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Google-Free Android Smartphones Are Now Available in the US | The /e/ Foundation is now offering Google-free Android handsets in the US. The Foundation has been offering refurbished smartphones without Google software in Europe since 2019. It is starting in the US with the Samsung Galaxy S9 for $380 and the Galaxy S9+ for $430. The phones are carrier unlocked and will be backed with a one-year warranty. They will run a version of Android called /e/ OS, which has removed most of the code that sends data to remote servers without user consent. | 4Miscellaneous
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Volvo Uses InfluxDB to Evolve Its DevOps Monitoring to Enable Data-Driven Decisions (Sponsor) | Production delays or stoppages are the bane of any manufacturer. Learn how Volvo replaced their 15-year-old DevOps monitoring process and enabled data-driven operations, simplified DevOps monitoring, and improved real-time alerting with InfluxDB. Learn more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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SpaceX's Starlink sees the in-flight internet market as ripe for an overhaul | SpaceX is testing aviation-specific Starlink terminals and is in the process of getting the terminals approved with a variety of aircraft. It will make the terminals smaller and lighter to provide high-speed internet globally without disruption. Current satellite broadband providers for inflight Wi-Fi use satellites in distant orbits with slow speeds. Starlink's vice-president envisions a future where every passenger can stream on planes just like at home. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Bedbugs are giving Airbnb users headaches… and itchy bites (12 minute read) | Some tenants have reported bedbugs while staying in Airbnb homes, but apparently, the company doesn't support the hosts well enough to fix the problem. There are no company procedures for handling outbreaks except that it suspends listings until hosts can provide evidence that the issue has been fixed. Airbnb takes an up to 20 percent cut of rental prices and is currently valued at $31 billion. Bedbugs can be introduced to properties by guests, attaching themselves to luggage when traveling. They are difficult to get rid of and can take a large financial and psychological toll on people. A typical extermination costs between $1,000 and $2,500. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Researchers use humanoid robots to grow human tendon tissue | Researchers from the University of Oxford and robotics company Devanthro engineered a robotic shoulder to function as a stretching mechanism to produce lifelike human tendon tissue. The team grew cells on the robotic joint using a strategically placed bioreactor over two weeks, bending and twisting the joint in human-like ways for 30 minutes each day. More work still needs to be done to determine if the new method was an improvement over traditional methods. The approach has been attempted before with living muscle tissue grown from rat cells. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Spotify is developing a ‘virtual events’ feature | Spotify is implementing a feature that will connect artists with their fans through ticketed live virtual music events. Live performances are a significant source of income for musicians and many artists have struggled to perform this year with live events canceled or banned due to health concerns. Spotify already works with major ticketing partners, many who have embraced virtual events as a way to continue their businesses during the pandemic. A screenshot is available in the article showing an upcoming virtual event for artist BTS on September 19. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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SpaceX’s Starhopper completed its first mini-launch ‘hop’ | SpaceX’s Starhopper is a mini version of a spacecraft that will hopefully be able to travel throughout our solar system and maybe even to neighboring stars. The Starhopper just completed its first official ‘hop test’, where it lifted off briefly while being tethered to the launch pad. While a full-size version of Starship is still a while away, this Starhopper test will pave the way for higher test flights and full-scale launches. SpaceX has been busy lately with the tests of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, regular launches for commercial clients, and the impending second launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Facebook will start putting ads in Oculus Quest apps | Facebook will start testing ads inside its Oculus Quest virtual reality system in the coming weeks. It will expand the system based on user feedback. The Oculus mobile app started displaying ads last month, but this is the first time ads will appear inside the VR platform. Facebook is not changing how it collects or analyzes user data. Some sensitive data, like images from the headset camera and information from Oculus Move fitness tracking, will remain only on users' devices. Facebook has no plans to use movement data or recordings from its voice assistant for ads. | 4Miscellaneous
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Why ‘soft robots’ have NASA, doctors, and tech whizzes so excited | Soft robots could one day be used for a wide variety of applications, for example, space exploration, surgery, rescue operations, and much more. They are made of squishy materials that enable them to approximate biological functions. It is expected that the market for soft robots will reach $2.16 billion in 2024. Soft robots have flaws, such as being slow to power up, but researchers are developing workarounds to these issues. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple will require apps to add privacy ‘nutrition labels’ starting December 8th | App Store developers will be required to provide privacy information for their apps starting on December 8th. Apple's privacy 'nutrition labels' list what information an app collects and presents the information visually on the app page. An example of a privacy nutrition label is available in the article. Developers will be required to keep their labels up to date, making sure that users know how their information is used before any app is allowed on their phones. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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They Got Rich Off Uber and Lyft. Then They Moved to Low-Tax States | Many millennials who had worked on startups such as Uber and Lyft from the beginning have moved from California to low-tax states. As these tech startups have become huge and stock values rise, these original employees, many who were initially incentivized through stock options, have become rich. Most state that they are moving away from California due to wanting to be away from the startup scene, rather than for just the obvious tax breaks, but it is rare to see one of these new millionaires move to a high-tax state such as New York. | 4Miscellaneous
