The Daily Index — Friday, August 2, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

MICROSOFT SAYS OPENAI IS NOW A COMPETITOR IN AI AND SEARCH

Microsoft added OpenAI to its list of competitors in its latest annual report. OpenAI is listed as a competitor in AI offerings, search, and news advertising. The companies have a long-term partnership, with Microsoft being OpenAI's biggest investor. OpenAI says that nothing about the relationship between the two companies has changed as their partnership was established with the understanding that they would compete.

cnbc.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

BLACK FOREST LABS

The creators of VQGAN, Stable Diffusion, Latent Diffusion, and other startups have raised $30m+ dollars and started a new company. They have released new flagship image generation models which are extremely capable and come in a variety of tiers.

blackforestlabs.ai · 6 min

TLDR Web Dev

DISSECTING PARTIAL PRE RENDERING

Partial Pre-Rendering (PPR) in Next.js combines the best of static site generation, server-side rendering, and client-side rendering. By pre-rendering static portions of a page at build time and streaming dynamic content at request time, PPR is able to have fast initial page loads, personalized content, and interactivity in a single HTTP request. This article goes into how PPR works.

nikhilsnayak.dev · 14 min

TLDR InfoSec

DIGICERT REVOKES 83K TLS CERTIFICATES DUE TO DOMAIN VALIDATION BUG

DigiCert announced that it will be revoking 0.4% of certificates issued from August 2019 to June 2024. The CABF baseline domain verification requirement is to publish a CNAME record with the domain followed by an underscore and random value. A bug introduced in August 2019 led to some code paths not appending the underscore which could potentially lead to clashes between the record and subdomains. DigiCert says this is unlikely due to the random value having 150 bits of entropy, but nevertheless has notified customers that it will be revoking affected certificates.

bleepingcomputer.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

COINBASE POSTS $1.4 BILLION IN Q2 REVENUE, CLAIMS IMPROVING ‘REGULATORY CLARITY'

Coinbase reported Q2 revenue results, returning $1.4 billion in Q2 revenue and exceeding market expectations despite an 11% drop from the previous quarter due to declining crypto prices. The company's gains were attributed to its USDC interest earnings, transaction revenue from Base, and advancements in regulatory clarity.

decrypt.co · 2 min

TLDR

INTEL IS LAYING OFF OVER 15,000 EMPLOYEES AND WILL STOP ‘NON-ESSENTIAL WORK'

Intel is downsizing its workforce by over 15 percent as part of a new cost savings plan for 2025. The $10 billion cost saving plan will mean a headcount reduction of greater than 15,000 roles. Intel plans to reduce its R&D and marketing spending by billions each year through 2026, reduce capital expenditures by more than 20 percent this year, restructure to stop non-essential work, and review all active projects and equipment to make sure it's not spending too much. The company recently reported a loss of $1.6 billion for Q2, which is substantially more than the $437 million it lost the previous quarter.

theverge.com · 12 min

TLDR

FULLY-AUTOMATIC ROBOT DENTIST PERFORMS WORLD'S FIRST HUMAN PROCEDURE

An AI-controlled autonomous robot has performed an entire dental procedure on a human patient for the first time. The system uses a hand-held 3D volumetric scanner that builds a detailed 3D model of the mouth using optical coherence tomography, cutting X-ray radiation out of the process. The robot surgeon plans out the operation after the human dentist and patient agree on what needs to be done. It can prepare a tooth for a dental crown in 15 minutes, a procedure that usually takes two hours split into two visits. Video of the robot is available in the article.

newatlas.com · 4 min

TLDR

A PROTEIN CALLED REELIN KEEPS POPPING UP IN BRAINS THAT RESIST AGING AND ALZHEIMER'S

A key protein called Reelin appears to protect the brain from Alzheimer's and other diseases of aging. Studies suggest that the protein helps maintain thinking and memory in ailing brains. The research has inspired efforts to develop a drug that boosts Reelin or helps it function better. The discovery of Reelin was aided by the cooperation of about 1,500 members of an extended Colombian family that carries a gene that almost guarantees the development of Alzheimer's in middle age.

npr.org · 7 min

TLDR

WHY CSV IS STILL KING

CSV is simple, resilient, and seemingly impossible to kill off. The standard developed naturally as a simple way to store data in tables when storage was very limited. It has become crucial for business data - companies use it to share financial data, import customer information, and exchange data between different systems. While it has its problems, the format will likely remain king, as its core simplicity will keep it relevant for years to come.

konbert.com · 5 min