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Russia Plans to Cut Off Some Internet Access Next Week | Russia planned a test of its RuNet program on December 23. The test temporarily shut off many of its citizens' internet access. RuNet aims to help the government better control internal digital traffic, launch cyber and information attacks against other nations, and track and censor dissidents. The test evaluated RuNet's ability to intercept subscriber traffic, reveal information about subscribers, and block communication services. Results from the test will help the government assess its ability to control key internet nodes should a crisis develop. Experts are concerned that other countries may attempt to create isolated domestic internets to control citizens. Some countries already suspend internet access as a means of control, but Russia's solution will allow communication and business to continue on the Kremlin's terms. | 4Miscellaneous
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Russian Researchers Clone Cow To Produce Milk for Lactose Intolerance People | Researchers from Russia cloned a cow and edited its genes to remove beta-lactoglobulin, the main allergen in milk that causes lactose intolerance. Around 70 percent of the world has some form of lactose malabsorption. The team now aims to impregnate a herd with modified embryos to create a generation of cattle that produces lactose-free milk. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Git Alias (GitHub Repo) | GitAlias is a collection of git version control alias settings with short aliases such as s for status, command aliases such as chart and churn, and lookup aliases such as whois and whatis. This repository contains a collection of GitAlias commands, sorted into sections such as workflow aliases, tooling aliases, and convenience aliases. An index of all the aliases in alphabetical order is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Bud (GitHub Repo) | Bud is a full-stack Go framework for web development. It reduces the cost of building, launching, and maintaining rich web applications by providing a well-tested set of building blocks that every serious website needs. It is the Ruby on Rails for the Go ecosystem. A video on how to build a Hacker News clone with Bud in 15 minutes is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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U.S. government sides with Apple and Amazon, effectively denying Bloomberg 'spy chip' report
The plot thickens with respect to the story last week where Bloomberg reported that Chinese spies had used tiny microchips to infiltrate over 30 tech companies including Apple and Amazon. Apple and Amazon (as well as the hardware company Supermicro, which was named as the company that spread the infected hardware) | The plot thickens with respect to the story last week where Bloomberg reported that Chinese spies had used tiny microchips to infiltrate over 30 tech companies including Apple and Amazon. Apple and Amazon (as well as the hardware company Supermicro, which was named as the company that spread the infected hardware) have all refuted the Bloomberg story. Now, the US department of Homeland Security says there's no reason to doubt Apple, Amazon, and Supermicro's denials. Bloomberg is still sticking with their story. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Mutiny at HQ Trivia fails to oust CEO | Internal struggles within HQ Trivia have seen the third most popular game on the App Store in 2018 drop out of the top 1,500 games within a year. The management of the company had always been questionable, with many controversies over the various CEOs’ behaviors. While the company had been successfully funded multiple times, it has been spending the money at an extremely fast and unsustainable rate. Investors are now reluctant to continue funding, despite HQ trying out new apps and formats. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amazon is opening a new store that sells items from its website rated 4 stars and above | A new store called Amazon 4-star will open today in New York's SoHo neighborhood. The store is permanent (not a pop-up store) and will only sell items that have 4 star ratings or above on Amazon. Amazon Prime members will pay "the Amazon.com price" when they shop there. The store will have digital price tags, presumably to keep prices consistent with the Amazon.com website. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Air-Gap Attack Turns Memory Modules into Wi-Fi Radios | A new proof-of-concept attack turns SDRAM buses into Wi-Fi radios that leak data. The clock speed of memory modules is typically around the frequency of 2.4 GHz or its harmonics, so they can generate electromagnetic emissions around standard Wi-Fi frequency bands. It is not a quick attack, with a top speed of only 100 bps and a range of 69 inches, and it would also be difficult to install on target systems without physical access. A video demonstrating the attack is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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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. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The Army's New Night-Vision Goggles Look Like Technology Stolen From Aliens | The army's new Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars are a huge upgrade from traditional night vision goggles. They use white tubes that produce better contrast and brighter images. The goggles offer stereo vision and can see through obstructions like dust and smoke even with zero illumination. Augmented reality enhancements allow the goggles to enhance and outline objects, and they can wirelessly communicate with an electronic scope so soldiers can aim without exposing themselves. Images of the goggles are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Modular optical computer chip allows stackable swappable functions | Engineers at MIT have developed a modular computer chip with components that can communicate using flashes of light. Its layer components can be stacked or swapped to build chips to perform specific functions or for upgrades. They have unlimited expandability depending on the combination of layers. The technology could enable easily upgradeable electronics and reduce electronic waste. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Would You Trust a Cartoon Cat with Your Money? | eGirl Capital is a crypto investment firm staffed by 12 anonymous cartoon characters and two real identities. It started as a joke in 2019, but it has since made an impression in the crypto VC world, investing up to $10 million in a range of serious projects. The group does not take money from outside investors, preferring to spend the money that its partners made through cryptocurrency trading. While traditional markets might not accept a group of anonymous investors, the crypto space has been receptive. | 4Miscellaneous
