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What if you could build any financial product from 1 API? (Sponsor). What if you could build any financial product from 1 API? . Modern Treasury makes it easy to build products that move money. We provide a platform for companies like Marqeta/BlockFi/ClassPass to manage money movement from their bank accounts. Try us if you're building money flows for a marketplace, fintech app, lending business, etc. Checkout our docs and see how easy it is to build products that move money with Modern Treasury. Learn more.
Microsoft invests US$50 million in alcohol-to-jet fuel biorefinery . Microsoft is investing $50 million in a facility that will produce jet fuel from ethanol. The LanzaJet facility in Georgia has nearly completed on-site engineering at its biorefinery. It plans to start producing 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel per year from sustainable ethanol. The facility is also funded by oil majors, airlines, and other petroleum trading companies.
Google News may shut over EU plans to charge tax for links . The EU has proposed a "link tax" that would charge search engines and link aggregators that use snippets to provide context for an article. Richard Gingras, VP of Google News, says that while "it's not desirable to shut down services", Google wouldn't rule out shutting down Google News in Europe, pointing out that when Spain tried to charge Google for links in 2014, the company responded by shutting down Google News in Spain, causing an immediate fall in traffic for Spanish news sites. He emphasized that Google News does not monetize, saying "There's no advertising in Google News. It is not a revenue-generating product to Google. We think it's valuable as a service to society. We are proud to have it as part of the stable of properties that people have."
CPUs Could Use 85 Percent Fewer Transistors With New Adaptive Tech . Researchers from the Vienna University of Technology have developed a new transistor design that can change its configuration according to workload requirements. The technology enables using up to 85% fewer transistors than current approaches, reducing power consumption and temperatures and allowing for higher frequency scaling and performance. The transistors can be made by existing tools using materials that are already used in the semiconductor industry. While production of the transistors can be rapidly scaled and deployed, initial adoption will likely be limited.
New coronavirus strain in Malaysia could be more infectious than COVID-19 . D614G, a new strain of the coronavirus, is making its way across Southeast Asia. Malaysian health officials say it could be more infectious than COVID-19. The strain has been detected in several countries across the continent. There is still little information on the strain.
Microsoft unveils Windows Terminal, a new command line app for Windows . Windows Terminal was unveiled at the Microsoft Build Developer Conference and will be available around mid-June. It is designed to be a central hub to access environments such as PowerShell, Cmd, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Windows Terminal will support multiple tabs, themes, emojis, and GPU-based text rendering. Microsoft has been working to improve the developer environment on Windows. They have previously released a Linux command line for Windows and listed Ubuntu on the Windows Store.
DeepMind claims AI has aided new discoveries and insights in mathematics . DeepMind has published the results of a collaboration between it and mathematicians to apply AI toward discovering new insights in areas of mathematics. It claims that its technology helped uncover a new formula in representation theory and that it also discovered previously unknown relationships within the study of knots. The results demonstrate the usefulness of machine learning as a tool for mathematical study as it excels in identifying patterns in data. Adoption of AI technology in pure mathematics could lead to discoveries that may be beyond human comprehension, but it is not critical to the progression of society.
Sushi meets AI: Japanese inventor's app scopes out choice tuna cuts . Tuna Scope is a smartphone app that uses a deep learning algorithm to rate the quality of raw tuna. The pandemic has restricted travel, so fish merchants are having issues visiting suppliers to check the quality of tuna being purchased. While the app can make it much easier for suppliers to check the quality of food being sold, it also means that experts who were previously checking for quality may be made obsolete.
SaaS Email Templates (ProductHunt Page). Hey guys, this is my personal project that I'm launching on ProductHunt today. It's a curated selection of the best emails from top SaaS companies like Zapier, Buffer, Heroku, and more. All 400+ emails are freely downloadable as HTML and categorized by use case, if this is something you'd be interested in, I'd appreciate it if you showed me some love on ProductHunt! 🙏
New Guidelines Would Allow Experiments On More Mature Human Embryos . Scientists have been prohibited from keeping human embryos alive in their labs for more than 14 days for the last few decades to avoid ethical issues that might be raised from experimenting on them as they continue to develop. The International Society for Stem Cell Research released new guidelines on Wednesday that said that the two-week period could be extended under certain circumstances. Extending the period in which embryos may be studied would help scientists solve many medical problems. The guidelines stress that each country should only permit such experiments after the topic has been discussed at length in public and with a majority agreement. Critics of the new guidelines say that they are too expansive.
The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding Software Engineers (16 minute read). Onboarding is difficult for new employees as there is a lot to learn and there are things that are often missed. Creating an onboarding structure can lower turnover and help new recruits become productive workers in a shorter period. This article discusses onboarding new employees, the different aspects to consider, and tips for more effective onboarding. It provides an onboarding framework to follow with ways to check in on the progress of the new employee.
Where Everyone’s an Influencer . Instabeach is an exclusive, invite-only annual party hosted by Instagram for the top 500 creators along with plus-ones, talent representatives, managers, and press. The goal is to help influencers meet each other and form friendships. In the last few years, it has transformed into a 'who's who' of young Hollywood, showing that the photo-sharing platform has become a place where young stars can go to make a name for themselves. There is no longer any distinction between being an influencer and an entertainer. Influencers are using their social-media attention to land roles in the entertainment industry and their follower count has become a method of currency. Some actors have experienced auditions where their talent was less important than the number of followers on their Instagram account.
