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Nike acquires NFT collectibles studio RTFKT | Nike has acquired NFT studio RTFKT for an undisclosed amount. RTFKT was valued at $33.3 million in May after a seed funding round. The company is behind CloneX, one of the most talked-about NFT project drops of the month. CloneX has seen nearly $65 million in transaction volume since its initial drop less than three weeks ago. RTFKT also collaborates with crypto creators to design physical items that utilize imagery from NFT projects. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Dawn (GitHub Repo) | Dawn is a reference theme from Shopify. It has Online Store 2.0 features and only uses JavaScript when required. Dawn is built on theme code principles that ensure fast websites for mostly logged-out traffic. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Microsoft partners with Meta to integrate Teams into its Facebook-like Workplace | Microsoft and Meta are partnering up to integrate Microsoft Teams into Workplace by Meta. Users will soon be able to view, comment, and react to meetings in real-time without having to switch between apps. The companies have already been working together to integrate other Microsoft apps into Workplace. Microsoft Teams will arrive on the Meta Portal in December, and the new livestreaming features will be available in early 2022. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How to Detect Unused CSS or JavaScript | It can be a tedious task to remove redundant code, especially if it's a very large codebase with several modules in it. Chrome DevTools can be a very handy tool to use in this scenario. The coverage tab calculates the coverage of the code, giving you the Total Bytes, Unused Bytes, and Usage Visualization categorized by file type. This shows how much code belongs to functions that haven't been executed. Screenshots of the process are available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ask HN: What are weird and/or novel ways to do web UIs? (Hacker News Thread) | Some websites have weird user interfaces. There are companies that do not see the value of investing in a properly designed interface and process, resulting in developers accidentally causing entire systems to collapse. Other websites, trying to distinguish themselves, create strange ways of displaying product information. Some developers have experimented with using products such as Google Slides to create fully functioning websites. This thread is full of anecdotes on strange UI designs. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A Hacker Is Reportedly Selling Hundreds of Microsoft C-Suite Email Credentials for As Little as $100 | A hacker on a Russian-speaking underground forum is selling hundreds of C-suite level email credentials for between $100 and $1,500. The Office 365 and Microsoft accounts on offer belong to high-level executives, and sources have validated the legitimacy of the seller. Microsoft is aware of the report and will do what is necessary to support its customers. It is unclear how the hacker obtained the credentials. | 4Miscellaneous
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'Squeezed' light might produce breakthroughs in nano-sized electronics | Nanoscale devices can be difficult to study and improve as they're too small to reflect enough light to be viewed clearly. Researchers from UC Riverside have built a device that squeezes tungsten lamp light into a 6-nanometer spot at the end of a silver nanowire to produce color imaging at an unprecedented level. The system records changes in beam shape and color as the nanowire's tip passes over objects. It is able to create color photos of carbon nanotubes. The technology could play an important role in developing more uniform nanomaterials and help improve other areas of research where this level of resolution hasn't been available. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Facebook is giving $1,000 to every employee to help them amid the coronavirus pandemic | Every Facebook employee will receive a $1,000 bonus and an 'exceeds' rating for their first six-month review of 2020 in order to help them during the coronavirus pandemic. The bonuses will be distributed throughout April. Facebook is continuing to pay some contractors while they remain home. It has committed to paying its hourly workers even if they can't work and have to be at home due to COVID-19. Seattle and Bay Area employees have been asked to work from home, and social visitors are banned from offices. Mark Zuckerberg is funding an increase in coronavirus testing in the Bay Area through his philanthropic groups. | 4Miscellaneous
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Disaster ‘prepping’ was once an American pastime. Today, it’s mainstream again | The disaster-prepping industry has boomed since the start of the pandemic. Many people found themselves woefully unprepared in March. As the government has stepped in to help its citizens throughout the decades, individuals have become more unprepared for the unexpected. However, as trust in the government has lessened in recent years, more people have taken matters into their own hands by prepping. This has resulted in an industry that provides prepping services ranging from kits to armored bunkers. The trend is likely to continue as prepping has now overcome its stigma and become mainstream. | 4Miscellaneous
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Use console.log() | Using console.log() for JavaScript debugging is common practice, and this article teaches you how to use it to set custom CSS styles, edit HTML elements, complete string substitutions, and more. It provides a list of commands with an explanation for what they do and a screenshot of the output. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Kuo: iPhone 15 to Switch From Lightning to USB-C in 2023 | The iPhone 15 lineup will launch in the second half of 2023 and will feature a USB-C port, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Apple has kept the Lightning port on the iPhone, despite most of the industry moving to USB-C. Pressure from the EU has forced Apple to change its stance. Apple may have had plans to keep the Lightning port on the iPhone until it was ready to go entirely port-less. Most of its iPad lineup already features USB-C. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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WikipediaQL (GitHub Repo) | WikipediaQL is a query language for data extraction from Wikipedia. It can return structured data through selectors. Examples are available in the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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China Is Developing an 'Ultra-Large' $2.3 Million Megaship That Is Miles Long | The National Natural Science Foundation of China has called for an analysis of the mechanics of constructing an ultra-large spacecraft spanning kilometers. The spacecraft would be modular, requiring multiple launches and space-based assembly to construct. China has doubled down on its space program since May, after it landed a rover on Mars. It started assembling its Tiangong space station in April. Tiangong's core, which will be the primary housing unit, should be complete sometime next year. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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immudb (GitHub Repo) | immudb is a database with built-in cryptographic proof and verification. It is immutable, so old records can never be changed or deleted. This means that critical data can be stored without fear of it being changed silently. immudb can handle millions of transactions per second. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Google hit with largest GDPR fine to date over lack of data and ad transparency | Google was fined €50 million by France's privacy regulator over "lack of transparency, inadequate information, and lack of valid consent regarding the ads personalization." Specifically, they didn't disclose how long they keep user information, and they didn't provide an explicit enough opt-in for advertising during Android account signups. This is the largest GDPR fine so far (though GDPR fines can be up to 4% of worldwide revenue). | 1Big Tech & Startups
