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Genie (GitHub Repo) | Genie is a full-stack web framework for developing modern web applications. It features a powerful router, websockets, templating, plugins, ORM support, and more. Examples of packages and apps made with Genie are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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WordPressify (Github Repo) | WordPressify is a nifty boilerplate for setting up WordPress projects, with lots of goodies right out of the box like a dev server, auto-reloading, babel, and gulp. Definitely worth checking out if you're a WordPress dev. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apprise (GitHub Repo) | Apprise is a python library that allows easy sending of notifications to most major platforms (Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and more). It includes the ability to send notifications via email and other custom notifications. Users can easily code a script that updates multiple notification services simultaneously in just a few lines. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Hummingbird (GitHub Repo) | Hummingbird can convert trained traditional ML models into tensor computations. It supports a variety of tree-based classifiers and regressors, including Decision Trees, Random Forest, LightGBM, and XGBoost. With Hummingbird, users can benefit from all the current and future optimizations implemented in neural network frameworks, native hardware acceleration, and support for both traditional and neural network models, without having to re-engineer their models. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon’s new work-from-home policy: let teams decide | Amazon will let individual teams decide how often employees will need to come into the office. Team leaders will decide on what working arrangements would best serve customers. Employees will hear from their team leaders before January 3. Workers are required to be able to easily travel to the office for a meeting within a day's notice. They will be able to work up to four weeks per year fully remotely as long as they work within the country where they are employed. The change only applies to office workers. | 4Miscellaneous
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Nokia wins NASA contract to put a 4G network on the moon | Nokia has been awarded a $14.1 million contract to deploy a cellular network on the moon. The company will build a 4G/LTE network that will be eventually transitioned to 5G. NASA has said the network will extend to spacecraft. The network will be designed to withstand extreme temperatures, radiation, and the vacuum of space. It will provide more reliable communication at greater distances on the lunar surface compared to current technologies. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Spotify-owned Anchor can now turn your video chats into podcasts | Anchor is a Spotify-owned app that now allows podcasters to turn their video chats and virtual hangouts into podcast-ready audio. It works with a range of video chat platforms and will also support any .mp4 or .mov file that is uploaded to the service. Anchor allows users to split, trim, and add other edits to audio. It has a built-in library of background music, interludes, sound events, and voice recordings available for use. The service will host podcasts and distribute episodes to all major podcast platforms. | 4Miscellaneous
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Atuin (GitHub Repo) | Atuin replaces shell history with an SQLite database and records additional context for commands. It can synchronize fully encrypted shell histories between machines and calculate statistics such as 'most used command'. Atuin can run on zsh, bash, and fish. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Chinese internet users who uploaded coronavirus memories to GitHub have been arrested | The Chinese government is targeting people who were working to prevent digital records of the coronavirus outbreak from being scrubbed by censors. Volunteers behind the project were arrested and some are missing. The project collected and preserved news stories, videos, and articles that were shared on messaging apps like WeChat. One of the journalists associated with the project that had disappeared recently resurfaced. He praised the actions of the police after stating that he had been detained and placed under quarantine for disrupting public order. | 4Miscellaneous
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Controversial 'Chimera' Embryos Made by Scientists Are Part Human, Part Monkey | A study in China successfully created a chimeric combination of monkey and human cells. The study started with 132 macaque embryos injected with 25 human pluripotent stem cells each. After 10 days, 103 of the embryos were alive and still developing. However, by day 19, only three remained alive. The embryos were terminated after 19 days, in line with the experimental parameters. The experiment revealed several communication pathways that could be enhanced to increase the efficiency of chimerism in host species more evolutionarily distant to humans. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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NASA wants to buy Moon rocks from private companies | NASA is looking to buy moon rocks from companies and will pay between $15,000 to $25,000 for verified samples. The deadline for the bounty is 2024, as NASA hopes it will be sending people back to the Moon by then. While $25,000 is a low amount compared to how much it costs to obtain the material, the idea behind the offer is to make the first steps towards creating a marketplace for materials excavated off-world. Russia and China have been critical of the idea of using space resources. NASA's Artemis program aims to send humans to the surface of the Moon in a sustainable way by creating a long-term presence. It will involve making use of the resources already on the Moon. The project involves hiring private companies to develop the technologies required. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Rapper Akon kicks off construction for world's first "crypto city" | Musician and entrepreneur Akon has received official approval to build a city in Senegal. Akon City will be the world’s first crypto city. The city will have its own digital currency, Akoin. Akon is of Senegalese descent and has been planning the city for at least 18 months. He was gifted 2,000 acres of land by the President of Senegal. Akon City will be built with sustainability and the environment in mind. Akoin is expected to launch in July, but the city won't be completed for a while. Akon believes that cryptocurrency can enable Africans to become less dependent on their governments. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Arm’s New Flexible Plastic Chip Could Enable an ‘Internet of Everything’ | PlasticARM is a proof-of-concept plastic microprocessor created by Arm that is low-cost and flexible. It can manage speeds of 29 kilohertz while using 20 milliwatts of power. The chip doesn't have a reprogrammable memory, but researchers expect that to change in future versions. While the chips aren't very powerful, they are significantly cheaper, making them an attractive choice for disposable items. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Chromebooks outsold Macs worldwide in 2020, cutting into Windows market share | Chromebooks outsold Macs in 2020. Windows still retained the majority market share. The growth means that app and game developers can no longer ignore Chrome OS, and businesses should start setting aside resources to ensure that the Chrome OS experience is comparable to Windows and macOS. Chrome OS's success was largely limited to US schools before the pandemic, but it looks like demand has expanded beyond that market. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Scientists Created an Artificial Early Embryo From Human Skin Cells | Scientists from two independent teams were able to coax ordinary skin cells into becoming living clusters that resembled fertilized human eggs. The clusters did not develop further as they were only able to reach the blastocyst stage. These were the most complete replicas of early human embryos to date. The reverse-engineered cells were astonishingly similar to their natural counterparts. They still differ from natural embryos in several ways, so the scientists don't expect them to be able to grow into complete embryos. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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CSS.gg (Website) | This site contains over 700 CSS, SVG, and Figma UI icons available in SVG Sprite, styled-components, NPM, & API. The library is searchable and users can customize the size and color of the icons. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Square Inc. Co-Founder Tristan O’Tierney Dies at 35 | Tristan O’Tierney, co-founder of Square Inc passed away on February 23 after experiencing kidney failure and cardiac arrest, most likely related to his addictions. There is no official public diagnosis. O’Tierney, a former engineer at Yahoo and Apple, was hired to develop Square’s original mobile payment app in 2009, where he stayed until 2013. O’Tierney publicly announced in 2017 that he was struggling with addiction. | 4Miscellaneous
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Naked mole rats defy the biological law of aging | Naked mole rats rarely get cancer, are resistant to some types of pain, and can survive up to 18 minutes without oxygen. New research also suggests that they don't age. A study found that a naked mole rat's risk of death doesn't increase as it ages. Naked mole rats have been observed to live beyond 30 years in captivity, with females remaining fertile at that age. They have very active DNA repair and high levels of proteins that help other proteins fold correctly. Scientists will need more data in order to confirm the results of the study. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple will stop selling some iPhone models in its stores in Germany following ruling in Qualcomm patent case | Germany has granted Qualcomm an injunction against Apple in a patent case, forcing Apple to stop selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in its stores in Germany. Qualcomm was already successful in getting several iPhone models banned in China earlier this month. The iPhones will still be available through third party stores. Apple says "Qualcomm's campaign is a desperate attempt to distract from the real issues between our companies...Their tactics, in the courts and in their everyday business, are harming innovation and harming consumers. We are of course disappointed by this verdict and we plan to appeal." | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Twitch is going to fund new reality programming | Twitch is looking to fund a slate of new unscripted series to help broaden its audience in a time when its audiences are bigger than ever. The company wants live, interactive programming that airs a few times a week. It will spend between $50,000 to $250,000 a week on the project. A large part of Twitch is the interactivity with the audience. Twitch chat can get fairly chaotic, so it will be interesting to see how the format fares with unscripted TV. | 4Miscellaneous
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Machine Learning from Scratch (Book) | Machine Learning from Scratch is a book that covers the building blocks of the most common methods in machine learning. It covers the concepts, construction, and implementations of Ordinary Linear Regression, Linear Regression Extensions, Discriminative Classifiers, Generative Classifiers, Decision Trees, Tree Ensemble Methods, and Neural Networks. The book was written for readers interested in seeing machine learning algorithms derived from start to finish. It does not review best practices or discuss in depth when certain models are more appropriate than others. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A Rare Deep-Sea Fish With a Transparent Head Can See Through Its Forehead | Researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recently captured footage of the super-rare barreleye fish. These fish live thousands of feet beneath the surface and not much is known about them. Their large set of eyes are thought to be used to spot shadows of their prey above them, with the green pigment in their eyes filtering out sunlight reflecting from the ocean surface. The species has only been spotted by the team at MBARI nine times out of more than 5,600 dives. A minute-long video of the fish captured by the researchers is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tangle-free magnetic USB cables are here | Many no-name brands are now selling tangle-free magnetic USB cables on Amazon and Alibaba. The cables feature magnetic beads that allow them to coil up or be attached to metal surfaces. Unfortunately, while the design is great, the quality of the cables is not. There are still many issues with charging and data transfer to be fixed before the cables are worth using. Pictures of the cables are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Rust GPU (GitHub Repo) | Rust GPU is an attempt at making Rust a first-class language and ecosystem for building GPU code. It can currently compile and run simple shaders, but many things, such as loops and switches, aren't supported yet. An example rendering is available in the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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DFlex (GitHub Repo) | DFlex is a drag-and-drop library for all JavaScript frameworks for manipulating DOM elements. It can traverse DOM without calling the browser API, transform elements instead of reordering the DOM tree, animate movements, target DOM nodes individually, and more. DFlex is the only library on the internet so far that manipulates DOM instead of reconstructing it. A live demo is available on its website. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Google Maps takes on Facebook with launch of its own news feed | Google Maps has introduced its own news feed feature. The Community Feed can be found in the Explore tab of the app. It is designed to show the most recent news, updates, and recommendations from trusted local sources. Business owners can post deals, menu updates, and other offers onto the feed using Google My Business. The centralized feed will give businesses increased exposure when they update their information. Users can 'like' posts and follow businesses, but they cannot comment on items in the feed. The feed shows posts based on where you are looking on the map. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020? (Hacker News Thread) | The new decade is coming up, and people are starting to make lists for what to accomplish for next year. This thread is full of book recommendations. Most discussion is around books that help optimize people's lives. Some technical books are listed. Discussion around engineering topics is mostly around managing work/life balance and also making sure that one chooses a small, concise, and clear set of sources rather than reading widely. | 4Miscellaneous
