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Scientists Find a Single Protein Can Switch Some Ants From a Worker Into a Queen . Jerdon's jumping worker ants can become reproductive queens when their queens die. The transition comes with changes to the ant's brain, gene expression, hormone levels, and cell composition. Researchers have found a protein that is activated when the ants are injected with social hormones. The hormones appear to affect which genes the protein binds to, with the same protein causing ants to change from worker to queen and vice versa depending on which hormone was given. The research suggests that there may be multiple behaviors in the ant genome that could be expressed with gene regulation.

Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer (23 minute read). Most people don't negotiate, or if they do, they only do so enough to tell themselves that they did. Negotiation is a skill that can be learned just like any other. This article discusses the negotiating process and how to succeed in job negotiations. It teaches readers how to ask for what they want so they can have more successful careers and earn what they deserve.

MIT Researchers Make New Chips That Work On Light . Lightelligence is a startup from MIT that makes high-speed optical chips with low power consumption and low latency. Its processors have orders of magnitude better performance than standard architectures. The chips generate very little heat due to their low power consumption. Servers for computationally intensive AI processing take up a huge chunk of data center capacity, so there is a lucrative market for chips that reduce running costs while increasing computational capability.

First human trial of Alzheimer's disease nasal vaccine to begin at Boston hospital . Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is starting a Phase I clinical trial of a nasal vaccine aimed at preventing and slowing Alzheimer's disease. The trial is designed to establish the safety and dosage for the medication. If the trial is successful, a much larger trial will be needed to test its effectiveness. The vaccine uses Protollin, a substance that has been found to be safe in other vaccines.

Fastest-growing black hole in the universe eats the equivalent of one sun per day . The black hole known as J2157 consumes gas and dust equivalent in mass to the sun every day, making it the fastest-growing black hole in the universe. J2157 is 8,000 times larger than the supermassive black hole found at the heart of the Milky Way, or 34 billion times the mass of our Sun. It is classed as a quasi-stellar radio source, meaning that it is extremely bright. As it is very far away, scientists are only just now observing its gravitational influence from 1.2 billion years ago. It has likely grown since then.

We've Just Seen the First Use of Deepfakes in an Indian Election Campaign . Two videos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Manoj Tiwari criticizing the incumbent Delhi government went viral on WhatsApp on February 7, a day ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections in Delhi. One of the videos was a deepfake, a video created with tools that can fabricate visual and audio content to make it seem real. The Delhi BJP IT Cell partnered with a firm to create positive campaigns using deepfakes in order to reach different linguistic voter bases. Many experts believe that deepfakes will be used to take the ongoing war on disinformation and fake news to a whole new level. Many popular deepfake videos are complete face swaps, but a more subtle version exists which only alters lip movements to match target audio. As more deepfake material is created, more of it will bypass fact-checking and inevitably some will start spreading misinformation. This can be especially damaging in countries where technological literacy is low.

A company aims to power the world for millions of years by digging the deepest holes ever . Quaise Energy is an MIT spinout that wants to use X-rays to melt rock to create the world's deepest holes and capture geothermal energy. It plans to use a microwave-emitting device called a gyrotron to vaporize rock, removing the need for complicated downhole equipment. Quaise aims to extract energy from pilot geothermal wells by 2026. The company intends to capture energy on a scale large enough to meet human energy needs for millions of years.

Time-lapse video captures massive iceberg breaking off glacier in Antarctica . In 2017, Astrophysicists at the European Space Agency spotted an iceberg the size of Las Vegas breaking off the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. The iceberg has since changed the nature of the Antarctic coastline and spawned new icebergs. Changes in the glacier were tracked over February 2019 to February 2020. A time-lapse video showing a series of 57 radar images from that period is available. The Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers contain enough water to raise worldwide sea levels by four feet. Glaciers are breaking off into the water at faster rates than ever before, occurring on a near-annual basis now compared to every four to six years in the past.

zmurl (Website). zmurl lets you create a webpage for your zoom event. It allows attendees to see event information, RSVP to events, and add events to their calendar. A short video is available on the page that shows how the site works for both event creators and attendees.

Netflix’s latest experiment is a TikTok-like feed of funny videos . Netflix's latest experiment, Fast Laughs, is a feed of short-form comedy clips drawn from its catalog of shows. Fast Laughs offers full-screen videos that can be swiped through vertically, with engagement buttons on the right side. Its goal is to help users discover something new to watch. The feed encourages users to add shows to their Netflix watch list for later viewing. Fast Laughs is now available to a subset of Netflix users with adult profiles or profiles without parental controls on iOS devices. There are videos in the article that demonstrate the feature.

Amazon acquires podcast network Wondery . Podcast network Wondery will soon become part of Amazon Music. Its podcasts will still be available from a variety of providers. Many companies are making big bets on podcasting, including Spotify, SiriusXM, and The New York Times. The terms of the sale were not public, but estimates value Wondery at around $300 million. Wondery was the fourth largest podcast publisher in November, with more than 9 million unique listeners in the US.

DevOps Interview Questions (GitHub Repo). This repository contains 300 questions on various DevOps related topics. Interviewers may focus on different things, for example, some might focus on your resume and others might focus on your problem-solving skills, so the repository attempts to cover different types of questions.

Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath surface, mission finds . Ceres, long believed to be a barren space rock, is actually an ocean world with reservoirs of seawater beneath its surface. The discovery was made after scientists from the US and Europe analyzed images relayed from the Nasa Dawn spacecraft. Hydrohalite, a material common in sea ice, was found on the surface of the dwarf planet. There is likely ongoing water activity on the dwarf planet.

