text
stringlengths 65
1.91k
|
|---|
SpaceX working on fix for Starlink satellites so they don’t disrupt astronomy . The next batch of Starlink satellites will include one satellite that has been treated with a special coating designed to make the spacecraft less reflective and less likely to interfere with space observations. 120 high-speed internet satellites have already been deployed. Astronomers noted that the satellites were extremely bright soon after the first launch in May. Starlink will experiment with different methods of dealing with the issue. The experimental coating may affect the satellite's performance. A new batch of 60 satellites will be launched every two to three weeks in the next year. Starlink aims to provide global coverage by mid-2020. |
AI allows paralyzed person to ‘handwrite’ with his mind . People who have been fully paralyzed by stroke or neurological disease have trouble communicating. Efforts have been made to create technologies that assist communication, for example, patients can communicate by moving a cursor on a screen via electrodes implanted in a part of the brain involved in motion. Using this method, people have been able to communicate at a rate of 39 characters per minute. Researchers used the power of machine learning to train a neural network that can read out sentences with 95 percent accuracy at a speed of about 66 characters a minute. The patient only had to imagine the trajectory of a pen to communicate. Researchers expect speed to increase with more practice. |
Genetic engineers are working on making an invisible man. Seriously . Scientists at the University of California recently published a paper describing their work in genetically engineering human cells to have the ability to vary their transparency. Cephalopods can change both the color and transparency of their skin. The researchers grew embryonic human kidney cells in a dish using a special technique to create a specific squid protein. When stimulated with salt, the proteins in the cells reacted and changed the cells' transparency. Further research will improve strategies for creating the protein and for controlling the cells' optical properties in real-time. |
Google Spinoff’s Drone Delivery Business First to Get FAA Approval . Wings, Alphabet’s drone delivery service, has received approval to operate as an airline. The certifications for the delivery company to become an airline were necessary as without them the drones would not be legally able to fly over certain areas and distances. Other drone companies should be able to navigate the application process more easily now that Wings has gained their certifications. Wings will begin operations in rural Virginia within months. |
Startup that aims to 3D-print rockets says it’s fully funded for its first commercial missions . Relativity Space, a startup that aims to launch the first fully 3D-printed rocket into orbit, has announced that it has reached its funding goals and that the first commercial operations will begin in early 2021. By using 3D printing to create its rockets, Relativity Space can drastically cut down on costs by requiring fewer parts per rocket. The company hopes to replicate the 3D printing process on other planets. Its first rocket, the Terran 1, is a small-to-medium-sized vehicle that will stand about 100 feet tall and be able to carry up to 2,755 lbs. Relativity Space plans to increase its payload limits. The first Terran 1 rocket will be launched at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. |
Rubbery Chicken? Scientists Say Cook It With Lasers Instead . Scientists from Columbia University and Applied Science's Creative Machines Lab used different types of lasers to cook 3D-printed chicken. The researchers pureed raw chicken and used a 3D food printer to create square samples, after which they cooked it using pulses of blue or near-infrared laser light with different wavelengths. An infrared camera monitored the surface of the chicken at all times along with eight thermistors. The laser-cooked chicken was preferred in blind taste tests. A video of the process is available in the article. |
Elon Musk’s Tesla tequila will run you $250 a bottle . Tesla now lists Tesla Tequila on its website, a reference to Elon Musk's April Fool's Day joke involving a liquor called Teslaquila. The tequila is housed in a bottle-shaped in the electric charge symbol and costs $250. It is produced by Nosotros Tequila. A picture of the liquor is available in the article. |
SpaceX to lay off 10% of its workforce . SpaceX says it needs to get "leaner" and will lay off about 10% of its 6,000 employees. They are offering a minimum of eight weeks' pay, career coaching, resume help, and job searches to laid-off workers. |
KubeDB (Open Source). This is a tool to easily run production grade databases on Kubernetes. It includes monitoring, period backups, restoring from backups, integration with Prometheus, and an easy-to-use CLI. It currently supports Postgres, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, MySQL, Redis, and Memcached. |
Code Tips (Website). Code Tips is a website that teaches programming for people with little or no prior experience. It contains short tutorials that are written in an easy to understand manner. Most tutorials are on programming basics, but there are also tutorials for Go, Python, and JavaScript. |
Apple’s 2021 iPhones will reportedly have a video portrait mode . Apple's upcoming flagship iPhones will be able to automatically blur the backgrounds of videos with its new Cinematic Video feature. They will also have support for ProRes video recording and new editing options for photos. It is predicted that the new phones will have improved ultrawide cameras, a larger aperture for better low-light photography, a faster refresh rate, smaller display notches, and a boost in processing power with the new A15 chip. This year's updates are expected to be modest, with the same variety of models and screen sizes as last year. |
Pixel Watch is powered by a 300mAh battery and offers cellular connectivity . The Pixel Watch will have a 300mAh battery. There have been three models leaked so far. Cellular connectivity will be offered on at least one model. The watch could be powered by Samsung Exynos, the same chip as the Galaxy Watch 4, which has a 247mAh battery that lasts between 24 to 40 hours, depending on the model size. |
DoorDash partners with California restaurant to build new brick-and-mortar location . DoorDash has partnered with a restaurant to build a brick-and-mortar store called Burma Bites. The restaurant will do delivery and takeout with menu items priced between $12 and $19. DoorDash has seen a sales increase during the pandemic and is reportedly planning a traditional IPO before the end of the year. Burma Bites is set to open on October 28th in Oakland, California. |
McDonald’s is Testing Kitchen Robots and AI-Powered Drive-Thrus. It’s About Time . McDonald’s is testing robotic deep fryers and voice-activated drive-thrus at a location in suburban Chicago. The details about what the deep fryers look like and how they operate are unknown. Automating the deep-frying process may speed up the production line as well as reduce employee injuries and the costs related to these injuries. Using an automated drive-thru could result in shorter queue times. While critics claim that automating these jobs will take away work from human employees, restaurants are struggling to find employees to complete repetitive, boring, and dangerous tasks, such as handling a fryer for hours on end. |
