopt a Type-C USB port in the next iPhone since it has already been introduced in the iPad and MacBook."}, {"headline": "Kedro", "content": "Kedro is a workflow development tool that helps developers build data pipelines that are robust, scalable, deployable, reproducible, and versioned. It is designed to be used whenever a team is required to work in a structured way to take machine learning models into the production environment. A detailed user guide is available with tutorials, examples, and additional resources."}, {"headline": "Uber Go Style Guide", "content": "This is the style guide for writing Go code at Uber. All code should be error free when run through golint and go vet. More information on Go tools is available."}, {"headline": "China's state-run press agency has created an 'AI anchor' to read the news", "content": "China's state-run press agency Xinhua has created an AI news anchor by using footage of human news anchors, then using machine learning techniques to animate parts of the mouth and face along with speech synthesis to make the host say whatever they want. Now, these \"anchors\" can \"work 24 hours a day on its official website and various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improving efficiency.\""}, {"headline": "Recommenders", "content": "This repository provides examples and best practices for building recommendation systems. It focuses on five key tasks: preparing data, building models, evaluating algorithms, optimizing models, and operationalizing models in a production environment."}, {"headline": "Facebook begins merging Instagram and Messenger chats in new update", "content": "Facebook has begun integrating Instagram and Messenger's chat systems. The Facebook Messenger logo replaces the Instagram logo in the new update. Instagram chats are more colorful. Users still can't message each other directly across platforms, but Facebook has been clear about its plans to unify the messaging platforms."}, {"headline": "Meta has built an AI supercomputer it says will be world\u2019s fastest by end of 2022", "content": "Meta's new AI Research SuperCluster will be one of the world's fastest AI supercomputers. Development on the supercomputer is expected to complete later this year. It will be used to train a range of systems across Meta's businesses and design experiences for the metaverse. AI supercomputers require much less accuracy than traditional supercomputers, so they can not be directly compared. While theoretical performance numbers can be impressive, it is common for supercomputers to run at less than 25% of their peak performance during real-world applications."}, {"headline": "15 People Lived 40 Days in a Sunless Cave Without Clocks to Study Time", "content": "15 people spent 40 days living in a cave in France without sunlight, clocks, or contact with the outside world as part of an experiment called Deep Time. Deep Time was designed to probe the human brain's conception of time and to study the group's response to life in isolation. There were no natural cues to regulate circadian rhythms in the darkness of the cave. Participants had to pass mental and physical examinations before the experiment, and they were monitored even after their exit. The experiment could help scientists anticipate the challenges of long-term submarine and space missions."}, {"headline": "Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?", "content": "Top engineers are generally more autonomous than others. They are able to self-educate, source information, clearly understand the needs of a project and the problems it solves, self-manage, and prioritize tasks. Compared to other engineers, top performers require less direction and management and are able to produce better, higher quality, well-thought-out solutions. Users tend to always find the strangest ways to break a system, and good engineers are able to predict and design around these situations."}, {"headline": "How to safely run DDL operations without interrupting production API traffic", "content": "PostgreSQL's Data Definition Language is used to handle database descriptions and schemas and to define and modify the structure of data. This article discusses how to safely run DDL operations without interrupting production API traffic. It covers what transactional DDLs are, locking, constraints, enum types, and table, column, and index operations."}, {"headline": "Quicklink", "content": "This is an open source project by the Google Chrome team that prefetches pages as soon as a link enters the viewport. Basically this means that instead of loading data when a user clicks a link, the browser will load the data when the link enters the user's view, so if the user clicks on the link it will load instantly because the data has already been loaded. I'm a big fan of this idea, and it looks like they've handled a lot of the details well (it doesn't prefetch if the internet connection is slow, it doesn't prefetch if the page is still loading, it automatically detects when links are in view, etc.)."}, {"headline": "Scientists develop an 'iron-air' battery that stores electricity for days", "content": "Form Energy has developed iron air batteries that can store electricity for days at a fraction of the cost of lithium-ion batteries. The batteries are made using iron, one of the most common elements on Earth. They convert iron into rust and back to store and discharge energy. The batteries are too heavy to use in electric cars. Form Energy plans to stack thousands of the washing-machine sized batteries into vast warehouses to store energy from renewable systems."}, {"headline": "Notes", "content": "This repository contains the personal notes for various computer science topics gathered by darshanime over three years. The author comments that many of the notes are not organized \u2018nicely\u2019. Topics include computing systems, architecture, various programming languages and modules, machine learning, and app deployment."}, {"headline": "learning", "content": "This repository contains a large collection of resources for learning data science. The resources include courses, books, papers, articles, and videos. They are grouped by specific skills, such as implementing models in PyTorch, framing ML problems, or manipulating data in spreadsheets."}, {"headline": "Temporal: getting started with JavaScript\u2019s new date time API", "content": "The Temporal date time API is a proposed replacement to JavaScript's current date time API. Temporal features support for time zones, non-Gregorian calendars, and specialized classes for Temporal values. All objects are immutable, and January is month 1. This blog post is a guide on how to get started with Temporal. It goes through the basics, covers the classes of the API and how they fit together, and ends with a comprehensive section with examples."}, {"headline": "Getting a phone number with 4 consecutive digits", "content": "It can be handy to have access to multiple phone numbers. Verizon's My Numbers service allows users to have extra numbers, but the UI is bad and the interface is slow. This article follows a developer's process of figuring out how to access the My Numbers service programmatically in order to automate the search for a number with four consecutive digits. It involves learning how to find out which API endpoints are used and then calling the APIs using Python."}, {"headline": "Ask HN: Why isn't there a Google competitor emerging?", "content": "The internet has changed a lot since Google started offering its search engine service. This thread discusses the internet search industry and why there are no significant competitors to Google Search. Google was successful in the past due to its search algorithm, but information is now centered around social media, which is making it harder to index. A competitor would need a breakthrough algorithm to sort through the noise of the current internet."}, {"headline": "How to Secure Anything", "content": "This repository contains a guide on how to secure anything, whether it is physical or digital. It covers best practices, defenses, vulnerabilities, and more. There are many resources linked throughout the repository and a section on recommended books at the end."}, {"headline": "The US military is getting serious about nuclear thermal propulsion", "content": "Nuclear propulsion has long been theorized as the fastest practical means of getting around the Solar System. A nuclear thermal engine would theoretically heat a propellant which in turn would expand through a rocket nozzle and provide thrust. No such engine has ever been successfully developed. DARPA has recently announced that it plans to have a flyable nuclear thermal propulsion system ready for a demonstration in 2025. The development of these types of engines is now possible with recent new technologies such as the ability to manufacture refractory metals and advancements in supercomputing."}, {"headline": "Developer Roadmaps", "content": "This site contains step by step guides and paths to learning different tools and technologies. It includes guides for becoming a frontend developer, backend developer, DevOps, full-stack developer, or a QA engineer. Users can contribute to the project or request changes and additional information."}, {"headline": "One of the World's Tiniest Nuclear Plants Is Coming to Idaho", "content": "Oklo is planning to build an experimental nuclear reactor in Idaho that will generate power through nuclear waste. It could potentially power about 1,000 homes and run autonomously for 20 years. Nuclear power would be a large step towards reducing the planet's greenhouse gas levels to pre-industrial levels. The small nuclear reactor will be safer, generate power through waste, use a lot less fuel, and produce less toxic waste. Oklo plans to open the reactor between 2022 and 2025."}, {"headline": "Amazon slaps U.S. sellers with 5% fuel and inflation surcharge", "content": "Amazon plans to add a fuel and inflation surcharge to the fees it collects from US third-party sellers who use its fulfillment services. The new fee will go into effect from April 28 and is subject to change. It will apply to all product types. The surcharge is 24 cents per unit, lower than UPS's surcharge of 42 cents."}, {"headline": "Microsoft is replacing Edge with its new Chromium browser next week", "content": "Microsoft's Edge browser will be upgraded to the Chromium-based version on January 15. Windows 10 users will be automatically transitioned to the new version. The launch date was announced last month, but it wasn't clear if existing users would be pushed to the new version. Enterprise customers will have a choice to stay on the Edge version. The new version will look mostly the same, but it will be able to support all Chrome's extensions. Web developers will no longer have to test for both Edge and Chrome versions of their websites, as they will now share the same rendering engines. Apple was briefly rumored to have considered changing Safari to a Chromium base. Microsoft has customized its version of the Chromium browser to include more privacy features."}, {"headline": "Apple Glass could adjust lenses to match user's prescription", "content": "Apple was recently granted a patent for smart glasses or a headset that could potentially adjust its lenses to correct the wearer's vision. The company proposes to use a stack of lenses for each eye that can be precisely adjusted to control how much light passes through. An eye-tracking system could be used to provide more advanced adjustment to the user's vision. Many more details about the technology, including figures from the patent, are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Niantic moves beyond games with Lightship AR platform and a social network", "content": "Niantic is creating a platform for other developers to build location-aware AR apps. It has released the Visual Position System (VPS), a technology that grounds AR experiences to physical locations, for its Lightship SDK. VPS will be free during its public beta period, after which it will switch to a tiered billing system based on an app's number of monthly users. Niantic is also releasing Campfire, a location-based social network for apps that use Lightship. Campfire is a way for developers to have their Lightship-powered apps discovered by users. More details on the new releases are available in the article."}, {"headline": "MiDispositivoMIDI V3", "content": "MiDispositivoMIDI is an open source MIDI controller based on Arduino, created by BanaNut Electronics. As it works with the well-known MIDI protocol, it can be plugged into any digital audio workstation and work without additional software. The code is fully customizable, and users can build the device from scratch using the schematics and code that is available on the repository. Fully built devices are also available for purchase. The device has a modular design, so users can expand the number of buttons on the device by attaching additional units without much modification to the code."}, {"headline": "Cameo now lets people pay up to $15K to have a Zoom call with a celebrity", "content": "Cameo Live is a new video call option from Cameo that allows users to book a Zoom call with a celebrity. The prices can go up to as high a $15,000 for 10 minutes with Jeremy Piven, or $1,000 to spend time with Tony Hawk. Up to four additional friends or family are allowed to join the call. Users have up to 24 hours before the call to cancel, and if the celebrity doesn't show up, they'll get a refund. There are fifty stars signed up to the service on launch."