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Here’s what’s inside Google’s first-ever retail store | Google has opened its first-ever permanent retail location in New York City. It features a natural look with warm wood walls and furniture. A giant version of a bead maze decorates the store. The Google Store sells everything the online store offers and it has experts on hand to help visitors with their devices. It has special areas that show off the benefits of each product line. An image gallery showing what's inside the Google Store is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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web-vitals (GitHub Repo) | web-vitals is a tiny, modular library for measuring Web Vitals metrics on real users. It supports all of the Core Web Vitals, as well as First Contentful Paint and Time to First Byte. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Scientists Captured a Planet's Birth and It Is Terrifying and Beautiful | AB Aurigae is a star located around 520 light-years from Earth. It is encircled by a thick disk of gas and dust, creating perfect conditions for birthing new planets. Scientists have observed spiral structures within the disk, hinting at the presence of developing planets. Using a specialized instrument designed to look for exoplanets, scientists were able to capture images of the environment surrounding a planet-in-progress. A one-minute video and some images of the formation are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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London police’s face recognition system gets it wrong 81% of the time | An independent review into the London Metropolitan Police’s use of facial recognition has found that the systems used were 81 percent inaccurate. The police conducted 10 trials using facial recognition software and out of the 42 matches in the trials, only eight were confirmed to be correct. However, the police claim that their software is only incorrect in one out of 1,000 instances. It hasn’t shared how this statistic was created. As facial recognition becomes more prevalent, fears are growing that the systems display different biases or could be incorrectly identifying people. Last month, San Francisco banned the use of facial recognition systems by public agencies. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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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
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The Supreme Court hears Oracle v. Google tomorrow—here’s what’s at stake | Oracle v. Google is a landmark case that will consider whether application-programming interfaces (APIs) can be protected by copyright. In 2014, Oracle sued Google for re-implementing APIs from the Java programming language. An appeals court ruled in Oracle's favor in 2018. Google continues to fight the case, claiming that restrictions on APIs would stifle software innovation. Every significant computer program uses APIs, so restricting them by copyright could create legal landmines for many companies. It could also give rise to API copyright trolls, who acquire copyrights to sue companies using older software. The case is now before the Supreme Court, and the results of the case will have a large impact on the software industry. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Refresh your browser monitoring solution with more integrated user metrics (Sponsor) | Enjoy a streamlined web monitoring experience with our latest enhancements to Browser. Users now have the ability to analyze web traffic by browser and device type, filter user data by geography, and display Core Web Vitals front and center. Learn more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Things I believe (10 minute read) | Becoming a software developer requires certain mindsets and skills. A developer needs to be able to think through problems and solve them in the most simple and efficient manner. Coding is obviously essential, but on top of that, creating software also requires design skills. Good code not only works, but it is readable, reusable, and completes a task in the most efficient way possible. The choice of language and technologies used will have huge effects on each project. Working with others is sometimes necessary, and it is important to know how to manage employees and work with other people. It is easy to forget about self-care and self-development, but these are important areas to look after in order to progress in life. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Things I don't Know as of 2018 | This is a blog post by Dan Abramov, one of the lead developers of ReactJS, about things he doesn't know. There's some pretty basic stuff in here (Python, NodeJS, containers, basic algorithms, flexbox etc.), which just goes to show you even superstar developers don't know a lot of the things you probably know. Really humble, eye-opening post. | 4Miscellaneous
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DuckDuckGo surpasses 100 million daily search queries for the first time | DuckDuckGo recently recorded more than 100 million user search queries in a day. The company has seen sustained growth over the last two years. It has been seeing more than 2 billion search queries a month since August 2020. The search engine now offers mobile apps and a dedicated Chrome extension. It does not collect user data and it provides the same search results to all users. The company's lack of data makes it hard for it to estimate the size of its user base. Privacy-centric apps have recently seen major periods of growth. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How Lyft discovered OpenStreetMap is the Freshest Map for Rideshare | Lyft recently conducted a study to test OpenStreetMap's map quality. OSM is used by millions of people around the world for many purposes. It was created by, and is maintained by, a community of contributors. After three months of study, Lyft found that OSM had a very high-quality road network in the cities tested and that the community was able to maintain the map at a reliably fresh standard. Lyft's survey design is potentially valuable for any study of map quality relative to ground-truth. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Payload (GitHub Repo) | Payload is a TypeScript headless Content Management System and application framework built with Express, MongoDB, and React. It features powerful function-based access control, hooks for every action, conditional logic for showing and hiding fields, customizable components, and more. Payload allows developers to build websites, SaaS apps, native apps, and anything else without hitting any functionality roadblocks. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Stress study shows graying hair is reversible | Scientists from Columbia University have identified the proteins in hair that drive the process of graying and demonstrated how graying might be reversed. The scientists measured hair color changes over several weeks along with the study participants' stress levels. They found a high correlation between stress levels and hair color, including cases where hair graying reversed after an individual's stress was alleviated. Mitochondria play a key role in the process. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Web Development for Beginners - A Curriculum (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a 12-week, 24-lesson curriculum on web development by Azure Cloud Advocates at Microsoft. It is a project-based course, with each lesson containing pre- and post-lesson quizzes, written instructions, solutions, assignments, and more. The projects include making a banking app, a space game, a browser extension, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Meta has built a massive new language AI—and it’s giving it away for free | Meta's AI lab has created a new language model similar to GPT-3. The Open Pretrained Transformer will be available to any researcher who wants to study it. It has been audited by Meta to remove some harmful behaviors, but the company believes that researchers should have access to a more complete model as it would be better for science. The move to more transparency in AI research was driven largely by Joelle Pineau, the managing director at Meta AI. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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🚀 What's new in Azure Cosmos DB? (Sponsor) | Want to learn about Azure Cosmos DB? Learn how you can get started with Microsoft Azure's planet scale, geo-replicated, schema-agnostic, and horizontally scalable NoSQL database. Join us for our free, virtual developer event on April 19-20 for the second Azure Cosmos DB Conf! | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Could the Great Resignation force techies to get career agents? | Free Agency is a startup that provides career representation to mid to C-level candidates across product, engineering, marketing, and design. It helps candidates secure jobs and negotiate salary offers. The company estimates that it has so far set up 4,700 interviews and secured $200,000,000 in negotiated compensation. Candidates are charged 5% to 10% of their first year's salary as a fee. Employers can subscribe to a free service where Free Agency will share up to five candidates per week with them. | 4Miscellaneous
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Anime-Face-Dataset (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a dataset of 63,632 high-quality anime faces cropped using an anime face detection algorithm. There are a few outliers present in the dataset with bad cropping or non-human faces, but generally, it contains high-quality character images with a clean background and rich colors. The code to reproduce the dataset is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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HonKit (GitHub Repo) | HonKit is a package for building books using GitHub/Git and Markdown. It is a fork of GitBook and works with almost all GitBook plugins without changes. The documentation also serves as a demo as it was built using HonKit. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Holotron is a robotic exosuit that could transform the way we use VR | The Holotron is a lower-body robot exosuit that can be worn to simulate some of the forces needed to make virtual reality more realistic and interactive. It features force-feedback that can constrain an avatar depending on the physical constraints of the virtual environment. The Holotron suspends its user in the air while providing the necessary movement to make them feel like they are moving. This allows the user to fully concentrate on controlling the body of their avatar. The Holotron could be used for many applications, including gaming, job training, and controlling telepresence robots. A one-minute video showing the Holotron in action is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A high-tech glove can translate sign language with 99-percent accuracy | Researchers at UCLA have developed a high-tech glove that can translate sign language into text and speech on a smartphone. It works in real-time and can interpret 660 American Sign Language signs with 98.63 percent accuracy. The glove could potentially be used to teach sign language or help deaf people communicate with non-sign language users. It only costs about $50 to produce, with the potential for lower costs with large scale production. The device is still under development and it will be a few years before it is released. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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wachy (GitHub Site) | wachy is a dynamic tracing profiler for Linux. It uses eBPF to dynamically instrument binaries with minimal overhead. wachy can provide accurate function latencies and latency histograms and features powerful runtime filtering. A video demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The Man Behind San Francisco’s Facial Recognition Ban Is Working on More. Way More | Brian Hofer has drafted over 26 privacy laws for cities and counties in California. His work has resulted in many anti-surveillance measures being taken across the state. As technology improves, laws must be made regarding their use, as the potential for abuse is high. Hofer claims that he is not anti-technology, but that he just wants to stop authorities from abusing this technology. He had previously been targeted incorrectly by a number-plate recognition algorithm that ran off an outdated database, resulting in him being temporarily held by the Contra Costa County sheriff’s department. | 4Miscellaneous
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Netflix Exploring Live Streaming For First Time; Plans To Roll Out For Unscripted Series & Stand-Up Specials | Netflix is exploring live streaming for its unscripted shows and stand-up specials. The platform has lined up competition series and talent contests that could use the feature. It may also use live streaming to bring back its Netflix Is A Joke festival. It is unknown whether Netflix intends to roll out live streaming for sports. The product is still in its preliminary stages of development and there is no timeline for its release. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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many_requests (GitHub Repo) | many_requests is an interface for executing many HTTP requests asynchronously. It automatically handles errors and executes retries. many_requests also provides helper functions for executing embarrassingly parallel async coroutines. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Node.js Developer Roadmap (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a roadmap to becoming a Node.js developer. There are linked resources for most topics. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Optical brain-like chip processes almost 2 billion images per second | Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have developed an optical chip that can process almost two billion images per second. The device uses a neural network that processes information as light. It uses optical wires as its neurons, with each layer specializing in a particular type of classification. The device's speed comes from its ability to process information as light. The team will now work on scaling up the chip and adapting it to process other types of data. An example of the type of image that the chip was tasked with classifying is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google now lets you password-protect the page that shows all your searches | Google users now have the option to add a password to their Web and Activity page. Turning on the option will prevent anyone who picks up a logged-in device from seeing the device owner's search history, YouTube watch history, and Google assistant queries without first entering a password. Instructions on how to turn the feature on are available in the article. Google focused a lot on privacy at its I/O keynote last week, announcing a new Private Compute Core for Android, a locked photos folder, and a feature that deletes the last 15 minutes of browsing in Chrome. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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T-Mobile-Sprint merger wins approval from U.S. judge | A federal judge has approved a deal for T-Mobile to take over Sprint Corp. The merger faced opposition from a group of states who said that the transaction would violate antitrust laws and raise prices. T-Mobile and Sprint argued that the merger would better equip the new company to compete with other top players in the country. Sprint shares rose more than 74% after the announcement. T-Mobile shares increased by 11%. Sprint has been losing subscribers at a fast rate. The merger will provide its customers with better infrastructure and cheaper prices. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple introduces ‘Sign in with Apple’ to help protect your privacy | Apple’s new ‘Sign in with Apple’ function will potentially replace the need for users to sign up to apps with their private information by allowing them to use their Apple IDs. Users will be able to generate random ‘relay’ email addresses for signing up with apps, which means that their personal information is never revealed to the app, and users can easily opt out of communications with the app by deleting the temporary email address. All apps which require sign-on will be required to implement this new feature, which will begin beta testing later this year. | 4Miscellaneous
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Vulcain (GitHub Repo) | Vulcain is a new protocol that uses HTTP/2 Server Push to create client-driven REST APIs. An open-source gateway server that can transform any existing web API into a Vulcain-compatible API is provided. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk is going to trial for calling a cave diver a pedophile on Twitter | Elon Musk will go to court on October 22 over a tweet he sent last year in which he accused Vernon Unsworth of being a pedophile. Unsworth was part of a rescue mission which helped save the lives of a soccer team who was stuck in a cave in Thailand last year. During the rescue, Musk and Unsworth got into a brief feud over Twitter. Unsworth criticized Musk’s plans for a kid-sized submarine and Musk responded by calling Unsworth a pedophile. While an insult would not qualify as defamation, Musk went on to suggest he had evidence for the claim. A copy of the court order is available to read. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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New dynamic glass can tint with an electric charge and is coming to your home | The US Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have partnered with Glass Dyenamics to develop advanced glass technology that tints when an electric charge is applied. The technology is now available for residential homes at affordable prices. Dynamic glass could eliminate 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year by 2030 and offer homeowners up to 20% in energy savings. Pictures of the glass installed on a residential premises are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Halley Game Engine (GitHub Repo) | Halley is a lightweight game engine written in C++ designed to create high performance, easy to maintain, cross-platform games. It has been tested on Windows 10 Professional 64-bit, Mac OS 10.9.6, and Ubuntu 16.04. Full documentation is not yet available for the engine. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Microsoft vows to protect Linux from future patent wars by joining the Open Invention Network | Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network, a partnership between companies like IBM, Google, Oracle and hundreds of others to cross-license their patents to each other in exchange for agreeing not to assert those patents against companies working on Linux-based projects. This is part of a big move by Microsoft to embrace open source technologies as they move towards embracing the Android and Linux ecosystems. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Sheet.Best (Website) | Sheet.Best converts Google SpreadSheets into APIs. Users just need to paste the 'share' link from their Sheets document into the site. The API will provide view, edit, and write functions depending on the settings on Google Sheets. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Beijing plans an AI Atlantis for the South China Sea – without a human in sight | China is planning on building a $160 million deep sea base at the bottom of the South China Sea. Scientists say that due to the immense pressure, this will be even harder than building a space station. The base will be run by AI and will be used to launch missions to explore the ocean floor, which is currently 99% unexplored. China is also planning on building the first manned deep sea station about 2 miles below the surface and 20 floating nuclear power plants to support commercial and military activities starting in 2020. President Xi Jinping is urging Chinese scientists to be daring, saying "There is no road in the deep sea, we do not need to chase after other countries, we are the road." He declared that China is on a "march into the ocean to accelerate the build-up of maritime power". | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How iPhone Hackers Got Their Hands on the New iOS Months Before Its Release | A leaked early version of iOS 14 has been available to security researchers and hackers since at least February. iOS 14 is expected to be released in September, along with the announcement of the next generation of iPhones. Security researchers have been able to get an early look into the new code to find security flaws. The final version of iOS 14 will be significantly different from the leaked version, but the leak still contains a large amount of potentially exploitable information. This is the first time a version of iOS was leaked so many months in advance. Apple has not commented on the leak but it has taken action against leakers before. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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CSS-Only Chat (GitHub Repo) | CSS-Only Chat is an asynchronous web-based chat application that requires no browser reloads and no JavaScript. In order for a chat application to work, an app only needs to be able to send and receive data, and CSS-Only Chat achieves this through the use of buttons. The idea was inspired via a tweet, and a gif demo is available to view on the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Microsoft gets exclusive license for OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model | Microsoft will exclusively license GPT-3 from OpenAI. GPT-3 can unlock a lot of commercial and creative potential, with the possibilities only limited by the ideas and scenarios that can be imagined. The details of the licensing agreement are still unclear, but OpenAI will continue to offer GPT-3 and its other models via its Azure-hosted API. OpenAI has been experimenting with safeguards against the misuse of GPT-3 at the API level. This includes filters that can pick up antisemitic content while still allowing neutral content regarding Judaism. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Gmail’s next big redesign starts rolling out next week | Google is rolling out its integrated view Gmail redesign next week. The new design adds Google Chat and Google Meet into Gmail. It will add a new navigation panel on the left side of the page for users to jump between Gmail, Google Chat, Spaces, and Google Meet. The rollout will begin by letting people opt-in to the changes, but the interface will become the standard by the end of Q2 2022. A screenshot showing some of the new changes is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Bootstrap or TailwindCSS: How to decide a framework for your next project? | Bootstrap and TailwindCSS are both popular CSS frameworks. They make it easy for developers to develop compatible and responsive websites. Bootstrap's core features include its pre-built components and Utility Classes. TailwindCSS doesn't have pre-built components and only focuses on Utility Classes. It has become popular with developers as it can produce awesome things without requiring any CSS. This article provides an overview of the two frameworks and a small guide on choosing frameworks. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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In depth guide to running Elasticsearch in production | Elasticsearch can be awesome, fast, and easy to use, but it can also be opaque, confusing, and seem to break randomly for no reason. It is a management framework for running distributed installations of Apache Lucene. Nodes are instances of ES, Indices are a high-level extraction of your data, and Shards are instances of Apache Lucene. In order to set it up properly, it's important to have the right amount of RAM, enough CPUs to do logging, and configure your data disks to fit your specific needs. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Google Pixel 7 prototype shows up online with textured metal frame | An early prototype of the Pixel 7 recently showed up on eBay and was quickly taken down. The device featured a glossy glass back and a new metal camera bar. Google already revealed the design at its I/O event, but the leak confirms that the device will lose the matte black frame that the Pixel 6 had. It also confirms that the Pixel 7 will have 128GB of storage. The leaked pictures are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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PySnooper (GitHub Repo) | PySnooper is a simple debugger for Python. It doesn’t require installing a debugger of any kind and will output messages to the console or a file. Users only have to import the script and place the PySnooper decorator before a function. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple launching ‘Apple Music for Business’ to provide music to retail stores | Businesses can now sign up to play licensed music in their retail locations through Apple Music for Business. Apple will provide human-curated playlists and even custom recommendations matched to fit the culture of the store. A special iOS app will be provided for businesses to control the music being played. Different licensing terms for businesses means that they need to make deals with special providers to get legal in-store music. Spotify and Apple have both started to address the retail audience. Harrods department store has been using the service for a few weeks now and it gets an affiliate commission if customers sign up to the Apple Music service. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Highlights from the International Landscape Photographer of the Year | The International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition is now in its eighth year. The competition has no specific categories and no strict definition of what a landscape photograph should be, allowing photographers to be more creative with their entries. This article contains several entries from the competition. A link to a larger gallery is available at the end of the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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At long last, NASA’s probe finally digs in on Mars | The InSight lander has provided valuable data on Mars' activities. It has observed marsquakes, swirling vortices, weather, and the changing of seasons. Despite its successes, it has so far been unable to dig into the ground. A new plan has been developed to push the probe into the planet in order to track its temperature variations. It is likely that martian soil is too dense for the probe to dig through as designed. The probe only needs a small adjustment in order to dig through the ground, so NASA scientists have been trying to use the scoop at the end of InSight's robotic arm to readjust the probe. After failing to readjust the probe, the scientists decided to use the scoop to dig directly into the dirt. This was a risky decision as the scoop was not designed for digging and could break, but the current maneuver appears to be working. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Enjoy The Extra Day Off! More Bosses Give 4-Day Workweek A Try | More and more companies around the world are seeing benefits when implementing a four-day workweek, including higher sales, efficiency, employee satisfaction, and profits. Instead of moving to 10-hour shifts, four days a week, many employers are going straight to a 32-hour workweek without cutting pay. Most employees are not productive for all the hours they are working, and cutting work hours meant that employees had to cut out distractions and wasted time to meet targets. American companies tend to prioritize profits over worker benefits. It may be difficult to change the culture even with evidence showing the benefits of change. | 4Miscellaneous