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Strange life forms found deep in a mine point to vast 'underground Galapagos' | Organisms have been discovered 7,900 feet below the surface inside Canada's Kidd Mine. The dark waters in the mine contain single-celled organisms that breathe sulfur and live off pyrite, also known as fool's gold. Other organisms have been discovered in deep areas, including boreholes, volcanic vents on the bottom of the ocean, and in sediments far beneath the seafloor. These areas have no light, air, or any connection to the surface, and may help us understand how life started on our planet, as well as on other planets. Some of these organisms are able to live in temperatures well above the boiling point of water, and others can withstand pressures 20,000 times higher than the air pressure at sea level. Due to these conditions, the organisms' cellular metabolism can be different from that of those on the surface, with some organisms surviving for thousands of years or more without dividing. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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There's Now an Artificial Cartilage Gel Strong Enough to Work in Knees | Researchers from Duke University have developed a material that matches the properties of the cartilage found in our bodies. There are over 790,000 knee replacements a year in the US. The new hydrogel could mean that doctors can replace worn-out or damaged cartilage instead of replacing an entire knee joint. Tests showed that the hydrogel was just as resistant to wear and tear as real cartilage and more durable than the artificial cartilage that is used today. It could take up to three years before the new hydrogel is approved for use in humans. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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'Care robots' for the elderly could be developed in the UK after government funding | The UK government has backed a scheme that will research how to make autonomous systems safe and trustworthy for public use. The research program will last five years and cost $43.54 million. It is hoped that care robots can be developed to be used in places such as hospitals and care homes alongside human professionals, performing tasks such as helping people up after a fall, making sure medication is taken, and delivering meals. Research will be carried out to make sure the robots are protected against cyber-attacks and able to demonstrate traits such as respect, equality, and fairness. Other sectors where a lack of public trust is a key challenge may also benefit from the deployment of robots. Assistive robots can enable people to maintain their independence for as long as possible. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Editor.js (GitHub Repo) | Editor.js is a Block Style editor. It uses plugins to enrich features and users can easily create their own plugins. There are many built-in keyboard shortcuts and custom shortcuts can be added. Examples of how to use Editor.js are available on the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why? (Hacker News Thread) | This thread is about the career paths of engineers who left Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google. A lot of interesting stories, perspectives on what's importance in ones career, and advice for finding a job that fits you. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple Silicon M1: Black. Magic. Fuckery. (23 minute read) | User reviews of the new Apple Silicon M1 have appeared on Reddit. The M1 SoC integrates an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, Media encode and decode engines, and RAM, all on a single-chip. As the new chip is much more energy-efficient compared to its Intel counterparts, battery life has increased. The MacBook Air is even shipping without a fan, as it can be passively cooled like all iOS devices. Rosetta 2 is performing much better than expected, ranging at speeds between 70-80% of native code. This has resulted in overwhelmingly positive reviews, some which can be read in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Taking a Fall: The 120-MPH, 35,000 Feet, 3-Minutes-To-Impact Survival Guide | This article talks about how to survive falling from a plane. If you are falling from a plane, it's best to fall with the plane as you'll have a semi-protective cocoon to protect you, which is better than nothing at all. Otherwise, you should find a good place to land. Look for somewhere soft, and try to avoid water. The article is full of stories of people who have survived falling from planes. | 4Miscellaneous
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Web Animation Performance Fundamentals – How to Make Your Pages Look Smooth (16 minute read) | Web pages are interactive animations played back by the web browser. Every movement, including scrolling, zooming, text selection, and hovering over a button is technically an animation. This guide explains how browsers turn code into pixels and how to work with them to make pages look smoother. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Bricks Alive! Scientists Create Living Concrete | A team of researchers at the University of Colorado has developed a kind of concrete that is alive and can reproduce. The minerals in the new concrete are deposited by cyanobacteria, a type of bacteria that can capture energy through photosynthesis. Regular concrete releases a lot of carbon dioxide, but the new concrete is able to absorb the greenhouse gas. The presence of the bacteria gives the concrete a green color, which fades as the material dries. Early attempts at getting the bacteria to create concrete were slow. The scientists discovered that the bacteria could be grown on gelatin, resulting in concrete blocks quickly forming in the shape of whatever mold was used. They remain alive even after a few weeks. A block can be used to spawn more generations of blocks. The bacteria is not picky about the type of sand used, and it can digest waste materials like ground glass or recycled concrete. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Step-by-step guide to modern & secure CI setup | It is important to deliver changes as fast as possible in modern application development. Secure continuous integration can be achieved using DroneCI, GitHub, and Slack. Drone requires a VPS with SSH access and a public IP. It is possible to set up a simple web app for free using a Amazon Cloud VPS service. Step by step instructions are provided. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Announcing Flutter for Windows | Flutter is a cross-platform platform that compiles apps that take full advantage of hardware graphics into machine code. Windows support is now available. The Windows version can work with Windows modalities for internationalization and communicate with the Win32, COM, and Windows Runtime APIs. Several common plugins have been adapted to include Windows support, and community packages that add support for various Windows features are available. More details about Flutter Windows support, along with screenshots of Windows apps built with Flutter, are available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Blobs App (GitHub Repo) | Blobs App is an easy way to generate blob shapes and export the SVG or Flutter code. Users can choose the color, outline, and the randomness and complexity of the shape of the blob. A link to the web app is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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The Horrifically Dystopian World of Software Engineering Interviews (12 minute read) | After receiving an offer for a phone interview from a giant search and advertising company, Jared Nelson quickly found that the interview experience was not what he expected. Nelson found that the interviewer did not know he didn't have experience with microservices, a prerequisite for the position he was applying for. A few other reasons the interview did not go well included Nelson not being enough of a team player, not understanding algorithms deeply enough (even though good knowledge might not make you a better programmer), and the work culture of measuring people's attributes rather than getting to know who they are. Despite knowing how to code, Nelson didn't know how to play the corporate game and this caused him to fail in his interview for his dream job. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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YouTube reportedly discouraged employees from reporting fake, toxic videos | Company executives at YouTube care more about increasing views than the type of content that is being viewed, according to many employees. Employees have been suggesting solutions to moderate or remove certain types of content for years, but the company was more interested in reaching its goal of 1 billion hours of views per day. YouTube discouraged employees outside their small moderation team searching for videos with questionable content, as their liability would have increased if there was proof that staff was aware of these videos’ existence on the platform. At least 5 senior employees have left the company due to this issue. YouTube finally started taking action on this issue in late 2016 and started demonetizing some videos in 2017. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Russian Scientists Are Probing Prehistoric Viruses Emerging From Siberian Permafrost | A Russian state laboratory is researching prehistoric viruses by analyzing the remains of animals recovered from melted permafrost. The project aims to identify paleo viruses and research virus evolution. Research has already been conducted on the recovered animals but it focused on bacteria. The Arctic is warming up twice as fast as the global average, releasing carbon stored in the melting permafrost. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The UN just unveiled a design for a new floating city that can withstand Category 5 hurricanes | The UN has unveiled a design for a floating city that can withstand natural disasters. It consists of connected hexagonal platforms, each housing 300 residents, that connect into bigger villages with around 10,000 residents, an ideal number for each village to achieve full autonomy. There will be no cars, and rubbish will be collected through pneumatic tubes and sent directly to a sorting facility to be repurposed. Food will be obtained through ocean farming and the goal is for the cities to be completely self-sufficient. While the cities will be floating, they will still be moored to the ocean floor. The designers recognize that most people will continue to live on land, but the concept of living on the ocean will still appeal to many. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Quickwit (GitHub Repo) | Quickwit is a distributed search engine designed to index big datasets. It was built for cost-efficiency and high reliability. Quickwit features a simple CLI, local and remote indexes, stateless instances, full-text search, native support for time partitioning, and more. Tutorials on how to use Quickwit are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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electron-extensions (GitHub Repo) | electron-extensions allows users to use Chrome extensions APIs with Electron. All that is required to use the library is to insert a short snippet of code into the main process. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk: Starlink 2.0 will be 'almost an order of magnitude more capable' | The next generation of Starlink satellites will be four times heavier than the current model, weighing in at roughly 1.25 tons. Elon Musk says that they will be almost an order of magnitude more capable than Starlink 1 satellites, but did not specify whether he was referring to bandwidth or throughput. SpaceX has sent more than 2,000 Starlink satellites into orbit so far, and more than 1,600 of those are still operational. Launching the next-gen satellites will likely require Starship, which is estimated to be able to lift payloads of 150 tons to low-earth orbit. Starship's maiden launch could happen this summer. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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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. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A case against security nihilism | NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware has been used to target journalists and members of various nations' political opposition parties. Deploying the tool is expensive, and fighting attackers with these levels of resources can be difficult. Apple and Google can raise both the cost and risk of exploitation by improving software security. It is impossible to stop all attacks, but making them expensive and difficult will stop countries with fewer resources from launching exploits. | 4Miscellaneous
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Bpytop (Github Repo) | Bpytop is a resource monitor for Linux/OSX/FreeBSD that shows usage and stats for processor, memory, disk, network, and processes. It has a game inspired menu system, full mouse support, the ability to show detailed stats for selected processes, and more. All bashtop themes are supported. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Solar Power Beamed Down To Earth From Space Moves Forward | The US Air Force is researching a technology that can harvest solar energy in space and then beam it down when required. Space-based solar power can reduce infrastructure costs and it also doesn't take up as much valuable land as other methods. The technology is available, with satellites expecting to launch in 2024. As the cost of Earth-bound solar power continues to drop, the need for space solar power isn't urgent. This research could result in technology that benefits many people, similar to GPS. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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git-fuzzy (GitHub Repo) | git-fuzzy is a CLI interface that allows developers to interact with GitHub. Users can interact with stage and unstaged changes, search for, checkout, and look at branches, interact with pull requests, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Ex-Facebook engineer posts YouTube videos mocking the culture and joking about how he was fired | Former Facebook software engineer Patrick Shyu runs a YouTube channel called TechLead which has over 500,000 subscribers. He has posted six videos making fun of Facebook since he was dismissed on August 26. In these videos, he criticizes the work culture, calling it a popularity contest where ideas and projects are driven by likes and comments rather than logic. Shyu had been working at Facebook since May 2018 and had previously worked at Google for four years. He currently makes well over $500,000 through his YouTube videos. | 4Miscellaneous
