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Early-stage detection of Alzheimer’s in the blood . Major studies with promising antibodies that could treat people with Alzheimer's have failed in the past, possibly due to the fact that the disease had not been detectable until plaques have already formed in the brain. A new two-tier method developed at Ruhr-Universität Bochum may be able to detect the disease up to two decades earlier, which is a major step in paving the way for early-stage therapy approaches. A protein was discovered that folded incorrectly in patients with Alzheimer's. However, only using the protein as an indicator resulted in too many false positives. A second indicator which predicted the chances of dementia was introduced and the combination of the two indicators produced a reliable diagnosis. |
Dogecoin: The meme that somehow became a real cryptocurrency (11 minute read). Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin, with a picture of a dog for a logo. At one point it was worth $2 billion. Its popularity has stumped experts. The coin is based on the doge meme and it started off as a joke aimed at the bizarre world of crypto and bitcoin's multiple derivatives. It was created by replacing 'bitcoin' with 'doge' in the bitcoin code, along with some other changes like increasing the maximum amount of coins and making the coins easier to mine. After it was created, the Reddit community pushed it into popularity very quickly. |
Overpaying for Big Tech cloud? Try Vultr Instead! (Sponsor). Overpaying for Big Tech cloud? Try Vultr Instead! . Vultr offers powerful cloud compute and simplified instance management at an unbeatable price. Now TLDR readers have access to a special offer: $100 in credit just for signing up with this link! |
Muggle Uses E-Paper For Daily Prophet Replica . Deep Tronix has created a replica of the Daily Prophet newspaper from Harry Potter. The device uses an e-paper display and a Teensy microcontroller to create animated images. Deep Tronix used a custom dithering library to overcome framerate issues when using the e-paper display. The newspaper also has a face detection feature that records and displays the reader's face at random. A video of the display is available in the article. |
Microdosing LSD for Alzheimer’s proves safe in early human trial . The results of a Phase 1 trial to study the effects of microdosing LSD have been published. Researchers were testing whether microdosing psychedelics could be useful as a therapeutic approach for treating Alzheimer's disease. The early data shows that microdosing LSD is safe enough to proceed with larger trials. Research into psychedelics for their potent anti-depressant effects has been promising, with psilocybin being given Breakthrough Therapy status twice in the last year. Psychedelics stimulate serotonin receptors in the brain. Damage to these receptors is implicated in many early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Research has so far been inconclusive about the positive effects of microdosing. |
This Molten Salt Reactor Is the Next Big Thing in Nuclear . Elysium Technologies is a startup behind a new molten salt reactor design that can scale up to 1,200 Megawatts electric. The design uses a blend of the most cutting edge technologies. It uses up fuel in the reactor process, and it can recycle fuel from itself, other reactors, or even weapons. The reactor uses up 95% of its fuel, leaving behind fuel that is toxic for shorter periods compared to other reactors. It features low-tech and effective safety designs. |
Skaffold (GitHub Repo). Skaffold is a command-line tool for the continuous development of Kubernetes applications. Application source code can be iterated locally and deployed to local or remote Kubernetes clusters. Skaffold handles the workflow for building, pushing, and deploying applications while providing building blocks and describe customizations for a CI/CD pipeline. |
Netflix bleeds subscribers in US and Canada, with no sign of recovery . Netflix lost 430,000 subscribers in the US and Canada in the second quarter. It predicted that it would add 3.5 million subscribers in the third quarter, a forecast that was weaker than expected. There are now more than 100 streaming services for consumers to choose from. Netflix is still the largest paid video streaming service, with more than twice the number of subscribers compared to Disney Plus, its closest competitor. It recently hired Mike Verdu, a veteran of the gaming industry, and plans to offer games to subscribers. |
LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace . LinkedIn is building a freelance work marketplace to rival gig sites like Fiverr and Upwork. The marketplace will connect freelance service providers with clients for one-off projects. LinkedIn has been developing the feature since September 2019, after the company acquired UpCounsel, a marketplace connecting freelance lawyers and clients. Gig sites have been a fast-growing niche, with both Upwork and Fiverr posting revenue growth throughout the pandemic. |
University of Wollongong uses stem cells to 3D-print human ears . Scientists at the University of Wollongong have developed a bioprinter that can replicate human ears using stem cells and 3D printing technology. The machine is nicknamed 3D Alek, and it prints a bio-ink that can be potentially made from the patient's own stem cells, which means that the printed parts would match the patient's own anatomy. Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital will be the first hospital in New South Wales to receive the printer, which will revolutionize the complex medical procedures required to treat microtia - a congenital condition where the external ear is underdeveloped. |
Tesla will soon downgrade software on the entry-level Model 3 . Early adopters of Tesla’s entry-level Model 3 will soon have their software downgraded to match the same software as current entry-level Model 3s. The early adopters were able to enjoy many of the features of the more expensive Standard Range Plus car. These features included a wider range of travel, onboard music streaming, heated seats, faster acceleration, and Autopilot. Model 3 owners can arrange a service appointment through the Tesla app in order to purchase a software upgrade to reinstate these features. |