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LG set to release 'rollable' phone next year | LG Electronics will launch a 'rollable' smartphone in early 2021. The phone will be made using LG's flexible OLED screens, which can be unfurled like a scroll. LG's mobile communications division has seen 20 straight quarterly losses. It aims to make its business profitable by 2021 by expanding its mobile lineup. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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For The First Time, Scientists Successfully Extract DNA From Insects Embedded In Tree Resin | When a small animal is trapped in tree resin, its soft tissues start to decay immediately and most of the DNA is lost before the animal is encapsulated and preserved. Any remaining DNA is usually destroyed over time as the resin's compounds react with it. A recent study found that fragile bits of DNA still exist in samples of beetles two to six years after the beetles were preserved in resin. It found that common methods of studying DNA weren't effective for use with DNA from resin samples, and some techniques actually destroyed the fragile DNA inside the resin. The scientists will use the techniques from the study to examine other resin-embedded insects to determine how long DNA can survive inside the environment. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Former Star Google and Uber Engineer Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets | Anthony Levandowski, one of the pioneers in self-driving car technology, has been charged with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets from Google. He has posted a $2 million bail and is currently required to wear an ankle monitor as he is deemed a flight risk. Disputes between companies and former employees are common in Silicon Valley, but criminal charges against a senior executive for theft is unusual. It is alleged that Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 files containing critical information about Google's autonomous vehicle research in 2016, including schematics for proprietary circuit boards and designs for Lidar. Levandowski is due in court on September 4, and if he is convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for every count of theft, plus additional restitution. His lawyers maintain that he did not steal anything in over a decade of being an industry-leading innovator in the field of self-driving car and truck technology. | 4Miscellaneous
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Luminate aims to make hair loss from chemotherapy a thing of the past | Luminate Medical has created a medical wearable that prevents hair loss resulting from chemotherapy. The device is a sort of mechanized compression garment for the head. It restricts blood flow to the skin of the scalp during chemo sessions, allowing the drugs to flow where they are needed while saving the hair follicles from damage. Animal tests have resulted in hair retention of around 80 percent with no adverse side effects. It will still take some time for full human trials to be set up, but initial tests show that it works exactly as expected on people as well. Luminate plans to sell its treatment for $1,500. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Samsung shows off stretchable OLED screen in prototype heart rate monitor | Samsung is making screens that can be stretched in all directions like rubber bands. It recently created an OLED display that can be stretched by up to 30 percent while operating as normal. The display can be used to measure and check biometric data directly on the skin. It still works as normal after being stretched 1,000 times. The displays built with this technology are basic and can only be used for simple applications. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Baby treated from inside womb for pioneering surgery to repair spinal cord | An unborn baby diagnosed with spina bifida was treated inside the womb in a groundbreaking procedure. After the baby was diagnosed with the condition, the parents were told that they could only either terminate the pregnancy or continue without intervention, but after undergoing several tests, doctors offered the possibility of surgery. The baby was at 24 weeks gestation when the procedure was performed. Spina bifida affects around 700-900 pregnancies a year in the UK, and may be a result of a folic acid deficiency in pregnant women. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Python For Feature Film (16 minute read) | Python has become integral to the movie-making process over the last few years, with rarely an animated feature or visual effects film that hasn't had Python play a large part in getting it to the screen. It is used to make sure data flows between each department as well as for custom toolsets for artists. This article explains the Film Production Pipeline and how Python is used in every part of the Pipeline. It includes many behind-the-scenes videos showing how movie creators create movies. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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More Cloud for Less Money (Sponsor) | More Cloud for Less Money . Vultr offers Cloud Compute across more than 20 locations with pricing as low as $2.50 per month. Spin up your first instance today in 60 seconds or less with one of 12 pre-selected operating systems or bring your own ISO! Redeem $150 in free credit today. | 0Sponsor