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CRISPR flies have been gene edited so they can eat poison | Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have created genetically modified fruit flies that are able to eat poison and store it in their bodies. Milkweed is a common plant that is toxic to most animals and insects, but an adaptation in the monarch butterfly allows it to eat milkweed and store its toxins within its body, making it poisonous to predators who try to eat it. The UC Berkeley researchers used CRISPR to edit the genes in fruit flies, giving them the same ability to eat milkweed and store its toxins. The edited fruit fly maggots were able to thrive on a diet of milkweed, and these abilities stayed with them in their adult stage. Three separate mutations were required for the changes to be effective. The study potentially widens the use of CRISPR as a way to directly evolve new traits and behaviors. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google lowers Play Store fees for subscriptions and music streaming apps | Google has announced that more categories of apps will be eligible to pay significantly less than the usual 30 percent fee. Subscription-based apps will now pay a 15 percent fee. Ebooks and on-demand music streaming services are now eligible for fees as low as 10 percent. Google will determine at their discretion which music streaming apps will be eligible for lower fees. The new fee structure may encourage developers to switch over from one-time payments to subscriptions. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Scientists Used CRISPR to Engineer a New ‘Superbug’ That’s Invincible to All Viruses | All of life is made from a combination of 64 DNA codons which are translated into 20 amino acids by tRNA. Viruses use the same code to use a host cell's machinery to build the proteins it needs to reproduce. A team of scientists used CRISPR to replace redundant codons in the E. Coli bacterial genome with their synonyms. They also replaced the cells' natural tRNA with synthetic versions to read the new codons. As a result, viruses were unable to use the cells' machinery to reproduce, making the cells resistant to being hijacked by almost any viral invader. The results of the study have countless implications for the biotechnology and medicine industries. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Sblack (Desktop Tool) | Sblack is an ultra-lightweight Mac client for Slack that comes with a light mode and dark mode. This is a native (non-Electron) app, so it's only 20MB instead of 180MB like the official Slack client. If you use Slack on a Macbook and want the desktop client to be a bit snappier, this is definitely worth a look. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Wireit (GitHub Repo) | Wireit makes npm scripts smarter and more efficient. It automatically runs dependencies between npm scripts in parallel, watches and re-runs scripts on changes, caches output locally and remotely on GitHub actions for free, and it works with single packages, npm workspaces, and other monorepos. Wireit is still in alpha. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ask HN: What are your favorite developer-efficiency tips? (Hacker News Thread) | Recording yourself or pretending to stream your work is a novel way of increasing productivity at work as it gets you into a certain mindset. Sometimes it can get difficult to start working. A technique to get started faster is to spend some time at the end of a work session to make it easier to accomplish something early in your next work session, for example, making a to-do list or creating an easy-to-fix issue. Dedicating only a little bit of time to read documentation and code can result in a vast amount of knowledge that can help save a lot of time and solve problems later on. This thread contains many more efficiency tips for developers. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The Arctic Circle Hit 101°F Saturday, Its Hottest Temperature Ever | Last weekend, the small Russian town of Verkhoyansk, located in the Arctic Circle, recorded a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Once verified by experts, it will be the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic Circle. The average high temperature in January in the town is -44 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures in the area have risen significantly above average in the last few months. Earth's poles warm faster than the rest of the planet due to atmospheric processes. High latitude countries will experience significantly more warming than low latitude countries. This dramatic warming of the Arctic up to triple-digit temperatures wasn't expected to happen until 2100. | 4Miscellaneous
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WTF Python (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains Python code snippets that have surprising behaviors. It aims to explain what is happening under the hood for some of the lesser-known features of Python. A Google Colab interactive version is available where you can run the code examples in-browser. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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EventNative (GitHub Repo) | EventNative is an event collection service. It can capture events generated by an application and stream to any Data Warehouse. EventNative can capture events stopped by AdBlock, push data to multiple destinations at once, determine location from a user's IP address, and more. A demo page is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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CLUI: Building a Graphical Command Line | CLIs are powerful, and text input is predictable and constant. While CLIs are efficient, users must memorize commands to fully utilize them. GUIs address many of these issues by making things easier to access and do, but they can become complex and programs can easily become bloated as developers try to cram features wherever they fit into the program. Many programs have become so cluttered that it is easier to search for commands using a text search than through navigating the GUI. Some popular products such as Voice Assistants are a balance between CLI-inspired inputs and GUI-inspired outputs. In order to make CLIs more approachable for users, they should be able to be used with a mouse, commands should be discoverable, and output should support rich and interactive media. Repl.it's CLUI is an easily extensible interface that blends GUIs and CLIs, where you can type in a command, and get suggestions for commands. It operates like a decision tree, guiding users to commands. Adding features is as simple as adding commands on the backend. A link to some of the code and a demo application is available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Uber launches app aimed at connecting workers with businesses | Uber has launched an app that will connect temporary workers looking to work shifts with businesses trying to fill up rosters. The Uber Works app will only be available in Chicago during its testing period. It will display information about shifts such as gross pay, work location, required skills, and dress code. Temporary workers can track their shifts and breaks using the app. New laws in California may require Uber to classify drivers as employees from January 1. Uber has been facing record losses, competition in Asia, and slowing revenue growth. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Crypto design challenges (20 minute read) | This article discusses how several areas in the crypto space could be improved with better design. Crypto has been around for long enough to prove that there's something there, but the tech is still young enough that there's plenty of things left to figure out, define, and invent. While the technology behind crypto is based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, the way people interact with crypto still needs a lot of work before people will trust the technology. Getting the experience right for new users will enable more people to use the technology with confidence. | 4Miscellaneous
