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World's First Underground Hotel is Set to Open Next Month Outside Shanghai | Shanghai's Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland is a five star hotel that will be almost entirely underground. The top two floors will be covered in lush green grass, while the remaining 16 floors will extend underground into a mountain quarry. The hotel will have 383 rooms and cover 49,409 square meters. There will be a cascading waterfall at the top of the quarry, and the mountain itself will allow for the hotel to provide bungee jumping and rock climbing activities for the guests. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How Loot Boxes Hooked gamers and Left Regulators Spinning | Loot boxes have been around in games since the early 2000s. These in-game mystery boxes allow users to have a chance at obtaining special items, but in order to open the boxes, gamers need to purchase keys with real money. Recently, the debate on whether loot boxes were gambling intensified when EA released Star Wars Battlefront II in November 2017. Users were initially required to purchase keys and open loot boxes in order to progress in the game. Gamers have taken to forums to talk about their loot box gambling addictions. Regulators are yet to develop a clear stance on this practice in the $30 billion gaming industry. | 4Miscellaneous
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Herd Of Fuzzy Green 'Glacier Mice' Baffles Scientists | Glacier mice are balls of moss that can be found in Alaska, Iceland, Svalbard, and South America. These balls of moss can live for years and they move around in a coordinated, herd-like fashion. They can be composed of different moss species. Researchers are baffled by what makes the moss balls move as they seem to be able to move uphill and against the wind. The moss balls move in a rotating motion. Tiny creatures such as worms and water bears can live inside these moss balls. Pictures are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Sponge Genes Hint at the Origins of Neurons and Other Cells | A new study reveals how around 26,000 genes are expressed in the freshwater sponge Spongilla. The study offers important hints about how cell types evolved and may help settle the long debate on whether neurons evolved just once or many times. Many multifunctional cells in sponges express modules of genes usually associated with specialized cells in more complex vertebrates. The study has spawned many fascinating hypotheses that scientists are now testing. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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PocketBase (GitHub Repo) | PocketBase is a Go backend consisting of an embedded SQLite database with realtime subscriptions, built-in files and user management, a convenient Admin dashboard UI, and a simple REST-ish API. It can be used as a standalone app or as a framework for building custom app-specific business logic that produces a single portable executable. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Flight rules for Git (GitHub Repo) | Flight rules are the hard-earned body of knowledge recorded in manuals that serve as extremely detailed standard operating procedures for what to do if X occurs. This repository contains a manual for using Git. It covers how to use repositories, editing commits, staging, branches, tracking, configuration, and more. There are books, tutorials, scripts, and other resources available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales top $38 billion | Alibaba reported $38.4 billion of sales during its Singles' Day event. Singles' Day is China's equivalent to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Alibaba invested in weeks of aggressive advertising and promotions prior to the event, with ads including celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian. Before the event, Alibaba had to tune its business so that it could handle the upcoming increase in sales. One of the improvements was in its logistics network. Alibaba recently announced an additional $3.3 billion investment into Cainiao, a logistics unit that Alibaba co-founded six years ago. It is currently facing competition from JD.com and Pinduoduo. Singles day is an event that falls on November 11 every year that is dedicated to people who are not in a relationship. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Super (GitHub Repo) | Super is a single dependency framework for Ruby on Rails applications. It is fully compatible with Sprockets and Webpacker. Super features built-in pagination, configurable forms, and a configurable display. It supports Rails 5.0+ and Ruby 2.3+. All assets are vendored. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Lyft bikes caught fire in Berkeley, San Jose before two reported in San Francisco | Four of Lyft's electric bikes have caught on fire, causing the company to disable all its electric bikes from the East Bay, San Francisco, and San Jose areas. The cause of the fires is under investigation, with Lyft claiming that at least one of the fires was caused by vandalism. With the electric bikes disabled, Lyft now only has 2,500 pedal-powered bikes throughout the Bay Area to serve its customers. Riders have been frustrated with the sudden rollback, as many had depended on the service. Lyft has no intention of re-introducing the bikes until they discover the cause of the fires and fix the problem. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Twist Biosciences: The DNA API (18 minute read) | This article explores the business and science behind Twist Bioscience and the biotech industry. Twist is a DNA manufacturing and software company. The company produces sequences of DNA that cells use to produce molecular products and molecular work. Twist uses a printing technique to produce thousands of DNA sequences at a time on silicon chips with very low error rates. The business has automated its processes, making it an API business and more like a tech company than a manufacturing company. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Work at Supabase (Sponsor) | Supabase is hiring remote engineers to build the open source alternative to Firebase. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk shows off the Boring Company 'disturbingly long' LA tunnel in a short video | 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. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Andromeda (GitHub Repo) | Andromeda is a tool created for reverse engineering Android applications, written in C/C++. It is still in an early development stage. There is a short demo video showing Andromeda in use. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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More Cloud for Less Money (Sponsor) | More Cloud for Less Money . Vultr offers Cloud Compute across more than 20 locations with pricing as low as $2.50 per month. Spin up your first instance today in 60 seconds or less with one of 12 pre-selected operating systems or bring your own ISO! Redeem $150 in free credit today. | 0Sponsor