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$1 billion for 20,000 Bay Area homes | Google has announced a $1 billion investment in housing across the Bay Area. Over the next 10 years, $750 million of Google’s existing lands will be repurposed from commercial space into residential housing, allowing the development of at least 15,000 new homes. The homes will cater to all income levels, including housing options for middle and low-income families. A $250 million investment fund will be established to enable developers to build at least 5,000 affording housing units across the market. In addition, $50 million will be donated to nonprofits focused on the issues of homelessness and displacement. Other projects are also underway to help communities succeed in the long term and to make sure that everyone has access to opportunity. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Ring Says It Doesn't Use Facial Recognition, But It Has “A Head Of Face Recognition Research” | Ring's Ukrainian division appears to be working on a semi-automated crime prevention and monitoring system which is based on facial recognition technology. The company has recently revealed that it was working with more than 400 law enforcement agencies in the US to provide easy access to video footage from Ring users for investigations. More than 10 million Ring doorbells have been installed worldwide, with law enforcement and cities distributing the devices for free among some communities. Current devices use object detection, but not facial recognition. It is suspected that Ring is hiring deep learning engineers in Kiev, but Ring denies this and claims that they only have contractors at the Kiev office. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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ICON and Lennar reveal the world’s largest 3D-printed community, designed by BIG | ICON and Lennar have partnered to 3D print a 100-home neighborhood in Austin. All 100 residences will be printed with ICON's Vulcan printer, which can print concrete structures of up to 3,000 square feet. The aim of the project is to create affordable and sustainable homes that will still entice buyers. No estimated completion date has been set yet. The buildings will have similar or greater longevity than those built with standard concrete masonry units. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How a Berkshire Hathaway company is quietly disrupting the construction industry | The MiTek Modular Initiative is a joint venture between MiTek, a construction software and building services company, and Danny Forster & Architecture, a firm that designs modular buildings. The initiative's goal is to develop a new approach to factory-based modular construction. It has an undisclosed amount of backing from Berkshire Hathaway. Volumetric modular building is a form of prefabrication that uses factories to build boxes that can be combined into rooms and stacked into buildings. Modular construction companies usually fail due to a lack of funding. Photos of the Initiative's modular buildings are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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awesome-web-effect (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a collection of cool web page effects. The effects can be simply inserted into any page. Categories include mouse effects, background decorations, image effects, SVG animations, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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krisp (Desktop App) | Krisp is a cool free desktop app for Mac that uses machine learning to mute all background noise whenever you're on a call. It allows you to both "listen without noise" (muting background noise on the other end) and "speak without noise" (muting background noise on your end). I'm not sure if the demos are real world examples or set up to specifically to work well with their algorithm, but they're really impressive. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Rapper Akon kicks off construction for world's first "crypto city" | Musician and entrepreneur Akon has received official approval to build a city in Senegal. Akon City will be the world’s first crypto city. The city will have its own digital currency, Akoin. Akon is of Senegalese descent and has been planning the city for at least 18 months. He was gifted 2,000 acres of land by the President of Senegal. Akon City will be built with sustainability and the environment in mind. Akoin is expected to launch in July, but the city won't be completed for a while. Akon believes that cryptocurrency can enable Africans to become less dependent on their governments. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ex-SpaceX Engineers Are Building a Cheap, Portable Nuclear Reactor | Radiant is a startup made up of a team of former SpaceX engineers that is developing portable nuclear microreactors aimed at commercial and military applications. The microreactors will each be able to power approximately 1,000 homes for up to eight years. They will use an advanced particle fuel that does not melt down and is capable of withstanding higher temperatures than traditional nuclear fuels. The technology will allow people in remote locations to use clean energy without needing constant shipments of fuel. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Linux Inside (Book) | This book is about the Linux kernel and its insides. It covers how the Linux kernel works and other low-level subject matters. Topics include booting, initialization, interrupts, system calls, synchronization primitives, and memory management. The book is still a work in progress. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Illustrations (Website) | This website features over 120 completely free illustrations. 100 of the designs were made during a 100-day illustration challenge. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Code scanning is now available | GitHub code scanning is a GitHub-native approach to find security vulnerabilities before they reach production. The feature has been in testing since May and is now generally available. It integrates with GitHub Actions or your existing CI/CD environment to maximize flexibility for your team. Code is scanned as it is created, ensuring vulnerabilities never make it to production in the first place. Code scanning is powered by CodeQL and it is built on the open SARIF standard so developers can extend its functionality. It is free for public repositories now, and available through Advanced Security for GitHub Enterprise customers. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Native American Tribe Gets Early Access to SpaceX's Starlink and Says It's Fast | The Hoh Tribe, a Native American tribe in Washington state, recently tweeted that it had received access to SpaceX's Starlink network. Based on the state's coast, residents previously had astonishingly slow internet speeds, but now the community can access remote learning and healthcare. Starlink is capable of delivering 100Mbps download speeds at a latency below 30 milliseconds. It is currently unavailable to the public, but Elon Musk has said that the company plans to start trials soon for residents based in the northern US and possibly southern Canada. | 4Miscellaneous
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Samsung’s new partnership offers another glimpse of a drone delivery future — in only one Irish town | Samsung has partnered with Irish drone delivery company Manna to bring drone delivery of small electronics like phones and smartwatches to a small town in Ireland. Residents of the town will receive their devices within three minutes if they order from Samsung's Irish online store. Manna's drones can travel at speeds of over 60 kilometers per hour, and they will only operate within a two-kilometer radius from their dispatch center. People in the town have already been able to order groceries and medicines to be delivered by drone since last year, thanks to a deal Manna has with Tesco. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Cog (GitHub Repo) | Cog is a tool that packages machine learning models in a standard, production-ready container. It was developed to make it easier for researchers to ship machine learning models to production by making Docker more simple to set up. Cog generates Docker images with all the best practices and automatically sets up the correct CUDA/cuDNN/PyTorch/Tensorflow/Python combos. It can dynamically generate RESTful HTTP APIs using model types. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Startup Founder Holiday Season Tips | From frustrations to the risk of failure, startup founders go through a lot. But there is a time when they can vent it all out. Learn how they successful founders spend the holiday season. | 4Miscellaneous