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SnapFont (Website) | SnapFont is a browser extension that allows you to easily test any font on any website. It doesn't require any login to use. There are almost 1,000 fonts available and it will work on websites that use React, Vue, or any other Javascript framework. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Researchers ready world-first vision restoration device for human clinical trials | Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia have produced a device that can restore vision to the blind using a combination of smartphone-style electronics and brain-implanted microelectrodes. The researchers are now preparing for the first human clinical trials to take place after successful preclinical studies and trials on sheep. There are still many steps required before the device will be available for commercial use. The technology works by transmitting converted image data from a camera to neurons via microelectrodes that are thinner than a human hair. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A Former Facebook VP Thinks Investing in Humans Is the Future of VC (10 minute read) | Slow Ventures is a startup that invests in people. It offers creators a deal where the creator gets a large payout upfront to do whatever they want with, and the firm gets 5% of the creator's earnings for 30 years. The firm's plan could help it find the next Jeff Bezos before they get rich. Creators only start paying back investors once they make over a certain amount. Investing directly in humans brings about a host of legal, ethical, and moral questions, but the founders see it as a way to provide people with the money to fund a path to success that doesn't exist today. | 4Miscellaneous
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A Self-Learning, Modern Computer Science Curriculum (GitHub Website) | This website contains a modern computer science curriculum designed for someone with an interest in theory. Each resource is self-contained and covers all necessary background reading. Previous experience in programming and a basic understanding of calculus is highly recommended for the course. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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gotify/server (GitHub Repo) | gotify/server is a self-hosted server for sending and receiving messages in real time. While there are plenty of free and commercial push services available, they are not open-source, self-hosted, or customizable. Server admins are able to manage users, clients, and applications, and create and install plugins. Users can access the server through a web-UI or Android app. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Uber Lays Off 400 as Profitability Doubts Linger After IPO | Uber has laid off a third of its marketing team in a cost-cutting effort. After its initial public offering in May, investors questioned whether the unprofitable company could make money. In the past few months, Uber has lost many key executives and employees. Uber posted its slowest growth in years and a loss of more than $1 billion during its first quarter. Wall Street analysts project more losses when Uber reports its second-quarter earnings. An email sent to Uber's marketing staff said that the 400 layoffs were due to the team being bloated and that decision-making was unclear. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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'Mighty mice' stay musclebound in space, boon for astronauts | 40 mice have returned to Earth after a month-long stay at the International Space Station. Eight of the mice were genetically engineered to grow more muscle, and these mice were able to maintain their bulk after the trip. The 24 regular untreated mice lost considerable muscle and bone mass as expected. Eight of the normal mice received the 'mighty mouse' treatment while in space and these mice returned with dramatically bigger muscles. The findings could potentially lead to preventative treatments for muscle and bone loss in astronauts during prolonged space trips. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Breaking GitHub Private Pages for $35k | In the spring of last year, GitHub had two CTF bonuses posted as part of GitHub's private pages private bug bounty. One was for reading the flag at flag.private-org.github.io without user interaction, with a bonus for reading the flag from an account outside of the organization. The other was for reading the flag with user interaction. This article discusses how the vulnerabilities were discovered and exploited. GitHub paid out a total bounty of $35,000. | 4Miscellaneous
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SEC charges Tesla CEO Elon Musk with fraud | The SEC is suing Elon Musk for fraud due to his "funding secured" tweet regarding taking Tesla private at a price of $420 per share in August. Among other remedies, the SEC is seeking to bar Musk from serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company if found guilty. The SEC suit alleges, "According to Musk, he calculated the $420 price per share based on a 20% premium over that day's closing share price because he thought 20% was a 'standard premium' in going-private transaction. This calculation resulted in a price of $419, and Musk stated that he rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number's significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend 'would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price.'" Tesla's board issued a statement Thursday evening saying they are standing behind Elon. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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I attended a virtual conference with an AI version of Deepak Chopra. It was bizarre and transfixing | The AI Foundation creates avatars with artificial intelligence that look and sound like the people they are meant to represent. Each avatar is trained by the person they emulate in order to learn to become digital extensions that can communicate on behalf of their real selves. If an AI doesn't know the answer to a question, it will ask its human about it at another time. Instead of replacing people, the idea is to use the digital personas to allow one person to do more work. The article describes a scenario where five of the digital personas are put together into a simulated meditation session. | 4Miscellaneous
