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Google Search Is Dying . Google search results are dying as most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust. Most people now use Google to search through Reddit posts for answers. Serving ads creates misaligned incentives for search engines, SEO has resulted in poor quality sites surfacing to the top of search results, and AI now tries to figure out what the user wants rather than through only search terms. Reddit results are more authentic as people discuss what they think without the commercial aspect other websites have. |
China due to introduce face scans for mobile users . People registering new mobile phone services in China will now be required to have their faces scanned as part of the identity verification process. China has been trying to ensure that everyone who uses the internet does so under their real identities. It claims that removing anonymity from internet use boosts cyber-security and reduces internet fraud. Removing anonymity makes it easier to track the population. China's citizen database has been breached before, resulting in people being contacted by scammers who knew their personal details. There were 170 million CCTV cameras installed in China in 2017, with another 400 million new ones planned to be installed by 2020. Facial recognition plays a key role in China's surveillance system. It has been used to track fugitives, as well as to identify certain minority groups. |
Republican mega-donor buys stake in Twitter and seeks to oust Jack Dorsey – report . A major Republican donor has bought a stake in Twitter in order to oust its CEO, Jack Dorsey. The founder of Elliott Management, Paul Singer, opposed Donald Trump during his run for president but has since changed sides. Trump communicates with the public via Twitter, which has recently announced a ban on political advertising. Dorsey plans to work and live in Africa for part of each year, and Singer is using this information to push Dorsey out of his position. Elliott Management is an activist investor and it regularly pushes for change in companies in which it buys shares. It also works with countries, taking on partial repayment of debts by Argentina in 2016. |
Just (GitHub Repo). Just is a Zero config TypeScript build and development toolkit. |
Genetics goes to the dogs, finds there’s not much to breed behavior . Many dog breeds are about appearance, but plenty of others are devoted to specific tasks. A team of US-based researchers conducted a study on around 18,000 dogs to study dog behavior and its underlying genetics. With a few exceptions, most behaviors are only loosely associated with specific breeds. Many modern breeds only originated about 150 years ago, and complicated behaviors are shaped by many factors. |
China's first nuclear reactor using Hualong One tech connected to grid . Hualong One is one of the world's most advanced nuclear power reactor designs. It was developed in China. The reactor is designed to operate for 60 years, with 177 reactor cores which are replaced every 18 months. It features both active and passive safety features and a double-layer safety shell. The first Hualong One nuclear reactor was successfully connected to the grid in the Fujian Province on Friday. It will undergo various tests before starting commercial operations later this year. The achievement is significant for the country's energy restructuring plan and pursuit of low-carbon development. |
Meet the musicians who compose in Mario Paint . 'Mario Paint Composer' is a genre that you can search for on YouTube. Using Mario Paint to create songs involves having to use a very unusual set of in-game tools. Starting in 2013, the trend has now evolved so that most composers aren't even using the original music maker anymore. Instead, they are using a custom program that mimics Mario Paint's compositional capabilities with a few extra features added. Early players had to find creative methods to create specific sounds in the original game. The trend died down soon after it began, and most videos and resources are old. There are still small, active Mario Paint communities on Discord. Members of the community feel that the restrictions that the game imposes on its players force them to be more creative, making composing songs inside the game fun and challenging. |
Eager to leave Big Tech behind? Try Vultr for Free! (Sponsor). Eager to leave Big Tech behind? Try Vultr for Free! . With 19 global locations and better price-to-performance than the other guys, it's no wonder Vultr is the preferred cloud infrastructure provider for developers like you. Now TLDR readers have access to a special offer: $100 in credit just for signing up with this link! |
Slack now lets you DM anyone . Slack is rolling out a new feature that lets users privately message people outside of their company. Users can start a conversation by sending a special link. Admin approval may be required to use the feature. Slack Connect DMs is now available for paid Slack users and it will roll out to all other users soon. |
Structured text tools (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a list of text-based file formats and command-line tools for manipulating them. It also includes tools for producing structured text output and CLIs for single-file databases. |
Pilotless air taxi from China’s Ehang takes flight in the US for the first time . Ehang, a Chinese drone maker, has demonstrated its autonomous taxi at a test track in North Carolina. It was the first time that the company had received permission to fly from the US Federal Aviation Administration. Ehang hopes to receive approval for passenger demonstrations in the near future. The Ehang 216 is a two-seater, all-electric vehicle powered by 16 electric rotors. It weighs about 600 pounds and can carry up to 600 pounds of cargo or passengers. Ehang has conducted over 2,000 trial flights around the world. The company has recently filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to go public on Nasdaq. Chinese regulators have authorized Ehang to launch a commercial air mobility service in Guangzhou. |
UAE Used Cyber Super-Weapon to Spy on iPhones of Foes . A team of ex-US government operatives working for the UAE used an iPhone exploit called ‘Karma’ to hack into the iPhones of activists, diplomats, and rival foreign leaders. The exploit is initiated when the attacker sends the target a special text message. Photos, emails, text messages, and location information were stolen using this exploit. |