Uber Eats couriers shut down major London roads in protest demanding £5 minimum per delivery . Between 100 and 300 Uber Eats drivers abandoned deliveries and brought traffic to a standstill in London to protest over wages. They are demanding a minimum fee of £5 per delivery plus £1 per mile travelled. It wasn't organized, it was a spontaneous show of anger, but many protesters plan on continuing the protests on Friday. An Uber spokesman said that they are introducing a new system that gives drivers a minimum of £9-11 an hour.
ArtLine (GitHub Repo). ArtLine is a deep learning-based project for creating line art portraits. There are many examples available. An 8-minute explanation video is linked.
Gmail’s redesigned interface including Chat and Meet is now the new default . Gmail's new user interface will show Chat and Meet sections in the side pane by default. Users can still use classic Gmail by opting out in the settings menu. The change will roll out to all Gmail users except for Google Workspace Essentials customers and Workspace customers that only have access to Gmail. Google is also introducing a Material You redesign and new features for Meet.
CATS (GitHub Repo). CATS can generate hundreds of API tests within seconds with no coding effort. All tests are generated and run automatically based on 72 Fuzzers that cover test types such as negative testing, boundary testing, structural validations, security, and end-to-end functional flows. Tutorials on how to use CATS are available.
IOC member says 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be postponed because of coronavirus pandemic . A member of the International Olympic Committee has announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is likely that the games will be moved to 2021. The IOC is expected to announce its next steps in the next four weeks. While the IOC hasn't officially announced the delay yet, it has ruled out canceling the games completely. Many countries have recently made statements about withdrawing from the games if they were held during the pandemic. This will be the first time the Olympics has been suspended, even though the games have been canceled before in times of war.
Tesla says solar roof is on its third iteration, currently installing in 8 states . Elon Musk has revealed at the Tesla annual shareholder meeting that Tesla’s solar roof product is currently being installed on properties in eight states. Tesla produces tiles that are designed to look like high-quality traditional roofing tiles, with integrated solar panels that are not easily identifiable from ground level. The tiles are now on their third version, with this version being almost at cost-parity with an entry-level cheap traditional tile, after considering the cost savings of the generated electricity. Musk is optimistic about the rollout of the new tiles, but there is currently no information on when the tiles will be released or what the installation price will be.
Mobile First Animation in React (GitHub Repo). This repository contains the source code for Alexandra Holachek's presentation on mobile animation at React Conf 2019. It contains interactive slides for the talk as well as live demos. The code was only developed as a demonstration and is not production-ready UI code.
Summer 2020 Internships (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a database of internships for Summer 2020 in tech, SWE, and related fields. Positions are open to anyone enrolled in a Bachelor's degree program. Additional information on other prerequisites or preferences are listed.
Samsung's CES 2021 robots will clean your house and pour you a glass of wine . Samsung unveiled three new robots at its virtual CES press conference on Monday. This year, the company emphasized the importance of AI to all of Samsung's products. Many of Samsung's AI applications run in the background, with the goal of being more personal and predictive. The JetBot 90 AI Plus is a robot vacuum that uses object recognition technology to identify the best cleaning path. It can empty itself, and it doubles as a home monitoring device. Bot Care is a robot assistant and companion that can learn about you and send you reminders throughout the day. The Samsung Bot Handy was designed to be an extra hand around the house. It can pick up and move objects and do things like sort dishes after a meal.
Google.com dark mode is rolling out to everyone . Google.com is rolling out a dark mode to every user over the next few weeks. It can be switched on through the Google.com settings under a new 'Appearance' section if the feature has been enabled on the account. Screenshots of the new mode are available in the article.
Walmart’s e-commerce chief is leaving to build “a city of the future” . Marc Lore created Jet.com and sold it to Walmart for $3 billion in a deal that involved him staying with the retail giant for five years to support its online business. He will be leaving the company early due to efforts last year to combine Walmart's e-commerce and physical store divisions into unified teams. Lore will remain an adviser to Walmart and has a close relationship with its CEO. His next project will be to build a city of the future supported by a reformed version of capitalism.
In a first, researchers extract secret key used to encrypt Intel CPU code . The secret key that encrypts updates to an assortment of Intel CPUs has been extracted, allowing third parties to decrypt the microcode updates Intel provides to fix security vulnerabilities and other types of bugs. It is possible to update Intel chips with custom microcode using the secret key. While there is no way to effectively eliminate the vulnerability, Intel has released a statement that the issue was not serious for customers. An attacker would require physical access to the machine and the key can't be used to infect CPUs in the supply chain.
Scientists Just Engineered Human Heart Tissue That Beats Like The Real Thing . Scientists have grown a heart atria (the upper chambers of the heart that pumps blood) from stem cells. It can beat, express genes, and respond to drugs, so this is going to be really great for helping scientists develop treatments for various heart diseases.
CSS Grid: Newspaper Layout (Website). This page contains code to create a full newspaper-style effect using CSS. A demo is available. Links to download or copy the code are easily accessible.
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.
DB (GitHub Repo). DB is able to save, restore, and archive database snapshots from the command line. It can connect to different database servers and can load a database dump from one environment into another environment. DB is an easy way to perform backups to prevent data from being lost during migrations.