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. |
How Apple’s Apps Topped Rivals in the App Store It Controls (11 minute read). Apple has been criticized for placing its own apps at the top of the App Store search results. While Apple denies the accusations, an analysis of search terms showed that its own apps were displayed before apps from rivals, even if the Apple apps were less relevant and less popular. In May, the Supreme Court voted to allow an antitrust action against Apple to move forward. Apple has since changed its search algorithm, causing some of its apps search rankings to drop. The search algorithm examines 42 different signals. Developers can pay Apple in order to display their apps on the top of App Store search results. |
A Robot for the Worst Job in the Warehouse . Boston Dynamics' Stretch robot is designed to move heavy boxes just as fast as an experienced warehouse worker, all day long. The robot can transfer boxes that weigh as much as 50 pounds from the back of a truck to a conveyor belt at a rate of 800 boxes per hour. It can also unload boxes from pallets, put boxes on shelves, build orders out of multiple boxes from different places in a warehouse, and load boxes onto trucks. Human workers will still be required to monitor the robot and to handle other more nuanced parts of the job. Stretch will start shipping to customers in 2022. |
WeWork lays off 2,400 employees . 2,400 WeWork employees will be laid off as the company cuts costs and resizes its business. WeWork is aiming to create a more efficient and focused organization. This layoff represents 19 percent of WeWork's total workforce. Former employees will receive severance, continued benefits, and other forms of assistance. The job cuts have been rumored for some time now. WeWork pulled its IPO filing after investors expressed concerns over the company's mounting losses and unusual corporate governance structure. Adam Neumann, one of WeWork's cofounders, has since stepped down from his role as CEO. WeWork almost ran out of money but secured a bailout from SoftBank, its biggest investor. It continues to bleed cash, with $1.25 billion in reported losses for the third quarter. |
PHP: The Right Way (Website). This website contains an easy-to-read, quick reference for popular PHP coding standards. It aims to introduce PHP developers to multiple options while explaining the difference in approach and use case. Many different translations are available. The website also links to tutorials and other resources. |
A Bay Area startup is working to make 'air meat' using protein-producing microbes discovered by NASA . Most meat alternatives rely on soy or pea protein to mimic the taste and texture of burger patties. A startup called Air Protein is using a technique discovered by NASA to convert carbon dioxide into protein the same way plants do. The process requires 1,000 times less land and water than soybean production as the protein is created inside a lab rather than on a farm. It uses microbes called hydrogenotrophs, which convert carbon dioxide into a flavorless protein powder. The resulting protein can be made into pasta, cereals, shakes, and now, a meat alternative. Similar technology is being used by other companies to create different types of foods. The biggest hurdle for this technology will be to win consumers over with taste. |
Surface Laptop Studio is Microsoft’s new powerful flagship laptop . Microsoft has announced the Surface Laptop Studio, a totally redesigned flagship laptop with a display that pulls forward to transform it into a tablet. The 14.4-inch display supports up to 120Hz and Dolby Vision. It sits on a flexible hinge that allows the laptop to transition between three modes: laptop, stage, and studio. The Surface Laptop Studio will ship on October 5 with prices starting at $1,599.99. More details about the device are available in the article. |
The ethics of the 4 day work week. It’s not just about the hours . Britain's shadow chancellor John McDonnell has recently pledged to reduce the standard working week to 32 hours, without loss of pay, within 10 years of winning office. He says that people should work to live, not live to work. While fewer working hours may have economic benefits through optimal resource allocation, it is also an ethically desirable goal. Fewer working hours mean that people would be generally happier as they have more time. However, having more time doesn't mean that all the time is spent on doing what people want to do. A lot of the extra time will probably be spent on doing things that are required to be done. |
Is Vim Really Not For You? A Beginner Guide (17 minute read). Many people avoid using Vim because there is a learning curve and it looks daunting. However, learning Vim can have many benefits, such as being able to edit files on remote systems where only Vi or Vim are available, being able to navigate many CLI applications that use Vim key bindings, and just because it can be a fun way to create content. Vim is completely keyboard-based, so having good keyboard technique is important. Everything in Vim is configurable, and there is even a programming language called Vimscript that can help shape the editor. Different modes will allow you to edit content in specific, efficient ways. There are some shortcuts to learn in order to get used to using the editor, but in the end, you will find that you will be able to edit and create content much more efficiently. |
Leaked document reveals that Sidewalk Labs' Toronto plans for private taxation, private roads, charter schools, corporate cops and judges, and punishment for people who choose privacy . Toronto's City Council will soon hold a vote on whether to allow Sidewalk Labs to privatize much of the city's lakeshore to create a 'smart city' owned by Alphabet. Sidewalk Labs has a plan to create a corporate-owned city similar to Lake Buena Vista with privately owned and regulated roads, chartered schools, the power to levy and spend property taxes, a corporate criminal justice system, and continuous surveillance. Residents can choose to decline to share information with Sidewalk Labs, but doing so will mean that they will not receive the same level of services as those who choose to share information. For example, they will not be able to access automated taxi services and some merchants might be unable to accept cash. Sidewalk Labs plans to use reputation tools, effectively establishing a social credit system. |
Google remotely disables The Great Suspender Chrome extension after malware accusations . The Great Suspender, a popular Chrome extension that automatically suspended open tabs that haven't been used for a while, has been removed from Google's Chrome Web Store. Apparently, some sketchy changes happened when the extension changed owners last year. Google warns that the extension is dangerous and may contain malware. The extension was open source, and there have been no changes on its GitHub repository for months. The last few releases have not been published to the repository. |