Designer babies aren't futuristic. They're already here . The article starts off with a story of a couple where the husband has Dystonia, a non-fatal disease that may cause joint or spinal deformities. They opted to use in vitro fertilization so they could pick an embryo that didn't have Dystonia. IVF cost $20,000, and testing the embryos cost $10,000. The number of IVFs with genetic testing to select healthy embryosin the US rose from 1,941 in 2014 to 3,271 in 2016. Because insurance doesn't cover IVF, only well off couples can afford these procedures. If this trend continues, we risk creating a society where genetic disease is something that only happens to the poor and less-educated.

Scientists Debut Magnet Powerful Enough to Lift an Aircraft Carrier . Scientists at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) are building a giant magnet as part of their effort to create nuclear fusion. The magnet will stand at 60 feet tall and 14 feet in diameter when fully assembled. It will have a magnetic field roughly 280,000 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. The magnet will be used as a superconductor to attain the incredible amounts of heat and pressure needed to produce nuclear fusion. A photo of the first part of the magnet being delivered to ITER is available in the article.

GitHub Sponsors (Website). GitHub Sponsors is a hub that connects developers and their community in order to fund projects. Raised funds up to $5,000 within the first year are matched by GitHub. There are no fees charged to the developers for funding; all raised funds will go directly to the developer. Developers can sign up to a waitlist to join the program in order to receive sponsorship.

‘Beeple Mania’: How Mike Winkelmann Makes Millions Selling Pixels (19 minute read). Beeple is an artist that makes digital art that smashes together pop culture, technology, and post apocalyptic terror into commentaries on the way we live. He has 1.8 million Instagram followers, and his work has been shown at two Super Bowl halftime shows and at least one Justin Bieber concert. Beeple's art grossed $3.5 million in an auction in December. Ownership of the digital art is tracked through a blockchain developed by Nifty Gateway. The technology is based on nonfungible tokens, which allow digital assets to be collected and owned. Examples of Beeple's work are shown throughout the article.

Here’s a Slug That Can Sever Its Own Head and Grow a New Body . Scientists from Japan have found a species of slug that can self-decapitate and regrow their bodies from their heads. It appears that the slug does this in response to parasites in its body. The slugs survive without their organs as the algae they eat can temporarily power their heads with photosynthesis. The bodies do not grow back the heads, but they still react to tactile prompts and sometimes live for months after the decapitation. Images of the slugs are available in the article.

Amazon launches a ‘live radio’ app, Amp, which lets you play DJ with the Amazon Music catalog . Amazon has launched a new mobile app to a limited audience called Amp that allows people to create live radio shows. Users are able to act as a DJ by taking callers and playing music. Amazon Music's library of tens of millions of licensed songs will be available to users for free for use on their stations. Creators will be able to pre-plan and schedule shows, alert listeners about upcoming shows, control who speaks when taking live callers, and more. Amazon plans to bring in celebrities and influencers to host shows.

whereami (GitHub Repo). whereami uses Wi-Fi signals and machine learning to predict your location. It works for small distances of between 2 to 10 meters.

I went to Amazon's high-tech hair salon and virtually dyed my hair pink — then got the best haircut I've ever had . Amazon's first hair salon in London opened to the public at the end of May. The salon uses an augmented reality app that lets customers experiment with different hairstyles and colors. Customers can select products in the salon to be delivered to their homes. Haircuts cost $US72. This article details the experience of getting a haircut at the Amazon Salon. It includes pictures of the salon and shows how the AR app's virtual hair color system works.

How Loot Boxes Hooked gamers and Left Regulators Spinning . Loot boxes have been around in games since the early 2000s. These in-game mystery boxes allow users to have a chance at obtaining special items, but in order to open the boxes, gamers need to purchase keys with real money. Recently, the debate on whether loot boxes were gambling intensified when EA released Star Wars Battlefront II in November 2017. Users were initially required to purchase keys and open loot boxes in order to progress in the game. Gamers have taken to forums to talk about their loot box gambling addictions. Regulators are yet to develop a clear stance on this practice in the $30 billion gaming industry.

Taking Lyft’s new e-bike for a spin . Lyft is starting its new e-bike service this month starting with San Francisco, then Chicago and New York. The 80-pound bikes are powered by a 500W motor and a battery that has a range of 60-miles. They are monitored by a system that sends out alerts when there is an issue with the battery or brakes. The bikes feature an LED ring light on the front that can change colors. Pictures of the bikes are available in the article.

When Autonomous Cars Teach Themselves to Drive Better Than Humans . Humans and autonomous vehicles (AVs) see the world in very different ways. AVs can view everything in their vicinity and make constant predictions, while humans drive around with limited situational awareness and deal with uncertainty on a subconscious level. Many AVs learn how to drive from humans, which can make uncertain situations harder to train. Cruise recently unveiled an AI that can detect cyclists, predict their movements, and then maneuver to give them more space. A 6-second clip of the AI giving way to a cyclist coming from behind is linked in the article.

Researchers Teach Human Brain Cells in a Dish to Play “Pong” . Scientists from biotechnology startup Cortical Labs have successfully taught a collection of human brain cells in a petri dish how to play Pong. The researchers created mini-brains of up to one million living human brain cells in a petri dish with a microelectrode array to analyze the neural activity. To play the game, the scientists sent a signal to one side of the array to indicate where the ball was, and the neurons would send signals back to move the paddle. The mini-brains were able to learn how to play the game in five minutes, faster than some AIs. Cortical Labs plans to use their findings to develop technology using live biological neurons integrated with traditional silicon computing.