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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. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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DigitalOcean Kubernetes (Product) | DigitalOcean Kubernetes is now generally available! Basically it's a managed Kubernetes cluster that is easy to set up. It's already integrated with their load balancers and block storage, the pricing is the same as their current Droplets, and manager nodes are free! | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Amazon is looking into tech that can identify you using the veins in your hand | Amazon has filed a patent for a technology that scans the wrinkles and blood vessels in your hand so they can be used as identification at Amazon Go stores. People will only need to hover their hands over an infrared light scanner in order for their details to be captured. The technology can be used as identification to enter secure areas, or as a way to link an identity to an associated account. Internal hand scanning is supposed to be more reliable than using a credit card. If this technology is deployed, Amazon will be able to capture even more data. The use of this technology raises questions about the safety of using biodata as it cannot be changed. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine shows positive results, moves to larger studies | Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based vaccine manufacturer has completed phase 1 clinical trials on a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with encouraging early results. The trial had 45 participants, eight who developed neutralizing antibodies at levels seen in patients who had recovered from COVID-19. Phase 1 trials are designed to evaluate the safety of a drug rather than to measure its effectiveness. The only side effect of the vaccine was a redness in the area where the person was injected. Antibodies that the patients developed were effective at limiting viral replication in the lab. Moderna is using a messenger RNA vaccine approach that has never been marketed in the USA. Phase 2 trials are now underway and Moderna expects to begin a phase 3 clinical trial as early as July. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Amazon to pay $1 billion+ for self-driving tech firm Zoox | Amazon is set to announce a deal to purchase Zoox for upwards of $1 billion. Self-driving technology is important to Amazon as it could potentially lower the costs of delivering goods to customers. Zoox aims to develop a fully integrated vehicle, not just core autonomous technology. Developing a car costs billions of dollars, and Zoox will require a lot more funding if it wants to continue on its mission. Amazon's plans for Zoox's technology are still unclear. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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A two-legged delivery robot has gone on sale—and Ford is the first customer | Agility Robotics has made its two-legged robot, Digit, available for sale, and its first customer is Ford. Ford has been testing the robot for vehicle-to-door delivery since May 2019. Digit is able to carry items weighing up to 40 pounds and can navigate semi-autonomously. It requires some guidance to avoid obstacles. The specific price for each unit has not been released to the public, but it is in the low-mid six figures. Agility expects to be making a maximum of 30 bots in 2020. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google announces a new $999 Glass augmented reality headset | Google has announced a new Glass augmented reality headset that is targeted at enterprise users. The $999 headset is now classified by Google as an official product rather than an experiment. It has a new processor, an improved camera, a USB-C port, and advanced machine learning capabilities. Google has partnered with Smith Optics to produce a safety frame for the Glass. While it was originally built for consumers, pushback due to privacy concerns made Google change its strategy and start marketing the device to businesses only. Google boasts that businesses have reported faster production times, improved quality, and reduced costs by using Glass. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Why we should fear a cashless world | Health food chain Tossed has just opened the UK's first cashless cafe, another step towards the death of cash, an alarming trend. A cashless society would make every payment traceable, allowing for unprecedented control by financial institutions and governments over the lives of citizens. In addition, it is primarily the poor who have been locked out of our financial system, how can those too poor to open a bank account or get a credit card even operate in a cashless society? Going cashless has the potential to further trap the poor in an endless cycle of poverty. Cash means total financial inclusion, something the well off too often take for granted. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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PayPal withdraws from Facebook’s libra cryptocurrency | PayPal announced on Friday that it will withdraw from Facebook's Libra Association in order to focus on its existing mission to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations. When Libra was announced in June, many global regulators, lawmakers, and industry insiders questioned Facebook's motives and had concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, and financial stability. Facebook will not have unilateral control of Libra. The Libra Association, which is made up of 28 corporate backers, will help govern the cryptocurrency. Other financial partners such a Visa and Mastercard may be reconsidering involvement with Libra following backlash from government officials. Lawmakers in the House Financial Services Committee are looking to bring Facebook's top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to testify on Libra. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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New iodine-based plasma thruster tested in orbit | A commercial company called ThrustMe has demonstrated an iodine-powered ion thruster in space for the first time. The thruster is about the size of a 10-square-centimeter cube and weighs 1.2 kilograms. It takes around 10 minutes to warm up and it only outputs about 0.8 milliNewtons, but it is powerful enough to move small satellites around in orbit. ThrustMe has had the hardware on a 12-unit cubesat for around two years, using the thrusters multiple times to avoid potential collisions. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The Galaxy Fold goes on sale again in the US on September 27th | Samsung will be re-releasing its Galaxy Fold device in the US on September 27th. Both an AT&T version and a standard unlocked version will be available at select AT&T, Best Buy, and Samsung Experience stores. It should be available to order online. The Galaxy Fold has been redesigned to be more durable than the first version, but tests have shown that it is still easy to make permanent marks on the screen and get grit inside the hinge mechanism. Customers who buy a Galaxy Fold can opt for an in-person setup session with a Samsung expert. They will also have direct access to Fold-specific support via an app, online, or through phone support. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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MailtoUI (Website) | MailtoUI is a simple JavaScript library that creates an enhanced mailto link with a convenient user interface. Users who click on a mailto link are presented with a choice of using a web email client, a local email app, or to copy the email to clipboard. The UI is completely customizable. MailtoUI requires no dependencies and works across virtually all devices and modern browsers for desktop or mobile. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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eKill (Open Source Chrome Extension) | This is an open source Chrome extension that will let you easily get rid of annoying elements on any web page (things like pop ups, those "this site uses cookies" notices, and things like that). Pretty nifty. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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World's Largest All-Electric Airplane Flies for Historic 30 Minutes | magniX is an air travel startup made up of members from companies like Airbus, Boeing, Google-X, SpaceX, and Tesla. It recently flew an all-electric Cessna 208 aircraft for 30 minutes over Moses Lake in Washington. The aircraft has a battery-powered electric engine and can carry up to nine passengers. magniX estimates that the cost to run a retrofitted electric fleet could be as much as 50 percent less than using conventional fuel aircraft. Retrofitted aircraft have a range of about 100 miles, while specially designed electric aircraft will have a range that could be up to five times that. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Disney Crushes Own Global Box Office Record With Historic $10 Billion | Disney has become the first studio to surpass $10 billion at the worldwide box office. It crossed $3.28 billion in North America and $6.7 billion overseas over the weekend. These numbers don't include Fox titles, which if included, would push the record up to $11.9 billion. Disney established a new record in August for having five movies cross $1 billion in a single year. Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could potentially put that number to seven movies for the year. Disney currently holds six of the 10 biggest movies of the year globally, including Avengers: Endgame, the highest-grossing film of all time. | 4Miscellaneous
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Silicon-based qubits take a big leap forward | To make quantum computing more practical will require many more qubits. Several researchers recently announced three types of high-quality qubits produced in silicon, a highly-scalable technology. The approaches will allow for many qubits to be fitted on a single silicon chip. Silicon qubits have always been error-prone, but the new approaches manage to produce gates with a fidelity rate well above the threshold needed for error correction. This article looks at the new studies and discusses the state of each project. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple trolled Google with a massive billboard at the world's biggest tech show, which it's not even attending | Google took out an ad on the Vegas monorail system for the CES conference advertising Google Assistant. Apple took out a gigantic ad on the side of a hotel right next to the monorail that says "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone" with a link to Apple's privacy page. | 4Miscellaneous
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America’s first CRISPR trial is still nearly 100% effective 3 years on | Follow-up results from one of the longest-running human trials using CRISPR technology suggest that the treatment is both safe and effective up to three years after treatment. The trial, which started in 2019, focused on treating two rare blood diseases. It demonstrated 100% success. The treatment has been given a Fast Track designation by the FDA and could be authorized for public use in early 2023. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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West Virginia will allow “blockchain voting” in the 2020 election. That’s a risky idea. | Military voters from West Virginia stationed overseas will be able to use a mobile app to vote during the 2020 elections. Voatz is an app that uses a private blockchain to guarantee the integrity of votes, but experts are unsure about the security of the system. Some states currently allow military voters to vote via email. West Virginia has already tested the system during the midterms last year and saw a good response rate. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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python-ds (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains questions and resources regarding data structures and algorithms in Python. The goal of the repository is to help developers prepare for interviews and to increase knowledge. It is still being developed, and contributions are welcome. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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These are the 20 most common passwords leaked on the dark web — make sure none of them are yours | Cybersecurity experts say that the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict could result in an increase in cyberattacks around the world. Choosing a strong password helps prevent hackers from accessing online accounts. It is recommended that people use passwords with uncommon characters that are longer than the minimum length required. A different password should be used for every account. A list of the 20 most commonly leaked passwords is available. | 4Miscellaneous
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China to build the world’s biggest dam on sacred Tibetan river | China plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo as part of its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The Yarlung Tsangpo is the world's highest river, providing drinking water to an estimated 1.8 billion people in multiple countries. Its height makes it ideal for collecting hydroelectric power. The project will likely have many political and environmental consequences. China says it will continue to maintain communication with India and Bangladesh through existing channels. The lack of cooperation for operating dams has directly contributed to the collapse of the ecosystem and destruction of communities in the region. | 4Miscellaneous
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The English Language Wikipedia Just Had Its Billionth Edit | Wikipedia had its billionth edit on January 12. The edit was made by a prolific Wikipedian who has over 3.9 million edits, the highest edit count held by a human. It was based on an article about Death Breathing, a noise album released in 1998. The announcement doesn't take into account the edits made in the early years of Wikipedia before it migrated to its own servers and software. | 4Miscellaneous