Two Foldable iPhone Prototypes Reportedly Pass Internal Durability Tests . Apple recently completed tests for two different folding iPhone designs at the Foxconn factory in China. The first model was a dual-screen model, with two separate display panels connected by a hinge. Despite being two separate panels, the screen looks fairly continuous and seamless. The second prototype was a clamshell foldable, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. Apple ordered a large number of Samsung foldable mobile phone displays for testing purposes in 2020. Now that the testing has been completed, Apple will decide which design to continue development with. |
Amazon is making two-hour grocery delivery free for all Prime members . Amazon has added free two-hour grocery delivery to its Prime membership program. Amazon Prime is $119 per year in the US and includes free shipping and other benefits, such as Prime Video and Music. Grocery delivery was previously an additional $14.99 per month subscription service. There are now 100 million Prime members worldwide. The rollout of the grocery delivery benefit will begin in phases, starting with an invite-only program for customers who have previously ordered groceries using Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods. Prime members can request an invitation. There is no timeline for when free grocery delivery will be rolled out to all Prime members without an invite. |
Disney+ was the most downloaded app in the US in Q4 2019 . Disney+ was released in mid-November and was downloaded more than 30 million times. This was more than double its nearest competitor, TikTok. It was the most downloaded app in both the Apple store and Google Play. Disney+ grossed more than $50 million in its first 30 days. It generated 16 percent of all subscription video-on-demand revenue in the US in Q4. The statistics indicate that Disney+ might be expanding the market, rather than beating out its competitors. |
GitHub Copilot (Website). GitHub Copilot is a Visual Studio Code extension that suggests whole lines or entire functions for code. It is trained on billions of lines of public code and understands dozens of languages. Copilot is fast enough to use as you type. Examples are available on the website. Copilot is still in its testing phase, so access is limited. |
Fuzzilli (GitHub Repo). Fuzzilli is a guided fuzzer for dynamic language interpreters that uses a custom intermediate language, FuzzIL. The output can then be translated to JavaScript. Currently, only JavaScriptCore, Spidermonkey, and v8 are supported. The fuzzer is implemented is Swift, with some parts implemented in C. |
Amazon employee at Seattle headquarters tests positive for coronavirus . An employee at Amazon's Seattle headquarters has tested positive for COVID-19. Amazon has 55,000 employees working at their Seattle offices. Those who had been in close contact with the affected employee have been notified. Amazon has stated that they are supporting the employee, who is now in quarantine. They went home sick on February 25 and haven't returned to work since. There were more than 100 cases in the US as of Tuesday night. More than 90,000 people in the world have been infected, with the death toll rising to around 3,000. |
How iPhone Hackers Got Their Hands on the New iOS Months Before Its Release . A leaked early version of iOS 14 has been available to security researchers and hackers since at least February. iOS 14 is expected to be released in September, along with the announcement of the next generation of iPhones. Security researchers have been able to get an early look into the new code to find security flaws. The final version of iOS 14 will be significantly different from the leaked version, but the leak still contains a large amount of potentially exploitable information. This is the first time a version of iOS was leaked so many months in advance. Apple has not commented on the leak but it has taken action against leakers before. |
SpaceX’s Starhopper completed its first mini-launch ‘hop’ . SpaceX’s Starhopper is a mini version of a spacecraft that will hopefully be able to travel throughout our solar system and maybe even to neighboring stars. The Starhopper just completed its first official ‘hop test’, where it lifted off briefly while being tethered to the launch pad. While a full-size version of Starship is still a while away, this Starhopper test will pave the way for higher test flights and full-scale launches. SpaceX has been busy lately with the tests of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, regular launches for commercial clients, and the impending second launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. |
Apple App Store breaks records, customers spent $1.22B in one week . Apple's App Store had it's biggest week ever with $1.22 billion in sales between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It then had it's biggest day ever on New Year's Day, when customers spent $322 million. Gaming and self-care were the most popular categories, with Fortnite being the most popular game. |
DARPA wants to build an AI to find the patterns hidden in global chaos . A butterfly flaps its wings and causes a hurricane halfway around the world. This is a famous characterization of how small events can have huge unpredictable effects in complex systems. Until now. DARPA's new AI the Knowledge-directed Artificial Intelligence Reasoning Over Schemas or KAIROS is meant to sift through all of the news and media in the world to identify threads and narratives within them. Schemas are sequences of loosely related events (for example, walking into a store, selecting an item, bringing it to a cashier, and paying for it would be a schema for buying something). KAIROS wants to create schemas to recognize major global events like cold wars or major recessions. |
With GPT-3, I built a layout generator where you just describe any layout you want, and it generates the JSX code for you (Twitter Thread). By giving GPT-3 two code samples for context, Sharif Shameem was able to create a layout generator that can generate JSX code from just a word description. A 2-minute video is available that shows multiple examples of the generator creating code from word descriptions like 'a button for every color of the rainbow'. Shameem commented that it would be easy to generate an HTML/CSS version of the app by feeding GPT-3 the same two samples written in HTML/CSS. A link to the generator is available in the thread. |
Thousands of autonomous delivery robots are about to descend on US college campuses . Starship Technologies has announced a plan to deploy thousands of autonomous six-wheeled delivery robots on college campuses across the US in the next two years. The robots have been tested in over 100 cities in 20 different countries, completing over 100,000 deliveries. Each campus will receive 25-50 robots. Robots have already been deployed in George Mason University and Northern Arizona University. The robots can travel around three to four miles at a maximum speed of four miles per hour. They can work for many hours without a break, carrying cargo of up to 20 pounds in weight. Starship charges $1.99 per order. Other companies have also introduced autonomous delivery robots, but Starship is confident that their technology is miles ahead of any competition. |
