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Apple to Announce Redesigned 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro at WWDC, Says Wedbush Analyst | Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives sent out a note to investors saying that Apple will be announcing 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with Apple silicon at WWDC next week. The new MacBook Pros are rumored to have several changes including the removal of the Touch Bar, a more flat-edged design, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and MagSafe magnetic charging. It could feature an M2 chip, but it is more likely to have an M1 chip. Ives' note also included other predictions about the iPhone 13, Apple Glasses, and the Apple Car. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How to use Jupyter Notebooks in 2020 | Data science is a rapidly changing industry. The need for production has grown throughout the years, evidenced by the rise in demand for machine learning engineers and data science software developers. Adoption of the Cloud is now necessary as datasets become larger. Jupyter has now grown, and we now have JupyterLab, new kernels for other languages, and third-party tooling. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A new generation of nanobots can kill bacteria in your teeth with heat | Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science and startup Theranautilus have developed a set of nano-sized cleaning robots that can clean the hard-to-reach areas deep inside dentinal tubules to kill bacteria. The nanobots are made of silicon dioxide coated with iron and they can be controlled using a low-intensity magnetic field. They are able to reach depths of up to 2,000 micrometers inside dentinal tubules, where they generate heat to flush out bacteria. The nanobots can be retrieved once the operation is done. The technology is almost ready for deployment in a clinical setting. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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California is cracking down on the gig economy | A new bill has been passed by the state Assembly in California that will make it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees, as is common practice for many companies that wish to skirt state and federal labor laws. Hundreds and thousands of workers, ranging from Uber and Amazon drivers to manicurists and exotic dancers, would likely become employees under the new bill. As employees, workers will gain labor protections and benefits such as unemployment insurance, health care subsidies, paid parental leave, overtime pay, workers’ compensation, and guaranteed minimum hourly rates. Many companies have fought back against the bill as it adds to the costs of running a business. The bill will still have to pass through the state Senate before it becomes law. | 4Miscellaneous
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We've Just Seen the First Use of Deepfakes in an Indian Election Campaign | Two videos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Manoj Tiwari criticizing the incumbent Delhi government went viral on WhatsApp on February 7, a day ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections in Delhi. One of the videos was a deepfake, a video created with tools that can fabricate visual and audio content to make it seem real. The Delhi BJP IT Cell partnered with a firm to create positive campaigns using deepfakes in order to reach different linguistic voter bases. Many experts believe that deepfakes will be used to take the ongoing war on disinformation and fake news to a whole new level. Many popular deepfake videos are complete face swaps, but a more subtle version exists which only alters lip movements to match target audio. As more deepfake material is created, more of it will bypass fact-checking and inevitably some will start spreading misinformation. This can be especially damaging in countries where technological literacy is low. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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AI is sending people to jail—and getting it wrong | The US imprisons 2.2 million adults and has 4.5 million more in correctional facilities (that's 1 in 38 adult Americans). To reduce prison numbers without increasing crime, they are trying to use AI to predict who to let out, where to police, and how to identify suspects. Unfortunately, the AI is based on historical data and mostly targets low-income and minority communities and marks them as having high recidivism scores. Over 100 civil rights groups signed a statement against their use, but more states including California are adopting this tech. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Institute Breaks Transmission World Record With 125,000 Gbps Using an Optical Fiber | Researchers from Japan have achieved the world's first transmission exceeding 1 petabit per second in a single-core multi-mode optical fiber. At 125,000 Gbps, the experiment broke the current record transmission in a multi-mode fiber by 2.5 times. The researchers now plan to increase the distance of the transmission and integrate it with multi-core technology. | 4Miscellaneous
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To Boldly Go Where No Internet Protocol Has Gone Before | Vinton Cerf, one of the creators of the internet, also played a pivotal role in establishing an interplanetary internet. Expanding the internet to space is challenging due to the astronomical distances and factors such as planets getting in the way and potentially blocking signals. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is a standard used on Earth for transferring data. It doesn't work at interplanetary distances, so Cerf and a small team of researchers designed a set of protocols that do. Bundle protocols have properties that terrestrial internet doesn't have, such as nodes that can store information. Using these protocols, data can be sent throughout space without regard for the planets' positions. | 4Miscellaneous
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pgsync (GitHub Repo) | pgsync is a command-line tool for syncing Postgres data between databases. It is 4x faster than traditional tools on a 4-core machine, has built-in methods to prevent data from leaving the server, and can sync partial tables, groups of tables, and related records. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Boston Dynamics prepares to launch its first commercial robot: Spot | Boston Dynamics has announced that its first commercial robot will be on the market in the next few months. Spot is a quadrupedal robot that can be controlled with a gaming tablet. A robot arm that is mounted on Spot is able to grab and move objects. The arm allows the robot to be used in many different scenarios, as its controls are completely customizable. A video in the article shows Spot picking up a soft toy and giving the toy to a police dog. It is unknown how much Spot will cost to buy, but Boston Dynamics revealed that they already have paying customers, mainly construction companies in Japan, who want to use the robots to oversee the progress of work on sites. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Samsung’s ‘artificial human’ project definitely looks like a digital avatar | Neon is Samsung's mysterious artificial human project. It appears that the company is building realistic human avatars that can be used for entertainment and business purposes. The Core R3 technology used in Neon can autonomously create new expressions, movements, and dialog, all of which can be completely different from the original captured data. A video was leaked that shows lifelike human figures that may have been generated with Core R3. It is still unclear to what extent the avatars in the videos were computer-generated. A big claim with Neon is that the avatars can be mistaken for real humans. The leaked footage can be viewed in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Samsung says its foldable phone is also a tablet that fits in your pocket | Samsung's mobile chief DJ Koh says that Samsung is working on a foldable phone (i.e. a tablet that can be folded into and used as a phone). He also hinted that the phone could be unveiled at Samsung's developer conference on November 7th. Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Huawei are all rumored to be working on foldable phones as well. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Meta introduces Slack-like shortcuts to Messenger | Meta has introduced new shortcuts to its Messenger platform. Users on iOS and Android can use @everyone and @silent from today. @everyone will notify everyone in a group chat and @silent will let users send messages without sending a notification. Meta is planning to add many more shortcuts later this year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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CROKAGE: A New Way to Search Stack Overflow | Stack Overflow has accumulated a lot of knowledge over time, with more than 18 million questions and 27 million answers in its database. Developers often use the site to find solutions to their particular issues. Often, developers will find the relevant code without an explanation on how to implement it, or they find an excellent explanation of how to fix the issue without the actual code. Stack Overflow has released CROKAGE, the Crowd Knowledge Answer Generator, which takes a question and provides relevant, comprehensive programming solutions with both code snippets and explanations. CROKAGE started as an investigation of duplicates in Stack Overflow, which then turned into a research project on how to search the site in a way which will return complete solutions. The service is available now, but it is currently limited to Java queries. An expanded version will be released to the public soon. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple announces November 10 One More Thing event for ARM-based Macs | Apple has announced a third fall media event as expected. "One More Thing" will focus on ARM-based Apple Silicon processors and take place on November 10, 2020. The event will be streamed from the company's Apple Park headquarters starting at 10 AM PT. Apple decided to split its traditional fall media events into three separate streams due to the pandemic. macOS Big Sur will be the first Mac operating system to support both Intel CPUs and Apple Silicon processors. Apple Silicon Macs will be able to run iOS apps with little to no modification. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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SSH Made Easy with Tailscale, Easily Access Remote Servers (Sponsor) | Tailscale makes SSH easy and secure. Access your local desktop without installing anything on your server. You'll love the simplicity of securely connecting your team from anywhere. Learn more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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We tested the claims that the iPhone XS selfie camera makes faces look too smooth | The iPhone XS's automatic image processing makes people's faces noticeably smoother than the iPhone X's. Some people are complaining that it's making their faces too smooth (there's no option to turn off this processing feature). Some journalists from Business Insider tested the two phones and put the images side by side, I gotta say I think the iPhone XS pictures look much better. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Now you can play Fortnite on your iPhone or Android for free with Xbox Cloud Gaming | Fortnite is now available to play for free via the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. Anyone with a Microsoft account can play the game on any device through the internet on a web browser in the 26 countries where it's available. Microsoft plans to bring more free-to-play titles to the cloud. Fortnite will continue to be available on Nvidia's GeForce Now game streaming platform. | 4Miscellaneous
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Physicists just made a breakthrough: quantum states that last over 5 seconds | A team of researchers from the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago managed to maintain a quantum state for more than five seconds, a new record. They used a method called 'single shot readout', which uses precise laser pulses to add single electrons to qubits to extend their quantum states for longer. The system they developed is theoretically able to perform over 100 million quantum operations in the five seconds. Five seconds is long enough for light to travel around the world almost 40 times, so the advance brings the possibility of a distributed quantum internet closer to reality. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Artificial leaf produces first drugs using sunlight | Scientists have used artificial leaves to create targeted molecules. Artificial leaves are made of translucent materials that allow sunlight in, directing it to tiny microfluidic channels that contain liquids. Using energy from sunlight, a chemical reaction can be triggered in the liquid. This method can potentially make any carbon-based molecule. It is able to convert sunlight into biomass with 10 percent efficiency, which is 10 times more than the most efficient plants. The leaves have successfully produced drugs that are effective against malaria and parasitic worms. As the leaves are small, portable, and scalable, they can be used to manufacture drugs in areas where they are needed most, saving the costs and trouble of transporting medicine over long distances. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Elon Musk’s Tesla tequila will run you $250 a bottle | Tesla now lists Tesla Tequila on its website, a reference to Elon Musk's April Fool's Day joke involving a liquor called Teslaquila. The tequila is housed in a bottle-shaped in the electric charge symbol and costs $250. It is produced by Nosotros Tequila. A picture of the liquor is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Researchers developed a device that could boost broadband speeds 100-fold | Currently when light is used to transmit information, the info is stored by light color and whether the wave is horizontal or vertical. Researchers have figured out a way to twist light into a spiral, essentially adding a third dimension (angular momentum). Researchers have also created a detector the size of a human hair that can detect the angular momentum of light sent through a cable. Professor Min Gu, who co-authored the paper says "It fits the scale of existing fiber technology and could be applied to increase the bandwidth, or potentially the processing speed, of that fiber by over 100 times within the next couple of years. This easy scalability and the massive impact it will have on telecommunications is what's so exciting." | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Signal CEO Hacks Cellebrite iPhone Hacking Device Used By Cops | Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike recently published details of exploits for Cellebrite devices, noting that the software was missing many industry-standard exploit mitigation defenses. Cellebrite devices are used by law enforcement to gather evidence from encrypted devices. Future versions of Signal will include files that Marlinspike has implied were designed to tamper with Cellebrite devices. Signal's research into Cellebrite's software may have also uncovered some copyright violations. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amazon expands gamification program that encourages warehouse employees to work harder | FC Games is a program that gamifies warehouse work for Amazon workers. Amazon uses the games to help measure and encourage productivity. There are as many as six arcade-style mini-games that are played by completing tasks in the warehouse. The program is completely optional for workers and they can play anonymously. Workers can compete against other workers, even if they work at different warehouses. The rewards earned from playing the games can be turned in for virtual pets. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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I Used Linux-Based PinePhone Daily For A Year. Here’s What I Learned! | The PinePhone is a phone designed specifically to run desktop Linux. This article details an experience of using the phone over a year. As Linux is a desktop operating system, many apps had to be developed and optimized to make the PinePhone useful as a phone. The camera on the phone takes low-quality pictures and is not capable of taking videos. While there are almost 400 confirmed working apps on the platform, this pales in comparison to the millions available on other platforms. The biggest weakness of the phone is its battery life. Turning on the phone just to check the time can cause it to drain quickly. | 4Miscellaneous