}, {"headline": "Introduction to Apple Silicon", "content": "This article explains how open operating systems interoperate with the Apple Silicon Mac boot ecosystem. Topics include storage, boot flow, security modes, and much more. It is intended for developers and maintainers of Linux, BSD, and other OS distributions and boot-related components."}, {"headline": "Bake data privacy into your app from day one by avoiding these common mistakes", "content": "Your business needs to move fast, but not at the expense of data privacy. As you aim to balance speed and security, don\u2019t lose sight of the most common privacy pitfalls and how you can avoid them. Learn more about data privacy and what your company should avoid doing with the free white paper: Avoiding the Five Cardinal Sins of Data Security and Privacy."}, {"headline": "It's not just you, YouTube and other Google services are down", "content": "Youtube and the Google Play store both went down for over two hours. There's no explanation for the outage yet, but I can't remember Youtube ever going down."}, {"headline": "Someone Is Hacking the Hackers", "content": "The prominent crime site Maza was hacked earlier this week. It was a long-standing destination for all types of criminal activity. The forum was considered elite and hard to join. The hackers obtained usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords, and then subsequently dumped the stolen data on the dark web. Two other Russian cybercrime forums were recently hacked. It is impossible to know who the hackers are, but it is possible that the site takedowns were done by law enforcement."}, {"headline": "Modern Alchemy: Stanford Finds Fast, Easy Way to Make Diamonds \u2013 \u201cCheating the Thermodynamics\u201d", "content": "Researchers at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered a way to transform a substance found in fossil fuels into diamonds with pressure and low heat. Diamond synthesis usually requires a large amount of energy, time, or the addition of a catalyst, which adds impurities. Diamondoids are tiny, odorless, and slightly sticky powders that resemble rock salt. They are made up of atoms arranged in the same pattern as diamonds, but they contain hydrogen. Diamondoids can reorganize into diamonds with surprisingly little energy, without passing through other forms of carbon, such as graphite. The method is currently only able to make specks of diamonds, and it is impractical until larger crystals can be formed."}, {"headline": "Genie", "content": "Genie is a full-stack web framework for developing modern web applications. It features a powerful router, websockets, templating, plugins, ORM support, and more. Examples of packages and apps made with Genie are available."}, {"headline": "Here\u2019s everything Apple announced at its iPhone 13 event", "content": "Apple has unveiled its latest line of hardware releases at its California Streaming event. The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max will feature a more capable camera system and a new Cinematic mode, as well as ProMotion display technology, a feature that allows the phones to adjust their display refresh rates up to 120Hz. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will have A15 Bionic chips, bigger batteries, and a redesigned TrueDepth camera array. All phones will go on sale on September 24. Apple also announced a more durable Apple Watch, an iPad mini with USB-C and second-generation Apple Pencil support, a new iPad with upgraded cameras, and software updates."}, {"headline": "safer", "content": "safer is a Python safe file writer that writes either a whole file or nothing. It prevents partial writes or file corruption. safer has been tested on Python 2.7 and 3.4 through to 3.8."}, {"headline": "Language Interpretability Tool", "content": "The Language Interpretability Tool (LIT) is a visual and interactive model-understanding tool for Natural Language Processing models. It features salience maps, custom metrics, the ability to compare models, rich visualization of model predictions, and more. LIT is framework-agnostic and compatible with TensorFlow, PyTorch, and other frameworks."}, {"headline": "DeepMind is developing one algorithm to rule them all", "content": "DeepMind is trying to create a deep learning model that can learn how to emulate any algorithm to generate an algorithm-equivalent model that can work with real-world data. Algorithms possess fundamentally different qualities to deep learning methods. If deep learning methods could better mimic algorithms, the type of generalization seen with algorithms might become possible with deep learning. A network that could learn algorithms would be able to plug those algorithms together to form complex pipelines and programs."}, {"headline": "British Air Force Set A World Record For First Flight Using Only Synthetic Fuel", "content": "Britain\u2019s Royal Air Force (RAF) set a Guinness World Record for completing the world's first flight powered only by synthetic fuel. Synthetic fuel is made by capturing carbon dioxide from the air and converting it to fuel by adding hydrogen molecules from water. It delivers the same energy density as fossil fuels without adding to carbon emissions, and it can be used in conventional engines without modifications. The RAF plans to become a net-zero force by 2040."}, {"headline": "Weird molecule found in Titan's atmosphere hints at complex chemistry", "content": "NASA scientists discovered cyclopropenylidene in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. The simple, carbon-based molecule has never been seen in an atmosphere before. Titan has long been considered one of the most promising places to search for extraterrestrial life. Cyclopropenylidene is part of a class of molecules known to form an important part of the backbone of DNA and RNA. The presence of the molecule could mean that there could be life-giving chemistry on the moon that is not water-based."}, {"headline": "A Single Laser Fired Through a Keyhole Can Expose Everything Inside a Room", "content": "Researchers at Stanford Computational Imaging Lab have expanded on a technique called non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging so that a single point of laser light entering a room can reveal what objects might be inside. NLOS imaging uses algorithms to generate images based on reflected light, usually from lasers. The new technique's results are lower quality than other NLOS methods, but it still provides enough details to make guesses on the size and shapes of hidden objects. The research could one day result in a way for police or military to assess the risks of entering rooms."}, {"headline": "TikTok\u2019s launching Twitch-like subscriptions in beta on Thursday", "content": "TikTok has announced a program that lets viewers pay to subscribe to specific live streamers they want to support. Live Subscription will give fans access to perks such as a subscriber-only chat, creator-specific emotes, and badges. It will give TikTok creators a predictable monthly income. Users will have to be 18 or over to either offer or purchase a paid subscription. Live Subscription will launch in beta on May 26 on an invite-only basis for creators with over 1,000 followers."}, {"headline": "South Korean 20-Mile Solar 'Bike Highway' Generates Electricity", "content": "South Korea has a bike highway running between two cities that stretches for 20 miles, shields cyclists from the sun, and generates power. Cyclists use subterranean tunnels to enter and exit the path and they are protected from traffic on each side by barriers. The solar panels on the bike highway produce more than enough electricity to power the lighting of the highway and the electric vehicle charging stations. A 3-minute video that shows the bike highway from the air is available in the article."}, {"headline": "WTF Python", "content": "This repository contains Python code snippets that have surprising behaviors. It aims to explain what is happening under the hood for some of the lesser-known features of Python. A Google Colab interactive version is available where you can run the code examples in-browser."}, {"headline": "Apple reportedly plans \u2018Netflix for games\u2019 subscription service", "content": "Apple is planning to roll out a subscription service in its app store. This will allow users to pay a monthly subscription fee to have access to a range of premium games. It is hoped that this change will encourage developers to create more in-depth, serious titles, as the hardware on Apple devices catches up to traditional consoles."}, {"headline": "StyleGAN2", "content": "StyleGAN2 is a style-based GAN architecture for data-driven unconditional generative image modeling. It improves on image quality, and it also makes it possible to reliably detect if an image is generated by a particular network. StyleGAN2 redefines the sate of the art in unconditional image modeling. Videos of StyleGAN2 in action and images of its output are available."}, {"headline": "DeepSearch", "content": "This is a search engine for machine learning model implementations, you can search for something like \"Face Recognition\" and it will show you a bunch of results for facial recognition algorithms, each with a Github Repo and any relevant research papers."}, {"headline": "Robots will soon invade St. Petersburg\u2019s sewer pipes. Do not fear them", "content": "Autonomous crawling robots are being used to scan sewage pipes for potential problems in St. Petersburg. Between 2015 and 2016, the city's pipes overflowed by up to 1 billion gallons. It was determined that old pipes were the cause of the issue, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection required the city to upgrade the system, allowing five years for the city to evaluate the state of its pipes. The crawling robots are able to map the pipe system and prioritize sections of the pipe network that require the most work. They can scan between 7,000 to 10,000 linear feet of pipe per day, compared to the 2,000 feet of pipe that can be inspected with current methods."}, {"headline": "Google reportedly set a goal of being a top-two cloud player by 2023", "content": "Top executives at Alphabet debated whether the company should stay in the public cloud business back in 2018. They decided to aim to become a top-two player by 2023. Google's main business is web search and advertising, but it has a cloud computing department that rents out computing and storage resources to other companies, schools, and governments. Alphabet stated in July that Google Cloud generated $8 billion in annualized revenue. Its performance lags behind Amazon Web Services, Alibaba, and Microsoft Azure."}, {"headline": "Scientists develop an \u2018electronic skin\u2019 that can mimic the natural functions of human skin", "content": "Electronic skin (e-skin) could play an important role in next-generation personalized medicine, prosthetics, AI, and soft robotics. The ideal e-skin would mimic the natural functions of human skin, such as sensing and touch, while being flexible and durable. A team of scientists has developed a durable e-skin using a hydrogel reinforced with silica nanoparticles and a 2D titanium carbine MXene sensing layer bound together with highly conductive nanowires. The e-skin's conductive pathways to the sensor layer remain intact even when the material is stretched to 28 times its original size. It can sense objects from 20cm away and respond to stimuli in less than one-tenth of a second."}, {"headline": "8 Reasons Python Sucks", "content": "I enjoy Python, but I have to admit, I have experienced most of the suckage this guy describes. He complains about versioning (the transition from Python 2 to Python 3 was a disaster), installation (pip is alright, I don't know that npm is better, are there any languages that get this really right?), syntax (I disagree on this one, I find Python super readable), quirks (Python strings are pretty confusing, I've wasted so much time on string encoding funkiness), and more. Surprisingly interesting article given the clickbait title, generally people really like Python so it's interesting to see the opposing point of view."}, {"headline": "This Baby Horse Was Cloned Using DNA That Was Frozen for 40 Years", "content": "Cloning technology has become more common since Dolly the sheep was born in 1996, with companies now cloning animals commercially. Recently, a Przewalski's horse was produced through cloning. The breed of horse hasn't been seen in the wild since 1969 as humans and livestock took over the land they inhabited. Scientists used cryopreserved cells from San Diego Zoo's Frozen Zoo to create the horse. The original horse was born in 1975 and its cells were preserved for 40 years before being used. When the cloned horse matures, it will add much-needed genetic variation to the species."