Experimental device generates electricity from the coldness of the universe . A new device is able to generate electricity through the difference in temperatures between Earth and space. The device harvests heat as it leaves a surface and turns it into electrical energy using the same type of optoelectronic physics used for harnessing solar energy. The technology currently available is not able to capture power efficiently, with the scientists reporting that they were only able to harvest an amount of power roughly one million times less than the theoretical amount possible. However, the scientists were able to prove that the concept was valid, so further research can only improve the performance of the device. |
An ‘EpiPen’ for spinal cord injuries . Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed nanoparticles that stop the immune system from overreacting to trauma. This could stop spinal injuries from resulting in paralysis. When the body is injured, the body’s immune response targets the injured area to remove debris and begin healing. However, when the central nervous system is damaged, the immune system creates too much inflammation for the neural tissues, which causes them to die. The nanoparticles are designed to redirect immune cells from the damaged area, resulting in less chance of damage to the spinal cord. Using nanoparticles to redirect the immune system is also useful for the treatment of other conditions. |
Watch China's Chang'e 5 spacecraft land on the moon in this amazing video . China's Chang'e 5 lander spacecraft has successfully touched down on the Moon and collected the first lunar samples in 44 years. A short video of the landing and footage of Chang'e 5 collecting samples is available in the article. The spacecraft launched on November 23 and touched down on Tuesday at 11:11 pm Beijing Time. Chang'e 5 will launch back into lunar orbit on Thursday and re-enter Earth's atmosphere around December 16. |
NASA taps SpaceX, Blue Origin and 11 more companies for Moon and Mars space tech . NASA has partnered with 13 companies on 19 new projects that will help it reach the Moon and Mars. Blue Origin will develop a navigation system for safe landing on the Moon, a fuel cell-based power system, and engine nozzles for rockets with liquid propellant suited for lunar lander vehicles. SpaceX will be working on technology to help move rocket propellant safely around during orbit and on refining its vertical landing capabilities to adapt it to conditions on the Moon. Lockheed Martin will be creating metal powder-based materials using solid-state processing that can operate better in high-temperature environments, as well as autonomous methods for growing and harvesting plants in space. A link to more details on the other projects is available. |
Mars milestone: NASA Ingenuity helicopter survives first cold night alone . NASA's Ingenuity helicopter recently survived on its own for the first time through a brutal Martian night. Perseverance dropped the helicopter onto the ground over the weekend to allow it to charge its batteries in the sunlight. Temperatures can go as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the Jezero Crater at night. NASA plans to run Ingenuity's first hovering test flight on April 11. |
How to read a jellyfish's mind . A team of researchers have genetically modified jellyfish so that their neurons light up when activated. This allowed them to watch the animal's neural activity as it behaved naturally. Jellyfish have brains diffused across their bodies like a net, with each part able to operate autonomously. By observing jellyfish neurons in real-time, the scientists determined that while the network of neurons seems unstructured, there is a surprising degree of organization. The level of neural organization is invisible under a microscope and can only be seen by visualizing active neurons. A couple of short clips showing jellyfish neurons lighting up are available in the article. |
How a Tesla engineer redesigned the chocolate chip . Remy Labesque is a senior industrial designer at Tesla. His side project for the last three years has been to re-engineer the classic chocolate chip as he claims that the teardrop shape isn't suited to its function. The traditional shape was optimized for mass production rather than taste. Labesque's chocolate chips are a square, faceted pyramid, similar to a flattened diamond, with two thick edges and two thin edges. The chips stay whole throughout baking. They come in three different flavors at $30 for a 17.6 oz bag. Pictures of the chocolate chips are available in the article. |
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. |
Walt Disney Imagineering is developing walking animatronics . Disney's Imagineering team's newest robotic initiative is about building extreme Marvel and Star Wars characters such as The Incredible Hulk and Yoda. Project Kiwi aims to create advanced robotics to bring characters that humans can't believably play to life. Robots won't replace cast members, but park guests will soon be able to see non-human characters walking around. Some characters will be combinations of humans with animatronics. While iconic attractions will probably stay, their old animatronics will likely be replaced with more believable and mobile ones in the future. |
Scientists Added a Sense of Touch to a Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm . A new type of robotic arm prosthesis uses a direct connection to the brain to provide a sense of touch without connecting to nerves and muscles. Patients using the device were able to complete tasks in half the time compared to using an arm without feedback. The sensory information received from the arm is still rudimentary, but it was enough to improve performance in a pretty significant way. Adding a sense of touch may give patients a greater sense of ownership over their replacement limbs. |
China is Home to World's First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor . China Huaneng Group Co.’s 200-megawatt small modular reactor at Shidao Bay is now operational. The nuclear plant will go into full commercial operations next year after connecting a second reactor. Its reactors are designed to shut down passively if anything goes wrong. China is expected to invest up to $440 billion into nuclear power over the next decade and a half. Small module reactors are less costly to build and operate, faster to implement, and have shorter shutdown times compared to traditional nuclear plants, making them an exciting technology for nuclear experts. |
Zoom closed account of U.S.-based Chinese activist “to comply with local law” . A paid Zoom account associated with US-based nonprofit Humanitarian China was temporarily shut down after broadcasting an event commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Zoom stated that the account was closed down to comply with local laws. Some of the participants of the event were based in China where free discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement is forbidden. Zoom is a US-based company, but much of its product development was based in China, with some Zoom calls routed through Chinese servers. |
