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From the lab to the living room: The story behind Facebook’s Oculus Insight technology and a new era of consumer VR | Facebook's Oculus Insight was created so that the Oculus headsets could be completely wireless and independent of outside sensors. It uses inside-out tracking, which uses computer vision algorithms to analyze data from multiple sensors in order to fix the position of an object within a constantly updated digital map. The technology has been used before in robotics and smartphones, but the Oculus required an unprecedented level of precision and efficiency. Using special cameras and machine learning, the team at Facebook trained an algorithm to recognize the environment and the locations of the Oculus controllers. The technology is still developing, with the aim of eventually being able to create lightweight, stylish AR glasses. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The World’s First Robotics Venture Factory Is On ‘Robot Island’ In Denmark | If robot startups shared information, they would be capable of much more than they currently are. There are more than 150 robotics companies in Odense, Denmark. 30 years ago, several companies and groups in the area started working together, resulting in Blue Ocean Robotics, the world's first robotics venture factory. Each robot at the factory adds to the core of software that all member companies have access to. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Snapchat releases rebuilt Android app | Snap has finally released a version of its Android app that has been rebuilt from scratch in order to bring it on par with its iOS counterpart. There have been almost no changes to the look and feel of the app, but it should be faster, less laggy, and have fewer bugs than the previous version. Future updates for Android will be easier to write and it is possible that the Android version may receive new features faster than iOS. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Infecting Mosquitoes With Bacteria Could Have A Big Payoff | Last year, nearly 400 million people experienced dengue, a painful viral disease. An outbreak throughout Southeast Asia is guaranteed every rainy season. Previous efforts to control outbreaks have involved trapping infected mosquitoes. The World Mosquito Program is cultivating and releasing mosquitoes that have been infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia. Wolbachia occurs naturally in many insects, but it is not common in the mosquitoes that carry dengue. The bacterium can be passed down to future generations. It stops the mosquitoes from transmitting arboviruses such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika. A 75 percent reduction in dengue cases was seen in communities where the Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes were released. The WMP deployed the infected mosquitoes in Brazil and saw a 70-75 percent reduction in cases of chikungunya. It is theoretically possible to use Wolbachia to wipe out dengue entirely. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Locked In: Bitcoin’s Taproot Upgrade Gets Its 90% Mandate | Taproot is a new upgrade to Bitcoin that adds a new signature scheme known as Schnorr signatures. It allows for new possibilities for privacy, multi-signature wallets, and scaling. The update now has enough mining support to begin the activation process. Miners and nodes now have five months to update their software to the newest version of Bitcoin Core that contains the Taproot soft fork. After Bitcoin reaches a specified block height, all upgraded nodes and devices will be able to recognize and accept transactions using Taproot. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The owner of the New York Stock Exchange is now in the Bitcoin business | The Intercontinental Exchange has opened its digital asset marketplace, Bakkt, which offers Bitcoin futures contracts. Futures contracts are legal agreements to buy or sell a given commodity at a specific price at a specific time in the future. More than $200 million worth of Bitcoin futures on average are already traded daily on other exchanges. Unlike its competitor, CME, Bakkt will settle contracts with Bitcoin, rather than cash. Bakkt aims to make mainstream institutions less skeptical of digital assets by creating a trusted warehouse to store cryptocurrencies. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Stripe CLI | Stripe CLI is a new tool that allows users to interact with Stripe right from the terminal in order to make it easier to build, test, and manage Stripe integration. The CLI allows developers to test webhooks, tail real-time API logs, and create or update API objects. It natively supports macOS, Windows, and Linux. A short video demo is available showing some of the features of Stripe CLI. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Brave browser now includes a built-in crypto wallet | Brave has updated its desktop browser with a built-in crypto wallet. Users will be able to buy, sell, and swap their crypto with fewer security risks than the usual browser add-ons. It is a self-custody wallet with integrations with other wallets, as well as the ability to track crypto market data and control portfolios that include NFTs. The feature will be available on mobile devices soon. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Facebook takes on Nextdoor with Neighborhoods tool | Facebook is rolling out a new feature called Neighborhoods in four US cities and Canada. The tool will allow people to find neighbors with common interests, discover local groups and businesses, and interact with others in their communities. Users will have to share location information to get matched to a neighborhood. Every neighborhood has moderators to make sure people are staying within guidelines. Eligible users will be notified in-app. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Gigantic Chinese telescope opens to astronomers worldwide | The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in southern China is preparing to open to astronomers around the world, pending approval from the Chinese government in a review meeting scheduled for next month. FAST is able to detect extremely faint radio-wave signals from an array of sources across the Universe. It can only examine a tiny fraction of the sky at one time compared to other telescopes, so while it is unlikely to discover new sources of fast radio bursts, it is useful for getting more details about known sources. FAST will also be useful for finding ripples in space-time. It is possible that FAST may discover radio waves generated by other intelligent life forms. The team at FAST are currently working out how to store and process the enormous amount of data that the telescope will collect. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Zoom is adding live translation services and coming to Facebook VR | Zoom plans to add real-time transcription for up to 30 languages and real-time translation across as many as 12 languages by the end of next year. The company is also expanding its whiteboard feature to make it available outside of meetings in Zoom apps and the web. Zoom Whiteboard will have sticky notes and comments and can be viewed at any time. Zoom is coming to Facebook's Horizon Workrooms early next year. People will be able to view and interact with Zoom Whiteboards in virtual spaces. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman wants to scan your eyes in exchange for free cryptocurrency | Worldcoin is a company that wants to expand the reach of cryptocurrencies to the masses. The company is offering free cryptocurrency when people use its orb-shaped devices to scan their irises. The device uses the image to create a unique code that can be used for identification without requiring a big database of biometric data. The platform has more than 100,000 users already and it aims to hit 1 billion users by 2023. Worldcoin could potentially be used as the infrastructure to carry out universal basic income. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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2022 State of the Java Ecosystem Report (Sponsor) | New Relic's State of the Java Ecosystem Report is based on data gathered from millions of applications providing performance data. Read it here to get an in-depth look at one of today's most popular programming languages. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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krisp (Desktop App) | Krisp is a cool free desktop app for Mac that uses machine learning to mute all background noise whenever you're on a call. It allows you to both "listen without noise" (muting background noise on the other end) and "speak without noise" (muting background noise on your end). I'm not sure if the demos are real world examples or set up to specifically to work well with their algorithm, but they're really impressive. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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FoldnFly (Web Tool) | This is a tool that gives you schematics for building the paper airplane of your dreams. You can select whether you want to build one optimized for things like distance, time aloft, aesthetics, etc. and also select a difficulty. The internet is awesome. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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London scientists build 'ultra broadband nearly three million times faster' than UK home fibre optic internet connections | Scientists in London have achieved a record download speed of 178 terabits per second by transmitting data in a greater range of colors than normally used in optical fibre. A 25-mile fibre optic loop was used for the speed test. Customized amplifiers were used to boost signal power. If deployed commercially, an amplifier will need to be installed for at least every 25 miles of cable. | 4Miscellaneous
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Mega-storms the size of England on the rise in North Africa | Huge megastorms the size of England are creating powerful winds and torrential rain in parts of Africa near the Sahara up to 16km tall. They are increasing in number due to climate change, as the Sahara warms more quickly than neighboring areas, the temperature difference widens causing megastorms to form. During wet season there are storms every day. The region is also plagued by poverty, irregular migration, smuggling and terrorist groups. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Rows n' Columns (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains an Excel-like DataGrid component for React JS. It is built to be similar to Google Sheets. It is high-performance, easily customizable, and supports row and column freezing, auto filter views, cell styling, formatting, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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NeverThrow (GitHub Repo) | NeverThrow is a package for JavaScript and TypeScript that implements type-safe errors. It contains a Result type that represents either success or failure. Examples are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Omicron possibly more infectious because it shares genetic code with common cold coronavirus, study says | A new preliminary study suggests that the omicron variant likely picked up genetic material from another virus that causes the common cold in humans. A snippet of genetic material found in omicron is also present in a common cold virus but not in other coronavirus variants. This could explain how the virus has greater transmissibility. Cells in lungs and gastrointestinal systems can host both types of viruses, possibly leading to an exchange in genetic material. While there has been a rapid increase in South Africa's caseload, it has not been followed by a surge in hospitalizations. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Android 12 design mockup leak reveals radical visual overhaul, first features | The first Android 12 Developer Preview is expected to roll out this month. Images of the Android 12 design mock-ups have leaked, showing a radical visual overhaul of the operating system. Android 12 has a new in-depth theming system and 'Conversation' widgets. The theming extends to app icons. There are new privacy features that will alert users when the microphone or camera is active. The leaked images are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How to reverse-engineer a rainforest (20 minute read) | In 2019, record-breaking fires hit Australia, the US, Indonesia, Russia, Lebanon, and the Amazon. Brazil has continued to encourage deforestation in its rainforests, increasing it throughout 2020. The fires were the result of heavy deforestation unbalancing the ecosystem. Scientists have used technology to analyze how forests grow in order to recreate optimal situations for regrowing the forests. A network of seeds, fungi, and fertilizers are already hard at work creating the next generation of trees. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google traffic misdirected to China & Russia today, resulted in downtime for some services | Google Search, Youtube, and Google Cloud all experienced intermittent downtime for about an hour, due to their traffic being misrouted to locations in China, Russia, and Nigeria. This incident was due to BGP's flawed design, BGP (the protocol that defines how internet packets are routed) was designed to be a chain of trust between well-meaning ISPs and universities that blindly believe the information they receive. However, malicious actors can sometimes take avantage of it to hijack traffic (hackers hijacked Amazon's Route 53 DNS traffic in April to steal a bunch of Bitcoin). All data was encrypted, and Google does not believe that this was the result of a malicious attack, but they are investigating the issue. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amazon announces 11 new and refreshed Echo-branded gadgets—like a wall clock | Amazon announced 11 Echo branded products. There is a new Echo Dot speaker for $50 that is 70% louder than the previous Echo Dot. Echo Input is a Chromecast Audio competitor, it doesn't have a speaker itself, but it plugs into other speakers and gives them Alexa capabilities (it does come with built in microphones). Echo Sub is a $130 subwoofer. Echo Plus is a $150 all in one speaker hub with a built-in temperature sensor. Amazon Smart Plug is a $25 dongle that helps you set up other Echo devices. Echo Auto is a $25 dongle that can connect to your car's audio either via Bluetooth or an auxiliary jack. Fire TV Recast is a $230 DVR. AmazonBasics Microwave is a $60 microwave. Echo Wall Clock is a $30 wall clock that has Alexa integration for no apparent reason. A new Echo Show is available, it's basically an iPad attached to a speaker for $230. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Researchers Demonstrate The World’s First Quantum Radar | A team of researchers in Austria have created the first quantum radar. Quantum entanglement is when pairs or groups of particles' quantum states cannot be described independently of the other's state even when separated by a large distance. The quantum radar works by creating pairs of microwave photons using a superconducting device called a Josephson parametric converter. It uses low power and is more precise than conventional radars used today. The quantum radar is able to reach larger distances while remaining undetectable over background noise. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Twitter starts testing new CoTweets feature that lets two accounts co-author a tweet | The CoTweets feature allows two accounts to co-author a tweet and both be tagged in a single tweet. | 4Miscellaneous
