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BZip3 (GitHub Repo) | BZip3 is a better, faster, and stronger spiritual successor to BZip2. It features higher compression ratios and better performance. BZip3 excels in compressing text or code. Benchmark results that compare BZip3 with BZip2, gzip, and lzma are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Webcam Hacking (16 minute read) | Bug hunting is about finding assumptions in software and violating those assumptions to see what happens. iOS and macOS requires each app to be granted camera/microphone permissions explicitly, but Apple grants its own apps these permissions for free. Other new web technologies allow websites to use Safari's permission to use the camera directly. Safari tracks permission settings on a per-website basis so that websites can access sensitive content such as GPS location or the camera without always asking for permission. Once these vulnerabilities are known, it is possible to test out obscure cases until the browser shows weird behaviors, and then eventually these exploits can be chained together to gain access to a user's webcam. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Rust for Windows (GitHub Repo) | This crate lets developers call any Windows API as if they were just using another Rust module. It provides a natural and idiomatic way for Rust developers to call Windows APIs. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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TikTok parent ByteDance is reportedly making a smartphone | ByteDance, the company that created the video app TikTok, is planning to create its own smartphone. The smartphone will be preloaded with ByteDance's own apps, such as TikTok, Jinri Toutiao, and a new unreleased music streaming service. A deal between ByteDance and smartphone maker Smartisan has been confirmed. Other companies, such as Facebook and Amazon, have attempted unsuccessfully to launch their own smartphones that were preloaded with their own apps. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Robinhood experienced a ‘system-wide outage’ as markets rebounded in heavy volume Monday | Robinhood experienced an outage on Monday that wasn’t fully fixed before the close of the day. This resulted in Robinhood customers missing out on one the biggest one-day point gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained nearly 1,300 points, the most ever in a single session. Robinhood has about 10 million users and its service allows customers to trade stocks without paying fees. Other financial service providers have also experienced technical difficulties as the stock market continues to be volatile. These systems are likely failing due to the recent higher-than-average trading volumes. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Scientists identify vast underground ecosystem containing billions of micro-organisms | Researchers at the Deep Carbon Observatory have been conducting a 10-year study of subterranean life on Earth; it turns out there is way more than previously thought. They estimate that despite extreme heat, no light, little nutrition and intense pressure, there are between 15 billion and 23 billion tons of micro-organisms living underground. No matter how deep scientists dig, they keep finding more life; they've already dug down 5 kilometers. Some micro-organisms live for thousands of years, barely moving except with shifts in tectonic plates, while others don't use any energy from the sun, relying on chemical processes to produce methane to replace or repair broken parts. One researcher says "We must ask ourselves: if life on Earth can be this different from what experience has led us to expect, then what strangeness might await as we probe for life on other worlds?" | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Researchers Build Super Accurate Atomic Clocks That Can Spot Spacetime Deformations | Scientists have created atomic clocks so accurate that they can detect slight perturbations in spacetime caused by gravity. The clocks are in sync with the natural frequency of ytterbium with an error of 1.4 parts in 10^18. To put this in perspective, they will take longer than the current age of the universe (14 billion years) to be off by 1 second. The scientists believe that the clocks can be used to try to detect dark matter, which cannot be seen through telescopes, but can still be detected by their gravity. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Pprint (GitHub Repo) | Pprint is a pretty printer for modern C++. To install, users just need to include the pprint.hpp in their code. There are many examples of how to use pprint available on the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Mars (GitHub Repo) | Mars is a tensor-based large-scale computation framework. It's sort of like an alternative to Numpy that is easy to scale out to clusters with thousands of machines. The interface is pretty similar to Numpy's, though obviously it's not as mature as Numpy is yet. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Coronavirus: Apple and Google team up to contact trace Covid-19 | Apple and Google are creating a technology to alert people if they have come into contact with someone diagnosed with the coronavirus. Initially, the companies will help third-party contact-tracing apps run efficiently, but they will eventually do away with the need to download dedicated apps. The companies' approach will keep users anonymous, addressing privacy concerns. It will use Bluetooth signals to determine if a person was in close contact for long enough to have potentially transmitted the virus. If a person is later diagnosed with COVID-19, a warning will be sent to those affected. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Twitter launches new API as it tries to make amends with third-party developers | Twitter's API v2 is now live, allowing third-party developers access to many features long absent from their clients. The API was announced last month but its launch was delayed due to the platform being hacked. Twitter offers a basic free tier with limited API calls, an elevated tier that charges users for more calls, and a custom tier that allows for managed accounts. The company expects 80 percent of developers to have their needs met by the basic tier. Twitter wants to encourage developers to create applications using its data and has simplified the onboarding process and provided a new centralized support page. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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AI in the Browser | Websites that are 100 percent AI-driven will soon be a significant force. People have used machine learning in the browser to identify drawings, control smart lights, control video game characters, detect indecent content, and more. A free 5-day mini-course is linked that helps people to understand the basics of in-browser machine learning. Another beginner course for machine learning with TensorFlow.js is also available. It teaches real-world skills in order to properly apply machine learning to anywhere JavaScript can be applied. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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lo (GitHub Repo) | lo is a Lodash-style Go library based on Go 1.18+ Generics. Lodash is a JavaScript utility library for common programming tasks that uses the functional programming paradigm to help programmers write more concise and maintainable code. Benchmark results are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Crypto Investors Buy 40 Acres of Land in Wyoming to Build Blockchain City | Wyoming's DAO law allows Decentralized Autonomous Organizations to be legally recognized. It recognizes two different types of DAOs: those run by members, and those managed by algorithms. CityDAO has purchased a piece of land in the northwestern corner of Wyoming. The project aims to build a city on the Ethereum blockchain. People can become citizens through the purchase of an NFT. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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In A 1st, Scientists Use Revolutionary Gene-Editing Tool To Edit Inside A Patient | Scientists have used CRISPR for the first time to edit a gene while the DNA is still inside a person's body. The gene-editing tool was injected into the eye of a patient blinded by a rare genetic disorder. CRISPR has been used previously on patients who have cancers and rare blood disorders, but it is too soon to know whether the treatments have worked, despite promising results. In these cases, cells were removed from the body and treated first before being implanted back into the patient's body. If the treatment is safe and successful, it could open up a world of possibilities for scientists to be able to treat thousands of other genetic diseases. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tiny shapeshifting robots brush and floss your teeth, kill bacteria | Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a system of microrobots that can change shape to form bristles or floss and release antimicrobials to kill bad bacteria. The system is made up of iron oxide nanoparticles that can be controlled using magnetic fields. The iron oxide activates hydrogen peroxide, which produces free radicals that kill bacteria and biofilms. The system could allow people with reduced motor skills to still take care of their oral health. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tinder users will soon be able to access a background check database | Match Group has made an investment into Garbo, a non-profit, female-founded background check platform. Garbo's platform will soon be available to Match Group app users, starting with Tinder. The platform collects data about people from numerous sources and returns information about any arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment, or violent crimes. Most times, only a first name and a phone number is required. How Garbo will be integrated into Match Group's apps remains to be seen. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Artificial intelligence robots boost Chinese food factories, paving way for mass use | More than 10 traditional Chinese food manufacturers took part in a trial where artificial intelligence was used for taste testing their products to ensure the quality of their food. It is estimated that the taste testing robots boosted manufacturers' profits by over $44.5 million since 2015. The robots automatically adjusted the production line conditions so that all products had the same color, smell, and taste. The job was previously done with humans and the process was slower and more limited. Chinese food is complex and varied, and standardizing recipes has been met with some opposition, so while there are regulations that describe how some food is to be cooked and presented, these are not enforced. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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First Amendment constraints don’t apply to private platforms, Supreme Court affirms | The Supreme Court has ruled that a non-profit organization running public access channels was not bound by governmental constraints on speech. Two producers who worked for the organization were disciplined after releasing a film on the organization’s platform, which the producers claimed was an infringement on their First Amendment rights. The judges concluded that First Amendment constraints did not apply to the non-profit organization as it was deemed to be a private entity. While other internet or social media platforms were not mentioned in the ruling, the Electronic Frontier Foundation raised the idea that the ruling could be used to penalize these companies. | 4Miscellaneous
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Physicists Prove Anyons Exist, a Third Type of Particle in the Universe | Physicists have found evidence that anyons exist. Anyons are particle-like objects that were first predicted by theorists in the early 1980s. They only exist in two dimensions under certain circumstances. When anyons move around each other, their collective quantum state shifts, and it might require three to five or more revolutions before they return to their original state. This property makes them appealing for fields such as quantum computing. Anyons represent a whole 'kingdom' of particles with many varieties that can be studied and potentially harnessed in the future. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How Close Are We to Self-Driving Cars, Really? | Chris Urmson, the CEO of Aurora, a company that makes self-driving car software for automakers, predicts that the technology will be prevalent within the next 50 years. In this interview, Urmson discusses the barriers to mass adoption of self-driving cars, whether it is possible to test the technology safely in real-world conditions, and why the ideal shape for a self-driving car is a cone. People currently do not view the technology is safe, so demand is low. While existing infrastructure probably doesn’t need any modification, self-driving cars will require cities to develop special maps which indicate where objects such as traffic lights and lanes are. Self-driving software is tested extensively through different stages of realism before the technology is deployed into real-world conditions. A cone is an ideal shape for a self-driving car as passengers would have an increased field-of-vision for safety and entertainment. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Virgin Hyperloop hits an important milestone: the first human passenger test | Virgin Hyperloop conducted a test of its ultra-fast transportation system with human passengers on Sunday afternoon at the company's DevLoop test track near Las Vegas, Nevada. The hyperloop pod transported two passengers down the 500-meter track at 100 miles per hour. Virgin Hyperloop has so far conducted over 400 tests on the track, but this is the first time with human passengers. The pod used for the passenger test was a scaled-down version of what the company hopes will eventually be a pod capable of carrying up to 23 passengers. There are still many hurdles to overcome before hyperloop technology becomes viable. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Amazon jumps into virtual tourism, offering live one-on-one experiences around the world | Amazon Explore is Amazon's new tech platform and marketplace that offers access to live virtual experiences with people from around the world. The platform was in the works long before global travel restrictions took effect. A public beta of the service will launch soon for Amazon's US customers. Prices on the platform are set by the host and can be between US$10 to US$200 for a session that lasts around 35 minutes to an hour. Amazon uses its own tech platform for Amazon Explore. It displays audio and video and customers can easily save images from the experience and download them afterward. When the global pandemic finally ends, Amazon will have established relationships with tour guides around the world, allowing the company to expand its service into in-person tours and experiences. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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low-level-design-primer (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains resources for low-level system design. It has materials to help prepare for low-level design/machine coding round interviews. The resources are categorized into Questions, Solutions, and Resources. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Improve Git monorepo performance with a file system monitor (22 minute read) | This article discusses the new built-in FSMonitor added in Git version 2.37.0 and how it improves performance on very large worktrees. The Git file system monitor (FSMonitor) feature speeds up commands like git status and git add by reducing the size of the search. These commands are slow as they are searching the entire worktree looking for changes, which can be a problem for very large worktrees. FSMonitor continually watches worktrees to have a complete view of all file system changes. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The burnout levels of the tech industry are high and real (Website) | This website has a quiz that asks about your emotions and perceptions regarding your current job. It then assesses your burnout risk and lists your main risk factors for burnout. The site provides some information about each risk factor. A more detailed report is available after signing up to join the Global IT Burnout Index. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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SpaceX says Crew Dragon capsule exploded de to exotic titanium fire | A Crew Dragon capsule exploded during a static fire test on April 20. SpaceX is still investigating the issue so there may be other components involved in the blast. However, so far the explosion has been determined to be caused by a fault in the pressure system which caused a high-speed ‘slug’ of nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer to slam into a valve, either causing sparks or igniting the metal around it. It is unclear how long the project will be delayed due to this issue. NASA has published a tentative target of mid-November 2019 for a crewed launch to the ISS. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Here are Tesla’s biggest announcements from Battery Day | Elon Musk made some big announcements at Tesla's Battery Day event. Tesla will manufacture its own 'tabless' batteries designed to improve its vehicles' range and power. The tabless cells will be six times more powerful and increase range by 16 percent compared to current batteries. The Model S Plaid will have a range of 520 miles, get 0-60 mph in under 2 seconds, and have a top speed of 200 mph. It will cost $139,990 and be available in late 2021. Tesla plans to open a new cathode plant in North America that will make cathodes 76 percent cheaper and produce zero wastewater. It will eliminate the use of cobalt in its cathodes. Tesla's end goal is to produce a $25,000 electric car. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Freelancing in Finland (GitHub Repo) | In Finland, most information provided by authorities regarding freelancing is for the general population, and specific information for developers is sparse. This guide is a summary of relevant information for people who wish to work as freelance software developers in Finland. It includes information for foreigners who want to start a new company, links to freelancer employment organizations, information on how to apply for startup grants, and other handy tips that will make becoming a freelancer an easier process. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Designing Engineering Organizations | The most effective teams are stable, multi-disciplinary, and aligned to product delivery. Therefore, you want to try to build an organization to match what you want to ship. There may be good reasons to go against this guiding principle, but the tradeoff will always be delivery speed. This article discusses the different paradigms that teams might operate in and talks about the pros and cons of each approach. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Clean-code-typescript (GitHub Repo) | This GitHub repository contains a guide on producing readable, reusable, and refactorable code in Typescript. The principles used in this guide are from Robert C. Martin's book, Clean Code. It is packed with examples of good and bad code, organized by sections, with clear explanations on why certain methods of formatting are more efficient, effective, and readable. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Brain-machine interface helped a man with paralysis feed himself using robotic arms | Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have developed a new technique that allowed a partially paralyzed man to feed himself using robotic arms connected to a brain-machine interface. The method uses a shared control system that minimizes the amount of mental input required to complete a task. The technology is still young. The scientists plan to add touch-like sensory feedback and improve the accuracy and efficiency of the system while reducing the need for visual confirmation. | 4Miscellaneous
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Report: Fry’s Electronics going out of business, shutting down all stores | Fry's Electronics will shut down all 30 of its American locations. Employees of the superstore chain reported on Tuesday that they had been fired that day with zero notice. Some employees were tasked with shipping remaining merchandise back to suppliers for their last day of work. Fry's website has begun serving failure notices, but some of its subdomains remain active. The company has deleted its Facebook account and locked its Twitter profile. An official announcement is expected soon. | 4Miscellaneous
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How to do High-Bar Code Review Without Being a Jerk | Code review is a thing between humans, and humans can be opinionated, emotional creatures, which sometimes makes code review a challenge. The goal of code review is to examine another person's code to make sure that their pull request is good enough to merge. It seems simple, but factors such as urgency, seniority, the other developer's reactions, and grudges from your relationship with the other developer can often distract from a purely logical code review. In order to conduct a good code review, set clear expectations, have a clear and standard organizational workflow, be concise in online communications and use in-person communications for more serious feedback, and have empathy for other developers when reviewing their code, as no professional would want to do bad work on purpose. Reviewing code is an important skill as it helps the team perform better, and doing it well means that you will be able to maintain positive work relationships. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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How the Fastest Spaceship Ever Is Getting Terrifyingly Close to the Sun | NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018. It is now closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft. The spacecraft will travel to just 4.3 million miles from the center of the star, seven times closer than any previous mission. As it continues to swing past the Sun, it will reach a top speed of 430,000 miles per hour. The mission should yield insights into the mechanisms behind solar wind and the high temperature of the Sun's corona. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI (Website) | CS193p (Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI) is a course from Stanford University that explains the fundamentals of how to build applications for iOS using SwiftUI. The Spring 2020 version was delivered online and Stanford has made the lectures available to everybody on its YouTube channel. This site contains the supporting material for the course. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Next-generation spinal implants help people with severe paralysis walk, cycle, and swim | A new spinal stimulation device has enabled three men paralyzed in motorcycle accidents to stroll outside with a walker within a few months. The device stimulates nerves to send signals beyond the injury site to trigger leg movements. For now, users have to select a desired movement on a tablet, which then routes the command to a pulse generator implanted in the abdomen that activates electrodes along the spine. The process can take up to ten minutes. A clinical trial for the device with up to 100 participants is scheduled for 2024. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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'Unleashed' Apple Event Focusing on New Macs to Take Place on October 18 | Apple will be holding its Unleashed event on October 18 at 10 am Pacific Time at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus in Cupertino. It will be a digital-only event. Rumors suggest that the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros will receive a new design with thinner bezels and larger displays, an M1X chip, and support for up to 32GB of RAM. The new laptops will have MagSafe connectivity, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a standard function row of keys instead of a Touch Bar. Apple will stream the event on its website, YouTube, and the Apple TV app. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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spark-joy (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a list of tools to easily add personality to your product. Categories include typography, CSS, animations and transitions, icons, avatars, sound, styling forms, and more. Most links contain free resources. Paid or premium resources are labeled. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Dogs have been our best friends for at least 23,000 years | A recent study suggests that people domesticated dogs sometime before 23,000 years ago in Siberia. Scientists can tell how long ago two animals last shared a common ancestor by comparing genome sequences. Dogs and human groups tended to split or merge in roughly the same time and places, creating a genetic map of the two species. The evidence strongly suggests that the first people to enter the Americas brought dogs with them. | 4Miscellaneous
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Elon Musk moves Tesla layoff target from 10% to 3% of employees | The company is now aiming for a reduction of 3% to 3.5% of the workforce. | 4Miscellaneous
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sysget (GitHub Repo) | With sysget, users only need to know one package manager syntax, rather than having to learn a new package manager for every distro. sysget can search for, install, and remove packages, as well as update databases, and more. A guide on how to use sysget is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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SpaceX Starlink speeds revealed as beta users get downloads of 11 to 60Mbps | Starlink beta users are reporting download speeds ranging from 11Mbps to 60Mbps and upload speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 18Mbps, with latencies ranging from 20ms to 94ms. Users have been testing the network over the past two weeks, with some anonymous users posting their speed test results on Reddit. Beta testers must sign non-disclosure agreements, so information is restricted. SpaceX says that its network will eventually reach gigabit speeds and the company is targeting latency below 20ms. Its Starlink network currently has 600 satellites and the company has permission to launch nearly 12,000. Screenshots of the speed tests are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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dlaicourse (GitHug Repo) | This repository contains notebooks for deep learning. Each notebook contains practical exercises and explanations related to deep learning, starting from a ‘Hello World’ exercise and delving into deeper topics, such as Natural Language Processing. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Join the Big Fix - Fix Vulns. Earn Swag. (Sponsor) | In light of the Log4j vulnerability, Snyk is hosting the Big Fix - an online event for teams to fix backlogs of vulnerabilities. Earn swag (including free t-shirts!) when you fix vulnerabilities. Plus, get hands-on support from our security experts live on Feb 25. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ask HN: Do you have to use linked-in to get hired? (Hacker News Thread) | More and more job applications are now requiring a LinkedIn account. This thread discusses people's experiences with LinkedIn and how it affects their chances at employment. Most replies do not credit LinkedIn for getting them hired, and many comment about how spammy the site is. Several replies note that Meta approaches potential hires through LinkedIn. | 4Miscellaneous
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Zoom Thanksgiving gift: Company announces no time limits on family video get-togethers for holiday | Zoom will remove time limits for family meetings during Thanksgiving for all of its users. Normally, video conferences are limited to 40 minutes unless users pay a $15 per month fee. The limit will lift from midnight ET on November 26 through to 6 am ET on November 27. Zoom now services 300 million daily video meetings and the company estimates it will do 3 trillion video meeting minutes this year. | 4Miscellaneous
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Despite CRISPR baby controversy, Harvard University will begin gene-editing sperm | After a Chinese scientist caused an uproar by using CRISPR to edit the genes of two twin girls' embryos last week, Harvard researcher Werner Neuhausser is now planning to use CRISPR to edit the genes of a sperm cell in order to try to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's later in life. However, in this case no embryos are involved, there will be no attempt to make a baby from these sperm cells, they just want to test if they can edit the DNA. Harvard Medical School dean George Daley delivered a speech last week saying that the technology for gene editing is rapidly getting better and safer, and it will be justified to explore use in children soon. He believes that the technology could and should be used to remove childhood cancer, cystic fibrosis, and Alzheimer's from tomorrow's kids. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Murena, the privacy-first Android smartphone, arrives | The Murena One is a high-end privacy-focused smartphone that runs the open-source /e/OS Android fork. /e/OS has almost all of its Google services removed and replaced with MicroG or other services. It features Google-free apps and it can run most Android apps. The phone has an eight-core processor, 4GB ram, 128GBs storage, and a 6.5-inch display. It features a 25-megapixel camera for selfies and three cameras with 5, 8, and 48-megapixels on the back. The Murena One will launch in June in the US, Canada, Europe, the UK, and Switzerland for $369. | 4Miscellaneous