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Netflix's new 'Black Mirror' movie takes interactive storytelling to the next level | Netflix has created their first interactive movie for adults, an episode of their dystopian sci-fi series Black Mirror. To create this choose-your-own-adventure style movie, Netflix built their own script-writing tool that allowed their writers to come up with complex narratives with loops to guide viewers back to the main story if they strayed too far. There are five possible endings, with an average viewing time of about 90 minutes. Netflix plans on having more interactive shows and movies in the future. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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'They're putting us all at risk': What it's like working in Amazon's warehouses during the coronavirus outbreak (13 minute read) | Many people are now staying at home and depending on online marketplaces like Amazon to get essentials like toilet paper, food, and hand sanitizer. Amazon's warehouse workers, delivery drivers, and contract employees are still working throughout the coronavirus crisis. While workers are praised for their fearlessness in continuing to go to work, many are terrified and frustrated with Amazon's response to the pandemic. Employees who feel that it is unsafe to work are given limited options, so they continue to come into work. Amazon has implemented new safety precautions and increased pay for workers, but workers are still concerned as their jobs require them to be physically close to each other and sanitizing products are in short supply. Employees have to decide whether to work or have no income. | 4Miscellaneous
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DeepMind Demonstration (Tweet) | DeepMind will be demonstrating their StarCraft playing AI and discussing StarCraft 2 as an environment for AI research at 6:00pm GMT Thursday. There is a link to their YouTube channel in this tweet, they will be livestreaming the demonstration. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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TikTok is testing a ‘clear mode’ for a distraction-free scrolling experience | TikTok is testing a distraction-free scrolling experience on its app. The new clear mode is currently in limited testing. It removes on-screen clutter such as usernames, captions, audio information, and buttons. Screenshots of the feature are available in the article. It is unclear if TikTok plans to roll out the feature more widely. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Product Hunt Has Released YourStack, A Social Network Where People Talk About Products | YourStack is a new social network that is focused on products that friends and public figures recommend. The site aims to become a Yelp for products. It is owned by AngelList, who also owns Product Hunt. Several high-profile tech executives have already joined the site in order to provide content as it launches. Review fraud will be one of the major issues that YourStack will face. The site shares spam and abuse detect systems and moderation practices with Product Hunt, and users will need a Twitter account to post, which should cut down on fake accounts. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Ask HN: Do you have to use linked-in to get hired? (Hacker News Thread) | More and more job applications are now requiring a LinkedIn account. This thread discusses people's experiences with LinkedIn and how it affects their chances at employment. Most replies do not credit LinkedIn for getting them hired, and many comment about how spammy the site is. Several replies note that Meta approaches potential hires through LinkedIn. | 4Miscellaneous
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Netflix documentary Countdown will follow SpaceX’s first civilian mission | SpaceX's first all-civilian mission in mid-September will be documented in a five-part Netflix series called Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space. It will be the first documentary series from Netflix that will cover an event in near real-time. The first four episodes will show before the launch on September 15, with the last episode premiering by the end of the month. The civilian mission will see the crew of four live in the Dragon spacecraft for up to five days in orbit around Earth. SpaceX has booked at least four other private missions on its Crew Dragon capsule and one on its Starship rocket. | 4Miscellaneous
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Spotify bans ad blockers in updated Terms of Service | Spotify updated its terms of service to specifically target users who use ad blockers or modified apps in order to bypass ads while using their free service. They have implemented tools to detect when users are actively blocking ads. Previously, users were sent warnings that the behavior was not tolerated, but now users will have their accounts terminated or suspended. The changes come into effect on the 1st of March. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Introducing the new GitHub Issues | GitHub Issues is a new beta feature from GitHub that can be used for managing issues with a team. Users can create issues, break them into tasks, track relationships, add custom fields, and have conversations. GitHub Issues can be used to visualize large projects as spreadsheets or boards. Issues can be managed in browser, terminal, or on any mobile device. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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How to build a nuclear warning for 10,000 years’ time | The Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) is a facility deep beneath the desert of New Mexico that contains the US military's most dangerous nuclear waste. It will be full sometime in the next 10 to 20 years, after which the facility will be buried and sealed with concrete and soil. There are multiple warning signs inside and outside of the facility and information about the WIPP will be stored in many archives around the world. The waste will remain lethal longer than Homo sapiens has walked across the surface of the planet. One of the biggest challenges the WIPP faces is telling future people about the danger of the site. Creating 'nuclear culture' that people can pass down through generations to teach others about the dangers of nuclear waste sites could potentially be one way to ensure that future generations stay informed about these places. | 4Miscellaneous