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How 5g is Likely to Put Weather Forecasting at Risk | Weather forecasting technology has improved to the point where three day forecasts are 90% accurate. This level of prediction requires input from many factors, one of which is water vapor levels, which reduces the error in weather forecast calculations by about 17%. Satellites monitor water vapor via the 23.8 GHz frequency, which means that they might pick up interference from 5G networks, which run at 24 GHz. Interference with weather forecast frequencies may have serious consequences as forecasts are needed for natural disaster planning. Despite warnings from scientists, the FCC has started the auctioning of 24 GHz licenses, with Chairman Ajit Pai stating that there was no technical basis for objections to the sale. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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‘Way Too Late’: Inside Amazon’s Biggest Outbreak | An Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania has become Amazon's biggest COVID-19 hot spot, with more than 100 workers testing positive for the virus. Amazon had told workers about new cases as they were reported, but it stopped reporting specific numbers after the total reached about 60. It is estimated that at least 900 of Amazon's 400,000 blue-collar workers have contracted the disease. Amazon has received a massive amount of orders since the pandemic started and has increased hiring to keep up with demand. Safety protocols exist but the company doesn't appear to be following guidelines. Workers have complained about insufficient safety measures in Amazon's warehouses. | 4Miscellaneous
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Default Credentials Cheat Sheet (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a list of default credentials. It was created as a tool to assist pentesters. There are 3523 products listed. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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SSH To Anywhere With Tailscale (Sponsor) | SSH To Anywhere With Tailscale . No additional hardware to manage. No complicated firewalls. Tailscale keeps it simple & secure. Learn more. | 0Sponsor
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Hello (Web Tool) | Hello is a super simple video chat tool that works without any sign up, you just go to the URL and it will give you a share link to invite any friends you want to the chat. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Uber to offer boat rides in London as new commuter service | Uber, in partnership with Thames Clippers, will soon offer boat journeys in London. Passengers will receive a QR code boarding pass once they book their trip through the Uber app. The boats will continue to operate on their current set routes, and customers will be able to use existing payment methods to pay for their journeys. The city of London has explored other transport options due to the pandemic. It has invested in its cycling infrastructure and fast-tracked its e-scooter rental trials. | 4Miscellaneous
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Filament (GitHub Repo) | Filament is a real-time physically based rendering engine for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and WebGL. It offers a set of tools and APIs for Android developers to enable them to create high-quality 2D and 3D rendering with ease. Examples of rendered scenes are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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CRISPR might be the banana’s only hope against a deadly fungus | The Colombian government has confirmed that a banana-killing fungus has invaded the Americas. Farmers cannot breed disease resistance into commercial bananas as these bananas are sterile and are populated by cloning. The most popular variety of banana in the first half of the 1900s was nearly wiped out by a fungus. It was replaced with the Cavendish banana, which had a natural resistance to the fungus. The Cavendish is not resistant to the new type of fungus, but scientists are working out how to give the banana resistance. To save the Cavendish, scientists are looking into adding genes for resistance, switching on existing but dormant genes that will give resistance, or shutting off the genes affected by the disease. Even if scientists are successful with creating bananas that are resistant against the fungal outbreak, it will still be some time before they are approved for sale by government regulators. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Leaked Galaxy Buds Pro image reveals new rounded design | An image of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Buds Pro true wireless earbuds has leaked, featuring a more rounded shape than the Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Plus. The leaked images, including renders of the case, are available in the article. The Galaxy Buds Pro are rumored to have active noise cancellation and improvements to ambient mode. They are expected to be revealed with the Galaxy S21 phones in January. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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See how top tech companies automate their privacy (Sponsor) | See how top tech companies automate their privacy . From Clubhouse to Robinhood, industry-leading companies use Transcend to automate their privacy requests fulfillment, enforce consent across LDU, GPC and other Do Not Sell signals, and power a living data map. Privacy at the data layer, made easy. Learn more. | 0Sponsor
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Remotion (GitHub Repo) | Remotion is a suite of libraries for creating videos programmatically using React. With Remotion, you can render whatever you want with your favorite web technologies, using programming to create new effects. Three example videos are available. The source code for the example videos is provided. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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We've Just Seen the First Use of Deepfakes in an Indian Election Campaign | Two videos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Manoj Tiwari criticizing the incumbent Delhi government went viral on WhatsApp on February 7, a day ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections in Delhi. One of the videos was a deepfake, a video created with tools that can fabricate visual and audio content to make it seem real. The Delhi BJP IT Cell partnered with a firm to create positive campaigns using deepfakes in order to reach different linguistic voter bases. Many experts believe that deepfakes will be used to take the ongoing war on disinformation and fake news to a whole new level. Many popular deepfake videos are complete face swaps, but a more subtle version exists which only alters lip movements to match target audio. As more deepfake material is created, more of it will bypass fact-checking and inevitably some will start spreading misinformation. This can be especially damaging in countries where technological literacy is low. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How They Test (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a collection of resources about how software companies test their software. It includes books, blogs, articles, videos, and handbooks from companies such as Airbnb, ASOS, eBay, Twitter, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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China suspends Tencent from updating existing apps or launching new apps | Tencent Holdings will not be able to update existing apps or launch any new apps as part of a temporary administration guidance measure against the tech giant. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ordered app stores and platforms to implement the measure. Tencent is cooperating with authorities, but it is unknown how long the suspension will last. China has been ramping up its legislative efforts to regulate data in the country, introducing increasingly stringent laws and regulations concerning data sovereignty and content censorship. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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These lizards use bubbles to breathe underwater | New research shows that a dozen species of Caribbean and Latin American anoles can exhale air underwater to create oxygen-filled bubbles that cling to their heads. Scientists theorize that the bubbles could be helping the animals remove carbon dioxide and pull in more oxygen from water via diffusion. An analysis of the anoles that displayed this behavior and their lineages determined that the behavior evolved five separate times in the lizards. Several types of insects display similar behavior, but insects have significantly lower metabolic rates, need less oxygen, and are smaller, so the bubbles have a larger surface area to body mass ratio. | 4Miscellaneous
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The Google Pixel 4 will unlock using a face scan | Google has revealed two new features of the Pixel 4, face unlocking and Motion Sense. The Pixel 4's face unlock can be used for payments and app authentication, and will work in any orientation in a variety of lighting environments. It only has one front-facing camera. Motion Sense is powered by Project Soli, allowing users to skip songs, snooze alarms, and silence phone calls just by waving your hand. The capabilities of Motion Sense will improve over time. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Being An Instagram Influencer Is Hard Work, So This Guy Made A Bot To Do It For Him | Chris Buetti, a data engineer from New York, had the idea of becoming an Instagram influencer in order to receive free meals from restaurants in exchange for shoutouts on his account. However, this was a lot of work and he already had a job, so he built a bot to do the job for him. In the end, Buetti received 10 free meals for his efforts, before he gave the account away. He now works with a startup he co-founded called Social Rise, which helps companies grow their social media followings. | 4Miscellaneous
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Yelp is Screwing Over Restaurants By Quietly Replacing Their Phone Numbers | Yelp has been redirecting customer calls through Grubhub owned numbers before connecting with the restaurant in order to enforce a referral fee of between 15 and 20 percent of the order total. Restaurants may not be aware of the routing until they try to call themselves through the app. Grubhub offers marketing and delivery services to restaurants, and it claims that restaurants would not have received orders if the restaurant was not listed in its directory. It has also created thousands of websites in restaurants' names in order to drive more online orders and commissions for itself. Restaurants have complained that Grubhub's tracking systems were inaccurate as sometimes customers called without placing orders. Employees are also unaware that they are being recorded. In response to the backlash from restaurants, Grubhub has extended the window in which restaurants can dispute charges from 60 days to 120 days. | 4Miscellaneous
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Exclusive: First look at the LG Wing with its twisty dual display | The LG Wing is LG's latest take on dual-display phones. It features a secondary display that flips out in a twisting motion. An 11-second video is available that shows the phone in its T-formation configuration. The video demonstrates how the second screen can be useful. Specs for the phone haven't been released yet. There are no details on release dates or pricing, but it is expected to be launched well before Christmas. | 4Miscellaneous
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Inside Tesla's factory, a medical clinic designed to ignore injured workers (15 minute read) | When a Tesla factory worker is injured, medical staff are forbidden from calling 911 without permission. Instead, Tesla's contract doctors often insist that workers be sent in a Lyft, including one worker who partially severed his finger. Stephen Nelson was working on a Model X when the trunk door slammed down on his back. He says "I couldn't walk, I couldn't sit down. I couldn't even stand up straight," but Tesla doctors refused to call him an ambulance, telling him to take a Lyft instead. 911 calls are public records and first responders are required to report severe injuries but Lyft drivers are not. Anna Watson, a former Tesla physician's assistant, says that no matter what injuries a worker came into the clinic with, the staff was instructed to send them back to work full duty. She even had to send one worker back with a broken ankle. Watson herself sent Nelson back to work 4 days after his injury. 8 days after his injury, an outside clinic diagnosed him with "crushing injury of back," contusions and "intractable" pain. Workers injuries are often dismissed as being non-work related even if they are, and at one point, there was a blanket policy to turn away temps from receiving any medical treatment at all. Tracy Lee, a temp who developed a repetitive stress injury from lifting car parts by hand after a machine broke and was turned away by Tesla's clinic, says "I really think that's messed up. Don't discriminate just because we're temps. We're working for you." Watson, who was fired after raising concerns about worker treatment, says "You go to Tesla and you think it's going to be this innovative, great, wonderful place to be, like this kind of futuristic company. And I guess it's just kind of disappointing that that's our future, basically, where the worker still doesn't matter." | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Introducing Cloudflare Pages: the best way to build JAMstack websites | Cloudflare Pages is a fast, secure, and free way to build and host JAMstack sites. It simplifies the process by tying deployment to your existing development workflow. Developers only have to select their repo and identify which framework they are using, and Pages handles CI on their behalf. Pages features unique preview URLs, infinite staging, collaboration, and modern standards. Cloudflare Workers is a global serverless platform that allows frontend developers to write scalable backends in JavaScript. It will be integrated with Pages over the coming months. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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5D Optical Disc Could Store 500TB for Billions of Years | 5D optical storage has a data density 10,000 times that of a Blu-ray disc. It uses three layers of nanoscale dots in a glass disc to encode data. A 5D disc could theoretically remain readable after 13.8 billion years. Writing to these discs is usually a slow process, but a new technique developed at the University of Southampton speeds up the process significantly without impacting the reliability of the data. The technique has a maximum data rate of approximately 230 kilobytes per second. All that is needed to read the stored data is a microscope and a polarizer. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Astonishing AI restoration brings Apollo moon landing films up to speed | A YouTube Channel run by a film restoration specialist in the Netherlands has shared remastered footage from the Apollo moon landing. DutchSteamMachine's videos show scenes from various lunar missions in sharp detail. An AI called Depth-Aware video frame Interpolation (DAIN) was used to stabilize the shaky footage, generate new frames, and increase the framerate. DAIN is free and open-source and is currently in alpha. A couple of the videos are embedded in the article along with a link to DAIN's website. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Here’s everything Apple just announced | Apple has announced a new virtual fitness service, a subscription service called Apple One, and a new lineup of Apple Watches and iPads. The Apple Watch Series 6 can measure blood-oxygen saturation and features the new Apple S6 processor. At a lower price, the Apple Watch SE offers an S5 processor and has an accelerometer, gyroscope, altimeter, and fall detection. The new iPad Air features a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with 3.8M pixels, Touch ID on the power button, the Apple A14 Bionic, and USB-C. Apple also announced a new iPad which features an A12 Bionic, a Neural Engine, and support for Apple's Magic Keyboard. iOS 14 will launch today, with new features such as widgets, security enhancements, and more. New iPhones were not announced. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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TikTok Kitchens will bring viral culinary creations to fans | TikTok Kitchens is a new campaign by TikTok and Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) that will bring TikTok foods to fans in the US. There will be 300 locations at launch, with plans to expand to around 1,000 locations by the end of 2022. TikTok Kitchens will run like a ghost kitchen service, using existing kitchens and employees but also providing training, food packaging, and TikTok-sourced recipes. The menu will rotate quarterly and will initially feature the viral baked feta pasta. Creators will receive credit for their dishes. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Elon Musk’s brain-computer company schedules reveal | Elon Musk’s brain-computing venture Neuralink has announced an event on Tuesday where it will reveal what the company has been secretly working on the last few years. Neuralink is rumored to be working on brain implants that would help treat cognitive impairments and neurological diseases. Musk has said before that he aims to create a product that would augment humans with artificial intelligence. Job listings on Neuralink’s website describe the company as developing “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Revoking job offers is an increasingly common cost-cutting strategy | Tech companies like Coinbase, Redfin, and Twitter have started to rescind job offers after record levels of hiring over the past two years. The practice of rescinding offers was last seen widely during the financial crisis. More leaders are seeing it as a feasible strategy, as it is better than laying off employees, despite the reputational risks. The phenomenon has so far been mostly restricted to extremely well-paid tech jobs for highly in-demand workers. | 4Miscellaneous
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Vizzu (GitHub Repo) | Vizzu is a library that uses a generic dataviz engine to generate many types of charts and animate between them. It is designed for building animated data stories and interactive explorers. Vizzu features automatic data aggregation and data filtering, HTML5 canvas rendering, and it is dependency-free. A live demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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An AI system identified a potential new drug in just 46 days | A team from an AI pharma startup used an artificial intelligence system to examine previous research and patents for molecules known to work against a drug target. It came up with 30,000 designs for potential molecules within 21 days. Six of these molecules were synthesized in the lab and tested in cells, with the most promising molecule tested in mice. The whole process took 46 days. Getting a drug to market is expensive and time consuming. Drug companies have invested a lot in using AI to expedite the process. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Scientists develop an ‘electronic skin’ that can mimic the natural functions of human skin | Electronic skin (e-skin) could play an important role in next-generation personalized medicine, prosthetics, AI, and soft robotics. The ideal e-skin would mimic the natural functions of human skin, such as sensing and touch, while being flexible and durable. A team of scientists has developed a durable e-skin using a hydrogel reinforced with silica nanoparticles and a 2D titanium carbine MXene sensing layer bound together with highly conductive nanowires. The e-skin's conductive pathways to the sensor layer remain intact even when the material is stretched to 28 times its original size. It can sense objects from 20cm away and respond to stimuli in less than one-tenth of a second. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Awesome Stacks (GitHub Repo) | Awesome Stacks is an open-source list of tech stacks for building different applications and features. Each topic has a description with a list of a few of the key tools and technologies. Some topics also link to a tutorial, starter kit, or boilerplate to help beginners. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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drgn (GitHub Repo) | drgn is a programmable debugger that exposes the types and variables in a program for easy, expressive scripting in Python. drgn aims to make scripting as natural as possible to make debugging feel like coding. It was developed for debugging in the Linux kernel but it can also debug userspace programs written in C. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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NASA's InSight successfully lands on Mars after 'seven minutes of terror'
NASA successfully landed its InSight mission on Mars, after six and a half months of travelling through space, using a supersonic parachute to decelerate from 12,000 miles per hour to just 5 miles per hour on impact. The probe will deploy a seismometer to listen for earthquakes and a drill to dig beneath the Martian surface and explore the Martian interior.
