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THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

AMAZON TELLS EMPLOYEES TO RETURN TO OFFICE FIVE DAYS A WEEK

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has instructed corporate staffers to spend five days a week in the office starting on January 2. The decision is a significant shift from Amazon's earlier return-to-work stance, which required corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week. Amazon also plans to simplify its corporate structure by having fewer managers, with each S-team organization expected to increase its ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025. A copy of the full memo from Jassy is available in the article.

REARCHITECTING CORE SERVICES AT X

X's Core Services team rearchitected the read path for Posts by splitting the read and write path of Tweetypie, a core service, into two separate services. They did this because of the service's resource intensity, unbalanced read and write traffic, and code complexity issues caused by its monolithic nature. The new architecture uses X's distributed ecosystem and has resulted in a highly performant Tweet Entity Service capable of handling millions of operations per second.

SEC PLACES HEAVIER SCRUTINY ON BINANCE'S TOKEN LISTING, TRADING PROCESS IN PROPOSED AMENDED COMPLAINT

The SEC has filed a proposed amendment complaint against Binance, addressing issues previously dismissed by the court and emphasizing arguments about some cryptos being offered as unregistered securities. The new filing includes more detailed allegations about Binance's role in promoting digital assets, particularly BNB, SOL, ADA, and MATIC, and argues that Binance provides selective information to encourage investment. The SEC also moved away from “crypto asset securities” to emphasize that the associated contracts, not the asset itself, can constitute a security.

TIKTOK ARGUED AGAINST ITS U.S. BAN IN COURT TODAY. HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

On Monday, a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard TikTok's arguments against a law that will force the company to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned nationwide. It was unclear which way the court was leaning, but the judges appeared dubious of TikTok's plea that its right to free expression surpasses national security concerns. However, the judges did point out that shutting down the app could violate the rights of US TikTok users and TikTok's US operations. TikTok's strategy of trying to overturn the law by attacking Congress' legislative authority is unusual - it appears that it may be asking the court to send the law back to Congress to be amended.

"GOLDEN LETTUCE" GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO PACK 30 TIMES MORE VITAMINS

A team from the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology has genetically engineered lettuce to boost its nutrients. They increased levels of an antioxidant called beta-carotene, which the body uses to make vitamin A. The high levels of the antioxidant make the leaves of the lettuce a striking yellow color, giving it the nickname Golden Lettuce. Golden Lettuce has up to 30 times more beta-carotene than regular lettuce. Developing the lettuce involved accumulating the antioxidant in parts of the plant's cells where it is not normally found.

PYTHON IN EXCEL

Python in Excel is now generally available for Windows users of Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise. The feature makes it possible to seamlessly combine Python and Excel analytics within the same workbook. Python in Excel keeps data private by preventing Python code from knowing who users are and opening workbooks from the internet in further isolation within their own separate containers. The data does not persist in the Microsoft Cloud. This page provides examples of what is now possible with the integration.

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