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A Photo Is Crashing Many Android Phones, This Could Be Why | Some Android users are reporting that an image appears to be crashing their devices when set as a wallpaper. The issue appears to impact a large number of devices running the latest Android 10 version. Devices running the early Android 11 developer preview do not appear to be affected. There appears to be no clear pattern on which devices are impacted by the wallpaper and which are not. Users who are affected by the issue will have to factory reset their phones to fix it. The issue may be related to a bug in the Android system related to color formatting. | 4Miscellaneous
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Udacity restructures operations, lays off 20 percent of its workforce | Udacity, an online education startup which specializes in ‘nanodegrees’, has laid off 20 percent of its workforce as part of a restructure which aims to bring costs in line with revenue. The startup now employs 300 full-time equivalent employees and around 60 contractors. While Udacity experienced significant growth in 2017 through its popular courses on self-driving cars and deep learning, running costs and other inefficiencies have caused the company to become unprofitable. Udacity has continued to seek new contracts and grow, even as it continues to cut costs. The business has recently revised its strategy largely due to significant changes to the company’s leadership. | 4Miscellaneous
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SpaceX loses Falcon 9 booster at sea after successful Starlink launch | A new batch of Starlink satellites was launched on Monday morning, but for the first time in almost four years, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that carried the satellites missed its landing on a floating platform at sea. SpaceX has specialized in catching and reusing its rocket stages quickly. The more rockets that SpaceX can recover, the more it can reuse for future flights, which lowers the massive cost of going to space. The last time the lost rocket was used was just 72 days ago, breaking the record for the fastest turnaround held by NASA's space shuttle. It is unclear exactly what happened to the rocket, but it appeared to miss the platform by a fairly wide margin. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Walmart to test drone delivery of grocery, household items | Walmart is running a pilot for delivering groceries and household products using automated drones. It will partner with Flytrex, an end-to-end delivery firm, for the project. Walmart has seen online sales double in the second quarter. It has explored its options with deliveries through autonomous vehicles with Ford and other self driving car startups in the past. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How We Built Hydrogen: A React Framework for Building Custom Storefronts (12 minute read) | Hydrogen is a React framework for building custom storefronts on Shopify. It was built with the best developer experience in mind so that merchants could do away with bulky templates or building things from scratch. This article takes a behind-the-scenes look at how Shopify created Hydrogen and what it was like developing a new framework using experimental technology. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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elastdocker (GitHub Repo) | Elastdocker is an elastic stack on docker, with pre-configured security, tools, self-monitoring, and Prometheus Metrics Exporters. It is configured as a Production Single Node Cluster, has in-built security functions, has tools for configuration and metrics, and more. It requires Docker 17.05 or higher and Docker-Compose 3 or higher. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Digital immortality: How your life's data means a version of you could live forever | Hossein Rahnama has a company called Augmented Eternity that wants to use data you've created (chat logs, etc.) to create a digital representation of you so a version of you can live on forever. He's already busy creating a digital avatar for an unnamed financial CEO to live on after he's dead (cough Ray Dalio cough). The article jumps around a lot, but some interesting food for thought: having a digital version of you could actually be really useful even when you're alive (you could get a consultation from the world's best lawyer for pennies), there is the question of how data should be handled after someone dies (should it be governed by the same laws as the corpse of the deceased?), and how do we guard against the enormous power of the dead to influence the living (there is a Black Mirror episode in which a digital avatar created from her deceased husband's data keeps upselling a widow on more and more realistic versions of himself). | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down after Historic Test Flight | The Demo-1 test flight for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was successful, with the capsule landing in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast today at 8:45 am. Crew Dragon’s successful first test flight is the start of a new era in human spaceflight, according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Since 2011, NASA has had to depend on Russian spacecraft to send its astronauts to the ISS at a cost of $80 million per person. The next stage of testing in June will evaluate Crew Dragon’s emergency-escape system, and a fully manned test-flight will come shortly after, possibly as early as July. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Microsoft invests US$50 million in alcohol-to-jet fuel biorefinery | Microsoft is investing $50 million in a facility that will produce jet fuel from ethanol. The LanzaJet facility in Georgia has nearly completed on-site engineering at its biorefinery. It plans to start producing 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel per year from sustainable ethanol. The facility is also funded by oil majors, airlines, and other petroleum trading companies. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Facebook launches Business Suite to link messaging apps | Facebook has launched a new app called Facebook Business Suite that allows small businesses to manage their pages and profiles across Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. It is the first product Facebook has launched that combines the backend infrastructure for its apps. It will add WhatsApp to the service next year. The Business Suite allows small businesses to post content and ads to Facebook and Instagram at the same time, as well as see the performance of ads across both platforms in one place. It will be integrated with Facebook Shop more closely in the future. The tools are designed for small businesses, but Facebook will make them available for bigger advertisers eventually. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Elon Musk tells Joe Rogan he wants the new Tesla Roadster to hover | Elon Musk has been working on adding rocket thrusters to the second-generation Tesla Roadster for speed. He told Joe Rogan in a recent interview that he has been considering using the thrusters to make the Roadster hover as well. Making a car hover is dangerous, but Musk thinks it will be ok if the car doesn't hover too high. It is sure to create a headache for safety regulators if he is able to pull it off when the new Roadster comes out in 2022. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google Duplex launches on the web, starting with movie tickets | Duplex is launching as 'Google Assistant in Chrome' and it will be able to help users buy movie tickets. Users can interact with an interface presented by Assistant instead of navigating ticketing websites. Duplex for movie tickets supports more than 70 cinemas and ticketing services. It can currently also make restaurant reservations. Google hopes to expand its abilities in the future, with car rentals coming next. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Microsoft in talks with Discord over $10 billion-plus acquisition | Microsoft is in discussions to acquire Discord for more than $10 billion. Discord had multiple potential buyers express interest. Some sources say that Discord might prefer to take itself public rather than seek an acquisition. Discord has about 140 million monthly users. It makes money by offering subscriptions that offer advanced features. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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This AI reads children's emotions as they learn | 4 Little Trees is an AI-powered learning platform created by Find Solution AI, a Hong Kong-based startup. The app's AI identifies students' emotions while they work on tests and homework. Other statistics and performance history is also collected by the platform. The data is used to generate reports on students' strengths, weaknesses, and motivation levels. It is also used to forecast their grades. The app's use of AI to identify emotions has raised some concerns, but the app creators say that the app only records facial muscle data and that it doesn't video students' faces. | 4Miscellaneous
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Brave browser-maker launches privacy-friendly news reader | Brave Software is introducing a news reader designed to protect user privacy by stopping sites from tracking what users view. Brave Today delivers personalized news feeds in a way that Brave, ISPs, and third parties are unable to track. It uses various techniques to preserve user anonymity, including encrypting requests, stripping out headers, and using separate services to prevent data combination. Brave Today has 15 news categories from 300 sources and it will be integrated directly into all versions of the browser except for Android. An explanation of how the service works is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Scientists Discover 'Significant' Water Hidden In Martian Grand Canyon | A significant amount of water has been found in Mars' Valles Marineris canyon system. It is hidden beneath the surface, but not too deep underground. The reservoir could be easily exploitable for future explorers. It was discovered by the Trace Gas Orbiter, the first stage of the joint ESA-Roscosmos mission ExoMars, using an instrument that maps the hydrogen content of Martian soil. It is unknown what form the water may take, but researchers speculate that it is likely ice. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Artificial throat could someday help mute people ‘speak’ | Speech is a complex process that involves both the motions of the mouth and vibrations from vocal cords within the throat. An artificial throat has been designed that can be worn like a temporary tattoo. It has detectors that are able to measure movements on human skin. The flexible device is about double the size of a person's thumbnail and is made by laser-scribing graphene on a thin sheet of polyvinyl alcohol film. It can be attached to a person's throat with water. The device connects through electrodes to a small armband that houses the hardware needed to translate the signals into sound. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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SpaceX’s first astronaut launch is scrubbed due to weather – next attempt set for Saturday | SpaceX was set to launch its first-ever crewed spaceflight from Cape Canaveral in Florida on May 27 but it was delayed due to weather issues. The launch has been rescheduled for May 30. If the mission is successful, the Crew Dragon will be certified for regular operational use by NASA, which means SpaceX will be able to begin offering regular transportation services for astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX has already begun plans to offer flights to private citizens, commercial scientists, and other types of passengers. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Quantum technology could make charging electric cars as fast as pumping gas | Despite vast improvements in battery technology, electric vehicles still have to deal with slow battery charging speeds. A team of scientists has demonstrated that quantum batteries employing global operation can achieve quadratic scaling in charging speed. A typical electric vehicle with a 200 cell battery can charge 200 times faster using quantum charging. Quantum charging could find applications in fusion power plants in the future. The technology is still in its infancy and it will be a while before it can be implemented anywhere. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Africa's 'first fully solar-powered village' wants to be a model for a renewable future | A town near Morocco's sunny Atlantic coast is Africa's first completely solar-powered village. Id Mjahdi is being pitched as a blueprint for how to power remote villages. Africa currently produces less than one percent of the world's solar energy. Morocco is aiming to increase its use of renewable energy to 52 percent by 2030. The project to outfit Id Mjahdi with solar power has resulted in clean water and more time for the villagers, which means they are able to produce more work and spend more time on education. These mini-grids can be maintained by the villagers, so the project can be scaled and replicated in other villages. There are 800 villages without electricity in Morocco alone, and the World Bank estimates that 650 million people worldwide will still lack access to electricity in 2030. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Introducing Concurrent Mode (Experimental) | Concurrent Mode is a set of new experimental features that help React apps stay responsive and adjust to the user's device capabilities and network speed. It is only available in experimental builds and features are subject to change. In Concurrent Mode, React works on several state updates at the same time in order to make the user experience feel faster and smoother. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Facebook names a new CTO with a major focus on hardware | Facebook has promoted Andrew Bosworth, the current head of its hardware division, to the role of chief technology officer. The current CTO Mike Schroepfer will become a senior fellow next year. Bosworth will continue to lead Facebook Reality Labs while also assuming responsibility for Facebook's broader software engineering and artificial intelligence efforts. Facebook is still relatively new to selling hardware, but it has significantly ramped up its efforts in recent years under Bosworth's watch. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How much does it cost to build an app? (Web App) | This is a simple step by step calculator that lets you pick a series of features and then it tells you how much it would cost to hire a freelancer/contractor/agency to build the app. Pretty nifty for non-technical people looking to launch their own app. | 4Miscellaneous