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automl-gs (GitHub Repo) | automl-gs allows citizen data scientists and engineers without a deep statistical background to automatically generate deep learning models and native Python code pipelines that can be integrated into any prediction workflow. Users only need to input a CSV data file and automl-gs will output a folder with the generated models and files. It can currently use both Tensorflow and XGBoost frameworks, with more frameworks planned to be implemented in the future. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Observables (GitHub Repo) | This library provides a lightweight reactivity API for other UI libraries to be built on top of. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple cancels AirPower product, citing inability to meet its high standards for hardware | Apple has canceled the AirPower product due to engineering issues. While developing AirPower, engineers ran into problems such as overheating and were not able to complete a design that was up to Apple's standards. Apple has a habit of announcing products before the final designs are complete but its engineers are usually able to fulfill their promises even if there are delays. It is very rare that Apple will completely cancel a product and this was unexpected as AirPower is featured on the boxes of the newly released AirPods. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Rolls-Royce's all-electric airplane smashes record with 387.4 MPH top speed | Rolls-Royce's 'Spirit of Innovation', an old-school tail-dragger airplane powered by an electric motor, has hit a top speed of 387.4 mph, smashing the speed record for electric airplanes. Electric airplanes aren't practical yet as batteries are 50 times less energy-dense than jet fuel, but they could be potentially used for short trips. The battery pack used in Rolls-Royce's plane is the most power-dense propulsion battery pack ever assembled. A picture of the plane is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google Fi turns 6 and gets a new unlimited plan | Google Fi is celebrating its sixth year by launching a new plan with unlimited calls and texts in the US, plus unlimited data and texting in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The Simply Unlimited plan has free international calls to more than 50 countries, with international data in more than 200 destinations. It includes 100GB of Google One cloud storage. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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BMW's Vision iNext concept car is the ultimate self-driving machine | BMW's Vision iNext is an autonomous electric SUV concept car. BMW has completely rethought the inside of the car, drawing inspiration from boutique hotels. The dashboard has been replaced by 2 widescreen LCD televisions. The seating has touch-sensitive areas that recognize gestures such as swipes. The arm rests have been replaced by a wooden surface that acts as a coffee table of sorts. The front seats are bendable so passengers can easily converse with people sitting in the back. The steering wheel and pedals are still there in case you feel like driving, but they retract when not in use. There's a sketch of the interior design inside. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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'Great Resignation' gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect | A recent survey by jobs site Monster found that 95 percent of workers are now considering changing jobs, with 92 percent willing to switch industries to find the right position. Burnout and lack of growth opportunities were the biggest drivers for the shift. There are also a higher number of job openings than ever before, contributing to why people are willing to try out new opportunities. Many employees want to continue working remotely, so most organizations are trying to work out how to combine remote and on-site work. | 4Miscellaneous
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Google Stadia now free to anyone with a Gmail address | Google Stadia is now free to anyone with a Gmail address. New users will receive two months of Stadia Pro for free. Existing Stadia Pro users won't be charged for the next two months. Nine games are included with the offer. Access to Stadia previously required purchasing a Google Stadia Premier Edition bundle for $129. Stadia Pro will cost $9.99 a month after the two-month trial period ends. Users can cancel their subscriptions online at any time. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Chemists create and capture einsteinium, the elusive 99th element | Einsteinium is one of the most elusive and heaviest elements on the periodic table. It was discovered in the fall-out of the first hydrogen bomb test in 1952. The element doesn't occur naturally and can only be produced in microscopic quantities. It is highly radioactive and it rapidly decays, making it hard to study. Researchers from the University of California recently created a 233-nanogram sample of Einsteinium and carried out the first experiments on the element since the 1970s. The main finding of the study was the measurement of the element's bond length. The research could make it easier to create Einsteinium in the future. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Words Are Hard - An Essay on Communicating With Non-Programmers (10 minute read) | The ability to correctly communicate an idea or concept in a way that others can understand is by far the most important skill to have as someone working in a software-based small business. Programmers have developed their own jargon to communicate with each other which people outside of the programming world might not understand. The simplest explanation that includes the most important information is usually the best. Using jargon to try to demonstrate intelligence and superiority is usually the wrong way to go about conveying an idea. Being respectful to others goes a long way in getting them to want to understand you. Practicing pitching ideas to non-technical friends can help you receive useful feedback. Techniques like analogies, anecdotes, and metaphors are great tools for getting ideas across. It's ok to admit when you don't know something, and it is often better than losing respect for getting something wrong, as long as you take the initiative to self-educate. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Make it easy for clients to report bugs and feedback for websites with BugHerd (Sponsor) | Clients leave feedback on the website. BugHerd captures the technical information (browser, OS, & screenshots) to help you resolve them fast. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Supabase (GitHub Repo) | Supabase adds realtime and RESTful APIs to existing PostgreSQL databases without the need for any code. It can listen to changes in a PostgreSQL database, query tables, and modify rows. Supabase is accessible by mobile and web with simple client libraries and works without any major changes to your database. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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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