Amazon warehouse workers walk out in rising tide of COVID-19 protests . Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in New York have gone on strike to protest the company's response to COVID-19 infections among its warehouse employees. There is officially one confirmed case at the warehouse, but workers claim there have been at least 10 and that the company has failed to notify workers or properly clean the warehouse. They want Amazon to shut down the facility for two weeks for deep cleaning. So far, Amazon has only closed its facilities when forced to do so by government order or worker protest. The company has failed to report confirmed cases at its facilities several times. Amazon claims that it has taken appropriate measures, but employees believe it is not enough because the facilities are designed for people to work closely together. One of the organizers of the walkout has been fired for violating a 14-day quarantine after coming in contact with an employee diagnosed with COVID-19.
Main Attraction: Scientists Create World’s Thinnest Magnet – Just One Atom Thick! . Scientists at the Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have developed an ultrathin magnet that operates at room temperature. The one-atom-thin magnet could make big advances in next-gen memory devices, computing, spintronics, and quantum physics. Researchers have been searching for decades for ways to make thinner and smaller 2D magnets to enable higher density data storage. Previous attempts have failed to perform at room temperature, but the new magnets still work at 100 degrees Celsius. The magnets can be mass-produced.
Facebook and Instagram back up after big Thanksgiving outages . Facebook and Instagram experienced intermittent outages during Thanksgiving. The services have since been restored. Instagram acknowledged the issue on Twitter early Thursday morning and Facebook began to restore access to its services around midday. The issue affected users worldwide. Instagram users in central Europe were the most affected.
Tesla names director Denholm to replace Musk as board chair . As part of the SEC's settlement with Tesla regarding Elon Musk's "funding secured" tweet, Tesla was required to replace Elon Musk as chairman of their board. They've selected Robyn Denholm to be the new chairwoman. She's resigning as CFO of Australian telecom firm Telstra to take the job, she has also worked as an executive at Toyota and Sun Microsystems. She has been on Tesla's board since 2014.
Musk plans IPO for SpaceX's Starlink business . Elon Musk plans to list Starlink on the market in several years when revenue growth is smooth and predictable. Starlink is an important new revenue stream for SpaceX. It is racing to offer broadband internet commercially by the end of 2020. Musk tweeted that he would give small retail investors top priority in the initial public offering.
Secretive data startup Palantir has confidentially filed for an IPO . Palantir is a secretive data and analytics startup that provides technologies to clients such as the US government. Data provided by the company has been used to profile immigrants, leading to deportations. The company filed paperwork with the SEC to go public on Monday. Palantir is currently valued at around $26 billion. It appears that the IPO market is starting to heat up again, despite the pandemic.
OpenDataCam 2.0.0 (GitHub Repo). OpenDataCam 2.0.0 is a software that is able to count cars, pedestrians, and motorbikes from a webcam live stream. It uses a neural network to detect objects. A four-minute demo video is available.
GitHub stars won’t pay your rent (20 minute read). After launching a custom browser designed for developers, Kitze looked at the statistics for his software and found that while over 7,000 people were using the software every month, it had only made $93 in 2.5 years despite the donation link being clearly visible everywhere. After exploring a few options and jobs, Kitze redeveloped a paid version of the app and removed the GitHub repository. The app launch was successful and Kitze was able to build and expand a business.
SEC settles charges with Tesla's Elon Musk, will remain as CEO but relinquish chairman role and pay stiff fine . The SEC has settled its fraud suit against Elon Musk for his tweet stating that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 a share. The terms of the settlement stipulate that Musk must pay a civil penalty of $20 million and give up his role as chairman of the board for at least three years. Additionally, the SEC imposed a $20 million fine on Tesla itself, which will also be expected to appoint two new independent directors to the board, and institute sweeping governance changes. The settlement is still subject to court approval.
Tesla Pickup truck to cost less than $50,000, ‘be better than F150’, says Elon Musk . Elon Musk revealed more information on Tesla’s upcoming pickup truck on a podcast over the weekend. Musk aims to ensure that the truck is affordable and is aiming for a start price of $49,000 or less. The futuristic design of the truck may not be for everybody. Musk compared the changes in the new design to the difference between the horse-drawn carriage and the car. His aim is to create a truck that is a better truck than a Ford F-150 and a better sports car than a standard Porsche 911. The teaser image released at the launch of the Model Y was revealed to be the design of the front of the Tesla pickup truck.
Exclusive: Google asked 5,600 employees about remote work. This is what they learned . Google conducted a two year study on remote work and has released findings on how to make the most out of distributed teams. The researchers found that remote workers were usually as productive as office teams. However, a few optimizations to the team would help productivity and morale, such as scheduling convenient meeting times, developing real relationships between the team, using the right team communication platforms, and making sure that clear expectations are set. These changes would help remote employees feel less frustrated and disconnected from their teams.
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.
Volvo's 360c concept car is a fully autonomous bedroom on wheels . Volvo envisions its new autonomous concept car as serving four use cases: a mobile bedroom that will replace red-eye flights, a productivity booster for a daily commute, a living room, and an entertainment space. The concept car makes room for a pullout bed by removing the steering wheel and dashboard entirely. Folding up the bed and pulling out the slideout coffee table instantly turns the car into a workspace. There's a 2 minute demo video inside that's pretty cool.
