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Uptime Kuma (GitHub Repo) | Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted monitoring tool that can monitor uptime for HTTP(s), TCP, and ping. It has a fancy UI and notifications. Screenshots are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple's Director of Machine Learning Resigns Due to Return to Office Work | Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, has resigned from his role due in part to Apple's plan to return to in-person work. Employees are required to work from the office at least three days per week by May 23. A group of employees sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook regarding the issue, saying that many feel that they have to choose between their families, well-being, being empowered to do their best work, or being a part of Apple. | 4Miscellaneous
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The genetic mistakes that could shape our species (14 minute read) | Gene editing is not an exact science yet, with approximately 16 percent of genetically modified human embryos containing accidental mutations. In 2018, a Chinese scientist announced that they had genetically modified a set of twins to be more resistant to contracting HIV. Further studies have found that the twins did not receive the intended edits. Newer gene-editing techniques target specific organs, but it's still possible for the genome editors to accidentally travel to the reproductive organs. Many risks are still unknown. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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MeiliSearch (GitHub Repo) | MeiliSearch is a powerful, fast, open-source, easy-to-use and deploy search engine. It features a search-as-you-type experience, full-text search, typo tolerance, Kanji support, synonym support, and more. It is easy to install and highly customizable. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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WireGuard and Two-Factor Authentication (Sponsor) | WireGuard and Two-Factor Authentication . Tailscale is the easiest way to use WireGuard with two-factor authentication. Get started in less than 5 minutes, our free plan is free forever. Learn more. | 0Sponsor
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Japanese scientists produce first 3D-bioprinted, marbled Wagyu beef | Scientists from Japan's Osaka University have produced lab-grown Wagyu beef. The team used two types of stem cells harvested from Wagyu cows, coaxing them to become the required types of cells and then arranging them into a 3D stack to resemble marbled beef. The process is highly customizable and can produce cultured meat with highly controllable amounts of fat. A picture of the meat with a diagram showing how the different fibers are stacked is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Fortnite’s experimental story is an attempt to create ‘the entertainment experience of the future’ | Fortnite has been trying to tell a story since it launched its battle royale mode in 2017. The story is a key element of the experience as Epic aims to create truly mass-scale broad-based entertainment. A story is critical in gaining emotional attachment to an entertainment experience. Fortnite uses big events to tell its stories. Each event leaves a permanent impression in the world and allows the developers to add more lore. Epic is sensitive to feedback and has changed the story before. Fortnite will continue to experiment with different ways to tell its story. | 4Miscellaneous
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Beautiful Codes (Website) | This site lets you edit the look of your code, then download it as a PNG. You can change the background color, font, theme, and more. The site displays a preview of the code. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Trojan Horse: A nanoparticle that eats away plaques that cause heart attacks | Scientists from Michigan State University and Stanford University have created a nanoparticle that can eat heart attack-causing plaques. The nanoparticle is named 'Trojan Horse' and it can potentially be a treatment for atherosclerosis, a major cause for heart attack and stroke. Trojan Horse delivers a drug that stimulates plaque cells to engulf and eat cellular debris, removing diseased/dead cells from the plaque center, resulting in decreased plaque size. There are minimal side effects due to the unprecedented selectivity of the nano-drug. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Mistakes I’ve Made as an Engineering Manager | This article discusses four mistakes made by Sarah Drasner during her years as an engineering manager at several companies. She discusses how to give feedback, how to cultivate capable staff, communication, and how to be vulnerable with the team. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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IBM’s Project CodeNet will test how far you can push AI to write software | Project CodeNet is a multi-purpose dataset that can be used to train machine learning models for various tasks. It contains 14 million code samples with 500 million lines of code written in 55 different programming languages. A large amount of annotation has been added to the samples. CodeNet could be used to develop machine learning models for programming tasks like language translation or code recommendation. A link to the Project CodeNet repository is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple’s 2021 iPhones will reportedly have a video portrait mode | Apple's upcoming flagship iPhones will be able to automatically blur the backgrounds of videos with its new Cinematic Video feature. They will also have support for ProRes video recording and new editing options for photos. It is predicted that the new phones will have improved ultrawide cameras, a larger aperture for better low-light photography, a faster refresh rate, smaller display notches, and a boost in processing power with the new A15 chip. This year's updates are expected to be modest, with the same variety of models and screen sizes as last year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Terrorists Turn to Bitcoin for Funding, and They’re Learning Fast | Due to the anonymous nature of Bitcoin and its underlying technologies, government authorities and organizations that track terrorist financing have begun to see an increase on its use for funding. Some websites are soliciting donations through Bitcoin, using individual addresses for each donation, making the flow of currency more difficult to track. Unlike traditional money, Bitcoin accounts can't be shut down or frozen, and anyone can create an address and start receiving funds without providing any personal information. Countries that face economic sanctions are looking into using cryptocurrencies to circumvent them. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Japan's New Rocket Engine Uses Shock Waves As Propellant | Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully tested a rotating detonation engine (RDE), lifting a 30-foot single-stage rocket 146 miles within four minutes. The flight lasted eight minutes in total. RDEs use detonation waves to combust a fuel and oxidizer mixture. They release significantly more energy using significantly less fuel mass compared to combustion engines. JAXA calculates that RDE-based rockets could be in use by 2026. The article discusses other types of engines currently being developed for space travel. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google planning Apple-like integration between its products to compete | Google has announced plans to rival Apple's ecosystem integration at CES 2022. It will expand its Nearby Share feature to Windows PCs and allow its Fast Pair feature to work with Windows PCs, Google TV, Android TV, and Matter-compatible smart home products. Google will also introduce a feature similar to Apple's Spatial Audio functionality that will be able to use Android and Chromebook devices as audio sources, and add another feature that will allow users to unlock their Chromebook or other Android device using their Wear OS smartwatch. It is unknown whether Google will succeed in launching all of these features within the year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Snapchat Cameo edits your face into videos | Snapchat will launch a new feature that will allow people to replace faces in videos with their own. Cameos will be an alternative to Bitmoji for conveying emotions, reactions, or silly situations in Snapchat messages. Some French users were recently able to access a test version of the feature. Users will be able to access Cameo through the Bitmoji button. Several short looping videos are available, and users will be able to choose from a few generated videos that will show different facial reactions. Cameos might keep Snapchat messaging interesting, which is critical since other apps have started to gain success by copying Snapchat's other core features. Snapchat has only started monetizing its messaging service by placing ads inside social games. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Genetic engineers are working on making an invisible man. Seriously | Scientists at the University of California recently published a paper describing their work in genetically engineering human cells to have the ability to vary their transparency. Cephalopods can change both the color and transparency of their skin. The researchers grew embryonic human kidney cells in a dish using a special technique to create a specific squid protein. When stimulated with salt, the proteins in the cells reacted and changed the cells' transparency. Further research will improve strategies for creating the protein and for controlling the cells' optical properties in real-time. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Radial Menu (GitHub Repo) | Radial Menu is a highly customizable radial menu. It only requires a few lines of code to set up and every part of the menu can be changed, including the rotation, color, style, icons, and size of the buttons. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this? (Hacker News Thread) | A career at Google as a software engineer can cause some people to become complacent. Leaving the company would mean grinding at other startups or companies, some of which have much higher standards for work and hiring than Google. While working at Google might be less stimulating, there are many benefits, such as the pay. There is no need to hustle, so your free time can be spent however you want. It may be boring, but it is a safe and profitable option. | 4Miscellaneous
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Make data driven apps blisteringly fast everywhere with PolyScale (Sponsor) | Make data driven apps blisteringly fast everywhere with PolyScale . Want fast data-driven apps globally without the fuss? Try PolyScale. No code, no infrastructure, no complexity. PolyScale is a global, AI-driven database ‘edge cache as a service’ with one aim, to make scaling cloud native data simple. | 0Sponsor
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Successful study of Swedish vaccine candidate against diarrhea | An oral vaccine against enterotoxigenic E.coli (ETEC) bacteria has been developed by the University of Gothenburg. ETEC is the primary cause of diarrhea, leading to the illness and death of many children and travelers in low-middle income countries. The vaccine consists of inactivated E.coli bacteria that express high levels of protective antigens, and the ETEC-based B subunit protein LCTBA. It is given as a drink. When tested in children, it was shown to produce immune responses in over 80 percent of children two to five years of age, and over 50 percent of infants six to 11 months of age. Only a few mild to moderate adverse reactions were observed in the test groups. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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8 Reasons Python Sucks | I enjoy Python, but I have to admit, I have experienced most of the suckage this guy describes. He complains about versioning (the transition from Python 2 to Python 3 was a disaster), installation (pip is alright, I don't know that npm is better, are there any languages that get this really right?), syntax (I disagree on this one, I find Python super readable), quirks (Python strings are pretty confusing, I've wasted so much time on string encoding funkiness), and more. Surprisingly interesting article given the clickbait title, generally people really like Python so it's interesting to see the opposing point of view. | 4Miscellaneous
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TikTok expands maximum video length to 10 minutes | TikTok has expanded the maximum length for uploads to 10 minutes. The platform's rise to popularity was founded on a never-ending stream of short videos, but the company has been pushing for longer content for a while now. It introduced three-minute-long videos last July. Other platforms, such as YouTube, have introduced short-form videos to compete with TikTok. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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snipli (GitHub Repo) | snipli is a command-line interface for sharing code snippets from local files. It can create, delete, and edit gists on GitHub. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Gene therapy injection in one eye surprises scientists by improving vision in both | An international team of scientists successfully treated 37 patients suffering from Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), a disease that causes optic nerve degeneration and rapid vision loss. LHON can cause people to become legally blind within a few weeks of disease onset. It affects 1 in 30,000 people, mostly men, starting in their 20s and 30s. A majority of patients carry a specific mutation, which the scientists targeted using a technique called mitochondrial targeting. While the treatment was only applied to one eye, both eyes improved for 78% of the patients. The scientists theorized that this was due to the transfer of viral vector DNA from the injected eye, which was confirmed later with experiments on macaques. The same technology can be used to treat other mitochondrial diseases. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Amazon Scout (Web Tool) | Amazon has launched an AI powered visual shopping tool. It allows users to like or dislike items, and then as you like items you will be shown other visually similar items. It's like Pinterest on steroids for shopping. A spokesperson says that Scout is meant to solve two problems: "I don't know what I want, but I'll know it when I see it" and "I know what I want, but I don't know what it's called." You can check out the tool for yourself by clicking the link above. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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NASA Astronauts Go On Spacewalk to Upgrade the Space Station (YouTube Video) | In this 5.5 hour video, NASA astronauts are observed upgrading the nickel-hydrogen batteries with more powerful lithium-ion ones on the International Space Station. Viewers can hear the audio communication between the astronauts and NASA, and there is also additional commentary to explain what is occurring. The video shows the mission from many viewpoints, including from the point of view of the astronauts. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Cyber Security Resources (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains thousands of cybersecurity-related references and resources. There are over 7,000 references, scripts, tools, code, and other resources. Topics include hacking environments, offensive security techniques, vulnerability research, exploit development, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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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
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Europe to mine moon for Oxygen and Water by 2025 | The European Space Agency has signed a one-year contract to study and prepare for a mission to go to the moon to mine regolith. Regolith is an ore that you can extract water and oxygen from, so mining it would be a key component of building a permanent moon colony. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Baldness discovery paints molecule as potent stimulator of new hair growth | A signaling molecule was found to be critical to new hair growth. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tanker (GitHub Repo) | Tanker is an open-source SDK that leverages powerful client-side encryption of any type of data seamlessly, without performance loss. Developers do not need any kind of cryptographic skills. The client SDK automatically handles complex key changes, cryptographic operations, and identity verification through simple, high-level APIs. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk's brain-chip company, Neuralink, released a video of a monkey playing video games with its mind | Neuralink released a video last week that showed a macaque monkey using wireless neural interface tech to play video games. The company has boasted about its tests on primates before, but this is the first time it has been demonstrated in public. Scientists have been using primates to test neural interfaces for decades. Neuralink's wireless interface is a significant advance in neural interface technology. The video is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Ask HN: What technology is “cutting edge” in 2022? (Hacker News thread) | This thread discusses cutting-edge technology in 2022. The top replies talk about dependent types for programming languages, spatial finance, retro game GAN upscaling, and zero-knowledge proofs. | 4Miscellaneous
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RedisJSON: Public Preview & Performance Benchmarking (12 minute read) | RedisJSON is now available as a public preview. It allows developers to build applications by using a dynamic hierarchical JSON document model. RedisJSON can be used in various architectural scenarios, for example, as a cache, as a query accelerator, or as a primary database. It is faster than MongoDB and ElasticSearch on direct read, write, and update workloads. Benchmarks and comparisons are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Microsoft announces Azure Quantum, a cloud quantum computing service | Microsoft has announced plans to release an open cloud quantum computer service in private preview. It has open-sourced its Quantum Development Kit and Q# compilers and simulators. Microsoft has partnered with the startup IonQ to enable developers to use Microsoft products with quantum computers. IonQ uses an approach to quantum computing that focuses on trapping ions. Microsoft Azure Quantum will be launched in the coming months. Other companies such as Rigetti and D-Wave Systems also offer quantum computing on the cloud. IBM has plans to eventually make its 53-qubit computer available on the cloud. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google plans to release a foldable Pixel in late 2021, according to leaked document | A device codenamed Passport is likely a foldable Google Pixel phone that will be released in the fourth quarter of next year. The device was listed in a leaked internal document that also mentioned the Pixel 5A and two other devices that could be Pixel 6 models. Google confirmed that it was prototyping foldable phone technology ahead of its annual I/O developer conference last year. At the time, a spokesperson said that the company hadn't found a clear use case for foldable devices yet. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Handheld Bioprinter Treats Severe Burns by ‘Printing’ New Skins Cells Directly Onto Wound | Canadian researchers have successfully trialed a handheld 3D skin printer that treats severe burns by printing new skin cells directly onto a wound. The printer provides a method of treatment for patients whose injuries are too extensive for skin grafts. It uses a bioink based on the protein involved with clotting and cells that support the growth of other cells and assist in the body's immune response. The device is able to deploy skin sheets onto wounds uniformly, safely, and reliably all over the body. Patients who were treated with the device healed extremely well, with a reduction in inflammation, scarring, and contraction compared to other treatments. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Devs might be able to write software on iPad and iPhone with Xcode | According to an unconfirmed report, macOS and iOS software developers will soon be able to use XCode on an iPad or iPhone. iPadOS 14 and the new iPhone equivalent will reportedly have support for XCode. XCode supports Swift, C++, Python, and more. Bringing it to iOS brings the iPad closer to being a 'real' computer. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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China is building a floating train that could be faster than air travel | China has revealed a prototype of a new magnetic levitation train that can reach speeds up to 600 km/hr. The country already has the fastest commercial maglev service, which runs between Shanghai’s Pudong airport and the city center at a maximum speed of 431 km/hr. A maglev service between Beijing and Shanghai travels at around 350 km/hr over the 1300 kilometer distance. The journey takes around four and a half hours by plane, but the new maglev trains may be able to complete the journey in only three and a half hours. Japan is currently building a maglev line between Tokyo and Nagoya, scheduled to be open in 2027. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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'Squeezed' light might produce breakthroughs in nano-sized electronics | Nanoscale devices can be difficult to study and improve as they're too small to reflect enough light to be viewed clearly. Researchers from UC Riverside have built a device that squeezes tungsten lamp light into a 6-nanometer spot at the end of a silver nanowire to produce color imaging at an unprecedented level. The system records changes in beam shape and color as the nanowire's tip passes over objects. It is able to create color photos of carbon nanotubes. The technology could play an important role in developing more uniform nanomaterials and help improve other areas of research where this level of resolution hasn't been available. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Bill Gates backs startup using sunlight to create 1,000C-plus heat | Heliogen is a company that has created a system to concentrate sunlight in order to reach temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. The system represents a technological leap forward in tackling the emissions that make up 75% of the world's carbon footprint. Heliogen uses a large array of mirrors to reflect sunlight at a target. Its system can generate temperatures high enough to manufacture cement without fossil fuels. Cement is the world's third-largest source of emissions behind oil and coal. Bill Gates, along with other private equity investors and entrepreneurs, is backing Heliogen's efforts to replace fossil fuels. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Watch Rocket Lab try to capture a booster in mid-air with a helicopter | Rocket Lab successfully attempted a mid-air capture of its Electron rocket's first stage yesterday. The first stage was recovered by a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, often used for military or presidential purposes. It caught the rocket mid-air by hooking onto the booster's parachute as it descended back to Earth. A webcast of the launch and recovery is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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A hat that zaps the scalp with electricity helps reverse male balding | Currently, men can treat hair loss using minoxidil, finasteride, or hair transplant surgery, but these treatments do not always work for everyone or can be too expensive or painful. Stimulating the scalp with electric pulses has been shown to restore hair growth. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a wireless patch that sticks to the scalp and generates electric pulses by harnessing energy from random body movements. The patch is made of materials that produce electricity when they come into contact and separate again. It was successful in growing hair in rats, with faster growth and hair density than using just a minoxidil solution. The team has designed a baseball cap that uses this material and is currently seeking approval to test it in men in a clinical trial. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google plans to kill off third-party cookies in Chrome ‘within 2 years’ | Google will end support for third-party tracking cookies in Chrome within two years in an effort to make web browsing more secure for users. Many ad providers rely on cookies to target and track advertising, so the change is likely to have a large impact on the industry. The move is designed to encourage publishers, advertising companies, and other browser providers to help Google create a new set of privacy-focused, open web standards. Google is looking for ideas on how the web without third-party cookies could work, and will not implement the change until a solution is found that addresses the needs of users, publishers, and advertisers. Anti-tracking features are becoming more common in browsers. This has affected publishers and advertisers, so an alternative to the cookie system is required to preserve the industry. | 4Miscellaneous
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Samsung's 10th anniversary Galaxy might be a 6.7-inch, six-camera flagship with 5G | Samsung's Galaxy S10 is expected to be a huge update with 3 regular versions between 5.8 and 6.4 inches, then a superpowered "Beyond X" model with a 6.7-inch display, six cameras, and 5G support. The extra cameras give more flexibility in framing and better depth sensing. There will be 2 front-facing cameras and 4 rear cameras on the Beyond X, and the four phones are expected to be announced in February 2019. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The Pile (Website) | The Pile is an 825 GiB language modeling data set consisting of 22 smaller combined datasets. Diversity in data sources improves general cross-domain knowledge and downstream generalization capability, especially for large models. Models trained on Pile have shown moderate improvements in traditional language modeling benchmarks. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Instacart jumps into prescription delivery with Costco | Instacart is launching a prescription delivery service in a partnership with Costco. The service is now available from nearly 200 Costco locations in eight states. Instacart will expand the service nationally in the coming months. Customers will receive their medications in a sealed, tamper-proof bag in order to ensure customer safety and privacy. Instacart has expanded its services since the pandemic started, adding nearly 150 new stores to its marketplace and doubling the number of employees in its 'Care' team. Science & | 1Big Tech & Startups
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BerylDB (GitHub Repo) | BerylDB is a data structure server that provides access to structures via a wide range of commands. It gives users access to lists, maps, keys, and channel subscriptions for their clients. BerylDB allows developers to use fewer lines of code to store, retrieve, and manage data in their apps. The server is currently available for GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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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
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CandyGraph (GitHub Repo) | CandyGraph is a 2D plotting library for rendering datasets on the GPU at interactive speeds. It can handle huge datasets, performing all rendering on the GPU, including axes and text. Tutorials and examples are available in the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as its first customers; allows new customers to self sign-up for free trials | Wikimedia Enterprise is a commercial product designed for companies that reuse and source Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects at a high volume. | 4Miscellaneous