GitHub Package Registry (Website). Developers can publish and consume packages using GitHub’s Package Registry. Packages can be published publicly or privately and shared with anybody. Users can discover packages from other developers if they are public. It is currently in open beta and is free to use. |
OpenAI’s DALL-E creates plausible images of literally anything you ask it to . OpenAI's DALL-E is an AI that can generate images based on text descriptions. It can generate plausible versions of what is described to it, with varying degrees of success. Just like GPT-3, the output that DALL-E generates can be very high quality, but it can still generate some odd things. The model also exhibits some unintended but useful behaviors. Examples of DALL-E's output are available in the article. |
Jeff Bezos’ space company is pressuring employees to launch a tourist rocket during the pandemic . Senior leadership at Blue Origin is pressuring workers to conduct a test launch of the company's New Shepard rocket during the current pandemic. The rocket is designed to take wealthy tourists into space. Employees fear that traveling to the test sites might expose them to the novel coronavirus or spread the virus to others. Blue Origin originally planned the test launch for April 10, but new self-quarantine rules mean that the company has to delay the test, and it is still deciding on a new launch date. Employees feel that New Shepard is not a critical vehicle and that it doesn't need to be tested at this time. |
DeepMind’s new AI can perform over 600 tasks, from playing games to controlling robots . Gato is a general-purpose AI that can complete 604 different tasks, including captioning images, engaging in dialogue, and playing games. It performs 450 of those tasks better than an expert more than half the time. Gato only has 1.2 billion parameters, compared to GPT-3's more than 170 billion. It was designed to be able to handle any task if scaled up. The model still has the same weaknesses that other artificial intelligence models have, such as having biases and an inability to remember context. |
Func.Farm (Website). Func.Farm is a browser extension to create serverless functions from code snippets. Users only need to highlight code in their browser and select ‘Create Function’ from the right-click menu to run code. It is able to run code on multiple cloud providers instantly without users needing to navigate away from the site that the code is displayed on. Func.Farm supports multiple programming languages. |
SolarWinds hackers have a whole bag of new tricks for mass compromise attacks (12 minute read). Almost exactly a year ago, researchers discovered a Kremlin-backed hacking campaign that compromised SolarWinds' servers in what was one of the worst data breaches in modern history. The group that performed the attack, dubbed 'Nobelium' by Microsoft, has since become more brazen and adept at hacking large numbers of targets in a single stroke. A recent report from security firm Mandiant details Nobelium's numerous feats and a few mistakes made by the group. This article covers the highlights of the report, including details on the group's tactics and innovations. A link to the full report is available. |
Samsung’s new 4K smart monitor has a magnetic wireless webcam . Samsung's M8 monitor has a wireless webcam that can be removed and attached via magnets. The 32-inch 4K smart monitor also features built-in apps that work without a PC connection. It is 11.4mm thick with a built-in microphone. The magnetic webcam can adjust its angle with face tracking and auto-zoom. The monitor will cost $700 for the white version, with colored options available for a $30 upcharge. |
Yale scientists restore cellular function in 32 dead pig brains . 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. |
New coronavirus losing potency, top Italian doctor says . A senior Italian doctor says that the new coronavirus has lost its potency, claiming that recent swabs were returning results with viral concentrations that were infinitesimally smaller than the ones carried out over the past few months. Italy has the third-highest death toll in the world from COVID-19, with the sixth-highest global tally of cases. Infections and fatalities have fallen steadily in May and the country is looking to unwind some of its most rigid lockdown restrictions. The doctor claims that other experts were too alarmist about the prospect of a second wave of infections and that politicians need to start getting the country back to normal. A member of the health ministry stated that Italians should maintain maximum caution pending scientific evidence to support the thesis that the threat of the virus has disappeared. |
Mathematicians Are Studying Planet-Sized Quantum Computers With God-Like Powers . A team of computer scientists has developed a theory on how quantum computers should be able to rapidly verify that a practically infinite problem was solved. The scientists were surprised by their findings, as quantum computers were not supposed to be able to complete this feat. In theoretical computer science, scientists can describe computers of unlimited power with formulas and theories. The field is focused on understanding the complexity of problems that computers can solve. In the paper, the authors show that planet-sized quantum computers with unlimited energy might be able to quickly verify the solution to the halting problem, a problem of determining whether a running program ever comes to a stop. Alan Turing had deemed the program as uncomputable in 1936, so the only way to solve the problem is by watching to see if a program eventually stops, which could take thousands of years. |
Amazon's latest advertising play involves free samples delivered right to your door . 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. |
Firefox 89 delivered more speed—today’s Firefox 90 adds SmartBlock 2.0 . Mozilla has launched Firefox 90. It features improved print-to-PDF functionality, individual exceptions to HTTPS-only mode, a page to help identify compatibility issues with third-party applications, and SmartBlock. SmartBlock can protect users from cross-site tracking while making sure that site logins still function. The new browser is significantly faster. Details about how Mozilla tests for browser speed are available in the article. |