Artificial neurons connect to biological ones to control living plants . Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have created artificial organic neurons and synapses that can integrate with natural biological systems. The artificial neurons operate with the same ion signals as biological neurons, making them compatible. Repeated activation of synapses strengthens the neurons, making them more effective over time. The artificial neurons are biodegradable and harmless to both plants and animals. The researchers demonstrated the system by using it to control the jaws of a Venus flytrap. |
Take a closer look at Elon Musk’s Neuralink surgical robot . Elon Musk introduced a new surgical robot at the Neuralink presentation on Friday. The robot's underlying technology was created by Neuralink but its design and user experience was built by Woke Studio. It is comprised of three parts: the head, the body, and the base. The head holds the head of the patient and includes a guide for the surgical needle as well as embedded cameras and sensors. The body includes all the parts responsible for motion and the base contains the computer. An image gallery is available in the article. |
Nvidia turns to liquid cooling to reduce big tech’s energy use . Nvidia has announced a plan for reducing the energy use of data centers by using liquid-cooled graphics cards. Its liquid-cooled version of its A100 compute card consumes 30% less power than the air-cooled version. The company plans to support liquid cooling in its high-performance data center GPUs for the foreseeable future. Liquid-cooling lowers power consumption while also taking up significantly less room. Nvidia's liquid-cooled cards will be incorporated into data center servers later this year. |
PDM (Website). PDM is a modern Python manager with PEP 582 support. It installs and manages packages without the need to create a virtualenv. PDM features a simple and fast dependency resolver, a PEP 517 backend, and PEP 621 project metadata. |
'They're putting us all at risk': What it's like working in Amazon's warehouses during the coronavirus outbreak (13 minute read). Many people are now staying at home and depending on online marketplaces like Amazon to get essentials like toilet paper, food, and hand sanitizer. Amazon's warehouse workers, delivery drivers, and contract employees are still working throughout the coronavirus crisis. While workers are praised for their fearlessness in continuing to go to work, many are terrified and frustrated with Amazon's response to the pandemic. Employees who feel that it is unsafe to work are given limited options, so they continue to come into work. Amazon has implemented new safety precautions and increased pay for workers, but workers are still concerned as their jobs require them to be physically close to each other and sanitizing products are in short supply. Employees have to decide whether to work or have no income. |
Tesla launches Solarglass (Solar Roof V3). Tesla has launched Solarglass, the third version of its Solar Roof tiles. Starting at $34,000, the new tiles are now cheaper and more appealing than a concrete tile roof with solar panels. The launch of Tesla's Solar Roof Tiles has been much slower than expected, with limited installations and delayed volume production. Production was delayed in order to make changes that would make the tiles cheaper and more durable. Tesla's Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo will be able to produce 1,000 roofs per week. The biggest difference with Solarglass is the ease of installation. Installation time has been reduced to only five to seven days. |
NASA's Mars rover successfully touches down on the red planet . Perseverance successfully landed on Mars on Thursday at around 3:55 PM ET. It is the fifth rover to land on Mars. The rover will now begin its two-year mission to roam the surface of the planet and search for signs of ancient microbial life. It will spend the next few days taking pictures of the Jezero Crater, where it landed. Jezero's lakebed is one of the best places to look for biosignatures. The rover is also carrying Ingenuity, a small helicopter, which could be the first controlled aircraft on another planet. Earlier this month, spacecraft launched from the United Arab Emirates and China reached Mars and moved into orbit around the planet. |
GitHub’s Engineering Team has moved to Codespaces . Codespaces are now the default development environment for GitHub.com. Over the last few months, the GitHub team has moved to Codespaces for a majority of development due to the improved development experience. Codespaces are cloud-based development environments that allow teams to code in standardized dev environments from any device. This article describes how the team migrated the GitHub repository to Codespaces. |
Food Delivery Apps Are Drowning China in Plastic . The boom in food delivery apps in China has flooded the country with takeout containers, utensils, and bags. Most of the plastic is thrown away rather than recycled. While the people in China still generate less plastic waste per capita than Americans, the country’s waste management systems are inadequate and a lot of plastic ends up out in the open, where it can easily make its way to the sea. China still manages to recycle a quarter of its plastic, more than the less than 10 percent in the US. In the last few months, China stopped accepting recyclable imports from the US in order to focus more on its own waste. However, citizens have reported that authorities have recently closed down hundreds of backyard recycling shops due to them being an eyesore. |
The Google Pixel 4 will unlock using a face scan . Google has revealed two new features of the Pixel 4, face unlocking and Motion Sense. The Pixel 4's face unlock can be used for payments and app authentication, and will work in any orientation in a variety of lighting environments. It only has one front-facing camera. Motion Sense is powered by Project Soli, allowing users to skip songs, snooze alarms, and silence phone calls just by waving your hand. The capabilities of Motion Sense will improve over time. |
My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer (10 minute read). Becoming financially independent as an average engineer with a five-figure salary can be possible through financial discipline and investment planning. This article documents the experience of someone who achieved their goal of financial independence working in tech while living and working in San Francisco and New York. It includes a table with their income, expenses, and savings each year and tips on how to achieve similar results. |