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PandaSet (Website) | PandaSet is a public large-scale dataset for autonomous driving provided by Hesai & Scale. It features 48,000 camera images, 16,000 LiDAR sweeps, over 100 scenes of 8 seconds each, 28 annotation classes, 37 semantic segmentation labels, and a full sensor suite. The driving scenarios include steep hills, construction sites, dense traffic and pedestrians, and different times of day and lighting conditions. A link to the dataset and interactive samples of the data are available on the site. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon unveils its HQ2 and double helix-inspired building in Arlington, Virginia | Amazon's HQ2 project will be based in Arlington, Virginia. It will include 2.8 million square feet of office space spread across three 22-story buildings. A fourth structure called the Helix will feature a walkable path design inspired by the double-helix structure of DNA. It will include multiple alternate work environments with plant life native to the region. The Helix will be open to the public for tours several weekends a month. A rendering of Amazon's second headquarters is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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The Coders Programming Themselves Out of a Job | Okay, I love this article. It's about a number of programmers, mostly posting anonymously or pseudonomously in various online forums or chatrooms about having completely automated their jobs. Some people think it is completely okay to not tell your boss, and keep collecting the same paycheck, after all you are doing the same work you were paid for before. Others feel like this is dishonest. Some programmers report having been fired when it was discovered that they had essentially automated themselves out of a job. One guy knew that management would monitor his screen, so he ran a loop of prerecorded video to hide the fact that he wasn't actually working. Lots of fun stories here. There is also the larger question of who should enjoy the fruits of automation. Despite more and more processes being automated by computers, Americans are working longer hours, wages are stagnant, and all of the gains in productivity are being taken by companies. It is only in these tiny unnoticed cases in which the workers are enjoying the fruits of automation. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Exclusive: London will be overwhelmed by covid in a fortnight says leaked NHS England briefing | According to an official briefing given to London's most senior doctors, the city's hospitals are less than two weeks from being overwhelmed by covid, even under the best scenarios. Even at the lowest likely infection rate, the National Health Service in London would still be short of nearly 2,000 beds by January 19. The report looks at different scenarios for both general and intensive care capacities. Due to this, senior clinical leaders have considered significantly reducing the number of elective work or sending patients to other regions or private providers. Other regions are also seeing rapid growth in covid occupancy caused by the new strain spreading across the country. | 4Miscellaneous
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New York Is Proposing the Creation of a ‘Public Venmo’ | An estimated 14 million US adults don't have bank accounts, exposing them to predatory check-cashing and payday loan services. A new bill in New York proposes to create a publicly owned electronic banking platform and digital currency. The Inclusive Value Ledger proposal will allow citizens to transfer currency between each other without any fees. Local currencies were commonplace before the Federal Reserve Act centralized banking. The technology required to make IVL into a reality already exists. While the proposal says that the system will be secure, it doesn't offer more details about the planned security mechanisms or policies the system will have. The plan is supported by a coalition of community groups. | 4Miscellaneous
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script (GitHub Repo) | script is a Go library that does tasks that shell scripts are good at, such as reading files, executing subprocesses, counting lines, matching strings, and more. Developers can write administration programs in Go easily and they will work as if running in the command line. A list of available commands is listed, and a deeper explanation into how script works is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Import-HTTP (GitHub Repo) | Import-http allows users to import JS modules using HTTP rather than via local node_modules. It is easily used in both Webpack and Rollup module bundlers. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Just a few questions about this gamer bed | Bauhutte, a Japanese retailer that sells furniture aimed at gamers, has released an 'ultimate gaming bed' that features an elevated headboard, desk, snack shelves, tablet holder, and more. It costs around $1,048. The bed is only single-sized and comes in red and black colors. Using the bed may impact sleep hygiene. | 4Miscellaneous
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Social media influencer/model created from artificial intelligence lands 100 sponsorships | Rozy is a virtual human created by Sidus Studio X. She has been keeping an active online presence since December of last year. Rozy has advertising contracts and a significant amount of sponsorships. Virtual humans appeal to advertisers as there is no fear of advertisements being suspended due to celebrity scandals. The models can also be active for longer as they don't get sick or grow old. Pictures of Rozy are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Samsung beats TSMC to production of 3nm chips | Samsung has started producing 3nm chips. Its new process is 45% more power-efficient than its previous 5nm process and it produces chips with 23% higher performance and a 16% smaller surface area. TSMC's 3nm process isn't expected to go into mass production until the second half of 2022. Samsung's chips will be manufactured in South Korea for now. Its Texas plant is not scheduled to start manufacturing until 2024. | 4Miscellaneous
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Google pulls ‘Remove China Apps’ from Play Store | 'Remove China Apps' is an app that does exactly what its name suggests. It has been pulled from the Play Store for violating Google's Deceptive Behavior Policy, which states that an app on the Play Store can't encourage or incentivize users into removing or disabling third-party apps. The app had been gaining popularity in India partly due to growing anti-China sentiment. India has recently amended its foreign direct investment policy to enforce tougher scrutiny on Chinese investors. Prime Minister Modi has aggressively promoted the idea of boycotting foreign goods, urging citizens to look for local alternatives. | 4Miscellaneous