}, {"headline": "Venmo now has a credit card", "content": "Venmo has announced a new credit card that can be managed through the Venmo app. There is no annual fee and it gives customers 3% cashback on groceries, 2% on transportation, and 1% for 'everything else'. The amounts and categories are subject to change. Each card will have a QR code on the back to allow other people to send payments to the card owner. The card will come in a variety of colors. Eligible users will receive offers to sign up for the card over the next few months."}, {"headline": "Super Tiny Icons", "content": "This repository contains a library of popular logos in SVG. Every logo is under 1KB each, with the average size under 465 bytes. The logos have a 512x512 view box and can scale up and down."}, {"headline": "Notion", "content": "Notion is a tool to manage JavaScript packages to ensure that everyone on the project is using an identical development environment. It is operated through the command line and allows packages to be managed by project. Notion\u2019s tool-chain allows developers to enjoy the convenience of installing global packages without having to worry about the dependencies on their machines."}, {"headline": "Alibaba sets new Singles Day record with more than $30.8 billion in sales in 24 hours", "content": "In China, November 11th (11/11) is Singles Day, a day to celebrate being single. It's also turned into sort of their version of Black Friday, with Alibaba breaking its single day sales record this year by selling $30.8 billion worth of merchandise. On Singles day, Alibaba beat Amazon's record-setting Prime Day total of $4.68 billion in just 10 minutes."}, {"headline": "DARPA Is Creating a Travel Adapter That Will Be Implanted in Soldiers' Bodies", "content": "DARPA has created an implantable device called the Advanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness, or ADAPTER. These devices help the human body adapt for travel by removing jet lag and bacteria that cause traveler's diarrhea. Between 2003 and 2004, 2/5ths of diarrhea cases in soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan required medical attention. Being able to control a soldier's circadian rhythm means halving the time required to re-establish normal sleep after jet lag or shift lag."}, {"headline": "JupyterLite", "content": "JupyterLite is a JupyterLab distribution that runs entirely in the browser. It features a Python kernel backed by Pyodide, basic session and kernel management, code consoles, and more. It can be easily deployed without a dedicated application server. JupyterLite is still in active development."}, {"headline": "Ask HN: Tesla is making us move or quit. Would I get severance?", "content": "Tesla has told its employees to return to the office or leave the company. The announcement could be intended to make workers quit so that the company doesn't have to pay severance. Employees affected by the new rules should seek legal advice. They should also not quit their jobs and continue to work while documenting any interactions with management."}, {"headline": "Russia plans to temporarily disconnect the entire country from the internet", "content": "Russia plans to temporarily disconnect the entire country from the internet in an exercise designed to test the country\u2019s internet infrastructure in case of a cyber-war. The test is expected to happen before April 1. An unexpected disruption to the internet could cost the country billions, even if the disruption is only brief. Russia plans to route all of its internet traffic within the country by 2020, and the testing is part of a plan to create a web filtering system similar to the one in China."}, {"headline": "TikTok will start to share ad revenue with creators", "content": "TikTok Pulse is a new program that will give creators a share of revenue. TikTok hasn't said how many creators it will accept into the program, but creators will need at least 100,000 followers to be eligible. The program will launch in the US in June. TikTok's Creator Fund pays users based on the popularity of their videos, but creators say the payouts from the program can be small and inconsistent."}, {"headline": "BMW Made the World\u2019s First Electrified Wingsuit. It Reached 186 MPH on Its First Flight", "content": "BMW has developed an electric wingsuit capable of soaring through the sky at speeds of up to 186 mph. Professional skydiver and BASE jumper Peter Salzmann, who was part of the development process, completed the maiden flight over the mountains of Austria after being dropped at 10,000 feet by a helicopter. The e-wingsuit is powered by a chest-mounted rig that can produce thrust for up to five minutes. A 2-minute video of the maiden flight is available in the article, along with a small selection of photos."}, {"headline": "I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months", "content": "This article details a software engineer's experience of working at Amazon. It includes an overview of the interview and hiring process and delves into what it is like working at the company. The experience could help inform others about the pros and cons of working for Amazon as an engineer, as well as provide clues on how to be successful in the company."}, {"headline": "What's your favorite programming language?", "content": "Take the Developer Nation survey, share your views about the most important coding skills and software tools for 2022, and get a chance to win cool prizes, licenses, gaming accessories, vouchers, and more!"}, {"headline": "PRESENTA Lib", "content": "PRESENTA Lib is a JavaScript library for building web presentations from config objects. It focuses on letting people work on content while allowing customizations. Full documentation is linked."}, {"headline": "The Teslasuit could turn Black Mirror's terrifying 'Playtest' into a reality", "content": "Teslasuit is a full body VR suit that has 68 points of contact (this number will be higher when the suit becomes available to consumers). It can simulate sensations like bumping into a wall, touching an object, or the impact of a punch. It will be priced similarly to a video game console, and has both men and women's suits."}, {"headline": "Former Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia", "content": "Two men who had worked at Twitter were charged for monitoring accounts on the behalf of the Saudi government. A third man, who didn't work for Twitter, was also charged for spying. The trio obtained personal info for more than 6,000 accounts. One of the spies was paid a minimum of $300,000, plus a gift, for the espionage work. Another was granted a director position in the Crown Prince's private office. Twitter stated that those employees with access to sensitive information were trained and vetted and that there were tools in place to protect users' privacy. Only one of the three men are currently in the US. The others are in Saudi Arabia, where there is no extradition treaty with the US. This is the first time Saudi Arabia has ever been accused of spying within the US."}, {"headline": "Cows wearing VR headsets might produce better milk", "content": "Moscow farmers strapped VR headsets to cows to see if it improved their mood and milk production. The cattle viewed simulated fields with pleasing landscapes via headsets that were adapted to the cows' heads. Tests showed that the headsets reduced the cows' anxiety and boosted their overall sentiment. Further study is still required to see whether the headsets affected the quality or volume of the cows' milk."}, {"headline": "Launching the Front-End Tooling Survey 2019", "content": "FreeCodeCamp has launched their 2019 front-end tooling survey, which seeks to discover common knowledge and usage levels of common front-end tools. Last years survey found that React and Vue.js were growing significantly in importance in front-end development. This year\u2019s survey has a focus on CSS-in-JS tools, as well as some questions regarding performance and accessibility tools and features. The survey is open now and will close at the end of April."}, {"headline": "Google is scaling back its weekly all-hands meetings after leaks, Sundar Pichai tells staff", "content": "Google will stop holding its weekly town halls, moving its TGIF meetings to just once a month. Low attendance and the lack of focus on product launches and business strategies were two reasons stated for the change. Employees were sharing the conversations held inside TGIF meetings outside of the company, which was affecting the ability of the company to hold candid conversations on important topics. TGIF meetings were previously a place where employees could bring concerns to management and discuss important workplace issues. Google will continue to hold regular Social TGIFs in offices around the world, and other forums and platforms have been provided for employees to communicate with the company. Employees can use these forums to voice their opinions on company decisions."}, {"headline": "Facebook's Zuckerberg said he will 'go to the mat' and fight breakup in leaked audio", "content": "Facebook's CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will fight efforts to split up the tech giant. He says that breaking up Facebook won't solve issues with spreading misinformation or with election interference. Problems with these issues are likely to increase if the tech giant was split up as the separated companies will find it more difficult to coordinate and work together. Many people and politicians have called for Facebook to be broken up as the platform has developed an unprecedented amount of power. Zuckerberg says that Facebook's intention is to work with the government and to do good things."}, {"headline": "fontpreview", "content": "fontpreview is a command-line tool for searching and previewing local fonts. It uses a fuzzy search provided by fzf. fontpreview is highly customizable and can be configured through command-line flags or using environment variables."}, {"headline": "Apple CEO Tim Cook in Leaked Memo: 'We Are Doing Everything in Our Power' to Identify Leakers", "content": "A recently leaked memo from Apple CEO Tim Cook warned employees about leaking company information. It states that the company is doing everything in its power to identify the leakers and that people who leak confidential information don't belong in the company. Apple has served various leakers with stern warnings from lawyers in recent months. A copy of the leaked memo is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Facebook names a new CTO with a major focus on hardware", "content": "Facebook has promoted Andrew Bosworth, the current head of its hardware division, to the role of chief technology officer. The current CTO Mike Schroepfer will become a senior fellow next year. Bosworth will continue to lead Facebook Reality Labs while also assuming responsibility for Facebook's broader software engineering and artificial intelligence efforts. Facebook is still relatively new to selling hardware, but it has significantly ramped up its efforts in recent years under Bosworth's watch."}, {"headline": "On rebooting: the unreasonable effectiveness of turning computers off and on again", "content": "Rebooting works because it resets the system to its initial stable state. The initialization sequence is generally reliable, so it can transition into other well-behaved states. When the system reaches a defect, it enters a broken state, which makes any attempt to bring it back into a working state improvisational. While this is true for most cases, there are other nuances to consider. This article discusses rebooting systems and the reasoning behind developing crash-only software."}, {"headline": "Bosque Programming Language", "content": "Bosque is a programming language that is designed for writing simple, obvious, and logical code that can be read by both humans and machines. The project is still in an early state and should only be used in small and experimental projects. Example projects and code are available."}, {"headline": "CSS Grid Generator", "content": "The CSS Grid Generator allows people to use CSS Grid features quickly to generate dynamic layouts. Users set the parameters for the grid, and create divisions by clicking and dragging along the generated grid. Once the user is happy with the design, they can click a button to copy the code to their clipboard. The generator is hosted on a website, but users can choose to download the code and run it on their own servers if required."}, {"headline": "Deep-Learning-in-Production", "content": "This repository contains notes and references about deploying deep learning-based models in production. Topics include converting PyTorch Models to C++, Mobile & Embedded Devices Development, GPU Management Libraries, and much more."}, {"headline": "Nerve transfer surgery restores hand mobility in tetraplegic patients", "content": "Doctors performed a series of nerve transfers, sometimes combined with tendon transfers, to attempt to restore mobility in the upper limbs of patients who had recently suffered from cervical spinal cord injury. This video shows a patient moving their arm and picking up a water bottle from a high position and moving it towards their mouth."}, {"headline": "Oddly heavy particle may have just broken the reigning model of particle physics", "content": "Scientists at the Fermilab in Illinois have measured the mass of a subatomic particle called the W boson. The ultraprecise measurement found that the particle had a mass seven standard deviations higher than the Standard Model predicts. The Standard Model is a framework that governs the world of quantum physics. There is an incredibly small probability that the result occurred by chance. Another experiment will be conducted to confirm the measurement. If the result can be replicated, it could mean a revision or extension of the Standard Model."