Working From Orbit (26 minute read). Paul Tomlinson has spent 40-50 hours in virtual reality each week for the last two and a half years for work. He uses the virtual environment to create an office space that is comfortable, practical, and free from distractions. The article talks about the experience of working full-time in VR. It covers the setup and how it is used, the pros and cons of using VR for work, the future of the technology, and more. |
China’s ‘artificial sun’ is five-times hotter than the real thing . 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 £700 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. |
Video infrastructure that Just Works™ (Sponsor). Easily build on-demand video and live streaming with Mux's API and dev-friendly docs. Plus, with built-in analytics, you can track engagement metrics and QoE. |
Django Async Orm (GitHub Repo). Django Async Orm is a Django module that brings async to Django ORM. It is still under active development, so not all model methods have been ported and it should not be used in production. A list of supported methods is available. |
A.I. and robotics will create almost 60 million more jobs than they destroy by 2022, report says . A World Economic Forum report based on a survey of executives at 300 global companies across a variety of industries found that while automation and AI would replace 75 million jobs by 2025, it will also create 133 million new jobs. Machines are expected to perform about 42% of all current tasks in the workplace by 2022, compared to only 29% now, and the nature of the jobs human do may change. In fact full-time, permanent employment may potentially fall, as companies move towards temporary workers, freelancers and specialist contractors. It's worth noting that in the report, nearly half of all companies expect their full-time workforce to shrink over the next several years. |
Inside Europe's quest to build an unhackable quantum internet . QuTech is a research institute in the Netherlands hoping to build a communications network that uses quantum mechanics to ensure flawlessly secure transmissions. On the current Internet, data travels as bits in 0s and 1s, and a hacker can tap cables and read those 0s and 1s to intercept messages. However, quantum mechanics allows particles to exist in a state where they are probabilistic until observed, which "collapses" them into either a 0 or a 1. This means that any unauthorized observer will leave an obvious trail. Unfortunately a limitation here is that photons are easily absorbed by the atmosphere or the materials in cables, so we can only send these quantum transmissions over a few kilometers. The QuTech team hopes to use a technique called quantum entanglement to solve the distance problem, and bring a completely secure quantum internet to four cities in the Netherlands by 2020. |
After Inspiration4, SpaceX sees high demand for free-flyer missions . SpaceX saw a significant increase in demand for private spaceflight missions thanks to the Inspiration4 mission. Pricing information for the mission has still not been released, but it is estimated that seats on future orbital flights will be less than $40 million each. SpaceX currently has three vehicles that could accommodate at least six crew flights a year, and it is considering building more Crew Dragons if there is enough demand. Starship is still under development and it will be a few years before it will be ready for human missions. |
Disney’s Developed Movie-Quality Face-Swapping Technology That Promises to Change Filmmaking . Disney researchers have released a study where they used several innovations and approaches to automate face-swaps to produce results with enough quality and resolution to be used for actual film production. A four-minute video that demonstrates the technology is available in the article. The new algorithm works by first modifying the videos to make it easier for alternate faces to be swapped in. This technology could be used to significantly lower the costs of film and TV production especially in scenarios where stunt doubles are used. However, it may also present new problems as it could be used to create a new wave of extremely high-quality deep fakes. |
Google tells employees in Bay Area and other U.S. locations to return to offices in April . Google will start having employees in the Bay Area and several other US locations return to the office starting the week of April 4. The steady decline in cases means the company can officially begin the transition to the hybrid work week. Employees will return to the office based on local conditions. Most workers will come to the office three days a week and have two days of remote work. The company has dropped its mask and testing mandates for fully vaccinated employees and reopened its amenities. |
Steve Wozniak is starting another company, 45 years after co-founding Apple with Steve Jobs . Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, is starting a business in the green tech and blockchain space. Efforce is a marketplace for corporate or industrial building owners to have green projects funded. The platform will allow anyone to financially benefit from worldwide energy efficiency projects. WOZX, the company's cryptocurrency token, is trading on HBTC and will launch on Bithumb Global next week. Companies who register their energy upgrade projects on Efforce's site will have the opportunity to receive funding from investors around the world. |
Naked mole rats defy the biological law of aging . Naked mole rats rarely get cancer, are resistant to some types of pain, and can survive up to 18 minutes without oxygen. New research also suggests that they don't age. A study found that a naked mole rat's risk of death doesn't increase as it ages. Naked mole rats have been observed to live beyond 30 years in captivity, with females remaining fertile at that age. They have very active DNA repair and high levels of proteins that help other proteins fold correctly. Scientists will need more data in order to confirm the results of the study. |
Pglet (GitHub Repo). 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. |
