TLDR 2023-07-11

INSTAGRAM’S THREADS SURPASSES 100 MILLION USERS

Threads has already surpassed 100 million users, reaching the milestone dramatically faster than ChatGPT. It took ChatGPT two months to pass the mark, while Threads only launched last Wednesday. Users have made more than 95 million posts and shared 190 million likes on the platform. Mark Zuckerberg said in a post that the growth was mostly organic. Threads is still in its infancy and it is yet to be seen whether the platform will retain its users.

COMPETITIVE

This article contains a transcript of an interview with Dennis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Google DeepMind is the result of an internal merger between DeepMind and Google's previous internal AI team called Google Brain. DeepMind was purchased in 2014 and the merger was completed earlier this year. The two divisions were not focused on the same things when they were merged, resulting in a culture clash. The interview covers the merger and the dramas around it as well as AI risk and artificial general intelligence.

LONGSHOT SPACE WANTS TO MAKE SPACE LAUNCH DUMB — AND REALLY CHEAP

Longshot Space's CEO Mike Grace thinks that rockets are an overly exquisite solution to the problem of sending large masses to space. The company's answer is a kinetic launch system that will be capable of reaching hypersonic speeds and shooting projectiles to orbital velocities for as low as $10 per kilogram. Its system involves a multiple-kilometer-long horizontal concrete tunnel that is basically a vacuum chamber. The system will generate a lot of noise, so it will have to be built somewhere very remote.

SpaceX recently set a new record for the most flights by a SpaceX launch vehicle. The mission was SpaceX's 216th successful mission in a row for the Falcon rocket family. SpaceX is now aiming to fly its Falcon 9 boosters as many as 20 times. The company’s most-flown rocket, numbered B1058 in the its inventory, went through a process that included a recertification to prove that it could fly up to five more times. It first debuted with SpaceX’s first launch of astronauts in May 2020.

REACT95

React95 is a component library inspired by the Windows 95 UI design. It features TypeScript support, a Figma design kit, themes, and Clippy. Examples are available in the repository.

GITA

Gita is a command-line tool for managing multiple git repos. It can display the status of multiple git repos side by side and delegate commands on repos from any working directory. A video explaining common usages for Gita is available.

WHY INSTAGRAM IS TAKING ON TWITTER WITH THREADS

Meta had been planning to release Threads for a while, but the backlash to Twitter's recent limiting of how many tweets people can see per day pushed the company to get the app out of the door. This article contains a transcript of an interview with Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, on how the Threads project started, the decision-making process when developing the standalone app, Threads' ActivityPub integration, why Threads isn't available in the EU, Mosseri’s views on Twitter, and more. Threads' success shows that there is room in the market for multiple players in different spaces.

INVISIBLE DETAILS OF INTERACTION DESIGN

Design can feel like there's no science to it, but there are many enthusiasts who spend their time deconstructing designs to find out the why behind great displays of interaction design. This article presents observations on common interactions as an exercise in building stronger design intuition and vocabulary. It covers metaphors, gestures, spatial consistency, touch inputs, and much more. Understanding and articulating why something feels right might not come as intuitively as designing something to feel right, but they're two sides of the same coin.

FEATURE FLAGS: THEORY VS REALITY

Feature flags are great for continuous deployment, but they add complexity to code, are difficult to verify, and add to potential costs.

THE REALITY OF BIG TECH'S 'FAKE WORK' PROBLEM

There are many stories of tech workers being paid by giant tech firms to do very little, with some having to basically fight to find work.

EXPLORING THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND CODE BEHIND MODERN EDGE FUNCTIONS

Edge computing runs code and serves data from servers as close as possible to the client to keep apps fast and relevant.

APPEAL TO NEW USERS

Tumblr is redesigning its reply and reblog features in an attempt to make the site less intimidating to attract users disillusioned with Reddit and Twitter.

REDDIT

The team behind BotDefense, a service that helps moderate 3,650 subreddits on Reddit, is quitting over Reddit's antagonistic actions towards moderators and developers.

EASY SVG SPARKLINES

Sparkline charts are simple, compact charts that show general trends without getting into details.