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Google’s foldable phone plans include two devices, Android 12.1 release | Google is rumored to be working on two foldable phones and incorporating foldable functionality into an out-of-cycle update to Android. The phones will be similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold devices. Google may launch the phones before the end of the year. The Android update will add an iPad OS-style taskbar to show frequently used and recently used apps. There is no timeline for its release, but it will probably be released with Google's foldable Pixels. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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WeWork parent says IPO still on despite setbacks | We Company will complete its initial public offering by the end of the year despite canceling its launch this week due to concerns over lack of interest by investors. It faces issues over its corporate governance standards, as well as the sustainability of its business model. We Company relies on a mix of long-term liabilities and short-term revenue, which may pose a problem during an economic downturn. In January, We Company was valued at $47 billion, but recent valuations set the company at between $10 billion to $12 billion. We Company has recently made changes to its corporate governance, reducing the CEO and co-founder Adam Neumann's grip on the company. Neumann will now have less voting power and any future successor will be selected by the board. The WeWork brand is strongly tied to Neumann and he had planned to have his wife, WeWork's co-founder and We Company's current chief brand officer, to become his successor. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Man who had transplant finds out months later his DNA has changed to that of donor 5,000 miles away | Chris Long, who worked in IT at the Washoe County Sheriff's Department, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes. Before going in for a bone marrow transplant that would save his life, a forensic scientist colleague at the department encouraged Long to make an archive of his DNA from different parts of his body in order to study the effects of the transplant. Within three months of the transplant, the DNA in Long's blood had changed. After four years, swabs of his lips and cheeks, as well as samples of his semen, contained the DNA of his donor. These findings could be significant for forensic scientists as DNA is often used to link perpetrators and crimes. There have been cases where DNA was incorrectly matched due to bone marrow transplants. It is unclear whether DNA from bone marrow transplants can be transferred to the next generation. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Microsoft to add 'Kids Mode' to Chromium-based Edge browser | Kids Mode is a new option inside the daily Microsoft Edge Canary builds that includes new themes and child-friendly content. It also includes security and privacy features like tracking prevention, InPrivate mode, and Bing Safe Search. Closing Kids Mode or changing its settings will require a device password. A Microsoft Account is not required to activate Kids Mode. The feature was launched on February 16 and it should be available to the Dev Channel branch relatively soon. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Las Vegas approves a $48.6 million contract with Elon Musk’s Boring Company | A vote held by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority resulted in the approval of a $48.6 million contract with Elon Musk’s Boring Company. The Boring Company will construct two tunnels for vehicles, three stations, and a pedestrian tunnel. It is expected that the project will be completed before the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2021. So far, The Boring Company has only finished one tunnel in Hawthorne, California. It’s unclear what kind of vehicles will be used in the Las Vegas tunnel, but the city is considering various models of electric vehicles, including Teslas. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Terraforming Mars with strange silica blanket could let plants thrive | Two main issues with living on Mars is that the temperature can drop down to below -100 degrees Celsius at night and that there is no protective atmosphere to shield against harmful UV radiation. The solid-state greenhouse effect is observed when sunlight passes through layers of snow or ice and is absorbed, which insulates the covered area and warms it up at the same time. Scientists tested a 2-centimeter thick silica aerogel covering and found that it blocked more than 60 percent of UV radiation while allowing the area underneath to warm up by 50 degrees Celsius. By combining the aerogel with other materials, structures can be created that could support life on Mars without permanently changing the environment on the planet. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Docker BuildKit: faster builds, new features, and now it’s stable | Docker BuildKit is a new backend for building images. It features faster builds using parallelism, support for securely passing build secrets, upgradeability, and more. There are still some issues with it, but workarounds are available. BuildKit is enabled by default on new macOS and Windows installs, so developers should make sure their builds work correctly on it. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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bsed (GitHub Repo) | bsed is a stream editor that allows users to enter simple SQL-like syntax on top of Perl text processing. Stream editors process text files in one go, as opposed to normal text editors where lines can be edited individually. Users can specify where in a file they would like to find and replace text or process entire files at once. Examples of usage are available on the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Death by black hole: Astronomers spot flare from “spaghettification” of star | A tidal disruption event (TDE) is when a star strays too close to a supermassive black hole and tears apart, forming a rotating ring of matter around the black hole that emits powerful X-rays and visible light. Astronomers have recently recorded a TDE, managing to capture data before dust and debris obscured their view. The nature of the emissions from black holes has been previously debated, and this is the first direct evidence showing the source of the emissions. A 25-second artistic animation of a star being sucked into a black hole is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Blind people ‘read’ letters traced on their brains with electricity | Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston created a technique for tracing visible patterns directly into a person's brain. The system was tested on people who had lost their sight through damage to their eyes or optic nerves but had intact visual cortexes. In the trials, two of the patients could correctly identify more than 80% of the letters presented to them. The same approach can be used to display the outlines of common objects. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Psyche: NASA Mission to a Metal World (13 minute read) | The Psyche mission, scheduled to launch in August 2022, aims to study the surface of 16 Psyche, an asteroid that is thought to be the remnants of a protoplanet. The asteroid is about as wide as Massachusetts and has a metal-like density. Orbiting an asteroid can be harder than orbiting a planet as they have little gravity, so the spacecraft's propulsion system must do all the work. This article talks about the Psyche mission and the technologies that were developed for it. | 4Miscellaneous