}, {"headline": "DoNotPay made an extension for sharing Netflix passwords with friends", "content": "DoNotPay has released a Google Chrome extension that allows users to share paid subscription services. Users will not have to share passwords as the extension works by transferring the cookie that stores your existing login status, rather than the password. All users have to do is click on the extension icon, and it will generate a link that users can share to give others access to their accounts. While there is usually no limit for how many people you can share an account with on services such as Netflix, there might be limits on the number of devices that can simultaneously stream content."}, {"headline": "EthicalML/awesome-production-machine-learning", "content": "This repository contains a curated list of open source libraries to help deploy, monitor, version, scale, and secure production machine learning. Each link has a description of the library. Videos and ratings are provided if available."}, {"headline": "LG's latest CineBeam 4K projectors promise improved daytime viewing", "content": "LG's new CineBeam 4K projectors have upgrades that improve their daytime viewing capabilities. The HU710P peaks at 2,000 lumens of brightness and the HU715Q delivers a 2,500-lumen output. The HU715Q can produce a 100-inch picture from just 8.5 inches away. Both projectors feature three HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and support for AirPlay 2, HomeKit, and screen sharing. While they aren't cheap, the new brightness upgrades may make the projectors suitable as replacements for large-screen TVs."}, {"headline": "Water On The Moon: NASA Confirms Water Molecules On Our Neighbor's Sunny Surface", "content": "NASA has confirmed the presence of water on the moon's sunlit surface. This breakthrough suggests that there is likely water distributed across more parts of the lunar surface than previously thought. It is still unknown whether there is enough water to be used as a resource. NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified Boeing 747, made the discovery using a special infrared camera. The next step in the research is to determine how the water formed and why it persists despite the moon's thin atmosphere."}, {"headline": "Airbnb bans 'party houses' after five die in Halloween shooting", "content": "A shooting at a Halloween party in Orinda, California has resulted in five deaths. The party was at a home that had been rented on Airbnb. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says that the company has now banned 'party houses' and will redouble its efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct. A dedicated 'party house' rapid response team will be created to manually screen high-risk reservations. Users who violate Airbnb's policies will be removed from the platform."}, {"headline": "Moderna Is About to Begin Trials for HIV Vaccine Based on COVID-19 Research", "content": "Moderna will soon begin human trials for its mRNA-based HIV/AIDS vaccine. Most vaccines have proven ineffective against HIV as the disease attacks the immune system itself. mRNA vaccines create proteins that trigger an immune response in the body, allowing the body to possibly recognize new variants of a virus. The technology has been around for decades, but its use was limited until the Covid-19 pandemic. Moderna has been criticized for its lack of peer-reviewed research and other business practices."}, {"headline": "Beartype", "content": "Beartype is a pure-Python PEP-compliant constant-time runtime type checker. It brings static typing to Python while still preserving the permissive benefits of duck typing. Beartype can be used to assure the quality of Python code beyond what tests alone can assure."}, {"headline": "Uber says it will start delivering fast food by drone in San Diego this summer", "content": "Uber will begin fast food deliveries using drones in San Diego later this year, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The drone deliveries will not be made directly to customers\u2019 houses. Instead, deliveries will be sent to \u2018designated safe landing zones\u2019. Uber couriers will then take the package from the landing zone and deliver it to the customer. Costs for drone delivery will be about the same as regular fees, but deliveries will be much faster. Uber predicts that drone deliveries will be so common in 10 years time that fast food restaurants will redesign their kitchens around them."}, {"headline": "Textual", "content": "Textual is a Text User Interface framework for Python. It features Rich, asynchronous event handling, widgets, and CSS themes. Screenshots and examples are available in the repository."}, {"headline": "In A World First, Scientists Made Human Milk Outside of the Breast", "content": "A company called BIOMILQ recently announced that it has produced the world's first cell-cultured human milk. The milk is intended to be a healthier and more eco-friendly alternative to bovine-based infant formula. It has a macronutrient profile that matches the types and proportions of nutrients present in breast milk. The company makes it clear that its milk is not exactly the same as breast milk, and that its product is to be used as a supplemental feeding option. BIOMILQ's milk was developed in just 11 months. The company is partly funded by Bill Gates."}, {"headline": "Elon Musk shows off the Boring Company 'disturbingly long' LA tunnel in a short video", "content": "Elon Musk's Boring Company will be opening its first tunnel to the public on December 10th in Los Angeles. The tunnels use electric skates to move 8 to 16 people at speeds up to 150 mph. The article contains a 30 second video showing the entire length of the tunnel that Elon Musk posted on Twitter."}, {"headline": "Amazon\u2019s Home Surveillance Company Is Putting Suspected Petty Thieves in its Advertisements", "content": "Amazon\u2019s Home Surveillance Company, Ring, is using footage captured by its doorbell cameras in its Facebook ads, asking users to identify a suspected criminal and contact police with any information about the individual. The video clearly shows the person\u2019s face from two different angles and accuses the person of breaking into a vehicle at Mountain View, California. Ring has worked with law enforcement previously, but this ad was not requested on behalf of the Mountain View Police Department. The woman is only suspected of a crime and is still innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty. This advertisement may set a dangerous precedent where people may turn to the internet for justice rather than through normal law-enforcement avenues."}, {"headline": "EXCLUSIVE: This Is How the U.S. Military\u2019s Massive Facial Recognition System Works", "content": "The US military has been building a massive database with millions of images of faces, irises, fingerprints, and DNA data over the last 15 years. There are at least 7.4 million identities in the Automated Biometric Information System, including the identities of suspected terrorists and allied soldiers training with the US forces. The Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency is tasked with overseeing the database. This information was used thousands of times in the first half of 2019 to identify non-US citizens on the battlefield. It is linked to the FBI's biometric database, so the US military can search against the biometric data of US citizens as well. This network will ultimately amount to a global surveillance system. The US military has invested over $345 million in biometric database technology in the last 10 years. Much about the system is still unknown, including its accuracy rate at identifying individuals correctly."}, {"headline": "Cerebras\u2019s Giant Chip Will Smash Deep Learning\u2019s Speed Barrier", "content": "One of the limitations of machine learning is the large amount of time it takes to train models. Some models can take up to six weeks to train, restricting the number of tests that data scientists can perform every year. A new chip by Cerebras is able to perform significantly better in both speed and efficiency compared with any other current system. The Wafer Scale Engine chip is 50 times the size of the largest GPU at 46,266 square millimeters. It has 1.2 trillion transistors, 400,000 processor cores, 18 gigabytes of SRAM, and interconnects capable of moving 100 million billion bits per second. Some of these chips have already been deployed. Previous attempts at creating wafer-scale chips have failed."}, {"headline": "fastmac", "content": "fastmac uses GitHub Actions to create a Mac or Linux terminal for free. The process takes around two minutes. A short video is available that shows all the steps. The GitHub Actions Terms of Service outlines how fastmac may be used on the platform."}, {"headline": "Scientists develop the most heat-resistant material ever created", "content": "A group of scientists has developed a ceramic material that breaks the record for the compound with the highest known melting point. Its combination of physical, mechanical, and thermal properties make the material suitable for use in most heat-loaded components of aircraft. The material, hafnium carbonitride, has a melting point that exceeds 4,000 degrees celsius. The team has planned further experiments to find out the exact melting point of the material."}, {"headline": "Declaration of Digital Independence", "content": "The internet has changed from a group of individuals publishing content to vast digital empires controlling sections of the internet and wielding large amounts of power. These companies that own platforms used by millions of people around the world are able to moderate and control the content that users see, resulting in the manipulation of discussion, misinformation in news, interference with political affairs, and more. The Declaration of Digital Independence is a set of nine principles that lays out strict rules for how data and content on the internet should be handled. Rather than being controlled by large corporations, the internet should be controlled by a decentralized network of individuals. People can sign to show their support for the document."}, {"headline": "Microsoft's New Molecular Controller Makes DNA Writing 1,000 Times Faster", "content": "DNA storage will help meet humanity's exponential desire for data storage, but it is expensive, at around $3,500 for synthesizing 1 megabit of information. The technology offers incredible storage density at over 1 exabyte per cubic inch and it may have a lower carbon footprint than traditional computer storage. Researchers at Northwestern University recently announced a new method that can write DNA in hours rather than days. The increase of writing throughput will greatly reduce the cost of writing synthetic DNA code and help to enable commercial DNA storage in the future."}, {"headline": "CleverCSV", "content": "CSV is a great format, but it has too many different variations with its formatting and it can get messy dealing with CSV files of different types all the time. CleverCSV is a Python package that can automatically detect the format of CSV files and load it without the need for inspection. It is 97 percent accurate for dialect detection. CleverCSV has been designed to be a drop-in replacement for the built-in CSV module with extra functionality."}, {"headline": "Chakra UI", "content": "Chakra UI is a component library for building React applications. It features a set of components that are easily styled, flexible, composable, and accessible. Each component follows WAI-ARIA guideline specifications. Most components are dark mode compatible."}, {"headline": "FAQGURU", "content": "This is a huge list of common interview questions for basically every programming language (with additional sections for AWS, data structures, and stuff like that). If you're ever planning on interviewing for a new job, you should probably bookmark this."}, {"headline": "Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon and Facebook", "content": "As tech giants become bigger and richer, they have started acting more like governments rather than companies, bullying cities and states into showering them with taxpayer handouts in return for doing business. Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing a new law that will create two tiers of companies - companies that have a global annual revenue of over $25 billion, and those who have annual revenue of between $90 million and $25 billion. Those companies in the first category will be required to structurally separate their products in the marketplace, while those in the second category will have stricter regulations, but not be required to separate themselves. The goal of the proposed bill is to make the marketplace more competitive and to prevent municipalities from being manipulated by large companies."