Dropbox’s new transfer feature lets you easily send a file to someone, WeTransfer style . Dropbox Transfer is a new way to share files. Users can share a link to the file and the recipients can either directly download the file from the transfer page or save it to their own Dropbox accounts. The system is similar to other file-sharing services like WeTransfer. Dropbox Transfer will allow users to send up to 100MB of files with a free account. Dropbox Professional subscribers will be able to transfer up to 100GB, password protect transfers, choose an expiration date for the files, and customize the background on the transfer page.

LinkedIn rolls out its freelance services marketplace globally after picking up 2M users in smaller US beta . LinkedIn is opening up its Service Marketplace, a service that lets freelancers advertise to those looking to hire people for short-term engagements. Service Marketplace began as a test in February and has picked up 2 million users since. The service is now available globally, featuring 250 job categories, with a plan to expand to 500. Service Marketplace currently does not charge any fees, but there are plans to introduce fees down the line. The service is still in development and many features are yet to be implemented.

Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why? (Hacker News Thread). This thread is about the career paths of engineers who left Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google. A lot of interesting stories, perspectives on what's importance in ones career, and advice for finding a job that fits you.

State of JS (Website). 21,717 people were surveyed on their views on the JavaScript ecosystem in 2019. The raw data is available for download. Most respondents were from the US, Canada, and the UK, with a median salary of between $50k-$100k. 91.3 percent of the respondents were male. Jest, TypeScript, Express, React, Mocha, and Redux were highly recommended technologies to adopt. JavaScript is constantly adding new features, and there are many that haven't been adopted into mainstream use. Typescript is still the most popular JavaScript flavor. React is the leading front-end framework again, after dropping behind Vue.js last year. All other top technologies from 2018 retained their positions in 2019. The most popular resources were CSS Tricks, Medium, Stack Overflow, Udemy, Syntax, and React Podcast. Overall, most developers are happy with the way JavaScript has been developed and its future.

Stockton Residents Who Received $500 a Month in Basic Income Experiment Spent Money on Food, Clothing, and Bills . An 18-month, privately funded program which started in February involving 125 people in Stockton, California, found that when needy people received a $500 a month guaranteed income from the government, they spent most of the money on things such as food, clothing, and utility bills. The mayor of Stockton has committed to publicly releasing data from the experiment to convince lawmakers to implement the program statewide. Many people associate those who are struggling economically with vices like drug use, alcohol use, and gambling. Critics of the study say that it doesn't provide any useful information due to the study's limited size and duration. The behavior of people on a short term basic income program may be different if participants knew the income was permanent.

'Bionic mushrooms' that generate electricity created by scientists . Scientists have 3D printed cyanobacteria and graphene onto a mushroom in order to produce electricity. Shining a light on the cyanobacteria will kickstart their photosynthesis, which causes them to give off a bit of electricity called "photocurrent". The graphene is able to conduct and collect the electricity, while the mushroom keeps the cyanobacteria alive (they are hard to keep alive outside of artificial conditions). Currently, an array of these mushrooms is enough to power an LED light, but we are still a ways off from powering larger electronic devices.

Mix (Website). Mix is an expressive way to build design systems in Flutter. It offers primitive building blocks to help developers and designers create beautiful and consistent UIs. Mix is still in the experimental development stage, so the API is likely to change until the 1.0 release.

700,000 lines of code, 20 years, and one developer: How Dwarf Fortress is built (10 minute read). Dwarf Fortress is a simulation game where players play in a deeply detailed randomly generated fantasy world. It was programmed by one developer, Tarn Adams, who has been working on the game since 2002. This article features an interview with Adams and explores how Adams managed the Dwarf Fortress codebase over the years and the challenges he faced.

Scientists Put A Tardigrade In A Strange Quantum State And It Survived . Researchers from Singapore successfully placed a tardigrade in a state of quantum entanglement with a superconducting qubit. The tardigrade survived, despite the experiment and being subjected to temperatures just 0.01 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. This was the third time the scientists had attempted the experiment. The team hopes to entangle other lifeforms in the future.

Pinpoint and prevent bugs with the New Relic infrastructure monitoring experience (Sponsor). Pinpoint and prevent bugs with the New Relic infrastructure monitoring experience . The new and improved New Relic infrastructure monitoring experience helps SRE, DevOps, and ITOps teams quickly pinpoint offending infrastructure components, determine incident impact radius, and identify root cause. Learn more.

A Hacker Is Reportedly Selling Hundreds of Microsoft C-Suite Email Credentials for As Little as $100 . A hacker on a Russian-speaking underground forum is selling hundreds of C-suite level email credentials for between $100 and $1,500. The Office 365 and Microsoft accounts on offer belong to high-level executives, and sources have validated the legitimacy of the seller. Microsoft is aware of the report and will do what is necessary to support its customers. It is unclear how the hacker obtained the credentials.

Amazon has a smash hit on its hands — a new computer game with hundreds of thousands of players . Amazon Game Studios has released a new game called New World. The game lets thousands of players explore and build a virtual colony. It has averaged hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam since its launch on Tuesday. The game peaked at more than 700,000 concurrent players on launch day. The early success of New World marks a significant step for Amazon. Very few companies have had success breaking into the game industry.