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) | NASA successfully landed its InSight mission on Mars, after six and a half months of travelling through space, using a supersonic parachute to decelerate from 12,000 miles per hour to just 5 miles per hour on impact. The probe will deploy a seismometer to listen for earthquakes and a drill to dig beneath the Martian surface and explore the Martian interior. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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New Anthony Bourdain documentary deepfakes his voice | Roadrunner is a new documentary about the life and death of Anthony Bourdain. The filmmaker used AI technology to digitally recreate Bourdain's voice for three audio quotes. There is a growing industry for AI voice replication. A sample of the AI-generated audio from the documentary is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Brave is launching its own search engine with the help of ex-Cliqz devs and tech | Brave, the privacy-focused browser, is launching its own search engine. It acquired an open-source search engine developed by the team behind Cliqs, a now-defunct anti-tracking search-browser combo. The engine is built on top of a completely independent index and it can deliver the quality people expect without compromising their privacy. It does not collect IP addresses or use personally identifiable information to improve search results. Brave Search will be offered as a choice to Brave browser users and it will potentially become the default choice. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple is targeting April to launch its new video service, but Netflix won't be a part of it and HBO is in doubt | Apple’s much anticipated new video streaming service is set to launch in April. The plan is to simplify video streaming by allowing users to watch content from multiple content distributors through one app and one subscription, but some distributors are disputing Apple’s suggested terms. Apple aims to take a 30% cut of the revenue from subscribers, which is double the 15% it currently takes for subscriptions to current services through its App Store. Regardless of which streaming services are on board, Apple plans to release a ton of original content on its platform, having signed multi-year deals with entertainers such as Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, and Steven Spielberg. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Startup Resources (Content Site) | The name really says it all, this is just a well curated list of startup resources broken down into dozens of categories. The curator Jói Sigurdsson is a startup founder himself, he currently runs a SAAS startup called CrankWheel. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Coolify (Website) | Coolify is a self-hostable Heroku and Netlify alternative. It can deploy Node.js and static sites just by pushing code to git. Coolify is easy to install and upgrade, and it features one-click database deployment. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Yale scientists restore cellular function in 32 dead pig brains | Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine used an artificial perfusion system called BrainEx to restore cellular function in the brains of 32 dead pigs killed hours earlier. BrainEx is a system that pumps an experimental solution into the brain to mimic blood flow. Some brains were kept alive for up to 36 hours. The brains never approached neural activity anywhere near consciousness due to preventative measures. This technology raises many ethical issues. Its use could shrink the pool of eligible organ donors. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Salad chain Sweetgreen buys kitchen robotics startup Spyce | California-based salad chain Sweetgreen has announced plans to go all-in on automation with its acquisition of Spyce. Spyce's automated restaurants first opened in 2015 and there are currently two automated restaurants in the Boston area. The two locations will stay open as Sweetgreen works to incorporate Spyce's technology into its restaurants. Sweetgreen currently operates more than 120 locations in the US. It is introducing the technology so that employees can focus more on preparation and hospitality and it has no plans to replace employees outright. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Blue Origin Employees Say They Don’t Think Its Rocket Is Safe, Wouldn’t Ride In | A group of current and former employees of Blue Origin recently wrote an article questioning the company's commitment to safety. The article describes a work culture that overstretches teams and prioritizes speed over safety. Although they didn't list any single safety issues, the authors said that they wouldn't feel safe riding in a Blue Origin rocket. A lack of overarching safety regulations made it easier for safety issues to fly under the radar. | 4Miscellaneous
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AutoGluon: AutoML Toolkit for Deep Learning (GitHub Repo) | AutoGluon can train and deploy high-accuracy deep learning models for image, text, and tabular data with just a few lines of code. It automates machine learning tasks so data scientists can easily create strong predictive models. An example of a basic implementation of AutoGluon is available, and more specific instructions and advanced topics are linked. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Gmail Classic (Github Repo) | This is a project that lets you revert back to the old Gmail layout before the recent redesign. The project includes not only the original CSS, but also a handy Chrome extension that will apply the CSS automatically. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Didi says it will delist from the U.S. and prepare to list in Hong Kong | Didi will start delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and will list in Hong Kong instead. Chinese regulators asked the firm's executives to delist from the NYSE due to concerns over sensitive data. China doesn't want tech companies listing in US markets as it brings them under the jurisdiction of US regulators. The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently finalized rules that allow it to delist foreign stocks for failing to meet audit requirements. Almost all US-listed Chinese tech companies are expected to relist in Hong Kong or the mainland. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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US government reportedly in talks with tech companies on how to use location data in COVID-19 fight | The US government is in talks with tech companies to discuss how the data from smartphones can be used to combat the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. Location data can be used to help track the general spread of the infection. Data would be anonymized before being sent to any organization. One of the measures suggested by experts is to use location data to track contact with other people for someone who has a confirmed case of the virus. Naturally, many people are wary of a widespread effort to collect personal data, especially in a time of extreme duress. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Signal’s New PIN Feature Worries Cybersecurity Experts | Signal has been a favorite of privacy advocates ever since Edward Snowden endorsed the app. One of the reasons the app was highly recommended was because it did not collect much information from users. Signal developers have implemented a new requirement for users to create a PIN to activate an account data recovery feature. The new feature stores users' contacts, profile information, settings, and blocked users list on Signal's servers. Security experts are concerned as it demonstrates that the developers have changed their stance on storing user information. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Amazon announces its first-ever Kindle for kids | Amazon has unveiled the Kindle Kids Edition, its first-ever e-reader aimed at children. It costs $20 more than a normal Kindle and comes with one of four colorful cases, a two-year guarantee, and one year's access to FreeTime Unlimited. Amazon will replace the device for free if anything happens to it under the two-year guarantee. FreeTime Unlimited offers 20,000 kid-friendly books, videos, and apps. It is $4.99 per month or $2.99 per month for existing Prime subscribers. The Kindle Kids Edition includes a feature called Word Wise that will automatically define difficult words, as well as turn any word that a child looks up into a flashcard for later review. Kids can earn achievement badges, as well as decorate their Kindle with fun wallpapers. It is available for pre-order now and will ship on October 30th. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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These tiny $17,500 prefab 'urban escape pods' from former Tesla and SpaceX designers are now available to preorder | Jupe is a startup that creates sci-fi inspired portable shelters. Its team consists of designers from Tesla, SpaceX, and Airbnb. The prefab shelters are designed to go anywhere, with solar panels and batteries to supply power when off the grid. They are spacious, with enough room for a queen-sized bed, a desk, a chair, an ottoman, and 38 cubic feet of storage space in the floors. At $17,500, the shelters are available now for preorder. An image gallery showing off the different features of the shelters is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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gqt (GitHub Repo) | gqt is a GraphQL client that runs in the terminal. It allows developers to build and execute GraphQL queries from the terminal. A GIF demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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MIT and Stanford Professors Are Designing a Cryptocurrency to Top Bitcoin: Unit-e | Professors from 7 universities including MIT and Stanford are teaming up to create a cryptocurrency called Unit-e, which will be able to process tens of thousands of transactions per second compared to 3-7 for Bitcoin or 10-30 for Ethereum. The group plans on launching in the second half of this year. This will be made possible by new consensus and sharding mechanisms. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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eDEX-UI (Github Repo) | Somebody actually built a working version of the Tron Legacy sci-fi movie style computer dashboard. It works on all OSes and there's a screenshot in the repo that shows how incredible this looks (I ran this on my Macbook and it works like a charm)! | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule | NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever visited just after midnight on New Year's Day. The tiny rock is part of the Kuiper Belt in the outer part of the solar system, a billion miles beyond Pluto. Ultima Thule is about 20 miles wide, and is thought to be a primitive fragment of the early solar system. There's a super super low resolution image from the flyby in the article, you can basically just make out the shape of the rock. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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This tiny Bluetooth chip doesn't need a battery because it harvests energy from the air | A new paper-thin stamp-sized Bluetooth chip is able to operate without a battery by harvesting energy from radio frequencies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular signals, powering a Bluetooth-equipped ARM processor. Because it doesn't need a battery, it can be produced cheaply and mounted on almost anything. The company behind the chip, Wiliot, raised $30 million from investors including Amazon and Samsung. They hope to have a limited release in 2019 and a wide release in 2020. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Watch Samsung show off its robotic BB-8 lookalike Ballie, AR glasses, and exoskeleton demo | Samsung held its CES 2020 press conference on Monday. The show featured robots, exoskeletons, AI, augmented reality, smart cities, and other technologies. The highlight of the show was Ballie, a robotic sphere fused with Samsung's artificial intelligence technology. It can recognize people, stream video, and operate smart home gadgets. A five-minute video showing these technologies is available. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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PureORM (GitHub Repo) | PureORM is a pure ORM SQL toolkit library for Node that lets you write regular native SQL and receive properly structured pure business objects. Examples are available in the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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3D Game Shaders For Beginners (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a collection of shading techniques to allow developers to add textures, lighting, shadows, normal maps, glowing objects, ambient occlusion, and more to their 3D games. Each technique is explained in a way that can be applied to whatever stack a developer chooses. Examples are given using the Panda3D game engine and OpenGL Shading Language. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The We Company, better known as WeWork, files confidentially for IPO | The We Company, formally known as WeWork, is joining the growing list of tech firms that have filed to go public this year. WeWork provided co-working spaces, and the name change represents its widening focus. The We Company includes WeLive, a branch that provides flexible residential offerings, and WeGrow, an educational unit. Between 2017 and 2018, The We Company doubled both its revenue and losses. The exact details of the IPO submission remain confidential. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Here’s What Happens When an Algorithm Determines Your Work Schedule | Rosters have always been an issue for businesses, especially those in the retail, hospitality, and foodservice industries. Employees in these industries often work long and unpredictable hours. Work rosters are being increasingly scheduled by algorithms that analyze seasonal sales patterns, customer trends, and even the weather to organize staff rosters. Workers claim that automated scheduling systems are making them miserable. The algorithms often fail to consider the needs of an employee the way that a human manager would. As the algorithms are essentially a black box, it is unknown whether any considerations are ever made in favor of workers. Trained algorithms are often biased towards the data they are trained on. If the data had been trained based on decisions made by someone who was prejudiced against a certain group, the resulting model will also tend to be prejudiced against these groups. Labor laws have not caught up yet to this development in technology. | 4Miscellaneous
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State of Startups 2018 (Survey) | First Round Capital surveyed 529 founders about the tech industry. 89% believe there is ageism in tech, and on average they believe it starts at 46 years old. They were most bullish on Stripe, followed by SpaceX, Coinbase, Slack and Airbnb. 39% believe China will be the center of tech by 2028, while 57% believe it will be the US. 77% say tech giants are perceived as evil, 50% believe they actually are evil. 87% are blockchain skeptics. | 4Miscellaneous