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Magic Leap introduces MICA : AI Avatar (1 minute video) | Magic Leap has created an AI virtual assistant that exists in augmented reality. Mica is a female with short hair, and she is ridiculously human looking. She doesn't talk yet, but she uses AI to look people in the eye and her facial ticks, body language, and posture make her look and feel really realistic. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Twitter CEO pushes out top execs, freezes hiring | Twitter's consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour and general manager of revenue Bruce Falck have been asked to leave the company. Jay Sullivan will take over as both the head of product and interim head of revenue. Twitter had goals to deliver big growth in audience and revenue but it did not hit its milestones. The company is also pausing most hiring and backfills except for business-critical roles. It will pull back on non-labor costs to ensure it is being responsible and efficient. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Getting scanned for a pint: How facial recognition technology is being used in a London pub | A pub in England is using facial recognition technology to form a digital queue to prevent people from cutting in line. A display in the pub shows the crowd and a virtual number showing their place in the queue. Bartenders control the queue with tablets. The bar claims that the data never leaves the building and is deleted once it has been used, but some people are concerned that hackers may be able to access the data. Facial recognition technology is not regulated, so people need to be careful sometimes. The technology is also able to detect if someone is underage. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Scientists Extract and Sequence Million-Year-Old Mammoth DNA | A team of 22 researchers from nine countries has sequenced ancient DNA from the remains of three different mammoth species. The DNA was estimated to be 0.7-1.2 million years old, the oldest that has ever been recovered and sequenced. One of the mammoths was found to belong to an unknown genetic lineage, which was unexpected considering its similarities to another mammoth from the same area. Many of the cold adaptations in woolly mammoths were already present in their ancestors. It may be possible to sequence even older DNA if it can be found and recovered. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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US teenager wins $3m as Fortnite world champion | Kyle Giersdorf has won $3 million becoming the world champion of the computer game Fortnite. Other competitors also walked away with a share of the record-breaking $30 million prize pool. However, the record for the largest prize pool will soon be broken by The International, an event taking place in August. The e-sports industry is estimated to be a billion-dollar industry in 2019. More than 30 nations took part in the Fortnite finals, with a majority of the players coming from the US. 200 million players are registered to play with Fortnite, a game which has been criticized by the Duke of Sussex for being 'created to addict.' | 4Miscellaneous
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Robotic fish powered by electronic blood can swim for 36 hours | Researchers at Cornell University have developed a robot that is powered by its own artificial circulatory system. The robot can swim at a rate of 1.5 body lengths per minute, which is around 10 meters per hour. It is powered by flow batteries, so power is generated as liquid moves through the robot. The flow of the liquid to certain areas can also change the pressure in these areas, for example, it can cause the structure on one side of the robot’s tail to inflate, resulting in a bending motion. While the robot was only tested for a few hours, it could theoretically swim continuously for 36 hours. Two short videos are available showing the robot in action. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Sweetviz (GitHub Repo) | Sweetvis is a Python library that generates visualizations for exploratory data analysis with a single line of code. It outputs a fully self-contained HTML application. An example report from the Titanic dataset is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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"Biologically inspired" A.I can beat the world's strictest internet censorship | Authoritarian governments are known for strictly censoring what their citizens can see on the internet in order to control their people and protect those in power. A new tool called Geneva uses AI to automatically detect bugs and gaps in a country's censorship system so users can view uncensored content. It uses a biologically inspired form of machine learning. Geneva tries different randomized algorithms to beat censorship algorithms. It keeps the effective algorithms and dumps the ones that don't work. Geneva allowed researchers to browse the internet uncensored in China, India, and Kazakhstan. Russia's system is more complicated, and researchers have not yet gained enough access to probe its censorship systems the same way they have in other countries. Geneva can be detected by looking for randomized data being transmitted that doesn't look like it was created by normal human activity. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Why the global chip shortage is making it so hard to buy a PS5 (38 minute read) | Many industries have stalled as they wait for chip orders to be filled and delivered. There are many types of chips and most devices have multiple chips in them. A lot of manufacturers are only missing a few components, but this means that they can't complete products. This article features an interview with Dr. Willy Shih, a professor of management practices at Harvard Business School. It discusses the current chip shortage, how chips are made and their supply chains, the effects the pandemic had on the industry, the effects of politics on chip supplies, and more. | 4Miscellaneous
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500 Free Computer Science Courses from the World’s Top CS Universities (Website) | This page lists the best online courses for studying computer science. There are 500 online courses listed from 50 of the world's best universities for studying computer science. Subjects listed include AI & Machine Learning, Algorithms & Data Structures, Cybersecurity, Software Development, and Quantum Computing. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Byte flight | People have protested against tech workers in Silicon Valley in the past. Now that many tech workers are no longer required to head into offices for work, a lot of them are choosing to leave the area. Some companies have plans to reopen offices in 2021, so it is too early to tell how large the impact the switch to remote work is yet. Tech workers feel unwelcome in the area and it is expensive to live there. Leaked audio from a recent all-hands meeting at Google suggested that the company might be considering taking a similar approach to Facebook and becoming more flexible about remote work over the next 10 years. | 4Miscellaneous
