The Daily Index — Wednesday, June 12, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

OPENAI EX-EMPLOYEES WORRY ABOUT COMPANY'S CONTROL OVER THEIR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN SHARES

Many of OpenAI's early employees are sitting on millions of dollars worth of equity. The only way for them to realize any value from this equity in the near term is through secondary stock sales. OpenAI has told employees that it will try to hold one tender offer roughly every year depending on how both the company and the market are faring at the time. Current and former employees are increasingly concerned about access to liquidity after reports that the company has the power to claw back vested equity. The company has used aggressive tactics to get employees to sign exit agreements that affect the future of their stock holdings.

cnbc.com · 8 min

TLDR AI

MISTRAL RAISES €600M SERIES B

Mistral, a Paris-based AI startup, turns 1 year old today. It announced a monster series B funding raise.

threadreaderapp.com · 1 min

TLDR Web Dev

ENGINEERING FOR SLOW INTERNET

Minor issues in app development and speed can become significant problems in areas with slow Internet. While developers shouldn't be expected to spend excessive time on extreme cases, it's important to acknowledge elements of websites that may perform worse with slower internet. Apps should be resilient enough to handle basic tasks like transmitting text without getting stuck due to hardcoded timeouts.

brr.fyi · 26 min

TLDR InfoSec

NEW YORK TIMES SOURCE CODE STOLEN USING EXPOSED GITHUB TOKEN

An attacker posted an archive of stolen source code and data belonging to the New York Times onto 4chan. The leaker claims to have accessed the source code via a compromised GitHub token which was confirmed by The Times. The Times stated that the leak did not impact any internal corporate systems or operations.

bleepingcomputer.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

BIGGEST BANK IN THE WORLD SAYS ETHEREUM IS ‘DIGITAL OIL,' BITCOIN ‘DIGITAL GOLD'

According to VanEck's head of digital assets, Matthew Siegel, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) reportedly calls Bitcoin ‘Digital Gold' and Ethereum ‘Digital Oil.' ICBC acknowledges Ethereum's current scalability problems but expresses optimism about future upgrades. It notes a strong demand for digital assets driving continuous innovation.

dailyhodl.com · 2 min

TLDR

X IS ABOUT TO START HIDING ALL LIKES

X is rolling out private likes - what users like on the platform will be hidden by default. Owner Elon Musk said that it was important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so. Users will still be able to see who liked their posts and the like count for all posts.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR

AN EXPERIMENTAL ALZHEIMER'S DRUG OUTPERFORMS ONE JUST APPROVED BY THE FDA

The experimental drug donanemab slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease by about 35% in a study of more than 1,700 people. Eli Lilly, the company that makes the drug, has submitted the results of its study to the Food and Drug Administration, which is expected to make a decision on the drug by the end of the year. The drug is still not a cure - its benefits amount to only about a seven-month delay in the loss of memory and thinking. The drug caused dangerous swelling or bleeding in the brain in about 25% of patients.

npr.org · 4 min

TLDR

STOKE SPACE IGNITES ITS AMBITIOUS MAIN ENGINE FOR THE FIRST TIME

Stoke Space has fired its first stage rocket engine for the first time, briefly igniting it for about two seconds. The test was a success as the engine performed nominally. Stoke's two-stage Nova rocket will be fully reusable and have a lift capacity of about 5 metric tons. It could be ready for its first flight in 2026.

arstechnica.com · 3 min

TLDR

GENERATIVE AI IS NOT GOING TO BUILD YOUR ENGINEERING TEAM FOR YOU

Software is an apprenticeship industry - you can only learn by doing. The industry changes fast, so developers have to keep learning. It takes many years to forge a competent software engineer. Senior software engineers don't only write code - they have to be able to understand, maintain, explain, and manage a large body of software in production over time and translate business needs into technical implementation. Writing code is the easiest part of software engineering, and it's getting easier every day. AI can help generate lots of code really fast, but it can't aid in the work of managing, understanding, or operating that code. Generated code can't be trusted - it needs to be reviewed before it can be committed and shipped to production.

stackoverflow.blog · 27 min