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Apple Collaborating With LG to Develop iPads and MacBooks With Foldable OLED Displays and Ultra-Thin Cover Glass | Apple and LG are collaborating to develop a foldable OLED display panel with ultra-thin cover glass for future iPad and MacBook models. LG has growing expertise in foldable OLED displays and sells them to other manufacturers such as HP and Lenovo. Apple's display could be around 20-inches in size. It may be creating a new product category for the device. The device won't be launched until after 2025. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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After Russia's threat, Elon Musk says SpaceX can protect the ISS from deorbiting | Sanctions against Russia aimed at degrading the Russian aerospace industry have resulted in a not-so-veiled threat that the ISS would crash into Europe or the US if it was to fall. Elon Musk replied to the threat with SpaceX's logo. With SpaceX's experience in rocket engines, spacecraft maneuvering, and collision avoidance, it would not be surprising if it was asked to handle the ISS on an SOS basis. The Twitter exchange between Musk and the chief of the Russian Space agency is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Crazy-looking Hyperion XP-1 fuel cell hypercar seen driving on public roads | Hyperion's hydrogen-powered XP-1 hypercar claims a 1,000-mile range per tank of hydrogen, 1,500 horsepower, a 0-60 time of 2.2 seconds, and a top speed of 221 mph. There are no batteries on-board to store energy, which reduces weight. As there was no physical CES show this year, Hyperion decided to drive the XP-1 up and down the Vegas Strip. The vehicle will be available to the public starting in 2022. Pictures and a video of the vehicle are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Samsung: Expect 6G in 2028, enabling mobile holograms and digital twins | While 5G is still just starting to roll out, scientists are already working on the next-generation 6G standard. 6G is expected to offer 50 times higher peak data rates than 5G plus support for 10 times more connected devices in a square kilometer. Samsung is preparing for a 6G launch in 2028, two years ahead of the commonly predicted 2030 timeframe. Future technologies are sure to require significant amounts of bandwidth, with some projected requirements already surpassing the 5G network's capabilities. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Turkey’s Newfound Cache of Rare Earths Could Supply the World’s EVs and More | Turkey recently discovered a massive rare earth reserve almost as big as the world's largest in China. | 4Miscellaneous
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Minister in Charge of Japan's Cybersecurity Says He Has Never Used a Computer | Yoshitaka Sakurada, Japan's cybersecurity minister, says that when computer use is necessary "I order my employees or secretaries" to do it, adding "I don't type on a computer." When questioned about whether allowing USB drives in nuclear power plants was a security risk, Sakurada didn't know what a USB drive was. One Japanese lawmaker said "I can't believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures." | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Academics steal data from air-gapped systems using PC fan vibrations | Air-gapped systems are systems that aren't connected to any network. These systems generally run critical operations or have sensitive data, so limiting exposure to outside networks is a necessary security measure. Mordechai Guri and his team have been researching methods of extracting data from air-gapped systems and have developed a plethora of techniques over the years. A new technique involves installing malware onto the air-gapped machine which makes the fans inside the computer vibrate at certain frequencies. These frequencies can be recorded using a phone's accelerometer and then decoded later on. While the technique is innovative, it is extremely slow, extracting data at half a bit per second. Real-life attackers are likely to use faster methods. | 4Miscellaneous
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Researchers Say ‘Anti-Solar Panels’ Could Generate Power at Night | Researchers from the University of California have designed 'anti-solar panels' which would theoretically be able to generate solar power at night. Solar panels work because they are cold compared to the sun, so they absorb sunlight and convert it into energy. The anti-solar panels reverse the process and generate energy through the loss of energy from the panels to the cool night sky. It is estimated that the panels would be able to generate about a quarter of the power of a solar panel. The next step for the scientists is to build the devices to see how well they perform. It may be possible to boost the efficiency of the cells by using materials that can better interact with longer wavelengths of light. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ask HN: Where can I find remote or quality oriented freelancing work? (Hacker News Thread) | As a developer, finding freelance work can be difficult, especially with popular freelancing platforms being flooded with low-quality programmers who place low bids to win projects. While there are many sources and avenues to find employment, the key is to develop sales skills and set yourself apart from the crowd. Employers and companies receive applications all the time, and if an application is generic, it is easy to ignore. Being proactive by creating a portfolio of work and then presenting it correctly will help developers gain more higher-quality jobs than just exploring new job platforms or randomly contacting potential employers. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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9 Popular GitHub Repos For Every Web Developer | This article contains a list of nine GitHub repositories that have at least 30,000 stars. Each item on the list comes with links and a short description of what is on the repository. Items include books, style guides, component libraries, checklists, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Software Engineering Within SpaceX (10 minute read) | The SpaceX Software Engineering team comprises of four separate teams. The Flight Software team develops code for Falcon 9, Grasshopper, and Dragon vehicles, and simulation, communications, and analysis software. They work with Mission Control to support active missions. The Enterprise Information Systems team mainly focuses on an internal web application that nearly every person in the company uses. The Ground Software team develops the GUIs used in Mission and Launch control for engineers to monitor vehicles and equipment. The Avionics Test team writes software for testing hardware and catching problems with the hardware earlier. Software for the mission, including SpaceX's Chromium and JavaScript-based Dragon 2 flight interface, had to go through various certifications. Every mission-critical input has a physical button underneath the touch display in case of a malfunction. A real-time operating system is used for Mission Critical applications as they have a faster interrupt response and better memory protection compared to regular operating systems. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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State of JS (Website) | 21,717 people were surveyed on their views on the JavaScript ecosystem in 2019. The raw data is available for download. Most respondents were from the US, Canada, and the UK, with a median salary of between $50k-$100k. 91.3 percent of the respondents were male. Jest, TypeScript, Express, React, Mocha, and Redux were highly recommended technologies to adopt. JavaScript is constantly adding new features, and there are many that haven't been adopted into mainstream use. Typescript is still the most popular JavaScript flavor. React is the leading front-end framework again, after dropping behind Vue.js last year. All other top technologies from 2018 retained their positions in 2019. The most popular resources were CSS Tricks, Medium, Stack Overflow, Udemy, Syntax, and React Podcast. Overall, most developers are happy with the way JavaScript has been developed and its future. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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D-Tale (GitHub Repo) | D-Tale makes it easy to view and analyze Pandas data structures. It is a lightweight web client that can display Pandas objects using a combination of a Flask backend and a React front-end. Users can build custom charts, find correlations, create heat maps, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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China is Home to World's First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor | China Huaneng Group Co.’s 200-megawatt small modular reactor at Shidao Bay is now operational. The nuclear plant will go into full commercial operations next year after connecting a second reactor. Its reactors are designed to shut down passively if anything goes wrong. China is expected to invest up to $440 billion into nuclear power over the next decade and a half. Small module reactors are less costly to build and operate, faster to implement, and have shorter shutdown times compared to traditional nuclear plants, making them an exciting technology for nuclear experts. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Reddit’s first live show is a Photoshop competition | Reddit and Adobe have teamed up to stream a comedy competition series called PsBattles Live. The show will stream on the r/PsBattlesLive subreddit every day this week. It will feature Photoshop edits made by the community and commentary from a panel of comedians. Users who participate will earn points, community rewards, and internet glory. The launch of the show marks the 10th anniversary of the r/photoshopbattles subreddit. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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CoreUI Icons (GitHub Repo) | CoreUI Icons contains more than 1,500 icons in multiple formats. It is free and open-source, and the icons can be used for commercial projects, open-source projects, or almost anything else. A Pro version is available with more than 2,000 icons and more styles. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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North Korea’s military has stolen more than half a billion dollars in cryptocurrency | State-sponsored hackers in North Korea targeted financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges between 2017 and 2018, stealing around $670 million in total. Cryptocurrencies are an attractive target for North Korea as they can easily bypass sanctions since the digital currencies are hard to trace, can be laundered many times, and are independent of government regulations. A panel of experts informed the UN Security Council about the thefts and urged UN member states to increase information exchange between foreign governments and domestic financial institutions regarding these cyber attacks. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Magic Leap planning new AR glasses for 2022, joining a crowded field | Magic Leap has announced a new augmented reality headset. The Magic Leap 2 is smaller with a wider field of view and dimming for use in bright conditions. It is designed for helping remote workers connect away from physical offices. Magic Leap's first headset was not very successful and it faces a lot of competition from much larger companies. An image of the new device is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Google’s Stadia Game Service is Officially Coming November: Everything You Need to Know | Google has officially released details on its Stadia game service. Stadia will be released in November in 14 different territories, including the US, UK, and Canada. At least 31 games from 21 publishers will be launched with the service. A $130 ‘Founder’s Edition’ hardware kit will launch with Stadia, which includes a Chromecast Ultra and a limited-edition dark blue version of the Stadia controller. The subscription service will be $10 a month after a 3 month included subscription with the Founder’s Edition kit. A free tier will be launching in 2020. Google eventually intends to have a backlog of free games that comes with the subscription service, but Stadia is not primarily a subscription service for games. Customers will still have to purchase games to play on the platform. A list of the countries Stadia will be launched in and the games that will be available at launch is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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So You Want to Write a Technical Book (13 minute read) | Writing a book to teach others a few things can be a rewarding experience on many levels. This article discusses publishing and whether one should self-publish or find a publisher. It covers topics such as royalty rates, rights, cover design, copyright, and much more. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tesla Video Shows Gigafactory Shanghai Automation Nearing 'Alien Dreadnought' Phase | Tesla has shared a 49-second long time-lapse video from Gigafactory Shanghai. It is linked in the article. Elon Musk had wanted to produce a factory that functioned as a product and looked alien. By version 3, the 'alien dreadnought' will be completely automated, with people only present to maintain the machines, upgrade them, and deal with anomalies. At the end of the last quarter, Tesla had an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles at Gigafactory Shanghai. | 4Miscellaneous
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China's digital currency comes to its biggest messaging app WeChat, which has over a billion users | WeChat plans to roll out China's e-CNY digital currency for use in its app. WeChat is used everywhere in China, with the super app offering many functions such as messaging, payments, taxi-hailing, and food orders. WeChat Pay has over 800 million monthly users. Alipay has also started trialing digital yuan payments. The People's Bank of China has expanded the rollout of its e-CNY app to certain regions and cities, allowing anyone in those areas to use the service. | 4Miscellaneous
