headline
stringlengths 8
699
| content
stringlengths 43
1.82k
| category
class label 5
classes |
|---|---|---|
Astronomers have spotted the universe’s first molecule | Helium Hydride (HeH) is thought to be the first molecule that would have formed following the Big Bang. Using a special telescope that is built into a converted 747 jet, scientists were able to detect a light signal emitted by HeH molecules some 3000 light-years away from Earth. Helium is a typically non-reactive molecule, which means the conditions needed to create HeH would be extreme, and this discovery proves that the molecule has been created and exists in space. HeH has been synthesized in human laboratories before and it is theorized that it may still be created by dying stars. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Pfizer trials new pill that could stop early-stage Covid in its tracks | Pfizer has started stage one clinical trials on an oral pill designed to be an early intervention for Covid-19. The pill has demonstrated potent in-vitro antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. It can be used with other antivirals to create a treatment that complements vaccination. The pill is a protease inhibitor. It binds to a viral enzyme to prevent the virus from replicating in the cell. More information about the clinical trials will be shared on April 6. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
GitHub Copilot and open source laundering | While the code for machine learning models is publicly available, the datasets and computing power required to create working models are still kept locked away by almost all participants in the space. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Square’s in-house bank kicks off operations | Square Financial Services has started operations. The bank's main purpose is to offer business loan and deposit products. Square received conditional approval to operate the bank late last year. The bank is not expected to have a material impact on the company's balance sheet, net revenue, gross profit, or adjusted earnings. It will operate under an asset-light business model by selling loans to third-party investors. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Bitcoin plunges 26%, its sharpest selloff in 7 years | Bitcoin has plummeted by 26% in its worst daily selloff in seven years. The digital currency has lost nearly a third of its value in the past five days. While many people believed that crypto investments were immune to the current stock market volatility, the recent downturn is evidence that the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the markets. Bitcoin passed the $10,000 mark in early February. Despite the downturn, it is still up by over 50% over the past 12 months. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Darkness Visible, Finally: Astronomers Capture First Ever Image of a Black Hole | Astronomers have captured the first-ever image of a black hole, located in Messier 87, a galaxy around 55 million light-years away. The black hole is several billion times the size of our Sun and the picture shows it releasing a jet of energy 5,000 light-years into space. A telescope as big as Earth, combining data from radio telescopes located across the planet, was used to create the image. The data obtained was too large to transmit over the internet and needed to be physically transported by hard drives. From the image, scientists were able to calculate the size of the black hole. Observations of the black hole in Messier 87 will continue and the data will be used to confirm theories and hypotheses regarding black holes | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
History in the Making: Microsoft Edge Overtakes Mozilla Firefox | Microsoft Edge has finally surpassed Mozilla Firefox to become the world's second most-used desktop browser. Chrome continues to be number one with 68.5% market share. Microsoft Edge recently switched to using Chromium, making it a fully-featured alternative to Google Chrome. Internet Explorer continues to be available in Windows 10 for compatibility purposes. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Inside Uber before its self-driving car killed a pedestrian: sources describe infighting, "perverse" incentives, and questionable decisions (15 minute read) | Earlier this year, one of Uber's self-driving Volvo SUVs struck and killed Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona. Now internal documents show that Uber's self-driving car team had disabled the car's emergency brakes and reduced the car's ability to swerve, because it wanted to show their new CEO progress in the form of a smoother rider experience. At the time of the accident, engineers knew the software was immature, and it was having trouble recognizing and predicting paths of pedestrians and wasn't always detecting objects within a couple of meters of it. One engineer says "This could have killed a toddler in a parking lot." Engineers describe a "toxic" culture, where the bonus structure incentivizes quickly hitting milestones with or without careful testing. A former engineer says "At ATG, the attitude is I will do whatever it takes and I will get this huge bonus. I swear that everything that drives bad behaviors was the bonus structure." Uber stopped testing their self-driving cars on public roads after the incident, but plans on starting up again in 2019. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Microsoft previews a new, totally redesigned Outlook for Windows app | Microsoft has introduced a new Outlook client for Windows users that closely mirrors the interface and functionality of the Outlook web client. It is currently only available to Office Insiders in the Beta channel who have work or school Microsoft 365 accounts. The new app will eventually replace the current Outlook app, as well as Windows' built-in Mail and Calendar apps. It is still in early development and is missing many common mail client features, such as support for IMAP and Outlook.com accounts. Screenshots of the new client are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Sri Lanka Blocks Social Media, Fearing More Violence | Sri Lanka has blocked several social media networks after the attacks that occurred on Sunday. Officials blocked these sites as they feared that misinformation would be shared and cause further violence in the country. Social media has been blocked in Sri Lanka before in 2018 when a series of viral posts, which spread rumors and calls to violence, appeared to cause a wave of anti-Muslim riots and lynchings. While social media has been credited with creating some positive change, such as helping bring democracy to Sri Lanka after years of civil war, many countries increasingly see it as a threat, as growing research puts the blame on these platforms for instigating religious and racial violence. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Genius Steals (Newsletter) | This newsletter is full of off-the-beaten path stories about technology and media. Basically anything interesting on the internet is fair game. It's also curated by a husband and wife team (both internet entrepreneurs), which I really love! | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Chrome can now instantly caption audio and video on the web | Google's Live Caption feature is now available to anyone using Chrome browser. The feature uses machine learning to create captions for audio or video. It first appeared on Pixel phones in 2019. Captions will appear with muted audio. The feature only works in English. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