Live Footage Shows Bright Meteor Breaking Up Over Tasmania . A bright green meteor was filmed crossing the sky and breaking up in front of a CSIRO research vessel on November 18. The 19-second video is available in the article. At the time of the capture, the ship was approximately 10km south of the Tasmanian coast. It was carrying out several activities, including seafloor mapping, oceanographic studies, and running sea trials for a variety of marine equipment. A camera on the ship streams 24-hours a day. While other people report seeing the meteor, no other footage of it has emerged.

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.

Nvidia's internal systems have been compromised by cyberattack . Hackers have compromised Nvidia's email systems and developer tools. The company is still investigating the extent of the attack. It has not yet been determined if any data was stolen. Nvidia's business and commercial activities will continue uninterrupted.

This colorful printed patch makes you pretty much invisible to AI . Adversarial examples are patterns that are able to fool AI systems. A team of engineers from Belgium created and printed colorful patterns that were able to successfully fool an AI that detected people. The engineers only had to wear the image and they became essentially invisible to the computer. While these patterns only worked on one specific type of AI, it is possible that other patterns can be found and used to effectively disguise people from other systems.

Google’s Little Signals concepts show what ‘ambient’ notifications could look like . Google's Little Signals project is a study in ambient computing. It consists of six devices that can display notifications in novel ways, for example, by blowing air or tapping on an object. All the plans and files for building the devices are available for free. A video overview of the Little Signals project is available in the article.

Google discontinues the Pixel 3A and 3A XL . Google has discontinued the Pixel 3A and 3A XL smartphones. It is now listed as out of stock on the Google Store. Other stores may still have remaining stock. A Pixel 4A with a 5.81-inch display and Snapdragon 730 processor is rumored to be released soon.

Cascadia Code . Cascadia Code is a monospaced font from Microsoft that provides a fresh experience for command-line experiences and code editors. It is designed to be used with terminal applications and text editors. Cascadia Code supports programming ligatures. It is open source and is available publicly on GitHub.

Scientists discover previously unidentified mass beneath moon's surface . A giant mass larger than the size of Hawaii has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath the South Pole-Aitkin crater on the moon. The mass was detected by analyzing data taken from spacecraft during NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission, which explored the moon’s interior and thermal history. Scientists are unsure what the mass is composed of. It is possible that the mass contains metal from a previous asteroid impact, or alternatively, the mass was formed from molten magma sometime during the moon’s history.

Area 120 takes on Pinterest with ‘Keen’ by using Google ML recommendations . Keen is an app that is similar to Pinterest, allowing users to create collections based on topics. Created by Google's Area 120 internal incubator for experimental efforts, Keen uses machine learning and Search to help users find helpful content related to their interests. The more users save and organize, the better the recommendations become. A 37-second video showing Keen in action, as well as links to the app, is available in the article.

State of CSS 2022 (31 minute read). This post is the article form of a talk given at Google I/O 2022 about CSS. With 14 features planned for implementation, 2022 is set to be one of CSS's greatest years. The post discusses new features that have already been integrated and also the features that will be integrated later this year and beyond.

Greg Kroah-Hartman bans University of Minnesota from Linux development for deliberately buggy patches . Software supply chain attacks have become an important issue since the Solarwinds security breach. Students from the University of Minnesota tried to put a vulnerability into the Linux kernel for a study, which resulted in the university being banned from all future contributions to the project. The group had previously published a paper on submitting buggy patches and had a history of submitting purposefully buggy code. Introducing vulnerabilities into open-source code on purpose can be extremely dangerous, especially in the case of the Linux kernel codebase.

China releases videos of its Zhurong Mars rover . The China National Space Agency has released footage of its Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars. There are three videos available. The videos were taken with a wireless camera that was on the ground away from the robot. One of the videos has sound and the robot's locomotion system can be heard, although it is muffled due to the nature of Mars' atmosphere. Scientists are hoping that the robot survives for at least 90 Martian days. It has so far driven 236m since it was deployed on May 21.

OpenAI’s $100M startup fund will make ‘big early bets’ with Microsoft as partner . The OpenAI Startup Fund is a new $100 million startup fund for investing in early-stage AI companies that tackle major problems. It plans to only invest in a small number of companies. The fund will look for companies that take on issues like healthcare, climate change, and education. It may also consider companies that focus on productivity. Companies who are selected for funding will receive early access to new OpenAI systems and Azure resources from Microsoft. Microsoft is one of the partners and investors in the fund.

Hacker shows what Tesla Full Self-Driving’s vision depth perception neural net can see . A hacker who managed to get root access to a Tesla vehicle has unveiled Tesla's vision depth perception neural net. Teslas rely on camera-based computer vision. They detect depth using a point-cloud view powered by computer vision. Tesla chose to use a camera-based system over radar or lidar systems as roads are designed to work with eyes and brains. A three-and-a-half-minute video explaining how Tesla trains neural networks to perceive depth is available in the article.

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.

OpenAI’s API Now Available with No Waitlist . OpenAI’s API is now available to developers in supported countries. The waitlist for GPT-3 has been removed thanks to new safeguards. There is now a free content filter to help developers mitigate abuse, and OpenAI will review applications before they go live, monitor for misuse, and support developers as their product scales. OpenAI has updated its Content Guidelines to clarify what kind of content its API can generate. More use cases will be allowed over time as the system is improved.