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India has found its Vikram lander after it crashed into the moon’s surface | The Indian Space Research Organization launched Chandrayaan-2 on July 22. It reached the moon's orbit on August 20. Two weeks later, a lander was deployed. Communication with the lander was lost moments before it was expected to touch down on the moon's surface. The lander was aiming to land at a location 375 miles from the moon's south pole. It is thought that there are large ice deposits on the moon's south pole. The ISRO will continue to analyze the data to ascertain the lander's fate while the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter carries out an array of studies from 62 miles above the lunar surface. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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This is what a solid made of electrons looks like | A Wigner crystal is a honeycomb arrangement of electrons formed by slowing down electrons until they are significantly affected by the repulsion between their negative charges. The pattern is an arrangement that minimizes their total energy. A team of scientists has managed to image a Wigner crystal by adding a layer of graphene on top of the crystal and using a scanning tunneling microscope. The same graphene-based technique will enable STM studies of other interesting physical phenomena. An image of a Wigner crystal is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Karpenter (GitHub Repo) | Karpenter is a node provisioning project built for Kubernetes. It watches for unschedulable pods, evaluates scheduling constraints requested by the pods, provisions nodes that meet the requirements of the pods, schedules the pods to run on the new nodes, and removes the nodes when they are no longer required. Multiple provisioners can be defined for cases like isolation, entitlements, and sharding. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Whole Foods cuts workers' hours after Amazon introduces minimum wage | A $15 an hour minimum wage for Whole Foods employees was enacted by Amazon on November 1. Team members who were being paid less than the $15 an hour saw a raise to at least that figure, while other employees received a $1 an hour raise and team leaders received a $2 an hour raise. Since the wage increase, many employees have seen their hours cut significantly, with part-time employees seeing their hours cut from around 30 hours a week to 20 hours a week, and full-time employees seeing a 3-4 hour a week decrease in their rosters. Amazon has also cut stock vesting plans and bonuses. These cuts have drawn complaints from employees, who say that there are not enough staff on the floor to properly serve customers and that some employees have had to take up second jobs to make ends meet. Many team members are now claiming their current compensation is lower than before the wage increase. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple introduces AirPods Max, the magic of AirPods in a stunning over-ear design | Apple has revealed its over-ear wireless headphones, AirPods Max. AirPods Max feature a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software. It comes in five colors and will be shipped from December 15. The H1 chip in each ear allows AirPods Max to deliver a listening experience that includes Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode, and spatial audio. The batteries can last up to 20 hours while playing high-fidelity audio with Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio enabled. AirPods Max are available to order now for $549. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Bubble Tea (GitHub Repo) | Bubble Tea is a Go framework based on The Elm Architecture for building terminal apps. It is suitable for both simple and complex terminal apps, both inline or full-window. Examples are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Getting a phone number with 4 consecutive digits | It can be handy to have access to multiple phone numbers. Verizon's My Numbers service allows users to have extra numbers, but the UI is bad and the interface is slow. This article follows a developer's process of figuring out how to access the My Numbers service programmatically in order to automate the search for a number with four consecutive digits. It involves learning how to find out which API endpoints are used and then calling the APIs using Python. | 4Miscellaneous
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‘Jumping gene’ may have erased tails in humans and other apes—and boosted our risk of birth defects | A graduate student from New York University has found a gene that may be the reason humans and other great apes are missing tails. The gene is a short DNA insertion called an Alu element. Alu sequences can move around the genome and are sometimes called jumping genes or transposable elements. They can have complex effects on how proteins are expressed, making them a huge driver of evolutionary variation. Mice that had been genetically modified to have the gene had a mix of tail lengths, from none to nearly normal, suggesting that other genes must be working together to eliminate all tail development in apes. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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State of Javascript 2018 (Survey) | This is the annual State of Javascript survey, complete with salaries and demographics of Javascript developers, popularity of Javascript frameworks and libraries, and awards! | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers? (Hacker News Thread) | Last Friday I posted this story on "productivity multipliers" with a broken link, here is the correct link. | 4Miscellaneous
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'Extinct' large blue butterfly successfully reintroduced to UK | Conservationists have successfully reintroduced previously extinct large blue butterflies to Rodborough, an area in southwest England. Around 1,100 larvae were introduced to the area last year and around 750 large blue butterflies were observed. The butterflies were declared extinct in Britain in 1979 and hadn't been seen in Rodborough for 150 years. It took five years to prepare for the reintroduction of the butterflies, with experts in the area restricting cattle grazing and encouraging the growth of certain plants to create an optimum environment. Butterflies are sensitive to environmental changes and the effort to reintroduce them will result in habitat improvements for other plants and animals. | 4Miscellaneous