What Chimpanzees Know About Giving Medicine . The chimpanzees of the Rekambo community in Gabon, West Africa, have been observed applying insects to their open wounds and the wounds of other community members. No other animal, apart from humans, has ever been seen treating the wounds of others. Self-medication with plant material is common, but the use of insects to treat wounds is unique. It is unknown which insects were used, or whether the treatment is effective. The behavior may be evidence that chimpanzees can display prosocial behaviors. |
immudb (GitHub Repo). immudb is a database with built-in cryptographic proof and verification. It is immutable, so old records can never be changed or deleted. This means that critical data can be stored without fear of it being changed silently. immudb can handle millions of transactions per second. |
Copper (GitHub Repo). Copper is a Go toolkit for building web apps. It ships the frontend and backend in a single binary. Copper includes a command-line interface, lint, dev server, config management, and more. It also has packages for authentication, pub/sub, queues, emails, and WebSockets. |
Spotify Car Thing is a $90 thing that plays Spotify in your car . Spotify has released its Car Thing dashboard smart music player. The device provides a way to listen to Spotify in the car without needing to look at a phone or use clunky built-in car interfaces. It costs $90 and users will need a Spotify Premium subscription to use it. Car Thing can be controlled using voice commands. Spotify has planned updates for the device based on feedback from its initial release. Pictures of the device are available in the article. |
Moderna announces 3 new mRNA vaccine targets including herpes and cancer . Moderna is developing mRNA vaccines for the herpes simplex virus, the varicella-zoster virus, and two antigens expressed by some cancer cells. Covid-19 accelerated the development of mRNA vaccines, which opened up the path for new research avenues. The viruses that Moderna are targeting can cause lifelong medical conditions. Development of the vaccines could help improve the quality of life for those with symptomatic diseases. Moderna plans to work on more mRNA candidates. |
Awesome GPT-3 (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a collection of demos and articles about the OpenAI GPT-3 API. Demos include GPT-3 playing chess, doing math, writing Google ads, generating Python, and more. |
Wiki.js (Website). Wiki.js is a powerful and extensible open-source Wiki creation software. It makes creating documentation easy while leaving its appearance fully customizable. Wiki.js was built with performance in mind and it will intelligently scale its performance depending on available resources. It comes bundled with a wide range of modules. |
Google releasing location data to help track lockdown movement amid coronavirus . Google will release anonymized global location data from 131 countries and regions around the world to help public health officials track movements during coronavirus lockdowns around the world. Officials will be able to track movement trends over time by geography across different categories of places. The data is gathered from Google Maps and other Google services. No personal data is included. There was a 12 percent increase in the number of tracked individuals remaining in their homes between Feb 16 and March 29. |
Japanese Railroad Builds Giant Gundam-Style Robot to Fix Power Lines . West Japan Rail Company is using a giant Gundam-style robot to fix remote railway power lines. The robot is piloted by a human wearing a virtual reality setup. The robot is still just a prototype and won't be put to work widely until 2024. A video of the robot doing its job is available in the article. |
Watch The Futuristic Flying Car Volar's Amazing First Test Flight Footage . Bellwether Industries, a London-based startup, has released footage of a half-scale prototype of its eVTOL private flying car performing its first untethered flight. The half-scale prototype appears to be able to carry one passenger. It was piloted remotely in the test footage, flying up to 13 feet high at roughly 25 mph. The full-sized vehicle will be able to cruise at 3,000 feet and reach speeds of 135 mph with a battery that lasts 90 minutes. The test flight footage is available in the article. |
Using CRISPR to resurrect the dead (18 minute read). Humans have had a severe impact on Earth’s biodiversity. One million species are threatened with extinction within the next decade. Scientists have been using CRISPR to edit DNA, and the technology may have the potential to bring back extinct species. However, some there are some opponents of de-extinction who argue that more effort should be put into preventing the extinction of existing animals and that extinct animals may not be suited to the current climate. It is already possible to recreate the Wooly Mammoth. The Asian Elephant shares around 99.96 percent of its DNA with the Wooly Mammoth and scientists have already experimented with combining the DNA of the two species. Reintroducing some species may have a significant positive impact on the ecosystem. The technology can also be used to modify existing species to adapt to different climates. |
Artificial heartmaker Carmat to start sales after EU approval . Artificial heartmaker Carmat has received approval from the European Commission and will start selling its devices from the second quarter of this year. Carmat's devices give patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure an alternative to hospital stays. The artificial heart has not been approved as a permanent implant. Each device will cost up to 150,000 euros. Around 2,000 patients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Britain with this specific condition are on waiting lists for a heart. |
Gene Editing a “Factory Reset” for the Brain To Cure Anxiety and Excessive Drinking . A study by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago has found a potential gene-editing treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence. Binge drinking in adolescence alters brain chemistry in the enhancer region of the Arc gene and reduces Arc expression in the amygdala for both rodents and humans. This contributes to a predisposition to alcohol use disorder in adulthood. Rats that had been exposed to alcohol during adolescence showed fewer indicators of anxiety and lower alcohol consumption when Arc gene expression was increased using CRISPR technology. Normal rats showed more indicators of anxiety and increased their alcohol consumption when Arc gene expression was decreased. |
A Huge Step Forward in Quantum Computing Was Just Announced: The First-Ever Quantum Circuit . A team of physicists has created a functional quantum processor. The processor was able to model a small molecule in which each atom had multiple quantum states. It was created by placing 10 quantum dots with sub-nanometer precision in an ultra-high vacuum under a scanning tunneling microscope. Quantum computers can simulate molecules, which could eventually lead to scientists being able to design things that have never been made before. |
