The Daily Index — Monday, July 15, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

GOOGLE REPORTEDLY IN ADVANCED TALKS TO ACQUIRE CYBER STARTUP WIZ FOR $23 BILLION, ITS LARGEST-EVER DEAL

Google may be acquiring cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23 billion. Wiz, founded in 2020, had been eyeing an IPO as recently as May, when it achieved a valuation of $12 billion. Its security offering gives companies insight into their full cloud presence. If completed, the deal will be Google's largest acquisition yet.

cnbc.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI IS REPORTEDLY WORKING ON AI MODELS CAPABLE OF REASONING AND ‘DEEP RESEARCH'

OpenAI is developing advanced reasoning capabilities for its AI models under a secret project called "Strawberry," aiming to enable the AI to autonomously scour the internet and plan for complex tasks.

engadget.com · 1 min

TLDR Web Dev

BUILDING AND SCALING NOTION'S DATA LAKE

As Notion grew exponentially, it had to build a scalable data lake. Its solution involves incrementally ingesting updated data from Postgres to Kafka, then using Hudi to write to S3 for processing. Spark is used for complex tasks like tree traversal and denormalization. This approach has resulted in cost savings, improved data freshness, and has unlocked new possibilities for AI and search features.

notion.so · 14 min

TLDR InfoSec

GITLAB SENDS USERS SCRAMBLING AGAIN WITH NEW CI/CD PIPELINE TAKEOVER VULN

GitLab has disclosed a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-6385) that affects its DevOps platform's CI/CD pipelines. The flaw, rated 9.6 out of 10 in severity, allows attackers to run pipelines as any user, potentially accessing sensitive data and injecting malicious code. GitLab strongly urges users to upgrade immediately to the latest patched version.

darkreading.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

US ECONOMY MAY HAVE PEAKED IN Q2, CURBING RETAIL INVESTOR ENTHUSIASM FOR CRYPTO: COINBASE

Coinbase's recent weekly report suggests the U.S. economy may have peaked in Q2 '24, which may discourage retail investors from further investing in crypto or stocks. The report talks about key recession indicators like a rising unemployment rate and an inverted Treasury yield curve amidst expectations of a September Fed rate cut.

theblock.co · 3 min

TLDR

SPACEX ROCKET ACCIDENT LEAVES THE COMPANY'S STARLINK SATELLITES IN THE WRONG ORBIT

A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade. The upper stage engine of the Falcon 9 rocket malfunctioned several minutes into flight. It left 20 Starlink satellites in an orbit less than half of what was intended. The company is attempting to boost some of the satellites to a higher orbit using onboard ion thrusters, but it is unlikely to be successful. The satellites will likely return to the atmosphere and burn up. The Federal Aviation Administration says the problem must be fixed before SpaceX can fly its Falcon rockets again.

npr.org · 2 min

TLDR

EX-META SCIENTISTS DEBUT GIGANTIC AI PROTEIN DESIGN MODEL

EvolutionaryScale, a company launched by ex-Meta scientists, applies cutting-edge machine learning models trained on language and images to biological data. It has developed a model that speaks the language of proteins called ESM3. ESM3 can be used to create proteins to specifications provided by users. It has been used to create new fluorescent molecules. A small version of the model that was trained without data from specific viruses, pathogens, and toxins has been open sourced.

nature.com · 7 min

TLDR

THIS IS THE FASTEST OBJECT EVER MADE BY HUMANS, AND IT'S NOT SLOWING DOWN

NASA's Parker Solar Probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers per hour on June 29. It is expected to reach a top speed of around 692,000 kph when it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2025. The probe uses Venus' gravity to create a sort of gravity-powered slingshot to reach its incredible speeds. It will eventually get within 6.12 million kilometers of the layer of ionized gas considered to be the Sun's surface.

sciencealert.com · 3 min

TLDR

PROPERTY: NEXT-GEN CSS VARIABLES NOW WITH UNIVERSAL BROWSER SUPPORT

@property extends the CSS language by providing meaning and context to CSV variables. It can be used to define a type for custom properties, preventing unexpected results and supporting new possibilities like animating gradients. The enhanced type safety opens up new opportunities for testing and validation directly within CSS.

web.dev · 4 min