Travellers refusing digital search now face $5000 Customs fine . New Zealand's Customs and Excise Act is now in effect, allowing New Zealand customs officials to demand travellers give up passwords, pin codes, etc. to access their electronic devices as long as they have a "reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing". It also allows customs officials to forcibly seize and forensically search a person's electronic devices as well as fine them $5000 if they don't comply. New Zealand's Council for Civil Liberties spokesperson Thomas Beagle believes that this new law is a violation of personal privacy, pointing out that "they don't have to tell you what the cause of that suspicion is, there's no way to challenge it." |
Elon Musk's SpaceX will 'make its own laws on Mars' . 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. |
Coinbase’s bouncing QR code Super Bowl ad was so popular it crashed the app . Coinbase's Super Bowl ad was so popular its app temporarily crashed. The 60-second ad featured a colorful bouncing QR code that brought viewers to a promotional website with a limited time offer. New users signing up to the site before February 15 receive $15 worth of free Bitcoin as well as an entry into a $3 million giveaway. Many other crypto companies also used the Super Bowl to promote services, NFTs, and projects. |
NASA Is Launching a $10 Billion 'Time Machine' . The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is set to launch on Halloween this year, after decades of careful planning and development. It will travel from Earth to a gravitational eddy located nearly one million miles from Earth. From there, it will potentially be able to spot the first generation of stars to ever shine in the early universe, as well as exoplanets in our galaxy. The JWST will focus on the infrared part of the spectrum. It has 100 times the observational power of the Hubble Space Telescope, and scientists are hoping it will reveal galaxies that Hubble can't see. |
btop++ (GitHub Repo). 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. |
World’s First Ocean Hybrid Platform Converts Tidal Waves Into Energy . Tidal motions, waves, and currents have a lot of energy that can be harvested to produce electricity. They are also easily forecasted and available 24/7. There have been many attempts at harvesting energy from the seas, but it is difficult due to the corrosive water and unpredictable winds. Sinn Power, a German green-energy startup, has begun building and testing the world's first ocean hybrid platform. The floating platform can harness energy from waves, wind, and the sun. It is scalable and can be adapted to customers' needs and location requirements. |
subsync (GitHub Repo). Subsync is a tool that automatically syncs subtitles to videos so that the subtitles are aligned correctly with the audio in the video. It is very fast (takes about 20-30 seconds, depending on the video length) and the synchronization is usually less than 1 second off. VLC integration is supported, but users can run the tool through a command line interface if preferred. |
New iodine-based plasma thruster tested in orbit . A commercial company called ThrustMe has demonstrated an iodine-powered ion thruster in space for the first time. The thruster is about the size of a 10-square-centimeter cube and weighs 1.2 kilograms. It takes around 10 minutes to warm up and it only outputs about 0.8 milliNewtons, but it is powerful enough to move small satellites around in orbit. ThrustMe has had the hardware on a 12-unit cubesat for around two years, using the thrusters multiple times to avoid potential collisions. |
Amazon built a roving robot covered in UV light bulbs that could kill the coronavirus in warehouses and Whole Foods stores . Studies show that ultraviolet light can mutate genetic material inside viruses and other microbes, making it impossible for them to reproduce, effectively killing them. A certain type of UV light is being tested for use against the novel coronavirus. If it is found to be effective, businesses could use it to disinfect surfaces and the air. Installing these lights all over a business would be costly. Amazon has developed a moving robot that can roam and disinfect stores and surfaces using UV lights. A robot like this could be a more cost-effective solution than a full UV light installation in a business. |
China approves Oligomannate, world’s first new Alzheimer’s drug in 20 years and it is based on seaweed . China has approved the first new drug for Alzheimer's disease in nearly two decades. Oligomannate could potentially reverse the condition and is based on a unique sugar found in seaweed. It was inspired by an observation that there was a relatively low occurrence of Alzheimer's among the elderly who regularly consumed seaweed. The drug has been proven effective on conditions up to stage 4. It will not cure brains that have degenerated beyond repair. Oligomannate reduces the formation of a protein that is harmful to neurons and regulates bacterium colonies in the intestines to reduce the risk of brain inflammation. |
Tesla owners are going to be able to remotely view what their Autopilot cameras can see . Tesla owners will be able to see through their Autopilot cameras in the new update that is likely to be pushed out around the holidays. Sentry Mode is an integrated surveillance system that uses the Autopilot cameras around the car. Several vandals that have been caught on camera have turned themselves in after their Sentry Mode videos went viral. Owners have to plug in a storage device inside their Tesla to activate Sentry Mode features. Everything is handled through the Tesla app. |
A Russian scientist has threatened to make more CRISPR babies . Russian scientist Denis Rebrikov has said in an interview that he is trying to gain approval to create gene-edited babies. He wants to create humans with natural resistance to HIV. Last year, an experiment in China attempted to create humans with genetic resistance to HIV by removing the CCR5 gene. While the CCR5 gene has been associated with HIV resistance, studies have also shown that the gene also moderates cognition and life span. Rebrikov is not known for his work on gene editing, and his name only appears on one paper where gene editing was applied to embryos. The rules for creating gene-modified babies in Russia are unclear, and Rebrikov hopes to take advantage of this to gain approval to carry out the procedure. He believes that he can improve on the experiments carried out in China. |