ML and DS Applications in Industry (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a curated list of applied machine learning articles, data science notebooks, and libraries across different industries. Topics are organized according to industry and each link has a short description. The repository will be deprecated in November 2019, after which new edits will appear in a private repo. |
Amazon Web Services adds macOS on bare metal to EC2 . Amazon Web Services has partnered with Apple to bring macOS to the cloud. mac1.metal instances are Intel-based Mac mini systems, each with a Core i7-8700B 6c/12t CPU, 32GB RAM, and 10Gbps network interface. The instances rely on Elastic Block Storage rather than local storage. mac1.metal systems can be spun up and down almost as rapidly as virtual systems. Every instance is provisioned with an SSH keypair and the default image includes all of the normal desktop-oriented macOS components, such as VNC. Customers can build and deploy their own custom MacOS images using AMI. |
Google’s Stadia Game Service is Officially Coming November: Everything You Need to Know . Google has officially released details on its Stadia game service. Stadia will be released in November in 14 different territories, including the US, UK, and Canada. At least 31 games from 21 publishers will be launched with the service. A $130 ‘Founder’s Edition’ hardware kit will launch with Stadia, which includes a Chromecast Ultra and a limited-edition dark blue version of the Stadia controller. The subscription service will be $10 a month after a 3 month included subscription with the Founder’s Edition kit. A free tier will be launching in 2020. Google eventually intends to have a backlog of free games that comes with the subscription service, but Stadia is not primarily a subscription service for games. Customers will still have to purchase games to play on the platform. A list of the countries Stadia will be launched in and the games that will be available at launch is available in the article. |
Dozens of Cities Have Secretly Experimented With Predictive Policing Software . PredPol is a software that claims to use an algorithm to predict crime in specific sections of a city. Several police departments in the US have been quietly experimenting with the software. While the idea of using computers to identify potential crime hot-spots may be appealing, the data is based on past crime events - this may mean that if police departments rely on such technology, other areas may be overlooked. Whether it’s ethical to use this technology is also an important question, as it may increase prejudice towards civilians by police in certain areas. |
Massive groups of fish create waves to deter predators . A type of freshwater fish called sulfur mollies have the ability to work together in groups to create waves. The behavior is used to protect the fish from predatory birds. It was easy for scientists to study as the fish react to humans in the same way. There can be hundreds of thousands of fish participating in a single fish wave. The waves can be repeated for up to two minutes at a frequency of every three to four seconds. |
A new high-resolution, 3-D map of the whole mouse brain . Mapmakers at the Allen Institute have completed a high-resolution 3-D atlas of the mouse brain. The framework can tell neuroscience researchers which areas in the brain they are exploring as well as the millions of different pieces of associated information that are related to that area. Modern research requires a high level of accuracy when describing areas in the brain. Mice are widely used in biomedical research. Their brains are made up of around 100 million cells contained across hundreds of different regions. |
The best of Yahoo! Answers . Yahoo! Answers started in 2005. It will be shut down on May 4. This article is a collection of the best questions and answers from the site throughout the years. The questions cover topics such as ant killing, music, space travel, vampires, and more. |
Supercooling advances human tissue preservation . Researchers from UC Berkeley successfully revived human heart tissue after it had been preserved in a subfreezing, supercooled state using a technique called isochoric supercooling. The supercooling did not alter the structural integrity, beat rate, or beat waveform of the heart tissue. Isochoric supercooling involves keeping samples in liquid in a sealed, air-free rigid container. It creates conditions that make it difficult for ice to form, even at temperatures below freezing. The technique could eventually become viable for preserving donor tissue and organs. |
Niantic launches platform to build ‘real-world metaverse’ apps . Lightship is a software toolkit for building metaverse apps by Niantic. It is free for any developer to access except for a feature that lets multiple devices access shared AR experiences. Niantic has already planned a major update to Lightship for next year that includes a system that will let glasses with displays in them understand exactly where they are in the real world. The company has focused on cross-platform compatibility as there will likely be many different platforms in the world of AR glasses. |
MuZero’s first step from research into the real world . MuZero is one of the successors of AlphaGo, the first artificial intelligence program to defeat humans in the game of Go. It was created to be a general-purpose algorithm and it has mastered several games without needing to be told the rules. DeepMind scientists collaborated with YouTube to explore MuZero's potential to improve video compression. The study found that MuZero was able to demonstrate an average of 4% bitrate reduction without quality degradation across a large and diverse set of videos. |
This AI Uses Your Brain Activity to Create Fake Faces It Knows You’ll Find Attractive . A new AI developed by a team from the University of Helsinki and Copenhagen University can generate images of fake faces that an individual finds attractive by learning that person's preferences. The AI was trained by monitoring the person's brain activity as they viewed a series of AI-generated faces. Faces generated by the system were rated as attractive 87 percent of the time. The remaining 13 percent of the times the faces were 'too perfect' or there was something odd with the AI-generated image. |
