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Rough Awesome Font (GitHub Website) | This page contains a library of SVG icons with a rough hand-drawn effect. Users can search for icons and customize the color and background of the icons. The SVG source can be copied directly into your projects. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Report says Apple to release new ‘iPhone SE’ with 4.7-inch display in spring 2020 | Apple is about to announce its new lineup of iPhones. While the high-end models bring in about half of Apple's total phone sales volume, its cheaper models are also important to the business. A new report says that Apple will be launching a new 4.7-inch iPhone that will be priced similar to the iPhone SE at around $400. The new 4.7-inch iPhone will be similar to the iPhone 8, with a few differences, such as an LCD screen. It will likely feature the new A13 chip and have Touch ID. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Introducing Astro: Ship Less JavaScript | Astro is a static site builder. It supports many popular UI frameworks, TypeScript, Scoped CSS, Tailwind, any npm package, and more. Astro renders every page to HTML by default, only loading components that need interactivity when they enter the browser viewport. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Weird Startup Proposes Dropping Artificial Human Organs From Space | Inversion Space is a startup that wants to store goods up in space in special capsules to be sent down to Earth when needed. The capsules could store things like artificial human organs, mobile hospital units, or other items and deliver them anywhere on the planet at blistering speeds. Inversion Space has already secured $10 million in seed money to fund the venture. Many major advances will be required before Inversion can realize its mission. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ray.so (Website) | Ray.so lets developers create code snippet images. Users can edit the theme and change the syntax highlighting to any language. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Building an adaptive favicon | This article teaches readers how to build an adaptive favicon with SVG. Custom favicons are a great way to polish a web project. They are usually made using ICO files, but browsers have recently started allowing SVGs. A live demo, as well as a video version of the article, is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Mysterious 'Robin Hood' hackers donating stolen money | A group of hackers has donated stolen money to charities, claiming that they want to make the world a better place. Children International has stated it will not keep the money and The Water Project has yet to release a statement about the donations. The donations were made through The Giving Block, a service that helps non-profits receive donations in cryptocurrencies. The Giving Block is working to trace the funds and determine if they came from stolen sources. It claims that the funds will be easier to trace as the donations were made using cryptocurrency. No identity information is required when donating to The Giving Block. The donations raise moral and legal issues. | 4Miscellaneous
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Dev Degree (Website) | Dev Degree is a learning program that combines hands-on developer experience at Shopify with an accredited Computer Science degree. Students will take three university courses on campus each term and spend around 25 hours a week at Shopify over four years. Applicants can choose to attend either Carleton University or York University. The program teaches students development skills and technologies through real-world problems and mentorship from industry leaders. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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China is about to launch a trio of spacecraft to Mars — including a rover | China will send a trio of spacecraft to Mars on July 23rd on top of the Long March 5 rocket. An orbiter will study Mars from above, while a lander and rover will be sent to the surface. Tianwen-1 will be China's first big interplanetary mission. China has recently landed a rover on the far side of the Moon and has other space projects planned for the future. The spacecraft will reach Mars sometime in February 2021 where it will stay in orbit for about two or three months before deploying the lander and rover. Tianwen-1's rover will map out Martian geography, look for water-ice in the soil, measure the climate of the surface of the planet, and more. It is equipped with a ground-penetrating radar that can identify different rocks and search for reservoirs of water-ice underneath the surface. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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AI2 shows off an open, Q&A-focused rival to GPT3 | The Allen Institute for AI has revealed a language model a tenth the size of OpenAI's GPT-3 with on par or better performance. Macaw is good at tracking who did what, but it still has some quirks. The model was not designed to replace GPT-3 but to add to the research advancing language generation and understanding. A smaller model would be more practical for general use. The team is still working on explaining how the Macaw model generates its answers. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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An app can be a home-cooked meal | After losing an app that his family used all the time, Robin decided to develop his own replacement. He broke down the core actions of the app and then spent a week redeveloping the app that his family loved to use. This sort of programming is the equivalent to home cooking. The analogy works as it emphasizes the difference in needs between home cooking and a restaurant operation. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Open Source SPL that can execute SQL without RDB (Sponsor) | SPL provides a syntax equivalent to the SQL92 standard and can perform rich and diverse data calculations. You can directly execute SQL by using TXT/CSV/JSON/XML/XLS/Web Service/MongoDB/Salesforce… as data tables. Learn more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Privilege Escalation Cheatsheet (GitHub Repo) | Vulnhub is a website that provides virtual machines for penetration testing. It gamifies the experience by making the goal to 'capture the flag' inside the system. This repository contains cheatsheets and walkthroughs for Vulnhub players to help them understand the fundamentals of Privilege Escalation with examples. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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'An army of robots' and zero human workers will build a dam in China | China is building a dam project on the Tibetan Plateau using artificial intelligence and unmanned machinery. It will build the dam using a similar process to 3D printing. The dam will be capable of producing nearly five billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year once it is completed in 2024. Some jobs will still be handled by humans due to task complexity. Construction robots can help offset the decline of manual labor caused by low birth rates. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Belarusian hackers are trying to overthrow the Lukashenko regime | A group of activist-hackers in Belarus have infiltrated almost every part of the country's government, leaking sensitive information and defacing government websites as an act of protest. The Belarus Cyber Partisans are 15 IT and cybersecurity experts whose aim is to bring democracy and rule of law back into the country. The group received help from BYPOL, another group made up of former government officials who defected and current ones working to topple the regime from the inside. Data leaked by the group includes lists of police informants, secret recordings captured by the government wiretapping system, and personal information on spies. | 4Miscellaneous