Stanford engineers invent a solar panel that generates electricity at night . Solar panels emit infrared radiation at night. The photons going out into the night sky cool down the solar cell. This temperature difference can be used to generate electricity using a device called a thermoelectric generator. While the method won't generate a huge amount of electricity, it still has many applications. Being able to generate small amounts of electricity at night could reduce the need for batteries and the costs they incur. |
One-liner for running queries against CSV files with SQLite . This article discusses using SQLite to run queries against CSV files from the command line. It covers the different output modes available. Links to tools that provide a similar function are provided. |
Tiger tests positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo, first known case in the world . Seven big cats are exhibiting symptoms consistent with COVID-19 at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. One tiger has tested positive for the coronavirus. It is the first time a non-domesticated animal has gotten sick from the virus. The tiger likely caught the virus from an asymptomatic zookeeper. Other domestic animals have also previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, including a Pomeranian, a German shepherd, and a domestic cat. Zookeepers are taking extra precautions around great apes as they may be particularly susceptible to the virus. |
SpaceX, NASA make history with first launch of astronauts from US soil in years . SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully launched on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on Saturday. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are the first astronauts to launch from US soil since the end of the shuttle era in 2011. The astronauts have now docked at the International Space Station. Footage of the launch is available in the article. The Falcon 9 rocket successfully returned and landed on SpaceX's 'Of Course I Still Love You' droneship. |
EthicalML/awesome-production-machine-learning (GitHub Repo). 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. |
Facebook’s AI convincingly inserts people into photos . Facebook AI Research and Tel Aviv University published a paper last week proposing a novel technique for inserting people into photos. The technique could have useful applications in the creative industries. It uses AI to figure out a coherent way to insert a picture of a new person into an image. When human volunteers were asked to tell whether an image had been manipulated by the AI, they were able to identify the modified images just 28% of the time when the images contained five people. |
Exclusive: Robinhood aims to allow users to buy into IPOs . Robinhood is building a platform that will allow users to buy into IPOs. Traders that get to buy into IPOs often have an advantage over other traders who can't buy into a stock until its shares start trading. Robinhood will have to negotiate agreements with companies and their brokerages and get the blessing of US regulators before the platform goes public. The company recently filed paperwork with the SEC for its IPO. Allowing amateur traders to buy into IPOs could boost Robinhood's valuation in its own IPO. |
Coronavirus: 3D printers save hospital with valves . Two 3D-printing companies in Italy have designed and printed 100 respirator valves in 24 hours. A prototype for the respirator valves was created three hours after a hospital found out that it had run out of the part. The companies worked for free to print the parts, but the design will not be released to the public. A second hospital has contacted the companies requesting more valves. |
De-identifying Analytics Data with Skyflow (Sponsor). De-identifying Analytics Data with Skyflow . Sensitive data often finds its way into data analytics pipelines where it’s 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. |
Second Life founder returns to revamp his original metaverse . 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. |
Sony announces next-gen VR headset for the PS5 . Sony has announced that it is working on a next-generation VR headset for the PS5. It will feature an improved field of view, higher resolutions, and a single cord. A new VR controller is also in development. Development kits for the next-gen VR headset will be issued soon. The headset will not be released in 2021. |
Git is my buddy: Effective Git as a solo developer (12 minute read). Git can be a valuable tool without even setting up a remote repository. It can help structure your work, identify gaps in your test coverage, and minimize dead code. This article introduces a workflow for using git that focuses work on particular bugfixes, features, or goals. It also introduces some advanced git tools. |
Valve Reveals Partnership with OpenBCI to Make VR Gaming More Immersive . Valve founder Gabe Newell thinks that brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) will be the future of entertainment and that it will be coming very soon. He says that by 2022, studios will have them in their test labs. BCI developers could one day create richer experiences than reality can provide. Valve has recently partnered with OpenBCI, a neurotech company that creates open-source, non-invasive BCI devices. OpenBCI had announced that it was making a BCI for VR/AR headsets back in November. |
Scientists Invent 'Invisible' Metamaterial With Bonus Reflect Mode . Metamaterials are materials made up of components that combine to create properties that are relatively independent of the properties of the original materials. Metasurfaces are flat structures that can manipulate light in interesting ways. Usually, these metasurfaces have properties that are static once they have been created. A team of international scientists has created a metamaterial using a compound that is also used in DVDs. The new material's metasurface transparency level can be altered using a powerful pulse laser. The new material could potentially advance LiDAR and photographic technologies. |