CES 2019 Liveblog . The Consumer Electronics Show started today, Hyundai debuted a concept car that "walks" like an insect, the wheels are attached to legs so it can get through extremely rocky terrain (there's a video in the article), Samsung debuted a 98-inch 8k TV available for pre-order for $15,000, Bell Helicopter debuted a prototype for a flying taxi that can fly at 150 mph for 150 miles. HTC debuted the Vive Pro Eye, a high end VR headset with built in eye tracking so you don't have to move your head as much. There was also an underwater drone, micro-LED screens (brighter and longer lasting than OLED TVs), LG's foldable TV, and even a bread-baking robot. |
A high-tech glove can translate sign language with 99-percent accuracy . Researchers at UCLA have developed a high-tech glove that can translate sign language into text and speech on a smartphone. It works in real-time and can interpret 660 American Sign Language signs with 98.63 percent accuracy. The glove could potentially be used to teach sign language or help deaf people communicate with non-sign language users. It only costs about $50 to produce, with the potential for lower costs with large scale production. The device is still under development and it will be a few years before it is released. |
Lint for Sketch (GitHub Repo). Lint for Sketch makes creating consistent designs easy. In computer programming, Linting is the process of using code to analyze other code for errors. Lint for Sketch analyzes Sketch design files and checks the file against predefined rules. It can check and fix errors in typography, color, spelling, contrast, and padding. The plugin is still in a prototype stage as the algorithms are being tested. |
An Early YouTube Star Grows Up . Ricky Dillon has been documenting the major moments of his life on YouTube since he was in junior high school. By 2012, Dillon had 200,000 followers, and in 2013, he moved into a shared house with other content creators to collaborate on a project. The group won a Teen Choice Award, and their subscriber count went up to 2.5 million. Making it on YouTube these days is a little harder. Nowadays, Dillon speaks at events for newer social media stars, edits videos for other YouTubers, and still runs his own YouTube channel, but he no longer feels the pressure to create and post content when he doesn't feel like it. |
Darling (Website). Darling can run macOS software directly on Linux without using a hardware emulator. It implements a complete Darwin environment and attempts to fully integrate apps so they run like native Linux apps. Darling currently only has experimental support for simple graphical applications. It does not violate Apple's EULA. |
Building Secure and Reliable Systems (Website). Site Reliability Engineers protect, provide for, and progress the software and systems behind all of Google's public services. Their role is to keep important, revenue-critical systems up despite acts of God, outages, and configuration errors. The team hires from both systems and software backgrounds. This site contains three books on Site Reliability Engineering that can be accessed online for free, as well as links and information on how to join the Google SRE team. |
Pig Kidney Successfully Transplanted From Hog to Human . Doctors in New York City successfully transplanted a kidney grown in a pig to a brain-dead woman. The kidney functioned normally for 54 hours before the woman was removed from a ventilator and died. The procedure is the most significant xenotransplantation experiment ever done. Xenotransplantation could potentially help supply enough organs to patients for life-saving procedures. |
Luckysheet (GitHub Repo). Luckysheet is an open-source online spreadsheet with features like Excel. It features styling, conditional formatting, data types, plugins, and much more. An online demo is available. |
Baby Shark is the first YouTube video to surpass 10 billion views . Baby Shark is the first YouTube video to surpass 10 billion views. The second most-viewed video is Despacito with 7.7 billion views. Baby Shark now has a show on Nickelodeon, a movie, and NFTs. |
Researchers devise iPhone malware that runs even when device is turned off . iPhones run in a low-power mode for 24 hours after shutting down. This makes it possible for them to act as tracking devices in case of theft or loss. A team of researchers has discovered an exploit that allows them to run malware that remains active even when the iPhone has powered down. It is a hardware flaw so it can't be removed with a system update. The attack requires a jailbroken iPhone, so it has limited real-world value. |
Tesla will open up Superchargers to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US later this year . Tesla plans to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US in late 2022. Elon Musk has been talking about opening up the network to other companies' EVs for years. Tesla has been allowing non-Tesla EVs to use its Supercharger plugs in several cities in Europe as part of a limited pilot program. Non-Tesla vehicles will need an adapter to access Tesla Superchargers in North America. |
Facebook CEO may have known of questionable privacy practices: WSJ . Facebook has been under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for inappropriate handling of customers’ private information. It has fully complied with the investigation so far and has provided tens of thousands of documents, emails, and files. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that people who were familiar with the case have discovered emails which prove that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg was involved in the problematic privacy practices of the company. Facebook has previously stated that they are prepared to pay a fine of up to $5 billion in order to settle the case with regulators. |
The ‘Dronut’ is a Cylindrical Drone Straight Out of Science Fiction . The Dronut is a by-rotor ducted drone that has a design that allows it to access spaces that ordinary drones can't navigate. It is compact enough to fit on the palm of the hand and weighs 15 ounces. The Dronut has live-streaming capabilities, a high-resolution camera, a global shutter sensor, and 3D LIDAR for navigation. It can be controlled using an Android phone up to one kilometer away with little to no training required. A video of the drone flying in indoor environments is available in the article. |
