The Daily Index — Friday, November 3, 2023 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

MINT IS SHUTTING DOWN, AND IT’S PUSHING USERS TOWARD CREDIT KARMA

Intuit's budgeting app Mint is shutting down. Mint will be absorbed into Intuit's Credit Karma on January 1. It is unclear whether Credit Karma will receive the budgeting features Mint is known for. Mint offered a free way for users to track their budgets, manage expenses, negotiate bills, and keep tabs on subscriptions. Credit Karma offers similar features, but it doesn't have the same budget tracking tool.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

META’S AI RESEARCH HEAD WANTS OPEN SOURCE LICENSING TO CHANGE

Meta's Llama 2, touted as open-source, faces scrutiny due to its limited license not meeting all Open Source Initiative requirements. Despite this, Meta's VP for AI research, Joelle Pineau, emphasizes the balance between information-sharing and business costs, aiming for collaborative innovation akin to its previous open-source project PyTorch.

theverge.com · 4 min

TLDR Web Dev

* Detailed definitions for each of the 4 DORA metrics

* Ways to improve your engineering team’s performance on each metric * Using tools like Pluralsight Flow [5] to create more frequent and consistent releases, reduce mistakes and testing time, and get updates to end users faster.

pluralsight.com

TLDR InfoSec

RESEARCHERS FIND 34 WINDOWS DRIVERS VULNERABLE TO FULL DEVICE TAKEOVER

Researchers at VMware Carbon Black have discovered that 34 Windows Driver Model (WDM) and Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF) drivers are vulnerable to exploitation by non-privileged actors who could gain full control of the devices and execute arbitrary code. The technique has been employed by various adversaries, including the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group.

thehackernews.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

PAYPAL RECEIVES SEC SUBPOENA OVER STABLECOIN

PayPal is cooperating with a subpoena from the SEC seeking documents following the August launch of its stablecoin. The stablecoin, which PayPal says is backed by a dollar reserve, has caused concern among some US lawmakers who believe it needs more federal regulation. Stablecoins have been in the crosshairs of regulators lately as the House Financial Services Committee recently passed a bipartisan bill aiming to provide regulatory clarity for this technology.

blockworks.co · 3 min

TLDR

ELON MUSK SAYS SPACEX’S STARLINK BUSINESS ‘ACHIEVED BREAKEVEN CASH FLOW’

Elon Musk announced on Thursday that SpaceX has achieved breakeven cash flow. It is unclear whether the milestone was hit on an operating basis or for a specific time period. SpaceX's valuation is now at around $150 billion. Musk is considering spinning off Starlink and making it public through an initial public offering likely after 2025.

cnbc.com · 2 min

TLDR

TWO FORMER GOOGLE ENGINEERS HAVE A PRODUCT AND A PLAN TO FIX ROBOT VACUUMS

The Matic is a fully autonomous robot vacuum that can clean floors without getting stuck on cables or toys. It processes things visually instead of spatially, making it less prone to common robot vacuum pitfalls. Mapping is all done on-device, so it doesn't require an internet connection to run. The Matic is now available for preorder with delivery planned for March next year.

theverge.com · 15 min

TLDR

IN A SURPRISING FINDING, LIGHT CAN MAKE WATER EVAPORATE WITHOUT HEAT

Researchers have been puzzled for years over the fact that water held in hydrogels evaporates at a significantly higher rate than could be explained by the amount of heat that the water was receiving. New research has concluded that under certain conditions, light can directly bring about evaporation without heat at an even more efficient rate than with heat. The phenomenon may play a role in the formation and evolution of fog and clouds, so climate models will need to consider the new factor to improve accuracy.

news.mit.edu · 7 min

TLDR

WHAT'S NEW IN CHROME 120 FOR EXTENSIONS

Chrome 120 is now available in beta. It includes many updates for Chrome Extension developers. Extensions can now manage collections of user scripts and determine when and how to inject them on web pages. The limit on enabled static rulesets has been raised to 50, and the total number of allowed static rulesets is now 100. Chrome 120 adds the ability for extensions to create, read, update, and delete reading list entries. More on the update is available in the article.

developer.chrome.com · 4 min