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New from Satellite 2020: GitHub Discussions, Codespaces, securing code in private repositories, and more | GitHub has announced four new products this week to help software communities work together. Codespaces is a fully-featured, cloud-hosted dev environment that loads directly within GitHub. It can be configured to load code, dependencies, developer tools, extensions, and dotfiles. GitHub Discussions is a place for the community to discuss ideas, help new users, and collaborate on best practices. Code scanning is now available as a GitHub-native experience. Secret scanning is now available for private repositories. GitHub has announced GitHub Private Instances. Private Instances will provide enhanced security, compliance, and policy features for enterprise customers. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Physicists engineer an atom laser that can stay on forever | Atoms can be thought of as waves, so it is possible to build atom lasers containing waves of matter. These atom lasers don’t usually last long. A team of physicists from Amsterdam have built an atom laser that can create a continuous beam for a theoretically indefinite period of time. It works by cooling atoms in several steps through space so that there is a continuous supply of ultracold atoms to replenish the atom laser. If the scientists are able to create a stable output beam of matter, the applications will be limitless. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Meta's acquisition of Giphy is set to be blocked by an antitrust regulator | The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to reverse Meta's acquisition of Giphy by December 1. Facebook announced the deal in May 2020, but antitrust regulators stopped the sale to investigate whether the merger would harm competition. Provisional findings said that the sale would give Meta an unfair advantage over rival platforms. While both companies are from the US, the CMA has jurisdiction over any acquisition where the combined parties control over 25% of a particular good or service supplied in the UK. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple job listing mentions “homeOS” days before WWDC keynote | Apple recently posted a job listing that mentioned homeOS. The listing was later updated to replace the name with other existing products. homeOS could be an internal name for the operating system that HomePods use, but recent rumors suggest that it might be the name for a new operating system that will unify the HomePod, Apple TV, and other smart home products that Apple might introduce in the future. Any announcements about homeOS will likely be made at Apple's WWDC developer conference on Monday. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Professional Programming (GitHub Repo) | This is a collection of books, articles, and other materials to self-study any area of being a professional programmer (algorithms, project management, dotfiles, security etc.). Incredibly comprehensive. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The Turing Test is obsolete. It’s time to build a new barometer for AI | The Turing Test is now obsolete and shouldn't be used as the ultimate test for useful AI. Computers were significantly slower when Alan Turing first laid out his thesis. The goal of conversational AI, to make a machine that could converse with humans in a manner indistinguishable from other humans, doesn’t take into account how technology has improved. AI should augment human intelligence and improve our daily lives. To make an AI sound more human would require limiting it. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tavern Owner Sets Up Virtual Pub for Town Patrons—But Welcomes More Than 14,500 Global Customers | An ex-landlady has set up a virtual pub that regularly hosts live music, quizzes, DJ sets, and open mic, and comedy nights. The UK-based pub now has 14,500 customers, with members from Australia, the USA, Canada, Spain, and Italy. Its popularity has blown up in recent weeks. The owner has started creating an international team in order to keep the page running 24/7. | 4Miscellaneous
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New diamond wafers made in Japan can store 1 billion Blu-Ray discs of data | A Japanese company and researchers from Saga University have developed a new method to mass-produce two-inch wafers made of diamond. The ultra-high-purity diamonds could be used for quantum computing, which requires diamonds with less than three parts per billion of nitrogen atoms. Previous attempts at creating these diamonds resulted in crystals that were only about four millimeters square. The company plans to commercialize the diamonds in 2023. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How To Develop A Cryptocurrency – The Complete Guide (30 minute read) | This tutorial teaches developers how to create a cryptocurrency using Solidity and the ERC20 Token standard. Readers will learn how to develop and deploy Ethereum Smart Contracts, create ERA20 Tokens, set up local Ethereum development environments, deploy on Polygon Mumbai, and visualize custom tokens on MetaMask. No previous Solidity knowledge is required. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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~8yrs ago (Dec’12) | In the early days of cloud, Google had some of the smartest people in tech working for it, but they still got a lot wrong. Google missed the market through bad timing, its go-to-market strategy, and the way it productized its technology. While Google had the best tech, it had poor documentation and it didn't have a solutions mindset. This thread follows a Google engineer's experience with the company as it navigated these issues, giving an inside look at how Google Cloud became what it is today. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Uber app redesign includes public transit, combines ride hailing and food delivery | Uber has redesigned its app to combine its ride-hailing and food delivery services, encourage public transportation and scooter use, and to add new safety features. Users will now see a prompt to choose whether to get a ride or to order food when they open the app. A new rewards program for food delivery customers has been introduced with the update. The changes may strengthen Uber's claims that it is a technology platform for different types of digital marketplaces, which means that it may not have to treat its drivers as employees as they perform work outside of Uber's usual course of business. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Twitter Is Finally Doing Stories | Twitter has started testing a feature called Fleets that allows users to post photos, videos, and text that disappear after a short period of time, similar to 'stories' from other social media platforms. Snapchat first invented stories in 2013 and the feature has since been copied by Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, Tinder, and LinkedIn. People are more willing to share casual, everyday thoughts through stories as the messages disappear. Users will not be able to retweet or like Fleets. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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nbdev (GitHub Repo) | nbdev allows developers to fully develop a library in Jupyter Notebooks. It is a true literate programming environment where you can put all your code, tests, and documentation in one place. Developers can easily debug and refactor code. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple expands authorized repairs to ~1,000 Best Buy stores | In the last three years, Apple has expanded its repair coverage to around 800 locations around the US, courtesy of third-party partnerships. Now, up to 1,800 locations will be able to perform certified repairs, as Apple has authorized repairs at around 1,000 Best Buy stores. For Apple, this means that its customers in more rural areas will still receive quality service, and for Best Buy, this will be another endorsement from a large tech company for their services. Samsung has also authorized Galaxy repairs for Best Buy. Apple strives to maintain a high-quality service, and it wants its customers to feel confident in knowing that repairs are being done safely and correctly. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Researchers Found a Way to Send Tiny Robots Into Mouse Brains | Researchers in China have managed to treat brain tumors in mice by using microscopic robots to deliver drugs directly into their brain tissue. The robots were coated in E. coli, which tricked the rodents' immune systems into attacking them, absorbing the robots and cancer-fighting drugs in the process. They are magnetic and can be remotely controlled by a rotating magnetic field. There is still a lot of work before the robots can be used in humans, but the design could lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of various brain diseases. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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