The Daily Index — Tuesday, October 1, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

FIRST LOOK AT GOOGLE PIXEL 9A WITH STUNNING 5K RENDERS

The new design of the Pixel 9a has been leaked ahead of its expected launch in the Spring. The biggest change appears to be the camera bar, which is now nearly flush with the back of the device. The Pixel 9a will launch with Android 15 and seven years of updates. The specs will likely be very similar to the Pixel 8a.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI REPORTEDLY SLATED FOR $500 MILLION SOFTBANK INVESTMENT

SoftBank plans to invest $500 million in OpenAI's funding round, boosting its valuation to potentially $150 billion. Microsoft is also participating in the round, which reflects OpenAI's 1,700% revenue growth despite a projected $5 billion in losses.

pymnts.com · 2 min

TLDR Web Dev

HOW WE BUILT NGROK'S DATA PLATFORM

Ngrok built its data platform with an engineering team of just one person, using open-source tools and self-hosting on Kubernetes. They had challenges like complex schemas and large data volumes, which were addressed through code generation, schema normalization, and scaling Apache Flink with Protobuf messages.

ngrok.com · 23 min

TLDR Crypto

PUBLICLY-LISTED COMPANIES KEEP ADDING BITCOIN TO THEIR BALANCE SHEETS

There has been an increased trend of corporate adoption of Bitcoin, with six companies, led by MicroStrategy, purchasing around 49,000 BTC since its all-time high in March. Since April 2020, when MicroStrategy made its first Bitcoin purchase, an estimated 15 companies have added Bitcoin to their balance sheets, much of which came during the 2021 bull market or after BTC ETFs launched.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 7 min

TLDR Product

PIVOT POINTS

When creating effective strategies for leading a fulfilling life, it's crucial to align them with "Pivot Points," which are key truths or principles that shape decisions. This involves ensuring that strategies are reinforcing these points, leveraging multiple points for differentiation, and addressing contradictions or potential inaccuracies within them for consistency and success.

longform.asmartbear.com · 21 min

TLDR

THE ART OF THE OPENAI DEAL

OpenAI's upcoming investment round includes a term where the company has two years to convert to a for-profit business or the funding will convert into debt. While convertible notes are common, this is essentially the opposite. This could be a very real problem for the company in a couple of years if it is neither a for-profit nor insanely profitable.

spyglass.org · 8 min

TLDR

AI BOTS NOW BEAT 100% OF THOSE TRAFFIC-IMAGE CAPTCHAS

Locally run bots using specially trained image-recognition models can achieve a 100% success rate when challenged with Google's ReCAPTCHA v2. Google has been phasing out the system in favor of a new 'invisible' system that analyzes user interactions. However, it is still used by millions of websites. Details about how the system works are available in the article.

arstechnica.com · 4 min

TLDR

AI'S THIRST FOR ENERGY HAS ANOTHER NUCLEAR PLANT COMING ONLINE

Holtec Palisades has received a $1.52 billion loan from the Department of Energy to restore a nuclear power plant in Michigan. The plant ceased operations in 2022, but will be brought back online as early as 2025. It will add about 600 jobs to the area. Holtec had originally bought the plant to dismantle it, but changed course due to renewed interest in nuclear power from data center providers.

qz.com · 2 min

TLDR

TIPS FOR BUILDING AND DEPLOYING ROBOTS

Use other people's supply chain scale wherever possible. Using existing infrastructure makes deploying robots easier. New infrastructure made for humans tends to also be useful for robots. Deployed robots live in a sea of real-world data - this can be used for various things, for example, training learning algorithms or to create synchronized networks so robots know what is happening in the world.

rodneybrooks.com · 11 min