Google parent Alphabet is now a $1 trillion company . Alphabet is now one of the four US companies to have a market cap of over $1 trillion. It achieved this milestone just before the markets closed on Thursday, with a price of $1,451.70 per share. Sundar Pichai took over as CEO of Alphabet in December after Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin resigned from the position. Google has had to deal with some controversy in recent years over internal issues. Facebook is the next company expected to hit the $1 trillion market cap, with a current market cap of $620 billion.
Falcon (GitHub Repo). Falcon is a free, open-source SQL editor with inline data visualization. It works without an internet connection. Falcon supports connecting to RedShift, MySQL, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, Impala, MS SQL, Oracle, SQLite, and more.
Snap’s new Spectacles let you see the world in augmented reality . Snap has unveiled its first true augmented reality glasses. The new Spectacles can superimpose AR effects over reality. Its frames have four built-in microphones, two stereo speakers, and a touchpad. The glasses use front-facing cameras to detect objects and surfaces so that graphics can interact naturally with the world. They only have a battery life of 30 minutes. Snap will not be selling Spectacles on the mass market. Instead, it will be giving them directly to select AR effects creators through an online application program.
Magic Leap reportedly slashes 1,000 jobs and steps away from consumer plans . Magic Leap, a company that makes wearable technology, has laid off roughly 1,000 employees and will be backing away from the consumer market to focus more on its enterprise customers. The company is also in the process of exploring a sale, with an estimated value of $10 billion. CEO Rony Abovitz stated that the company was moving its focus to the enterprise market due to COVID-19 complications.
SpaceX’s first astronaut launch is scrubbed due to weather – next attempt set for Saturday . SpaceX was set to launch its first-ever crewed spaceflight from Cape Canaveral in Florida on May 27 but it was delayed due to weather issues. The launch has been rescheduled for May 30. If the mission is successful, the Crew Dragon will be certified for regular operational use by NASA, which means SpaceX will be able to begin offering regular transportation services for astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX has already begun plans to offer flights to private citizens, commercial scientists, and other types of passengers.
For The First Time, Scientists Have Captured Video of Brains Clearing Out Dead Neurons . Scientists have been able to capture video of the waste disposal system within mice brains for the first time. Using a technique called 2Phatal, the scientists killed a single brain cell and followed it using fluorescent markers. Three types of glial cells were shown to be involved in the cell removal process. The glial cells removed the dead brain cells with some coordination, suggesting there is communication occurring between the cells. Understanding how the brain cleans itself could give experts insight on how to treat brain injuries and other diseases that involve brain cell death.
The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack (22 minute read). In 2016, North Korean hackers almost stole $1 billion from Bangladesh's national bank. This article tells the story of the heist, from when it started to the current state of the investigation. All but $81 million of the transfers were halted. The hackers used fake bank accounts, charities, casinos, and a wide network of accomplices to carry out the heist. Little is known about the North Korean hackers, who are known as the Lazarus Group.
Amazon rolls out in-store pickup for products ordered from local retailers . Local Selling is a new set of services from Amazon that allows local and regional retailers to offer both in-store pickup and fast delivery to nearby customers. Items that are eligible for store pick-up will have a special tab on the item page. Customers will have five days to collect their orders. Delivery will be facilitated by the business itself. Amazon Local Selling is now available for many retailers, with more to be added later this year and during 2022.
Tesla owner is the first to face felony charges for deadly Autopilot crash . Two felony charges have been filed against a Tesla owner in the US for a deadly crash involving Autopilot in 2019. It is the first time a Tesla owner has been criminally charged in the US in a case involving Autopilot. Autopilot has contributed to a number of fatal crashes and Tesla has faced several wrongful death suits as a result. Drivers are warned that they need to still pay attention when using Autopilot, but some drivers still misuse the system.
Human 'microevolution' sees more people born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery . Australian researchers have concluded that humans are still evolving and have changed quickly over the last 250 years. The study was carried out by tracking the rate of retainment of different body parts throughout generations. It found that more people now have an extra artery that increases blood supply to the hands, smaller jaws, and extra bones in their legs and feet.
NASA to Study a $700 Quintillion ‘Goldmine’ Asteroid . Psyche 16 is an asteroid that could be worth $700 quintillion. Scientists have recently confirmed that the asteroid is at least 20 percent metal by studying the polarized light bouncing off its surface. Psyche 16 doesn't emit the kind of polarized light that a highly metallic body should. NASA plans to send a probe to the asteroid in 2022 to collect measurements of its gravity and potential electromagnetic fields, as well as determine whether the asteroid is the core of a planet-sized object.
We don’t know why, but being in space causes us to destroy our blood . New research has been released that shows that being in space causes the body to destroy red blood cells. A study has found that astronauts' bodies destroy red blood cells at a rate 54% higher in space compared to people on Earth, with some of the effect remaining at least a year after returning to Earth. The longer a person stays in space, the longer their bodies continue to destroy blood cells at a higher rate. It is unknown what is causing the effect.
Scientists Want to Map Trillions of Miles of Underground Fungus Networks . The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks is launching an initiative to collect fungal network samples from around the world to safeguard these networks and to enhance their ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide. The first samples will be gathered in Patagonia for roughly 18 months starting next year. Machine learning will be used to map the function of the fungal networks and their role as carbon sinks. These vast networks could be invaluable in curbing the worst effects of human-caused climate change.