A New Species of Absolutely Enormous Waterlily Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight . The new species of giant waterlily was initially mistaken for another known species. |
Moving stuff with your mind? That superpower may finally be here . Scientists from China have developed a Bluetooth brain-computer interface that can wirelessly control metasurfaces using brainwaves. The device provided better control and was far more advanced than any existing product currently on the market. It can still be tweaked to be more efficient and accurate. The technology has potential applications in communications, the health sector, and smart sensors. |
SpaceX will now let you book a rocket launch online starting at $1 million . Customers who want to reserve space on a Falcon 9 launch can now do so through SpaceX's new web-based booking tool. SpaceX is offering rideshare services for $1 million per payload ranging up to 200kg, with an additional $5 per extra kilogram of cargo. Customers can select the desired orbit and the launch date, input the total amount and size of cargo, and select a specific rocket to book a ride on. The website will return an estimated cost. Customers can then choose some extra options, such as insurance. A small deposit is required, after which the customers can pay the rest of the fee in up to three installments. A Rideshare User's Guide has been released by SpaceX that contains more details about the program. Screenshots of the booking tool and a link to the Rideshare User's guide are available in the article. |
Ex SpaceX Engineers Launch Robotic Pizzeria That Can Make and Bake in 5 Minutes . Stellar Pizza is a new pizza-making robot launched by three ex-SpaceX engineers. The pizzeria can make, bake, and top a pizza in under five minutes. It can fit on the back of a truck and be deployed anywhere. Customers can order from a menu or create their own pizzas. The foodservice industry is currently facing a global shortage of labor that is expected to worsen over the next decade. Automated solutions like Stella Pizza provide a cost-effective way to fill unwanted positions in the food industry. |
Google launches Android 11 Developer Preview ahead of schedule for Pixel phones . Google has launched the Android Developer Preview early for the fifth year in a row. This initial Android 11 preview is earlier than previous releases, and it isn't in beta yet. The preview contains a feature set that targets a development-minded audience. A public launch is planned for Q3 2020. Some changes to Android include improved APIs for new technologies such as 5G and different display types, better privacy and security controls, and various improvements to the system experience. |
ECMAScript-new-features-list (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a comprehensive list of new ES features. Each list contains explanations and examples of how features are used in the ECMAScript 10 language. |
YouTube rolls out Super Stickers, a new way for creators to make money . YouTube fans who want to show their support for their favorite creators can now purchase Super Stickers to use within the live chat feature. To be eligible for Super Stickers, creators must have a monetized channel with more than 1,000 subscribers in supported markets. A Super Chat feature was launched almost three years ago which highlighted fans' messages in bright colors within live chat to give it more visibility. More than 100,000 channels have used Super Chat, with some channels earning more than $400 a minute. There will be eight Super Sticker packs at launch, five of which are animated. The packs are available in five languages across 60 countries and will cost from 99 cents to $50. Super Stickers will be completely rolled out by the end of the week. |
Exclusive: Tinder breaks into scripted original content, wraps filming first video series . Tinder will be launching its own original content in the form of a television series with an apocalyptic storyline that has a relationship subplot. The story will not involve Tinder's dating app. Tinder is owned by Match, who is owned by IAC, a company founded by Hollywood legend Barry Diller. Swipe Life is a lifestyle website launched by Tinder that includes articles and videos about dating and relationships. Offering original content is an increasingly popular and effective strategy for attracting devoted users as it engages customers even when they are not using a company's services. Walmart, Airbnb, and Costco are also developing original videos. It is unknown when Tinder's first series will be available or how it will be promoted. |
forgit (GitHub Repo). forgit is a tool designed to help people use git more efficiently. It provides a UI and makes many of git's functions interactive. Screenshots are available. |
Undeleting a file overwritten with mv . Stories of data loss can be embarrassing, but they help people learn useful things in case they end up in similar situations. This article tells the story of how a file was accidentally overwritten using the mv command, what the author attempted to do to fix the issue, and how the issue was fixed in the end. |
Apple has a Vladimir Putin problem . Russia passed a law in November 2019 that will require all smartphone devices to preload applications that provide information about its users back to the government. The information harvested includes location, financial, and message data. Unless Apple complies with the regulation, which kicks in during July 2020, it will have to pull out of Russia. The law is part of Vladimir Putin's goal to create a sovereign internet. Apple has yet to release a statement about the changes. Making these changes would go against Apple's principle of honoring user privacy over the interest of federal governments. Its position on privacy has landed the company in trouble with the US government in the past. Preloaded apps would pose just as real a threat as an official backdoor. Apple has recently changed Ukraine to be part of Russia in its weather reporting, a move that was heavily criticized on Ukrainian social media. The choices that Apple faces highlight the increasing power that large tech companies' decisions have on geopolitics. |
Streamlit (GitHub Repo). Streamlit allows developers to create apps for machine learning projects using simple Python scripts. Apps will update live as they are edited and saved. All that is required is an editor and a browser. Examples of apps written with Streamlit are available. |
Tesla remotely disables Autopilot on used Model S after it was sold . Tesla remotely disabled the driver assistance features from a Model S after it was sold to a customer by a third-party dealer. The dealer had purchased the vehicle directly from Tesla at an auction. Tesla claims that the customer didn't pay for the features so therefore they aren't eligible to use them. The features were enabled when the dealer bought the car and the customer purchased the car under the assumption the features would be included. Tesla says that the customer will have to pay $8,000 to turn the features back on. This incident raises hard questions about the problems that over-the-air updates can cause. |