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SpaceX may spin out internet-from-space business and make it public | The president of SpaceX's Starlink business has said that the company is considering going public as it is ripe to do so. Starlink has already launched 240 satellites and plans to launch up to another 1,440 satellites this year. These satellites are designed to beam down broadband internet coverage all over the world. Elon Musk is known for hating publicly traded companies and has said in the past that SpaceX won't be going public until its Mars vehicle is complete. SpaceX has recently been valued at around $33.3 billion. The revenue from Starlink will help fund SpaceX's plans to send people to the Moon and Mars. Those in the astronomy community have criticized broadband satellite projects as the resulting constellation could obstruct their observations of the night sky. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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This is David Khourshid and his pure CSS (no js) | This thread links to a library of CSS artworks made by David Khourshid. The library includes a 3D CSS-only version of a Tesla Cybertruck, many animated animals, UI designs, and much more. The code for each of the projects is available. Redditors in the thread commented about how clean and well-written the code is. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Crypto enthusiasts want to buy an NBA team, after failing to purchase US Constitution | Krause House DAO is a new decentralized autonomous organization that aims to purchase an NBA franchise. The group of around 2,000 members raised the equivalent of $4 million in six days. While the funds are currently nowhere near what they will need to buy even the least-valuable NBA team, the organization has plans to invest the funds into future projects so that it can become a serious bidder one day. The group offers an NFT that comes with voting power in the community, but it does not guarantee future ownership of a team. | 4Miscellaneous
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btop++ (GitHub Repo) | btop++ is a resource monitor that shows processor, memory, disks, network, and process usage and stats. It features a game-inspired menu system, full mouse support, a function to send any signal to selected processes, themes, and much more. Screenshots are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Adobe brings Photoshop and Illustrator to the web | Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator work can now be shared via the web for the purpose of commenting and feedback. Collaborators who do not need or want Adobe products can now view and comment on work from a browser. Adobe plans to add basic editing tools for making minor tweaks. Screenshots of the web app are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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An oral history of Bank Python (17 minute read) | Bank Python implementations are effectively proprietary forks of the entire Python ecosystem which are in use at many of the biggest investment banks. There is not much about these systems on the public web. This article discusses a fictional Bank Python system. It explains how the system and some of its subsystems work and talks about some of the differences between the system and Global Python. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Joe Rogan’s podcast is becoming a Spotify exclusive | The Joe Rogan Experience will soon become a Spotify exclusive. The show will be available on Spotify starting from September 1st and will become exclusive sometime after. It will remain free to access. Rogan will continue to retain creative control over the show. His YouTube channel will remain live but it won't contain full episodes. | 4Miscellaneous
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A French union cut power to an Amazon facility in support of workers | France has now seen three weeks of labor strikes over pension reforms. These strikes have halted trains, subways, the national economy, and Amazon. A strategic pre-holiday attack on Amazon left a facility without power on December 22. The facility was set to ship 50,000 packages that night. A local branch of the General Confederation of Labor union (CGT) claimed responsibility for the attack. Power to the facility was cut between midnight until early morning. French protestors have targeted other public buildings and big businesses with power cuts and some households have been affected. Some of these power cuts have affected doctors performing surgeries, raising concerns about the dangers of the attacks and causing some groups to consider legal action against the CGT. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Windows 10X is now Microsoft’s true answer to Chrome OS | A near-final version of Windows 10X has leaked. The operating system will ship on Chromebook-like devices later this year. It will only ship on new hardware. Windows 10X was originally designed for dual-screen devices. It has a simplified interface, with features comparable to Chrome OS. Screenshots are available in the article. Windows 10X will probably not support desktop apps at launch, but Microsoft is working on a container technology to run traditional apps in a lightweight virtual machine. A redesign of Windows 10 is planned for later this year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Tailwind Mobile (GitHub Repo) | Tailwind Mobile is a library of mobile UI components built with Tailwind CSS. All components come with native-like iOS and Material Design themes created using official design guidelines. Tailwind Mobile is currently available for React, Vue, and it is coming soon for Svelte. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ray tracing and 64-bit only: What you should know about Arm's 2023 CPUs and GPUs (12 minute read) | Arm has revealed its new line of CPUs and GPUs that will power next year's smartphones. While the changes in CPU architecture were not as big as last year's, the company's vision of a 64-bit-only Android future is starting to take shape. Arm's new Immortalis GPU features improvements such as variable-rate shading, efficiency gains, and ray-tracing. Details about each of the newly announced CPUs and GPUs are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Tailwind CSS tutorial: learn how to build websites using a utility-first CSS framework (18 minute read) | Tailwind is built on a new way of building user interfaces using a utility-first CSS class structure. This tutorial walks through how to install, configure, and build a responsive hero section using Tailwind CSS. It walks through configuring the project using the recommended PostCSS powered Tailwind configuration file. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Tesla (TSLA) | Tesla's stock price surged more than 5 percent yesterday, boosting its market cap to more than $100 billion, making it more valuable than Volkswagen. The electric automaker is now second only to Toyota. CEO Elon Musk doesn't accept a salary from Tesla. He receives a very generous and ambitious stock compensation plan instead. For every $50 billion rise in Tesla's market cap, Musk receives 1.69 million shares, which is currently worth around $1 billion. If Tesla reaches its goal of a $650 billion market cap, Musk's stake in the company would be worth $195 billion, making him the richest man in the world. | 4Miscellaneous