A man who got the 1st pig heart transplant has died after 2 months | The first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died two months after the operation. No exact cause of death has been announced. The patient survived significantly longer than other patients in previous attempts at xenotransplantation. The experiment provided doctors with invaluable insights, adding to other research involving gene-edited pig organs. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Humanity Is Sending 3 New Rovers to Mars in 2020 to Look for Signs of Life | Three new rovers are scheduled to launch to Mars in the summer of 2020, including NASA's Mars 2020 rover, Europe and Russia's Rosalind Franklin, and China's Huoxing-1. They are scheduled to land on Mars in 2021. NASA's Mars 2020 rover will be officially named next year, and it will carry components such as the Mars Helicopter Scout, the first human aircraft to fly on another planet. It will land in the Jezero Crater and build on Curiosity's findings. Europe and Russia's Rosalind Franklin rover is about a third of the size of Curiosity, and it will also focus on looking for signs of past life on Mars. Its target is likely a crater in a region called Oxia Planum. China's Huoxing-1 rover will be the nation's first mission outside the Earth-Moon system. The rover will probably be renamed before launch. It is the smallest of the three new-generation rovers, but its purpose is similar. Huoxing-1 will also be looking for biosignatures and signs of life on the Martian surface. China has not yet announced a final site for the rover. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Self Driving Pi Car (Github Repo) | This is the code used to build a $60 self-driving car with Legos and a Raspberry Pi. There is an extensive Medium article in here too detailing the whole process of building the car. The code is written in Python and uses a deep neural network to provide the self-driving functionality. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Swiss region to take cryptocurrency for tax payments in 2021 | Switzerland's Zug canton has said that it plans to accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments starting next year. The canton will accept tax payments of up to 100,000 Swiss francs starting in February. A pilot program is expected to launch in the next few weeks. Taxpayers who want to pay in cryptocurrency will receive a QR code for payments after notifying tax authorities. An attempt by Ohio to accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments was ruled illegal by the state's attorney general last year. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
A Long-Lost Legendary Roman Fruit Tree Has Been Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seeds | An ancient species has been brought back to life from 2,000-year-old seeds found in ancient ruins and caves. The Judean date palm has been lost for centuries, and the feat confirms the long-term viability of the seed kernels. By studying the saplings, scientists were able to determine that the palm was cross-cultivated with a blend of eastern and western date palm varieties. The findings helped shed some light on ancient cultivation practices. They show that humans in ancient civilizations deliberately introduced desirable traits into cultivated species. The scientists are trying to determine how the date seeds retained their viability for so long, as this could have important implications for agriculture. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Microsoft uses GPT-3 to let you code in natural language | Microsoft is now using OpenAI's GPT-3 natural language model in its Power Apps service to translate spoken text into code. Power Fx focuses on Power Apps formulas, making the tool similar to the natural language query functions available in Excel, PowerBI, or Google Sheets. Users will still have to understand the logic of the application they are building, but Power Fx will give more people access to advanced app building and also help train people to use low code tools. The new features will go live for users in North America by the end of June. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Amazon reportedly plans to open department stores, starting in California and Ohio | Amazon is planning to open department store-style locations, replacing the stores that it helped kill off. It plans to use locations with a footprint of around 30,000 square feet. The first stores will likely be in California and Ohio. In-person shopping allows people to try out items and gadgets before purchasing them. Amazon has opened grocery stores, bookstores, and convenience stores in recent years. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Apple offering engineers $180,000 bonuses to prevent poaching | The employee poaching war between Apple and Meta is heating up, with Apple now offering top engineering talents stock bonuses worth up to $180,000 to prevent them from defecting. Around 10% to 20% of engineers have been approached with the bonuses, which range from $50,000 to $180,000 in restricted stock, set to vest over four years. Meta has recently poached key engineers across several divisions at Apple. Apple has also been hiring talent from other companies. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus (10 minute read) | Humanity is now facing perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation, and the decisions that people and governments make in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. Unlike 50 years ago, governments couldn't track entire populations. It is now possible to do so, and COVID-19 might push this technology forward so that it becomes standard governmental procedure. Governments can theoretically track citizens' temperature and blood pressure through their smartphones and use the data to create containment strategies. This could be extremely useful during the coronavirus outbreak, but governments will probably hold onto these powers afterwards. While the technology could be helpful, other less-intrusive strategies such as increasing hand-washing would be more effective. A global policy on epidemics to get countries to cooperate on an agreed plan would be the most effective measure to prevent another outbreak like this from occurring. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Inside Tesla's factory, a medical clinic designed to ignore injured workers (15 minute read) | When a Tesla factory worker is injured, medical staff are forbidden from calling 911 without permission. Instead, Tesla's contract doctors often insist that workers be sent in a Lyft, including one worker who partially severed his finger. Stephen Nelson was working on a Model X when the trunk door slammed down on his back. He says "I couldn't walk, I couldn't sit down. I couldn't even stand up straight," but Tesla doctors refused to call him an ambulance, telling him to take a Lyft instead. 911 calls are public records and first responders are required to report severe injuries but Lyft drivers are not. Anna Watson, a former Tesla physician's assistant, says that no matter what injuries a worker came into the clinic with, the staff was instructed to send them back to work full duty. She even had to send one worker back with a broken ankle. Watson herself sent Nelson back to work 4 days after his injury. 