Rocket Lab aims to launch private Venus mission in 2023 . Rocket Lab, a Californian-based spaceflight company, is planning a robotic astrobiology mission to Venus in 2023. Venus used to be a planet with oceans, lakes, and rivers, before the planet became hot and dry. Scientists believe that there could be life in the planet's atmosphere, where potentially habitable pockets have temperatures and pressures similar to the Earth's surface environment. The Venus mission will involve deploying probes into the planet's atmosphere using Rocket Lab's Photon satellite platform. When Photon becomes available for customers, it will significantly lower the cost of doing science in space. |
NASA considers selling seats on the spacecraft used for International Space Station . NASA is considering selling seats on the shuttles used to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station as an additional revenue source. Russia already does something like this, selling seats on its spacecraft to wealthy individuals for millions of dollars. The agency is also considering boosting its brand in other ways by allowing its logo to be used commercially and its astronauts to appear in commercials. The White House is considering ending direct funding of the International Space Station by 2025, so selling seats could be one way of turning the station into a self-funding commercial entity. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says "NASA has the best brand in the world, and it is important for us to make sure that we're using it in a way that helps people perceive the United States of America in a different way all around the world." |
Microsoft to shut down LinkedIn in China . Microsoft will shut down its local version of LinkedIn in China due to a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements. A Chinese regulator told LinkedIn in March to better regulate its content as some users had published prohibited content on their profiles. Microsoft will launch a new job site called InJobs that will not include a social feed or allow users to share posts or articles. |
Tricking the tricksters with a next level fork bomb . Some people try to trick others into running destructive shell commands by obscuring them. This article describes how someone decided to fight back by creating an obscured command which attacked anyone who tried to decode it. Only people familiar with the attack would try to decode the command, which would result in their systems slowing to a crawl until they rebooted. The examples in the article can be dangerous, do not copy-paste anything from it into your own shell. |
PyRobot (GitHub Repo). PyRobot provides hardware independent APIs for robotic manipulation and navigation. Using PyRobot, developers can make robots that can pick up objects, navigate around a room, and even more complex tasks such as stacking objects together. Several GIFs are available showing robots operating using PyRobot. |
OnlyFans says it will no longer ban porn in stunning U-turn after user backlash . OnlyFans has suspended its plans to ban pornography. It had previously said it was being forced to prohibit porn due to pressure from its banking partners, but it now says that it has secured the necessary assurances it needs to continue allowing sexually explicit content. Many sex workers had condemned OnlyFans for its earlier decision. OnlyFans' success has largely been due to adult performers selling their content through its platform. |
Match.com connected daters to fake accounts to boost subscriptions, US regulators say . The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Match.com alleging that the company connected non-paying users to fake accounts in order to get them to subscribe to the service. Non-paying users can't view or respond to messages, but are notified if they received a message. Many users would pay Match.com to view a received message only to find that the account that had sent the message was banned, or was soon to be banned. When users complained and requested refunds, Match.com denied any wrongdoing. The FTC found 499,691 new subscriptions that were linked to fraudulent communications between June 2016 and May 2018. Paid customers would have their messages reviewed for fraud before being notified, but non-paying customers were notified of every message, regardless of authenticity. The lawsuit also alleges that Match.com did not fulfill its promises to customers for a free six-month subscription if they weren't successful in using its service, and that the company purposefully made canceling the service incredibly difficult. |
Facebook shareholder revolt gets bloody: Powerless investors vote overwhelmingly to oust Mark Zuckerberg as chairman . Around 68 percent of ordinary investors, those who are not part of the management or board, voted to oust Mark Zuckerberg as chairman of Facebook during the annual shareholders meeting last week. Shareholders are concerned with the direction of the company and the handling of recent scandals. An independent chairman may benefit the company and hold Zuckerberg and his team accountable for their actions. Shareholders also voted to scrap Facebook’s dual-class share structure, where Class B shareholders have 10 times as much voting power as Class A shareholders. As Zuckerberg owns more than 75% of Class B stocks, earning him 60% of the voting power in Facebook, the proposal to oust him as chairman was dismissed. |
DeepMind Demonstration (Tweet). DeepMind will be demonstrating their StarCraft playing AI and discussing StarCraft 2 as an environment for AI research at 6:00pm GMT Thursday. There is a link to their YouTube channel in this tweet, they will be livestreaming the demonstration. |
Opera browser now allows emoji-only web addresses . Opera has partnered with Yat to enable emoji-based web addresses. Yat is a company that sells URLs with strings of emoji in them. The integration will mean users won't have to type the y.at part of the Yat address to access pages, only the emojis. Yat owners can create NFTs of their emoji strings and the company plans to eventually let users connect to electronic payments. The service started on February 1 with musicians like Kesha being among the first adopters. |
Boston Dynamics' robots can parkour better than you . Boston Dynamics has shared a video of its Atlas humanoid robots successfully completing a parkour routine in an obstacle course. The routine took months of development and served as a useful test of the robots' abilities. Atlas can adapt its movements using visual cues. While the video looks impressive, there is still a slight chance of failure at each step of the routine. Atlas is a research model meant to push the limit of robotics and it could lead to the development of helper robots that handle a wide variety of tasks with human-like dexterity. The video is available in the article. |
