TLDR 2023-09-21

PROMPT FIDELITY

DALL-E 3, OpenAI’s latest text-to-image generator, will be available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers in early October. OpenAI has yet to release any technical details about the model. DALL-E 3 refines small details like hands more effectively and can create engaging images without hacks or prompt engineering. Examples of images generated with DALL-E 3 along with their prompts are available in the article.

AMAZON IS SET TO SUPERCHARGE ALEXA WITH GENERATIVE AI

Amazon unveiled an all-new Alexa voice assistant powered by a large language model during its fall hardware event on Wednesday. The new Alexa can understand conversational phrases and respond appropriately, interpret context more effectively, and complete multiple requests from one command. It could take home automation to the next level. Amazon will roll out the new assistant slowly to customers in the US through a preview program in the coming months.

Researchers have successfully extracted and decoded RNA from a thylacine. The sample was taken from a roughly 130-year-old museum specimen. The research could help scientists in bringing the species back from extinction. It also helped transform the way scientists view museum and archive specimens.

Varda Space Industries’ satellite has been in orbit for two months longer than originally planned as it waits for government approval to return to Earth with its cache of pharmaceutical specimens. The satellite launched on June 12 without a reentry license. Its purpose was to demonstrate Varda’s technology for producing commercial materials inside a recoverable capsule designed to return the products to Earth. The FAA denied Varda’s reentry license as the company did not demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. A request for reconsideration is pending.

ELECTRICSQL

ElectricSQL is a local-first sync layer for web and mobile apps. It enables developers to build reactive, real-time, and local-first apps directly on Postgres. ElectricSQL makes apps feel instant as app code talks directly to a local database. It supports multi-user collaboration and conflict-free offline.

INTRODUCING RUNES

Svelte 5's runes unlock universal, fine-grained reactivity in JavaScript. They use function syntax to achieve the same things and more as let, =, the export keyword, and the $: label. Svelte 5 is not yet in production, but developers can test its new features through an interactive playground on its preview site.

UNTIL MARKETS TURNED LAST YEAR

Apple and Goldman Sachs were working on an investing feature that would let customers buy and sell stocks in 2020. The project was canceled as the markets went south last year. It was meant to roll out in 2022 and allow iPhone users to put money into Apple shares. The infrastructure for the feature is mostly built and ready to go, should Apple eventually decide to move forward with it.

LANGUAGE MODEL UXES IN 2027

This article explores what large language model-powered software might look like in the medium-term future. LLMs are going to significantly shift how we interact with computers. The current state of the technology seems rudimentary and it's increasingly clear that generative AI can't quite replace the other UX innovations that have been introduced over the last several decades. LLM UXes will likely evolve to have a memory of past interactions in order to provide more relevant responses.

TESLA MIGHT HAVE 2 MILLION CYBERTRUCK RESERVATIONS, TALLY SAYS

Tesla received over 250,000 reservations for the Cybertruck within a week of its unveiling and continued getting hundreds more reservations every week since.

EVERY PROGRAMMER SHOULD KNOW #1: IDEMPOTENCY

Idempotency refers to the property of an operation or function that produces the same result when applied multiple times as it does when applied only once.

POST-QUANTUM MAKEOVER

The Signal Protocol added a layer of encryption using a post-quantum cryptography algorithm that the National Institute of Standards and Technology selected as a potential replacement for quantum-vulnerable forms of encryption last year.

FACEBOOK CHANGED ITS LOGO — SEE IF YOU CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE

Facebook’s new logo features a darker blue and a few other subtle tweaks.

DESIGNER

This article covers how to overcome the two most common challenges when working with designers and product managers and how to build a working relationship that makes you one of their favorite engineers to work with.

XML IS BETTER THAN YAML. HEAR ME OUT...

XML is better than YAML as there are situations where XML is appropriate but there aren’t any situations where YAML is appropriate.