Apple will reportedly release an iPhone without any ports in 2021 . Ming-Chi Kuo has released a new research note that says that Apple's 2021 flagship iPhone will be a completely wireless device. This change will have a large impact across the tech industry, with everything from charging cable companies to headphone manufacturers being impacted. While this change is far from being confirmed, Kuo has a good reputation for predicting Apple's plans. He has predicted that Apple will release five new phones in 2020, including the iPhone SE2. In the fall, Apple is set to release four OLED iPhones, all of which will have 5G. The lineup will include four different sized phones, with a smaller 5.4-inch sized phone rumored to be released.

Exclusive: Apple Arcade hands-on with early access trial games on Mac (10 minute read). Apple has released an early access version of the Apple Arcade aimed at Apple employees for $0.49 per month to test until its iOS 13 launch later in fall. The arcade currently features six games, all still in development. Way of the Turtle is a puzzle platformer featuring a newly-married turtle trying to find his lost wife. Down in Bermuda is a point-and-click style adventure game. Sneaky Sasquatch is a stealth-based action/adventure game. Hot Lava is a first-person action game which is also available on Steam in beta. Kings of the Castle is another action/adventure game, and Frogger in Toy Town is a 3D version of the traditional Frogger game. Apple Arcade will allow subscribers access to over 100 games on demand.

Locket, an app for sharing photos to friends’ homescreens, hits the top of the App Store . Locket is an app that turns Apple's widget system into a private social networking platform. The app allows users to put live photos from friends in a widget on the iOS home screen. It was launched on New Year's Day and has since risen to the top of the App Store, with over 2 million users signed up. The creator of the app made it as a side project and credits its success to the app going viral on TikTok. A TikTok video made by the creator of the app to show off its features is available in the article.

Elon Musk announces Tesla is working on new manganese battery cell . Elon Musk announced during a speech to Tesla Gigafactory Berlin employees that the company is working on creating a manganese battery cell. Manganese will allow Tesla to create batteries with 50% more cell volume with the same amount of nickel. Tesla estimates that 300 terawatt-hours of battery cell production will be needed for the planet to fully transition into a sustainable world, so the batteries will need to be created out of common materials. A video of Musk's speech at Gigafactory Berlin is available in the article.

Ashes of Star Trek’s Scotty smuggled on to International Space Station . Richard Garriot allegedly brought actor James Doohan's ashes with him during his trip to the International Space Station in 2008. Doohan, who passed away in 2005, played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on Star Trek. The actor's son contacted Garriot prior to his trip, and despite there not being enough time to go through the official processes needed to bring objects aboard the flight, Garriot hid the ashes in some photos and then later hid one of the photos inside the floor of the station's Columbus module. A separate sample of the actor's ashes was launched on a SpaceX rocket in 2012.

Spotify reveals HiFi subscription, 80-country expansion, new exclusive podcasts . Spotify plans to launch a new subscription tier called HiFi for high-quality audio later this year. The company hasn't announced how much it will cost or where it will first roll out, but it will likely be available first in the US and Sweden for around $20 a month. The company will expand to more than 80 new countries in the next few days. 36 new languages will be supported, bringing the total number of supported languages to 60. New exclusive podcast programming, as well as new tools for creators, will be arriving on the platform this year.

35+ Free Public APIs to Improve Productivity (10 minute read). This is a list of free public API resources that can aid development. It includes APIs for Zoom, facial recognition, human health data, GIFs, text recognition, web scraping, and more.

World’s largest meat supplier grinds to a halt after cyberattack . A Brazilian company that supplies a fifth of the world's meat was recently the victim of a coordinated cyberattack. The attack has caused some of the largest slaughterhouses in the US and Canada to shut down already. White House officials have blamed the attack on a criminal organization likely based in Russia. The attack has the potential to disrupt the global availability of beef and pork if not resolved quickly.

Read and reply to pull request comments in Slack (Sponsor). Read and reply to pull request comments in Slack . Swarmia speeds up your team's pull request cycle time by sending you relevant notifications and allowing you to read and reply to GitHub comments without leaving Slack.“Swarmia's Slack notifications make it easy to keep track of open pull requests across all repos. Even if I can't immediately review a teammate's code, the Slack notifications help me find the right PR discussion as soon as I have time.”Svyat SobolLead Engineer, WoltStart merging faster today!

10 best JavaScript practices recommended by Top Developers (10 minute read). Often, developers jump into a language without knowing its fundamentals. This article provides 10 best JavaScript practices to help developers write better code. The tips include how to delete an array like a pro, how to eliminate decimals without killing performance, and how to use function expressions.

Pixel 7 leaks show Google finally has a consistent phone business . Google has sent Pixel 7 CAD files to case manufacturers. Files are usually sent to third parties in order to have accessories ready on the release date. The Pixel 7 design looks similar to the Pixel 6, but with larger lens holes and the mmWave window has been moved to the top edge of the phone. The leaked renders are available in the article.

Drug reverses age-related cognitive decline within days . An experimental drug called ISRIB has been shown in laboratory studies to reverse age-related declines in memory and mental flexibility in mice. The drug has already demonstrated a variety of cognitive benefits, and the new study adds to the research by showing rapid restoration of youthful cognitive abilities in aged mice. ISRIB has extremely rapid effects, working in just days. The speed of the drug's effects suggest that age-related cognitive losses may be caused by a reversible blockage rather than permanent degradation.

What to expect at WWDC 2022: iOS 16, M2, and more (10 minute read). Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference starts today with a keynote at 10 AM. It will be the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic that there will be a significant in-person audience for the event. The next major release of iOS is expected to be the star of the show for this year's WWDC. Other announcements expected at the event involve iPad OS 16, macOS 13, watchOS 9, tvOS 15, rOS and AR/VR, the MacBook Air and other M2 Macs, and the Mac Pro. Details about the rumored announcements are available in the article.