Scientists Are Creating Vaccines For Type 1 Diabetes . Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, causing sugar to build up in the bloodstream. There is no cure, though there are treatment options. As the disease is caused by an incorrect immune response, a diabetes vaccine would need to inhibit the immune response rather than boost it like conventional vaccines. Inverse vaccinations can affect the entire immune system, so scientists have been studying antigen-specific vaccines. Several vaccines are already in trials. |
Vultr Talon - Easy and Affordable NVIDIA Cloud GPUs (Sponsor). Vultr Talon - Easy and Affordable NVIDIA Cloud GPUs . The Vultr Talon platform makes accelerated computing affordable and easy to use. In just minutes, provision VMs with fractional NVIDIA GPUs starting at just $90 per month.Run Tensorflow, PyTorch, or any other ML framework.Try Vultr Talon for free today with this $200 code! |
Microsoft indefinitely postpones return to U.S. offices as Covid cases surge . Microsoft will indefinitely delay the reopening of its headquarters and other US offices as the coronavirus continues to proliferate in the country. The company had previously planned for employees to return to offices in September. Employees will be given a month-long transition period once the company decides it is ready to welcome them back. Facebook, Google, and Amazon are planning to allow workers to come back to US offices in 2022. |
The Space Force Is Now in Charge of the Secret X-37B Space Plane . The US Space Force has created a unit dedicated solely to orbital warfare. Delta 9 will be overseeing the experimental X-37B space plane, an unmanned spacecraft that was previously under the purview of the Air Force. NASA has been using the secret experimental space plane to conduct experiments in space as well as to move classified payloads. The X-37B recently completed a 780-day unmanned mission. It can autonomously re-enter the atmosphere and land on a flight line. |
Peloton CEO steps down as the company cuts 2,800 jobs . 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. |
Netflix speeds up plan for ad-supported tier, says it may debut this year . Netflix plans to roll out an ad-supported tier in the final three months of this year. It will also roll out its plan to charge an extra fee for those who want to share accounts around the same time. Netflix's decision to introduce the ad-supported tier was made due to Hulu and Disney's success with the model. The company's stock plummeted 37% after it announced its advertising plan and it has still not recovered. |
New AI ‘Deep Nostalgia’ brings old photos, including very old ones, to life . Deep Nostalgia is an AI-powered service offered by online genealogy company MyHeritage that creates moving portraits from still photos. It uses pre-recorded driver videos of facial movements and applies them to user-uploaded photos. The company created the service so its users could upload photos of deceased loved ones and see them come to life again. Twitter users recently discovered the service and have used it to bring other things to life, such as ancient statues. Examples of Deep Nostalgia generated portraits are available in the article. |
'Reconstruction' begins of stone age lands lost to North Sea . A lost country called Doggerland, covered by the North Sea, will be remapped in 3D using seabed mapping data. Scientists also plan to take samples from the seafloor to hopefully extract samples of remnants from the lost civilization. It is believed that the country was destroyed due to catastrophic flooding. The civilization covered about 260,00p sq km but after the ice age ended, the coastal zones became increasingly ravaged by flooding and eventually the whole area was lost. |
Sheetson (Website). Sheetson turns any Google sheet into a JSON API. Users only need to share their document with the service, and then they will be able to access their information through the API. There are currently no restrictions on its use. |
Moon has more water ice than previously thought . UCLA space scientists have discovered thick ice deposits on the moon. New observations suggest that there may be a massive reservoir of frozen water beneath the surface of the moon. Due to the spin axes of the moon and Mercury, many areas never see the sun, so permanently shadowed regions have thick ice deposits. Both Mercury and the moon are covered by impact craters. When investigating the craters on Mercury, it was found that the craters near the poles were shallower, which was later found to be caused by the accumulation of ice deposits. The formation of the ice deposits on the moon suggests that the deposits may be older than the ice on Mercury. |
NASA Bets on a Spacecraft that Can 3-D Print and Self-Assemble in Orbit . NASA has announced a partnership with Made In Space, Inc to test a concept of a spacecraft that can 3D print and self-assemble in space. Archinaut One could be ready as early as 2022. Made In Space made history by creating the first 3D printed object in space in 2014. In 2016, a permanent manufacturing unit was installed in the International Space Station. The new project will require objects larger than the printer to be printed outside the station in space, and then for these objects to be self-assembled. Archinaut One will be launched to low-Earth orbit where it will then attempt to print out two poles which will contain solar arrays that can generate power. If successful, the technique will lower the costs of space exploration significantly as parts can be created in space rather than transported from Earth. |
Open Source Awards (Website). The 6th annual UK Open Source Awards are here, you can nominate individuals and organizations to recognize their contribution to open source. There are five awards: Individual, Company, Public Sector, Diversity, and Student. |
Inside the Invasive, Secretive “Bossware” Tracking Workers (13 minute read). Workplaces have started integrating software to track employee productivity, resulting in employers essentially being able to spy on workers inside their own homes. Bossware is generally able to access data about everything that happens on the device that it is running on. Most products take frequent screenshots and can provide live video feeds of the device. Some products even integrate keyloggers. Depending on the type of software, workers might not be able to tell when the software is surveilling them. Workers might find requests to install this software difficult to refuse, especially in times of record unemployment. Companies do not always provide work devices for employees. |