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Gigantic Chinese telescope opens to astronomers worldwide | The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in southern China is preparing to open to astronomers around the world, pending approval from the Chinese government in a review meeting scheduled for next month. FAST is able to detect extremely faint radio-wave signals from an array of sources across the Universe. It can only examine a tiny fraction of the sky at one time compared to other telescopes, so while it is unlikely to discover new sources of fast radio bursts, it is useful for getting more details about known sources. FAST will also be useful for finding ripples in space-time. It is possible that FAST may discover radio waves generated by other intelligent life forms. The team at FAST are currently working out how to store and process the enormous amount of data that the telescope will collect. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Microsoft is now a $1 trillion company | Microsoft briefly hit a valuation of over $1 trillion, taking over Apple as the world’s most valuable company. In its Q3 earnings report, Microsoft revealed that it generated over $30 billion in revenue. The increase in stock price is due to the growth that Microsoft saw in its cloud services. While investors may care about the stock price, Microsoft executives do not focus on it as a metric. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amplication (GitHub Repo) | Amplication is a development tool that helps Node.js developers create quality applications without having to spend time on repetitive coding tasks. It auto-generates fully functional apps based on TypeScript and Node.js. Amplication helps developers build applications with visually managed data models, role-based access control, auto-generated source code, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Prisma (GitHub Repo) | Prisma is an ORM that makes it easy for two services with incompatible types to communicate. It can be used in any Node.js or TypeScript backend application. Prisma provides a clean and type-safe API for submitting database queries that return plain JavaScript objects. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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VSCode Browser Preview (GitHub Repo) | This is a tool that gives you a real browser preview inside your VSCode editor so you can debug in real time. It uses a headless Chrome instance under the hood. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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I Spent Seven Weeks in a Wuhan ICU. Here’s What I Learned (10 minute read) | Wu Feng spent nearly two months in Wuhan treating some of China’s most severe COVID-19 cases. The hospitals were a disaster zone, with makeshift areas created to support the huge influx of patients. Many frontline and critical care staff were becoming infected due to shortages in personal protective equipment. Staff from other specialties were called in to help. Wu Feng and his team were able to treat a total of 215 patients without having a single team member infected. Feng describes how doctors in China developed current treatments for COVID-19. Give feedback by replying here or messaging me on Twitter @tldrdan! If you don't want to receive future editions of TLDR, please click here. | 4Miscellaneous
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Virgin Galactic reopens ticket sales at $450K per seat | Virgin Galactic has reopened ticket sales for its SpaceShipTwo space plane at $450,000 per seat. The spaceship recently carried four passengers, including Richard Branson, to the edge of space for a few minutes of weightlessness. The mission was a key milestone test before Virgin starts flying individual customers. Virgin is targeting September for its first revenue-generating mission, which will carry research payloads and three members of the Italian Air Force. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Elon Musk says Apple refused a meeting to acquire Tesla | Elon Musk attempted to sell Tesla to Apple during the Model 3 rollout in 2017. Back then, Tesla was on the verge of collapse, and CEO Tim Cook refused a meeting with Musk to discuss a deal. Tesla has since become the most valuable automaker on the planet. Apple has recently announced its interest in developing an electric, autonomous car for general consumers. It has been developing a lithium iron phosphate battery that is more compact, resulting in lighter batteries with increased potential energy density. Tesla is already using iron phosphate batteries in some of the cars it is making in China. Apple and Tesla have swapped a lot of talent over the last decade. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Brave is bypassing Google AMP pages because they’re ‘harmful to users’ | Brave has announced a new feature for its browser that automatically bypasses pages rendered with Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages framework and takes users to the original website. The company believes that AMP is harmful to users and the web. AMP was created to simplify and speed up mobile websites. Google is facing a lawsuit over making non-AMP ads load slower. | 4Miscellaneous
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Software Engineering Within SpaceX (10 minute read) | The SpaceX Software Engineering team comprises of four separate teams. The Flight Software team develops code for Falcon 9, Grasshopper, and Dragon vehicles, and simulation, communications, and analysis software. They work with Mission Control to support active missions. The Enterprise Information Systems team mainly focuses on an internal web application that nearly every person in the company uses. The Ground Software team develops the GUIs used in Mission and Launch control for engineers to monitor vehicles and equipment. The Avionics Test team writes software for testing hardware and catching problems with the hardware earlier. Software for the mission, including SpaceX's Chromium and JavaScript-based Dragon 2 flight interface, had to go through various certifications. Every mission-critical input has a physical button underneath the touch display in case of a malfunction. A real-time operating system is used for Mission Critical applications as they have a faster interrupt response and better memory protection compared to regular operating systems. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window | Elon Musk fired "at least seven" senior managers at SpaceX because he was unhappy with the pace of development on Starlink, SpaceX's project to deliver internet via low orbit satellites. Elon Musk says "It would be like rebuilding the Internet in space. The goal would be to have a majority of long-distance Internet traffic go over this network." The program is struggling to hire and retain staff, and Musk is frustrated with the long development schedules. An anonymous source said "Rajeev wanted three more iterations of test satellites. Elon thinks we can do the job with cheaper and simpler satellites, sooner." The goal is to initially launch satellites in mid-2019 and have internet service available by 2020. The company is counting on revenue from this service to build rockets to go to Mars. One SpaceX employee says "There had to be a much bigger idea for generating cash to basically realize the Mars plans. What better idea than to put Comcast out of business?" | 1Big Tech & Startups
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AMP Has Irreparably Damaged Publishers' Trust in Google-led Initiatives | FLoC is a controversial initiative by Google to create a privacy sandbox for users so that ads can be targeted without the surveillance business model currently used today. Many major tech organizations and privacy advocates are skeptical of the project due to AMP, an older initiative by Google that resulted in an antitrust lawsuit that is still ongoing. Google throttled the load time of non-AMP ads and didn't rank non-AMP sites, resulting in losses for many publishers. More details about the case are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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A Casino Gets Hacked Through a Fish-Tank Thermometer | A few years ago, hackers used a fish-tank thermometer to access a North American casino's network and steal its high-roller database. Analysts predict there will be as many as 31 billion IoT connected devices worldwide by 2025. Smart devices can be invaluable for a business, but these devices need to be secure. The current state of the industry is creating an enormous opportunity for hackers. Business owners should bring in IT experts regularly to assess network security. | 4Miscellaneous