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A complete guide to using CSS filters with SVGs (16 minute read) | CSS has several filters to help improve websites. These can be used to blur images, adjust contrast and saturation, change the hue, reduce opacity, and more. This article looks at how to use SVG filters. It includes an overview of SVGs and a list of 17 filter primitives. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Nuro’s driverless delivery robots will transport medicine to CVS customers in Texas | Nuro is an autonomous vehicle startup founded by two ex-Google engineers that developed a fleet of road-legal delivery robots. The robots will soon be used to transport pharmaceuticals to CVS customers in Houston, Texas. CVS has seen an increased demand for deliveries since the pandemic started. Customers will be able to select an autonomous delivery option when placing prescription orders on the CVS website starting in June. They will need to confirm their identity to unlock their delivery when it arrives. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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FortuneSheet (GitHub Repo) | FortuneSheet is a drop-in JavaScript spreadsheet library based on Luckysheet. It uses a data structure that is compatible with Luckysheet and has features that make it comparable to Excel and Google Sheets. An online demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The New Super Sub Can Dive to 1,000 Feet and Move Faster Than a Bottlenose Dolphin | The Super Sub is a high-performance cruiser from U-Boat Worx that was designed to keep up with large marine life. The 17-foot submersible is equipped with a propulsion system that is capable of churning out 60 kW, allowing it to hit speeds of up to 8 knots. It is two knots faster than a bottlenose dolphin and adept at navigating the world beneath the waves. The Super Sub can dive to depths of nearly 1,000 feet at angles up to 30-degrees steep. Renders of the submersible are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Magic Leap 2 Hands-On: AR Glasses That Can Dim The Real World | This article presents a hands-on experience with Magic Leap's new augmented reality glasses. The Magic Leap 2 features a larger field of view, lenses that can dim the world and become blackout sunglasses, spatial audio, and more. It is notably smaller than the first version, with improved eye and hand tracking. No prices for the headset have been released yet. Photos of the device are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tasting Coca-Cola’s first “gamer” flavor—and the history of game-and-soda tie-ins (12 minute read) | Coca-Cola has released a gamer flavor called Coca-Cola Byte. The drink launch was paired with a Fortnite 'creator island' zone made by an advertising agency. It has a fruity flavor similar to Coca-Cola's Creations line of limited-time sodas launched earlier this year. This article discusses the new drink and Coca-Cola's history with games and game advertising. | 4Miscellaneous
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These lizards use bubbles to breathe underwater | New research shows that a dozen species of Caribbean and Latin American anoles can exhale air underwater to create oxygen-filled bubbles that cling to their heads. Scientists theorize that the bubbles could be helping the animals remove carbon dioxide and pull in more oxygen from water via diffusion. An analysis of the anoles that displayed this behavior and their lineages determined that the behavior evolved five separate times in the lizards. Several types of insects display similar behavior, but insects have significantly lower metabolic rates, need less oxygen, and are smaller, so the bubbles have a larger surface area to body mass ratio. | 4Miscellaneous
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FedEx to end ground delivery business with Amazon | FedEx has announced that it will no longer make ground deliveries for Amazon, two months after it terminated its air delivery contract with Amazon. In a regulatory filing in February, Amazon stated that its competitors included transportation companies such as FedEx, and it appears that FedEx is treating Amazon like any other competitor by terminating services. Amazon has been growing its own fleet of air and ground transportation and reducing its reliance on FedEx, UPS, and the US Postal Service. Its plans to switch from two-day delivery to one-day delivery have proved to be more difficult than originally planned, with costs going higher than the estimated $800 million required for the transition. FedEx will continue to complete some deliveries for Amazon, and both companies released amicable statements regarding the separation. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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A Mysterious Desert Bacterium Has Evolved Its Own, Unique Ability to Photosynthesize | Researchers have discovered a species of bacteria from the Gobi desert that can photosynthesize using a unique structure. It obtained the genes for photosynthesis from an ancient proteobacterium, demonstrating the power of bacteria's horizontal gene-transfer skills. The bacteria has a central reaction center, an inner sunlight-capturing ring, and an outer ring, making it larger than other photosynthesizing bacteria. Its structure could hold the secrets to building a future of solar-powered synthetic biology. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Lite will launch in the US on April 17th for $650 | The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite will be available in the US starting April 17 for $650. It will feature a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display, a Snapdragon 855 processor, and a triple-lens rear camera setup. Samsung recently announced the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, a budget version of the Galaxy Tab S6, which will be available starting at $349.99 sometime in Q2 this year. The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will have a 10.4-inch screen, an S Pen, a front and rear camera, and a headphone jack. An LTE version of the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will be available. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Blockly (GitHub Repo) | Blockly is a library that adds a visual code editor to web and mobile apps. The editor uses graphical blocks to represent code concepts, allowing users to apply programming principles without having to worry about syntax. A live demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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You can now practice firing someone in virtual reality | Virtual reality is gaining momentum as a training tool, allowing people to practice doing things that would be impossible otherwise. It is being used to train new employees at places like Walmart and Chipotle, and some offices are starting to use the technology to train for soft management skills such as interviewing, communication, and selling. Talespin, a company that offers VR training for the workplace, has characters that help train for office situations, such as firing an employee. The characters currently run with certain scripts and triggers, so the training might be limited as the skills might not transfer if people know they aren't training with a real person. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Inside Google's Plan to Disrupt the College Degree | Google recently announced plans to launch new certificate programs designed to help people bridge skill gaps and get qualifications without a college degree. The plan includes three new Google Career Certificates on Coursera, a new Associate Android Developer Certification course, over 100,000 need-based scholarships, and partnerships with employers to hire graduates of the program. Courses will take six months or less to complete. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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TDengine (GitHub Repo) | TDengine is a big data platform designed for the Internet of Things (IoT), Connected Cars, Industrial IoT, and IT Infrastructure and Application Monitoring. It performs faster for less cost while providing full features without a steep learning curve. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Need to design, automate, and monitor critical business processes? (Sponsor) | Boost productivity with a tool that integrates seamlessly with your current tech stack and is optimized for scalability, resiliency, high-performance throughput, and low latency. Camunda Platform: The Universal Process Orchestrator. Try free now. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon and Facebook | As tech giants become bigger and richer, they have started acting more like governments rather than companies, bullying cities and states into showering them with taxpayer handouts in return for doing business. Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing a new law that will create two tiers of companies - companies that have a global annual revenue of over $25 billion, and those who have annual revenue of between $90 million and $25 billion. Those companies in the first category will be required to structurally separate their products in the marketplace, while those in the second category will have stricter regulations, but not be required to separate themselves. The goal of the proposed bill is to make the marketplace more competitive and to prevent municipalities from being manipulated by large companies. | 4Miscellaneous