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x-spreadsheet (GitHub Repo) | x-spreadsheet is a javascript plugin that will install a web-based spreadsheet for your site. Users will be able to enjoy a fully functioning spreadsheet app, with an interface similar to the one used in Google Sheets. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple mixed reality headset to have two 8K displays, cost $3000 | Apple is reportedly planning to release a VR device that features two ultra-high-resolution 8K displays for $3,000. It will be equipped with more than a dozen cameras for tracking hand movements and showing video of the real world to users. The displays will have eye-tracking technology so that it can detect where users are looking and decrease resolution in other areas of the display. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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India discovers new plant species in Antarctica | Biologists from the Central University of Punjab have discovered a new species of moss in Antarctica. It took the scientists five years to confirm that Bryum Bharatiensis was a completely new species. They named the moss after Bharati, the Hindu goddess of learning. It mainly grows in areas where penguins breed in large numbers, using the nitrogen in the penguin manure as food. The scientists still haven't determined how the moss survives without sunlight in extremely low temperatures. | 4Miscellaneous
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Australia 'records fastest internet speed ever' | Researchers from Monash, Swinburne, and RMIT universities recorded an internet speed of 44.2 terabits per second using a device called a 'micro-comb'. The average UK broadband speed is around 64 megabits per second. Australia ranks around the middle worldwide for internet speeds. The recent pandemic has caused an unprecedented strain on current internet infrastructure. Micro combs can be integrated into existing infrastructure, so they are a potential solution for meeting the demand for more bandwidth. | 4Miscellaneous
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New company Space Perspective wants to take you to the stratosphere via high-altitude balloon | Space Perspective is a company that can take you up to the stratosphere in a balloon. Customers will be sent up to 100,000 feet high to see the Earth from above without having to strap into a rocket. Other companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are aiming to send space tourists much higher, between 50 to 62 miles above the Earth, but development has been slow. Space Perspective's Neptune is propelled by a hydrogen-filled balloon. It ascends at 12 miles per hour and can carry eight passengers plus a pilot. The experience will last six hours, with two hours spent hovering above the Earth. Wi-Fi will be available. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Texthero (GitHub Repo) | Texthero is a Python package for working with text-based data. It is designed to be used on top of Pandas. Texthero includes tools for preprocessing text data, natural language processing, text representation, vector space analysis, and text visualization. Examples are provided in the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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My Frantic Life as a Cab-Dodging, Tip-Chasing Food App Deliveryman (11 minute read) | Restaurants are being forced into the e-commerce business by food-delivery app services, an industry which is creating many jobs for delivery riders. While ride-hail drivers successfully lobbied for a $17 minimum wage, most delivery-app couriers aren't guaranteed any payment. Many couriers use multiple apps, trying to earn bonuses and tips. If they miss certain deadlines, they lose these bonuses, and many customers do not tip. While apps claim certain minimum incomes, drivers say they do not earn these rates regularly. Pay rates have been declining as more people start working for the platform. Restaurant drivers are entitled to a minimum wage plus tips but claim that they are only paid a fraction of that amount. The job can also be dangerous, and workers have been injured during deliveries. | 4Miscellaneous
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Hotwire: HTML Over The Wire (12 minute read) | Hotwire is an approach to building modern web applications by sending HTML instead of JSON over the wire. It keeps template rendering on the server and allows for development in any programming language. This article discusses using Hotwire with a JVM backend. It includes code and examples. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ztext (Website) | Ztext creates 3D typography for any website and font using HTML attributes or JavaScript. It is easy to integrate Ztext with CSS animations and transitions. Ztext works for SVG, emoji, and images. Examples are available on the website. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Is this Chinese prototype the shape of maglev train tech to come? | Researchers at Southwest Jiaotong University in China have unveiled a new maglev vehicle designed to travel at up to 620km/h. It is part of China's plan to create faster links between cities. The new maglev train uses liquid nitrogen to achieve superconductivity, which slashes operation costs to one-fiftieth compared to using liquid helium. It is able to levitate from a standing start. There are still issues to work out before the new technology becomes commercially viable. Images of the train are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online | Kids are growing up alongside social media, and some are just finding out how much of their lives are already on the internet. Parents have been sharing their kids lives on the internet since social media has existed, and the effects of that are now being revealed. Many teens are discovering that their entire lives have already been documented on the internet, without consent, when they google themselves. This has caused mixed reactions, with some teenagers feeling that it was a breach of trust with their parents, while others are pleased with the fact that they are ‘famous’ on the internet. | 4Miscellaneous
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Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? Join Reforge (Sponsor) | Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? Join Reforge . Reforge is the leading career development platform for product and growth professionals. Membership includes participation in 3 cohort-based programs and year-round access to content - all developed by experienced tech executives. Apply to join today. | 0Sponsor
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Sorrow-stricken mother reunites with deceased daughter in virtual world | A special TV documentary in Korea tells the story of a sorrow-stricken mother and her reunion with her deceased daughter in a virtual world. 'I Met You' aired on February 6 after eight months of production. It is set at the charnel house which the mother visits once a month to remember her daughter. They have a heartfelt conversation and celebrate the daughter's birthday together. The mother said that she appeared in the documentary to help bring comfort to those who had lost family members. | 4Miscellaneous