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ZenML (GitHub Repo) | ZenML is a MLOps framework for using production-ready Machine Learning pipelines. It features guaranteed reproducibility of training experiments, guaranteed comparability between experiments, built-in and extensible abstractions for all MLOps needs, and more. ZenML is centered around extensible interfaces to accommodate complex pipeline scenarios in a simple way. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Crazy Work Hours and Lots of Cameras: Silicon Valley Goes to China | A group of Silicon Valley investors and executives visited Shenzhen and Beijing, China. They were struck by how fast everything moves. The speed of development is faster, and startups will raise money every six months as opposed to every 18-24 months for US based startups. China's AI development is much faster due to lax privacy laws and robust government support. Chinese startups have a concept of 996, 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. Chinese companies tend to be more top down, while US companies give smart employees more freedom to be creative. They are much less concerned about the social impact of technology and cooperate fully with governmental efforts to track citizens. Facial recognition software is everywhere. Lan Xuezhao of Basis Set Ventures says "I live in San Francisco, but I find it helpful to visit the other parallel universe from time to time. To some degree, it’s like looking into the future." | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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'Project Magnum': Flywheel’s Alleged Plot to Steal Peloton’s Technology (10 minute read) | Stationary bike maker Flywheel announced to customers in an email on Wednesday that it was going to shut down its at-home virtual bike service. The shutdown was the result of a lawsuit where its competitor Peloton accused Flywheel of corporate espionage and intellectual property theft. As part of the agreement, most Flywheel customers who purchased their bikes outright will be able to trade in their bikes for a refurbished Peloton one. Documents from the lawsuit revealed the existence of 'Project Magnum', a plot by Flywheel to steal Peloton's confidential trade information. The relationship between Peloton and Flywheel used to be friendly, but Peloton managed to become a big company without the help of Flywheel, and the rivalry soured. | 4Miscellaneous
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The Never-Aging Ants With a Terrible Secret | Temnothorax ants that are infected with parasitic tapeworms live significantly longer than their uninfected siblings. They also live lives of luxury, often getting more attention than even the queen while contributing nothing to the colony. The infected ants retain youthful traits and look very similar to young nurse ants. While the infected ants lay about, their siblings have to work harder, causing stress on the colony. Infected ants are more docile, making them easy prey for birds, who spread the parasite after digesting the ants. | 4Miscellaneous
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Google will temporarily let Match use alternate payment systems ahead of 2023 trial | Google has reached an interim agreement with Match Group that will allow Match's apps to remain on the Google Play Store while offering alternate payment systems. Match Group will set aside a $40 million escrow fund for payments that occur outside of Google's billing system until an official agreement has been reached. The companies are set to go to trial in April 2023. Epic Games-owned Bandcamp has also reached a similar agreement. The platform will place 10% of its proceeds from purchases made on Android into an escrow fund until Epic's broader antitrust lawsuit against Google moves forward. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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gmail-helper (GitHub Repo) | gmail-helper is a Python package that can complete helpful Gmail tasks using Google's API client. It can fetch created Gmail labels and persist to a local DB, get all Gmail filters, create/overwrite new Gmail filters, and delete mail based on search criteria. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Uber sells its self-driving unit to Aurora | Uber has sold its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to competitor Aurora Innovation. The deal values ATG at around $4 billion, down from $7.25 billion in 2019. Uber will invest $400 million into Aurora, resulting in a 26% stake in the company. Aurora plans to further develop self-driving technology to make transportation and logistics safer, more accessible, and less expensive. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join the company's board. Uber has made several other efforts to stem losses in its business this year, including major layoffs, selling its electric bike-sharing subsidiary, and growing its delivery business. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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DeepMind’s StarCraft 2 AI is now better than 99.8 percent of all human players | AlphaStar, DeepMind's StarCraft II AI software, has reached the level of grandmaster in the game. This means that the bot is able to beat 99.8 percent of all human players in competition. The program is now able to play all three of the game's playable races. It is only limited to viewing the portion of the map a human player would see and to 22 unique actions every five seconds of play. AlphaStar is proof that general-purpose reinforcement learning may be one day able to be used to train self-learning robots, self-driving cars, and to create more advanced image and object recognition systems. With enough time, effort, and resources, sophisticated AI software may be able to best humans at virtually any competitive cognitive challenge. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple made a secret iPod for the US government, ex-software engineer claims | A former Apple software engineer claims that the US government approached Apple to make a top-secret version of its fifth-generation iPod. The aim of the project was to build an iPod that could run custom hardware in a way that could not be detected. All communication on the project was done in-person to avoid a paper trail. While it is unknown what exactly was being created, the device was likely a stealth Geiger counter. | 4Miscellaneous
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Brave’s search engine lets you customize your results | Brave Search has launched a new feature called Goggles that lets users create and apply custom filters that change how their results are ranked. The feature will allow developers to create filters with functions such as removing tech blogs, removing Pinterest, or filtering out posts from the 1,000 most-viewed sites on the web. Several demo Goggles are now available, but Brave will delete these once developers start creating their own. Brave Search is now out of beta. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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China Claims To Have World’s Most Powerful Quantum Computer, Tops Google | A group of researchers in China have developed a quantum computer that was able to solve a problem with 56 of its 66 qubits, breaking Google's record from 2019. The computer is able to manipulate up to 66 qubits at the same time. It solved a problem in 70 minutes that would have taken the world's most powerful classical supercomputer eight years to solve. The research has yet to be peer-reviewed. | 4Miscellaneous