"Biologically inspired" A.I can beat the world's strictest internet censorship . Authoritarian governments are known for strictly censoring what their citizens can see on the internet in order to control their people and protect those in power. A new tool called Geneva uses AI to automatically detect bugs and gaps in a country's censorship system so users can view uncensored content. It uses a biologically inspired form of machine learning. Geneva tries different randomized algorithms to beat censorship algorithms. It keeps the effective algorithms and dumps the ones that don't work. Geneva allowed researchers to browse the internet uncensored in China, India, and Kazakhstan. Russia's system is more complicated, and researchers have not yet gained enough access to probe its censorship systems the same way they have in other countries. Geneva can be detected by looking for randomized data being transmitted that doesn't look like it was created by normal human activity. |
Self-driving Waymo trucks to haul loads between Houston and Fort Worth . Waymo and trucking company JB Hunt are working together to autonomously haul cargo between Houston and Fort Worth in Texas. A trained truck driver and Waymo technician will be on each truck to supervise and take over if necessary. Waymo has been developing autonomous technology for trucks for several years, with the first tests in Atlanta in 2018. |
Murena, the privacy-first Android smartphone, arrives . The Murena One is a high-end privacy-focused smartphone that runs the open-source /e/OS Android fork. /e/OS has almost all of its Google services removed and replaced with MicroG or other services. It features Google-free apps and it can run most Android apps. The phone has an eight-core processor, 4GB ram, 128GBs storage, and a 6.5-inch display. It features a 25-megapixel camera for selfies and three cameras with 5, 8, and 48-megapixels on the back. The Murena One will launch in June in the US, Canada, Europe, the UK, and Switzerland for $369. |
Alaska Airlines Has a New Perk: Virtual Reality . First-class passengers onboard 10 flights between Boston and Seattle and Boston and San Diego on Alaska Airlines will have the opportunity to try a new virtual reality headset from a French company called SkyLights and provide feedback about the experience. According to a spokesperson, "When paired with noise-cancelling headphones, it's easy to feel like you're at the movie theater instead of flying." |
U.S. widens blacklist to include China's top AI startups ahead of trade talks . The US government has expanded its trade blacklist to include some of China's top artificial intelligence startups. 20 Chinese public security bureaus and eight companies have been targeted. The firms targeted will not be able to buy components from US companies without US governmental approval. A filing by the Commerce Department states that the firms were targeted as they were implicated in China's violations of human rights against various ethnic and Muslim minority groups. |
Japan Has Shattered the Internet Speed Record at 319 Terabits per Second . Engineers in Japan have broken the record for the world's fastest internet speed. The team transferred data at 319 Terabits per second on a line of fibers more than 1,864 miles long. It was accomplished with fiber-optic infrastructure that already exists, with a few modifications. Integrating the method into existing systems would be far simpler than using other experimental internet-speed boosting technologies. |
PayPal to allow cryptocurrency buying, selling and shopping on its network . PayPal users in the US will soon be able to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and other virtual coins on the platform. Cryptocurrency payments will be settled using fiat currencies. The feature will be rolled out in the coming weeks, with plans to expand to Venmo and some other countries in the first half of 2021. PayPal's launch is noteworthy due to its vast reach. It has 346 million active accounts worldwide and it processed $222 billion in payments in the second quarter. |
New Yubico security keys let you use fingerprints instead of passwords . Yubico just announced its new YubiKey Bio Series, its first hardware security key to offer fingerprint logins. The new key supports the latest FIDO2/WebAuthn and U2Fopen authentication standards. It comes in both USB Type-A and USB Type-C models. The key works with OSes that support WebAuthn and browsers based on Chromium. It is crush resistant and water resistant. Yubico promises the key will work out of the box with various enterprise-facing platforms. |
Hyperion's hydrogen-electric XP-1 supercar is capable of 220 MPH . Hyperion has revealed its XP-1 hydrogen-electric supercar at the New York Auto Show. 300 vehicles will be released starting in early 2022. The vehicle uses a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Power Module instead of a lithium-ion battery. It features air blades on its sides that work as both aerodynamic structures and as solar panels. Hyperion promises over 1,000 miles per recharge, with the refueling process taking less than five minutes. |
Neon (GitHub Repo). Neon is a serverless alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres. It separates storage and compute to make on-demand scalability possible. Neon adjusts the number of resources dedicated to the compute according to the workload. It is fully compatible with Postgres. |
LogMeIn agrees to be acquired by Francisco Partners and Evergreen for $4.3B . Affiliates of Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation have bought LogMeIn for $4.3 billion in an all-cash deal. LogMeIn had a yearly high of $96.87 and a low of $62.02. CEO of LogMeIn Bill Wagner is optimistic that the partnership will help the company going forward. LogMeIn bought Jive Communications in 2018 and GoToMeeting in 2016 in order to have a stronger hold on the unified communications market. The deal with Francisco and Evergreen is expected to close in 2020. As part of the deal, LogMeIn has 45 days to try to find a buyer that will offer a better price. |
Pwnagotchi (GitHub Repo). Pwnagotchi is an AI that learns to capture WPA key material more effectively over time. The more handshakes it captures, the more effective it will be. Multiple units can learn to work with each other. It requires a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a display and power bank. As it is in its alpha stage, there is no support for installation or for bugs. |
vy (GitHub Repo). vy is a powerful modal editor written in Python. It has a very modular architecture and can be modified with many plugins. There are many available plugins to customize vy. All built-in functions are well documented, and documentation for plugins is also available. Some features include a Python debugger, fuzzy search, syntax highlighting for 300+ languages, and autocompletion for Python, Ruby, Golang, and Javascript. |
Miniflare (GitHub Repo). Miniflare is a simulator for developing and testing Cloudflare Workers. It allows Workers to be tested locally without an internet connection. Miniflare has support for most Workers features. |