}, {"headline": "GitHub Actions now supports CI/CD, free for public repositories", "content": "GitHub Actions is an API for cause and effect on GitHub. Developers can orchestrate any workflow, based on any event, and GitHub will manage the execution and provide rich feedback while securing every step along the way. After receiving feedback from developers, GitHub has implemented CI/CD for any OS, any language, and any cloud. GitHub Actions is currently in beta and will be generally available on November 13."}, {"headline": "NASA worked out how to make food out of thin air - and it could feed billions", "content": "A company from Finland, Solar Foods, is planning to sell a protein powder that is made out of CO2, water, and electricity. The idea for Solein originally began at NASA, and it is made by capturing CO2 from the air then combining it with solar energy, water, nutrients, and vitamins to promote a natural fermentation process similar to the one that produces yeast and lactic acid bacteria. Solein contains 50 percent protein, up to 10 percent fat, and 20 to 25 percent carbs. It can be produced indoors, so production is not dependent on the outside environment. The impact of meat production is one of the main drivers behind many of the planet's problems, so creating food from two of the most renewable things on the planet, CO2 and sunlight, will help provide food for our growing population without increasing our impact on the planet. Solein is expected to be available in 2021."}, {"headline": "Coinbase is launching a marketplace for NFTs", "content": "Coinbase plans to launch a marketplace that lets users mint, collect, and trade NFTs. NFTs are unique digital assets designed to represent ownership of online items. The NFT market boomed this year, topping $10 billion in transaction volume in the third quarter. Coinbase NFT will have social features and tap into the creator economy. It will allow Coinbase to build a new revenue stream to lessen the company's heavy reliance on exchange fees."}, {"headline": "Taking a Fall: The 120-MPH, 35,000 Feet, 3-Minutes-To-Impact Survival Guide", "content": "This article talks about how to survive falling from a plane. If you are falling from a plane, it's best to fall with the plane as you'll have a semi-protective cocoon to protect you, which is better than nothing at all. Otherwise, you should find a good place to land. Look for somewhere soft, and try to avoid water. The article is full of stories of people who have survived falling from planes."}, {"headline": "Snapchat\u2019s new AR features can identify the world around you", "content": "Scan is a new feature from Snapchat that can identify a range of objects. It can suggest AR effects and songs based on what the camera is looking at, recommend shops based on clothing, and more. The features are powered by other companies, so more functionality is expected soon. Scan will not be limited to just the Snapchat camera. Snap's AR glasses have a dedicated Scan button that triggers AR effects based on what the wearer is viewing. The new Spectacles aren't available for sale, but Snap has been giving them to select AR creators and partners."}, {"headline": "Valve\u2019s gaming handheld is called the Steam Deck and it\u2019s shipping in December", "content": "Valve's Steam Deck is a Switch-like handheld gaming device that will start shipping in December. There will be three storage tiers, and customers will be able to insert a microSD card for more storage. The Steam Deck has a huge number of control options, and it will be able to provide several hours of playtime for most games. It will be a full-fledged Linux computer, so users will be able to run software on the desktop if they want. The article contains many more details, as well as pictures and a video of the device."}, {"headline": "MicroPython: An Intro to Programming Hardware in Python", "content": "Hardware programming is now an easy area to get into, with robots, microcontrollers, electronics, and other hardware easily accessible by anyone. Traditionally, developers had to learn low-level languages like assembler or C++ to effectively program these devices. With the introduction of languages like MicroPython, developers no longer need to sacrifice functionality to program devices. This tutorial is an introduction to MicroPython and the world of electronics hardware."}, {"headline": "Google is about to have a lot more ads on phones", "content": "Google will introduce new types of ads that are designed for more interaction on mobile devices. Searches will now display new gallery ads which will have multiple images for users to swipe through. Gallery ads usually result in 25 percent more interaction than normal text or banner ads. Google\u2019s discover feed will also feature ads in between news stories. These ads are designed to be more noticeable, which makes sense as Google\u2019s ads are provided on a pay-per-click basis. New ads will also be seen on YouTube within the recommended videos section."}, {"headline": "WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has reportedly made millions of dollars by leasing office space to his own company", "content": "WeWork has been renting buildings that its CEO Adam Neumann partially owns, paying $12 million between 2016 and 2017 and on the hook for $110 million over the lifetime of the leases. There is an internal review process for related party transactions, but Neumann has majority voting rights over the board. A spokesperson says that only 4 of the 400 properties rented by WeWork are partially owned by Neumann."}, {"headline": "Multiple \u201cCIA failures\u201d led to theft of agency\u2019s top-secret hacking tools", "content": "Details of CIA hacking tools were published on WikiLeaks in 2017 after a large number of confidential documents were stolen from the agency's networks. Up to 34 terabytes of information was stolen, the CIA's biggest data loss in history. The information stolen documented the CIA's most closely guarded secrets, including many exploits. An investigation into the hack found that the massive data loss was caused by lax security practices."}, {"headline": "Japan successfully tests flying car which hovers steadily for a minute", "content": "A flying car unveiled by NEC at a facility in the city of Abiko was able to hover steadily for about a minute using its four propellors during two brief demonstrations. Japan aims to be using flying cars by 2030 to connect islands in the Mie resort area. Dubai is also aggressively pursuing the technology. Flying cars are defined as aircraft which are electric, or hybrid electric, with driverless capabilities and the ability to take off and land vertically. They are also known as EVtol, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Compared to helicopters, they are less expensive to maintain, produce less noise, and don't require trained pilots. Uber is also launching a similar technology called Uber Air, starting demonstrator flights in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023."}, {"headline": "FormKit", "content": "FormKit is a form-authoring framework for Vue developers. It makes building high-quality production-ready forms 10 times faster. FormKit features built-in validation, powerful form generation, theming, Tailwind support, and plugins. Interactive examples are available."}, {"headline": "SpaceX to build floating spaceports for rockets bound for the Moon and Mars, and for hypersonic Earth travel", "content": "SpaceX is planning to develop and build floating spaceports to provide launch sites for its Super Heavy-class launch vehicles. The larger rockets will be used to move large payload rockets to the Moon and Mars and also for point-to-point travel on Earth. SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket booster combined with its Starship spacecraft could potentially reduce the trip time for long-haul flights to only a couple of hours. In a 2017 presentation, SpaceX claimed that it could reach any city on Earth from any other city in less than an hour. The company has recently posted a job opening for Offshore Operations engineers in order to develop the project further."}, {"headline": "The Pentagon Is Working on a Nuclear Thermal Rocket", "content": "The Pentagon is working on a nuclear thermal propulsion engine that will fly satellites around in space. It will enable the US to better mine resources from the moon as well as serve as a weapon. The project is called the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO. NASA and the military believe this technology would be a good complement for its plans to return to the moon by 2024. Attaching a small nuclear reactor onto a rocket will allow for the creation of highly mobile satellites."}, {"headline": "Hundreds of Amazon Workers Are Not Going to Work in Nationwide Protest", "content": "Amazon has confirmed at least 75 coronavirus cases at more than half of its facilities. Experts have warned that the number of cases is likely to exponentially increase in the coming days and months as Amazon has failed to implement effective safety measures in its warehouses. More than 300 workers at 50 facilities have pledged to stay at home in the coming days to protest Amazon's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Amazon has raised pay, implemented new cleaning and safety measures, and offered sick leave for employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus, but workers do not feel safe at its facilities."}, {"headline": "Amazon to buy MGM Studios for $8.45 billion", "content": "Amazon will acquire MGM Studios for $8.45 billion. It will be the second-largest acquisition in Amazon's history after its purchase of Whole Foods in 2017. The deal shows how Amazon is willing to spend deeply to remain competitive in the streaming market. It spent $11 billion on video and music content last year and $7.8 billion in 2019. Amazon's investment in content brings in more Prime subscribers, who then end up spending more with the company. It is looking to start broadcasting sports content starting in 2022."}, {"headline": "This is Samsung's foldable smartphone", "content": "Samsung unveiled its much anticipated foldable phone today. Google is officially supporting these new foldable devices with Android and have updated their developer guidelines on how to build apps for these new foldable devices. There's a gif of the phone actually folding in the article."}, {"headline": "Artificial neurons connect to biological ones to control living plants", "content": "Researchers at Link\u00f6ping University in Sweden have created artificial organic neurons and synapses that can integrate with natural biological systems. The artificial neurons operate with the same ion signals as biological neurons, making them compatible. Repeated activation of synapses strengthens the neurons, making them more effective over time. The artificial neurons are biodegradable and harmless to both plants and animals. The researchers demonstrated the system by using it to control the jaws of a Venus flytrap."}, {"headline": "Deep Learning Weekly", "content": "If you're interested in learning about deep learning, this is a great newsletter full of tutorials, open source library recommendations, and practical examples of deep learning being used in industry. Curated by Malte Baumann and Jan Bussieck of 9elements."}, {"headline": "Awesome Developer Resources", "content": "This article contains a list of resources for developers. Sections include Fonts, Icons, Animations, Youtube Channels, and more."}, {"headline": "SVG Repo", "content": "This site contains over 300,000 SVG vectors and icons. An ML-powered search is available. Most icons and vectors can be used for commercial projects without any royalties."}, {"headline": "How to Map Mouse Position in CSS", "content": "This article teaches you how to create a click-and-drag effect with pure CSS. Several examples of how to use the techniques taught in the article are available at the end."}, {"headline": "Not Self-Driving, But Tele-Driving: Startup to Deploy Remote-Controlled Cars as a Step Towards Full Autonomy", "content": "Vay is a Berlin-based startup that plans to use human teledrivers to drive cars remotely. Its customers will be able to order a vehicle to drive themselves, with the teledrivers taking over between rides. Vay claims that its rides will cost a fraction of what Uber and Lyft currently charge for rides. The vehicles are being tested in Berlin. Vay aims to launch its service in Europe and the US next year. A video explaining the service is available in the article."}, {"headline": "How Gaming Will Change Humanity as We Know It", "content": "Gaming is profoundly transforming culture and regulation. Games are typically closed systems that require time and attention to master, immersing players into new worlds with their own cultural objects. Interest in gaming has increased over the years and the industry brings in more revenue than global movies and North American sports combined. Games have created many new markets which are difficult for governments to regulate. Technology is moving faster than regulators can keep up with."}, {"headline": "UK police wants AI to stop violent crime before it happens", "content": "Police in the UK want to pool multiple data sets from a number of police forces for crime prediction. They want to be able to predict who is at risk of being a perpetrator or victim of violent crime. They won't use this information to pre-emptively arrest people, but rather to provide support from local health or social workers. A prototype of the National Data Analytics Solution is expected by March 2019 and is being designed to be used eventually by every police department in the UK."