The Daily Index — Monday, February 5, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

GOOGLE WILL NO LONGER BACK UP THE INTERNET: CACHED WEBPAGES ARE DEAD

Google is killing off its cached links feature. The company says that the feature was designed as an alternative way to load websites when people couldn't depend on a page loading, but technology has improved to the point Google feels it can retire it. While users can currently still create cache links manually, all of Google's support pages about cached sites have been taken down. Deleting cache data will free up an uncountable number of petabytes of data for Google, which is currently in an era of cost savings.

arstechnica.com · 1 min

TLDR AI

SAKANA AWARDED JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SUPERCOMPUTING GRANT

The Japanese-based AI startup has been chosen to access the NEDO-funded supercomputer.

sakana.ai · 4 min

TLDR Web Dev

SQUEEZING LAST BIT OF JAVASCRIPT PERFORMANCE FOR MY AUTOMATION GAME

An author of a web-based factory automation and economy simulation game shares how they used various performance optimization techniques to reduce the game’s execution time from 21 seconds to 4 seconds. These techniques include replacing strings with small integers, using memoization extensively, and switching to Map/Set data structures when possible. Each optimization is walked through with a corresponding code example.

ruoyusun.com · 13 min

TLDR InfoSec

CLOUDFLARE THANKSGIVING 2023 SECURITY INCIDENT

Cloudflare has provided an update on a breach from October 2023 when a threat actor accessed its internal systems using stolen Okta credentials. Not rotating the compromised tokens post-Okta breach enabled access to Cloudflare’s Atlassian suite. No Cloudflare customer data or systems were impacted by this event.

blog.cloudflare.com · 7 min

TLDR Crypto

FTX SEEKS PERMISSION TO SPEEDILY SELL 8% STAKE IN ANTHROPIC

FTX is reportedly seeking to sell its 8% stake in AI startup Anthropic as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. It is aiming to expedite the sale so it can be addressed in a court hearing scheduled for February 22. FTX’s stake's exact value is undisclosed, but Anthropic's last reported valuation was around $1.4 billion. The FTX estate has stated that it expects to be able to repay creditors in full and this sale is likely to be a crucial part of that plan.

theblock.co · 2 min

TLDR

OBESITY DRUGS HAVE ANOTHER SUPERPOWER: TAMING INFLAMMATION

The drugs classified as GLP-1 receptor agonists have been shown to reduce inflammation in the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain. These drugs include semaglutide and tirzepatide, which are marketed as treatments for diabetes and obesity. This effect is leading scientists to hope that they could be used to treat Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, which both involve brain inflammation. More than 20 clinical trials are now exploring the drugs as therapies for the two conditions.

nature.com · 4 min

TLDR

ANTI-AGING PILL FOR SENIOR DOGS IS NOW IN CLINICAL TRIALS

Biotech company Loyal has launched a study that will test a daily anti-aging pill in senior dogs. The pill is designed to help dogs live and stay healthy longer. Dogs must weigh at least 14 pounds, be at least 10 years old, and live near one of 55 participating vet clinics to enroll in the study. Loyal plans to enroll 1,000 senior dogs in the study, which has already begun. A link for dog owners to sign their pets up for the study is available in the article.

freethink.com · 2 min

TLDR

INTRODUCING PKL, A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE FOR CONFIGURATION

Pkl is a programming language for producing configurations that are declarative and simple to read and write. It features capabilities borrowed from general-purpose languages like classes, functions, conditionals, and loops. Pkl can build abstraction layers to meet many different types of configuration needs. It can produce static configuration files in any format or be embedded as a library into another application runtime. Pkl code can be shared by creating packages and publishing them.

pkl-lang.org · 11 min

TLDR

THE PAIN POINTS OF BUILDING A COPILOT

Companies everywhere are launching copilots, AI assistants that leverage large language models to assist with tasks. This article looks at the process of building these products, the pain points, and the opportunities for AI tools. The information was gathered from semi-structured interviews with developers from a variety of companies that are working on copilots. It is still very early in the field of product copilots and it will be interesting to see how software engineering will evolve over the next several years.

austinhenley.com · 6 min