The Daily Index — Wednesday, July 24, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

META RELEASES THE BIGGEST AND BEST OPEN-SOURCE AI MODEL YET

Meta has released Llama 3.1, its biggest open-source AI model yet. The company claims it outperforms GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet on several benchmarks. The largest version has 405 billion parameters and was trained with over 16,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Meta is making its AI assistant available in more countries and languages and adding a feature that can generate images based on someone's likeness.

theverge.com · 7 min

TLDR AI

LLAMA 3.1 AND 405B MODELS

Meta has released its first open frontier AI model along with training details. The model is on par with top closed models with a 128k context length, chat models, and a great open system.

ai.meta.com · 12 min

TLDR Web Dev

THE BIGGEST-EVER GLOBAL OUTAGE: LESSONS FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

CrowdStrike caused a global outage by pushing a faulty configuration update to its Falcon product, resulting in the crash of 8.5 million Windows machines. The update aimed to enhance threat detection but contained a logic error that caused the CSAgent.sys process to crash the operating system. The recovery process was slow and manual, requiring physical access to each impacted machine. While CrowdStrike is primarily responsible, Microsoft's inability to restrict third-party software from running at kernel level due to a 2009 agreement with the European Commission also worsened the situation.

open.substack.com · 26 min

TLDR InfoSec

TELEGRAM ZERO-DAY ENABLED MALWARE DELIVERY

ESET discovered a vulnerability in Telegram for Android dubbed EvilVideo which allows attackers to disguise malicious APK files as videos. The exploit uses Telegram's automatic file downloading so when users play the "video," they're prompted to install a malicious app.

securityweek.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

BLOCKFI ADMINISTRATOR SUBMITS PLAN IN COURT TO MAKE CUSTOMERS WHOLE

BlockFi is finalizing its bankruptcy distribution, which would make customers and unsecured creditors whole. It was one of the first companies to go bankrupt after the collapse of FTX in November 2022. BlockFi can fully compensate customers partly because its $847 million in claims against FTX was monetized at a substantial premium to face value.

coindesk.com · 2 min

TLDR

APPLE'S FIRST FOLDABLE IPHONE COULD ARRIVE IN 2026

Apple's first foldable iPhone could arrive in 2026. It is rumored to fold horizontally, similarly to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. The phone is now in development with suppliers. Apple is still reportedly working to flatten the crease that appears when the phone is unfolded. Next year's iPhone is rumored to have a mechanical aperture that will let users achieve a depth-of-field effect.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR

IS CULTIVATED MEAT FOR REAL?

While the cultivated meat industry is releasing increasingly optimistic projections, well-informed commentators remain skeptical. It is difficult to make cultivated meat at affordable prices and at a large enough scale to compete with conventional animal products. Cultivated meat is possible, but it will take decades and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment. In the meantime, companies could pursue cheaper products that combine cultivated meat and plant-based components.

asteriskmag.com · 27 min

TLDR

CHINESE RESEARCHERS CREATE FOUR-GRAM DRONE THAT MIGHT FLY FOREVER

Chinese researchers have created a solar powered drone that weighs just over four grams. It uses an electrostatic motor that weighs just 1.52 grams and is powered by solar cells that produce 4.5V. Its design has a lift-to-power efficiency two to three times better than that found in traditional drones. Adding batteries to the drone would make it capable of 24-hour flying operations.

theregister.com · 4 min

TLDR

SOFTWARE ENGINEERS ARE NOT (AND SHOULD NOT BE) TECHNICIANS

Great software engineers automate repetitive/manual labor. Most large software engineering organizations incentivize anti-automation due to their desire for predictability. Predictable work is work that could have been automated but was not automated. The more predictable and routine a developer's job is, the more they tend to slide into becoming a technician. Teams that get into predictable flows are likely ignoring a promising opportunity for automation.

haskellforall.com · 4 min