}, {"headline": "Smart rich text editor with collaborative editing", "content": "CKEditor 5 is an ultra-modern JavaScript rich text editor with native support for Webpack, Angular, React, and Vue.js. Easily add a customized editor with collaborative editing to your application, with a slick user experience like Medium or Google Docs."}, {"headline": "Next generation of biotech food heading for grocery stores", "content": "Gene edited foods are expected to be in stores by early next year. Genetically modified (GMOs) basically means that a plant/animal is mixed with another species' DNA to introduce a specific trait (like GMO corn is resistant to pests and weed killers). Gene editing tools like CRISPR can alter foods more precisely by editing the DNA directly instead of mixing in foreign DNA. The industry is proceeding cautiously because there could be unintended consequences of editing a piece of DNA but the potential benefits are pretty huge (wheat with triple the fiber, mushrooms that don't go brown, pigs immune to viruses etc.). NC State professor Jennifer Kuzma says \"we think it's going to really revolutionize the industry\"."}, {"headline": "Robot successfully performs keyhole surgery on pigs without human help", "content": "The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (Star) is the first robotic system to plan, adapt, and execute a surgical plan in soft tissue with minimal human intervention. It recently performed laparoscopic surgery to connect two ends of an intestine in four pigs. Connecting two ends of an intestine is a challenging procedure that requires high accuracy and consistency. Star was able to perform the procedure with significantly better results compared to humans performing the same procedure. The robot could one day be used to provide predictable and consistent patient outcomes in surgery."}, {"headline": "Republican mega-donor buys stake in Twitter and seeks to oust Jack Dorsey \u2013 report", "content": "A major Republican donor has bought a stake in Twitter in order to oust its CEO, Jack Dorsey. The founder of Elliott Management, Paul Singer, opposed Donald Trump during his run for president but has since changed sides. Trump communicates with the public via Twitter, which has recently announced a ban on political advertising. Dorsey plans to work and live in Africa for part of each year, and Singer is using this information to push Dorsey out of his position. Elliott Management is an activist investor and it regularly pushes for change in companies in which it buys shares. It also works with countries, taking on partial repayment of debts by Argentina in 2016."}, {"headline": "Salty nanoparticles slip into cancer cells to wreak destruction", "content": "A lot of cancer research is focused on causing the death of cancer cells while leaving the healthy cells intact. New nanoparticles have been developed that work like Trojan horses, sneaking ions into cancer cells and causing them to die. The nanoparticles also show potential as a vaccine to guard against recurrence. Cancer cells are vulnerable to sodium ions, but their cell membranes are able to ensure that excess sodium ions are kept outside of the cell. The nanoparticles are able to disguise sodium ions so that they can pass the cell membranes undetected. Once inside the cells, the sodium and chloride ions cause the cell membrane to rupture, inducing cell death and triggering an immune response in the body to fight off other pathogens. The nanoparticles turn into salt once they degrade. In a mice study, the nanoparticles were able to suppress tumor growth by 66 percent compared to a control group, without any side effects to major organs."}, {"headline": "Life of a Netflix Partner Engineer \u2014 The case of the extra 40 ms", "content": "The role of a Partner Engineer at Netflix is to help device manufacturers launch the Netflix application on their devices. At the end of 2017, Netflix was implementing its app on a new Android TV device which experienced a serious stuttering issue. This article follows a Netflix Partner Engineer as they track down the bug, figure out the real root cause, and then work towards a fix."}, {"headline": "Evergreen Skills for Software Developers", "content": "This repository contains a list of evergreen skills that can be used as an assessment of skilled software developers or engineers. The document focuses on software development best practices, cross-framework principles, and other portable skills. Trends and specific knowledge of frameworks tend to be quickly outdated and they don't reflect the real value that software developers bring to the organization."}, {"headline": "Web Skills", "content": "Web Skills contains a visual overview of useful skills to learn as a web developer. It breaks down each topic into its key components and also provides links to begin learning each skill. The main topics include fundamentals, accessibility, web components, architecture, algorithms, databases, and more."}, {"headline": "Human aging process biologically reversed in world first", "content": "Scientists in Israel have reversed the aging process in humans for the first time. As people age, telomeres shorten and senescent cells build-up, preventing regeneration. Increasing telomere length and removing senescent cells is the focus of many anti-aging studies. The scientists found that giving pure oxygen to older people inside a hyperbaric chamber increased telomere length by 20 percent after just three months of treatment. Previous studies have already shown cognitive benefits using the therapy. The therapy achieved significant telomere elongation at rates far beyond any other currently known interventions."}, {"headline": "An embattled group of leakers picks up the WikiLeaks mantle", "content": "Julian Assange has been in a London jail for the last year awaiting extradition to the US as more charges are laid against him. A small group of activists known as Distributed Denial of Secrets has released a stream of hacked and leaked documents. Last week, it released a 269GB collection of more than a million police files, including emails, audio, and memos. According to the group's cofounder, its mission is to archive and publish leaked and hacked data of potential public interest. Twitter has banned the group's account, as well as any tweets that link to the DDoSecrets website. More details about DDoSecrets' work is detailed in the article."}, {"headline": "A Former Facebook VP Thinks Investing in Humans Is the Future of VC", "content": "Slow Ventures is a startup that invests in people. It offers creators a deal where the creator gets a large payout upfront to do whatever they want with, and the firm gets 5% of the creator's earnings for 30 years. The firm's plan could help it find the next Jeff Bezos before they get rich. Creators only start paying back investors once they make over a certain amount. Investing directly in humans brings about a host of legal, ethical, and moral questions, but the founders see it as a way to provide people with the money to fund a path to success that doesn't exist today."}, {"headline": "UI Movement", "content": "UI Movement is a great newsletter for design inspiration with 5 nifty animations delivered to your inbox every Friday!"}, {"headline": "Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis", "content": "TLDR TLDR: Facebook knew more about Russian election interference than they let on, they're incredibly politically connected, and basically everything they've done in the past 2 years just leaked. Ok, so this was a huge New York Times investigation. While Facebook publically scoffed at Russian interference claims after the November 2016 election, Facebook's security team knew in Spring 2016 that Russian hackers were trying to get into Facebook accounts affiliated with both presidential campaigns, and later found more Russian Facebook accounts messaging journalists to share information about Hillary Clinton's stolen emails during the campaign. They hired a right-wing PR firm who helped them depict George Soros as being behind a broad anti-Facebook movement, and pushed out dozens of stories praising Facebook and criticizing Google and Apple on conservative news sites. After Tim Cook said that his company didn't traffic in personal data, Zuckerberg ordered his management team to stop using iPhones. Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, whose daughter works at Facebook, has been a huge supporter. When Senators Mark Warner and Amy Klobuchar (both Democrats) introduced legislation to force Facebook and other tech giants to disclose who bought political ads on their sites, Schumer confronted Warner saying he shouldn't lose sight of the need for Faacebook to tackle problems with right-wing disinformation. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg called Klobuchar, who is featured on the site for her women's empowerment initiative Lean In. Klobuchar's chief of staff had previously worked at Sandberg's charity. Facebook hired Warner's former chief of staff to lobby him."}, {"headline": "Virgin Galactic unveils 'VSS Imagine,' the first of its next-generation spaceship series", "content": "Virgin Galactic unveiled the VSS Imagine on Tuesday, the first of its next-generation SpaceShip III class of vehicles. It is the third spacecraft the company has built to date. The VSS Imagine was designed with lessons taken from flight testing on VSS Unity in mind. SpaceShip III class spacecraft can be manufactured faster and take less time to maintain between each flight compared to SpaceShipTwo class spacecraft due to their modular design. Virgin Galactic is on track for a test flight in May, after a delay in December."}, {"headline": "Ethereum Creator, Vitalik Buterin, Donates Over $1B to India COVID Relief", "content": "Vitalik Buterin sent over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies to several charities. The creators of the tokens had gifted them to Buterin in the hopes that he would hold them. Some of the coins plummeted in value after Buterin gave them away. The coins were new to the Ethereum network and were attempting to mimic the rise that Dogecoin recently experienced."}, {"headline": "On Apple's Piss-Poor Documentation", "content": "Apple provides developers with tools, many of which are fairly straightforward to use. However, sometimes developers run into problems that require documentation, and that's when they find out how bad Apple's documentation is. There could be many reasons as to why Apple might have bad documentation, but it is definitely a problem that should be fixed."}, {"headline": "r/WallStreetBets went private \u2014 and now it\u2019s back with a message", "content": "The r/WallStreetBets subreddit closed down for a little less than an hour on Wednesday as the moderators dealt with issues stemming from the attention it gained following the meteoric rise in GameStop's stock. A letter explaining the shutdown was posted when the subreddit came back up. It noted that the team's requests for help from Reddit to abide by its content policies had gone unanswered, and it also stated how unfair Discord's decision to delete their account was. Discord had opted to delete the WallStreetBets channel for content violations rather than to work with the team to fix things, despite the community getting over 1,000 server boosts. The WallStreetBets mod team now has an official Twitter account."}, {"headline": "stream-unzip", "content": "stream-unzip unzips files from a ZIP archive without loading anything into memory. It uses headers and footers in ZIP files to determine the beginning and end of files."}, {"headline": "Here's why Morgan Stanley is spending $13 billion to buy E-Trade", "content": "Morgan Stanley has taken over E-Trade with a $13 billion deal. It is the biggest takeover by a US bank since the financial crisis. Morgan Stanley will gain 5.2 million customer accounts, $360 billion in assets, and a leading business that manages corporate stock plans. The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter. E-Trade's $56 billion in deposits will help Morgan Stanley fund loans to its wealthy clientele. Rival banks claim that Morgan Stanley overpaid in the deal. The retail stock trade market has been in consolidation ever since Robinhood popularized the idea that most retail stock trades should be free."}, {"headline": "How To Interview Engineers When You're Not Technical - Part II", "content": "The goal of an engineering interview is to ask questions that surface understanding of engineering culture and attitude. It is difficult to assess technical ability through programming quizzes or by reviewing code, so an interview should judge the engineer\u2019s mastery of software process and communication. Asking questions related to a candidate\u2019s problem-solving strategies, how a candidate sees their work, and how they would build their ideal team reveals important information about a candidate. Additional interview questions, as well as discussions on why they are effective, are in the article."