The Daily Index — Wednesday, December 20, 2023 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

BLUE ORIGIN SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED AND RECOVERED ITS NEW SHEPARD BOOSTER

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket successfully took off from West Texas on Tuesday morning. Its booster and crew capsule safely separated mid-flight, with both landing back on Earth. The mission carried 33 payloads to space, more than half from NASA. It was originally scheduled for December 18 but was delayed due to cold temperatures and ground issues. A replay of the livestream is available in the article.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

AI LEGAL STARTUP HARVEY RAISES $80M SERIES B

Harvey AI, a legal service built on OpenAI technology, has raised another round of funding which values the young company at over $700m. The startup builds foundation models with OpenAI for law and legal practice applications.

harvey.ai · 1 min

TLDR Web Dev

HOW META BUILT THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THREADS

This article details how Meta's infrastructure teams successfully supported Threads' rapid growth, hitting 100 million users in 5 days. The article highlights the roles of ZippyDB, a scalable distributed key/value database, and Async, a serverless function platform, in managing the high user influx and workload demands. These components demonstrate Meta's robust infrastructure and engineering culture, enabling fast product launches.

engineering.fb.com · 8 min

TLDR InfoSec

CYBER-CROOKS SLIP INTO VANS, TRAMPLE OVER OPERATIONS

A digital break-in has disrupted VF Corp's operations and its ability to fulfill orders, according to the apparel and footwear giant. The threat actor disrupted the company's business operations by encrypting IT systems and stealing data, including personal data. VF Corp aims to reduce disruption to its ability to serve its retail and brand e-commerce consumers and wholesale customers.

theregister.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

A BITCOIN MINING BEHEMOTH MAKES BUY TO GET EVEN BIGGER

Marathon Digital is reportedly planning to acquire two bitcoin mining facilities in Texas and Nebraska from Generate Capital for $178.6 million, a move to boost its bitcoin mining capacity by 390 megawatts. The acquisition will help Marathon Digital double its hash rate in the next few years and eventually reduce bitcoin production costs by about 30% at these locations.

blockworks.co · 2 min

TLDR

ALL THE CHANGES COMING TO GOOGLE PLAY AND SIDELOADING FOLLOWING $700M SETTLEMENT

Google will pay $700 million as part of a settlement with the US attorney general for a lawsuit over the Google Play Store. It has also agreed to implement third-party app stores, side-loading, and alternative billing on Android. Google will not be able to enter deals with phone makers to have Google Play as an exclusive app store on devices for at least five years. More details about the settlement agreement are available in the article.

techcrunch.com · 3 min

TLDR

NASA VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS FIRST COMMERCIAL DELIVERY SERVICE TO THE MOON

NASA recently shared a video detailing its plan to launch a commercial delivery service to the moon. It is currently working with 14 companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface. NASA has a long-term plan to build a permanent moon base. A commercial delivery service to the moon would radically increase the amount of science that can be achieved. It could pave the way for a similar service to other destinations like Mars.

digitaltrends.com · 2 min

TLDR

WATCH 'WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL' HUMANOID ROBOT WITHSTAND BRUTAL KICKS

Unitree's H1 features a powertrain that provides it with the highest level of speed, power, maneuverability, and flexibility of any humanoid robot in the world. The robot can run across demanding terrains and intricate environments while dealing with disruptions. Unitree plans to initiate deliveries of the robot in the first quarter of 2024 with a price of approximately $150,000 per unit. A video of the robot dealing with disruptions, such as being kicked or pushed/pulled, is available in the article.

interestingengineering.com · 4 min

TLDR

TECHNICAL DEBT IS NOT REAL

Technical debt is a metaphor about the accumulated consequences of past decisions and shortcuts. This article examines this metaphor to see how technical debt has less to do with code and more to do with the choices and compromises that emerge from the challenges within software development. It looks at emergent technical debt, which arises from evolving system requirements, and deliberate technical debt, a strategic choice to prioritize rapid development over code quality. The article aims to refine understanding of technical debt and identify effective strategies for managing it.

foxhound.systems · 6 min