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Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that Starship engine crisis is creating a 'risk of bankruptcy' | SpaceX could face bankruptcy if it cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year. Starship will need as many as 39 Raptor engines per orbital launch, so SpaceX needs to ramp up engine production, but there are severe problems with the Raptor production line. SpaceX plans to launch the first orbital Starship flight early next year, pending approval by the FAA. The company needs Starship to launch the second version of its Starlink satellites, so the success of the Raptor program is critical to the long-term financial stability of SpaceX's Starlink service. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured amazing images of clouds on Mars | NASA's Curiosity rover has captured images of clouds on Mars. Clouds are rare in the thin atmosphere of the planet. They usually form at the planet's equator during its coldest months. Some clouds hover about 37 miles above the planet's surface and are made out of water ice, while other higher-altitude clouds are likely made of carbon dioxide. The images are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Pink Snow in the Italian Alps Is a Cute Sign of Environmental Catastrophe | While pink glacial ice might be pretty, it is a more sinister sign than it looks. The pink color in pink snow is caused by algae. Pink snow usually occurs in spring or summer, when there is enough light and warmth for the algae to grow. Whiter snow is better at reflecting light and thus keeping itself cool. Pink snow absorbs more light, which causes a chain reaction that causes more ice to melt. Many areas around the world saw pink snow blooms this year. | 4Miscellaneous
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One Of The Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working With The FBI | Family Tree DNA, one of the largest providers of at-home genetic testing allowing for people to trace their ancestry, is working with the FBI. The FBI is using Family Tree DNA’s vast database of information to find DNA matches for unsolved crimes. Prior to the partnership and announcement, Family Tree DNA had a database of well over a million profiles. Collaborations of this type obviously have grave privacy implications for consumers whose genetic data is being tracked. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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PayPal abruptly cuts off Pornhub’s payroll, leaving performers with few payment options | Pornhub has announced that PayPal will no longer support payments to Pornhub performers. Paypal's acceptable use policy forbids certain sexually oriented materials or services. Performers who are part of Pornhub's Model Program will have to update their payment information to use one of the many other payment options available. Other payment options are not guaranteed to be safe. For example, some banks refuse to serve sex workers. PayPal's sudden decision to drop Pornhub means that over a hundred thousand performers have to quickly update their details or risk receiving their payments late. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Pyramid lenses catch light from any angle to boost solar cell efficiency | Engineers from Stanford have developed a pyramid-shaped lens that can focus sunlight from any angle onto a solar cell. The Axially Graded Index Lenses (AGILE) can capture more than 90% of the light that hits its surface, focusing it to be three times brighter. Each layer of the lens bends light to a different degree, allowing light to enter from any angle while still remaining focused. The technology could allow solar energy to be used in more places. Pictures of AGILE prototypes are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Car design is about to change forever. This video encapsulates how | A one-minute video from an Israeli startup shows electric vehicles that are basically just giant skateboards. Any sort of seating or storage arrangement can be installed onto the flat base to create almost any form imaginable. Traditional car manufacturing fixes a vehicle's floor plan from its earliest moments on the assembly line, whereas these vehicles can be altered at any time. The video is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Uber Eats couriers shut down major London roads in protest demanding £5 minimum per delivery | Between 100 and 300 Uber Eats drivers abandoned deliveries and brought traffic to a standstill in London to protest over wages. They are demanding a minimum fee of £5 per delivery plus £1 per mile travelled. It wasn't organized, it was a spontaneous show of anger, but many protesters plan on continuing the protests on Friday. An Uber spokesman said that they are introducing a new system that gives drivers a minimum of £9-11 an hour. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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'A more humane country': Canada to ban keeping whales, dolphins in captivity | The House of Commons in Canada has voted to ban keeping whales, dolphins, and porpoises in captivity. Parks who already own animals will be allowed to keep them, but obtaining new cetaceans or breeding them will now result in a fine of up to $200,000. The law also bans exporting animals or using them for entertainment. Marineland, an amusement park and zoo who looks after around 61 cetaceans, had strongly opposed the bill as they claimed that the animals were their main attraction. Cetaceans may be kept in captivity if they are receiving care or rehabilitation after an injury, or for scientific research. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Cloudflare Registrar (Early Access Signup) | Cloudflare is launching its own domain registrar. The great thing about this is that they aren't charging anything above the ICANN registration fees, meaning these domains are as cheap as you'll ever find (for example a .com domain is just $8.03/year using this service). You can sign up for early access through this link. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A “no math” (but seven-part) | Quantum mechanics have entered into our everyday experience with modern technology, and the importance of quantum effects will only grow in the decades to come. This article is part of a seven-part series that introduces quantum mechanics and explains how it applies to our everyday world. The series promises no maths, no philosophy, and only experimentally verified information. This part of the series answers the deceptively simple question, "How do particles move?" | 4Miscellaneous