Exclusive: Facebook Fired A Contractor Who Was Paid Thousands In Bribes To Reactivate Banned Ad Accounts . A Facebook contractor was fired after it was discovered that they took thousands of dollars in bribes to reactivate banned ad accounts. Ads Inc. ran a sophisticated scam through Facebook Ads that tricked users into signing up for expensive monthly subscriptions. Under current laws, neither the victims of the scam nor the state may hold Facebook accountable for their continued facilitation of fraud. Ads Inc. may have hired more than one Facebook insider to reactivate ad accounts. The contractor was paid an initial $5,000 to reactivate the accounts and a $3,000 per month retainer as long as the accounts remained active for a few weeks. |
Congress votes to make open government data the default in the United States . The US Congress has passed the OPEN Government Data Act, which codifies two principles for democracy in the 21st century: public information should be open by default to the public in a machine-readable format as long as it doesn't harm privacy or security and federal agencies should use evidence when they make public policy. Open data advocates say that it's a major victory in government transparency that will improve the way the government runs. France and Germany already have similar laws. |
Ask HN : How to negotiate continuing to work remotely? (Hacker News Thread). Many people started working remotely as COVID started. Some employers are starting to ask workers to return to the office. This thread contains a discussion on how to talk to employers about remaining remote. Opinions vary widely, but the general advice is to state that remote work is a requirement to their employers and to move on if they don't agree. Many tech companies have moved to remote work now, and the job market appears to be healthy for developers. |
Massive outage brought down most Apple services, including iCloud and iMessage . Apple experienced far-reaching network outages yesterday that affected many of its services. The outage affected both services used by customers and internal tools. Apple Store employees had to use pen and paper to keep the stores running during the outage. All services have been restored. A list of the affected services is available in the article. |
DFlex (GitHub Repo). DFlex is a drag-and-drop library for all JavaScript frameworks for manipulating DOM elements. It can traverse DOM without calling the browser API, transform elements instead of reordering the DOM tree, animate movements, target DOM nodes individually, and more. DFlex is the only library on the internet so far that manipulates DOM instead of reconstructing it. A live demo is available on its website. |
Bill Gates is obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets . 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." |
A Message to GitHub (GitHub Repo). GitHub has restricted Iranian accounts from contributing to the community due to pressure from the US government, revoking access to private repositories without warning and banning any users who have previously accessed GitHub through an Iranian IP. Iranian developers are asking GitHub to allow them to access their data, to not restrict users based on their nationality, and to apologize for their actions. This repository allows people to spread the message and show support. |
React-Location (GitHub Repo). React-Location is a router for client-side React applications. It features asynchronous routing, a deeply integrated search params API, route filtering and ranking, and more. A sandbox example is available on the main website. |
This is what happens when bitcoin miners take over your town (31 minute read). Bitcoin mining uses a huge amount of electricity. A mining setup requires a building, hundreds of high-speed computer servers, a heavy-duty cooling system, and a location that can handle a lot of electricity. Back in 2013, many bitcoin miners were attracted to the area around the Columbia River due to the cheap power from the five hydroelectric dams along the river. Many properties in the area were converted to cryptocurrency mines. Other regions in the world with cheap electricity have also seen a rise in mining hubs. Bitcoin's popularity has now increased to the point where it is no longer feasible for smaller operators to continue mining. |
Our artificial cornea breakthrough could lead to self-assembling organs . A team of scientists have developed a new technique to shape man-made bio-materials to create synthetic corneas suitable for implants. Previously, shaping artificial corneas made from collagen into the correct shape had been difficult and techniques were inconsistent. The new technique uses a special gel that is applied in specific areas on the collagen to create the desired shape. This new technique can also be applied to creating other organs that contain cells which contract, for example, hearts, skin, muscle, and blood vessels. |
Your cloud should be an asset, not a liability (Sponsor). Your cloud should be an asset, not a liability . Free yourself from Big Tech's unpredictable pricing and penchant for competing with their customers. Try Vultr Optimized Cloud Compute for as low as $28/mo. TLDR readers can try Vultr for FREE today with this $200 code! |
Web Scraping API (Sponsor). Scraper API lets you easily scrape any web page with a single API call. |
Denver Voters Approve Measure To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms . 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. |
Startup Founder Holiday Season Tips . From frustrations to the risk of failure, startup founders go through a lot. But there is a time when they can vent it all out. Learn how they successful founders spend the holiday season. |