Bpytop (Github Repo). Bpytop is a resource monitor for Linux/OSX/FreeBSD that shows usage and stats for processor, memory, disk, network, and processes. It has a game inspired menu system, full mouse support, the ability to show detailed stats for selected processes, and more. All bashtop themes are supported.
DARPA Is Building a $10 Million, Open Source, Secure Voting System . Since 2017, DARPA has been working on developing secure hardware that would be impervious to most software attacks that exist today, and designing tools to build that hardware. In order to demonstrate their work, they had to find a real-world application that people would be interested in, and voting was an obvious choice. Galois, an Oregon-based firm, will work with DARPA to develop a fully open-source voting system that will be presented at Def Con and universities to be tested. The aim is not to create a commercially available voting system, but to create a methodology that can be used by others to build a voting system that is completely secure. DARPA’s new hardware modifies existing CPU designs to make them secure and may change the way that CPUs are architectured in the future.
How io_uring and eBPF Will Revolutionize Programming in Linux (20 minute read). Two revolutionary new interfaces, eBPF and io_uring, were added to Linux in 2019. The Linux kernel previously only offered blocking system calls to deal with file descriptors, but as devices have gotten faster, this became an increasingly urgent issue. io_uring is an interface that was designed to be truly flexible, extensible, asynchronous, and compatible with any kind of I/O. It offers some advanced features such as file and buffer registration, polling, and linked operations. eBPF allows users to execute arbitrary code in the Linux kernel, enabling advanced tooling and debugging. These two new features allow developers to design apps that can truly take advantage of large multicore multiprocessor systems and µsecond-scale storage I/O latencies.
Chinese scientists harness fourth state of matter to create ‘air plasma’ jet engine that runs on electricity alone . Chinese scientists have created a carbon-neutral prototype jet engine that could allow for a new era in fossil-fuel-free manned flight. The prototype engine compresses air and ionizes it with microwaves, generating plasma that expels out the back of the engine to generate thrust. Previous attempts at plasma engines weren't powerful enough, but this type of engine could potentially produce the same amount of thrust as a conventional commercial jet engine.
Nvidia is making a 3D map of the universe with the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer . Nvidia's Perlmutter supercomputer is the fastest in the world for AI workloads. Its first task will be to build a 3D map of the universe. The map will help scientists learn more about dark energy. With 6,000+ Nvidia A100 Tensor Core GPUs on board, Perlmutter is capable of delivering almost four exaFLOPS of AI performance. Its performance will be bolstered further in phase two of its development. When it is completed, Perlmutter will be one of the top five supercomputers in the world.
Samsung ends mobile phone production in China . Samsung has closed down its last phone factory in China. Other manufacturers such as Sony have also ceased phone production in China due to rising labor costs and the economic slowdown. Sony will now only be making smartphones in Thailand. Samsung's market share in China shrank to 1% in the first quarter from around 15% in mid-2013. People in China buy low-priced smartphones from domestic brands and high-end smartphones from Apple or Huawei, leaving little room for Samsung to grow. Samsung will continue to sell phones in China. The company currently produces smartphones in India and Vietnam.
Wordle: The wildly popular word game explained . Wordle is an online game that became popular in late 2021. It can only be played once a day and everybody plays the same daily puzzle. In the game, players are allowed six chances to guess a random five-letter word. Players are given colored hints on which letters the word may contain after every guess. Users can share their results, making the game a social experience. Wordle was created by the same person who created Place, a collaborative art project/social experiment that was popular in 2017.
Hands-on with the new, more colorful, M2-powered MacBook Air . Apple has revealed a new MacBook Air with an M2 chip. The new design is 11mm thick and weighs 2.7 pounds. There are two new color options, a dark blue 'midnight' and a light gold 'starlight'. Its 13.6-inch display can hit 500 nits of brightness and supports the P3 wide color gamut for a billion colors. The new MacBook Air has MagSafe charging and a full-sized Touch ID button. It has up to 18 hours of battery life. More details, including pictures of the new laptop, are available in the article.
The Kidney Project successfully tests a prototype bioartificial kidney . The Kidney Project earned a $650,000 prize from KidneyX for its first-ever demonstration of a functional prototype of its implantable artificial kidney. The artificial kidney consists of a hemofilter that removes waste products and toxins from blood and a bioreactor that replicates other kidney functions. It is powered by blood pressure alone and there is no need for blood thinning or immunosuppressant drugs. The team will now focus on upscaling the technology for larger tests and clinical trials. A 3-minute video that shows the device and explains how it works is available in the article.
Disney Assumes Full Control of Hulu in Deal With Comcast . Disney now has complete control over Hulu after a deal was reached with Comcast to sell the platform for at least $5.8 billion. Comcast’s NBCUniversal will continue to license content to Hulu until 2024. However, after next year the content will no longer be exclusive to Hulu, and by 2022, NBCU will be able to cancel most of its licensing agreements with Hulu. NBCU will launch a free, ad-supported streaming service in 2020. With Disney in control of Hulu, they will be able to set a new strategic map for the service, including launching it internationally. Comcast continues to hold a 33 percent share of Hulu, but in 2024 either Comcast can demand that Disney purchase this share, or Disney can require Comcast to sell its share for fair market price.