This Tool Lets You Program an Entire App With One Voice Command . CodeVox is a tool that can generate lines of code from natural speech. It works with Python and JavaScript. CodeVox uses OpenAI's Codex AI system to translate natural language to programming languages. Codex is trained on a data set of publicly available code. Its current version can execute about 37 percent of tasks users give it, and it is prone to bias. CodeVox demonstrates how Codex can be used to help make coding accessible to a larger audience. A video demonstration of CodeVox is available in the article. |
Motorola returns to flagship phones with the Edge Plus . Motorola has revealed its new Edge Plus flagship phone at $999. It features a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED panel, a Snapdragon 865 processor, 5G support, a 90Hz refresh rate, 12GB RAM, 256GB internal storage, a 5,000mAh battery, and a headphone jack. The Edge Plus has a triple rear camera system with a 108-megapixel sensor and other advanced camera features. A regular Motorola Edge will also be released with the same base design but with lower specs. The Edge Plus will be exclusive to Verizon in the US for its entire lifespan. The regular Motorola Edge will be sold more broadly but will be released later in the year. |
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. |
Kedro (GitHub Repo). Kedro is a Python framework for creating reproducible, maintainable, and modular data science code. It uses concepts like modularity, separation of concerns, and versioning and applies them to machine-learning code. Kedro features project templates, a data catalog, pipeline abstraction, coding standards, and flexible deployment. |
Salary Sharing Thread for Interns (Reddit Thread). With summer internship offers coming out, the CS Career Questions subreddit is having a salary sharing thread. The thread is broken down by region and the comments list their school, prior experience, location, summer salary and stuff like that. Gotta say, Tesla is looking very stingy! |
What it feels like to be laid off on Zoom during this crisis . Many tech employees have been laid off due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the layoffs continue as the situation goes on. The tech industry has transitioned offline, using platforms like Zoom to hold meetings. Now the layoff announcements have moved to these virtual meeting rooms. Employees at TripActions joined a virtual meeting on Tuesday morning, along with around 100 other team members, and were told that they were being laid off. Companies are now downsizing in order to survive lockdowns. People are frustrated, especially at having to receive the news over virtual group meetings. |
Powered by Sunlight, ‘Artificial Leaf’ Successfully Produces Clean Gas From CO2 and Water . Syngas is a gas usually created from fossil fuels that is used to produce a range of commodities, such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and fertilizers. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have created an artificial leaf that is able to produce syngas in a sustainable and simple way. The leaf works by using a combination of two light absorbers and a cobalt-based catalyst. It is able to work in low light, even when it is rainy or overcast. The technology may be able to eventually produce a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to petrol. |
All of the biggest announcements from Samsung’s Galaxy S20 event . Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, S20 Ultra, and Z Flip foldable phone at its Unpacked 2020 event recently. New Galaxy Buds Plus were also announced, with speakers that are 40 percent bigger than the previous generation. Voice quality has been improved, with three microphones built into the buds. They will have 11 hours of battery life. Google Duo will be available on the S20 and Z Flip devices. The Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra will all support 5G, feature a Snapdragon 865 processor, and will be able to record in 8K. Samsung's new Z flip foldable phone will feature a 6.7-inch foldable AMOLED display and will launch on February 14 for $1,380. |
Jeff Bezos says he will fly into space next month . Jeff Bezos will be flying on Blue Origin's first human spaceflight next month. He has invited his brother to go along, so the two brothers will join the winner of an auction for the July 20 flight. Bidding for the third seat has already reached $2.8 million, but it is likely to go higher during a live auction on June 22. Proceeds from the auction will be donated to Club for the Future, Blue Origin's foundation. Bezos has wanted to go to space for a long time, but he wanted to go on a Blue Origin vehicle. |
Canada Resident Finds A SpaceX Starlink Ground Station Under Construction . SpaceX's Starlink received approval to operate in Canada in November. It is now setting up ground stations to connect residents to the network. Customers can still purchase a Starlink Kit to connect directly to the service. The equipment at the new site has labels indicating that it was only to be used for demonstration purposes. Pictures of the site are available in the article. |
How the pandemic pulled Nigerian university students into cybercrime (15 minute read). This article follows the story of Kayode, an A-grade student that was studying at one of the country's most elite educational institutions who turned to cybercrime during the pandemic. The pandemic has pushed young Nigerians into online crime as many lose their jobs and are forced to go hungry. What little money people had is strained due to inflation. Cybercrime is a popular choice to turn to when legitimate avenues are exhausted, especially when it seems low risk. |
Amazon Zoox unveils self-driving robotaxi . Zoox recently unveiled an electric, fully driverless car built for ride-hailing. It can sit up to four passengers. There is no space for a driver or steering wheel. As it is a 'carriage-style' car, passengers will sit facing each other. Amazon acquired Zoox in June, but it gave few details about how it planned to use Zoox's technology. The robotaxi features bidirectional capabilities and four-wheel steering. It can drive up to 75 miles per hour and run for 16 hours on a single charge. Zoox plans to launch an app-based ridesharing service, with the first target markets in San Francisco and Las Vegas. |
Hackers are stealing videos from private security cameras and selling them as home video tapes . Chinese hackers are stealing videos from security cameras in private properties across the country and selling them online as 'home video packages'. Some people are installing cameras in homes, hotels, fitting rooms, and beauty salons to sell the footage. The videos are priced based on the content and are sold via social media. Real-time viewing options are also available. Those who are caught stealing data or spreading pornography in China face imprisonment. |
OpenAI debuts gigantic GPT-3 language model with 175 billion parameters . GPT-3 is OpenAI's new language model. It has 175 billion parameters, but it is unclear whether a full version or whether one of seven smaller versions will be released. GPT-3 is an autoregressive model trained with unsupervised machine learning. It can generate news articles, use novel words in sentences, and perform arithmetic. The model achieved nearly state-of-the-art results in COPA and ReCoRD reading comprehension data sets but fell short in some sets of middle school and high school exam questions that required comparing two sentences or snippets. An analysis of the model found that it had some biases, likely due to the input data. |