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Taking Back Our Privacy (40 minute read) | Signal was launched in 2014 by Moxie Marlinspike. The end-to-end encrypted messaging service has grown largely since then, with bursts of growth corresponding to periods of social and political upheaval. Signal is able to bring a sense of normalcy to the internet, allowing people to share their thoughts with their friends without having the conversation analyzed for data. This article details a meeting with Marlinspike and discusses the rise of Signal and its future. | 4Miscellaneous
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Vitest (GitHub Repo) | Vitest is a unit test framework powered by Vite. It features Vite's config, transformers, resolvers, and plugins, Jest Snapshot, workers multi-threading, and much more. Vitest is still in development and not stable yet. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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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. | 4Miscellaneous
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First Hyperloop Passenger Capsule Unveiled | Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. unveiled its first passenger capsule, the Quintero One. It's essentially a super futuristic looking train type thing, it's 105 feet long, weighs 5 tons, and has no windows. It is designed to go up to 750 miles per hour. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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New Ultra-Efficient Engineered Carriers Could Overhaul Genetic Therapies | A team at Harvard has launched a new generation of molecular carriers inspired by viruses called eVLPs (engineered virus-like particles) that can deliver CRISPR and base editing components to anywhere in the body with minimal side effects. They can also deliver therapeutic proteins to specific sites. The eVLPs have been used to restore vision in a mouse model of genetic blindness. eVLPs are safer than current gene-editing tools as they are completely engineered and carry zero viral DNA. More details about how the technology works are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Scientists Claim to Bring Dead Human Eye Cells Back to Life | Researchers from Switzerland and the US have published a study in which they woke up light-sensing cells from deceased human organ donors. The cells responded to light stimulation up to five hours after the organ donor's death. The technique could be used to reverse some types of blindness. It could also be used to extend the shelf life of donor organs. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tesla acquires ultracapacitor and battery manufacturer for over $200 million | Tesla has reached an agreement with Maxwell, an ultracapacitor and battery component manufacturer, to purchase the company for over $200 million. While Maxwell is best known for its ultracapacitor technologies, Tesla’s acquisition is more likely due to the dry electrode technology that Maxwell has been recently showing off. The dry electrode is a battery technology that is able to significantly boost storage capacity, simplify the manufacturing process, and lower production costs. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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TDengine (GitHub Repo) | TDengine is a big data platform designed for the Internet of Things (IoT), Connected Cars, Industrial IoT, and IT Infrastructure and Application Monitoring. It performs faster for less cost while providing full features without a steep learning curve. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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3D-Printed Electric Motorcycle Looks Straight Out of Blade Runner | BigRep has revealed a 3D printed electric motorcycle named the Nera E-Bike. The bike features airless tires, embedded electronics, and forkless steering. It is not intended for production. The only parts on the bike that are not 3D printed are its electronic components. BigRep manufactures large-format industrial 3D printers. Many vehicle companies across the globe are looking into large-scale 3D printing as a possible manufacturing option. Images of the motorcycle are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Introducing the Redis OM Client Libraries | Redis has announced a preview release of Redis OM: Object Mapping. It will launch with support for .NET, Node.js, Python, and Java. Redis OM allows developers to get the performance of Redis even if they don't have time to compose their own abstractions using the core data structures Redis provides. It gives developers a toolbox of high-level abstractions that make it easy to work with Redis data. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Snapchat’s Gender-Swap and Baby Filters Doubled App Downloads | Snapchat has recently released two sets of filters, one that makes users look like toddlers, and one that makes users appear as members of the opposite sex. The release of the filters resulted in an estimated 41.5 million downloads for the app worldwide in May, more than twice the amount of downloads that Snapchat received in the previous month. It is unclear how many of these downloads are new users rather than just returning old users. Snapchat has been struggling to retain its user base for several years, and it appears that the new filters have attracted more long-term users. Stock prices have risen significantly for Snapchat since its 2017 redesign disaster. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Nvidia’s latest AI software turns rough doodles into realistic landscapes | Using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) AI model, Nvidia has developed prototype software that gives users a ‘smart paintbrush’ that can turn sketches into realistic landscapes. While it is not the first of its kind, it is the most polished demonstration of the concept. A GIF and a two minute video showing the software in action is available in the article. The software demonstration is impressive, but it skips over the limitations of these AI systems, as it is geared towards painting only certain types of simple textures that the GAN has trained well on. Other, more complex textures are much tricker and the results would look a lot less impressive. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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nannou (GitHub Repo) | nannou is a collection of code designed to make it easy for artists to find tools to create simple, fast, reliable, and portable code for Rust. The project is still brand new and developers are welcome to contribute. A reference guide is available which includes installation instructions and tutorials for using nannou. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Termwind (GitHub Repo) | Termwind allows developers to build PHP command-line applications using the Tailwind CSS API. All classes use the same logic that is used in Tailwind CSS and all HTML elements have the capability to use the class attribute. A list of supported HTML elements and classes is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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I left a FAANG pre-FI for a more fulfilling job and took more than a 50% pay cut. It was not everything I expected it to be | wholeWheatButterfly had a comfortable job in a FAANG company but felt unfulfilled with the work, so they decided to leave for something more meaningful. Their Financial Independence-based mindset strongly influenced their decision-making during this process. After leaving the FAANG job for a role at a not-for-profit research center at a significant pay cut, they found that the work wasn't as fulfilling as they thought it would be. At the end of the day, a fulfilling job was still a job. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Swift: Google's bet on differentiable programming (40 minute read) | Two years ago, a team at Google started a project to make Swift the first mainstream language with first-class language-integrated differentiable programming capabilities. The project hasn't received a lot of interest as Swift is mostly unknown in the machine learning community. Swift is a better choice for machine learning as it is faster than Python and it allows for much more control while still using high-level language. While the project is not ready for general production usage, it shows that Swift could potentially become a key player in the machine learning ecosystem. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Android Developer Roadmap 2019 (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a roadmap for developers to follow if they're beginning to learn Android development in 2019. The flowchart covers all the essentials for developers, according to the Android community. This list is not comprehensive as there are too many topics to cover, so developers are encouraged to look deeper into each section on their own. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Laser Destroys Cancer Cells Circulating in the Blood | Scientists from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have developed a system that can accurately detect cancer cells in the bloodstream and destroy these cells in real time as they pass through the body. The machine could mean that doctors will eventually be able to destroy cancer cells in the bloodstream before they form new tumors in the body with a harmless, noninvasive, and thorough procedure. In the study, the machine was able to detect cancer cells in 27 out of the 28 patients, with a sensitivity that is about 1,000 times better than current technology. It works by aiming a laser at a vein, where it heats up circulating tumor cells faster than normal cells, causing them to expand quickly and die, a process which produces sound. The sound produced indicates how many cells have passed through the laser. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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I generated this set of icons in 3D style using DALL-E 2 by @OpenAI | This Twitter thread features 3D icons generated by DALL-E 2. It shows the text prompts used to generate the icons and explains how keywords were used in the prompts. While DALL-E only exports in 1024x1024px, the images would work fine as small icons on a website. | 4Miscellaneous
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Microsoft to permanently close all of its retail stores | Microsoft has announced plans to permanently close all of its store locations, except for four locations that will be 'reimagined' as experience centers that no longer sell products. No layoffs will result from the decision. Many retail store associates shifted to remote work or moved to corporate facilities after the stores closed for lockdown. Microsoft had originally planned to close its stores next year, but the pandemic has moved the schedule forward. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Sign Up for TLDR's Crypto Newsletter (Signup Form) | I am launching a new crypto newsletter on January 10th, 2022 to follow tech and innovation within the blockchain space. Please remember to hit enter after signing up, if you don't see the confirmation screen you haven't been added to the list! | 4Miscellaneous
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Proton Player (GitHub Repo) | Proton Player is an HTML5-based streaming music player designed to be used by developers to build their own music players. It is compatible across many devices and browsers. The project is backed by a paid development team with customers. A demo player is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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signald (GitHub Repo) | signald is a daemon for interacting with Signal. There are several libraries for Python and Go to make it easier to interact with signald. Multiple clients for signald are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Bring speed and scale to your security environment (Sponsor) | In Datadog's Cloud free SIEM product brief, learn how to detect and analyze security threats and deploy turnkey detection rules to protect your environment from outside attacks. Download the brief. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk: Moving to Mars will cost less than $500,000, 'maybe even below $100,000' | The cost of moving to Mars will be low enough that most people in advanced economies will be able to afford the trip if they saved for it. The return trip is free. In 2017, Elon Musk said the estimated cost-per-ton on a trip to Mars was around $140,000, but he was aiming to lower the cost to below $100,000. Future colonizers are also assured of their job security, as there will be a labor shortage on the planet for a long time while the colony is built. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Waymo, Volvo partner to develop electric robotaxis | Waymo and Volvo have announced an exclusive partnership to integrate Waymo's self-driving software into a new electric vehicle designed for ride-hailing. The new vehicle platform will be capable of Level 4 autonomy, which means it will be able to handle all driving in a specific geographic area or in certain weather and road conditions. It is unknown whether the companies will continue to work together after the vehicle has been developed, but the wording from the announcement suggests that it is likely that the companies have more planned and that a possible licensing deal is being discussed. Volvo still has an active deal with Uber to supply vehicles designed for autonomous driving. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Giant Mech Suit Off-Road Desert Testing! (11 minute video) | Furrion Exo-Bionics is a team that has built a functional giant mech suit. This video shows the team testing the suit out in the Mojave Desert. The suit is able to navigate the off-road terrain and even tow a pickup out from a ditch. | 4Miscellaneous