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Amazon is shipping expired food, from baby formula to old beef jerky, scaring consumers and putting big brands at risk (10 minute read) | Amazon has been shipping expired foods to consumers. Its automated technology and logistics system has been blamed for the blunder, and the problem will only get worse as the marketplace grows. There are more than 2.5 million businesses using Amazon for distribution. An analysis of reviews found that 40 percent of the vendors who offer the 100 best-selling food products had more than five customer complaints about expired goods. Third-party sellers are required to provide Amazon with an expiration date for food products and guarantee that items have a remaining shelf life of 90 days, but there is no indication that the policy is enforced. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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VIP cheatsheets for Stanford's CS 230 Deep Learning (Github Repo) | Really great cheatsheets made by Stanford CS graduate students for their deep learning class, these have simple explanations and diagrams of convolutional neural networks, deep learning tips and tricks, recurrent neural networks, and other deep learning concepts. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Microsoft Could Bring You Back From The Dead… As A Chat Bot | Microsoft has filed a patent for a method that would use social data such as images, voice data, social media posts, and other written media to build a profile of a person and create a chatbot with the personality of that person. The chatbot could even sound like the real person, by using recordings and sound data from that person. Microsoft's patent includes creating 2D/3D models of people using image and/or video data. The subject of these recreations could be anyone, so it is possible to create a chatbot of someone from the past. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Awesome Hacker Search Engines (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a list of search engines that are useful for penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, red team operations, and bug bounties. It includes categories for exploits, mail addresses, threat intelligence, web history, and much more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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AI ruined chess. Now it’s making the game beautiful again | AlphaZero is a more flexible and powerful successor to AlphaGo. Both artificial intelligences are capable of beating humans in games of Chess, Go, and Shogi. Using AI to beat games of hard logic has made the games more rigid, with champions at the highest levels playing out games by memorizing decisions that AI had created prior. Former chess champion Vladimir Kramnik has injected creativity back into the game by teaching AlphaZero to learn nine variants of chess. Each variant has different rules and resulted in a variety of different strategies. Now that machines are unbeatable, changing the rules like this could make the game more of an art form and result in a better game. | 4Miscellaneous
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sshcode (GitHub Repo) | sshcode is a command-line interface that installs a code-server over SSH. Extensions and settings are automatically uploaded, so remote servers can easily be used as VS code hosts. Chrome is recommended as sshcode is able to open the browser in app mode, meaning that there are no keybind conflicts or indication that a browser is being used. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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U.S. FCC commissioner wants Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores | US FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. The video app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Carr claims that TikTok functions as a surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data from US citizens. TikTok says its data access approval process is overseen by a US-based security team and that data is only accessed on an as-needed basis under strict controls. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Over half the deer in Michigan seem to have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 | A survey of wild deer populations in the US has found that a large number of the animals have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2. The US Department of Agriculture was studying a variety of species to identify potential reservoirs or hosts for the virus. Deer show no symptoms when infected. The virus could pick up mutations that help it adapt to deer. A mutated virus would be less susceptible to the immune response generated by vaccines or prior infections. | 4Miscellaneous
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Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Launches Social Network | A new social media network called WT:Social has been stealthily launched by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. WT:Social was previously a news-focused site, but it was revamped and has slowly been onboarding new users since last month. Its focus is on removing bad actors, editing misleading stories, and giving people the choice to dictate which stories get presented to them. WT:Social will allow users to build niche communities called SubWikis that will rely on volunteers to moderate and enforce standards of content. The platform survives on donations and is ad-free. There is currently a waitlist to join WT:Social. Users can skip the queue by pledging $12.99 a month or $100 for a year. None of the data generated on the site will be sold. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The World Just Witnessed the First Entirely Virtual Presidential Campaign | Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was elected in a landslide decision on Sunday. The former entertainer and comedian conducted his entire campaign online and through media, with no public contact with the electorate and only debating with other candidates towards the end of the campaign period. Voters were addressed through YouTube videos, Instagram posts, and appearing on TV. The virtual campaign allowed Zelenskiy to run without a clearly defined policy. He vaguely alluded to positions on policy issues and solicited advice from voters on his campaign website. His final platform was published online a few days before the election and contained only a few general sentences regarding major issues. It is hoped that the novice politician, who is from outside the existing political system, may be able to bring reform throughout the country. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple's big iPhone update lets you FaceTime with Windows and Android users — here's how | Apple's iOS 15 update lets users invite Windows and Android users to FaceTime calls. Users will now have an option to share a link to invite people to join FaceTime calls via web browser. Hosts will have to approve anyone trying to join the call. An Apple device is required to start a call, but anyone can join after the call has started. Instructions on how to start and join a call are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Hacker Roadmap (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a guide on becoming a pen tester from scratch. It goes through the basic concepts of information security, discusses the basic steps and tools of pen testing, and also links additional resources for further information. Students are encouraged to practice their skills on challenges, rather than real targets, and to use the information responsibly. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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YOLO: Uber's Rider App Rewrite, From the Front Seat (16 minute read) | In 2016, Uber decided to rewrite its entire rider app. The team had less than 3 months to rewrite over 1 million lines of code per platform. This article follows an engineer’s experience during the process, from when the project was first proposed, to the launch of the rewritten app and what happened afterwards. It discusses how the experience impacted those that worked at Uber during that period and how the project changed the way the company developed future apps. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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MIT’s latest artificial intelligence can rewrite outdated Wikipedia pages | A new text-generating system created at MIT is able to update outdated Wikipedia pages with information gathered from the internet in a human-like style. The system only requires a few pieces of information to rewrite a relevant article on any topic. It is able to analyze style and grammar and make sure that the output matches the desired style. The system also has a fact-checking and neutrality component that scans for polarizing words and can remove information. At the end of the day, the system will still need a human to review its output to make a call on whether the information is correct. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Microsoft indefinitely postpones return to U.S. offices as Covid cases surge | Microsoft will indefinitely delay the reopening of its headquarters and other US offices as the coronavirus continues to proliferate in the country. The company had previously planned for employees to return to offices in September. Employees will be given a month-long transition period once the company decides it is ready to welcome them back. Facebook, Google, and Amazon are planning to allow workers to come back to US offices in 2022. | 4Miscellaneous
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Here’s How to Protect Data Privacy and Enable Analytics (Sponsor) | Here’s How to Protect Data Privacy and Enable Analytics . Sensitive data often finds its way into data analytics pipelines where it’s rarely needed, but adds enormous security and compliance risk. However, blindly purging such data from analytics pipelines can break key use cases.Learn how a data privacy vault and tokenization can help you preserve privacy while enabling analytics. Download this white paper to learn more. | 0Sponsor
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Dizzle - CSS Selector Library | Dizzle is a simple and fast CSS selector engine that turns CSS selectors into functions that test if elements match them. It features full implementation of CSS 3 and CSS 4 selectors and partial implementation of jQuery extensions. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple is reportedly cutting iPhone production by 10% between January and March | For the second time in two months, Apple has cut iPhone production, this time dropping iPhone production by 10% from January to March of 2019. They will now be producing 40-43 million units instead of 47-48 million units as previously planned. Both Apple and Samsung have been hit hard by a slowdown in China's economy, causing both to drop earnings forecasts. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking? (Hacker News Thread) | This Hacker News thread discusses current trends in remote vs in-person work. People are getting more fully-remote job offers from recruiters, even if they are looking for in-person work. There is a big difference between working remotely for a small startup or company compared to large companies. Software engineers are in very high demand, so many are able to pick and choose which positions they want to take. | 4Miscellaneous
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Basecamp Personal (Website) | Basecamp Personal is a free way to run Basecamp for freelancers, students, families, and personal projects. Basecamp is a way to show the required information in a project all in one place so that developers can communicate what is being done and what needs to be done next in an effective way. It can fundamentally improve how project workflows are managed. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple releases new Beddit sleep tracker | Apple has released the Beddit Sleep Monitor after acquiring Beddit in 2017. The device is a 2mm-thin sensor strip that is placed under your bedsheets to measure sleep time, heart rate, breathing, snoring, bedroom temperature and humidity. You can connect it to your Apple Watch to display sleep report notifications and bedtime reminders. Your sleep analysis and heart rate data will also be accessible through the Health app on iOS 12. The device is available in Apple stores and on Apple's website for $150. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Uber Is Said to File for an IPO as It Races Lyft to a Public Debut | Uber confidentially filed papers for their IPO last Thursday. The company is expected to IPO at a $120 billion valuation in the first half of next year. Last August, Toyota invested $500 million in Uber at a valuation of $76 billion. Uber lost $1.07 billion in the just the third quarter of 2018. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is focused on cutting unprofitable business segments, and has already sold off Uber's operations in Russia and Southeast Asia. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Virgin Galactic could beat SpaceX to major milestone Thursday | On Thursday, Virgin Galactic will attempt to beat out SpaceX and Blue Origin to be the first commercial launch to send a human to space without the support of a government space agency. Technically they're only going into the mesosphere (50 miles above Earth), it's a little fuzzy what the technical definition of space is. Billionaire Richard Branson, owner of Virgin, had previously said that he would send humans to space by Christmas. Eventually Virgin Galactic wants to send tourists to space, but plans have been pushed back because a crash killed one of their test pilots. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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MoviePass is officially coming back | MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes has announced that the service will return this summer. The company recently held a launch event in NYC. MoviePass 2.0 will be powered by web3 technology. The new model will run on tradable credits that roll over month to month. Subscribers will be able to use their credits to bring a friend. Aspects of PreShow, a technology by a company owned by Spikes that trades ad views for in-game currency, will be incorporated into the new MoviePass. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Elon Musk’s Boring Company gets green light for Las Vegas tunnel system | The Boring Company has won approval from Las Vegas officials to build a network of vehicle tunnels underneath the city. The Vegas Loop will allow passengers to travel to and from several landmarks inside Tesla vehicles. As many as 57,000 passengers will be able to travel through the tunnels every hour. A smaller version of the system already operates underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Boring Company will foot the bill for building the 29 miles of tunnels, but it has asked casinos and other businesses to pay for the 51 planned stations. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tesla shows off next-gen automated emergency braking stopping for pedestrians and cyclists | Tesla will be releasing an update for its Automated Emergency Braking system which will enable it to detect pedestrians and cyclists. The first version of Tesla’s AEB was introduced in 2017 for all vehicles powered by its Autopilot technology, including vehicles that were capable of autopilot but had not purchased and installed the Autopilot cruise-assist upgrade. Different implementations of these features have existed since Volvo included them with its automated braking system in 2009. However, Tesla’s AEB is expected to be more effective as there is more advanced technology used in Tesla vehicles. | 4Miscellaneous