8 days after his injury, an outside clinic diagnosed him with "crushing injury of back," contusions and "intractable" pain. Workers injuries are often dismissed as being non-work related even if they are, and at one point, there was a blanket policy to turn away temps from receiving any medical treatment at all. Tracy Lee, a temp who developed a repetitive stress injury from lifting car parts by hand after a machine broke and was turned away by Tesla's clinic, says "I really think that's messed up. Don't discriminate just because we're temps. We're working for you." Watson, who was fired after raising concerns about worker treatment, says "You go to Tesla and you think it's going to be this innovative, great, wonderful place to be, like this kind of futuristic company. And I guess it's just kind of disappointing that that's our future, basically, where the worker still doesn't matter." | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Alibaba On The Backfoot? TikTok Parent ByteDance Reportedly Launching In-house Cloud Computing Service | ByteDance's Volcano Engine division will roll out its Cloud computing service between September to October. The company plans to move its core services to its in-house cloud platform. ByteDance has already stopped using Alibaba Cloud services for TikTok outside of China. Moving more of its infrastructure in-house could save ByteDance a significant amount and cost Alibaba a lot in lost revenue. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
New superbug treatment disables drug resistance in deadly bacteria | Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are predicted to claim up to 10 million lives a year by 2050. Bacteria that survive antibiotic treatment pass on genetic material to help other bacteria become resistant to the drugs. In a recent study, scientists targeted a protein that helped bacteria develop resistance. When the protein was inhibited with chemicals, the bacteria became vulnerable to existing antibiotics again. The next step in the research involves finding protein inhibitors that can be used in humans. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Facebook is publicly testing dark mode in its mobile app | Facebook has started public testing of dark mode in its mobile app for both Android and iOS. The feature can be accessed in the Settings & Privacy section under the Menu tab. A 34-second announcement video from Facebook is available in the article . | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Spotify tests a TikTok-like vertical video feed in its app | Spotify is currently testing a new vertical video feed feature called Discover. Discover's interface is similar to TikTok's, with a vertical feed of music videos that users can scroll through. Users can tap a heart to like songs, and a menu is available for bringing up song information. The feature appears to use artists' Canvas videos. A video showing the new feature is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
MIT AI tool can predict breast cancer up to 5 years early, works equally well for white and black patients | MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have developed a new AI tool that can detect breast cancer up to 5 years in advance in both black and white women. Other previous similar projects have been criticized as their patient populations were predominantly white. Black women are 42 percent more likely to die from cancer. One contributing factor may be due to the lack of appropriate detection techniques. The MIT tool was trained on mammograms from over 60,000 patients. Early detection is vital in the fight against cancer. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Netflix to charge global members sharing their accounts an additional fee, following tests | Netflix is expanding its test to charge members for sharing accounts with people outside their household to include global markets. The company will iterate on the feature over the next year to create a balance for customers. Subscribers can now add sub-accounts to their service, each with its own profile and login details. Sub-accounts will retain their recommendations, history, and watch list if they choose to move to their own accounts. Netflix will use IP address and other device information to identify household members. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
NASA InSight Mission (Livestream) | NASA is trying to land the InSight spacecraft on Mars at 3pm Eastern Time, the livestream starts at 2pm Eastern Time (8 hours after you receive this email). The landing sequence will take 7 minutes, with the landing probe hurtling through the Martian atmosphere at 12,300 mph. The probe will be used to deploy a seismometer to listen for earthquakes, dig below the planet's surface to inspect the interior, and emit radio waves that we can monitor from Earth. This link is to NASA's official website, they have links for the stream on Youtube, Facebook, Twitch, etc. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Facebook Bans White Nationalism and White Separatism | Facebook has banned White Nationalism and White Separatism from its platform, claiming that the terms were euphemisms for White Supremacy due to their closely intertwined histories. Users who post or search for content related to these topics will be directed to Life After Hate, an organization that helps people leave hate groups. Facebook will detect and remove offending material using the same technology it uses to filter ISIS content, which is mainly content matching with some machine learning. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
What's next for developers in 2022? (Sponsor) | Take a quick survey on your favorite programming languages, tools, and platforms to get a chance to win a Nintendo Switch and more prizes. Your answers will help decision makers in the tech industry spot new trends and better serve developers. Take the survey today! | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
NASA will attempt to knock an asteroid out of orbit for the first time in 2022 | NASA is attempting to knock a small asteroid off course in October 2022, in order to test whether we will be able to protect Earth from a future asteroid impact if we need to. The asteroid, Didymoon, is about 150 meters wide. NASA will launch a 500kg spacecraft at the asteroid and attempt to hit it to alter its course. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Hyundai purchases Boston Dynamics for $921M, makers of Spot dog robot | Hyundai has purchased Boston Dynamics for around $921 million. It is the first acquisition headed by Hyundai's new chairperson Chung Euisun since he took the job in October. Rumors of the acquisition have been circulating since early November. A gallery of Boston Dynamics' robots is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Influenza has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic | Case numbers for the common influenza have dropped to minuscule levels since Covid-19 began its global spread. The influenza virus is transmitted in the same way as Covid-19, but it is less effective at jumping from host to host. There were 600 deaths from influenza during the 2020-2021 flu season, compared to 22,000 deaths in the prior season. The US has seen over 574,000 deaths from Covid-19 so far. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Amazon announces Halo, a fitness band and app that scans your body and voice (11 minute read) | Amazon has unveiled the Halo Band, a fitness band that doesn't have a screen. It pairs with an app that provides standard fitness tracking features, along with the ability to create 3D scans for body fat and listen for emotions in users' voices. The Halo Band will cost $99.99 plus a subscription service of $3.99 per month for Halo's more advanced features. Invitees to Amazon's early access program will be able to purchase the device for $64.99 with a six-month subscription included. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Epic’s new RealityScan app can make 3D models from smartphone photos | RealityScan is an app from Epic Games that can construct 3D models of objects using a series of smartphone photos. It can be used to scan real-world objects and bring them into games or other projects. The app is in a limited (and currently full) beta. Epic is hosting a 'State of Unreal' event today at 11 AM ET. A video that shows how RealityScan works is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