Traders set to don virtual reality headsets in their home offices . Banks are desperate to bring workers back to the office, especially for regulatory-sensitive roles such as trading. However, the pandemic means that many staff are wary about using public transport, so banks like UBS are experimenting with using Microsoft HoloLenses to recreate the experience of working in a packed trading floor. Many banks have tried to encourage staff to come back to the office, but outbreaks at offices have forced staff to return home. Citigroup developed an augmented reality workstation system four years ago that combined 3D holograms and real-time financial data. The system was never implemented due to limits in technology.

Culr (Web Tool). I'm a big fan of this color picker, it has a bunch of color palette presets that are sort of bright and happy looking. There are options for monochromatic, triad, and tetradic color palettes.

Hummingbird (GitHub Repo). Hummingbird can convert trained traditional ML models into tensor computations. It supports a variety of tree-based classifiers and regressors, including Decision Trees, Random Forest, LightGBM, and XGBoost. With Hummingbird, users can benefit from all the current and future optimizations implemented in neural network frameworks, native hardware acceleration, and support for both traditional and neural network models, without having to re-engineer their models.

Work in the Time of Corona (10 minute read). Many employees will be working from home in the coming months because of the coronavirus outbreak. During this period of change, it is normal to feel bad. The switch from working in an environment with co-workers to one where you are alone all day can be tough for many people. There is also the stress of dealing with the outbreak itself. If you are feeling bad, try to reconnect with the world with a few small interactions. In our technological world, there are many ways we can still interact without requiring a physical presence. Get dressed for work, and remember to maintain a routine. Designating a special work area will help you keep focused. Remember that as you are working from home, you will need to have systems in place to monitor yourself. Improve your video setup so you can communicate better with others. Finally, don't fall into the trap of overworking. Working from home means you need to set clear boundaries on when you are working so you don't burn out.

Giraffes have been misunderstood and are just as socially complex as elephants, study says . In the past, giraffes have been described as socially aloof, but new research suggests that the creatures have been misunderstood and that they are in fact a highly complex and social species. Giraffes appear to have a matrilineal society, with females maintaining long-term relationships with other females and their own offspring. Calves are sometimes cared for by other females in a kind of crèche. Males only associate with their mothers. Giraffe grandmothers likely play an important role in the survival of related group members.

Libra (GitHub Repo). Libra is a machine learning API designed for non-technical users. It can be used to build machine learning models using natural language queries. Demos and examples are available in the repository.

World’s first cloned Przewalski horse comes from DNA preserved at San Diego Zoo 40 years ago . The world's first successfully cloned Przewalski's horse was born in Texas on August 6. It is a clone of a male Przewalski's horse whose DNA was cryopreserved 40 years ago. The colt could provide an important model for future conservation efforts. Genetic diversity becomes an issue as populations become smaller. Advanced reproductive technologies could save species by restoring genetic diversity.

Joe Rogan Experience #1368 - Edward Snowden (3 hour video). Edward Snowden was a Central Intelligence Agency employee and subcontractor. In 2013, he copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency. In this interview with Joe Rogan, Snowden calls out former President Barack Obama for growing the surveillance state and enabling illegal activity from intelligence agencies. Obama had campaigned against the wiretapping of the Bush administration, yet after taking office, he expanded the programs. Snowden currently lives a relatively normal life in Russia and has stated that he would return to the US if he was able to be guaranteed a fair trial.

After Russia's threat, Elon Musk says SpaceX can protect the ISS from deorbiting . Sanctions against Russia aimed at degrading the Russian aerospace industry have resulted in a not-so-veiled threat that the ISS would crash into Europe or the US if it was to fall. Elon Musk replied to the threat with SpaceX's logo. With SpaceX's experience in rocket engines, spacecraft maneuvering, and collision avoidance, it would not be surprising if it was asked to handle the ISS on an SOS basis. The Twitter exchange between Musk and the chief of the Russian Space agency is available in the article.

Twitter plans to build a 'decentralized standard' for social networks . CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey has announced that the company will set up an independent research group to create an open and decentralized standard for social media networks. Centralized solutions are unlikely to be able to scale in the future due to challenges such as large scale content moderation. Blockchain technology can provide a model for decentralizing content hosting, oversight, and even the monetization of social media. A decentralized social network would allow Dorsey and his team to focus on building open recommendation systems that promote healthy conversation.

Bill and Melinda Gates-funded invention could invisibly solve malnutrition . A lack of micronutrients can cause malnourished people to suffer even if they don't look starved. Additional nutritional programs in malnourished communities are often underfunded. Micronutrients in food are often lost due to long cooking times or improper storage. A new capsule has been invented that can keep micronutrients protected until they are ingested. Bill Gates was personally involved in the development of the capsule, and his organization helped fund the project. The next challenge is to distribute the capsules to the areas in which they are needed. While producing the capsules might not be profitable, it may have a long-term positive effect on the economy as people who are no longer micronutrient deficient will be healthier and more productive.

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Lite will launch in the US on April 17th for $650 . The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite will be available in the US starting April 17 for $650. It will feature a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display, a Snapdragon 855 processor, and a triple-lens rear camera setup. Samsung recently announced the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, a budget version of the Galaxy Tab S6, which will be available starting at $349.99 sometime in Q2 this year. The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will have a 10.4-inch screen, an S Pen, a front and rear camera, and a headphone jack. An LTE version of the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will be available.