Flatfile - Data import is broken. We fixed it. (Sponsor). Flatfile - Data import is broken. We fixed it. . Flatfile is an unmatched toolkit for data import. At Flatfile, they’re able to get your data to you exactly how it need to look without making your implementation team, engineers, or - even worse - your customers have to figure this out themselves.Get started free with Github. |
Brain-machine interface helped a man with paralysis feed himself using robotic arms . Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have developed a new technique that allowed a partially paralyzed man to feed himself using robotic arms connected to a brain-machine interface. The method uses a shared control system that minimizes the amount of mental input required to complete a task. The technology is still young. The scientists plan to add touch-like sensory feedback and improve the accuracy and efficiency of the system while reducing the need for visual confirmation. |
The Network: How a Secretive Phone Company Helped the Crime World Go Dark (43 minute read). Vince Ramos was the owner of Phantom Secure, a company that customized BlackBerry phones to make ordinary wiretaps impossible. Phantom was started in 2008 as Ramos saw a need to ensure private communications. The company removed the GPS, microphone, and camera from BlackBerry phones and added PGP encryption software to create its devices. Phantom could also remotely wipe data from devices. Its servers were routed to ensure data was out of reach of third-parties. As the devices became more popular, criminals became aware of their capabilities and started using the technology. Ramos eventually pleaded guilty to running a criminal enterprise that facilitated drug trafficking and was sentenced to nine years in prison. |
World-first pig-to-human heart transplant performed in US . Surgeons in the US have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a living human for the first time. The patient is alive and has not rejected the pig organ. The genetically modified heart had around 10 modifications to reduce the chances of rejection from a human immune system. Two transplants were performed last year on functionally dead patients who were kept alive for several days. The patient was too unwell to qualify for a regular heart transplant, so the experimental treatment was offered as a last resort. |
Facebook skirts Apple’s App Store fees with custom subscription links for creators . Facebook creators will soon be able to share custom web links to direct their fans to pay for subscriptions using Facebook's native payments system. The subscription feature is available in 27 countries to creators who meet certain eligibility requirements. Creators will receive all of the subscription money minus taxes if users sign up through the custom web link, as opposed to using Apple's in-app subscription. Apple takes a 30% cut of all in-app transactions processed through its system. Facebook is not charging creators for subscription transactions until at least 2023, and it will start paying creators a bonus of up to $20 for every new subscriber who signs up using their custom web link. |
Varda Space Industries will send its first space factory to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket . Varda Space Industries is a startup that wants to build in-space manufacturing facilities that use the benefits of microgravity to make novel materials, like bio-printed organs or specialized semiconductors. It will send its first spacecraft to orbit in 2023. The spacecraft will be outfitted with a microgravity manufacturing module and a reentry capsule. It will spend approximately three months in orbit and bring back around 40-60 kilograms of manufactured materials. Varda has plans to make two more space vehicles. |
Hotwire (Website). Hotwire is an approach to building web applications by sending HTML over the wire. This approach makes for fast first-load pages, keeps template rendering on the server, and allows for a better development experience without sacrificing responsiveness. Hotwire uses Turbo, a set of techniques for delivering efficient apps without writing any JavaScript. |
Amazon's second headquarters clears blocks in Virginia funding vote . Local officials unanimously voted to clear a $51 million financial package for Amazon if it decides to build its second headquarters in Virginia. After Amazon abruptly pulled out of its plans to build their HQ2 in New York, other states that had previously been on the shortlist are now being considered. There was a vocal minority opposition in Virginia still, with the opposition protesting against Amazon’s business practices, including its treatment of employees. Housing prices have already started rising amidst speculations that Amazon will bring their headquarters into the state. The project will cost Amazon approximately $2.5 billion and create more than 25,000 jobs, generating more than $3.2 billion in tax revenue. |
Scientists Find a Mysterious 'Ghost Lineage' In the DNA of West Africans . A distant human lineage may have interbred with the ancestors of modern West Africans, significantly contributing to their gene pool. In the past, other human lineages such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans existed. Neanderthal DNA makes up roughly 1.8-2.6% of the genomes of modern humans outside of Africa, and Denisovan DNA makes up 4-6% of modern Melanesians. It is estimated that 2-19% of the DNA in members of some tribes in Africa is from an unknown human lineage. The ghost lineage probably diverged from the ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans up to 1.02 million years ago. |
'Apple Music TV' Launches in U.S. . Apple has just launched Apple Music TV, a 24-hour stream of music videos, live shows, and events. It is now available for users in the US through the Apple Music and Apple TV apps. New videos will be debuted on Apple Music TV every Friday. The station will also show interviews and other content by Apple Music 1 radio host Zane Lowe. |
Samsung's New Product Promises Garden In Your Fridge . Samsung has unveiled its Chef Garden refrigerator at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas. The refrigerator features a Growing Zone where a wide variety of seed capsules can be planted. Chef Garden delivers water and nutrients to plants via a nutrient fog. It controls growth conditions, predicts growth, and controls when crops are harvested. The refrigerator is also able to recommend recipes based on the fruits and vegetables grown inside of it. Chef Garden is available for purchase by the public, but Samsung has not yet released retail pricing. Samsung also presented at the KBIS an AI that could recognize food inside refrigerators and suggest recipes, and the AirDresser, a device that sits in a closet and uses steam technology to smooth out wrinkles, deodorize, and sanitize clothes. |