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Google Interview Questions Deconstructed: The Knight’s Dialer (15 minute read) | The Knight's Dialer was a common question to be asked in Google interviews until it was leaked and banned. It is simple to state and understand, with a number of solutions. Each solution can be implemented in relatively few lines of code, making it perfect for a time-constrained environment. The article discusses the question and how to answer it from an interviewer's perspective. It discusses the different levels and solutions to the problem, how the candidate's answer is assessed, and provides a list of skills that can help developers answer these types of questions. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Dark Web Price Index 2020 | The Dark Web is known to be a place where people can purchase illegal items. Horror stories where people have their identities or bank accounts stolen are not unheard of, and they could be justified given the prices and items available for purchase. This article contains a list of items that can be purchased on the dark web, their price ranges, as well as some detail on how the purchase process works. Protecting yourself from identity fraud involves being careful about where you give out information, checking ATMs for signs of tampering, checking your computer for malware, securing your internet connection, and making sure your online accounts are secure. A more detailed guide to protecting your identity is available at the end of the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple has cleared out its Facebook and Instagram pages for iTunes | Apple is rumored to be removing iTunes from its software lineup with its upcoming Mac OS update. iTunes will supposedly be split into different, more specific apps, for each of its functionalities. The Facebook and Instagram pages for iTunes have now been cleared out, with all the pictures, posts, and videos removed from each account. Apple will officially announce the future of iTunes at its Worldwide Developers Conference. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Cloudflare, Apple, and others back a new way to make the Internet more private | Whenever you access a website, your browser gets the website's IP from a DNS resolver which is typically operated by either your ISP or a service such as Google's 8.8.8.8. These queries are unencrypted, so it is possible for someone to monitor which sites are being visited or even redirect the request to a fake website. A new technique developed by Cloudflare, Apple, and Fastly, called Oblivious DNS, can prevent this snooping and make the Internet more private. Engineers are still measuring the performance cost of implementing the protocol, but early results appear promising. | 4Miscellaneous
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Intel's Project Endgame Is an Upcoming Cloud CPU Service | Project Endgame is a new service from Intel that gives users an always-accessible, low latency computing experience powered by Arc GPUs. There is little information about the service, but it seems to be a game-streaming solution. It may also be a cloud streaming service for professional users needing a cloud-based Windows workstation. The service will be available for use later this year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Tetra (GitHub Repo) | Tetra is a full-stack component framework for Django. It uses Django in the backend and Alpine.js in the browser to make development easier and quicker. Tetra features component encapsulation, resumable server states, public server methods, shared public states, component library packages, and much more. Examples are available on Tetra's website. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Yaade (GitHub Repo) | Yaade is a collaborative API development environment. It is self-hosted, secure, and persistent and it features a dark mode default. Requests can be called on localhost as well as on remote servers. Screenshots are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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DARPA is Eyeing a High-Tech Contact Lens Straight Out of 'Mission: Impossible' | The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is reportedly interested in a new high-tech contact lens being developed by a French team. DARPA has been looking for a high-tech eyepiece for more than a decade. The contact lens is able to relay visual information wirelessly and provide augmented vision assistance. It uses a flexible micro-battery that is able to power an LED for several hours. The lens was originally designed for medical and automotive applications, but it has also gained interest for other uses by DARPA and Microsoft. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Walmart is launching a new white label delivery service | Walmart GoLocal will provide white label delivery services for businesses using drivers from the company's Spark delivery service. Customers will order directly from businesses and Walmart GoLocal will handle delivery and collecting feedback. The company plans to eventually make deliveries via drone or autonomous vehicles, depending on the delivery size and location. Walmart has made investments in many technologies to master delivery before Amazon becomes the de facto standard. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple to Buy NextVR from Best Virtual Reality Platforms | It has been rumored for months that Apple is planning to release VR and AR glasses. Some clues point to a 2022 release. NextVR allows users to watch events through VR glasses. Apple has acquired NextVR for $100 million. NextVR employees will have to move after the purchase is completed. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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TikTok’s new Q&A feature lets creators respond to fan questions using text or video | TikTok is currently testing a new video Q&A feature that allows creators to respond to their audience's questions with either text or video answers. It is only available to select creators who have opted in. Q&As have become a popular way to engage with fans in other social media apps. Video responses allow creators to respond in more detail than a text comment allows. There is no limit to how many questions a creator can receive, but they don't have to reply to each one. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Disney's "Holobricks" could stack up for larger holograms | A new hologram system from Cambridge and Disney uses modular holographic blocks called holobricks to create high-quality scalable holographs. Each holobrick is made up of a spatial light modulator, a scanner, and coarse integrated optics. The system can create images that can be viewed from multiple angles in full color with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels at 24 frames per second. Holobricks can be combined to create larger images. The technology could be used to create video walls or interactive kiosks at Disney theme parks in the future. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A Senior Engineer's CheckList (16 minute read) | This is a checklist of tasks that can be applied to any software engineer but is targeted at senior engineers. Each task is sorted by effort, category, and its impact on one's career and company. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Bitcoin set to become legal payment in Brazil | A cryptocurrency regulation bill is expected to be presented to the Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil within the next few days. If the bill passes voting this week, Bitcoin will become legal tender in Brazil. The bill has widespread government support and agreements have already been made with the Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil for its recognition as a currency of daily use. Brazil’s Federal Deputy hopes that other countries will copy Brazil's regulatory model. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple WWDC 2020: iOS 14, ARM Macs, hardware rumors, and what else to expect (10 minute read) | Apple's WWDC will be presented this year in a new digital-only format. iOS 14 is expected to be announced, with a focus on performance and stability rather than on new features. Several home screen improvements, the ability to set third-party apps as the iOS defaults, new apps, and more are also expected in the update. A new feature for the Apple Pencil will automatically convert handwritten notes into standard text. watchOS 7 will add sleep tracking, blood oxygen tracking, the ability to share customized watch faces, a new Infograph Pro watch face, and better parental controls. Details on macOS 10.16 have been kept under wraps, but Apple will likely be announcing the switch to using ARM chips for its Macs. Updates are expected for tvOS, the iMac, and Apple TV. The long-rumored AirTags might finally be announced. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Flatfile - Data import is broken. We fixed it. (Sponsor) | Flatfile - Data import is broken. We fixed it. . Flatfile is an unmatched toolkit for data import. At Flatfile, they’re able to get your data to you exactly how it need to look without making your implementation team, engineers, or - even worse - your customers have to figure this out themselves.Get started free with Github. | 0Sponsor