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Awesome Developer Resources | This article contains a list of resources for developers. Sections include Fonts, Icons, Animations, Youtube Channels, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Smoke seen for miles as SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers anomaly at Cape Canaveral | Orange smoke was seen rising from SpaceX facilities at Cape Canaveral after an anomaly occurred during a test of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. No injuries were reported and SpaceX was able to contain the anomaly. While it is unknown which Crew Dragon was being tested, all Crew Dragon spaceship engines are currently undergoing rounds of tests to evaluate readiness and performance. Crew Dragon’s development timeline will likely be modified after an investigation into the incident. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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First new Alzheimer treatment in 20 years approved | Aducanumab is the first new treatment for Alzheimer's disease that has been approved for use in the US in nearly 20 years. It targets the underlying cause of the disease rather than its symptoms. While it is not a miracle drug, its approval will be a huge boost to dementia research. Alzheimer's disease affects more than 30 million people around the world, most over the age of 65. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How Does One Get Hired by a Top Cybercrime Gang? | The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced the arrest of a 55-year old Latvian woman who allegedly worked as a programmer for Trickbot. Trickbot has infected millions of computers and installed ransomware on many systems. The woman did not cover her tracks very well and her personal information was easily obtained by authorities. Trickbot's hiring model allows the gang to recruit a steady stream of developers cheaply and covertly. However, each new recruit increases the risk of investigators infiltrating the group. Ransomware attacks are nearly all instigated by ransomware affiliate groups, who are constantly recruiting new members. | 4Miscellaneous
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CLUI: Building a Graphical Command Line | CLIs are powerful, and text input is predictable and constant. While CLIs are efficient, users must memorize commands to fully utilize them. GUIs address many of these issues by making things easier to access and do, but they can become complex and programs can easily become bloated as developers try to cram features wherever they fit into the program. Many programs have become so cluttered that it is easier to search for commands using a text search than through navigating the GUI. Some popular products such as Voice Assistants are a balance between CLI-inspired inputs and GUI-inspired outputs. In order to make CLIs more approachable for users, they should be able to be used with a mouse, commands should be discoverable, and output should support rich and interactive media. Repl.it's CLUI is an easily extensible interface that blends GUIs and CLIs, where you can type in a command, and get suggestions for commands. It operates like a decision tree, guiding users to commands. Adding features is as simple as adding commands on the backend. A link to some of the code and a demo application is available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Everything you need to know about Facebook's data breach affecting 50M users | Data from 50 million Facebook users was breached over the weekend, with attackers gaining access to personal info like "name, gender, and hometown" that was linked to a user's profile page. No credit card information or private messages were compromised. The vulnerability was introduced on the site in July 2017, but Facebook didn't know about it until September 16th of this year, and the bug was not fixed until September 27th. The identity of the attackers is still unknown, and it is not clear whether or not any Instagram data was compromised. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Varda Space Industries will send its first space factory to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket | Varda Space Industries is a startup that wants to build in-space manufacturing facilities that use the benefits of microgravity to make novel materials, like bio-printed organs or specialized semiconductors. It will send its first spacecraft to orbit in 2023. The spacecraft will be outfitted with a microgravity manufacturing module and a reentry capsule. It will spend approximately three months in orbit and bring back around 40-60 kilograms of manufactured materials. Varda has plans to make two more space vehicles. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google Maps tests a social networking feature with the ability to ‘follow’ Local Guides | Google Maps will soon test a new feature that allows users to follow top Local Guides. Local Guides gives the most active Maps contributors a special status and a variety of perks. If users choose to follow a Local Guide, the Guides' recommendations will be displayed when using Google Maps. The recommendations will mainly feature photos. Users will have to click through in order to see written reviews. It will be trialed in nine cities. Google's focus with Local Guides seems to be engagement and quantity of reviews, rather than review accuracy or quality. There is no set date for the launch of the feature. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How the placenta evolved from an ancient virus | The placenta is a temporary organ that serves as a baby's lung, its waste-disposal system, and its nutrition source. It allows for two human beings that are genetically different to live in one body, without one destroying the other. The organ is estimated to have evolved about 150 million to 200 million years ago. An analysis of the protein used by the placenta to fuse into the uterus shows that the DNA used to make it actually came from an ancient retrovirus. It is likely that a viral infection hundreds of millions of years ago resulted in the passing on of the DNA that eventually created placentas. | 4Miscellaneous
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Researchers build a metadata-based image database using DNA storage | DNA-based data storage offers phenomenal data density and can store data for centuries without using any energy. Due to DNA's role in biology, humans will likely be able to maintain the ability to read it. However, DNA storage is expensive and slow and every time the data is read, it degrades. A team of researchers from MIT has created a DNA-based image storage system where it is possible to access just the data that is required, leaving the rest of the data untouched. The system prevents data loss and makes DNA storage significantly more stable and useful. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Amazon Copycat is Stealing My Product, Images, Branding & More | BeltBro is a product that uses two belt loops to hold up pants and shorts. It took two years to develop the branding and marketing for the product and the website for it was launched in February, during one of the toughest times to start a small business. Over 50,000 customers purchased products through the website. BeltBro started selling its product on Amazon FBA, and a Chinese company cloned the entire listing. The scammers even bought fake reviews to boost their listing and lowered their prices well below the price for the original product. Despite being in Amazon's special 'Brand Registry' program, BeltBro received no support from the company. | 4Miscellaneous