Apple patents surround sound-like technology for a MacBook . Apple has won a patent for a surround sound-like technology that will make watching media on a laptop feel significantly more immersive. The acoustic system will send noise out at angles to create the illusion that sound is coming from different directions. Sound has been a focus for Apple as they try to create the best experience for consuming Apple TV+ content on a Mac. While Apple now owns the patent, it may still be some time before the feature will appear in MacBooks, if at all.
We Need a PBS for Social Media . Social media has become a place where false information is allowed to spread, resulting in damage to our society and culture. These companies operate on the same basic model where they try to occupy as much attention as possible in order to collect data from their customers, which they then sell. Nonprofit public media was created 50 years ago to ensure that a medium will always exist to be used for the public interest. A public social media product would not have to increase engagement and would allow people to focus more on the community and its members. There would be no brand accounts as the network would be for people only. Smaller networks, such as Discord and Mastodon, have been successful as they provide something that the larger social networks do not have, a safer community with less noise. While large social networks have benefitted our society greatly, these platforms extract a price, and it would be a lot healthier if there were more options available.
ffmpeg.wasm (GitHub Repo). ffmpeg.wasm is a pure Web assembly/JavaScript port of FFmpeg. It can record audio and video, convert files, and stream, right inside the browser. A live demo is available.
pedalboard (GitHub Repo). pedalboard is a Python library for adding effects to audio. It was built for ease-of-use and very high performance. pedalboard comes with a number of common audio effects and support for third-party effects. It is compatible with TensorFlow and can be used in tf.data pipelines.
Facebook resolves day-long outages across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger . Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users had difficulty loading images, videos, and other data on their apps today due to a system outage. In an official statement, Facebook said that the outage was caused by an error that was triggered during routine maintenance. Services slowly started to resume just a couple of hours after the outage started. Major outages from these platforms are becoming increasingly disruptive as more and more people depend on the services for communication and business.
Open Source CS (GitHub Repo). This is a collection of classes from universities like Stanford, Princeton, and MIT that are available online through Coursera, EDX, and Udacity that can replicate the requirements for an undergraduate computer science degree.
Space Debris Has Hit And Damaged The International Space Station . A piece of space debris too small to be tracked has hit the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station. The arm is still operational but a small section of the arm boom and thermal blanket has been damaged. Canadarm2 has been on the station for 20 years, assisting with maneuvering objects outside the ISS. The damage was noticed during a routine inspection. It is unknown when the damage occurred. The event is still being analyzed to understand how it occurred and to assess future risk.
MQTT vs Kafka to build an IoT architecture (Sponsor). This tutorial is a walkthrough of an experiment where an IoT advocate pushed time series data to InfluxDB with a MQTT publisher and Kafka producer to understand the core mechanics behind each.Learn how he did it and which solution he found more powerful.
Facebook acquires neural interface startup CTRL-Labs for its mind-reading wristband . Facebook has acquired CTRL-Labs, a neural interface startup that makes a wristband capable of translating electrical signals from the brain into computer input. The deal is the most substantial acquisition Facebook has made since acquiring Oculus VR. CTRL-Labs' wristband will allow for the development of new ways of interacting with machines. The acquisition of CTRL-Labs represents Facebook's commitment to futuristic tech. It has recently been revealed that Facebook is designing two different models of AR glasses which are prime candidates for CTRL-Labs' interface technology.
Singapore vending machines now dispense salmon, crab, and even cacti . Vending machines in Singapore now sell a variety of foods, such as salmon and Wagyu beef. Many entrepreneurs are turning to vending machines as the barriers to entry are low, and a compact, densely populated city like Singapore is ideal. The variety of food is increasing, and some machines are now selling other items, such as books and cacti. Vending machines played a key role in Singapore's pandemic response, with 1,200 of them installed around the island to dispense free masks.
The EU plans to test an AI lie detector at border points . The EU has created an AI called iBorderCtrl that will analyze travelers at four border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece with countries outside the European Union. Travelers will answer questions like "What's in your suitcase?" into a webcam so the system can analyze and rate dozens of micro-gestures to determine if they're being truthful. If they are they will get a QR code to pass through, otherwise they will have their biometric information taken and will be reviewed by a human agent. This is still highly experimental, and the last version only worked 76% of the time, they are claiming the latest version works 85% of the time. In its current form, it will not have the final say in stopping anyone from crossing the border.
Uber and Lyft ordered by California judge to classify drivers as employees . Uber and Lyft must classify their drivers as employees unless their emergency appeal to block the ruling is successful. The companies have been under pressure for months to reclassify their workers. A law signed in September provides a test for determining if someone is a contractor or an employee but the companies have denied that drivers are central to their ride-hailing business. Reclassifying workers to employees means that they will receive traditional benefits like minimum wage, health insurance, and workers' compensation. Uber and Lyft claim that the ruling will result in fewer jobs and that a vast majority of drivers wish to remain independent workers.
How Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020 (10 minute read). This post discusses how Spotify optimized and sped up elements for its largest Dataflow Job for Wrapped 2020 using a technique called Sort Merge Bucket (SMB) join. SMB is an optimization that reduces shuffle by doing work upfront on the producer side. By adopting SMB, Spotify was able to perform extremely large joins that were previously impossible. SMB allowed Spotify to save on costs and opened up more ways for the company to optimize its workflows.