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Amazon offers to help U.S. with vaccine in letter to President Biden | Amazon has offered to help with the US efforts involving the COVID-19 vaccine in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden. The retailer has an agreement with a healthcare provider to administer vaccines at its facilities. It is prepared to leverage its resources to assist the Biden administration's vaccination efforts. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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We Broke Into A Bunch Of Android Phones With A 3D-Printed Head | Security researchers have managed to break into four Android phones (2 Samsungs, an LG and a OnePlus) using 3D printed heads made for about £300. 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. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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YugaByte DB (GitHub Repo) | YugaByte DB is a cloud-native distributed SQL database. It works by using a combination of high-performance document store, auto sharding, per-shard distributed consensus replication, and multi-shard ACID transactions. YugaByte DB can easily be deployed across public and private clouds, as well as Kubernetes environments. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Scientists discover first known animal that doesn't breathe | Scientists have discovered that H. salminicola, a parasite that infects the dense muscle tissues of fish and underwater worms, doesn't have mitochondrial DNA and it doesn't breathe. H. salminicola has evolved away tissue, nerve cells, muscles, and basically everything else to become mostly just a blob. This family of parasites thrives by reproducing as quickly and often as possible. While most evolution tends towards complexity, this organism has gone the completely opposite way, evolving to become almost unicellular. It is unknown how the parasite acquires energy, but it is likely that it consumes energy directly from its infected hosts. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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China bans online gaming for minors except from 8 pm-9 pm Friday to Sunday | China has issued new rules banning minors from playing video games more than three hours a week. Minors will only be allowed to play games from 8 pm to 9 pm, Friday to Sunday. Enforcement measures will primarily target online games and online services related to gaming. Gaming companies must implement real-name verification systems and link online games to a state anti-addiction system. China's government blames video game addiction for a host of societal ills and it has a long history of imposing restrictions on the video game industry. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple’s smart glasses will arrive in the first half of 2020, top analyst says | Apple is planning to release a range of new hardware in the first half of 2020, according to TF Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo. Included with the release will be a pair of AR glasses that Apple has developed with third-party brands. The new, lower-cost iPhone SE 2 and a new iPad Pro will also be released. A 5G iPhone is set to be released in the third quarter of 2020. Kuo did not mention the 16-inch MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, which was supposed to launch sometime this month. The new iPhone SE 2 will use the same A13 chip as the iPhone 11 and have a similar design to the iPhone 8. It should cost around $399. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Robinhood, Interactive Brokers restrict trading in GameStop stock and options | Robinhood took steps to restrict the trading in GameStop stock and other related securities. The company claims the changes were made due to recent market volatility. GameStop shares dropped after the announcement, closing down 44% on Thursday. Robinhood customers have threatened to open a class-action lawsuit against the company. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex and Ted Cruz have both called the move unacceptable. Hedge fund Melvin Capital has taken huge losses due to the actions of an army of retail investors. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The Rise of Smart Camera Networks, and Why We Should Ban Them (12 minute read) | Private businesses and homes are starting to link their cameras to police networks, increasing the overall public surveillance network and moving us closer to a future where our every move is filmed and interpreted using video analytics. Smart camera networks are an alarming development that threatens civil rights and liberties around the world. In the past, surveillance technology produced low-quality images and required a lot of hours and physical work to search through to find information. With advances in technology, image quality has improved, and image recognition and video analysis capabilities allow us to search through and extract more data from video faster than ever before. Advances in machine learning mean that we are moving towards the possibility of predictive policing, where data can be used to predict crimes so that police can intervene before it happens. | 4Miscellaneous
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Twitter announces paid Super Follows to let you charge for tweets | Twitter recently announced two new features during a presentation for analysts and investors. Super Follows will allow users to charge followers for extra content. Twitter has not yet revealed what fees will be charged for the service. Communities is similar to Facebook Groups, where people can create and join groups around specific interests and see more posts focused on those topics. Twitter did not reveal when either of these features will be launched. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Colors & Fonts (Website) | This website contains a library of colors, fonts, and resources for web developers and digital designers. The categories include Color Palettes, Material UI Colors, a Color Code Converter, resources for designers and developers, CSS and HTML references, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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TikTok guidelines said not to promote posts by ‘ugly’ and poor users | TikTok guidelines for moderators state that posts by people who are ugly or who appear to be poor should be prevented from being promoted to its 'For You' section. Previous excerpts of TikTok's guidelines have been leaked in the past, including a section about preventing posts from LGBTQ users and users with disabilities from appearing in 'For You'. TikTok claims that the goal of these rules was to prevent bullying. Notes accompanying these rules say that the banned traits were less likely to draw in new users. TikTok has been under growing scrutiny for its moderation and data collection services. It is owned by a Chinese company and it has censored anti-CCP content on its platform in the past. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Disney streaming exec Kevin Mayer becomes TikTok’s new CEO | Kevin Mayer will be leaving Disney to become TikTok's new CEO as well as COO of ByteDance. Mayer oversaw the launch of Disney+ last fall and was a potential successor to Bob Iger. Bob Chapek has since replaced Iger's position as CEO of Disney. A high-profile American executive could help address politicians' security concerns over TikTok's Chinese ownership. Rebecca Campbell will be taking over Mayer's role at Disney. | 4Miscellaneous
