The Daily Index — Tuesday, May 21, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

INSIDE MICROSOFT'S MISSION TO TAKE DOWN THE MACBOOK AIR

Microsoft recently spent an entire day pitting its new hardware against the MacBook Air. Its new Surface devices, equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips, pulled ahead in tests against Apple's category-leading laptop. Microsoft's Copilot Plus PCs feature an improved emulator that can emulate apps twice as fast as the previous generation of Windows on Arm devices. They are equipped with a neural processing unit that can perform more AI task operations per watt than the MacBook Air M3 and Nvidia's RTX 4060. Microsoft's Copilot Plus PCs will hit the market this summer.

theverge.com · 7 min

TLDR AI

INFLECTION AI REVEALS NEW TEAM

Inflection AI has unveiled a new leadership led by co-founder Reid Hoffman. Hoffman claims that the startup has 18 months of runway left and that it will double down on building emotional intelligence within AI.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 7 min

TLDR Web Dev

RETHINKING TEXT RESIZING ON WEB

Airbnb improved its website's accessibility by implementing font scaling, allowing users to adjust text size independently from page zoom. Unlike browser zoom, which can create layout issues on smaller screens, font scaling only affects text elements, providing a better user experience for those with low vision. Airbnb used rem units for font sizing, as they are relative to the root element and provide more consistent scaling than em units.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 12 min

TLDR Crypto

ETHER JUMPS 10% TO $3.4K AFTER BLOOMBERG UPS ODDS OF SPOT ETF APPROVAL

Bloomberg ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart announced that they are hearing that the ETH ETFs could be approved on May 23rd, and upped their odds from 25% to 75%. The approval of an ETH ETF is being seen as an increasingly political issue, especially after the move to overturn the SEC's SAB 121 ruling about crypto custody passed the House and Senate. Upon the news, ETH has increased by over 17%.

coindesk.com · 1 min

TLDR Product

MAKING A GOOD BET: BUILDING PRODUCTS WITH INCOMPLETE INFORMATION

There's no clear divide between "good ideas" and "bad ideas" - it's all about the probability of success. To make responsible progress despite incomplete information, follow these tips: use the sniff test to validate ideas, identify key assumptions, seek signals from existing data, build the smallest viable product, and avoid the sunk cost fallacy.

oneknightinproduct.substack.com · 7 min

TLDR

ELON MUSK'S NEURALINK GETS FDA GREEN LIGHT FOR SECOND PATIENT, AS FIRST DESCRIBES HIS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

The US Food and Drug Administration has given the green light for Neuralink to implant its brain chip in a second person. Most of the threads implanted in the first participant have come loose and are no longer reading the electrical signals needed to translate his thoughts into cursor movements. While software changes have helped him regain many of the device's capabilities, only around 15% of the threads inserted in his brain remain in place. Neuralink's proposed fix for the problem that occurred in the first test participant involves embedding some of the device's ultrathin wires deeper into the brain.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 5 min

TLDR

WE TAKE A STAB AT DECODING SPACEX'S EVER-CHANGING PLANS FOR STARSHIP IN FLORIDA

The Federal Aviation Administration is kicking off a new environmental review of SpaceX's plan to launch Starships from Florida. The US Space Force is overseeing a similar Environmental Impact Statement review for SpaceX's proposal to take over a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. While the reviews can take a while and may delay SpaceX's plans, they show that SpaceX is finally cementing its plans to launch Starship from Florida.

arstechnica.com · 21 min

TLDR

SINGLE BRAIN IMPLANT RESTORES BILINGUAL COMMUNICATION TO PARALYZED MAN

Researchers found that the area of the brain where the intention to speak gets translated into control over the vocal tract produces consistent signals for both English and Spanish, allowing systems trained on English phrases to improve on their recognition of Spanish. The process of detecting these signals is complex, and it can result in high error rates. Piping the output through a large language model resulted in lower error rates. The study showed that the parts of the brain that control the muscles needed to speak aren't picky about which language they're handling.

arstechnica.com · 5 min

TLDR

WRITING COMMIT MESSAGES

This post discusses how to write a good commit message that focuses on information. It's important to consider the audience when writing a commit message, as many people might read them for lots of different reasons. The post covers what to include in a commit message and other places to post messages. It also covers typography, but attempts to keep the topic to a bare minimum.

chiark.greenend.org.uk · 58 min