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Useful Python decorators for Data Scientists | This article contains a collection of @decorators that may be useful for Data Scientists. It shows the code for each decorator and its output and then explains how the decorator can help data scientists. A link to the ipython notebook is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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China says it landed a reusable spacecraft after a two-day flight | China successfully landed an experimental reusable spacecraft on September 6th after spending two days in orbit. The details on the mission are secret, but the mission reportedly represented an important breakthrough in China's development of reusable spacecraft. The spacecraft could be a rough counterpart to the US Air Force's X-37B spaceplane. China has previously stated its intention to launch an aircraft-like reusable space vehicle by 2020. The vehicle was deployed using the Long March 2F. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Amazon Faces Investor Pressure Over Facial Recognition | Amazon shareholders have introduced two proposals that affect the company’s policies around selling its facial recognition software, Amazon Rekognition. The first proposal asks the company to prohibit sales to government agencies unless the board is convinced that its use does not violate any human rights. The second proposal is a request for Amazon to commission an independent report on how Rekognition might threaten civil, human, and privacy rights, as well as the company’s finances. While these proposals are non-binding, it adds to the pushback against facial recognition by many groups. Lawmakers are now actively considering the effects of facial recognition technology and legislating to control its use. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Feds Seized Robinhood CEO's Phone in GameStop Trading Halt Investigation | Robinhood still intends to go public on Thursday. The company is subject to at least 49 class-action lawsuits over its restriction of the purchase of GameStop stock in January. It is under investigation by a series of regulators, state attorneys general, the SEC, and the US Department of Justice. The company's CEO had his cell phone seized by federal attorneys. Robinhood acknowledges that the fallout from its restrictions has the potential to be disastrous for the company. | 4Miscellaneous
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New Bluetooth hack can unlock your Tesla—and all kinds of other devices | A new Bluetooth hack that exploits weaknesses in the Bluetooth Low Energy standard can be used to unlock doors, open and operate vehicles, and gain unauthorized access to a host of security-sensitive devices. The relay attack requires two attackers, one close to the target device and one close to the authenticating device. The attackers relay information between the targets to authenticate credentials. The exploit targets the very lowest level of the Bluetooth stack and it is unlikely to be fixed. More details about the exploit, including information on possible countermeasures, are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Microsoft wants to use Ethereum blockchain to fight piracy | Microsoft researchers recently released a paper on using a blockchain-based incentive system to fight piracy. The Argus system relies on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology to provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected from piracy reporters. It enables backtracing of pirated content to the source. Tech companies have become increasingly concerned with digital piracy and some have turned to blockchain-based solutions. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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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
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The World’s First 3D-Printed Village Is Coming to Latin America This Summer | Designs for a completely 3D-printed community to be built in an undisclosed location in Latin America have been unveiled. Over 50 homes will be built, each with an outdoor kitchen and a small farming area. A portable 3D printer developed by ICON will create durable and scalable homes out of concrete within 24 hours with nearly zero waste. It is hoped that the new homes will be able to help families out of poverty and provide benefits for many generations to come. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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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
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Apple reveals the best Night mode photos shot on iPhone | The Night mode challenge was an event held by Apple to get users to share Night mode images shot on the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Six winners were chosen from thousands of submissions worldwide and their pictures will be featured in a gallery on Apple's website, Instagram, and globally on billboards. The winners were from China, India, Russia, and Spain. Winning images from the Night mode challenge are available in the article along with commentary by the judges. | 4Miscellaneous
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The Often-Hated Open Floor Plan Gets a New Savior: The Office Pod | Studies have shown that open floor office plans decrease face-to-face time and increase the number of email interactions. Employees experience increased stress levels, conflict, blood pressure, and higher turnover rates when working in an open floor office. Companies such as ROOM and ZenBooth have started offering office pods, personal cubicles which are minimal in design, containing a chair, a table, outlets, a skylight, glass doors, and soundproofed walls. Pods can vary in sizes and accommodate individual users or small groups of people. ZenBooth was started due to the founder finding it difficult to work in an office with an open floor plan. Pods can be delivered to an office within 10-15 business days and set up in under an hour while constructing office walls can take more than three months. Some pods are already tested to meet fire regulations, and the costs are less than renting traditional sectioned offices. | 4Miscellaneous
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Pro-privacy search engine DuckDuckGo hits 30M daily searches, up 50% in a year | Privacy-focused search engine Duck Duck Go just hit 30 million searches a day, after having just hit 20 million searches a day last year. The company has been profitable since 2014, and estimates that it has 25 million users. Increased awareness for online privacy may help Duck Duck Go compete against Google, and the company recently raised $10 million in external investment. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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With Facial Recognition Technology at 'Crossroads', 90 Groups Urge Amazon, Google, and Microsoft Not to Collude With Big Brother | 90 civil and human rights groups have sent letters to executives at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to ask them to refuse to sell facial recognition technology to governments around the world. The FBI is already piloting Amazon's Rekognition technology, while Google and Microsoft have been more cautious. ACLU lawyer Nicole Ozer says "History has clearly taught us that the government will exploit technologies like face surveillance to target communities of color, religious minorities, and immigrants." | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The search to make a perfect condom | Condoms offer 80% or greater protection against most sexually transmitted diseases, even accounting for incorrect or inconsistent use. Nearly 30 billion condoms are sold around the world each year, but getting people to use them correctly is still a big challenge. This article reviews several projects that focus on developing better condoms, including graphene-based condoms, condoms with better lubricant properties, condoms that have anti-STD medication built into their structure, and more. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Twitter to launch a revamped verification system with publicly documented guidelines | Twitter has confirmed that it is developing a new in-app verification system. There has been confusion over Twitter's verification criteria in the past, resulting in the company announcing that it would reconsider its process. Twitter announced in 2018 that it was prioritizing election integrity over the overhaul of the verification system. It slowed the pace of verifications, focusing on verifying political candidates, and more recently, authoritative health experts. Twitter's new verification system will have clear guidelines for what is required for a user to be verified. It is unknown when the new system will be implemented. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Helix (GitHub Repo) | Helix is an editor written in Rust. Its editing model is heavily based on kakoune. Helix features vim-like modal editing, multiple selections, built-in language server support, and syntax highlighting and code editing via tree-sitter. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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How to Review Code as a Junior Developer | Reviewing code as a junior developer can be daunting but it has several benefits. It can help you learn the code base and also learn who knows which sections of the code best in your team. Giving feedback to your teammates helps you open yourself up to receiving feedback and hearing their ideas. Reviewing code helps you take ownership of the team's codebase. Asking questions, calibrating feedback, and emulating others is the key to developing good code review skills. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days, and stumbled into six job offers | This is an article by a mobile engineer who interviewed at LinkedIn, Yelp, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google and got all six job offers. It also includes the study plan they used, and lessons learned (mostly generic stuff like practicing algorithms, remember that it's a numbers game etc.). Probably worth reading if you're looking for jobs soon. | 4Miscellaneous
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Blocking Your Adblocker | More and more users are starting to use adblockers. Some websites might want to fight back and find ways to disable these adblockers so that they can still receive revenue for their content. Disabling an adblocker involves adding a few modifications to the Google Analytics code block so that it routes the ads through a custom proxy server. A simple tutorial on how to set this up is provided. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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France targets Google, Amazon and Facebook with 3% digital tax | A new tax, introduced into the French government on Wednesday, will raise an estimated 500 million euros per year. The 3% tax will apply to around 30 major companies, mainly from the US. Large tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook benefit from lower tax rates in European countries. Companies that generate over 750 million euros worldwide and 25 million euros within France will be eligible for the tax. | 4Miscellaneous
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Bosch Gets Smartglasses Right With Tiny Eyeball Lasers | A few weeks before CES, Bosch released a concept video of its new Smartglasses prototype. The three-minute video is linked in the article. In the video, people are shown wearing glasses with a completely transparent display. It shows people viewing notifications and messages and also interacting with the display by tapping on the arms of the glasses. The Smartglasses require custom fitting as they work by firing colored lasers directly on the retina to create images. It only takes a few minutes to fit the glasses, and they can be repositioned slightly without the image disappearing. As the image is projected directly onto the retina, it is always in focus, although it will disappear if the user looks to the side. This can feel weird to the user as there is no depth to the image. Observers will not be able to tell when the display is active as only the user can see the projected display. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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In A 1st, Doctors In U.S. Use CRISPR Tool To Treat Patient With Genetic Disorder | Doctors in the US have used CRISPR to treat a patient with Sickle cell, a disease that affects millions of people around the world. It will still be a few months before the treatment is deemed safe and can be assessed for effectiveness. Cells from the patient's own bone marrow were genetically modified with CRISPR to make them produce a protein that is usually only made by fetuses and babies. The theory is that the protein will compensate for the defective proteins that cause sickle cell disease. Trials of the new treatment are being conducted on more patients across eight sites in the US, Canada, and Europe. While the treatment shows promise in the lab, this may not be the case in real-world scenarios. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Researchers Just Set a New Record For Data Transmission Speed | A team at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Japan has set a new record for data transmission by sending 1.02 petabits per second over 51.7 kilometers. A 0.125 mm diameter multi-core fiber with wavelength division multiplexing that sent a total of 801 parallel wavelength channels was used for the experiment. Various other optimizations, such as using four cores, signal boosting, and decoding technologies were also used. The feat was achieved using an optical fiber network similar to those used currently for internet infrastructure, making future upgrades to this technology easier. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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ToolJet (GitHub Repo) | ToolJet is a no-code framework for building and deploying internal tools quickly and without much effort. It can connect to databases, API endpoints, and external services. ToolJet features a visual app builder with widgets, support for OAuth, query editors for all supported data types, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Bootstrap Icons Vue (GitHub Repo) | This package provides bootstrap icons as Vue components. Each icon is 1em in width and height. A link to the full list of icons is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Animals ‘shapeshifting’ in response to climate crisis, research finds | Climate change is putting a heap of pressure on animals to adapt. A study of animals from all over the world found that some species have been making changes in physiology that correlate with increasing temperatures over decades. The changes are adaptations to allow animals to cool down more efficiently. More adaptations are expected as temperatures increase. The adaptations are occurring over a far shorter timescale than would have occurred through most of evolutionary time. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Shanghai video overwhelms Chinese censor, gets 400m views | A video of audio snippets from Shanghai recorded over the course of the lockdown posted on April 22 gained over 400 million views over the next day. While the content of the video comes across as fairly balanced, it triggered China's public opinion control system, which eventually resulted in it being completely blocked. Accounts forwarding the video were restricted following the incident. A subtitled copy of the video is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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China's 'artificial sun' operates at temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius | China has created an "artificial sun", a nuclear fusion reaction that reaches 100 million degrees Celsius. The reaction is completely under control and can be turned off at any time. The project is the result of a collaboration between 35 countries including China, Russia, and the US. The scientists working on the project will continue to work on maintaining a stable fusion reaction for a longer period of time and at an even higher temperature. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Jeff Bezos Says Blue Origin Will Put People in Space in 2019 | Jeff Bezos announced that his rocket company Blue Origin will launch a manned mission in 2019. They are developing a capsule called the New Shepard that has 530 square feet in the interior, enough for six people. Bezos says the company might have paying space tourists by 2020 with tourists paying $100,000 to $200,000 per ticket. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Next.js 11 | The Next.js 11 update is now live. It features Conformance, improved performance, Webpack 5, the ability to code in the browser in real-time with a team, and more. The update introduces a few breaking changes for legacy features, which should not affect the majority of users. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Experimental Brain Implant Lets Man With Paralysis Turn His Thoughts Into Words | A paralyzed man can now generate words and sentences on a computer using only his thoughts thanks to an experimental implanted device. The device decodes signals that control the vocal tract and translates them into words. After months of adjustment, the man can reliably generate 50 different words at roughly 15 words per minute. While slow, the results show that the approach can work. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Las Vegas takes a chance on having Elon Musk’s Boring Company build transit tunnel | An underground express tunnel that connects downtown Las Vegas, the city’s convention center, airport, and other points of interest will be built by the Boring Company at an estimated cost of between $35 to $55 million, depending on the final plans. The Las Vegas Convention Center’s expansion is planned to be completed in 2021. When it is complete, attendees would have to walk around 2 miles to get from one end to another, which explains the need for a rapid transit route. Elon Musk estimates that the tunnel will be complete and operational by the end of the year, however, past projects have not gone as smoothly as predicted. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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What will a Chromium-only Web look like? | There are three major browser engines, and they're all open source. Many in the Chromium community are arguing for a Chromium-only web. A Chromium-only web would make interoperability on things like parsing HTML perfect while still allowing people to choose the browser with the features that they want. However, this would affect governance over web standards, especially in a future where the web is regulated by multiple governments. | 4Miscellaneous
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Amazon expands gamification program that encourages warehouse employees to work harder | FC Games is a program that gamifies warehouse work for Amazon workers. Amazon uses the games to help measure and encourage productivity. There are as many as six arcade-style mini-games that are played by completing tasks in the warehouse. The program is completely optional for workers and they can play anonymously. Workers can compete against other workers, even if they work at different warehouses. The rewards earned from playing the games can be turned in for virtual pets. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Firefox Monitor (Web Tool) | Firefox has partnered with popular tool "Have I Been Pwned" to let you know if your email address and/or personal info was involved in a publicly known past data breach. Just type your email into the box and it will let you know whether or not your data has been breached. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How Google Got Its Employees to Eat Their Vegetables (14 minute read) | Google's free food is a well-known perk. The tech company started to introduce healthy food over the past five years. Google's campaign didn't just focus on changing the food, but how food was presented as well. Its goal was to make the healthy choice the easy and preferred choice. The project resulted in people eating more healthy and sustainable foods while avoiding unhealthy choices. Google's strategy shows that how much people stick with virtuous patterns of behavior has less to do with the logical reasons for why they should do things, and more to do with how enjoyable that virtuous thing is to do. | 4Miscellaneous
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Facebook bans Alex Jones and Laura Loomer for violating its policies against dangerous individuals | Facebook removed a slew of accounts, citing its policies against dangerous individuals and organizations. Individuals or organizations who are considered to promote or engage in violence or hate, regardless of ideology, are targeted by Facebook and assessed through an extensive evaluation process. Facebook has come under more pressure to address hate speech on their platform due to the increased usage of social media to promote violence. The removed accounts were known for posting anti-religious or racist content. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amazon is launching a new program to donate unsold products, after reports that millions were being destroyed | Amazon is launching a new program called Fulfillment by Amazon Donations. From September 1, unsold or unwanted products that sellers wish to dispose of will be donated to a network of nonprofits and charities. Sellers can opt out of the program if they want. Amazon routinely discards unsold inventory, sending products to landfills instead of to people in need. Amazon charges 50 cents to return unsold inventory to sellers, and 15 cents for disposal. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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