}, {"headline": "Influenza has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic", "content": "Case numbers for the common influenza have dropped to minuscule levels since Covid-19 began its global spread. The influenza virus is transmitted in the same way as Covid-19, but it is less effective at jumping from host to host. There were 600 deaths from influenza during the 2020-2021 flu season, compared to 22,000 deaths in the prior season. The US has seen over 574,000 deaths from Covid-19 so far."}, {"headline": "Samsung, Stanford make a 10,000PPI display that could lead to 'flawless' VR", "content": "Samsung and Stanford have developed OLED technology that supports resolutions up to 10,000 pixels per inch. The screens use films to emit white light between reflective layers, which allows specific colors to resonate through the pixels. This results in high pixel density without affecting its brightness. The newOLED screens would be ideal for VR and AR, creating an image without the 'screen door' effect commonly seen in current displays."}, {"headline": "How A Massive Facebook Scam Siphoned Millions Of Dollars From Unsuspecting Boomers", "content": "In late 2018, Asher Burke started Ads Inc., a company that placed ads for products purposed to trap customers into a subscription. Using a network of rented Facebook accounts, Ads Inc. was able to create unlimited misleading Facebook ads. They eventually started selling the rented accounts for $800 a login. Users whose accounts were being sold were paid $15-$30 a month. Ads Inc.'s practices violated Facebook's terms of services, but it was difficult to monitor their actions. Their ads were able to avoid Facebook's detection systems through a cloaking strategy that directed ad reviewers to 'safe' pages. Facebook began shutting down some accounts after this activity was revealed. Over the past decade, the Federal Trade Commission has gone after perpetrators who have stolen more than $1.3 billion through subscription trap scams."}, {"headline": "Stripe buys Nigeria's Paystack for Africa expansion", "content": "Stripe has acquired Nigerian payments startup Paystack. While the value of the acquisition has not been disclosed, the deal is estimated to be worth over $200 million. Both companies will continue to operate separately. Paystack allows users to set up online payment gateways to accept credit and debit card payments. Police in Nigeria have been targeting young tech workers in the country due to online fraud. However, their actions have been often criticized as they have frequently extorted people trying to build valuable startups."}, {"headline": "XSStrike", "content": "XSStrike is a next-generation Cross Site Scripting detection suite with four hand written parsers, an intelligent payload generator, a fuzzing engine and a fast crawler. It's written in Python, people seem very excited about this project so if you're into security you might want to check it out."}, {"headline": "NYPD using VR to train for active shootings and real-life scenarios", "content": "In this five minute video, New York City policemen are seen using VR to train in different scenarios. Police officers are equipped with special sensors and weapons that provide recoil so that the scenarios are as close to reality as possible. They can be monitored from various angles and all movement can be assessed for training. Officers can be trained in different scenarios quickly and effectively. The software used can generate new scenarios easily, so the training can be flexible and evolve as required."}, {"headline": "CRYPTOHACK", "content": "Cryptohack is a platform for learning modern cryptography. It provides a series of interactive puzzles and challenges for users to learn about modern cryptographic protocols. There is a scoreboard for users to measure their progress and compete against other challengers. New challenges are added regularly."}, {"headline": "China Is Leading the Next Step in Fighting Malaria in Africa", "content": "A Chinese philanthropist and his company, New South, have set their sights on Kenya in their mission to eradicate malaria. The company produces medicine that combats malaria and wants to make the world know that Chinese medicines are of high quality and not inferior. It aims to use a Mass Drug Administration approach, where antimalarial medication is given to everybody in an area all at once to combat the disease. Theoretically, this would wipe out the disease in the area. MDA has been used successfully before. However, skeptics argue that the approach increases the chance of the disease developing drug resistance. Doctors in Kenya welcome the treatment as malaria is a heavy burden on the country\u2019s medical system."}, {"headline": "YouTube's New Fact-Check Tool Flagged Notre Dame Fire Coverage And Attached An Article About 9/11", "content": "The Notre Dame fire was live-streamed by many news stations on YouTube but the videos were all initially flagged as possibly containing misinformation regarding 9/11. A widget popped up at the bottom of the videos containing an excerpt of an entry from Encyclopedia Britannica about 9/11. The messages were activated via an algorithm and YouTube eventually manually removed the messages from each video. The use of the information panel is a feature available in the US and South Korea and is aimed to combat the spread of misinformation on the platform."}, {"headline": "Netflix Plans to Launch Cheaper Ad-Supported Plans", "content": "Netflix plans to offer a less expensive tier supported by advertising. Many of its competitors have ad-backed tiers and many advertisers have pushed for the streaming giant to let them advertise on the platform. Netflix will not use data tracking and ad-matching for its ad-backed tier. The company is experiencing a decline in subscribers and subscriber growth. Adding a lower tier could help bring more price-sensitive users back."}, {"headline": "Scientists Captured a Planet's Birth and It Is Terrifying and Beautiful", "content": "AB Aurigae is a star located around 520 light-years from Earth. It is encircled by a thick disk of gas and dust, creating perfect conditions for birthing new planets. Scientists have observed spiral structures within the disk, hinting at the presence of developing planets. Using a specialized instrument designed to look for exoplanets, scientists were able to capture images of the environment surrounding a planet-in-progress. A one-minute video and some images of the formation are available in the article."}, {"headline": "Here\u2019s How to Protect Data Privacy and Enable Analytics", "content": "Here\u2019s How to Protect Data Privacy and Enable Analytics (Sponsor)\n\n\nSensitive data often finds its way into data analytics pipelines where it\u2019s rarely needed, but adds enormous security and compliance risk. However, blindly purging such data from analytics pipelines can break key use cases.Learn how a data privacy vault and tokenization can help you preserve privacy while enabling analytics. Download this white paper to learn more."}, {"headline": "Avoid These Common Data Privacy Pitfalls in 2022", "content": "Innovating and delivering products quickly is essential to any company\u2019s survival, but taking shortcuts on data security and privacy is very costly in the long run. As you aim to balance speed and security, don\u2019t lose sight of the most common privacy pitfalls and how you can avoid them. Download the free white paper today."}, {"headline": "DeepMind\u2019s StarCraft 2 AI is now better than 99.8 percent of all human players", "content": "AlphaStar, DeepMind's StarCraft II AI software, has reached the level of grandmaster in the game. This means that the bot is able to beat 99.8 percent of all human players in competition. The program is now able to play all three of the game's playable races. It is only limited to viewing the portion of the map a human player would see and to 22 unique actions every five seconds of play. AlphaStar is proof that general-purpose reinforcement learning may be one day able to be used to train self-learning robots, self-driving cars, and to create more advanced image and object recognition systems. With enough time, effort, and resources, sophisticated AI software may be able to best humans at virtually any competitive cognitive challenge."}, {"headline": "A \u201cno math\u201d", "content": "Quantum mechanics have entered into our everyday experience with modern technology, and the importance of quantum effects will only grow in the decades to come. This article is part of a seven-part series that introduces quantum mechanics and explains how it applies to our everyday world. The series promises no maths, no philosophy, and only experimentally verified information. This part of the series answers the deceptively simple question, \"How do particles move?\""}, {"headline": "Disney Imagineering\u2019s Project Kiwi is free walking robot that will make you believe in Groot", "content": "Project Kiwi is a small-scale, free-roaming robotic actor developed by Disney's Imagineers. It is a fully mobile, bipedal robot with accurately rendered textures to look like Groot. The robot has expressive eyes and realistic movements. It is still a work in progress and probably won't be seen in public for a while. The goal of the project is to build a character that can walk on its own and interact with park guests."}, {"headline": "CSS Grid: Newspaper Layout", "content": "This page contains code to create a full newspaper-style effect using CSS. A demo is available. Links to download or copy the code are easily accessible."}, {"headline": "Snap buys brain-computer interface startup for future AR glasses", "content": "Snap has acquired NextMind, a neurotech startup that created a headband that lets wearers control computer input with their thoughts. It plans to incorporate the technology into future versions of its Spectacles AR glasses. NextMind will discontinue its $400 headband developer kit. A video explaining NextMind's approach to developing a brain-computer interface is available in the article."}, {"headline": "Bizarre 12-Ton Dinosaur Crouched Like a Cat", "content": "A new dinosaur, the Ledumahadi, was discovered in South Africa. It essentially looks like a Brontosaurus, except they have very mobile forelimbs which suggest that they crouched and moved like cats. It lived over 200 million years ago."}, {"headline": "Video is synthetic and was created using deep learning", "content": "This short video shows a synthetic President Obama with an artificial voice introducing a course on deep learning taught at MIT. The entire video is fake and was created using deep learning and artificial intelligence. A few seconds of behind-the-scenes footage is shown at the end of the video."}, {"headline": "New Study Reveals Why Whales Don't Get Cancer", "content": "Whales experience lower rates of cancer than many animals. A team of scientists used DNA sequencing to map out whale DNA and found tumor-suppressing genes. The finding is significant as it opens up the possibility of using these genes in other animals, such as humans. It could eventually lead to an understanding of ways to improve the cellular mechanisms against DNA damage, cancer, and aging."}, {"headline": "A to Z Resources for Students", "content": "This is an insanely comprehensive set of resources for college students (and a lot of stuff for non-students as well), including resources to learn about any major coding language, hackathons, student discounts, internship portals, conferences for students, and more stuff like that. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you're still in school."}, {"headline": "Kubernetes Failure Stories", "content": "Interesting concept, this is a collection of things going terribly wrong with Kubernetes, so you can learn from other peoples' mistakes without having to make them yourself!"}, {"headline": "Apple removes app used in Hong Kong protests after pressure from China", "content": "Apple has removed HKmap.live from its App store, stating that it had consulted with the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau and found that the app was being used to target police and commit crimes. HKmap.live is an app that crowdsources information from users and public sources to mark the locations of police and inform about street closures. It has been widely used by Hong Kong residents during the ongoing pro-democracy protests this year. The developers of HKmap.live said that there was no evidence to support the CSTCB's accusations and that the app never solicited, promoted, or encouraged criminal activity. Apps like Waze, which similarly allow users to track the locations of police checkpoints, remain available on the App Store. The web version of HKmap.live is still accessible on the iPhone."}, {"headline": "PolarDB", "content": "PolarDB is a system that extends PostgreSQL into a share-nothing database that supports global data consistency and ACID across database nodes, distributed SQL processing, and data redundancy and high availability through Paxos-based replication. It adds new features to PostgreSQL while remaining compatible with single-node PostgreSQL."}, {"headline": "Microsoft analyzed data on its newly remote workforce", "content": "In a study across Microsoft's workforce on the effects of remote work, it was found that employees have been communicating more efficiently and working more varied hours. There were more meetings, but meetings were shorter. Managers were impacted the most by the shift to remote work, with significant increases in meeting hours and messages sent. Social meetings increased and it was found that most employees were maintaining existing networks, even expanding them."