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A Wild Experiment Just Got Us Closer to Exploring Extra Dimensions | Scientists from Austria have managed to measure the smallest gravitational field on record. The team demonstrated gravitational coupling between two gold spheres that measured about two millimeters across. A high level of precision was required to conduct the test. The results could lead to the development of a sensor to detect these small forces. Measuring gravity is difficult as it is very easy to overwhelm the minute signal of a gravitational field. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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DeepMind claims AI has aided new discoveries and insights in mathematics | DeepMind has published the results of a collaboration between it and mathematicians to apply AI toward discovering new insights in areas of mathematics. It claims that its technology helped uncover a new formula in representation theory and that it also discovered previously unknown relationships within the study of knots. The results demonstrate the usefulness of machine learning as a tool for mathematical study as it excels in identifying patterns in data. Adoption of AI technology in pure mathematics could lead to discoveries that may be beyond human comprehension, but it is not critical to the progression of society. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Who is squatting IPv4 addresses? (11 minute read) | The internet is running out of IPv4 addresses. Some people have resorted to squatting IP address space. IP address squatting is when someone uses IP addresses that are not RFC1918 defined and not issued by an RIR. This article discusses IPv4 squatting and talks about the process of finding out who is actually squatting on addresses. The US Department of Defense is estimated to be sitting on 16% of all non-RFC1918 space. | 4Miscellaneous
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We’ve spotted a planet surviving its dying star – here’s what it tells us about end of our Solar System | Our Sun's transformation into a white dwarf will be a violent process that will destroy an unknown number of planets. The recent discovery of an exoplanet that survived the death of its star may help us predict which planets will survive the death of the Sun. The new exoplanet is similar to Jupiter in both mass and separation. It likely barely survived its star's expansion when it became a red giant. The data suggests that Jupiter, and maybe even Mars, will survive after our Sun dies. | 4Miscellaneous
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What Glassdoor interview reviews reveal about tech hiring cultures (12 minute read) | Chip Huyen used interviews from Glassdoor in order to answer the question of what percentage of people who attended machine learning interviews received an offer, as well as what percentage of people accepted the offer. While Glassdoor data suffered from many biases, it was hoped that the volume of data helped to smooth out the noise. 15,897 reviews from 27 major tech companies were analyzed. It was found that the difficulty of interviews rose depending on the level of expertise required. 18.83 percent of candidates at Google received offers, with 70 percent of applicants accepting these offers. There was a high correlation between onsite offers and offer acceptance rate. Companies tended to select candidates more often through referrals for senior roles, whereas candidates for junior roles were sourced mainly through campus recruiting. Candidates who were interviewed for junior positions were more likely to report a better experience than ones who interviewed for more senior roles. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Inside TikTok's killer algorithm | TikTok has revealed how its algorithm works. The code that TikTok uses to pick the next video to display is a large part of its $20-$30 billion valuation. A "transparency center" has been set up in Los Angeles which will have exhibits showing how TikTok's algorithms and data practices work. The algorithm uses machine learning to determine what the user is likely to engage with and then sends more of the same content. It groups videos into clusters based on similar themes and tries to avoid sending multiple videos with the same music or from the same creator. As the system can produce filter bubbles, TikTok's product and policy teams monitor accounts for misinformation and other content before it reaches the main feed. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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pg_flame (GitHub Repo) | pg_flame is a flamegraph generator for Postgres' EXPLAIN ANALYZE output. Flamegraphs are useful visualization tools for performance investigations. They visualize CPU consumption per code-path of the profiled software. A demo of the output is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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LASER (GitHub Repo) | This is a library open soured by Facebook that represents sentences in a language agnostic way, so you can easily translate sentences into many languages including ones where training data is extremely limited. It's built on top of PyTorch. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Thoughts on 2 Years as a Remote Robotics Consultant (11 minute read) | Working as a remote consultant presents unique challenges. As you only earn when you are working, time management is important. Short breaks caused by things such as switching tasks will have a large effect on efficiency. While Upwork takes a fee, it is usually a small price to pay for connecting to clients for long-term projects. When working with clients, treating every project as if it was your own will mean clients trust you more, but it might also mean that you might have to pull the plug on a project (and earn less) if it is impractical. Having a Mastermind group can help a lot in solving issues, especially if they can give honest feedback. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant? (HackerNews Thread) | Having recently quit their job with no prospects lined up, a user asks for advice regarding becoming a full-time consultant. The advice suggests that to be a successful consultant, one needs to have strong boundaries with their clients regarding billing, project requirements, and communication. It is suggested that a consultant should specialize in a specific niche, and that premium recruitment agencies are worth looking into. Links to videos and articles discussing the topic were also posted. | 4Miscellaneous