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Life Has Been Found in a Low-Oxygen, Super-Salty, Sub-Zero Arctic Spring | Scientists have discovered life in the extremely cold and salty waters of the Lost Hammer Spring in the Canadian Arctic. The microbes had adaptations that allowed them to thrive in water with temperatures of around minus five degrees Celsius, less than one part per million of dissolved oxygen, and around 24% salinity. They don't depend on organic material or oxygen to survive. Similar environments may exist on ocean worlds like Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. | 4Miscellaneous
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Facebook Parent Meta Is Opening Its First Store. Here's What It's Like Inside | Meta has opened its first store at its campus in Burlingame, California. The store allows customers to demo several of the company's devices, such as the Portal Go, Oculus Quest 2 headset, and Ray-Ban smart glasses. It is open Monday to Friday from 11 AM to 6 PM. A gallery of images showing what it is like inside the store is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Belarusian hackers are trying to overthrow the Lukashenko regime | A group of activist-hackers in Belarus have infiltrated almost every part of the country's government, leaking sensitive information and defacing government websites as an act of protest. The Belarus Cyber Partisans are 15 IT and cybersecurity experts whose aim is to bring democracy and rule of law back into the country. The group received help from BYPOL, another group made up of former government officials who defected and current ones working to topple the regime from the inside. Data leaked by the group includes lists of police informants, secret recordings captured by the government wiretapping system, and personal information on spies. | 4Miscellaneous
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Join Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, Neil Hoyne, for a moderated Q&A (Sponsor) | Join Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, Neil Hoyne, for a moderated Q&A . We have new and exciting developments in store for you during our upcoming Digital Experience Summit, February 16-17! We're hosting an exclusive, live "Ask Me Anything" with Neil Hoyne, Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, author of "Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts". Register today! | 0Sponsor
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NASA Astronauts Go On Spacewalk to Upgrade the Space Station (YouTube Video) | In this 5.5 hour video, NASA astronauts are observed upgrading the nickel-hydrogen batteries with more powerful lithium-ion ones on the International Space Station. Viewers can hear the audio communication between the astronauts and NASA, and there is also additional commentary to explain what is occurring. The video shows the mission from many viewpoints, including from the point of view of the astronauts. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air will arrive within a year | Apple is working on a 15-inch MacBook Air and a 12-inch MacBook. The 15-inch MacBook Air will have the same overall design as the 13.6-inch MacBook Air. It will use the same M2 processor. The new laptops could arrive in 2023, but Apple could abandon its 12-inch MacBook plans. New MacBook Pros with M2 chips could arrive as soon as this fall. The M2 Max will have 12 CPU cores and up to 38 GPU cores. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Loaders (Website) | This site contains a collection of free loaders and spinners. The components are built with HTML, CSS, and SVG. The code for the components can be easily copied from the site. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Professional Programming (GitHub Repo) | This is a collection of books, articles, and other materials to self-study any area of being a professional programmer (algorithms, project management, dotfiles, security etc.). Incredibly comprehensive. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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polynote (GitHub Repo) | Polynote is a notebook environment that supports multiple languages. It currently supports Scala, Python, SQL, and Vega. It features auto-complete, parameter hints, a WYSIWYG editor for composing text cells, and runtime insight. Runtime insight includes features such as showing you what the kernel is doing at any time, a symbol table that shows variables and functions you have defined, and an editor that highlights failures and runtime exceptions. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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If DARPA Has Its Way, AI Will Rule the Wireless Spectrum (14 minute read) | A major problem with Bluetooth is that it shares similar wireless frequencies as WiFi, which means that there is always the chance of interference. DARPA's Spectrum Collaboration Challenge aims to have many teams across the world developing AI systems that will be able to effectively manage the switching of frequencies to maintain steady and fast data transmission speed. The systems are emulated in Colosseum, a special facility built for this test that can emulate more than 65,000 unique interactions between 128 radios at once. Results from the testing have been positive so far, with many teams having already developed algorithms that can handle more data transfer than traditional methods. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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On the Road to Full Autonomy With Elon Musk (Podcast) | Elon Musk discusses the market for electric vehicles, the development of autonomous driving, and Bitcoin. Regulations and safety of autonomous vehicles are discussed and Musk discusses why Tesla will be able to solve the complex problem of autonomous driving. Tesla has an advantage when it comes to data collection and their methods are continually improving. The podcast runs for 29 minutes and can be downloaded or played directly from the site. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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unspun - custom-built jeans via 3D iPhone scans (Sponsor) | unspun - custom-built jeans via 3D iPhone scans . Tired of online returns or wasting time in stores? unspun is an ultra-sustainable denim brand, recently named one of TIME's Best Inventions. They guarantee their $200 bespoke jeans will be your new favorite pair, and they're recruiting beta testers to give UX feedback in exchange for a $40 gift card — sign up above. | 0Sponsor