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New Eye Drops Improve Aging Vision Without Glasses. Here's How They Work | Vuity is an eye drop that was approved by the US FDA in late 2021 for treating presbyopia. Presbyopia is a common condition that makes the eyes unable to focus on close objects. It typically begins when people are in their 40s. The drops work by causing the pupils to get smaller, making it so that the light entering the eye is better concentrated onto the retina. They can cause issues with seeing in low-lighting conditions, but for some people, it could be a great alternative to glasses or surgery. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Feast your eyes on the first image of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way | There is a supermassive black hole more than four million times the mass of our Sun at the heart of our galaxy. Scientists have produced the first image of the black hole using the international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The EHT is a collection of telescopes scattered around the globe that records light in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum from different locations. The images are combined and processed to create a high-resolution image picture. The image of the black hole is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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How Close Are We to Self-Driving Cars, Really? | Chris Urmson, the CEO of Aurora, a company that makes self-driving car software for automakers, predicts that the technology will be prevalent within the next 50 years. In this interview, Urmson discusses the barriers to mass adoption of self-driving cars, whether it is possible to test the technology safely in real-world conditions, and why the ideal shape for a self-driving car is a cone. People currently do not view the technology is safe, so demand is low. While existing infrastructure probably doesn’t need any modification, self-driving cars will require cities to develop special maps which indicate where objects such as traffic lights and lanes are. Self-driving software is tested extensively through different stages of realism before the technology is deployed into real-world conditions. A cone is an ideal shape for a self-driving car as passengers would have an increased field-of-vision for safety and entertainment. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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MIT is building a ‘one-stop-shop’ for 3D-printing robots | MIT's CSAIL department recently showcased a new project for developing robotics, drones, and other machines in a 'one-stop-shop'. LaserFactory is a system consisting of a software kit and a hardware platform that can create structures and assemble circuitry. It is still in its very early stages of development. A 2-minute video showing LaserFactory in action is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple will reportedly debut an M2 chip with four new Macs this year | Apple is rumored to be releasing several new M2 Macs this year. The M2 will be slightly faster than the M1 and will likely share the same eight-core architecture. It will have up to nine or 10 graphics cores. The new Macs will be released in March and May or June at two separate events. They include a larger iMac Pro, 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, 24-inch iMac, and a redesigned MacBook Air | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Tim Cook to serve as chairman at Chinese business school amid Hong Kong outcry | Tim Cook has been appointed the chairman of the advisory board for Tsinghua University's economics school in Beijing. Cook will assume the role for three years. Past board members include Mark Zuckerberg, major Chinese government officials, and Jim Breyer. Apple has recently faced criticism for removing an app that was used by pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong. Cook had defended the decision by arguing that the app had become a dangerous tool for tracking police, which the app developers disagreed with. A bipartisan group of United States lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz wrote to Apple urging them to reverse course and demonstrate that Apple puts values above market access. | 4Miscellaneous
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Opacus (GitHub Repo) | Opacus enables training PyTorch models with differential privacy. It was designed for machine learning practitioners who are new to training models with differential privacy and for differential privacy scientists who want to experiment and tinker with the library. Opacus supports training with minimal code changes and allows the client to track their privacy budget expended at any moment. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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VS Code theme studio (Website) | VS Code theme studio helps you easily design, deploy, and share VS Code themes. A marketplace with existing themes is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Serverless: 15% slower and 8x more expensive | Serverless is a simple way for developers to deploy servers and maintain them. Deploying Serverless is quick and simple, but when tested, the servers were slower and significantly more expensive. The use-case in testing may not be the optimal application for Serverless. Developers should look into what their exact needs are before deploying the hottest new frameworks. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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numpy-ml (GitHub Repo) | numpy-ml is a collection of machine learning algorithms implemented exclusively in numpy. It includes a range of models, data preprocessing methods, and utilities. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon is reportedly working on a new payment system that would let you check out at Whole Foods by simply waving your hand over a sensor | Amazon is developing a new payment system for its Whole Foods stores that uses the size and shape of customers' hands to identify them and authorize payments. Credit card payment systems take around three to four seconds to process, but the new system processes payments in less than 300 milliseconds. Other tech companies also use biometric sensors to authorize payments, for example, Apple's iPhones and iPads use fingerprint and facial recognition technology. Although biometric systems may be more convenient and unique than passwords, they are much harder to change if the information is compromised. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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OpenAI’s DALL-E creates plausible images of literally anything you ask it to | OpenAI's DALL-E is an AI that can generate images based on text descriptions. It can generate plausible versions of what is described to it, with varying degrees of success. Just like GPT-3, the output that DALL-E generates can be very high quality, but it can still generate some odd things. The model also exhibits some unintended but useful behaviors. Examples of DALL-E's output are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Announcing Flutter 2 | Flutter 2 is now available. It has been broadened from a mobile framework to a portable framework, allowing developers to make apps for a variety of different platforms, including desktops, foldables, and embedded devices, with little or no change. Existing flutter apps can now grow to target desktop and web without a rewrite. Flutter 2 has production-quality support for the web. There are over 15,000 packages for Flutter. Flutter has an open-source toolkit for building apps. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Gradio (GitHub Repo) | Gradio makes it easy to create user interfaces for machine learning models in Python. It can generate shareable links and get feedback on model performance. Gradio has built-in manipulation and interpretation tools for debugging. A GIF demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Quantum Machine Appears to Defy Universe’s Push for Disorder | Generally, disorder is increased as time goes on, for example, an ice cube placed in hot water will have its ordered crystal formation melt down into disordered water particles. When scientists performed an experiment where they held 51 rubidium atoms in a row with lasers, the basic assumption was that the atoms would become disordered, however, this was not the case. The atoms became disordered for a moment, but quickly reassembled themselves - this would be as if the melted ice reformed back into the original ice cube. The phenomenon has been dubbed ‘quantum many-body scarring’. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple reportedly threatened to boot Facebook from the App Store over human trafficking concerns | Apple threatened to kick Facebook off its App Store after a report in 2019 detailed how the platform was used to sell victims of human trafficking. Facebook was aware of the practice before the report, having conducted its own investigations. Facebook's AI content moderators can't detect most languages used on the platform, and its human moderators don't know how to speak the languages used in those markets. This has resulted in criminal organizations using the platform to conduct their business. | 4Miscellaneous
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youki (GitHub Repo) | youki is a container runtime in Rust. Rust is one of the best languages for a container runtime as it has memory management, unlike C, and it can use system calls. youki is still in development, but it is almost ready for practical use. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk says SpaceX is developing a 'bleeding' heavy-metal rocket ship. Making it work may be 100 times as hard as NASA's most difficult Mars mission, one expert says (10 minute read) | Elon Musk has recently announced changes to SpaceX’s Starship, which include giving the spacecraft a-steel body and changing the way the rocket ship will cool down on entry to a planet. The steel body will lower the cost of the design significantly and allow for faster prototyping, while also increasing the spaceship’s ability to withstand heat. The new cooling system imitates sweating by pushing liquid through pores in the metal so that it can evaporate and dissipate heat. Engineers have explored the idea of cooling rockets this way for decades but have run into problems with pores being blocked. Despite the fact that this idea has never been successfully realized, experts believe that it is not implausible. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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China's Infinity-Loop Skyscraper is One of the World's Most Interesting Buildings | OPPO is building a new tower in Hangzhou, China. The O-Tower will have an infinity-loop-shaped design with an open courtyard. It aims to become an iconic landmark and gateway to the larger business district. The building's form provides the large floors with the daylight access and fresh air of a slender tower. Images of the tower design are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Chinese scientists develop world’s strongest glass that’s as hard as diamond | Chinese scientists have developed a glassy material that can scratch diamond crystals with ease. The new material is comparable in strength to a diamond and it has properties similar to semiconductors used in solar cells. Diamonds get their immense strength and hardness through the organized internal structure of their atoms and molecules. The new material's properties originate from a combination of order and disorder in its molecules. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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drgn (GitHub Repo) | drgn is a programmable debugger that exposes the types and variables in a program for easy, expressive scripting in Python. drgn aims to make scripting as natural as possible to make debugging feel like coding. It was developed for debugging in the Linux kernel but it can also debug userspace programs written in C. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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TypeScript Weekly (Newsletter) | I've been looking for a decent TypeScript newsletter for a while and I finally found one I'm happy with. Lots of great TypeScript tutorials and resources here, curated by Marius Schulz, a front-end developer at Facebook. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Spotify officially launches a shared-queue feature called Group Session | Group Session is a new feature on Spotify that will allow two or more Premium users in the same space to share control over the music being played. Participants will be able to control what is playing and also contribute to a collaborative playlist for the group. Spotify already offers the ability to build collaborative playlists with friends and Premium Family plan members have a personalized playlist called Family Mix. However, neither of these features allows users to collaborate in real-time, unlike Group Session. The feature will be available soon to all Premium users worldwide. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Huawei enters China's electric car race in competition with Tesla | Huawei recently released details on a vehicle with specs it claims beats Tesla's Model Y. The Aito M5 will use both electricity and fuel. It will run Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system. Deliveries will begin after the Lunar New Year, with prices starting at around $39,063. A picture of the vehicle is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Awesome Space (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a curated list of space-related code, APIs, data, and other resources. Each link has a summary that describes its contents. Topics include spacecraft hardware and software, mission design, solar system data, and space debris. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple rejects Facebook’s Gaming platform from the iOS App Store | Facebook Gaming has been rejected again from the iOS App Store. App Store rules do not allow third-party apps to distribute games as a separate platform. Facebook Gaming is a gaming platform, offering its own games inside the app, with a dedicated social network and the ability to live stream gameplay. Apple has been accused of anti-competitive behavior due to the App Store's restrictive business model. Other apps have been banned for offering external subscription services, bypassing Apple's 30% fee. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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FDA Approves Anti-Malarial Drugs Chloroquine And Hydroxychloroquine For Emergency Coronavirus Treatment | Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have been praised in daily press briefings as potential coronavirus cures. There is no proven cure or vaccine for the coronavirus. The drugs are normally used to treat malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Early studies have provided mixed evidence for the effectiveness of the drugs and they carry risks such as vision problems or cardiac arrest. Some doctors have hoarded the drugs by writing prescriptions for themselves or for their families. Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, North Carolina, and other states have issued rules limiting prescriptions. The FDA has now approved the drugs for hospitalized patients. Non-pharmaceutical forms of the drugs can cause serious health consequences, including death. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Creating a Chrome Extension with React | This article explains how to create a Chrome extension using React. It breaks down what an extension is, and then walks through step by step on how to create an extension that changes the background color of a page. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk unveils Neuralink’s plans for brain-reading ‘threads’ and a robot to insert them | Elon Musk has shown off some of the technology that his company Neuralink has been developing for the last few years. Neuralink’s goal is to develop devices that can be implanted in paralyzed humans, allowing them to control devices with their thoughts. The company has developed thread sensors that are thinner than a human hair and can provide high-resolution signals from the brain. A robot was created in order to implant this device, as the threads were difficult to implant with current technology. Neuralink is also developing a custom chip that can read, clean up, and amplify signals from the brain. The aim is to eventually create a wireless version that can be implanted in a safe and non-invasive procedure, similar to Lasik. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Plants Appear to Be Breaking Biochemistry Rules by Making 'Secret Decisions' | Scientists from Australia have discovered that plants can control how much carbon from photosynthesis they keep to build biomass by using metabolic channels. They can choose to burn pyruvate and release carbon or use it to build phospholipids, plant oils, amino acids, or other biomass building blocks. Plants can track the source of the pyruvate and choose to either release it or hold onto it for other purposes. The ability to make decisions breaks the normal rules of biochemistry. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Pinia (GitHub Repo) | Pinia is an intuitive, type-safe, and flexible Store for Vue. It features Devtools support and support for extensions. Pinia works for both Vue 2.x and 3.x. Demos are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A robot apple-picker is now harvesting fruit in New Zealand orchards | One of New Zealand’s largest food producers has been working with a US startup to produce a robotic system that will work alongside humans to pick fruit 24 hours a day. The robot will not replace jobs but was created instead as there was a growing labor shortage for seasonal workers. Using lidar to navigate the rows between trees, the machine will detect whether a fruit is ripe and then use a vacuum to pick the fruit. While aspects of farming, such as weeding, have been automated for a while now, picking fruits and vegetables is a much harder task due to the careful judgment and delicate handling required to ensure quality crops. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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NASA helicopter to take a spin on harsh, cold Mars | Ingenuity is a four-pound drone that NASA hopes to fly on Mars when it lands on Thursday. The atmosphere on the surface of the planet is about one percent the density of Earth's, with temperatures of -130 degrees Fahrenheit. It can take up to 45 minutes for instructions to reach Mars from Earth, so everything that Ingenuity does will be programmed in advance. The Ingenuity mission will start slow, beginning with a testing routine. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Robots run this farm (13 minute video) | Water is used for almost everything that we do, from growing food to manufacturing every type of goods, and it is becoming more and more scarce. A team at Columbia University, New York, has developed a technique to create clean drinking water from industrial waste. It can remove more than 98% of salt from wastewater with high efficiency. While the technique was created for industrial waste, it is also effective for treating other wastewater. Another way to preserve water is through recycling water used in farming, which is what a company called Bowery is doing. Bowery builds indoor vertical farms inside cities which can grow crops all year around. It grows crops twice as fast as traditional farms while saving 95% of the water it uses. The whole farm is automated and everything is controlled with a central operating system. Ideas like these will help prevent a water crisis in the future. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The Teslasuit could turn Black Mirror's terrifying 'Playtest' into a reality | Teslasuit is a full body VR suit that has 68 points of contact (this number will be higher when the suit becomes available to consumers). It can simulate sensations like bumping into a wall, touching an object, or the impact of a punch. It will be priced similarly to a video game console, and has both men and women's suits. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The Dark Overlord Decrypts More 9/11 Insurance Files | A hacker group called "The Dark Overlord" is crowdfunding efforts to decrypt 9/11 insurance files it stole from a law firms and government agencies. Conspiracy theorists in particular are interested in these documents as they hope it will reveal a conspiracy around the attacks. The group says "We've said it before, and we'll say it again: we're financially motivated, and you (the public) has spoken to us in our language (internet money, specifically Bitcoin)." They have received about $11,000 in Bitcoin so far and say they will continue to drip release the documents as they receive more and more donations. | 4Miscellaneous
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A Code-First Intro to Natural Language Processing (GitHub Repo) | This course teaches Natural Language Processing through code. It was originally taught as part of the University of San Francisco's Masters of Science in Data Science program in summer 2019. It uses a ‘top-down’ teaching method as students might learn the material faster through completing exercises, rather than learning about each component first. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Venmo to launch its first credit card in 2020 | Venmo has announced its plans to launch a credit card. It will partner with Synchrony, the company behind PayPal's Extras Mastercard and Cashback Mastercard. Synchrony is behind around 100 other cards in total and has financed more than $140 billion in sales with 80.3 million active accounts. Venmo has yet to become profitable, despite its widespread adoption. The new card will be launched to US Venmo users in the second half of 2020. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Humans probably can't live longer than 150 years, new research finds | New research from a Singapore-based biotech company explored how well the human body can recover from stress on its systems as it ages and found that the human body loses its ability to recover from stressors at some age between 120 and 150. The research looked at health data for large groups from the US, UK, and Russia. It showed that recovery rate is an important signature of aging. The research could lead to the development of drugs to slow the process and extend healthspan. It explains why current treatments can only improve the average but not the maximum lifespan. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tailwind Mobile (GitHub Repo) | Tailwind Mobile is a library of mobile UI components built with Tailwind CSS. All components come with native-like iOS and Material Design themes created using official design guidelines. Tailwind Mobile is currently available for React, Vue, and it is coming soon for Svelte. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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RISC-V AI Chips Will Be Everywhere | RISC-V is a free and open-source computer instruction set architecture introduced in 2010. For many years, it was assumed that general-purpose computer architectures would never keep up with GPUs and other purpose-built architectures for machine learning and AI. Esperanto Technologies has created a RISC-V AI processor intended to compete against powerful GPUs in AI-recommendation systems. There will be 25 million RISC-V AI chips produced in 2027, worth $291 billion in revenue. Intel is creating a $1 billion fund to help drive further adoption of RISC-V. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Here’s what Elon Musk just told Twitter employees | Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees on a video call on Thursday. He spoke about his goals for the company, free speech, possible layoffs, his bias towards in-person work, and why he loves Twitter. The majority of reactions on Twitter's Slack messaging board were negative. Many employees are worried about the reduced focus on content moderation, inclusion, and diversity measures. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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This is Google’s Pixel 4 | Google just tweeted an image of the new Pixel 4, which is expected to be released in October. The image features design changes from renders that were released only a few days ago. For the first time ever, there is no rear fingerprint scanner present on the device. The image clearly shows two rear cameras and a third sensor of some kind on the back of the camera, as well as a tiny dot on the lower right of the camera module. Previous Pixel designs have been leaked extensively, so it appears that this time Google is trying to control the narrative surrounding the release of the Pixel 4. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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North Korea’s military has stolen more than half a billion dollars in cryptocurrency | State-sponsored hackers in North Korea targeted financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges between 2017 and 2018, stealing around $670 million in total. Cryptocurrencies are an attractive target for North Korea as they can easily bypass sanctions since the digital currencies are hard to trace, can be laundered many times, and are independent of government regulations. A panel of experts informed the UN Security Council about the thefts and urged UN member states to increase information exchange between foreign governments and domestic financial institutions regarding these cyber attacks. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Former Google CEO predicts the internet will split in two by 2028 — and one part will be led by China | Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted at a private event that within 20 years there will be a Chinese internet and a non-Chinese internet led by the US. China also has an economic strategy called the Belt and Road Initiative, in which China wants to build infrastructure to create a "new Silk Road" to facilitate trade with Africa and Europe. Schmidt believes it is possible that if this initiative is successful, some of these trade partners will join the Chinese internet instead of the US internet. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Netflix speeds up plan for ad-supported tier, says it may debut this year | Netflix plans to roll out an ad-supported tier in the final three months of this year. It will also roll out its plan to charge an extra fee for those who want to share accounts around the same time. Netflix's decision to introduce the ad-supported tier was made due to Hulu and Disney's success with the model. The company's stock plummeted 37% after it announced its advertising plan and it has still not recovered. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Oxylabs - Scraper APIs for large-scale data gathering (Sponsor) | Extract public data from the most complex targets with Oxylabs Scraper APIs. Our Scraper APIs handle JavaScript-heavy websites and support large data requests using over 102 million global proxies. Receive data in JSON or CSV format and pay per successful request only. Try free for 3 weeks. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Pope Ponders Universal Basic Income as World Economy Withers | Pope Francis advocated for a form of universal basic income in a letter from the Vatican City on Sunday. As the world faces great anxiety and hardship, it might be time to acknowledge the hardships being felt by people everywhere. Markets around the world have been heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic and millions of people are now feeling the significant economic strain. The Pope expressed hope that this event will lessen the idolatry of money. | 4Miscellaneous
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A space startup that 3D-prints its rockets just got its first customer | Relativity Space is a start-up that is building its first 3D-printed rocket, due to be tested in 2020. Telesat, a Canadian communications company, has partnered with Relativity Space to launch a portion of their low Earth orbit satellites. The project will likely involve multiple launches as the company will require hundreds of satellites in order to get reliable worldwide coverage. Telesat has also partnered with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Astronomers say they’ve detected the most massive merger of two black holes ever discovered | Astronomers may have detected signs of a massive merger between two black holes that occurred around 7 billion years ago. The two black holes combined into one single black hole roughly 142 times the mass of our Sun, destroying the equivalent of seven times the mass of our Sun and releasing it as energy. While scientists have observed smaller black holes and supermassive black holes, they have had trouble finding intermediate-mass black holes. However, scientists are expecting to see more mergers like this after the current upgrades to observation facilities are complete. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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hue.tools (Website) | hue.tools is a toolbox for working with colors. It features color mixing, blending, conversion, modification, detailed information, and more. hue.tools was built with TypeScript, Svelte, SvelteKit, and Tailwind. The tool can output in multiple formats, including HEX, RGB, HSL, HSV, HSI, and LAB. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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