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Dispatch (GitHub Repo) | Dispatch is an incident-management tool that deeply integrates with existing tools used throughout an organization. It allows users to focus on creating resources, assembling participants, sending out notifications, tracking tasks, and assisting with post-incident reviews. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Teens choose YouTube over Netflix for the first time, according to new survey | According to a recent survey by Piper Jaffray, YouTube has passed Netflix as the preferred platform for watching video among teens. 37 percent of teens stream videos most often off YouTube, compared to 35 percent who use Netflix as their main source of streaming video. Piper Jaffray attributes the preference for YouTube to its wide array of teen-oriented content. Netflix shares have fallen 27 percent in the last three months and they face increasing competition from other upcoming streaming services. Teens still prefer Netflix more than its competitors, such as Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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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
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Hackers Are Finding Footage on Police Body Cams They Bought on eBay | People purchasing decommissioned police body cameras online have discovered unencrypted video data still on the devices. While there was an attempt to remove the data from the devices before selling them, the data was easily recoverable using existing data forensics tools. Used body cameras are commonly for sale online. Some hackers have bought up stocks of used cameras to investigate the footage. | 4Miscellaneous
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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
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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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Huawei officially launches Android alternative HarmonyOS for smartphones | Huawei officially launched HarmonyOS for mobile phones on Wednesday. The OS has been in development since 2016 and it is available for several smart devices, not just for phones and tablets. Huawei's goal is for users to be able to control all HarmonyOS-powered devices on a single control panel. Existing devices will be able to communicate with HarmonyOS devices using a plug-in. Huawei claims that no single line of code in HarmonyOS is identical to code in Android. It is unknown whether the OS is based on Linux. | 4Miscellaneous
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Silice (GitHub Repo) | Silice is an open-source language for writing algorithms that fully exploit FPGA architectures. It is closely integrated with FPGA hardware so developers have full control. FPGA hardware is not required to start with Silice as designs and their outputs can be simulated and visualized. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Svelte Storm (GitHub Repo) | Svelte Storm is a Svelte IDE with a built-in State Manager window for viewing projects in real-time. It features file directory access and a built-in terminal. Svelte Storm is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Anti-aging molecules safely reset mouse cells to youthful states | As the body ages, it becomes less efficient at repair, resulting in diseases like Alzheimer's, heart disease, and cancer. Scientists from the Salk Institute have reversed the aging process in mice by using four reprogramming molecules called Yamanaka factors. The molecules reset the mice's cells to more youthful states, making them resemble younger animals in many ways. Mice that were treated for longer periods showed more beneficial effects. The next steps in the research will be to improve the delivery of the molecules and see how long the effects of the therapy can last. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Kuo: Apple to include new scissor switch keyboard in 2019 MacBook Air and 2020 MacBook Pro | Ming-Chi Kuo has released a report that says that Apple will introduce new keyboard designs based on scissor switches, starting with the 2019 MacBook Air. The new design uses glass fiber to reinforce the keys and improve durability. It will also be cheaper to manufacture than the previous butterfly keyboard design. The butterfly keyboard received many complaints about stuck keys, repeated key inputs, and sound. Reverting back to the same key switch mechanism used in MacBooks before 2015 will be a change that is greatly welcomed by many users. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Alphabet and other giants are betting that the future of real estate is robotic | An MIT project called CityHome, started in 2014, aimed to build robotic furniture that could appear as needed, allowing people to utilize the space in smaller apartments more effectively. The project eventually became a company called Ori, which has now made a deal with Ikea to create customizable furnishings for customers. Ori is now raising funds and working with investors in city planning, retail, and hospitality to change the way buildings are made in order to integrate the technology directly into the building, rather than installing separate furnishings. The furniture Ori creates can change the way people live at scale, but only if the buildings are designed to house these robotics in the first place. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Zotonic (GitHub Repo) | Zotonic is a real-time web framework and content management system built with Erlang. It is fast and stable and features support for WebSockets, Comet, PostgreSQL, extensions, and more. A four-minute-long introductory video is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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YouTube’s TikTok competitor Shorts will soon let users sample audio from any YouTube video | YouTube Shorts will soon let users sample sounds from any content uploaded to YouTube. The feature is now available in new markets as part of the launch of Shorts in the UK, Canada, and several Latin American countries. It will roll out to other markets in the coming weeks. Some creators have complained about the new feature, saying that it makes it easier for people to use their content without permission. Creators can opt out of the feature, but they have to choose the option for each video individually. | 4Miscellaneous
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Feels is a new dating app trying to ditch swiping for Stories | Feels is a new dating app with an interface that is more similar to a Snapchat-style story or a TikTok feed than the profiles found in other dating apps. It currently has around 100,000 users, with the company mainly focusing its efforts on the French market. The app tries to distinguish itself from other dating apps with its interface and controls. There are premium features that offer more visibility and the ability to swipe back to previous profiles. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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