How NASA Will Use Robots to Create Rocket Fuel From Martian Soil | To send a single kilogram of fuel to Mars, we have to burn 225 kilograms of fuel here on Earth. It would be much more efficient for missions on Mars if we could somehow make the fuel we need there. This is why NASA is working on RASSOR, a robotic excavator which will dig out large chunks of Mars soil and and pull out all the water. Then it will separate out the hydrogen from the oxygen, and take carbon from the Mars atmosphere (which is 96% carbon dioxide), to make methane (CH4), an easily storable type of fuel. There's a video of RASSOR in action halfway down the page in this article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
“It’s a bloodbath”: U.S. companies are pillaging Latin America’s tech talent | The demand for tech talent is making it difficult for Latin American tech companies to find developers. Many developers are being hired by US companies for much more than local companies can afford. Workers are more interested in working for large US companies than local startups, despite the boom in the Latin American startup ecosystem last year. Local startups have to hire non-English speakers or find other incentives, such as stock options, to attract employees. Some have even started hiring from other countries. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Cut JS Debug Time in Half Using Airbrake (Sponsor) | Airbrake can tell you exactly where an error is in your app, right down to the line of broken code. Plus, it will show you exactly what happened leading up to the error, including clicks, keypresses, navigational updates, and more. Click here to learn more about this cool Airbrake feature! | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight | NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. On Monday, it flew to an altitude of 10 feet, hovered for 30 seconds, and then descended. It logged a total of 39.1 seconds of flight. The airfield where Ingenuity took off has been named the Wright Brothers Field. A video of the flight is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't? (Hacker News Site) | Top engineers are generally more autonomous than others. They are able to self-educate, source information, clearly understand the needs of a project and the problems it solves, self-manage, and prioritize tasks. Compared to other engineers, top performers require less direction and management and are able to produce better, higher quality, well-thought-out solutions. Users tend to always find the strangest ways to break a system, and good engineers are able to predict and design around these situations. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Watch as Royal Marines Test Out a Flying Jet Suit | The Royal Marines are testing a jet suit for use as a way to fly and land on ships quickly and with precision. Gravity Industries developed the suit to provide rapid access and exit to and from target areas while retaining the ability to handle a weapon. An earlier version of the suit featured a helmet-controlled shoulder-mounted pellet rifle. A 3-minute video showing the jet suits in action is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace | LinkedIn is building a freelance work marketplace to rival gig sites like Fiverr and Upwork. The marketplace will connect freelance service providers with clients for one-off projects. LinkedIn has been developing the feature since September 2019, after the company acquired UpCounsel, a marketplace connecting freelance lawyers and clients. Gig sites have been a fast-growing niche, with both Upwork and Fiverr posting revenue growth throughout the pandemic. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
An AI for Image Recognition Spontaneously Gained a ‘Number Sense’ | An AI that was only trained for image recognition spontaneously gained the ability to estimate the quantity of a number of objects. Researchers found that the AI had neurons sensitive to certain numbers. The way these neurons worked is very similar to the same ‘number sense’ mechanism that exists in humans. Neurons distinguish more between lower numbers and generalize larger numbers. This research suggests that human cognition and AI should be studied together, as each field can help develop understanding in the other. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Apple's first 5G iPhone will arrive in 2020 | Apple will put out its first 5G iPhone in 2020, using Intel's 8161 5G modem chip. Apple has previously been unhappy with heat dissipation from Intel chips, which can cause issues with battery life. The first 5G Android phones will debut next February, but there are currently only a limited amount of 5G cell towers available. If you do happen to be near one though, you will be able to get multiple-gigabits-per-second download speeds. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Someone Is Hacking the Hackers | The prominent crime site Maza was hacked earlier this week. It was a long-standing destination for all types of criminal activity. The forum was considered elite and hard to join. The hackers obtained usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords, and then subsequently dumped the stolen data on the dark web. Two other Russian cybercrime forums were recently hacked. It is impossible to know who the hackers are, but it is possible that the site takedowns were done by law enforcement. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Introducing Piranha: An Open Source Tool to Automatically Delete Stale Code (12 minute read) | Piranha is an open-source tool developed by Uber that can automatically remove old code. Removing old code can be time-intensive for engineers, preventing them from working on new features. Uber uses Piranha to remove features by identifying code related to feature flags once they become obsolete. It is currently implemented for Objective-C, Swift, and Java programs. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Decellularized Spinach Serves as an Edible Platform for Growing Artificial Meat | The veiny skeleton of a spinach leaf can support the growth of artificial meat. Spinach provides a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly scaffold that may accelerate the development of cultured meat. Previous studies have demonstrated that spinach leaf scaffolds can be used for cultivating human heart tissue. Researchers will now focus on growing more cells on the leaves to create thicker steaks and to investigate other animal and plant cell alternatives. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