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TikTok launches its own AR development platform, Effect House | TikTok's augmented reality development platform, Effect House, has officially gone live. The platform allows creators to build AR effects for use in TikTok. TikTok has provided detailed documentation, templates, tutorials, and other support for building effects in Effect House. Effects are reviewed by TikTok's Trust and Safety team before they are released to the public. Links to examples of effects are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Facebook returns to its roots with Campus, a college student-only social network | Facebook Campus is Facebook's new social media networking platform that offers college students a private place to connect and get updates related to their schools. A .edu email is required to join the platform, which will live within a dedicated section of the Facebook app. Campus is Facebook's attempt at regaining the younger audience, many who have shifted their attention to other social apps. Some colleges have signed up to publish updates and news to their Facebook Campus feed. Facebook Campus will be available at around 30 colleges and universities across the US at launch. Screenshots from the platform are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Oya (GitHub Repo) | Oya allows developers to bootstrap easy to work with, deployable projects. Developers can create their own packs or browse a wide range of available packs from other projects. Confidential data can be stored via Oya secrets using PGP and other encryption methods. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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DeepMind scientists: Reinforcement learning is enough for general AI | Scientists from DeepMind have published a paper that argues that artificial general intelligence can be developed from reinforcement learning, a branch of AI that is based on reward maximization. The idea is based on how natural intelligence developed. Natural intelligence developed through billions of years of natural selection and random variation, where those that had the right traits to survive lived and passed on their attributes, and those that didn't were eliminated. That system has led to intelligence with all kinds of skills and abilities. | 4Miscellaneous
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Elon Musk to answer questions from Twitter staff this week | Elon Musk is attending an all-hands meeting at Twitter on Thursday this week. He will answer pre-submitted questions from employees during the meeting. Musk recently challenged Twitter over the number of bots on its service, so Twitter said last week that it would provide him with a firehose of internal data on bots and spam accounts. Many Twitter employees have been on edge since Musk launched his bid to buy the social media company. Musk recently told his employees to return to the office full-time, while Twitter employees are allowed to work from home or wherever they feel most productive. | 4Miscellaneous
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Lyft lays off 17 percent of its workforce, institutes pay cuts for remaining employees | Ride-sharing companies have taken a big hit to revenue in recent months. Some companies, like Uber, have been able to counter their losses through food and grocery delivery services. Lyft hasn’t adapted its business model, and now the company has announced that it will lay off 982 employees and furlough and additional 288. Those that remain at work will see sizable salary cuts for 12 weeks, with Lyft’s leadership team receiving up to 30 percent pay cuts. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Bay Area-based Air Protein makes “meat” from thin air using space-age science | Air Protein is a startup that makes a meat alternative using fermentation technology. Its technology can transform CO2 into a complete edible protein, making meat in days while using exponentially less arable land, natural resources, and with less greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional farming. The protein flour produced by the microbes can be made into a range of meatless meat products. Fermentation technology has enabled a new wave of alternative protein products. More than $1.5 billion was invested into companies making alternative protein in 2020, with at least $435 million of that just for those using fermentation. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Uber will start putting ads on top of some of its vehicles | Uber has partnered with Adomni, an ad-tech company that will start placing ads on Uber vehicles from April 1. Around 1,000 vehicles will feature rooftop ads during the initial rollout. Uber's car-top ad displays will respond to both location and time of day. Drivers in Phoenix, Dallas, and Atlanta will receive $300 to install the roof displays and an additional $100 per week if they drive more than 20 hours. It is unknown how permanent the displays will be and whether they could potentially damage the vehicle. Lyft has recently acquired Halo cars, a startup that specializes in installing rooftop ads on cars. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How Shopify’s Software Engineering Teams Run Their Meetings (Sponsor) | How Shopify’s Software Engineering Teams Run Their Meetings . Shopify's teams build great meeting habits through collaborative agendas, priority setting, and action item tracking. That’s why Shopify uses Fellow.app, the G2 top rated meeting agenda software. Fellow comes packed with customizable templates and integrates with all your tools including Slack, Jira, Trello, and more. Start making your meetings productive and delightful today with Fellow! Try it for free. | 0Sponsor
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Book Excerpt: Inside Spotify’s Ill-Fated Flirtation With TV and Hardware | A book published by Swedish journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud, 'Spotify Untold', has material from over 70 interviews conducted with former top Spotify executives and investors, record company heads, and competitors. It reveals the story of Spotify's rise from a tiny start-up to the biggest streaming music company in the world. Included in the book are stories about how Spotify considered entering into the streaming video market between 2011 to 2015, Spotify's almost acquisitions of Tidal and SoundCloud, how Microsoft, Google, and Tencent all offered to buy Spotify, and more. | 4Miscellaneous
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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. | 4Miscellaneous
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Ask HN: What do you automate in your life and work? (Hacker News Thread) | As developers, it is quite easy to write your own programs to make your life easier. It is possible to automate many areas of your life, for example, a tool such as Home Assistant can be used to send custom notifications about the state of your home, turn on/off appliances/lights at certain times of day, monitor and control temperatures, send emails, and much more. Users have automated parts of their life such as dating (automatically swiping on Tinder), entire businesses (fulfillment processes, emails, inquiries), workflows (repetitive blocks of typing, processes, etc), and even shopping for groceries. This thread is full of anecdotes on ways developers have automated parts of their lives to increase efficiency and decrease effort. | 4Miscellaneous
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Coronavirus breakthrough: dexamethasone is first drug shown to save lives | A randomized, controlled clinical trial in the United Kingdom has found that an inexpensive and commonly used steroid is effective in treating the symptoms of COVID-19. Dexamethasone cut deaths by about one-third in patients who were on ventilators due to the coronavirus. The UK government authorized the use of dexamethasone for COVID-19 treatment shortly after the results were released. Steroid treatments for the coronavirus have been controversial as the drugs suppress the immune system. The study found no outstanding adverse effects from the treatment. Dexamethasone is readily available and cheap. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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