The Daily Index — Monday, November 20, 2023 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

A TIMELINE OF SAM ALTMAN’S FIRING FROM OPENAI — AND THE FALLOUT

Sam Altman was fired as CEO of OpenAI late Friday. The company's president and co-founder Greg Brockman and three senior OpenAI researchers resigned following Altman's departure. The situation is fast-moving. This article presents a timeline to make it easier to follow what's happening.

techcrunch.com · 6 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI ANNOUNCED TRANSITION IN LEADERSHIP

CEO Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI by the board, who stated that Altman’s departure followed a deliberative review process by the board and the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI. Greg Brockman quickly quit along with many other senior researchers.

openai.com · 2 min

TLDR Web Dev

MOVING BACK TO REACT

A company transitioned from using Preact to React as its front-end framework during a team hackathon. This strategic change was aimed at addressing developmental challenges and boosting performance. The process required meticulous planning, thorough testing, and extensive modifications to the existing codebase. By making this switch, the platform gained enhanced compatibility with Next.js, enriched the overall development experience, and positioned itself for embracing upcoming technological innovations.

daily.dev · 10 min

TLDR InfoSec

CITRIXBLEED VULNERABILITY EXPLOITATION SUSPECTED IN TOYOTA RANSOMWARE ATTACK

Toyota Financial Services Europe & Africa this week confirmed being targeted in a cyberattack that appears to have been conducted by Medusa. Medusa has a listing on Toyota Financial Services on its Tor-based leak website and is threatening to distribute stolen data unless an $8 million ransom is paid within 10 days.

securityweek.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

FIDELITY FILES FOR SPOT ETHEREUM ETF, SAYS APPROVAL WOULD BE 'MAJOR WIN' FOR US INVESTORS

Fidelity has filed its own application for a spot Ethereum ETF. The move, which the firm says aims to offer safeguards to US investors dealing in the crypto space, comes in the wake of a court ruling criticizing the SEC's inconsistency regarding crypto ETFs. The SEC has so far permitted futures-based products but has rejected spot crypto ETFs.

theblock.co · 1 min

TLDR

SPACEX LAUNCHES STARSHIP FOR THE SECOND TIME, GOING FARTHER THAN EVER BEFORE

SpaceX flew Starship for the second time on November 18. While both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage had to be blown up mid-air, the test was still a huge success for SpaceX. It appears that the new water deluge system successfully protected the launch infrastructure. The hot staging separation technique was also successful. A video of the test is available in the article.

techcrunch.com · 4 min

TLDR

SCIENTISTS 3D PRINT A ROBOTIC HAND WITH HUMAN-LIKE BONES AND TENDONS

One of the reasons robots seem to move differently from living creatures is due to their lack of bones and flexible tissues. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and US-based startup Inkbit have figured out how to 3D print a robotic hand with an internal structure composed of human-like bones, ligaments, and tendons. The technique can create robots that outperform hard robots in terms of flexibility and overcome the design and scale-related issues faced by soft robots. A picture of the 3D-printed robot hand is available in the article.

arstechnica.com · 3 min

TLDR

WHY SUPERCONDUCTOR RESEARCH IS IN A ‘GOLDEN AGE’ — DESPITE CONTROVERSY

Superconductivity research is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance fueled in part by the new capabilities of computer simulations to predict the existence and properties of undiscovered materials. Scientists have unearthed several families of materials over the past few years that could have revolutionary properties. This article covers some of the history behind superconductivity research and the current state of the field.

nature.com · 9 min

TLDR

ALL OF THE WRITING I DID IN A WEEK AS A SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Empathy and communication are less obvious skills that are helpful for working as a software engineer. One of the ways software engineers communicate is through writing. This article takes a look at all of the writing that a software engineer working at the Cloud Gateway team at Netflix does in a single week. In a week, the engineer wrote zero emails, a few dozen lines of code, a handful of Jira tickets, a couple of investigation and debugging docs, a few technical docs, and hundreds of Slack messages. An ergonomic keyboard is a very worthwhile investment.

alexanderell.is · 7 min