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AI and the News: An Open Challenge (Application) | This is an application for a challenge that will award up to $750,000 to a range of projects at the intersection of AI and the news. Projects should seek to solve one of four problems: ensuring transparency in platform governance, stopping bad actors from spreading disinformation, empowering journalists, and reimagining AI and the news. Individual grants will be between $75,000 and $200,000 and projects should last about a year. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google's drone delivery service launches in Canberra after being given green light to take to the skies | Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has launched the world’s first commercial air-delivery service in Canberra’s northern suburbs. The company is called ‘Wing’ and it has been trialing the delivery of burritos, coffee, and medication by drone to a suburb in Canberra for the last year. Approval has been granted by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to expand the area that Wing can service. More than 1,000 deliveries were completed in the trial without any safety incidents, even though some residents complained about the noise. Wing will now service five suburbs, delivering goods such as gelato, chocolate, bread, and golf gear. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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I walked Spot, the Boston Dynamics robot dog, remotely -- and only crashed once | Formant, a San Francisco-based startup, is offering everyday people the chance to walk Boston Dynamics' Spot around the Bay Area. The company also offers people the chance to pilot drones, underwater robots, automated guided vehicles, and other robots through its web browser platform. Users will receive comprehensive data after their session, with maps, recordings, and other information available. A 10-minute video showing a journalist piloting Spot is available in the article. Formant is looking for a wide range of people to test out its software. A link to the application form is available near the end of the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple releasing iOS 12.1 tomorrow with Group FaceTime, new emoji, more | Apple is updating FaceTime with today's new iOS release, with features like group calling (whoever is talking will remain in focus while everyone else will be smaller in the background) for up to 32 users, stickers, Memoji and Animoji, and filters. iOS 12.1 will also include dual SIM card functionality so it will be really easy to toggle between two different phone numbers, real-time depth control (a blurring effect that gives the appearance of depth to photos), and new emojis including emojis for red heads and bald people! | 1Big Tech & Startups
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US investigates Autopilot after 11 Teslas crashed into emergency vehicles | US government regulators are opening an investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system. The investigation will cover 11 crashes that have happened since 2018. All of the crashes involved Teslas hitting first responders' vehicles that had been parked and marked with flashing lights and other traffic markers. The investigation will cover how the Autopilot system monitors and enforces driver attentiveness and engagement, as well as how it detects and responds to objects and events on the road. Automakers have been able to develop these systems without significant regulatory oversight, but the investigation suggests that this is about to change. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Facebook is rolling out the new design for its website | Facebook has been working on a redesign since before May last year, when screenshots of the new design appeared on the internet. Users are now being invited to test the new design. The invitations appear to be completely random. Facebook's new design changes the overall look of the site and makes it appear much more modern. It also includes a dark mode. Screenshots of the new design are available. There is no official release schedule for the update. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Gates backs Icelandic startup that turns carbon dioxide into stone | Carbfix is a startup from Iceland that is turning carbon dioxide into rocks. The process involves capturing and dissolving CO2 in water and then injecting it into the ground, where it turns into stone in less than two years. The process is cheap and environmentally friendly. Carbfix will install its technology at power plants to capture carbon emissions as they are released. It has also partnered with Swiss startup Climeworks to build machines that can capture CO2 directly from the air. Bill Gates and Microsoft are backing the project with Climeworks. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Elon Musk changed his username to 'Treelon' on Twitter after pledging to donate $1 million to a YouTuber's tree-planting cause | Elon Musk has changed his username to 'Treelon' on Twitter after donating $1 million worth of trees to a campaign that aims to plant 20 million trees by the start of 2020. The campaign owner responded to Musk's pledge by praising him as 'Treelon Musk', which prompted the name change. Musk's name change has already spawned memes on Reddit and other social media. He is known for his unpredictable Twitter presence where he has previously revealed breaking news about his companies, clashed with high-profile figures, and made statements that have landed him in trouble with shareholders and government agencies. The #TeamTrees campaign has attracted attention from other prominent figures besides Musk. However, Musk's donation is by far the largest so far. | 4Miscellaneous
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Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero (17 minute read) | AlphaZero is a system that can learn superhuman chess strategies from scratch without any human supervision. It learns its strategies from scratch by playing games with itself, resulting in a unique approach to playing chess. This article discusses an experiment where AlphaZero played chess with different rule variants to see how chess would have looked like if history had taken a slightly different course. The results of the experiment show how some variants of chess can still lead to games that are at least as engaging as classical chess. | 4Miscellaneous
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Extraordinary ‘megaflash’ lightning strikes cover several hundred kilometres, smashing records | A megaflash is an extreme lightning burst that can cover hundreds of miles and last for many seconds. Records for megaflashes were broken in 2019, with a flash in Brazil more than doubling the size and duration of previous record flashes. The flash in Brazil stretched more than 700 kilometers, which is equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington DC in the United States. June 28 was International Lightning Safety Day. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Inside Google’s Rebooted Robotics Program | After Andy Rubin left Google in 2014, Google’s robotic’s program, nicknamed ‘Replicant’ at the time, had been stagnant. In the last few years, Google has rebooted its program, and the new effort is called ‘Robotics at Google’. Robotics at Google is made up of many of the same members of Rubin’s team, and it focuses on applying machine learning to robotics. They have developed robots in the lab that can learn to move and sort objects on their own, which may interest companies such as Amazon, as while these tasks seem simple they are actually quite hard to program manually. While Google has not yet announced its strategy on how it plans to commercialize their research, it is clear that the aim of the development of these robots is to automate more jobs. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Uber Lays Off 400 as Profitability Doubts Linger After IPO | Uber has laid off a third of its marketing team in a cost-cutting effort. After its initial public offering in May, investors questioned whether the unprofitable company could make money. In the past few months, Uber has lost many key executives and employees. Uber posted its slowest growth in years and a loss of more than $1 billion during its first quarter. Wall Street analysts project more losses when Uber reports its second-quarter earnings. An email sent to Uber's marketing staff said that the 400 layoffs were due to the team being bloated and that decision-making was unclear. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The Teslasuit could turn Black Mirror's terrifying 'Playtest' into a reality | Teslasuit is a full body VR suit that has 68 points of contact (this number will be higher when the suit becomes available to consumers). It can simulate sensations like bumping into a wall, touching an object, or the impact of a punch. It will be priced similarly to a video game console, and has both men and women's suits. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Artificial intelligence-created medicine to be used on humans for first time | British start-up Exscientia and Japanese pharmaceutical firm Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma have developed a drug module using artificial intelligence. The drug will be the first drug developed by artificial intelligence that will be used in human trials. It is a treatment for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Drug development usually takes five years to get to trial, but the AI drug only took 12 months. The molecule was created using algorithms that sorted through potential compounds and checked them against a database of parameters. AI has the potential to enhance and accelerate drug discovery, and the researchers hope that this algorithm will discover other potential drugs for the treatment of cancer and cardiovascular disease before the end of the year. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How Walmart and Alphabet jumped ahead of Amazon in drone delivery (14 minute read) | Amazon's delivery drones are still in the testing phase. Walmart started its drone delivery service by partnering with DroneUp, a drone startup. Alphabet's Wing recently completed its 200,000th delivery. Amazon's delay in launching its drone delivery service may be due to safety regulations. Anytime there are significant changes to the drones, the certification process resets. The FAA has been trying to place drones and drone operators into existing categories so drone companies have to navigate around rules designed for aircraft. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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China Lands Spacecraft on Far Side of Moon | China has become the first country to land on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-4 spacecraft landed in one of the oldest, deepest craters on the Moon, and scientists think that the probe could give us clues about the origin of the moon. It left China 22 days ago. China launched more rockets than any other country for the first time last year with 38 launches, and the Tiangong-2 could be the only space station in orbit if the International Space Station is decommissioned as the Trump administration has proposed ending federal funding for the ISS in 2025. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Robot pole dancers to debut at French nightclub | SC-Club, a nightclub in Nantes, France, will soon feature two robot pole dancers wearing high heels with CCTV cameras for their heads as part of its fifth-anniversary celebrations next week. The bots have their metal parts covered with parts obtained from mannequins. Giles Walker, the creator of the robots, came up with the concept a decade ago and has toured and loaned out the robots over the past few years. The dancers at the venue do not feel that their new coworkers pose any threat to their jobs. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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LG will make OLED TVs that roll up like posters a reality in 2019 | LG is expected to release OLED TVs that roll up like posters in February of 2019. They initially debuted the concept last January, but it wasn't ready for an actual commercial launch. The TVs are expected to be 65-inches and will retract automatically when you press a button, like a garage door. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Time Magazine Sold to Salesforce Founder Marc Benioff for $190 Million | Salesforce Founder (and cousin of Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff!) Marc Benioff bought Time Magazine for $190 miillion. It will not be part of Salesforce, it is a private acquisition by Marc and his wife Lynne Benioff. The Benioffs said they won't have a role in day-to-day operations of the magazine or journalistic decisions. In a note to staffers, Time's editor in chief said the Benioffs have already challenged the publication to think big and long term. "What will Time look like in 2040? What will it mean to people decades from now?" | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Moderna announces 3 new mRNA vaccine targets including herpes and cancer | Moderna is developing mRNA vaccines for the herpes simplex virus, the varicella-zoster virus, and two antigens expressed by some cancer cells. Covid-19 accelerated the development of mRNA vaccines, which opened up the path for new research avenues. The viruses that Moderna are targeting can cause lifelong medical conditions. Development of the vaccines could help improve the quality of life for those with symptomatic diseases. Moderna plans to work on more mRNA candidates. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple brings more than 70 new emoji to iPhone with iOS 12.1 | Here are the 70 new emojis coming to all Apple products in the upcoming iOS, macOS, and watchOS updates. Personally I'm a big fan of the puppy dog eyes and the hilariously giant mosquito. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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DoorDash isn’t just delivering meals—it’s making them, too | DoorDash is opening a temporary kitchen to make meals for six restaurants in San Jose, California. The food will be available for pick up and delivery. The trial will run until November. Ghost kitchens have allowed many restaurants to expand their footprint in a low-cost and flexible way. The business model has been successful in India and the UK. Using ghost kitchens will help DoorDash take a larger portion of restaurant sales. Food delivery companies are evolving as they try to expand with the hopes of reaching profitability one day. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Google will shut down Google+ four months early after second data leak | Google discovered a vulnerability in Google+ that impacted 52.5 million users, who could have had their name, email, occupation and age exposed to developers even if the account was set to private. The vulnerability was discovered during an internal audit, and was live for just 6 days, Google doesn't think anybody exploited it, but they have decided to shut down Google+ early, in April 2019 rather than August 2019 as previously announced. They will also be shutting down the Google+ API within the next 90 days. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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JavaScript Performance in the Wild 2020 (14 minute read) | This article analyzes the top 1 million pages on the web to find out what makes the web slow. A scripted web browser was used to browse to the root page of the top 1 million domains and log render times, request counts, repaints, JavaScript errors, libraries used, and other data. The analysis provided support for several optimization tricks, such as making as few requests as possible, using HTTP2 or greater, and avoiding render blocking requests and using async where possible. JQuery is the most popular library, but the data says it significantly slows down performance. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Was Amazon's Headquarters Contest a Bait-and-Switch? Critics Say Yes | Amazon critics are saying that the company's decision to split its second headquarters into two (one in New York and one in Washington DC) showed that the bidding process for HQ2 was a farce. Some believe that the decision was made long ago and that the bidding process was just a ruse to extract concessions and kickbacks. Others have been saying all along that HQ2 would be split into multiple locations that Amazon would again play against one another to strengthen its bargaining position. One critic says "It's tempting to roll your eyes at this soap opera, but Amazon will walk away from this stunt with a cache of incredibly valuable data. It's learned all kinds of things from the bidding cities like their future infrastructure plans that even their citizens are not privy to. Amazon will put this data to prodigious use in the coming years as it looks to expand its market power and sideline the competition." | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Olric (GitHub Repo) | Olric is a distributed cache and in-memory key/value data store. It can be used to instantly create a fast, scalable, shared pool of RAM across a cluster of computers. Olric can be used both as an embedded Go library and as a language-independent service. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Pinterest is talking to bankers and has hired a key exec as it readies itself for a 2019 IPO | Pinterest is preparing for IPO as early as April. It's expected to IPO for $12 billion, which is the valuation they last raised money at. They made $1 billion in revenue this year, and announced in September that they had 250 million monthly users. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Watch Jeff Bezos get launched into space | Jeff Bezos will launch into space at 9 AM ET along with his brother Mark, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen. The mission will last for around 10 minutes. Funk was an aviator who trained to be an astronaut in the '60s, and Daemon is the son of the winner of Blue Origin's New Shepard seat auction that closed at $28 million. Daemen's father couldn't fly due to schedule conflicts. The New Shepard will lift off in Van Horn, Texas. A link to the YouTube livestream, beginning at 7:30 AM ET, is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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What books changed the way you think about almost everything? (Hacker News Thread) | The Original Poster of the thread reflects on how, even though they barely remember any details from the book ‘Freakonomics’, their way of thinking changed completely after reading the book. They ask for more recommendations for books that might have a similar effect. The replies to the thread are full of great recommendations along with quick descriptions of how the recommended books changed the poster’s way of thinking. | 4Miscellaneous
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Autonomous ‘Mayflower’ research ship will use IBM AI tech to cross the Atlantic in 2020 | A fully autonomous ship called the Mayflower will attempt a 3,220-mile journey from Plymouth in England to Plymouth in Massachusetts on the 400-year anniversary of the first Mayflower trip. It is equipped with solar panels as well as diesel and wind turbines. The Mayflower will conduct research during the trip with three research pods developed by researchers at the University of Plymouth. These pods will run experiments relating to maritime cybersecurity, sea mammal monitoring, and ocean-borne microplastics. The technical support for research and navigation on board the Mayflower was provided by IBM. The Mayflower will use IBM's PowerAI vision technology, backed by its Power Systems servers, to utilize deep learning models in order to avoid obstacles and hazards at sea. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Former Google CEO predicts the internet will split in two by 2028 — and one part will be led by China | Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted at a private event that within 20 years there will be a Chinese internet and a non-Chinese internet led by the US. China also has an economic strategy called the Belt and Road Initiative, in which China wants to build infrastructure to create a "new Silk Road" to facilitate trade with Africa and Europe. Schmidt believes it is possible that if this initiative is successful, some of these trade partners will join the Chinese internet instead of the US internet. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid (10 minute read) | Since 2012, the United States has been conducting reconnaissance into the control systems of the Russian power grid. Now, the strategy is shifting more towards offense, as the US moves to give warning to Russia and other countries who try to conduct cyber offensives against the US. It is unknown how deeply US code has penetrated Russian systems. Russia has also likely installed malicious code within US power systems. Cyber attacks against the US by Russia have so far elicited little response or retaliation. As the attacks continue, the US is required to take countermeasures in case a serious incident occurs, such as a nation-wide blackout during the 2020 elections, which experts believe may possible. | 4Miscellaneous
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Scientists find toolkit to aid repair of damaged DNA | DNA damage over time is responsible for aging, cancer, and some neurological diseases. A new protein called TEX264 is able to combine with other enzymes to find and destroy toxic proteins that bind to DNA and trigger damage. It could potentially be used to repair the DNA damage linked to disorders like cancer and ALS. Scientists also hope to be able to use the protein to repair the purposeful DNA damage caused by chemotherapy. The next step in the research is manipulating the expression and properties of the protein to see if it can reverse the effects of aging and alter the course of diseases like cancer. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Now you can play Fortnite on your iPhone or Android for free with Xbox Cloud Gaming | Fortnite is now available to play for free via the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. Anyone with a Microsoft account can play the game on any device through the internet on a web browser in the 26 countries where it's available. Microsoft plans to bring more free-to-play titles to the cloud. Fortnite will continue to be available on Nvidia's GeForce Now game streaming platform. | 4Miscellaneous
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Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation | An investigation into data deals struck between Facebook and some of the world’s biggest technology companies is underway, with at least two major smart-phone makers recently being subpoenaed by a grand jury in New York. These data deals let companies see users’ information, including friends and contact information, sometimes without consent. The partnerships with these tech companies may violate an agreement between Facebook and the FTC formed in 2011 after allegations the company had shared data in ways that deceived consumers. The Cambridge-Analytica investigation is still underway, with an employee being questioned as recently as February. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The Practical Linux Hardening Guide (GitHub Repo) | This is an incredibly detailed open source guide for securing production Linux servers. It's still a work in progress, but there's already a lot of great stuff here. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon rolls out its telehealth service nationwide | Amazon Care is rolling out its telehealth service nationwide. It will also expand in-person care to 20 cities. Amazon Care provides virtual care visits, free telehealth consults, and in-home visits for a fee. The virtual care market is becoming increasingly crowded as insurers are also trying to enter the market. Amazon has already signed up several employers to the service. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Satellite Imagery for Everyone (13 minute read) | Access to high-resolution satellite images has increased significantly and the cost of sending satellites into orbit continues to drop. Advances in artificial intelligence make it easier to extract information from satellite data and businesses are already taking advantage of this. This article talks about how to access this data and use it. It covers topics such as the different types of Earth-observation satellites, how satellites work with orbits, how satellites capture image data, and which sites to visit to find data. | 4Miscellaneous