Inside Neeva, the ad-free, privacy-first search engine from ex-Googlers (17 minute read). Neeva is a new privacy search engine where users have to pay to use it. The service charges a subscription fee after the first three months. The business is trying to find out whether people will pay for a high-quality alternative to an ad-supported product. Neeva is built by ex-Google engineers. The company will turn over at least 20 percent of its top-line revenue to publishing partners. This article delves into the history and development of Neeva and its business model. |
Outrun (GitHub Repo). Outrun lets you execute local commands using the processing power of another Linux machine. The commands don't need to be installed on the other machine, and local files and paths can be referenced normally. It can be used to run software on many different machines simultaneously. A detailed explanation of how it works is available in the repository. |
Divjoy (Website). Divjoy is a free web-based tool to create a React codebase. Developers can select their desired stacks, choose a template, and edit the website using a drag-and-drop visual editor, and Divjoy will serve up the code to be exported. |
Tesla is adding remarkable detail in its Full Self-Driving Visualizations . Full Self-Driving on Tesla vehicles works for highway driving, but when it comes to inner-city streets, it still has some ways to go. The most recent update shows that more and more aspects of city driving are becoming recognized by the company’s neural networks. A small clip is available showing a Model 3 rendering details, such as directional lights, on a stop light signal. Elon Musk recently said in a tweet that the release of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving functionalities is still looking good for this year. |
MIT and Stanford Professors Are Designing a Cryptocurrency to Top Bitcoin: Unit-e . Professors from 7 universities including MIT and Stanford are teaming up to create a cryptocurrency called Unit-e, which will be able to process tens of thousands of transactions per second compared to 3-7 for Bitcoin or 10-30 for Ethereum. The group plans on launching in the second half of this year. This will be made possible by new consensus and sharding mechanisms. |
What is kubectl? (Sponsor). kubectl is the command-line tool most developers use to interact with the Kubernetes API. Here's how it works, why it's needed, and how you can get started. Learn more. |
JS Cloudimage 360 View (GitHub Repo). JS Cloudimage 360 View is a tool that creates a 360 degree view virtual tour of a product. Adding images to a page is simple and there is a large list of options to use to customize the view. Responsive integration and lazy loading are available through plugins. |
Apple’s “realityOS” surfaces in GitHub commits, App Store logs . Software developers have discovered references to a new Apple operating system, realityOS, in App Store upload logs and GitHub repositories. Apple has been known to be working on a mixed reality platform for a while. The project has faced several delays. Reports and rumors about it have been mixed and unreliable. Apple could be working on multiple devices, which may explain the mixed reports. |
Discord now has Threads . Discord has a new feature called Threads that allows users to branch off a conversation away from the main channel feed. It creates a separate feed, which server admins can still moderate. Public threads will let any members of the channel participate. Private threads will only let certain members view them. Threads will be automatically archived within 24 hours. Screenshots showing the feature are available in the article. |
Here's everything Samsung announced at its August Unpacked event . Samsung announced four new devices at its August 11 Unpacked event. The Galaxy Fold 3 will feature an under-display camera that attempts to blend with the screen, compatibility with the S Pen stylus, a more capable Cover Display, and IPX8-rated waterproofing. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a Cover Display four times larger than its predecessor. Wear OS powered by Samsung has the same features as the company's previous OS, with the added advantage of better third-party app support. The Galaxy Watch 4 has a new BioActive sensor, a new processor, and 50 percent more RAM. The Galaxy Buds 2 features active noise cancellation, with three ambient sound levels. They have a machine learning feature that filters out noises when talking. More details, pictures, and videos are available in the article. |
ARL (GitHub Repo). This repository contains a list of the most popular repositories, sorted by the number of stars, for each of the most favored programming languages. Users can view the number of stars, forks, issues, and when the last commit was from the database. The aim of the repository is to provide the most popular examples of how to code in every language. |
I 3D-Printed a Glock to See How Far Homemade Guns Have Come (15 minute read). Ghost guns are home-assembled firearms that have no serial numbers and thus no easy way for authorities to track down the owner or manufacturer. The most common ghost guns cost a few hundred dollars and come mostly assembled with all the necessary tools. Nearly 24,000 privately made firearms were recovered at crime scenes from 2016 to 2020. The Biden administration has proposed new rules that will require serial numbers on certain unfinished parts and restrict mail order kits. This article follows the author's experience in printing their own gun in order to compete in a shooting competition exclusively for home-assembled firearms. |
Iconoir (Website). Iconoir is an open-source library with over 1,000 SVG icons. The icons can be used without any signup. There is a search function and icons are organized by categories such as actions, connectivity, finance, and navigation. |
Apple granted patent for software that would let you take socially distant group selfies . Apple has been granted a patent for software that generates synthetic group selfies. The software is likely a method for taking group selfies for social media even during social distancing. Users would be able to invite others to take part in a group selfie and the software would then arrange the images together into a single picture. The resulting picture will be customizable, so users should be able to modify the position of the people in the photo or store the original images separately. Apple first filed for the patent in 2018 and it was just granted at the beginning of June. |