dos-like (GitHub Repo) | dos-like is a library for writing games and programs that attempts to recreate the look, feel, and sound of old DOS programs on modern platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux. It includes examples of classic DOS techniques and effects. Screenshots are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
The World’s First Seasteaders Are Now on the Run for Their Lives | A couple made news earlier this year when they decided to stop living on land and instead live on the open sea on a seastead. Seasteading is an idea where people can live freely on the ocean without government rule, but still have access to land when required. The seastead was parked in international waters near Thailand, but the Thai government claimed it was still in their economic area and declared that they were a threat to the nation’s sovereignty, a crime punishable by death. They managed to escape before the Thai Navy was able to capture them. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Practical AI (Github Repo) | This is a cool Github repo by an Apple AI researcher that contains IPython notebooks that walk you through everything you need to know about AI, starting with "What's a notebook?" all the way through implementing computer vision algorithms. The repo isn't finished yet, it looks like he's still working on some of the more advanced topics like building recommendation systems, but what he has so far is really awesome and he's been updating it pretty much daily. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists (10 minute read) | The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants that have shed superfluous genes and acquired new ones from their hosts. Researchers recently mapped the genome for a species of Rafflesiaceae and found that it was missing nearly half of the genes widely conserved across plant lineages. There were no functional genes in its chloroplasts, like in other members of the Rafflesiaceae family. While the genome seemed to be missing a lot of DNA, it is still roughly the same size as ours. Most of the genome is filled up with copies of stolen genes. Horizontal gene transfer is rare outside of bacteria. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
TLDR's Crypto Newsletter (Signup Form) | Here is a sign up form for TLDR Crypto, a new newsletter by TLDR dedicated to following tech and innovation in the crypto ecosystem. Please let me know if you have any feedback, ideas, or requests in terms of content, I'm still in the very early stages of putting this together! | 4Miscellaneous
|
Parsr (GitHub Repo) | Parsr is a document parsing and extraction tool that generates usable data for data scientists and developers. It can perform document hierarchy regression, page number detection, whitespace removal, link detection, and more. It takes an image or PDF as input and outputs JSON, Markdown, text, CSV, or PDF. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
tfsec (GitHub Repo) | tfsec spots potential security issues using a static analysis of your terraform templates. It supports terraform v0.12+. tfsec checks for sensitive data inclusion across all providers, scans modules, evaluates expressions as well as literal values, and checks for violations of AWS, Azure, and GCP security best practice recommendations. Example outputs are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
BudgetML (GitHub Repo) | BudgetML allows data practitioners to quickly deploy an ML inference service in less than 10 lines of code. It features automatic FastAPI server endpoint generation, fully interactive docs, built-in SSL certificate generation, 99% uptime using cheap preemptible instances, and complete OAuth2 secured endpoints. Using BudgetML results in significant cost savings. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Inbox Kitten (Open Source Web Tool) | Inbox Kitten is an open source, serverless disposable email service. There is a super easy to use hosted version, and you can obviously deploy your own private instance with the source code through Github. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
T-Mobile Confirms It Was Hacked | T-Mobile has confirmed that hackers gained access to its systems. A post was made recently on an underground forum offering to sell private data from T-Mobile customers, including Social Security Numbers, phone numbers, addresses, driver license information, and more. The seller claims that 100 million people had their data compromised in the breach. They are offering data on 30 million people for 6 bitcoin. The entry point used to gain access to the data has been closed. T-Mobile is coordinating with law enforcement to investigate the issue. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Slang (Programming Language) | This is the Github Repo for a new programming language called Slang. This is really cool, it allows you to program sounds in your browser using really simple syntax. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
A Complete Guide to Custom Properties (19 minute read) | Custom properties are used as variables in CSS. They can make code easier to maintain, and using them can unlock interesting possibilities. This is a complete guide to using Custom Properties. It contains plenty of examples and additional resources. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Shift-Ctrl-F (GitHub Repo) | Shift-Ctrl-F is a Chrome extension that allows users to search the information on a webpage using natural language instead of an exact string match. It uses MobileBERT fine-tuned on SQuAD via TensorFlowJS to search for content and highlight results. A short GIF demonstration is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Deep-Learning-in-Production (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains notes and references about deploying deep learning-based models in production. Topics include converting PyTorch Models to C++, Mobile & Embedded Devices Development, GPU Management Libraries, and much more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
sysget (GitHub Repo) | With sysget, users only need to know one package manager syntax, rather than having to learn a new package manager for every distro. sysget can search for, install, and remove packages, as well as update databases, and more. A guide on how to use sysget is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Meta Reveals VR Headset Prototypes Designed to Make VR ‘Indistinguishable From Reality’ (11 minute read) | Meta recently unveiled a collection of VR headset prototypes. The company is aiming to develop a headset that can completely convince the visual system that what's inside is actually real. It has identified four key visual challenges that VR headsets need to solve before the visual Turing Test can be passed. The prototype headsets function as proof-of-concept for potential solutions to these challenges. Details about the challenges and the prototype headsets are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