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Former Go champion beaten by DeepMind retires after declaring AI invincible | Go champion Lee Se-dol has retired from professional play, stating that his decision was influenced by the rise of AI. Lee believes that no matter how good he gets at the game, there will always be an entity that he cannot defeat. For many years, Go was considered to be impossible for computer programs to master, as it has more possible configurations for pieces than atoms in the observable universe. In 2016, DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated Se-dol four matches to one. Lee is the only human to have ever beat AlphaGo in a tournament. In 2017, DeepMind released an improved version of AlphaGo called AlphaGo Zero. AlphaGo Zero was able to beat AlphaGo 100 games to nil after three days of training. Lee will play a game in December against a South Korean AI program called HanDol. | 4Miscellaneous
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Uber jumps into Europe's rapid grocery delivery market with 15-minute service in Paris | Uber and Carrefour have created a service in Paris that ships essential items to customers in as little as 15 minutes. Customers will be able to order from a catalog of almost 2,000 daily essentials through the UberEats app. The service will use small warehouses to fulfill orders rather than sending couriers to Carrefour stores. Europe has seen a flood of grocery startups since the pandemic. Uber has a similar deal with GoPuff in the US. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Freezable hydrogel offers a reusable alternative to ice cubes | A team at the University of California-Davis has created jelly ice cubes made out of hydrogel that hold their shape at all temperatures. The hydrogel is made up of 10 percent organic gelatin and 90 percent water. The cubes can be cut into any shape or size and used like regular ice cubes, except that they won't melt when they thaw. Each cube can be reused up to 12 times without degradation and composted once discarded. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Genius said it used morse code to catch Google stealing lyrics | Many websites depend on users viewing ads on their pages to generate revenue. Google has been adding more information into its search results to provide convenient information for users, but this means that the sites where the information comes from lose viewers. Genius, a lyrics website, inserted different types of apostrophes into their lyrics in a pattern that spelled out ‘Red Handed’ in Morse code. Using this method, they found their content displayed in the Google search results, proving that Google was using their data and taking viewers away from their site. Genius found more than 100 examples of theft by Google, who claims that its data comes from licensed partners. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Ask HN: What are the “best” codebases that you've encountered? (Hacker News Thread) | 'Clean Code' by Robert Martin describes concepts that define a high-quality codebase, but good examples are hard to come by. Many examples given in this thread are developer tools or programs with very specific inputs and outputs, but there are few examples given of consumer applications. Some examples of codebases where the developer carefully commented every line were provided, but it was pointed out that if code is written well, not every line requires a comment. Many consumer applications stop development after shipping, so a high-quality, well-documented codebase is not absolutely necessary. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A drone with a nail gun for autonomous roofing (1:29 Video) | Engineers at the University of Michigan mounted a nail-gun onto a DJI S1000 Octocopter and installed a modified version of open-source autopilot software so that the drone could navigate to waypoints and operate a nail-gun. The video shows the drone in action nailing tiles to a roof. Future improvements include adding an onboard sensing system to recognize shingles, upgrading to a pneumatic nail gun, and adding a power tether for extended operation. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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YouTube TV finally goes nationwide almost two years after launch | YouTube TV is launching nationwide, it's now available in 98% of US households. All viewers will have access to at least three out of the four major broadcasters (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) depending on their location, most will have all four. The subscription is meant to replace cable, and costs $40/month. There's a link inside to check if it's available for your zip code. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Woman dies during a ransomware attack on a German hospital | A woman has died in Duesseldorf University Hospital during a ransomware attack. It is possibly the first death directly linked to a cyberattack on a hospital. The hospital couldn't accept emergency patients due to the attack and the patient was sent to another health care facility around 20 miles away. Hospitals rely heavily on internet-connected devices but many aren't prepared for cyberattacks. Security experts have been saying for years that it is a matter of time before cyberattacks on hospital systems would result in someone's death. The cyberattack was intended for a nearby university and it was stopped once the authorities told the attackers they had actually shut down a hospital. German authorities may treat the cyberattack as a homicide. | 4Miscellaneous
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"Impossible" 2D material is light as plastic and stronger than steel | Scientists from MIT have developed a scalable production method that allows polymers to form 2D sheets while keeping their strength intact. Using the method, the team developed a material called 2DPA-1. 2DPA-1 is an extremely thin and lightweight material with a yield strength twice that of steel. It can take six times more force than bulletproof glass and it is completely impermeable to gases and liquids. The material could be used as a protective coating for vehicles and electronic devices and even as construction material. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Europe Starts Its Own Social Networks | The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has announced that it will publicly pilot its own social networks. EU Voice will be a way for European institutions and agencies to communicate. It will be based on Mastodon, an open-source alternative to Twitter. EU Video will be an alternative to YouTube based on PeerTube, an open-source platform. The EDPS already has Instagram and Spotify alternatives. There are no advertisements or user profiling on the platforms. | 4Miscellaneous
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