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What is kubectl? (Sponsor) | kubectl is the command-line tool most developers use to interact with the Kubernetes API. Here's how it works, why it's needed, and how you can get started. Learn more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Project Fi is now Google Fi, and it will work with iPhones and most Android devices | Project Fi (now renamed Google Fi) is Google's cell service, which piggy-backs off T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular's networks and allows users to dynamically switch between those networks based on which has the best signal in any given location. Until today, the service had only been available for a few phones (Google Pixel and a few others that Google sells). Now, the service is available for iPhone, Samsung, and most other Android users. It costs $20 for a phone line plus $10 per gig of data capped at $60/month. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Home Buyer Opendoor Is Going Public In $4.8 Billion Merger | Opendoor is a platform that lets homeowners quickly sell their houses. The company will go public through a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II, a shell company led by a venture capitalist and early Facebook executive. Opendoor generated $4.7 billion in revenue in 2019 with 18,000 home sales across 21 markets. It laid off a third of its employees in April. While the company is still operating at a loss, the deal values Opendoor at an enterprise value of $4.8 billion. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Startup Aims to Drill 12 Miles Into Earth’s Crust to Tap the Boundless Energy Below | Quaise Energy, a startup that spun out of MIT in 2018, recently secured $40 million in funding for their deep-drilling energy project. The startup plans to drill holes as deep as 12 miles into the Earth's crust where it reaches temperatures of over 700 degrees Fahrenheit. It plans to use the holes to convert water into supercritical steam to drive turbines and produce electricity. If successful, the technique could be used anywhere in the world to produce nearly 100 percent renewable energy at terawatt levels. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Hundreds of Amazon Workers Are Not Going to Work in Nationwide Protest | 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. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Imagineering in a Box (Website) | This course features Disney Imagineers that come from hundreds of career disciplines around the world. It covers the wide range of skills required to create immersive experiences, from characters to ride development, so that the student can learn to design a theme park of their own. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Your Brain Is Fooled Into Feeling Shapes and Textures On This Temperature-Changing Touchscreen | Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed a touchscreen device that can increase its surface friction to create the illusion of physical shapes and textures when touched. The amount of friction on the screen can be controlled through temperature. Current prototypes aren't able to make detailed temperature adjustments, but the team hopes to eventually develop touchscreen devices that can trick the brain into thinking it is feeling real physical buttons. | 4Miscellaneous
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South Korea plans to launch 6G trials in 2026 | The South Korean government has confirmed plans that it will test its 6G network in 2026. It plans to make the service commercially available as soon as 2028. The project will cost approximately $169 million over five years. 6G is expected to provide speeds roughly five times faster than 5G, at around 1Tbps. | 4Miscellaneous
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Swift for TensorFlow (Website) | This page contains tutorials for getting started with Swift for Tensorflow. Swift for Tensorflow is a next-generation platform for machine learning that integrates the power for Tensorflow directly into the Swift programming language. The project is still in its early stages so it is currently targeted at advanced ML researchers, who feel restricted by current ML frameworks, and beginner ML learners, as it may be one of the most productive ways to start learning the fundamentals of machine learning. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Seed (GitHub Repo) | 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. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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UnoCSS (GitHub Repo) | UnoCSS is an instant, on-demand Atomic CSS engine inspired by Windi CSS, Tailwind CSS, and Twind. It is fully customizable, fast, and compact, and it features shortcuts, an Attributify Mode, an inspector, CSS scoping, and more. An online playground is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Acoustic Tweezers Can Pick Objects Up With Sound Waves – Without Any Physical Contact | 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. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Defensive CSS (11 minute read) | This article contains a collection of CSS snippets that can help developers avoid certain CSS issues. It covers a large range of topics, such as spacing, lock scroll chaining, text over images, and more. In addition to the code snippets, each section explains the issues that can occur and how to avoid them. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Better scrolling through modern CSS | Every app and website has scroll bars, but they don't get much love from developers. This article looks at things that developers can do to improve the scrolling experience for users. It covers the basics, theming scrollbars, the quirks of various operating systems, and much more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Plasmid, Virus or Other? DNA ‘Borgs’ Blur Boundaries | 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. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Airbnb asks SEC to let it give hosts equity | 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." | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Reshape (GitHub Repo) | Reshape is a zero-downtime schema migration tool for Postgres. It automatically handles complex migrations that would normally require downtime or manual multi-step changes by ensuring both old and new schemas are available at the same time during a migration. Reshape is still experimental and should not be used in production. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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FBI document shows what data can be obtained from encrypted messaging apps | An FBI document released earlier this month contains a list of messaging services, what kind of data can be obtained from the operators of the services, and the legal processes required to obtain that information. Law enforcement can access the content of encrypted messages from services like iMessage, Line, and WhatsApp, but not from Signal, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WeChat, or Wickr. The document is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Commit messages guide (GitHub Repo) | This repository is a guide for users on how to write commit messages. It goes through what a commit message is, why it is important to write good commit messages, best practices, and tips on how to plan and write good commit histories. The guide is available in five languages. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Partytown (GitHub Repo) | 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. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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handcalcs (GitHub Repo) | handcalcs renders Python calculation code to look like it was written in pencil. It writes the symbolic formula, followed by numeric substitutions, and then the result. A basic GIF demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Wood can easily be turned transparent to make energy-saving windows | Transparent wood is usually created by removing a structural component of the wood called lignin. A team of researchers has come up with a method of creating transparent wood by modifying the lignin without removing it completely. The technique produces wood that allows more than 90 percent of light to pass through it and is 50 times stronger than wood with the lignin removed. It is lighter and stronger than glass, and it could be potentially used to make a see-through house. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ford self-driving cars to launch in Austin in 2021 | Ford will add Austin to the list of cities where it plans to launch its commercial transportation service using automated vehicles in 2021. The service will also be available in Miami and Washington. Ford is working with Argo AI to create its self-driving system, which is now being tested in Ford's Fusion Hybrid sedans. The commercial transportation service will use purpose-built hybrid vehicles that can be equipped to carry either people or goods. Development teams will be manually driving the Fusion test vehicles in Austin in order to map the city streets and assess driver and pedestrian behaviors before the launch. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage on June 1st, 2021 | From June next year, Google Photos will start charging for storage once users pass the 15 GB mark. All photos and documents uploaded before the change will not count towards the cap. Pixel owners will be able to continue uploading high-quality photos for free without limits. Users who want more storage can purchase Google One, which offers storage across Google's suite of apps, as well as a VPN for Android at some of its higher tiers. If users are inactive for two years and don't respond to Google's multiple warning emails, they risk having their account data deleted. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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GPT-3 Sandbox (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a tool to create web demos using the OpenAI GPT-3 API with just a few lines of Python. It automatically creates a web app for testing. An API key from the OpenAI API beta is required to run the code. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Snap’s first AR Spectacles are an ambitious, impractical start | Snap has been treating its first generation of AR glasses like a private beta, giving the Spectacles out to AR creators instead of releasing them publicly, probably for good reason. While the glasses have a high-quality design, the battery life is very short, the device is prone to overheating, and the displays are too small to use comfortably for long periods. This article talks about the experience of what it is like wearing the glasses. It includes photos and recordings of AR experiences from inside the glasses. | 4Miscellaneous
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Zoom goes down, bringing much of the remote workplace and classroom to grinding halt | Zoom suffered a massive outage on Monday morning. The outage likely affected millions of workers and students. Zoom's service has been restored and the company will continue to monitor the situation. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Great Barrier Reef: Scientists find reef taller than Empire State Building | A 500m high coral reef has been found north of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It is the first such discovery in 120 years. Scientists used an underwater robot called SuBastian to explore the reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef, but it has lost more than half of its corals since 1995 due to climate change. The new reef is detached from the Great Barrier Reef. At 1.5km wide, it is one of seven other tall reefs in the region. 3D maps of the reef are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Designer Camera (Mac Desktop App) | This is a Mac desktop app that lets you easily make a rotatable 3D mockup of your iOS app in just a few seconds. It's a free download with no email required. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A New Membrane Can Substantially Upgrade Wearable Energy Generators | Scientists from Japan and China have created a new triboelectric fabric that can generate power from body motion while maintaining the flexibility and breathability of modern clothing. The team achieved these properties by using a multilayered triboelectric nanogenerator, nanowires, and a polystyrene charge storage layer. The technology is currently not able to generate large amounts of power, but the development of the new material represents a substantial advancement towards the future of wearable applications. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Figma to Code (GitHub Repo) | Figma to Code is a Figma plugin that generates responsive pages and apps on Tailwind, Flutter, and SwiftUI. It optimizes the layout before the conversion to code begins, improving code quality. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Earth's final frontier: the global race to map the entire ocean floor | Scientists around the world are racing to map the ocean floor by 2030 to help countries prepare for tsunamis, protect marine habitats, and monitor deep-sea mining. As of 2017, only 6% of the ocean was mapped in accurate detail. The lack of ocean maps plays a role in nearly every critical ocean issue, including sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and biodiversity. Mapping the ocean presents many difficult challenges and expeditions can be costly. The goal of completing the ocean map by 2030 seems possible, but there will still be much more to discover after it is done. | 4Miscellaneous