For The First Time, Scientists Have Captured Video of Brains Clearing Out Dead Neurons | Scientists have been able to capture video of the waste disposal system within mice brains for the first time. Using a technique called 2Phatal, the scientists killed a single brain cell and followed it using fluorescent markers. Three types of glial cells were shown to be involved in the cell removal process. The glial cells removed the dead brain cells with some coordination, suggesting there is communication occurring between the cells. Understanding how the brain cleans itself could give experts insight on how to treat brain injuries and other diseases that involve brain cell death. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Slack launches Huddles, Discord-like audio calls you can hop in and out of | Huddles is a new feature in Slack that allows team members to jump in and out of a persistent call freely at all hours. The feature is designed to replace the informal office conversations that colleagues used to have across their desks. There is a screen-sharing feature, so teams can use it for spontaneous meetings. Huddles can be created in any channel or DM, including between companies. Slack will introduce voice, video, and screen recordings in the coming months. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Apollo (GitHub Repo) | Apollo is a personal search engine for your digital footprint. Users can store information in the database for easy retrieval through search. It stores all data locally. A short video demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
How to create technical conceptual diagrams | Conceptual diagrams are a visual way to show how things work. They can help developers gain a better understanding of what they are doing. This article teaches front-end developers and visual learners how to create conceptual diagrams. It uses a JavaScript method as an example to show the basic steps of making a conceptual diagram that will aid in learning. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Netflix tests a new feature that will raise prices for account sharing | Netflix is testing out a sub account feature that will allow subscribers to share their service with people outside of their household. Each sub account will have their own login and password and cost less than a full-priced Netflix service. The feature is being trialed in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. There have been no announcements about if or when the feature will be rolled out to global subscribers. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
LG's 325-inch Direct View LED TV is an answer to Samsung's The Wall | LG has announced a Direct View LED Extreme Home Cinema line for super-luxury homes. The display size can range from 81 inches to 325 inches at a 16:9 ratio. An Ultrastretch option to reach a 32:9 ratio is available if the customer wants to watch multiple video sources at the same time. The 8K version uses 33 million diodes, but 4K and 2K versions are still available. It will have smart TV functions provided by a WebOS controller box. The home sets are only available by custom order and there are no listed prices. | 4Miscellaneous
|
The cinemas now hiring out their screens to gamers | South Korea's largest cinema chain, CGV, has begun hiring out its screens to gamers. CGV came up with the idea as a way to bring in new revenue as it deals with the effects of the pandemic. It costs $90 to hire the screen for two hours before 6 pm and $135 after. Up to four people can join a session, but they have to bring their own consoles, games, and controllers with them. CGV has booked more than 130 sessions since the start of the year, with the majority of customers being men in their 30s or 40s. Customers can order cinema food to be delivered. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Facebook has begun hiding likes | Facebook has started hiding the number of reactions, views, and likes on posts in Australia, making them only visible to the author of a post. During the trial of this feature, Facebook will gather feedback to understand whether this change will improve people's experiences. A majority of Australian users will be part of the test. Facebook had tested hiding likes on Instagram earlier this year with the aim of removing the pressure from how many likes a post will receive. Instagram likes are now hidden in seven countries. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Bloomberg: New low-cost iPhone entering production next month, could be released in March | Apple's upcoming low-cost iPhone will begin mass production next month and will be officially unveiled as early as March. Production of the phone is split between Foxconn, Pegatron, and Winstron. The name of the device has not been revealed but it has been commonly referred to as the iPhone SE 2 and iPhone 9. It is said to feature Touch ID, an A13 processor, and a design similar to the iPhone 8. Reports predict that the phone will have a starting price as low as $399. The phone is mainly targeted at iPhone 6 users, who will need to upgrade their phones if they want to run iOS 13. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
IRL to Anime With Cartoonization AI (4 minute video) | CartoonGAN is a neural network that can transform real-world images into different anime styles. The results aren't very convincing, especially when compared to hand-drawn art. White-Box-Cartoonization produces results that are better than other deep learning architectures. While White-Box-Cartoonization is unlikely to be used in anime production any time soon, it has the potential to be used once the algorithm is more polished. The video shows scenes from real life, drawn anime scenes, CartoonGAN generated scenes, White-Box-Cartoonization scenes, as well as examples of the White-Box-Cartoonization algorithm being applied to gaming and other footage. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
CRISPR gene-editing urgently needs an off-switch – now we have one | CRISPR has the potential to fix some of life's biggest problems, from disease to malnutrition. While it has proven to be an extraordinary tool, there have been concerns about what would happen if something was to go wrong. Scientists needed a way to switch off changes if they resulted in undesired effects. Viruses have a mechanism that can already do this, so research is now trying to figure out how to use the mechanism for our own ends. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Physicists have created “everlasting bubbles” | In 2017, French physicists created spherical shells made up of plastic microspheres that could store pressurized gas in a tiny volume. These gas marbles could roll around on a solid surface without breaking apart. A recent study tested the longevity of the gas marbles and found that bubbles made from them could last between six and 60 minutes. Adding glycerol to the solution created gas marbles that could last from five weeks to 465 days. A lot of information about bubble science is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Does Bionic Reading actually work? Test for yourself! | Bionic Reading is a typographical technology that is supposed to increase reading speed. It involves bolding the first few letters of each word. The system claims to deliver faster reading speed with no loss of comprehension. A study of the system found that Bionic Reading slightly increased reading speed, but there was not enough evidence to suggest that the difference in reading speed was significant. It also lowered comprehension. A link for readers to test out Bionic Reading for themselves is available at the end of the article. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Uber says it will start delivering fast food by drone in San Diego this summer | Uber will begin fast food deliveries using drones in San Diego later this year, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The drone deliveries will not be made directly to customers’ houses. Instead, deliveries will be sent to ‘designated safe landing zones’. Uber couriers will then take the package from the landing zone and deliver it to the customer. Costs for drone delivery will be about the same as regular fees, but deliveries will be much faster. Uber predicts that drone deliveries will be so common in 10 years time that fast food restaurants will redesign their kitchens around them. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Take a closer look at Elon Musk’s Neuralink surgical robot | Elon Musk introduced a new surgical robot at the Neuralink presentation on Friday. The robot's underlying technology was created by Neuralink but its design and user experience was built by Woke Studio. It is comprised of three parts: the head, the body, and the base. The head holds the head of the patient and includes a guide for the surgical needle as well as embedded cameras and sensors. The body includes all the parts responsible for motion and the base contains the computer. An image gallery is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Scientists Build Machine That Keeps Human Livers Functioning outside of the Body for 1 Week | A machine built by researchers in Zurich can keep human livers alive outside of the body for an entire week. Until now, livers could only be kept alive outside of the body for 12 hours. Livers kept alive inside the machine can regenerate. In trials, six out of ten livers deemed unsuitable for transplant were able to recover to full functionality within one week of being hooked up to the machine. The ability to regenerate livers so they are suitable for transplant is a huge moment in medical history. Liver4Life was developed over four years, and it mimics body processes such as circulation, blood filtering, and movement. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why? (Hacker News Thread) | This thread is about the career paths of engineers who left Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google. A lot of interesting stories, perspectives on what's importance in ones career, and advice for finding a job that fits you. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Scientists Discover the Long-Lost Continent ‘Balkanatolia’ | Balkanatolia is a landmass that existed 40 million years ago between the Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas. Fossil records suggest that it helped Asian mammals migrate into Europe. The temporary land bridge paved the way for an extinction event known as the Grande Coupure that reshaped the fauna of Europe around 34 million years ago. Scientists are still uncovering fossils to understand the wildlife and geographic significance of Balkanatolia. | 4Miscellaneous
|
First-ever recording of dying human brain reveals dreaming-like activity | Scientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain for the first time. A patient was being monitored with an EEG for seizures when they had a heart attack and died. About 15 minutes of brain activity was recorded around the time of death. The recordings showed brain waves involved in processes such as dreaming, meditation, and memory retrieval. The observation indicates that the brain is capable of coordinated activity even after blood stops flowing through it. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Airbus’ solar-powered Zephyr S has been flying non-stop for more than 17 days | Airbus' 165-pound uncrewed Zephyr S solar-powered aircraft has flown for more than 17 days. It flew several patterns over the Yuma Test Range and Kofa National Wildfire Refuge, after which it flew over the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea to the airspace above Belize, before returning to the US. Its previous record was 26 days in 2018. The latest flight will test the aircraft's energy storage capacity, battery longevity, solar panel efficiency, and station-keeping abilities. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
The best space photos of 2021: Sparkling starfields to majestic nebula | This article links to a gallery of the 20 best space photos taken in 2021. The gallery contains images of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy M87, pictures taken from NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars, and entries from the Royal Observatory Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. | 4Miscellaneous
|
A New Clip From NASA's Juno Probe Lets You 'Listen' to Jupiter's Moon | A 50-second audio track generated from NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter as it flew past Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons, was recently made available by the Southwest Research Institute. Juno carries an instrument that can tune into electric and magnetic radio waves, which researchers recorded and transformed into an audio track. Last year, researchers discovered that the clouds of Jupiter could, in theory, support life. The audio of Juno's Ganymede flyby is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Twitter adopts ‘poison pill’ plan to shield itself from Elon Musk takeover | Twitter's board has unanimously approved a plan to allow existing shareholders to buy stocks at a substantial discount in order to prevent Elon Musk's hostile takeover attempt. The 'poison pill' tactic will go into effect if a shareholder acquires more than 15% of the company without approval by the board before April 2023. Other parties have expressed interest in buying Twitter. Musk is facing legal action over his Twitter purchase for failing to disclose the buy before the required deadline to do so. He is also facing a number of investigations by the SEC for other investment activities. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Apple re-releases Oscar-nominated ‘CODA’ in theaters for free | Apple is re-releasing its Oscar-nominated film CODA in theatres in a limited run of free screenings with open captions. The film, which is about a deaf family, has received three Oscar nominations. Screenings will run in all major cities in the US and London from February 25 to 27. A trailer for the film is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Scientists succeed in mapping every neuron in a worm, a breakthrough in neuroscience | Scientists have created the first connectome, a map of every neuron, and the connections between them, within an animal. The connectome maps out a small, soil-dwelling worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, which is widely researched in neuroscience due to the tiny number of neurons that it has. Each neuron on the map is linked to other connecting neurons or muscles, along with the function of the neuron and the strength of the connections. It will make it easier for scientists to track how the animal senses and reacts to the world. Despite its low number of neurons, the worms are able to learn, remember, sense fear, run away from predators, find food, and mate. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Google launches a slew of Search updates | Google has released several improvements that use AI to enhance its search engine, Google Lens, and other Search-related tools. Users can now hum songs for Google Assistant to find the name of songs. The 'did you mean' feature has been improved, now using a deep neural net with 680 million parameters to better understand context. Search is now integrated with various data sources, so users can generate graphs with certain data straight from the search bar. The system now points to specific paragraphs in articles that answers users' questions. Advanced search is available for videos as well. Google Lens can now read text out loud and solve equations. Maps can now display crowd information in AR. More details are in the article, along with a 36-minute long presentation from Google about the updates. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Google Pixel Watch leak shows off round, all-glass design | An official render of Google's Pixel Watch has leaked. Google tried to launch a Pixel Watch in 2016, but the design did not match the Pixel brand so they were released under LG branding. The hardware details are still unknown, but the chip that Google chooses to use for the device will be major news as there has been a lack of capable smartwatch chips. More details about the watch could be released at Google I/O on May 11. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro is here, and it has a good keyboard | Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro has launched at a starting price of $2,399. It has new processors, better speakers, and a larger screen. Apple has gone back to scissor switches for its keyboards. The new MacBook Pro is excluded from Apple's extended keyboard repair program. Apple has redesigned the thermal system in the new laptops. Users can spec their machines up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD storage. The battery is supposed to be able to handle 11 hours of wireless web. A new 6-speaker sound system uses two force canceling woofers to allow for more bass with less distortion. It uses a three-microphone array that is supposed to have sound on par with USB-powered podcasting mics. Despite the larger screen, the laptop size is almost identical to the 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro. It has only four Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headphone jack. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Uber Eats Is Doing Ghost Kitchens. Here’s How That Could Change Food Delivery | Traditional food delivery has always been seen as an add-on to the restaurant business, rather than as the whole business, but ‘ghost kitchens’ may change that. A ghost kitchen is where food is prepared specifically to be delivered to other locations, and a report by Bloomberg claims that Uber has been quietly leasing these spaces in Paris since 2018. This could create a significant change in the food industry. Food delivery is projected to increase by 12% per year for the next 5 years, and as one of the major food delivery platforms, Uber could control which restaurants have the most visibility on their platform. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
Exclusive: Facebook Fired A Contractor Who Was Paid Thousands In Bribes To Reactivate Banned Ad Accounts | A Facebook contractor was fired after it was discovered that they took thousands of dollars in bribes to reactivate banned ad accounts. Ads Inc. ran a sophisticated scam through Facebook Ads that tricked users into signing up for expensive monthly subscriptions. Under current laws, neither the victims of the scam nor the state may hold Facebook accountable for their continued facilitation of fraud. Ads Inc. may have hired more than one Facebook insider to reactivate ad accounts. The contractor was paid an initial $5,000 to reactivate the accounts and a $3,000 per month retainer as long as the accounts remained active for a few weeks. | 4Miscellaneous
|
SpaceX aims to provide internet coverage with Starlink constellation as soon as mid-2020 | SpaceX plans to offer Starlink's broadband services to customers in mid-2020. It will require six to eight launches of 60 satellites per launch to get the service up and running. SpaceX has applied for the ability to launch up to 42,000 satellites into orbit. 60 satellites were launched in May. Three of those satellites failed, and two satellites were taken out of orbit to prove that SpaceX had the ability to remove them if necessary. The remaining satellites appear to be working. Elon Musk recently sent a tweet using a connection provided by the Starlink system. SpaceX still needs to finish developing its user terminal and sort out pricing and distribution before it will be available to customers. | 1Big Tech & Startups
|
The world’s largest bacteria is visible to the naked eye | A bacteria discovered in a mangrove swamp in Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles has an average length of about one centimeter. It is by far the largest bacteria known today. The bacteria has developed a unique organelle called a 'pepin' that contains DNA. The bacteria poses no threat to humans. A close-up image of the bacteria is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
|
Inside China’s Plan to Power Global Blockchain Adoption | China is about to launch its national blockchain platform, the Blockchain Service Network. The BSN is designed so developers will be able to build blockchain-based applications as easily as assembling lego sets. It will be the first global infrastructure network innovated and controlled by China. Experts compare the initiative to how China has provided other countries with infrastructure in order to gain an advantage. BSN could potentially be used for smart city applications, energy conservation, and many other identity registration and data storage applications. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Using TensorFlow.js to Train a “Rock-Paper-Scissors” Model | It is possible to create a machine-learning algorithm to detect whether a hand is making the symbol for rock, paper, or scissors within 10 minutes in a browser. This tutorial uses a website that implements TensorFlow.js so that all the processing happens within the browser. Picture data from a pre-made dataset is used to train the model, and then the model is tested using a webcam. The full source code for the website is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Strange new form of ice discovered in high pressure experiments | Ice comes in at least 20 different forms. Scientists at the University of Nevada Las Vegas have discovered a new type of ice that may be found in the Earth's mantle or on distant watery planets. It was discovered as the team was developing a new technique to measure the properties of water under high pressure. Ice VIIt is made up of symmetrical tetragonal crystals. It is formed at around 5.1 GigaPascals of pressure. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
|
Zuckerberg rejects invite from international committee to give evidence on fake news | Zuckerberg was invited to testify about fake news before the UK Parliament. Canada, Ireland, Argentina, and Australia also showed support for the invitation. Zuckerberg refused, and a Facebook spokesperson explained that he does not have time to talk to every country's lawmakers. UK MP Damian Collins says he is "very disappointed with Facebook's dismissive response," and has re-extended the original invitation saying "We say again: the hearing of your evidence is now overdue, and urgent...We call on you once again to take up your responsibility to Facebook users, and speak in person to their elected representatives." | 1Big Tech & Startups
|