The Daily Index — Tuesday, July 4, 2023 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

BOOKTOK CAN MAKE BESTSELLERS. SO BYTEDANCE IS BECOMING A PUBLISHER.

BookTok has helped catapult numerous titles to bestseller lists and has become a regular topic in quarterly earnings calls at book retailers. ByteDance has begun soliciting authors to publish their books with its recently launched publishing house, 8th Note Press. The company's trademark filing for '8th Note Press' describes it as an ecosystem where people can find, buy, read, review, and discuss books. 8th Note Press reportedly plans to focus on digital publishing with limited print-on-demand runs.

tubefilter.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

INSIGHTS FROM GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS

OpenAI discusses the insights gained from their global conversations initiative, which aimed to gather public input on AI-related topics.

openai.com · 5 min

TLDR Web Dev

CSS: THE GOOD PARTS

This article lays out a comprehensive overview of the evolution of CSS, from basic selectors to complex animations and transitions. It also discusses the shift from table-based layouts to responsive designs using flexbox and grid. The article concludes by highlighting exciting upcoming features in CSS, emphasizing the importance of staying updated with these developments.

builder.io · 13 min

TLDR Crypto

HONG KONG STACKS WEB3 TASK FORCE WITH TOP FINANCE REGULATORS

Hong Kong has launched a dedicated task force for web3, another step in its decision to embrace crypto companies and blockchain tech. Led by Financial Secretary Paul Chan, the 15-member team includes professionals from various sectors, such as university professors, government officials, and financial regulators. Financial Secretary Chan highlighted the potential for blockchain tech to drive innovation across multiple sectors.

blockworks.co · 2 min

TLDR

A FUTURE EXTERNAL MAC MONITOR WILL HAVE AN ALWAYS-ON DISPLAY

Apple reportedly plans to introduce an external Mac monitor that can act as a smart home display when the Mac is in sleep mode or shut down. The feature will be available on at least one monitor in an upcoming lineup. The upcoming display could potentially run on the iPhone 14 Pro's A16 chip. Apple is switching the AirPods charging case to USB-C this fall.

arstechnica.com · 2 min

TLDR

WHY TRANSFORMATIVE AI IS REALLY, REALLY HARD TO ACHIEVE

While humans have a good track record of innovation, the trend growth rate of GDP per capita has never exceeded three percent per year. There has yet to be a technology that breaks the three percent threshold. Only strong evidence should cause us to expect anything different. AI is likely transformative in the same way that the internet was, but it has many hurdles in the way to the accelerating growth rates predicted by some.

zhengdongwang.com · 21 min

TLDR

AT LAST, SINGLE-PHOTON CAMERAS COULD PEER INTO YOUR BRAIN

Superconductor-based cameras have remained confined to the laboratory over the past two decades due to the inability to scale them past a few pixels. A team at the National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST) has created a 0.4-megapixel single-photon camera that could transition superconductor-based cameras from a lab curiosity to an industrial technology. The technology could be used for space imaging, measuring light in photonic quantum computers, and looking into the brain with noninvasive light-based techniques. The team at NIST is now working closely with several bioimaging groups to adapt the device to various applications.

spectrum.ieee.org · 3 min

TLDR

A DEEP DIVE INTO SVG PATH COMMANDS

SVG icons are usually made up of a bunch of path elements, each with a cryptic d attribute. Understanding the d attribute's inner workings allows developers to make better SVGs, even animations. This guide is an interactive deep dive into the d attribute. It covers different types of path commands and how to use them to draw various icons.

nan.fyi · 2 min

TLDR

AI AND THE AUTOMATION OF WORK

While pretty much everyone in tech agrees that generative AI is a generational change in what we can do with software, there isn't much agreement on anything else about the technology. Every time humans invent a new wave of automation, whole classes of jobs go away, but new ones are created. Over time, the number of total jobs doesn't go down and everyone becomes more prosperous. Right now, we can see which jobs will be going away but we can't predict what the new jobs will be. This article looks at different paradigm-breaking technologies in the past and tries to imagine how AI will change work in the future.

ben-evans.com · 13 min