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Apple buys Intel’s smartphone modem business | Apple has bought Intel's smartphone modem business for $1 billion. The deal includes the acquisition of intellectual property, equipment, and around 2,200 Intel employees. Intel will continue to develop 5G modems for non-smartphone devices. This deal means that Apple will soon be able to produce its own custom hardware for its smartphones. Apple currently relies on Qualcomm for its hardware, a relationship that has caused problems in the past. Qualcomm requires customers to agree to high patent royalty fees before supplying hardware. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple Silicon M1: Black. Magic. Fuckery. (23 minute read) | User reviews of the new Apple Silicon M1 have appeared on Reddit. The M1 SoC integrates an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, Media encode and decode engines, and RAM, all on a single-chip. As the new chip is much more energy-efficient compared to its Intel counterparts, battery life has increased. The MacBook Air is even shipping without a fan, as it can be passively cooled like all iOS devices. Rosetta 2 is performing much better than expected, ranging at speeds between 70-80% of native code. This has resulted in overwhelmingly positive reviews, some which can be read in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tesla launches new Supercharger with 1,000 mph charging, better efficiency, and more | The new Supercharger V3 is launching in Fremont today with 250 kW charging and better efficiency. The benefits are available to Model 3 owners after a software update. The Model S and Model X will be supported in the future, but there have been no announcements about the timeframe. Along with the ability to charge at a rate of 1,000 mph, the new update will also grant the Model 3 the ability to pre-heat the car battery prior to charging, allowing for an average reduction of charge times by 25%. Using liquid cooled charging cables, the Supercharger V3 will have a 1 MW power cabinet, which is able to charge vehicles independently without power share between stalls. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The F1 of the future: Flying cars set to take to the skies in outback Coober Pedy | Airspeeder is a startup that aims to host a full-scale flying car race in South Australia before the end of the year. The flying cars are cheaper than helicopters and faster than air taxis. There will be no drivers racing in the vehicles initially, but the company plans to obtain the licensing to allow real pilots in the races. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Asynchronous Communication: The Real Reason Remote Workers Are More Productive (13 minute read) | Studies have shown that remote workers are more productive than office-bound workers. Remote workers are able to avoid commutes, have more control over their workdays, and are able to dedicate more time to family, friends, and hobbies. Asynchronous communication may be a large factor in productivity and it can be applied to office work. Being able to respond to messages at your own pace means that workers have more control over their workday, communications are more thought out, employees are able to plan better, and people are able to focus more on deep work rather than constantly be on the lookout for communications. Synchronous communication is still necessary for some tasks, but in general, asynchronous communication is better for a more productive, happier work environment. | 4Miscellaneous
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How to Freaking Hire Great Developers | This article discusses the coding interview process and suggests better ways to conduct them. Raw coding ability is the most important quality to look for when hiring developers. There are several issues with the typical coding interview that makes it a weak approach for finding good developers. A better approach would be to have a candidate read existing code and explain what it does and how it works. This type of interview will help discover which candidates have committed to extensive and deep practice in coding. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Pixel 4 screen leak shows off large forehead bezel | New photos of Google's Pixel 4 have been leaked, showing that the device will have a large bezel on the top of the phone. The images show that the bezel will cover a variety of sensors and front-facing cameras. It is rumored that the Pixel 4 will come with a radar-based motion sensing technology called Project Soli, which requires more space, explaining the bezel. The Pixel 4 was announced in June after images were leaked onto the internet. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Wasmer (GitHub Repo) | Wasmer is a standalone JIT WebAssembly runtime, which is able to run any WebAssembly file. It aims to be fully compatible with Emscripten, Rust, and Go. Wasmer can be embedded directly into Rust applications. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Tinder says 'there are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products' | Match Group doesn't have clear policies or screening practices to prevent registered sex offenders from signing up. Some users have matched with sex offenders and experienced attempted sexual assault. In an analysis of more than 150 sexual assault cases, it was found that 10 percent of cases involved users who were matched with someone previously accused of or convicted of sexual assault. Match Group carries out background checks for its paid services. It doesn't collect enough information on users of free apps to conduct meaningful background checks. Match Group owns 45 online dating brands and reported $1.7 billion in revenue in 2018. | 4Miscellaneous
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Dopefolio (GitHub Repo) | Dopefolio is a multipage portfolio template for developers. It is easy to set up, free to use, and can run without any additional frameworks or libraries. A playground demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elf (GitHub Repo) | Elf is a reactive immutable state management solution built on top of RxJS. It is modular by design and it features a CLI, first class entities support, persistent states, devtools, and more. Examples are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Say goodbye to temporary fillings: scientists successfully use a gel to regrow tooth enamel | Scientists from Zhejiang University have developed a new gel that helps to regrow tooth enamel. Enamel is the tough outer tissue layer of our teeth. General wear and tear through the exposure to certain sugars and acids tend to erode the enamel, leading to holes that require fillings. The scientists were able to grow enamel with the same structure and similar mechanical properties as native enamel, meaning that fillings might soon become a thing of the past. Enamel was grown from a gel that was made from calcium and phosphate ions mixed with trimethylamine. When the gel was applied to the sample teeth, it formed a new enamel layer approximately 3 micrometers in thickness within 48 hours. The researchers are hoping to conduct trials on people within the next two years. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Hyundai latest concept 'car' walks to places it can't drive | Hyundai's Tiger X-1 is a vehicle that has long, bendable legs that it can use if its wheels can't get it to where it needs to go. It can drive in any direction, using either its wheels or legs. The legs can bend as the vehicle goes over uneven terrain, keeping the cargo area level. Hyundai designed the vehicle to be used for difficult rescue operations following natural disasters. It can be connected to an aerial drone to be flown to any location. Hyundai estimates that it needs at least another five years before the Tiger will be ready for the real world. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Blackstone to acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7 billion | Blackstone Group Inc has agreed to acquire Ancestry.com Inc for $4.7 billion, including debt, from private equity firms Silver Lake, Spectrum Equity, and Permira. GIC, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, will continue to maintain a significant minority stake in the company. Ancestry.com is the world's largest provider of DNA services, with three million paying customers in about 30 countries. Customers use the service to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks using home test kits. The deal is the first acquisition out of Blackstone's $26 billion Blackstone Capital Partners VIII private equity fund. | 4Miscellaneous