Behold, a password phishing site that can trick even savvy users . BitB, short for 'browser in the browser', is a type of phishing attack that is hard to detect even for tech-savvy users. It involves creating a fake browser window inside a real browser window to spoof an OAuth page using HTML and CSS tricks. The fake pop-up windows look genuine and show valid addresses complete with a padlock and HTTPS prefix. As they are images rendered by custom HTML and CSS, the fake pages can't be resized or dragged outside the primary window. A video that shows how the attack works is available in the article. |
One Fastly customer triggered internet meltdown . An internet blackout hit many popular sites for about an hour on Tuesday. The outage caused 85 percent of Fastly's cloud computing network to return errors. It was caused by a customer legitimately changing their settings. Fastly has promised to investigate the incident and figure out why the bug wasn't picked up during its software quality assurance and testing processes. |
How Did the Feds Seize the Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Bitcoins? . The United States Department of Justice claims to have recovered 63.7 of the 75 bitcoins paid as a ransom when Colonial Pipeline was hit with a ransomware attack in early May. While an FBI official has told reporters that the FBI can get access to anyone's bitcoin no matter where it is, that claim is impossible unless the FBI has created a usable quantum computer without anyone knowing about it. It is more likely that the coins were sent to an exchange or server within the US where they were seized. |
SpaceX’s successfully lands Starship prototype for the first time . SpaceX's latest Starship prototype successfully landed on Wednesday for the first time. It demonstrated a few complex dances in mid-air before safely touching down. Two minutes after landing, the rocket exploded. The test's main objective was to demonstrate the computer-controlled movements of the rocket's four aerodynamic flaps that steer its descent before landing. Footage of the landing is available in the article. |
You can now make tours in Google Earth to show your friends your favorite travel spots . Google has added new tools to Google Earth that allows users to build personalized tours of areas right on top of the Google Earth map. The tools allow users to set landmarks, draw lines from place to place, add media, and present the tour, step by step. Users can capture specific camera angles for landmarks. Pre-made tours, called 'stories', are available. Users can invite others to collaborate on tours. Tour creation is only available on the web, but tours can be still viewed in the latest iOS and Android apps. |
Robinhood experienced a ‘system-wide outage’ as markets rebounded in heavy volume Monday . Robinhood experienced an outage on Monday that wasn’t fully fixed before the close of the day. This resulted in Robinhood customers missing out on one the biggest one-day point gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained nearly 1,300 points, the most ever in a single session. Robinhood has about 10 million users and its service allows customers to trade stocks without paying fees. Other financial service providers have also experienced technical difficulties as the stock market continues to be volatile. These systems are likely failing due to the recent higher-than-average trading volumes. |
Researchers Create Soil Catalyst to Make Farming on Mars a Reality . 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. |
Harvard Converts Millions of Documents into Open Data . Harvard Law School is digitizing and making 6.5 million state and federal cases dating from the 1600s to 2018 publicly available. They can be downloaded as zip files or accessed through an API. The cases are mostly from Supreme Court and appellate decisions, and has many federal trial opinions and opinions from the state of New York, but fewer from some other states. Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab director Adam Ziegler says "Building businesses around artificial scarcity of public information should not be much of a viable business in this day and age with the Internet. But building search capabilities, building analytical insights, building applications using that data is where all the action is in the future and should be." |
Elon Musk delivers New Year’s Teslas with help from his proud mom . Elon Musk and his mother, Maye, helped volunteers from the local Tesla Owners club deliver cars to hundreds of customers on New Year’s Eve. A $1,875 US federal tax credit for customers was to expire at the end of 2019, so Tesla tried to ship the cars to customers as soon as possible so they could take advantage of the credit. Tesla was giving out $10 vouchers for the food trucks on-site and was also offering drinks. |
When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online . Kids are growing up alongside social media, and some are just finding out how much of their lives are already on the internet. Parents have been sharing their kids lives on the internet since social media has existed, and the effects of that are now being revealed. Many teens are discovering that their entire lives have already been documented on the internet, without consent, when they google themselves. This has caused mixed reactions, with some teenagers feeling that it was a breach of trust with their parents, while others are pleased with the fact that they are ‘famous’ on the internet. |
Ask HN: What book to read to get a footing in CS theory? (Hacker News Thread). Coding can be self-taught or learned quickly through coding boot camps/courses, but topics such as complexity analysis which are taught in computer science degrees may be harder to learn. This thread contains a list of books which discuss theories taught in computer science degrees without delving too deeply into the coding aspect. |
Boring Company proposes massive Vegas expansion following monorail bankruptcy . A non-compete agreement that previously kept The Boring Company from digging tunnels in areas served by the Las Vegas Monorail was recently voided. The Boring Company has proposed a 10-mile sub-surface loop to serve the Las Vegas Strip as well as McCarran International Airport. An additional loop has been proposed to connect all the properties owned by Caesars Entertainment. The proposed system will make it possible to go from the Las Vegas Convention Center to Mandalay Bay in just three minutes, compared to the usual 30 minutes during peak traffic hours. |