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US Cyber Command disrupted the notorious Trickbot botnet | The Trickbot botnet is a network of at least a million hijacked computers reported to be run by Russian-speaking criminals. Using malware, the operators of the botnet stole sensitive information and infected systems with ransomware. Trickbot was used to attack a healthcare provider with ransomware in September. A recent operation mounted by the US Cyber Command interrupted the Trickbot botnet's operations several times over the last few weeks, disconnecting infected computers from the servers used to control them. | 4Miscellaneous
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Miniflare (GitHub Repo) | Miniflare is a simulator for developing and testing Cloudflare Workers. It allows Workers to be tested locally without an internet connection. Miniflare has support for most Workers features. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A new standard could let companies build processors out of Lego-like chiplets | Chipmakers worldwide are working together to create a new system for integrating chiplets together in future semiconductor designs. Almost every major name in the industry is involved with the project. The standard will use the same broad model that PC components have used for years but for specialized chips called chiplets that only do a few specific functions. Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) will be a standard for connecting chiplets together to make it easier to mix and match different components when building custom processors. | 4Miscellaneous
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Spotify is publicly testing its own version of Stories | Spotify is publicly testing its own version of Stories. Stories on Spotify was first discovered back in August 2019. It appears that Spotify is a/b testing the feature, so not all users will have access. A 13-second video is available showing the new Stories interface. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amazon employee at Seattle headquarters tests positive for coronavirus | An employee at Amazon's Seattle headquarters has tested positive for COVID-19. Amazon has 55,000 employees working at their Seattle offices. Those who had been in close contact with the affected employee have been notified. Amazon has stated that they are supporting the employee, who is now in quarantine. They went home sick on February 25 and haven't returned to work since. There were more than 100 cases in the US as of Tuesday night. More than 90,000 people in the world have been infected, with the death toll rising to around 3,000. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Building a “smart” security camera with a Raspberry Pi (18 minute read) | Scarecrow-Cam is a Raspberry Pi-powered camera that detects people with Tensorflow Object Detection and greets them with a warning sound. Overly cautious security cameras are often triggered by light, wind, cars, or other non-human objects, which can be annoying. Human detection on cameras greatly improves the camera's use as a security device. This article describes how to create Scarecrow-cam. It includes the code as well as videos of the software in action. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Oracle finally responds to wage discrimination claims… by suing US Department of Labor | Oracle has responded to long-standing accusations about wage discrimination by suing the government department that has repeatedly flagged the issue. Its lawsuit claims that the US Department of Labor doesn't have the authority to cut Oracle out of government contracts for its discriminatory practices or sue it for underpaying certain staff. The Department of Labor sued Oracle in 2017 for gross disparities in pay among different groups. Oracle refused to cooperate, so the department threatened to freeze it out of government contracts. A second lawsuit this year is seeking to fine Oracle $400 million for discriminating against women and minorities. It claims that Oracle hires men from India in order to pay them less. An analysis of the company's payroll found that Oracle was paying women $13,000 less on average than their male counterparts. | 4Miscellaneous
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Twitter expressed interest in buying TikTok's U.S. operations | Twitter has announced its interest in purchasing TikTok from ByteDance. Microsoft is also bidding for the brand. Both companies have 45 days to negotiate and complete a deal before President Trump's executive order to ban the service takes effect. Twitter will need to raise additional capital to fund the deal and it might not have enough borrowing capacity. Investors may prefer Twitter over Microsoft as it is not active in China and it would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple accused of monitoring employee text messages in lawsuit against ex-chip exec | Gerard Williams, a former Apple executive, has accused Apple of illegally obtaining text messages from his iPhone before firing him for breach of contract. Williams had left Apple to head a server chip start-up. Apple claimed that Williams was in breach of contract, saying that an intellectual property agreement prevented him from competing with the company. Williams had apparently recruited numerous Apple engineers away from the company. Apple allegedly collected Williams' text messages between him and other employees in order to build its case against him. Other tech companies have been accused of mismanaging users' data, and Apple has been trying to differentiate itself by focusing on user privacy and security. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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A Huge Alien World Is Forcing Astronomers to Rethink How Planets Form | A new planet with a mass greater than 10 Jupiters combined has been discovered in an area that theoretically shouldn't have any planets. The planet was found in the b Centauri binary system, a solar system with a mass of nearly 10 suns. Every other planet discovered so far was found in solar systems that weighed less than three solar masses. The discovery implies an astounding diversity of exoplanets and will require scientists to reconsider what conditions allow the formation of planets. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Chinese team test jet engine ‘able to reach anywhere on Earth within 2 hours’ | Chinese scientists have built a revolutionary plane engine for Mach 16 flight, enabling aircraft to reach anywhere in the world within two hours. A prototype of the engine was tested in a hypersonic wind tunnel in Beijing and the results suggested unprecedented performance in terms of thrust, fuel efficiency, and operational stability. Planes equipped with the engine can take off horizontally before accelerating into orbit around the Earth. The engine has a relatively simple design, consisting of a single-stage air inlet, a hydrogen fuel injector, and a combustion chamber. Existing hypersonic flight engines are too weak, fuel-hungry, and unstable for commercial flight. The new design offers the best hope so far in taking commercial flight to hypersonic speeds. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Eight big takeaways from CES 2020 | CES is over, and while there doesn't seem to be a clear 'Next Big Thing', there is an abundance of new ideas. TV makers are continuing to look for the next expensive thing to encourage consumers to upgrade. Rolling TVs, 8K, and radical bezel-less or ultra-thin designs were common at CES. While foldable screens still seem to be a while away, flexible screen technology has improved significantly. The battle between AMD and Intel seems to be ramping up, with both companies striving to create hardware for new form factors. Many companies presented concept designs at CES, but most didn't seem to have a firm purpose or direction. Smaller companies are feeling the pressure from large companies like Google, and some lawsuits were filed just hours after CES opened. Sex technology is becoming less taboo at the show. AI, 8K, and 5G are becoming more normalized and less worshipped as a technology. | 4Miscellaneous
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This Extremely Chill Landscape Was Drawn in Pure Code | Web designer Bill Evans creates art using cascading style sheets, drawing pictures by coding individual elements in a language normally used to make websites look good. Pure CSS drawings are rendered live in the browser, rather than being a static image file. Evans has created an interactive spider's web, a telephone box, a spinning playing card, an animated person taking a walk, and various still lifes using pure CSS. Links to view Evans' artwork are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tesla begins Model Y deliveries, meeting expectations for the crossover SUV | Tesla has started deliveries for its Model Y crossover SUV. Users have posted images and comments to the Tesla Motors Club showing their Model Y vehicles. Elon Musk told shareholders that Tesla was ahead of schedule on Model Y preparations and that the launch timeline had moved forward. The seven-seat version of the Model Y and the standard Model Y are expected to start production in 2021. Tesla stock has slid 16% in the coronavirus-related sell-off. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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AR goggles: FORM is sorta like Google Glass, but for swimming | Major tech companies such as Google have been working on augmented reality glasses for years with little commercial success. Many startups have entered into the AR market, which is predicted to be worth almost $200 billion worldwide by 2020. On Tuesday, FORM released a pair of AR swim goggles that uses artificial intelligence to track metrics. For $199, users can view metrics such as calories burned, distance traveled, split times, stroke rate, and more, all within the swimmer’s line of sight. The goggles can also display different information depending on the state of the user, for example, while swimming, after turns, and during rest. An accompanying app will be released in August when the goggles are shipped internationally. Other companies have also developed AR wearables targeted at running and bicycling. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple Plans Sleep Tracking Feature for Future Watch | The main reason that sleep tracking hasn’t been implemented into the Apple Watch is due to its battery life. Currently, the smartwatch is able to last about a day and requires charging overnight. Sleep tracking implementation is planned for the next Apple Watch which may either have increased battery life, a low power mode when inactive, or the ability to quickly recharge in the morning. Currently, Apple sells a sleep tracking device called Beddit, but it needs to implement sleep tracking into the Apple Watch in order to gain more market share over other devices such as the Fitbit. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Basque (GitHub Repo) | Basque is a game engine for top-down 2D games. It features map editing, sprite sheet animations, the ability to add background music, collision detection, and some frame-rate limiting. There are two GIFs that show quick snippets of Basque in action. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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We Asked People Around the World How They Feel About Artificial Intelligence. Here’s What We Learned | A survey was conducted on 66,800 people, asking them how they felt about artificial intelligence. Over half of the respondents had some knowledge of AI, with around 10 percent of people feeling that they were well educated about the topic. Younger people tended to report feeling more knowledgable. People were split between feeling concerned, curious, and hopeful about AI. Most people reported wanting AI to eventually become smarter than them. There were concerns about the future of AI, with most people thinking of '1984' when asked which movie best described the future of AI. People in the survey were open-minded and aware that they need to pay attention to AI. | 4Miscellaneous
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Here's the Pentagon's Terrifying Plan for Cyborg Supersoldiers | A report from the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center detailed what the field of cybernetics might look like in 2050. The report aimed to determine the potential of machines that are physically integrated within the human body to augment and enhance the performance of humans. Poor public perception may be a barrier to the mass adoption of cybernetics. The four probable areas of enhancement are super vision, augmented hearing, enhanced muscle, and two-way data transfer between the brain and a brain interface device. Legal and ethical frameworks may need to be altered to account for cybernetics. The full impact of cybernetic technology is still being determined, and it is likely that most moral, ethical, and legal considerations will be made after the technology becomes common. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google has blocked Huawei from using Android in any new phones | Google has suspended all its hardware, software, and technical services business with Huawei after the US Government added the Chinese giant to a trade blacklist. Existing Huawei owners will still be able to download updates provided by Google. However, future Huawei handsets will not include proprietary apps and services from Google, such as Maps, YouTube, or Gmail. As the second biggest smartphone maker in the world, losing access to Google’s proprietary apps could jeopardize Huawei’s business worldwide. Huawei has also lost access to US-made chips, with chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx, and Broadcom announcing that they will not sell hardware to Huawei until further notice. | 4Miscellaneous
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