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'Longevity gene' responsible for more efficient DNA repair | A gene that is responsible for more efficient DNA repair has been discovered. SIRT6 produces proteins that are able to aid in repairing the inevitable DNA breaks that occur due to age. It was found that mice with more copies of the gene lived longer and aged slower. Longer-living rodents such as naked mole rats and beavers with different versions of the gene produced higher quality gene-repairing proteins. The next step in this research is to study animals with longer life-spans than humans to see if it is possible to prevent age-related diseases in people. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How Andrea Ghez Won the Nobel for an Experiment Nobody Thought Would Work | Andrea Ghez was the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics. For the last 25 years, she has focused almost exclusively on Sagittarius A, a supermassive black hole with the mass of four million suns that resides at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Ghez accomplished her research by modifying and using existing equipment in novel ways. The rapid turnaround from the engineers who modified the tools for her research was one of the main reasons for Ghez's success. In addition to her research, Ghez created the UCLA Galactic Center Group to coordinate research and technical developments. Her work has inspired scientists everywhere, and she serves as a role model for what ability, grit, and commitment can accomplish. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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MapLibre GL (GitHub Repo) | MapLibre GL is a community fork of mapbox-gl before their switch to a non-OSS license. mapbox-gl provides interactive, customizable maps in the browser. An example on how to migrate from mapbox-gl is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Wasp (Website) | Wasp is a declarative domain-specific language for developers who want to use a modern web dev stack without writing boilerplate. It unifies frontend, backend, and deployment under one concise language. Wasp is designed to be easy to use and scale. Examples of deployed apps are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Jack Dorsey’s Square changes corporate name to Block | Square will become Block from December 10 as it expands beyond its original credit card business and starts focusing on blockchain technology. The company remains focused on building tools to help increase access to the economy. It will still trade under the ticker SQ on the NASDAQ. Square Crypto, a part of the company dedicated to advancing crypto, will change its name to Spiral. Jack Dorsey, Square's CEO, recently stepped down from his other job as Twitter CEO to have more time to dedicate to Square's growing portfolio. | 4Miscellaneous
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Fitness app Supernatural is becoming part of Meta after Facebook touts VR fitness | The studio behind VR workout game Supernatural is joining Meta's Reality Labs. Meta has purchased many popular VR studios over the last few years. While the company is doing this to add popular games to its roster, it is raising concerns that Meta may end up owning the entire virtual reality market. Meta says that the purchase will help the company make better hardware for VR fitness apps. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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NBCUniversal officially enters the streaming wars with Peacock launch | Peacock is NBCUniversal's new streaming service. It will be available for all Comcast's Xfinity X1 and Flex customers by the end of April. Non-Comcast subscribers will have access to the service from July 15th. Originally, Comcast and NBCUniversal were going to use the 2020 Summer Olympics as part of a larger launch, but the Olympics have now been delayed. When it launches for all customers in July, there will be a free tier with limited programming, an ad-supported tier that will be free to Comcast customers and $5 per month for everyone else, and a $10 per month ad-free option. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Doing Western students' homework is big business in Kenya | In Kenya, academic writing can earn workers as much as $1,000 a month, as long as the work gets clients good grades. Contract cheating has become a lucrative business in Kenya in recent years. Kenya is where most academic writers are based, according to researchers. People in Kenya are incredibly qualified with very high levels of English and they are able to write high quality essays quickly. Students can bypass anti-plagiarism software by contracting off their assignment work. The global contract cheating industry is worth more than $1 billion, with writers in Kenya only seeing a small share of it as businesses take most of the money. Some countries, such as Australia, and many states in the US, have implemented legislation against contract cheating, and governments have urged PayPal and Google to lock payments and advertisements for contract cheating websites. This hasn't done much to slow down the industry. It will exist as long as writers need money and students need to pass assignments to earn degrees. | 4Miscellaneous
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Electric air taxi startup Lilium completes first test of its new five-seater aircraft | A German startup, Lilium, has created a prototype of its all-electric five-seater aircraft that will be part of the air-taxi service it aims to launch by 2025. The prototype had its first test flight earlier this month, demonstrating its ability to lift off from the ground vertically and land safely. There was no demonstration of its forward flight capabilities. A 3 minute video is available showing the test flight. Many companies are now racing to develop flying taxis. One main problem facing the industry is managing weight capacities on aircraft. Lilium claims to have an industry-leading payload ratio, which will make a huge difference in determining the company’s success. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A new TikTok clone hit the top of the App Store by paying users to watch videos | Zynn is a TikTok clone app that has recently reached number one in both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store. Its interface is identical to TikTok's except that there is a timer that fills up with points as a user watches videos. The points can be redeemed later for cash or gift cards. Zynn originated in China by a startup called Kuaishou. It hopes to make more money selling ads than it pays out to users. Kuaishou recently received a $2 billion investment from Tencent, who hopes the investment will help it compete against ByteDance. Zynn has a referral scheme that promises $110 to users if they can get five people to sign up and use the app regularly. Users must link the app to an existing phone number, Google, Facebook, or Twitter account to receive rewards. A PayPal account is required to cash out rewards. | 4Miscellaneous
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