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Conservationists plant a 'super grove' of redwood trees cloned from ancient stumps | A group of conservationists have planted a new "super grove" of redwood trees cloned with DNA extracted from ancient redwood stumps that are larger than any trees currently in existence. One was 400 feet tall and over 3,000 years old when it was cut down in 1890. They also help filter water and soil and are resistant to wildfires, droughts, and pests. Group leader David Milarch says "These saplings have extraordinary potential to purify our air, water and soil for generations to come. We hope this 'super grove,' which has the capability to become an eternal forest, is allowed to grow unmolested by manmade or natural disasters and thus propagate forever." | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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China Set to Launch First-Ever Spacecraft to the Far Side of the Moon | Early next year, China will launch the Chang'e-4 on the first mission to the dark side of the moon. The lander will explore the new terrain, test whether or not plants can grow in the low-gravity lunar environment, and listen for radio emissions normally blocked by Earth's atmosphere. Previous experiments have found that plants like potatoes and thale-cress can grow in lower gravity than Earth's, but not in gravity as low as the Moon's. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Intel hires Justin Long to mock Macs in throwback to 2000s “I’m a Mac” ads | Intel has produced a series of ads starring Justin Long, who famously appeared in Apple's 'I'm a Mac' ads in the 2000s. The ads mock Apple's M1 Macs, satirizing Apple's earlier ad campaign. They point to reasons why Intel-based laptops might provide a better experience than Apple's M1 Macs. The ads can be viewed in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Musk to Tesla and SpaceX workers: Be in the office 40 hours a week or quit | Elon Musk sent out memos telling Tesla and SpaceX employees to work in the office for at least 40 hours per week or leave the company. Employees must work at an office where their colleagues are located and not a remote branch office unrelated to their job duties. Exceptions will be reviewed by Musk directly. Twitter recently told its employees that they can make their own decisions about where they want to work. The company has warned that it may experience a departure of employees before Musk's deal to buy the Twitter is closed. | 4Miscellaneous
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YouTuber Builds an Electric Skateboard With Tank Tracks | YouTuber Ivan Miranda created a custom electric skateboard with tank treads using 3D printed parts. The board features brushless DC motors, a lithium polymer battery, and a remote control system. The 19-minute video of the build is available at the end of the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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awesome-baremetal (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a list of bare-metal tools. All items on the list have been recently updated within the last 6 months or are still deemed relevant by the curator. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Post-mortem changes may shed light on important brain studies | Certain cells in the human brain remain active for hours after we die. Some even increase their activity and grow to gargantuan proportions. Inflammatory cells called glial cells grow and sprout long arm-like appendages for many hours after death. The cells' job is to clean up things after brain injuries, so it isn't too surprising that they enlarge after death. Most studies that use post-mortem human brain tissues do not account for post-mortem gene expression or cell activity. These new findings mean that future studies will have to take into account these genetic and cellular changes and try to minimize them. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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People Are Jailbreaking Used Teslas to Get the Features They Expect | Tesla will sometimes claw back software upgrades from used cars, removing features that owners had paid for at the time of sale. If customers want to get those features back, they have to pay Tesla the full cost of the feature to turn it back on. Tesla employees are told to put the software features back if people complain to avoid bad publicity. The company can turn off any feature for any reason. Some owners have resorted to jailbreaking their Teslas to re-enable features. While this has saved many owners from losing functionality in their vehicles, it also voids their warranty with Tesla. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Genetically-engineered pigs to be reared to fight disease | Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is a disease that costs the US and Europe about $2.5 billion in lost revenue every year. Vaccines have mostly failed to stop the spread of the virus. Researchers from Edinburgh University's Roslin Institute have genetically engineered pigs that can resist the disease. Critics of the research say it will discourage farmers from improving the welfare of their livestock. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Verizon begins rolling out its 5G wireless network for smartphones | Chicago and Minneapolis now have access to Verizon's 5G wireless network. The network will deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps, which is roughly 10 times faster than current LTE connections. Currently, only the Motorola Z3 will support the network, but Samsung will be releasing its Galaxy 10 5G model later this year. T-Mobile and Sprint are also planning to roll out 5G later this year. | 4Miscellaneous
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Chrome can now instantly caption audio and video on the web | Google's Live Caption feature is now available to anyone using Chrome browser. The feature uses machine learning to create captions for audio or video. It first appeared on Pixel phones in 2019. Captions will appear with muted audio. The feature only works in English. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Coronavirus Data API (Website) | This API gives four options to track the coronavirus: global stats, country stats, full timeline, and country timeline. Data can be queried using AJAX or $.ajax() in jQuery. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon buys 11 jets for 1st time to ship orders faster | Amazon bought 11 jets from Delta and WestJet airlines to boost its growing delivery network and to ship orders faster. All of the planes will be converted to hold cargo instead of passengers. It is the first time the company has purchased planes for its delivery business. A mix of both leased and owned aircraft in its fleet will allow Amazon to better manage its operations. The company has been working to lessen its reliance on UPS, the US Postal Service, and other carriers. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Scientists discover new phase of water, known as "superionic ice," inside planets | Superionic ice is a phase of water that occurs in extreme conditions, such as in the core of planets. A team of scientists recently produced the black ice by pressing water between two diamonds and then heating it with a laser. Superionic ice exists within Earth and it plays a role in maintaining the planet's magnetic fields. Understanding superionic ice may play an important role in searching for other planets that can host life. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Epic Games begins to show it’s “more than games,” acquires Bandcamp | Epic Games has acquired Bandcamp, an online music-streaming service. The company plans to build a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music, and more. This suggests that developers in the future may be able to search through the Unreal asset sales ecosystem to license music for their projects. Bandcamp will remain a standalone marketplace and music community and all existing products and services will continue as normal. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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In Brain Waves, Scientists See Neurons Juggle Possible Futures | Researchers in California have found a mechanism in rat brains that is involved in decision-making and imagination. Special cells in the hippocampus are responsible for mapping an animal's location as it moves through space. A lot of consistent neural activity in these cells can be observed when the rats are about to make a decision. The pattern in cell activity suggests that the rat's brain is testing out, or imagining, different possibilities. It also suggests that the rats are able to store past possibilities to return to. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The End of Localhost (10 minute read) | The ultimate future developer experience will enable developers to quickly build apps using almost any device from anywhere in the world. This will require most things to be run on the cloud. The cloud is reducing dev machines to being a poorly maintained set of environment mocks. This article discusses the benefits of working entirely in the cloud and the inevitable end of localhost. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Scientists make ‘slightly sweaty’ robot finger with living skin | Scientists from Japan have developed a robotic finger covered in living skin. The skin was grown by submerging the robotic finger in a solution of collagen and human dermal fibroblasts, which provided a layer for the skin cells to stick to. The skin has natural-looking wrinkles at the knuckles and it can self-heal with the help of a collagen bandage. It has to be kept moist as it has no circulatory system, giving it a slightly sweaty look. Pictures of the finger are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Leaked audio captures Sundar Pichai discussing leaks at Google | Leaked audio from an all-hands meeting at Google recorded Google CEO Sundar Pichai responding to concerns regarding recent hires, management, and trust. Google had recently hired a former Department of Homeland Security staffer who had defended a travel ban on citizens of predominantly Muslim nations. Employees who had been part of protest walkouts have claimed that they faced retaliation for their efforts. A new Chrome extension by Google automatically reports any staffer who creates a meeting event with more than 10 rooms or 100 participants. Staff claim that the extension was created to target dissenters, but managers say that it was created to reduce potential calendar spam. Pichai discussed the trouble of maintaining trust and transparency at scale, especially when internal discussions have been leaked for use against the company and some of its employees. | 4Miscellaneous
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50% of meetings are a waste of time. Change it with Slido (Sponsor) | 50% of meetings are a waste of time. Change it with Slido . Tired of unproductive meetings that leave everyone zoned out or multitasking? Win back their attention with meaningful interaction. Slido polling and Q&A will help you engage your team in seconds, directly in your slide deck or video tool. Try it for free now. | 0Sponsor
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Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Successfully Deploys Landers to Asteroid Ryugu's Surface | Two Japanese probes have touched down on the asteroid Ryugu, and are now hopping around its surface inspecting the asteroid. Eventually, the probes will fire a small missile at the asteroid to create a crater in order to gather fresh samples from the inside. The probes will return to Earth in 2020. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Scientists Found a New Way to Control the Brain With Light—No Surgery Required | Optogenetics is a technology that uses light of different frequencies to control the brain. It has been used to incept memories in mice, decipher brain signals that lead to pain, reverse depression, overwrite memories, and more. Unfortunately, the treatment requires gene therapy and brain surgery to implant optical fibers into the brain. A team of researchers has unveiled an upgraded version of optogenetics that doesn't require surgery. It can be used to reprogram the brains of mice with light pulses that pass through the skulls of mice. The new technique still requires gene therapy, as it is the key to making neurons respond to light. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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SpaceX just test-fired the huge engine for its newest rocket | Elon Musk tweeted a series of videos, showing SpaceX’s new rocket engine design, Raptor, being tested. The engine, designed for its Starship rocket, has a new ‘radical’ design that uses methane and liquid oxygen to attain thrust. SpaceX has planned to attach 3 of these engines to its Starship rocket for low-altitude testing later this year. The article contains the videos showing the Raptor rocket engine being tested. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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No CS Degree (Website) | No CS degree is a website that features interviews with successful self-taught and bootcamp developers. Developers who learned to code through self-education talk about their experiences in learning code without going through a degree, and how they managed to build products and profitable businesses. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Google's leaked Project Wolverine could give you superpowers | Project Wolverine is a device from Alphabet's X division that lets the user isolate audio to focus on a specific source. It has been in development since before 2018. The technology has gone through several form factors, with some versions covering the entire side of the ear. Project Wolverine may still fail, but it's operational enough to demo to some decision-makers. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Water.css (GitHub Repo) | Water.css is a way to quickly style up your demo pages or simple websites. Developers can style their pages by adding a line of code in the tag. There are a few options of styling available and developers can build custom themes. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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19 States Voting Records Being Sold on the Dark Web | The voting records of over 35 million Americans are available on the dark web. There are records from 19 states, and it's being hinted at that the data leak is not technical, it may be coming from a leaker within the government. You can buy voter records from a state for between $150 and $12500, battleground states tend to cost more. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Need a New Tooth? Drug Discovered to Regenerate Lost Teeth | Japanese scientists have discovered a monoclonal antibody that can stimulate tooth growth in mice suffering from a congenital condition called tooth agenesis. The fundamental molecules for tooth growth also modulate the growth of multiple organs and tissues very early in development. Suppressing the Uterine Sensitization Associated Gene-1 (USAG-1) benefits tooth growth. The scientists discovered a monoclonal antibody that disrupts the interaction of USAG-1 and another molecule involved in tooth growth. A single administration of the antibody was enough to generate a whole tooth. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Lidar reveals hundreds of long-lost Maya and Olmec ceremonial centers | A recent airborne lidar survey revealed 478 Maya and Olmec ceremonial sites hidden beneath vegetation or too large to recognize from the ground in southern Mexico. Lidar surveys have revealed tens of thousands of irrigation channels, causeways, and fortresses across Maya territory over the last several years. The technology is transforming archaeology. The new findings reveal more about the ancient civilizations, showing that they were more extensive and densely populated than previously realized. | 4Miscellaneous
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China Is Leading the Next Step in Fighting Malaria in Africa | A Chinese philanthropist and his company, New South, have set their sights on Kenya in their mission to eradicate malaria. The company produces medicine that combats malaria and wants to make the world know that Chinese medicines are of high quality and not inferior. It aims to use a Mass Drug Administration approach, where antimalarial medication is given to everybody in an area all at once to combat the disease. Theoretically, this would wipe out the disease in the area. MDA has been used successfully before. However, skeptics argue that the approach increases the chance of the disease developing drug resistance. Doctors in Kenya welcome the treatment as malaria is a heavy burden on the country’s medical system. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Message Platform Slack Moves Ahead Amid Direct Listing Plans | The popular messaging platform, Slack, filed with US regulators to go public without disclosing the details of its share-sale plans. Slack plans to sell its shares directly to investors without an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The estimated value of the company is more than $7 billion. While it is rare for a company to forgo an IPO, other companies such as Spotify have successfully gone public through this route. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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TikTok confirms pilot test of TikTok Stories is now underway | TikTok is piloting a new feature called TikTok Stories. The feature works similar to how Stories work on other social media platforms, except that comments are public and users can see how many other people have viewed a story. Stories will disappear after 24 hours. The pilot has only been running for a few days in non-US markets. Screenshots of the feature are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The Fastest GIF Does Not Exist | To make the fastest possible GIFs, set the frame delay to 20ms instead of 10ms. Browsers do not support 0 delay with GIFs, and anything with a delay and less than 20ms is pushed to 100ms. 20ms is the sweet spot where the framerate ends up being the fastest. Examples are available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Differential Privacy (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a library of algorithms that can be used to produce statistics over numeric data sets that contain private or sensitive information. It can compute the count, sum, mean, variance, standard deviation, and provide order statistics. The algorithms are suitable for research, experimental, or production use cases. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Rolls-Royce Is Building Snake Robots to Fix Jet Engines | Rolls-Royce has designed new robots to inspect and repair its turbofan engines as part of its IntelligentEngine vision. Two types of snake-like robots were revealed. COBRA is controlled by an engineer using fully-immersive virtual reality equipment in order to view what is inside an engine, and FLARE is able to make repairs to thermal coatings inside of jet engines without the need to remove the engine from the aircraft wing. A third type of robot called SWARM is a small machine that allows engineers to view a jet engine in action from the interior without needing to dismantle any parts. These robots are still in testing phases, but the results have been promising, and they demonstrate what the future of aircraft repair might look like. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Pwnagotchi (GitHub Repo) | Pwnagotchi is an AI that learns to capture WPA key material more effectively over time. The more handshakes it captures, the more effective it will be. Multiple units can learn to work with each other. It requires a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a display and power bank. As it is in its alpha stage, there is no support for installation or for bugs. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon HQ2 Deal Stirs New Tensions in New York | Amazon announced in November that it was planning to build a new headquarters in New York. However, recent protests have caused debates on whether the company will continue its plans. Government opposition may halt further development, but the mayor continues to support the project. If Amazon brings its offices to Queens, it could mean creating between 25,000 to 40,000 jobs. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Open Source SPL scripts make microservice development more efficient (Sponsor) | Agile SPL syntax enables more convenient programming. The open-source data processing component can be seamlessly integrated into any Java application. Learn more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Boston Dynamics Releases Video of Handle, a New Warehouse Work Robot | A new robot by Boston Dynamics called Handle can complete warehouse tasks such as mixed SKU pallet building, depalletizing, and sorting boxes up to 15 kg. The robots are wheeled, unlike the legged robots which Boston Dynamics is famous for, as wheels are much more practical for a warehouse and the tasks that the robots will be assigned to do. A short video is available showing the robots at work, revealing a glimpse of what the future of warehouses could be like. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Privacy Not Included (Guide) | This is a guide by Mozilla to help you with your holiday shopping. It tells you exactly what information each smart device collects (audio, video, location tracking, and a lot more), and also allows users to vote on whether or not they think a device is creepy and whether or not they're likely to buy it. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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