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DuckDuckGo Taps Apple Maps to Power Private Search Results | Privacy-conscious search engine DuckDuckGo is now partnering with Apple Maps for map and address related searches for DuckDuckGo on mobile and desktop. Apple Maps does not require DuckDuckGo to send any IP address information to Apple, and DuckDuckGo immediately discards approximate location information necessary for local searches immediately after the search. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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AI deepfakes are now as simple as typing whatever you want your subject to say | Students at Stanford University used a combination of techniques to create software that allows users to edit a text transcript of a video to generate realistic deepfake edits. The software matches the sounds made by the actor in the video with facial expressions, and this information is used to create a 3D model of the lower half of the face. The software then changes the 3D model of the face based on the edited text transcript and then pastes it into the target video. Changes in expression, emotional content, and visual interruptions, such as a hand obstructing a clear view of the face, heavily affect the believability of the deepfakes. The development of this software is an indicator that deepfake technology is becoming increasingly accessible. Deepfakes could significantly impact our ability to trust the media we see. A nine minute video is available that demonstrates and explains the software. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tesla launches new Supercharger with 1,000 mph charging, better efficiency, and more | The new Supercharger V3 is launching in Fremont today with 250 kW charging and better efficiency. The benefits are available to Model 3 owners after a software update. The Model S and Model X will be supported in the future, but there have been no announcements about the timeframe. Along with the ability to charge at a rate of 1,000 mph, the new update will also grant the Model 3 the ability to pre-heat the car battery prior to charging, allowing for an average reduction of charge times by 25%. Using liquid cooled charging cables, the Supercharger V3 will have a 1 MW power cabinet, which is able to charge vehicles independently without power share between stalls. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Practical AI (Github Repo) | This is a cool Github repo by an Apple AI researcher that contains IPython notebooks that walk you through everything you need to know about AI, starting with "What's a notebook?" all the way through implementing computer vision algorithms. The repo isn't finished yet, it looks like he's still working on some of the more advanced topics like building recommendation systems, but what he has so far is really awesome and he's been updating it pretty much daily. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Privacy Tool 'Cloaks' Faces to Trick Facial Recognition Software | The Fawkes tool was developed to cloak images from facial recognition systems. It does this by making almost imperceptible alterations to images so that they are no longer recognizable to facial recognition software. The images look the same to casual observers, but tests have found that it has a 100% success rate in blocking facial recognition from the most advanced facial recognition services. Users can use the software to corrupt unauthorized models so that they learn the wrong thing about their faces. Images comparing the cloaked faces with the original faces, as well as a link to the Fawkes software, are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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This ailing scientist is trying to save his life by becoming world's first full-fledged cyborg | Peter Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in 2017. Since then, Scott-Morgan has embarked on a mission to become a cyborg, developing an exoskeleton that he hopes will eventually be able to give him superhuman strength and the ability to communicate while being paralyzed. People with MND eventually become locked inside their bodies, with fully alert minds but unable to move. Scott-Morgan has undergone several surgeries already, including a series of surgeries to reconfigure his digestive system to make the MND more manageable. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The AI Girlfriend Seducing China’s Lonely Men (11 minute read) | Xiaoice is an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot first developed by Microsoft researchers in 2014. It appears as an 18-year-old who flirts, jokes, and sexts with her human partners. Xiaoice's algorithm tries to work out how to become the perfect companion. The company uses its algorithms to provide financial analysis, content production, and virtual assistants. Critics are concerned that the AI's growing influence is creating serious ethical and privacy risks. The bot has had several scandals, sometimes discussing topics deemed unacceptable by China's media regulators, resulting in the creators working on an enormous filter system to prevent the bot from touching on certain subjects. Xiaoice follows strict data protection guidelines to prevent individuals' privacy. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The Modern JavaScript Tutorial (Website) | This site contains a JavaScript course that covers the basics through to advanced topics. The main course covers JavaScript as a programming language and working with a browser. There are additional articles that cover extra topics such as network requests, animation, web components, regular expressions, and more. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A Former Facebook VP Thinks Investing in Humans Is the Future of VC (10 minute read) | Slow Ventures is a startup that invests in people. It offers creators a deal where the creator gets a large payout upfront to do whatever they want with, and the firm gets 5% of the creator's earnings for 30 years. The firm's plan could help it find the next Jeff Bezos before they get rich. Creators only start paying back investors once they make over a certain amount. Investing directly in humans brings about a host of legal, ethical, and moral questions, but the founders see it as a way to provide people with the money to fund a path to success that doesn't exist today. | 4Miscellaneous
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Signal adds a face blurring tool its secure messaging app | Signal is rolling out a face blurring feature to help its users stay anonymous. The feature can be accessed through a new button in the app's image editor. Users will also be able to manually blur out other areas of the image. All images are processed locally on users' devices. Signal has seen a recent spike in use and the company is trying to figure out additional ways to support its users. | 4Miscellaneous
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Facebook exposed up to 6.8 million users' private photos to developers in latest leak | Facebook accidentally exposed the private photos of 6.8 million users to 1500 apps using their API between the dates of September 12th to September 25th. Users affected by the breach should get a notification telling them that their data has been breached. They are working with the developers to get these photos removed. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Cheatsheets (GitHub Repo) | This is a handy collection of 1-page cheatsheets for Modern HTML/CSS, CLI (Bash & Git), Python, Javascript for people who know Python, Python for people who know Javascript, and React/Redux/React Router. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Meet Starlab: Private space station planned to fly in 2027 | Nanoracks, Voyager Space, and Lockheed Martin are planning to build a free-flying private space station in low Earth orbit by 2027. Starlab will be a tourist destination as well as a research and manufacturing hub. It will feature a habitat module with 12,000 cubic feet of internal volume, a power and propulsion element, a laboratory setup, and a large external robotic arm to service payloads and cargo. NASA wants commercial stations to pick up the slack from the ISS as the outpost is due to be retired near the end of the decade. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Toxiproxy (GitHub Repo) | Toxiproxy is a framework for simulating network conditions. It was designed for testing and can be used to prove that an app doesn't have any single point of failure. Toxiproxy has been used in all development and test environments at Shopify since 2014. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Hubble (GitHub Repo) | Hubble is a fully distributed networking and security observability platform for cloud-native workloads. It can map service dependencies and communications and monitor networks, applications, and security. Hubble was created to make the best use of Linux's new eBPF abilities. It is still in beta. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Reading, Writing, and Online Bots: School Reopenings Stymie Teens' Reseller Gigs | School reopenings have disrupted the business of teenagers who spent the pandemic scalping products for hefty profits. These teens would regularly buy video game consoles and graphics cards with automated bots, making an average of $10,000 to $12,500 a month. Now that they are back in school, their computer use is monitored and restricted. User activity has decreased in online reseller groups since schools reopened in August and September. Bot sellers anticipate that activity will rise again once the holiday shopping season begins. | 4Miscellaneous
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Tesla shows how it’s building ventilators with car parts | Tesla and other car manufacturers are building ventilators for the COVID-19 crisis. Ford is working with GE to build ventilators, respirators, and face shields, and GM is building ventilators and will soon be able to produce 50,000 face masks a day. A four-minute video is available that shows how Tesla is building its ventilators. Ventilators are being built using available car parts. Automotive companies stockpile parts in order to prevent shortages in their production lines, so they currently have a large supply of available materials. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Let's build a Full-Text Search engine (10 minute read) | Full-Text Search is a technique for searching text in a collection of documents. This article walks the reader through the process of building a full-text search engine, from building a basic loop to converting lists to tokens, creating indexes, etc. The full source code is linked at the end of the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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It’s hard to believe Samsung’s new, matte The Frame is actually a TV | Samsung has introduced a matte version of its The Frame TV. The display makes artwork look almost like it is on canvas. The Frame comes in sizes ranging from 43 to 85 inches. All displays feature a 4K resolution and displays over 55 inches will have a 120Hz refresh rate. Pictures of the new matte The Frame display are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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China Wants to Test All 11 Million Wuhan Residents for Coronavirus—in 10 Days | In anticipation of a second wave of coronavirus cases, China has announced plans to rapidly test all 11 million residents of Wuhan in just 10 days. A small cluster outbreak of six cases was reported over the weekend, after a month without new infections. All six patients come from the same residential compound. Five of them are asymptomatic. The tests are free and the residents report that they seem to be voluntary. The program will cost the city an estimated 1 billion yuan (~$141 million). | 4Miscellaneous
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Yelp lays off 1,000 employees and furloughs 1,100 more | Yelp has laid off 1,000 employees in order to cut expenses. An additional 1,100 employees are on unpaid leave until further notice. Yelp had considered cutting costs in different ways, including reducing server costs and deprioritizing projects. Its executives had already accepted 20-30% pay cuts. The business is based on recommending the best local businesses, but most businesses are now closed. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The CEO of The Gates Foundation says we're approaching a dangerous tipping point in global poverty. We still have time to reverse it. | Since the Gates Foundation started in 2000, over a billion people have escaped the "extreme poverty" income bracket to live on more than $1.90 a day. However, the foundation is now warning that the progress of the past few decades could crash to a halt if more isn't done to help people stay in school and get enough to eat. While poverty in China and India is plummeting, poverty in sub-Saharan African countries is still creeping upward, and could skyrocket if current trends continue. The key to preventing this is helping women in those countries, who on average have 0.7 more children than they would like. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation, says "The worry, the peril is that more babies are being born in the places where it's hardest to live a healthy, productive life. By 2050, 86% of the world's extreme poor would be in sub-Saharan Africa." There are three keys to helping women in these countries: education (waiting to finish school before having a baby can have positive effects on the entire family that last decades), better farming economics (instead of subsistence farming where a family relies on their own farm for food, they should begin to specialize in a single crop, sell it at market prices, and use trade to acquire food for their families), and contraception. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Luminary has launched. Is the latest “Netflix for podcasts” worth it? | Luminary, a new platform for podcasts that offers its own original content, has launched at $7.99 a month. Apple Podcasts has been losing market share in the podcast space as more companies move in. While Luminary offers access to hundreds of existing shows, some popular shows such as ‘The Daily’ and ‘Reply All’ will not be available on the platform. The article contains reviews on five of the exclusive shows that Luminary has produced. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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OpenAI unveils model that can summarize books of any length | OpenAI has developed an AI model that can summarize books of arbitrary length. It works by summarizing small sections of each book and then repeating the process to create higher-level summaries. The model was trained with a combination of reinforcement learning and recursive task decomposition. While the model successfully generated summaries containing much of the important information in each book, some statements were inaccurate due to a lack of context, and the summaries often read more like a list of events rather than a coherent summary. OpenAI has not released the source code or training dataset for the model. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Why senior engineers get nothing done | The life of a new team member and the life of a senior engineer can be very different. Newer team members tend to code for longer and attend fewer meetings than senior engineers | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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