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How to SSH Properly (13 minute read) | SSH is the de facto tool for *nix server administration. It is secure and there is a lot of support to make it easy to use. There are different levels of security in SSH. Using SSH certificates is more secure than using a password or SSH keys, and they can be configured with just a few extra steps. A bastion host is a server which is specifically designed to be the only gateway for access to your infrastructure. Using SSH certificates, bastion hosts, and 2-factor authentication, you can easily improve the security of your SSH infrastructure while giving users the flexibility to keep using the tools that they're familiar with. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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React Native Newsletter (Newsletter) | React Native Newsletter offers a curated list of blog posts, libraries, and important updates about the React Native ecosystem. It's curated by Infinite Red, these guys really know their stuff, I've used some of their open source projects in the past and it's always been top notch. Definitely worth checking out if you're interested in React Native. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The World Is Losing Fish to Eat as Oceans Warm, Study Finds | A study published in January found that oceans were warming a lot faster than previously thought. As fish are very climate sensitive, they are moving to cooler waters, resulting in a decrease in fish populations in many areas. Overfishing is happening faster in certain areas as fish populations decline. Fish and seafood make up 17 percent of the animal protein consumed worldwide, and it is important to maintain sustainable levels fishing to prevent a loss of this important food source. | 4Miscellaneous
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Impossible Burgers are hitting their first grocery stores tomorrow | The Impossible Burger will be available in grocery stores starting September 20 in 27 Gelson's Markets stores in Southern California. It will eventually be available in other areas, and Impossible Foods plans to reach every region of the US by the middle of next year. This move will bring Impossible Foods into closer competition with Beyond Meat, who already sells its meat-free burgers in grocery stores. Impossible Foods' burger is available in over 17,000 restaurants. Beyond Meat is working with KFC on a new plant-based 'chicken' recipe. The Impossible Burger will be available in 12-ounce packages for $8.99, and purchases will be limited to 10 packages per visit per customer. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Uber Lays Off More Than 180 Postmates Employees, Including CEO Bastian Lehmann | Uber has laid off 185 employees from its Postmates division, including most of the executive team, totaling about 15% of Postmates' workforce. Rival companies are gaining market share in the food delivery business. DoorDash went public in December and has recently acquired food delivery startup Caviar. Just Eat acquired Grubhub in 2020 for more than $7 billion. Uber closed down 2.65% on Friday. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Revolutionary microscopy technique sees individual atoms for first time | Cryo-electron microscopy is a technique for imaging molecules that produces images so detailed that individual atoms can be seen. The technique will allow researchers to understand the workings of proteins that cannot be studied using other imaging techniques. It works by firing electrons at flash-frozen samples and recording the resulting images. The technique has been around for decades, but recent breakthroughs in electron detection and in image-analysis software have made it the dominant tool for mapping the 3D shapes of proteins. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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SpaceX is almost ready to start turning Starship’s launch tower into ‘Mechazilla’ | SpaceX plans to use a giant tower with arms to catch its rockets. Mechazilla will be around 145m tall and will be outfitted with at least three arms. Construction started a few weeks ago, and the tower is almost complete. Pictures of the tower are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Automatic App Landing Page (GitHub Repo) | Developers can quickly and easily deploy a landing page for their apps using this GitHub repository. All they need to do is fork the repo and enter their iOS app ID into the config file, and the page will be built automatically. Users can customize the page further if desired, and include screenshots and videos if available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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MLGO: A Machine Learning Framework for Compiler Optimization | MLGO is the first industrial-grade general framework for integrating ML techniques systematically in LLVM. | 4Miscellaneous
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List of (Advanced) | This repository contains a list of JavaScript questions presented in a multiple choice test format. Users are presented with code and then asked what the output of the code should be. Answers are initially hidden. There are 43 questions listed. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Meta reportedly canceled a 300-person VR / AR operating system project | Meta was reportedly working on a custom operating system to power virtual and augmented reality headsets but suspended development in November. XROS development began in 2017, with more than 300 people working on the project. Canceling the OS will mean that Meta will have to continue to rely on Google's Android OS. XR development stopped after the project's team lead left to work on a similar AR OS project at Google. Meta is reportedly still interested in building its own OS. | 4Miscellaneous
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Crypto Cities (17 minute read) | There has been a growth of interest from local governments in engaging with tech and crypto communities over the last year as crypto becomes more mainstream. Some cities are trying to create coins, NFTs, and DAOs. The blockchain could make some existing processes, such as registries, lotteries, and voting, more trusted and transparent. This article looks at city crypto projects and explores how the blockchain can be used for different forms of governance. | 4Miscellaneous
