The Daily Index — Wednesday, June 19, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

NVIDIA PASSES MICROSOFT IN MARKET CAP TO BECOME MOST VALUABLE PUBLIC COMPANY

Nvidia is now the most valuable public company in the world. Its market cap surpassed Microsoft's $3.32 trillion on Tuesday, reaching a high of $3.34 trillion. Nvidia's shares are up more than 170% so far this year. Its market cap hit $3 trillion for the first time earlier this month. Nvidia's rise has been so rapid the company has yet to be added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the stock benchmark of the 30 most valuable US companies.

cnbc.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

GEOFF HINTON AND MAX WELLING $30M CARBON CAPTURE START UP

Geoff Hinton and Max Welling, preeminent researchers in the field of AI, have assembled a strong team and are working to build AI systems that help with material science for carbon capture.

fortune.com · 5 min

TLDR Web Dev

SCALING SMOOTHLY: REVENUECAT'S DATA-CACHING TECHNIQUES FOR 1.2 BILLION DAILY API REQUESTS

RevenueCat's caching system handles 1.2 billion daily API requests by distributing the load among servers and using the cache for hot data. For low latency, it uses pre-established connections and fails fast on unresponsive servers. To keep the cache up and warm, it plans for server failures and uses fallback pools. To maintain consistency, it employs write failure tracking and consistent CRUD operations.

revenuecat.com · 26 min

TLDR InfoSec

UK'S TOTAL FITNESS EXPOSED NEARLY 500K IMAGES OF MEMBERS, STAFF THROUGH UNPROTECTED DATABASE

A researcher claims UK gym chain Total Fitness left a database containing over 474,000 member and staff images, including identity documents and payment info, publicly accessible without a password. Total Fitness stated the images were used for legitimate purposes and that only a small subset contained identifiable information. The issue highlights the potential risks of data exposure.

theregister.com · 5 min

TLDR Crypto

OVER $740 MILLION WORTH OF TOKENS TO UNLOCK IN NEXT 30 DAYS

Over 40 protocols, including StarkNet, ImmutableX, and Aptos, are unlocking a combined $740 of frozen tokens over the next month. The highest unlock is the Gaming L3 XAI, which will unlock $109 million in tokens, followed by Aptos and Arbitrum, which will unlock around $80 million each. Token prices have already begun sliding as investors are concerned about the negative impact of more supply without demand.

unchainedcrypto.com · 3 min

TLDR

APPLE HALTS WORK ON VISION PRO, AIMS TO RELEASE CHEAPER VISION HEADSET NEXT YEAR

Apple will repeatedly release a cheaper, cut-down version of the Apple Vision Pro at the end of 2025. Development work on a second generation of the high-end model of the Vision Pro has been shelved. Reports suggest that the cheaper Vision Pro will cost around $1,500. Apple is apparently struggling to find ways to cut the price and weight of the device without sacrificing too much of the experience.

9to5mac.com · 2 min

TLDR

‘IT'S THE PERFECT PLACE': LONDON UNDERGROUND HOSTS TESTS FOR ‘QUANTUM COMPASS' THAT COULD REPLACE GPS

Scientists in the UK are developing very precise new sensors using quantum mechanics to create a quantum compass - an instrument that exploits the behavior of subatomic matter to accurately pinpoint their locations no matter where they're placed. This could result in a new generation of underground and underwater sensors that can provide location information without interference from weather and other obstructions. Their device could be ready for widespread use in just a few years. It works well in a stable laboratory environment but needs to be tested in more extreme conditions to be turned into a transportable, standalone device that can be used in remote or complex locations.

theguardian.com · 5 min

TLDR

THE THREADS API IS FINALLY HERE!

Meta's Threads API is now available to all developers. The API will enable creators, developers, and brands to build their own unique integrations, manage their Threads presence at scale, and easily share content with their communities. It allows people to publish posts, fetch content, set reply and quote controls, retrieve and respond to replies, hide and unhide specific replies, and retrieve key metrics. Links to developer documentation and a sample app are available.

developers.facebook.com · 2 min

TLDR

COGNITIVE LOAD IS WHAT MATTERS

Confusion, which costs time and money, is caused by high cognitive load. Cognitive load is how much a developer needs to think in order to complete a task. Developers should constantly ask themselves whether they are embedding excessive cognitive load into their code as far more time is spent reading and understanding code than writing it. They should make things easy to understand to avoid creating unnecessary cognitive load for themselves and their colleagues.

github.com · 20 min