}, {"headline": "PHP: The Right Way", "content": "This website contains an easy-to-read, quick reference for popular PHP coding standards. It aims to introduce PHP developers to multiple options while explaining the difference in approach and use case. Many different translations are available. The website also links to tutorials and other resources."}, {"headline": "Op-Eds From the Future", "content": "As our technology develops, things that were impossible in the past may soon be possible in the future, such as altering human DNA, extending human life-spans, and creating cyborgs. Other decisions made today may also drastically alter our future, for example, our environmental and social policies. This series of Op-Eds explores our possible futures as a commentary on our world today."}, {"headline": "How Shopify\u2019s Software Engineering Teams Run Their Meetings", "content": "How Shopify\u2019s Software Engineering Teams Run Their Meetings (Sponsor)\n\n\nShopify's teams build great meeting habits through collaborative agendas, priority setting, and action item tracking. That\u2019s why Shopify uses Fellow.app, the G2 top rated meeting agenda software. Fellow comes packed with customizable templates and integrates with all your tools including Slack, Jira, Trello, and more. Start making your meetings productive and delightful today with Fellow! Try it for free."}, {"headline": "Couchbase Capella DB as a service - flexible, full-featured, and fully managed", "content": "Capella is an enterprise-grade, scalable JSON document and key-value database, with SQL access and built-in full-text search, eventing, and analytics to easily support your many use cases. Try it for free & be up & running in 3 minutes\u2014no credit card required."}, {"headline": "Beijing approves plan for Greater Bay Area to rival San Francisco's Silicon Valley in the United States", "content": "China has greenlighted a technology-driven economic zone called the Greater Bay Area that will link Hong Kong, Macau, and nine other cities including Shenzhen and Guangzhou into a giant science and IT hub about the size of San Francisco and Tokyo combined. It's part of China's plan to integrate expertise in finance, manufacturing and technology, and to grow Hong Kong. Hong Kong's chief executive says \"Our Bay Area has been described by some as combining Silicon Valley with New York City.\""}, {"headline": "Mozilla details Pyodide, which brings Python to browsers", "content": "Pyodide is an experimental project by Mozilla written in WebAssembly that runs Python code in a browser without the need for a remote kernel. The concept of adding Python functionality to a browser is not new. However, Pyodide is able to perform adequately without requiring modified packages, unlike other Python browser plugins. Pyodide is still a work in progress, and features such as working with low-level networking sockets might never be available due to browser sandboxing rules."}, {"headline": "First vaccine to fully immunize against malaria builds on pandemic-driven RNA tech", "content": "Malaria researchers have invented a promising blueprint for a vaccine with properties similar to the novel RNA-based vaccine for Covid-19. Making a vaccine for the disease has been challenging due to a protein produced by its associated parasite. The new vaccine design allows the body to produce T-cells even when the protein is present. It has not been tested yet on humans, but studies have demonstrated high levels of protection in mice."}, {"headline": "The #NobelPrize committee couldn't reach Paul Milgrom to share the news that he won, so his fellow winner and neighbor Robert Wilson knocked on his door in the middle of the night", "content": "Paul Milgrom, winner of this year's Nobel prize for economics, was uncontactable, so Robert Wilson, fellow winner and neighbor, knocked on his door to give him the news directly at 2:15 in the morning. Milgrom's wife, who was in Stockholm, received a notification on her phone from their security-camera, and she got to watch Wilson tell Milgrom that he had won the Nobel Prize live. The one-minute video is available in the original tweet."}, {"headline": "An Introduction to Recurrent Neural Networks for Beginners", "content": "Recurrent Neural Networks are a type of neural network that specializes in processing sequences. A common application of RNNs is for Natural Language Processing due to its effectiveness at handling text. RNNs are able to have variable-length sequences as both inputs and outputs, which sets them apart from other fixed-size type networks. The ability to process sequences makes RNNs very useful, for example, in Machine Translation and Sentiment Analysis. This guide builds an RNN to train it to determine whether a given text string is positive or negative."}, {"headline": "Clubhouse is no longer invite-only", "content": "Clubhouse is no longer invite-only. New users are now able to sign up. People on the waitlist will be added over time. Clubhouse also has a new logo, as well as a new app icon. The invite system allowed Clubhouse to grow in a measured way, making sure that things didn't break as the service scaled. There is increasing competition in the social audio space, so Clubhouse needs to open up its service to remain competitive."}, {"headline": "The SpaceX Starship is a very big deal", "content": "The magnitude of the vision that Starship embodies is often overlooked. Starship is designed to launch with Super Heavy, both of which are designed to be fully reusable with low costs. The cost of launching materials with this setup could be reduced to 1000 times less than launches with Shuttle. It would be a profitable venture if it were to launch any payload currently in the market. SpaceX is looking to build dozens of Starships, and could potentially launch a million tonnes to orbit per year, far existing the current launch market of 500 tonnes per year. Starship is designed for building nations in space. It is capable of launching supplies, such as food, fuel, and heavy construction equipment, into space at an incredible rate at a low cost."}, {"headline": "Warner Bros. will release all of its new 2021 movies simultaneously on HBO Max", "content": "Warner Bros. will release every single one of its movies in 2021 on both HBO Max and in cinemas simultaneously. The movies will only stream for one month before leaving the platform for some time. Warner Bros. plans to test this business model for one year. All films will stream in 4k Ultra HD and HDR. A list of the movies Warner Bros. plans to release is available in the article. Other media companies have experimented with new strategies during the pandemic. Disney released Mulan exclusively on Disney Plus in September and it performed well enough to make the case to Disney executives that a Premier Access Strategy could work. By releasing exclusive titles every month, streaming services are better able to retain subscribers."}, {"headline": "Three people with inherited diseases successfully treated with CRISPR", "content": "Two people with beta-thalassemia and one with sickle cell disease will no longer need regular blood transfusions after their bone marrow stem cells were gene-edited with CRISPR. The treatment involved killing bone marrow cells with chemotherapy and replacing them with edited cells. While the chemotherapy caused adverse side effects, it appears that the CRISPR gene editing was safe. There were five people in the trial altogether. The patients will need to be monitored for the rest of their lives to observe the long-term effects of the treatment."}, {"headline": "Japanese hotel chain sorry that hackers may have watched guests through bedside robots", "content": "A hotel chain in Japan uses robots that perform tasks that human employees usually do, for example, check-in guests, showing guests their rooms, and assist with other requirements. The hotels use facial recognition to unlock doors. A few months ago, a security researcher discovered a vulnerability on the robots that allowed easy access to stream video and audio from the robots. The researcher notified the hotel group about the vulnerability but received no reply, so he made the hack public. After the hack was revealed, the hotel group apologized for the vulnerability and patched the software."}, {"headline": "\u2018It\u2019s the right thing to do\u2019: the 300,000 volunteer hackers coming together to fight Russia", "content": "Around 300,000 people have signed up to a Telegram group called the IT Army of Ukraine. The group is run by the Ukrainian government. People in the group have been disrupting Russian web services, targeting the websites of the Kremlin and the Duma as well as state-owned media services, several banks, and an energy company. Russia has attempted to mitigate the attacks by filtering access to certain websites, causing further disruption. This article tells the story of some of the group's participants. The original tweet from Ukraine's vice prime minister asking for help is embedded in the article."}, {"headline": "Identify the root cause of an incident with a single search", "content": "Identify the root cause of an incident with a single search (Sponsor)\n\n\nIncident response is stressful and overwhelming, but it doesn't need to be. Identify the root cause of an incident, understand its potential impact on other services, and fix the issue everywhere in your codebase so it won't reoccur with Sourcegraph. Learn more."}, {"headline": "\u2018Last Hope\u2019 Experiment Finds Evidence for Unknown Particles", "content": "Muons are elementary particles similar to electrons. Decades ago, scientists noticed that these particles wobbled more than expected when whipping around a magnetized ring. A recent new measurement confirms these results, making it significantly likely that an unknown force was giving the muons an extra push. The discovery, if confirmed, could break down the 50-year-old Standard Model of particle physics, which describes known elementary particles and interactions."}, {"headline": "Airbnb asks SEC to let it give hosts equity", "content": "Airbnb wants to begin giving its hosts equity in the company. Current SEC rules cap the total number of shareholders at 2,000 before a company is subject to public reporting requirements. Airbnb is asking the SEC to revise these rules for to add a \"gig economy worker\" category, with CEO Brian Chesky saying \"Airbnb is a community-based company and we would be nothing without our hosts. We would like our most loyal hosts to be shareholders, but need these policies to change in order to make that happen.\""}, {"headline": "First 'Non-Cuttable' Material in the World: Proteus", "content": "Proteus is a new non-cuttable material created from ceramic spheres arranged in a cellular aluminum structure. With only 15% steel density, Proteus can resist cutting tools such as angle grinders or drills. Its design was inspired by grapefruit skin and mollusk shells. The material is designed to be harder to cut when damaged. It is equally effective against water jet cutters."}, {"headline": "A giant 3D cat has taken over one of Tokyo's biggest billboards", "content": "A giant 3D cat appears between advertisements on a billboard over one of Tokyo's busiest railway stations. The cat does different things depending on the time of day. It will officially launch on July 12, but videos of test broadcasts have already been shared on the internet. The billboard must be viewed at the correct angle for the 3D effect. Cross Space, the company behind the display, livestreams a view of the billboard on YouTube and there is a link to it in the article."}, {"headline": "The Cult of CryptoPunks", "content": "CryptoPunks is an NFT platform that launched in 2017 with 10,000 procedurally generated 'punks'. All of the punks were claimed for free when the project launched. In the last few months, the platform has seen nearly $200 million worth of transaction volume in official deals. Some investors see NFTs as a way to diversify their crypto holdings. The value of a punk is determined by the users in the CryptoPunks Discord community. Due to the rarity of CryptoPunks, using one as an avatar on social media sites has become a sort of 'digital flex' for some."}, {"headline": "Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber/electrician/brickie? Anyone done this?", "content": "Being a developer can be difficult with the constant upskilling required to stay in the game. The grass may look greener in other fields where people can leave work at work. However, the trade-off is usually not worth it. This thread is full of anecdotes on what it is like working in other professions and reasons why software development is really a good career to be in."}, {"headline": "Elementz", "content": "Elementz is a React component library for building apps. More than half of the library code is SCSS so it is easily customizable and smooth. It features a full Table component, Smooth Loading Skeleton wrappers with zero configuration, and more. Examples of its components are available."}]
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