Robot uses machine learning to harvest lettuce . A ‘Vegebot’ developed by a team at the University of Cambridge is able to harvest iceberg lettuce using machine learning. Crops such as potatoes and wheat have been harvested using machinery for decades. However, iceberg lettuce presents a more difficult problem as it is harder to determine when they are ripe, and the crops are easily damaged during harvesting. The Vegebot is trained on images of ripe crops and is able to tell which crops are ready for harvest with a visual scan. A second component focuses on harvesting the crop without damage so that it is supermarket ready. The process usually takes a few seconds for a human worker, but the farming industry is currently facing a worker shortage. These bots can also work around the clock, going through fields multiple times to harvest exactly at the right time.

Google contractors are secretly listening to your Assistant recordings . A whistleblower working as a Google contractor has revealed that contractors have been listening to Google Home recordings as part of their roles in transcribing audio to improve speech recognition. Many of the recordings appear to have been made without owners of the device using the ‘Hey Google’ listening trigger. The contractor reports listening to recordings that reveal personal information, including addresses. Other recordings contain audio of bedroom activities, domestic violence, and even emergencies. The recordings are anonymized before being sent to contractors. There may be thousands of other contractors around the world listening to these recordings in order to transcribe the 0.2 percent of all audio clips that Google requires.

Uber’s CTO steps down as company reportedly mulls 20 percent layoffs . Uber's Chief Technology Officer, Thuan Pham, has stepped down, ending his reign as the longest-serving top executive at the company. The company has recently been actively discussing cost-cutting plans, including possible layoffs of up to 20 percent of its employees. Ride-share bookings have dropped by up to 70 percent in most major cities due to the pandemic. Gains in Uber's food delivery division have failed to cover losses for its core ride-hailing product. Uber shares have dropped by more than 50 percent in the last month. However, Uber expects to end the year with at least $4 billion in unrestricted cash, plus $2 billion in revolving credit.

CLUI: Building a Graphical Command Line . CLIs are powerful, and text input is predictable and constant. While CLIs are efficient, users must memorize commands to fully utilize them. GUIs address many of these issues by making things easier to access and do, but they can become complex and programs can easily become bloated as developers try to cram features wherever they fit into the program. Many programs have become so cluttered that it is easier to search for commands using a text search than through navigating the GUI. Some popular products such as Voice Assistants are a balance between CLI-inspired inputs and GUI-inspired outputs. In order to make CLIs more approachable for users, they should be able to be used with a mouse, commands should be discoverable, and output should support rich and interactive media. Repl.it's CLUI is an easily extensible interface that blends GUIs and CLIs, where you can type in a command, and get suggestions for commands. It operates like a decision tree, guiding users to commands. Adding features is as simple as adding commands on the backend. A link to some of the code and a demo application is available in the article.

Loaders (Website). This site contains a collection of free loaders and spinners. The components are built with HTML, CSS, and SVG. The code for the components can be easily copied from the site.

Researchers Achieve ‘Absurdly Fast’ Algorithm for Network Flow (10 minute read). A team of scientists has developed a dramatically faster algorithm for maximum flow, a problem that asks how much material can flow through a network if the links in the network have capacity limits. The problem has been studied since the 1950s and it has many applications, such as internet dataflow, airline scheduling, and matching job applicants to open positions. The new algorithm's run time is roughly proportional to the amount of time it takes to write down the details of the network. More information about the history of maximum flow research and the new algorithm is available in the article.

10 lesser-known Web APIs you may want to use (10 minute read). Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) help programmers carry out useful tasks like managing audio, video, graphics, and other objects on a webpage. This page lists out 10 web APIs and discusses how to use them with examples. Web APIs are still not standardized, so levels of support between browsers can vary. It is suggested that developers implement a fallback if a certain web API is not supported. A link to the source code and the Web API DemoLab is provided near the beginning of the article.

New gene editing tool reduces errors by nicking DNA not cutting . While CRISPR is one of the most groundbreaking inventions of the century, it has a relatively high error rate that can produce potentially harmful mutations. Researchers from Germany have developed a tool that reduces errors by nicking DNA instead of cutting it. The tool makes two smaller cuts, one on each DNA strand, rather than slicing through the entire double strand of DNA. The new method is about as effective at making edits as conventional CRISPR and it significantly reduces on-target mutation errors.

YaLM 100B (GitHub Repo). YaLM 100B is a GPT-like neural network for generating and processing text.

This Incredible Skyscraper Is Also a Farm That Can Feed a Village . The Mashambas Skyscraper in Africa is a new concept for a skyscraper designed to serve as a farm, an education center, and a community center all in one. 70 percent of the African population lives in rural areas, practicing subsistence farming and barely making $2 USD a day. The Mashambas Skyscraper aims to train subsistence farmers in modern farming techniques in order to improve harvests and help the farmers pull themselves out of poverty. The design won the eVolo skyscraper competition, beating out over 400 other designs. One of the most unique features of the design is that it is moveable. The skyscraper can exist in a location for a period of time and then be rebuilt in a new location, leaving the base layer to serve as a marketplace for villagers. By providing farmers with tools, resources, and education, the Mashambas Skyscraper has the potential to promote long-term sustainable farming and improve crop yields.

Watch ULA abort a rocket launch at the last moment . United Launch Alliance had to abort its NROL-44 mission just three seconds before it was due to start. The rocket's initiators were already covering the vehicle in flames and the crew had already declared lift off, but the engines never ignited. It will take at least a full week before another attempt will be made. The rocket was carrying a secret National Reconnaissance Office payload that is believed to be a signal intelligence satellite. A video of the event is available in the article.