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aiosql (GitHub Repo) | aiosql allows developers to organize SQL statements in .sql files and load them into a Python application as methods to call. The project supports standard and asyncio based drivers for SQLite and PostgreSQL, with support for custom database drivers available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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ECMAScript-new-features-list (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a comprehensive list of new ES features. Each list contains explanations and examples of how features are used in the ECMAScript 10 language. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk’s Boring Company gets green light for Las Vegas tunnel system | The Boring Company has won approval from Las Vegas officials to build a network of vehicle tunnels underneath the city. The Vegas Loop will allow passengers to travel to and from several landmarks inside Tesla vehicles. As many as 57,000 passengers will be able to travel through the tunnels every hour. A smaller version of the system already operates underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Boring Company will foot the bill for building the 29 miles of tunnels, but it has asked casinos and other businesses to pay for the 51 planned stations. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Writing a Blockchain in Node.js (13 minute read) | Blockchain has become a popular topic due to Bitcoin. A Blockchain is where blocks, or pieces of information, are stored on a public database, the chain. In a Blockchain, every piece of data must contain data presenting the previous block. This means that data is more difficult to change and can be verified easily. Random values are inserted into the data in order to make the Blockchain more secure, as it makes it more difficult for computers to recalculate the entire chain. Mining creates new blocks of data. A Blockchain can be written in Node.js. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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UK and US say Russia fired a satellite weapon in space | Russia has been accused of testing a weapon-like projectile in space that could be used to target satellites in orbit. The country has been testing new technology that it claims is for performing checks on Russian space equipment. Both US and UK officials have made statements on the threat posed by Russia. Russia is part of a space treaty that stipulates that outer space is to be explored purely for peaceful purposes. This is not the first time concerns have been raised over Russia's space activities. | 4Miscellaneous
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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. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Why we should fear a cashless world | Health food chain Tossed has just opened the UK's first cashless cafe, another step towards the death of cash, an alarming trend. A cashless society would make every payment traceable, allowing for unprecedented control by financial institutions and governments over the lives of citizens. In addition, it is primarily the poor who have been locked out of our financial system, how can those too poor to open a bank account or get a credit card even operate in a cashless society? Going cashless has the potential to further trap the poor in an endless cycle of poverty. Cash means total financial inclusion, something the well off too often take for granted. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple announces iPad Pro and Mac event for October 30th | Apple has issued invites to an event on October 30th in Brooklyn, New York. It is expected to unveil the new iPad Pro, a successor to the Macbook Air, and potentially a new Mac Mini designed for power users. The iPad Pro is rumored to have slim bezels and Face ID. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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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. | 4Miscellaneous
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Ultrashort laser pulses shred superbugs without harming human cells | Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have shown that ultrashort pulses of laser light can kill bacteria and viruses without harming human cells. While antibiotics have been one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, bacteria develop resistances to them, so it is important to find other methods for killing bacteria that they can't evolve resistance to. The lasers work by exciting protein structures inside viruses and bacteria, causing some of the molecular bonds to break and kill the microbe. The technology can be used to disinfect biological products in vitro, and it could be used in the future to treat bloodstream infections by putting patients on dialysis and passing the blood through a laser treatment device. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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For The First Time, Physicists Have Recorded The Flowing Sound of a 'Perfect' Fluid | Physicists have recorded sound waves moving through a perfect fluid with the lowest possible viscosity. A link to the sound recording is available in the article. The research can help scientists understand the most extreme conditions in the Universe, for example, the interiors of ultradense neutron stars. The interiors of spinning neutron stars are thought to be perfect fluids, with many oscillation modes in which sound waves propagate through the star. This research can also help scientists better understand superconductivity, and it could lead to the development of materials where electrons can flow in a perfect way. | 4Miscellaneous
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Driverless electric truck starts deliveries on Swedish public road | A driverless electric truck has received permission to start making deliveries via a public road in Sweden. The truck does not have a driver cabin, which reduces the freight operating costs by an estimated 60 percent compared to a diesel truck with a driver. Freight operators are under pressure to reduce delivery times and cut emissions, and the industry is seeing a growing shortage of drivers. The T-Pod will operate between a warehouse and a terminal at a maximum speed of 5 km/hr. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How My Fears Doomed My First Startup | As a nerdy engineer that went to software development conferences for holidays, David Smith believed that if he could just build a great product, people would buy it. He developed a great program but never sold it because he never let anyone know about it. His fears of communicating with others about his product stopped him from releasing a program that could help others, and he didn't even know if it was a program that other people would want to use. | 4Miscellaneous
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Seagate just unveiled the first-ever PCIe NVMe hard disk drive | Seagate has unveiled the first-ever PCIe NVMe hard disk drive. The HDD is based on a proprietary controller that works with all major protocols without requiring a bridge. Bringing the NVMe protocol to HDDs will lower the total cost of ownership, improve performance, save energy, and reduce the complexity of datacenter configurations. The first samples of the new drives will be available to a small selection of customers next year. They won't be available to the general public until 2024 at the earliest. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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ColorBox (Web Tool) | ColorBox is a free colorpicker made by Lyft's design team. It allows you to easily pick any number of shades of a color and have the shades be distinguishable. For example, if you wanted to have 5 shades of blue that are all easy to tell apart when they're right next to each other you can do that just by using a slider with this tool. If you're like me and you constantly find yourself Googling "shades of orange hex codes" and things like that, this will save you a bunch of time. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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