Why Some Memories Seem Like Movies: 'Time Cells' Discovered In Human Brains . Episodic memories are memories that play like a movie. Scientists have identified the cells that make episodic memory possible. Time cells place a timestamp on memories as they are being formed, allowing events or experiences to be recalled in the right order. While time cells have been identified before in mouse brains, this is the first time they have been identified in human brains. The presence of time cells in humans explains why people with damage to the hippocampus have problems remembering events in the right order. |
Radix (Website). Radix Primitives is a UI component library for building accessible design systems and web apps. The components are accessible, unstyled, customizable, and uncontrolled by default. Each primitive can be installed individually. |
Influenza has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic . Case numbers for the common influenza have dropped to minuscule levels since Covid-19 began its global spread. The influenza virus is transmitted in the same way as Covid-19, but it is less effective at jumping from host to host. There were 600 deaths from influenza during the 2020-2021 flu season, compared to 22,000 deaths in the prior season. The US has seen over 574,000 deaths from Covid-19 so far. |
Inside the Rise and Fall of a Multimillion-Dollar Airbnb Scheme (10 minute read). Since the introduction of Airbnb and other short-term leasing accommodation businesses, landlords and homeowners have had to deal with dishonest tenants signing up for long term leases and then turning their homes into hotel rooms. A syndicate in New York used multiple identities both online and offline to create an Airbnb ‘Empire’, making more than $20 million in revenue. A lawsuit brought by the city is suing the leaders of the group, who employed over 15 housekeepers in 35 different buildings over 3 years. |
Stealing your SMS messages with iOS 0day . A 0day bug exists in iOS 13.4.1 that allows malicious attackers to steal iMessage history. The bug allows apps to access sms.db and send it to a remote server. Steps for exploiting the bug are detailed in the article. The best way to protect yourself from this exploit is to avoid downloading any suspicious apps before Apple releases the next iOS update |
South Korea law forces Google and Apple to open up app store payments . Apple and Google are battling lawsuits and regulators around the world due to their app store rules. An amendment to South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act will force app store owners to allow developers to use alternative payment options. Apple and Google charge a 30 percent cut for most transactions through their stores and they don't allow developers to use their own payment systems. App stores will be banned from unreasonably delaying the approval of apps or removing them from marketplaces as a form of retaliation. |
First U.S. coronavirus death confirmed in Washington state . The first death in the US from coronavirus was a man in his 50s with chronic underlying conditions. Two new cases in Washington state have recently been announced, with the cases linked to a long-term care facility. One of the new confirmed cases is a healthcare worker. Out of 108 residents and 180 staff at the healthcare facility, 27 residents and 25 staff members have symptoms of the virus. Testing is underway as public health officials rush to contain the outbreak. The recent patterns of cases in the US indicate that the disease is likely circulating within the population. COVID-19 has spread to 57 countries, infecting more than 85,000 people and killing more than 2,900. There have been 66 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US. |
The New Super Sub Can Dive to 1,000 Feet and Move Faster Than a Bottlenose Dolphin . The Super Sub is a high-performance cruiser from U-Boat Worx that was designed to keep up with large marine life. The 17-foot submersible is equipped with a propulsion system that is capable of churning out 60 kW, allowing it to hit speeds of up to 8 knots. It is two knots faster than a bottlenose dolphin and adept at navigating the world beneath the waves. The Super Sub can dive to depths of nearly 1,000 feet at angles up to 30-degrees steep. Renders of the submersible are available in the article. |
The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding New Developers: Industry Best Practices and How to Plan the First 90 Days (20 minute read). This guide discusses how to onboard new hires effectively. A well-planned onboarding process can greatly increase long-term retention and increase new-hire productivity. Most organizations don't onboard well despite its importance. Onboarding programs should cover basic administrative tasks, have activities to help new hires assimilate to their teams and work environments, and help the new hire become productive and contribute to the team. |
Twitter Users in China Face Detention and Threats in New Beijing Crackdown . China is escalating its crackdown on Twitter. Many political activists use VPNs to access Twitter (China only has about 3 million Twitter users because the service is banned). One activist was chained to a chair for 8 hours, while another spent 15 days in a detention center. They both promised to stop using Twitter. One activist says "In this era, we certainly know fear, but I can't control myself. We've been living a very suppressed life. We're like lambs. They’re taking us one after another. We have no ability to fight back." |
Driverless electric truck starts deliveries on Swedish public road . A driverless electric truck has received permission to start making deliveries via a public road in Sweden. The truck does not have a driver cabin, which reduces the freight operating costs by an estimated 60 percent compared to a diesel truck with a driver. Freight operators are under pressure to reduce delivery times and cut emissions, and the industry is seeing a growing shortage of drivers. The T-Pod will operate between a warehouse and a terminal at a maximum speed of 5 km/hr. |
pg_flame (GitHub Repo). pg_flame is a flamegraph generator for Postgres' EXPLAIN ANALYZE output. Flamegraphs are useful visualization tools for performance investigations. They visualize CPU consumption per code-path of the profiled software. A demo of the output is available. |
Unreal’s new iPhone app does live motion capture with Face ID sensors . Live Link Face is an iPhone app from Epic Games that uses the front-facing 3D sensors in the phone to do live motion capture for facial animations. It uses tools from Apple's ARKit framework and the iPhone's TrueDepth sensor array. While the iPhone's sensors are not as accurate as the equipment used by major studios, Live Link Face makes motion capture more accessible for indie game developers, filmmakers, and other creators. |