How AI is fighting, and could enable, ransomware attacks on cities . Modern infrastructure is based on computers and technology, and many parts of society would stop functioning in the event of a ransomware attack. Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts or controls computer systems until the victim pays the criminal a ransom. Increasingly, cities, public utilities, and public-facing institutions are being targeted. Security experts are using AI to improve the effectiveness of malware attack defenses, but criminals might also begin using AI to improve ransomware and plot more efficient attacks. It is likely that ransomware won't be seen in the wild for another one to three years, but AI can already be used to find vulnerable targets in an organization. Scientists have created in-house AI malware, so it is a real possibility. The upcoming elections may be a potential target for attacks by nation-state actors.

Make Beautiful Gradients . CSS linear gradients get washed out and muddy in the middle unless steps are taken to avoid the effect. This article teaches developers how to avoid the gray dead zone by using different color modes and calculating in-between colors. A gradient generator tool based on the information in the article is available.

As China Hacked, U.S. Businesses Turned A Blind Eye (10 minute read). China’s business practices and technology theft are costing the American economy more than $57 billion a year. While the government has been criticized for not taking more action over this behavior, it has been revealed that it is the businesses themselves who are quiet on this issue as there is too much at stake. When former US Attorney David Hickton tried to gather plaintiffs for a case against China’s hacking, he found that no companies would come forward. Even companies like Google have been hacked, but when Google tried to make a case against the Chinese government, no other companies wanted to participate, leaving Google to challenge China alone. The cyber attacks are likely to continue as companies remain silent, leaving the government with nothing to fight with.

TLDR Reader Survey Hey guys, doing a quick end of year reader survey to get a better idea of who is reading TLDR, if you could take a second to fill it out I would really appreciate it! 🙏 Thanks for reading! If you enjoy TLDR I would really appreciate you spreading the word by forwarding this to your friends! 🙏 If you are just now finding out about TLDR, you can subscribe here! Give feedback by replying here or messaging me on Twitter @tldrdan! If you don't want to receive future editions of TLDR, please click here.   ). Hey guys, doing a quick end of year reader survey to get a better idea of who is reading TLDR, if you could take a second to fill it out I would really appreciate it! 🙏

React v18.0 (15 minute read). React 18 is now available on npm. This article gives an overview of what's new in React 18. React 18 features automatic batching, new APIs, streaming server-side rendering, Concurrent Rendering, and more.

IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity . IQ scores have started to decline in many leading nations. While the debate is still ongoing regarding the relationship between IQ scores and intelligence, studies have shown that IQ scores correlate to education levels, longevity, economic growth, and scientific innovation. In general, IQ scores have been trending upwards since the measure was invented, and has only recently started trending downwards. It is unknown why IQ scores are now dropping, but there are many theories ranging from changing societal norms to the effects of global warming on the nutrition of foods.

YouTube is once again the most popular social media platform . YouTube and Facebook are the most dominant social media platforms in the US. YouTube's user base grew from 73 percent of adults in 2019 to 81 percent in 2021. Facebook's share of users remained at 69 percent over the same period. The only other platform to see statistically significant growth since 2019 was Reddit. While growth has slowed down, users still report using social media frequently throughout the day.

Here’s everything Apple just announced . Apple has announced a new virtual fitness service, a subscription service called Apple One, and a new lineup of Apple Watches and iPads. The Apple Watch Series 6 can measure blood-oxygen saturation and features the new Apple S6 processor. At a lower price, the Apple Watch SE offers an S5 processor and has an accelerometer, gyroscope, altimeter, and fall detection. The new iPad Air features a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with 3.8M pixels, Touch ID on the power button, the Apple A14 Bionic, and USB-C. Apple also announced a new iPad which features an A12 Bionic, a Neural Engine, and support for Apple's Magic Keyboard. iOS 14 will launch today, with new features such as widgets, security enhancements, and more. New iPhones were not announced.

23 rules to run a software startup with minimum hassle (13 minute read). It is easy to waste time and energy when building your own bootstrap business. In order to avoid hassle, it is best to have customers pay upfront on a monthly subscription for some kind of software as a service. This way, you will have recurring revenue to continue development, locked-in customers, and no customers owing on payments. It's important to set realistic expectations, and use reliable technology. Automate as much as you can and follow the best practices of other businesses - choose a big bank, choose a simple corporate structure, and find a good accountant. When you first start your project, it is best to keep as much control over it as you can. If you take on investors or partners, there will be significantly more pressure to perform and it usually brings on more problems than it solves. Smart marketing is better than just spending on marketing. Don't respond to unsolicited requests until it is time that you need a particular product or service for your business.

Virgin Galactic to launch Richard Branson on July 11, aiming to beat Jeff Bezos to space . Virgin Galactic will launch its next test flight on July 11. Founder Sir Richard Branson will be on board, beating Jeff Bezos to space by nine days. The test will be Virgin Galactic's fourth test space flight. Its most recent test flight had two pilots on board. There will be three Virgin Galactic mission specialists alongside Branson. The flight will be live-streamed on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Zaplib (GitHub Repo). Zaplib is a library for speeding up web applications using Rust and WebAssembly. It allows developers to write high-performance code in Rust alongside existing JavaScript code. Zaplib is designed to be incrementally adoptable, so components can be ported over to Rust one at a time. Demos are available in the docs.