Facebook bows to Singapore's 'fake news' law . Facebook complied with Singapore's 'fake news' law by adding a correction notice to a post that Singapore's government claimed contained false information. An opposition politician was ordered to correct information in a Facebook post and to add a notice to the post saying that it contained fake news. The notice was only visible to users in the city-state. Singapore's 'fake news' law came into effect in October and it allows the government to order online platforms to remove and correct statements that the government deems to be against the public interest. The law bans the use of fake accounts or bots to spread fake news. Critics say that the law gives the government too much power to control the content that can be viewed online. The government argues that law includes safeguards against the abuse of power.
Amazon is opening a real-world clothing store with high-tech fitting rooms . Amazon is opening a clothing store in Los Angeles later this year. Amazon Style will feature clothes with prices catering to a wide range of shoppers. Customers will be able to use their phones to scan items to be delivered to a counter or fitting room. Once in a fitting room, customers can use a touchscreen display to request different sizes or more styles to be delivered without having to leave the room. Shoppers will be able to use the Amazon One palm-scanning system to pay during checkout.
Startup Says It’s Created an Actual “Invisibility Shield” . Invisibility Shield Co, a British startup, claims to have created an invisibility shield that doesn't require power to operate. It is financing its invention through Kickstarter. A full-sized invisibility shield measures three by two feet and costs around $400. The technology works by reflecting light in a horizontal direction so that the subject behind the shield is almost completely obscured. A video from the startup showing the shield working in several environments is available.
Robinhood rocks banking with 3-percent savings interest rate . Fintech investing platform Robinhood is launching free checking and savings accounts that earn 3% annually. You also get access to 75,000 ATMs. Early signups start now, the accounts will launch in early 2019.
Indian Prime Minister Modi’s Twitter account was ‘briefly compromised’ . The Twitter account of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hacked on Sunday. People became suspicious after the account tweeted that India had officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender. The tweet contained a link to a sketchy website with information supporting the claim. The account has now been fully secured.
Scientists just broke the record for the highest efficiency solar cell . Researchers from the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory have created a solar cell with a record efficiency of 39.5% under 1-sun global illumination. It has the highest efficiency recorded for any type of cell ever measured in real-world conditions. Earlier experimental cells have reached higher efficiencies, but they only did so under extremely concentrated light. The new cell performs at 34.2% efficiency in space. It is expensive to produce, so researchers will have to reduce the costs before the cell can become widespread.
Over half the deer in Michigan seem to have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 . A survey of wild deer populations in the US has found that a large number of the animals have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2. The US Department of Agriculture was studying a variety of species to identify potential reservoirs or hosts for the virus. Deer show no symptoms when infected. The virus could pick up mutations that help it adapt to deer. A mutated virus would be less susceptible to the immune response generated by vaccines or prior infections.
Renault Rethinks Last Mile Delivery with Fleet of Autonomous Pods . Renault unveiled an autonomous delivery vehicle called EZ-PRO. EZ-PRO is an autonomous, electric robo-pod concept that Renaults says is the "the future of agile, last-mile delivery solutions for every type of professional." The EZ-PRO leader pods have a human conductor on board, responsible for the delivery of goods and of maintaining the pod fleet. Basically it's like a train, where there's a human conductor, but any of the individual train cars (pods in this case) can break off and make their own delivery. There are pictures inside they look pretty robocoppy.
Charli D’Amelio hits 100 million TikTok followers . Charli D’Amelio has reached 100 million followers on TikTok. Only two other creators have surpassed 50 million followers. D’Amelio reached 100 million subscribers in record time, having only started posting on TikTok in May 2019. Recently, the D’Amelio family has been trying to move beyond TikTok, launching a podcast, expanding into YouTube, and announcing a book deal. While TikTok offers payouts to creators, many have been disappointed with the returns.
DeepTraffic (Github Repo). DeepTraffic is a deep reinforcement learning competition run by MIT. There are 20 vehicles on a 7-lane road, with your algorithm controlling some of the vehicles while the game controls others. Your goal is to get a vehicle through the traffic as quickly as possible. There's a leaderboard for the people who manage to drive their car through the fastest. Looks like a fun way to apply deep reinforcement learning.
The Hacker's Hardware Toolkit (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a list of hardware gadgets for Red Team hackers, pentesters, and security researchers. More than a hundred tools are listed, classified into eight categories. All tools are available for purchase online.
Ask HN: What was your experience starting a tech consultancy? (HackerNews Thread). A user asks for advice, warnings, and stories on starting a tech consultancy. The discussion mainly centers around making sales and hiring the right people for the job. Managing the sales process carefully is important in order to maximize income and time. While new startups might start their business thinking about the product, experienced business owners understand that the core focus for their businesses is making quality sales.
What I loved about Paul Allen by Bill Gates . A touching eulogy by Bill Gates for his late friend and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who he met when he was in 7th grade.
'Care robots' for the elderly could be developed in the UK after government funding . The UK government has backed a scheme that will research how to make autonomous systems safe and trustworthy for public use. The research program will last five years and cost $43.54 million. It is hoped that care robots can be developed to be used in places such as hospitals and care homes alongside human professionals, performing tasks such as helping people up after a fall, making sure medication is taken, and delivering meals. Research will be carried out to make sure the robots are protected against cyber-attacks and able to demonstrate traits such as respect, equality, and fairness. Other sectors where a lack of public trust is a key challenge may also benefit from the deployment of robots. Assistive robots can enable people to maintain their independence for as long as possible.
