The Daily Index — Monday, March 11, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

SAM ALTMAN REJOINS OPENAI BOARD OF DIRECTORS AS INVESTIGATION INTO HIS OUSTER COMES TO A CLOSE

OpenAI has announced its new board with the wrap-up of an internal investigation into the events leading to Sam Altman's ouster. Sam Altman will rejoin OpenAI's board along with Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former EVP and Global General Counsel of Sony and President of Sony Entertainment; Fidji Simo, CEO and Chair of Instacart; and current board members Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers, and Bret Taylor. OpenAI will continue to expand the board moving forward.

cnbc.com · 10 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBERS TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OpenAI announced the addition of three new members to its Board of Directors, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Nicole Seligman, and Fidji Simo, along with the return of CEO Sam Altman to the board.

openai.com · 2 min

TLDR Web Dev

PLAYING WITH INFINITY IN CSS

This blog explores the concept of using `infinity` within CSS, specifically in the `calc()` function, to achieve unique effects like ensuring an element has the highest `z-index`, creating extremely large elements, and dealing with browser inconsistencies. `infinity` is essentially shorthand for the largest possible value in a particular situation. This value can and will change between browsers, operating systems, and CSS properties. It can be used to create some pill shapes, hide content for screen readers, and make CSS animations.

codersblock.com · 4 min

TLDR InfoSec

MICROSOFT SAYS RUSSIAN HACKERS STOLE SOURCE CODE AFTER SPYING ON ITS EXECUTIVES

Russian hacking group Midnight Blizzard gained access to some of Microsoft's source code repositories and internal systems in a breach that was discovered in January. No customer-facing systems were compromised. The hackers attempted unauthorized access using exfiltrated Microsoft corporate email data, including secrets shared with customers.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

BLACKROCK EXPLORES BITCOIN ETP INVESTMENTS FOR GLOBAL ALLOCATION FUND

BlackRock's Global Allocation Fund may soon include investments in Bitcoin exchange-traded products, according to a revised prospectus lodged with the SEC. This is the second fund that BlackRock has filed to include Bitcoin ETFs in. BlackRock says that these ETFs help the funds gain access to bitcoin exposure, helping them create a more diversified investment strategy.

news.bitcoin.com · 1 min

TLDR

FORMER ACTIVISION CEO BOBBY KOTICK CONSIDERING BUYING TIKTOK

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is considering buying TikTok - he recently floated the idea at a dinner with a group of potential partners. A proposed legislation may force ByteDance to sell TikTok or have it banned from the US. There are concerns that ByteDance may share data about its users with the Chinese government or use the platform to influence US citizens' political opinions. The bill will be voted on by the full House on Wednesday, after which it will move on to the Senate.

pcmag.com · 3 min

TLDR

MRNA VACCINES: LET'S BE SICK A WHOLE LOT LESS AND MAYBE CURE CANCER

mRNA vaccines are our best bet at addressing viral persistence. They can prevent infection as well as improve responses against infection. They are also faster, cheaper, and more flexible to make than their traditional counterparts. mRNA vaccines are like injectable instructions that turn a body's cells into factories that can create any protein for which mRNA instructions can be built. This means they can be used to teach the body to mount an immune response to any target foreign protein - including proteins on cancer cells.

bessstillman.substack.com · 19 min

TLDR

NEW BREAKTHROUGH BRINGS MATRIX MULTIPLICATION CLOSER TO IDEAL

Three researchers from the University of California have presented a new technique that boosts matrix multiplication. Matrix multiplication is a fundamental computational operation that is incorporated into a large population of the algorithms people use every day for a variety of tasks. Even slight improvements can eventually lead to significant savings in time, computational power, and money. While the new technique has set new records, the most exciting thing about the development is that the technique reveals a new avenue for improvement that was previously unknown.

quantamagazine.org · 11 min

TLDR

S3 IS FILES, BUT NOT A FILESYSTEM

The idea that Amazon S3 is really an 'Amazon Cloud Filesystem' is a bit of a fiction - it isn't a file system and it can't stand in for one. S3 implements a completely different arrangement and its primitives are only partly compatible with the Unix file API. It has fewer functions and can't do some tasks, such as overwriting files partially. This means that filesystem software, especially databases, can't be ported to Amazon S3.

calpaterson.com · 13 min