‘Last Hope’ Experiment Finds Evidence for Unknown Particles (15 minute read). Muons are elementary particles similar to electrons. Decades ago, scientists noticed that these particles wobbled more than expected when whipping around a magnetized ring. A recent new measurement confirms these results, making it significantly likely that an unknown force was giving the muons an extra push. The discovery, if confirmed, could break down the 50-year-old Standard Model of particle physics, which describes known elementary particles and interactions.
Samsung’s C-Lab class features a diaper sensor, smart guitar, and modular robot . Samsung's C-Lab division allows employees to create personal pet projects. While the projects aren't always practical, they're often fascinating, displaying ideas that are traditionally outside of Samsung's scope. This year at CES, C-Lab will split its products into three categories: C-Lab Inside, C-Lab Outside, and projects that have effectively spun out from Samsung. CES will run in Las Vegas from January 5 to January 8. A list of products and companies from C-Lab Inside and Outside is available in the article.
The Only Type of API Services I'll Use . API services can seem like magic when you query an endpoint for it to return back some data or complete some functionality. All API services should use usage-based pricing with automatic volume discounts. Using this model, a customer will only pay for how much they use a particular service. It means that customers will use your service more as it provides more value to them, and vice versa. This incentivizes both the customer and service provider to act in everyone's best interest as the service provider improves its service to increase value, and customers are benefitting from discounts the more they use your service. Customers who have high volume are also less likely to drop in volume as they will pay more for using the service less. Other types of pricing models usually create a situation where the customer is always paying more for your service than they want to, as they will never use their full allowances. This incentivizes people to use your service less as they want to minimize costs down to the lowest tier.
Her Amazon Purchases Are Real. The Reviews Are Fake (13 minute read). Customers are being reimbursed for their Amazon purchases in exchange for positive reviews. In order to have a successful business on Amazon, vendors must have good reviews and a high search ranking. Third-party sellers often find it difficult to attract genuine customers to receive reviews when starting their businesses. Amazon has banned giving away free products in exchange for reviews, but sellers still get away with it. Sellers reach out to customers through targeted Facebook ads, giving them specific instructions for purchasing items and receiving reimbursements after leaving 5-star reviews. Using this method, customer purchases look legitimate. Having a front-page product on Amazon can be incredibly profitable, making these strategies attractive for blackhat sellers. Many of these sellers are in China. Some customers are able to gain additional benefits by earning rewards points and cash back from credit cards.
Background Matting (GitHub Repo). Background Matting is a project that uses deep learning to turn any background into a green screen with just a handheld camera. It requires an additional photo of the background without the subject at the time of capture. Example videos and images are available. There is a 5 minute video comparing this method with other matting methods.
Samsung Is Developing A Transparent Smartphone . Samsung submitted a patent for a transparent smartphone in January. LG has patented a similar technology and Xiaomi recently released a see-through TV, so the technology already exists. These types of displays feature low power consumption, high brightness, and fast response times. An image gallery featuring an early design of the transparent smartphone is available in the article.
Facebook and Twitter uncover Chinese trolls spreading doubts about Hong Kong protests . Facebook and Twitter have discovered a network of accounts believed to have been operated by the Chinese government. The accounts were created to sow political discord around the protests taking place in Hong Kong and have now been suspended. There were 936 accounts on Twitter and seven pages, three groups, and five accounts on Facebook. One of the pages had 15,500 followers and at least one of the groups had 2,200 members. Facebook and Twitter are forbidden in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong. Protests broke out in Hong Kong earlier this summer as citizens opposed a Chinese bill that would allow people living in the special administrative region to be extradited to China for trial. The protests have escalated in recent weeks. Twitter has been criticized for accepting ads from Chinese state media, but it has now stated that it will no longer accept advertising from state-controlled media entities. State-backed media accounts will still be free to continue to use Twitter without advertising abilities.
Apple WWDC 2022: the 16 biggest announcements . Apple recently revealed news about macOS Ventura, iOS 16, the M2 chip, a new MacBook Air, and much more at WWDC 2022. iOS 16 will have a customizable lock screen, updated notifications, Live Activities, editable and unsendable texts in Messages, a Pay Later feature, Safety Checks, and more. watchOS 9 will come with new health-tracking features. The new MacBook Air will feature the new M2 chip, which offers an 18 percent performance upgrade when compared to the M1. macOS Ventura will feature an improved multitasking tool, Passkeys, and the ability to use an iPhone as a webcam. iPadOS 16 will have new multitasking and collaboration features. More details about the announcements are available in the article.
First “Marsquake” Detected on Red Planet . NASA’s InSight lander detected a faint trembling on Mars’ surface earlier this month. The marsquake was relatively weak, about the strength of the moonquakes that were measured in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Apollo astronauts. If the quake had occurred on Earth it would not have been detected. Scientists are still unsure whether the marsquake originated from the planet or as a result of a meteor impact. InSight is currently located in Elysium Planitia, near Mars’ equator. Its heat probe has become stuck on what is likely a buried rock, and mission controllers are currently trying to figure out how to free the robotic lander.

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