TLDR 2024-06-26

Electric Vehicles.

Eli is rethinking urban transportation with their compact and affordable EVs. Their flagship vehicle, Eli ZERO, is “the Tesla of micro-EVs [4]”: 70% smaller than sedans, 2x as energy efficient as regular EVs, and a third of the cost of a car, with advanced automotive technology.

GOOGLE IS KILLING INFINITE SCROLL ON SEARCH RESULTS

Continuous scrolling on Google search results, which was originally introduced in October 2021, has been removed from desktop search results and will be removed from mobile results in the coming months. It has been replaced with Google's classic pagination bar, which allows users to jump to a specific page of search results or simply click 'Next' to see the next page. A 'More results' button will be shown at the bottom of searches on mobile. The change will allow Google to serve search results faster.

E.U. CHARGES MICROSOFT WITH ANTITRUST VIOLATIONS OVER TEAMS BUNDLING

EU regulators have charged Microsoft with breaking antitrust rules by bundling its Teams video conferencing software with a suite of other productivity tools, giving it an unfair advantage over rivals. Businesses essentially had little choice but to use Teams if they wanted other software made by Microsoft. Competitors also faced challenges in making their services work with other Microsoft software. Microsoft says it has already taken steps to resolve the dispute, having unbundled Teams from other Office products last year.

RESEARCHERS UPEND AI STATUS QUO BY ELIMINATING MATRIX MULTIPLICATION IN LLMS

Researchers claim to have developed a method of running AI models more efficiently that involves eliminating matrix multiplication from the process. A fundamental redesign of the neural network operations that are currently accelerated by GPU chips, the method could have deep implications for the environmental impact and operational costs of AI systems. It challenges the prevailing paradigm that matrix multiplication operations are indispensable for building high-performing language models. The approach may outperform traditional large language models at very large scales, but this has not been tested due to computational constraints.

RESEARCHERS INVENT 100% BIODEGRADABLE 'BARLEY PLASTIC'

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have created a biofriendly material made from barley starch blended with fiber from sugarbeet waste. The material is strong and can completely decompose within only two months if left in nature. It can be used for food packaging, among many other things. The material can be easily made in many places in the world. The researchers are now processing a patent application for the biocomposite material.

DOTENVX

dotenvx is a better dotenv, a zero-dependency module that loads environment variables from a .env file into process.env. It works the same across every language, framework, and platform. dotenvx features encrypted envs, variable expansion, multi-line values, contextual help, command substitution, and more.

NOTION SITES TAKES NOTION SITES UP A LEVEL

Notion has launched Notion Sites, a tool that turns Notion pages into publicly-facing websites. It has features like custom favicons, the ability to build navigation bars with links, and breadcrumb navigation. Notion Sites can be easily published under custom domains. It has basic SEO features and a Google Analytics integration. More details about Notion Sites are available in the article.

NEW GOOGLE AI EXPERIMENT COULD LET YOU CHAT WITH CELEBRITIES, YOUTUBE INFLUENCERS

Google is reportedly working on an AI project that lets users talk to chatbots modeled after celebrities, YouTube influencers, and other personalities. The feature will allow anyone to create chatbots by describing their personality and appearance and then converse with them. It involves fine-tuning the Gemini family of language models to mimic the response style of the described character. The project may eventually be integrated into YouTube rather than launched as a standalone product.

MY SPICIEST TAKE ON TECH HIRING

You only need to administer one technical interview and one non-technical interview, each no more than an hour long, for each candidate. Any interview process longer than that is unnecessary and counterproductive. Adding more interviews makes you less likely to gather the information you need because nobody bears the ultimate responsibility for gathering decisive information. Dragging out the process inadvertently selects for more desperate candidates. People tend to make up their minds on candidates fairly early on in the interview process - drawing out the process doesn't correct for this bias.

you complete a task together. Try it today (Mac, Linux).

ASK HN: WHAT BROUGHT BACK THE JOY OF PROGRAMMING FOR YOU? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

Different ways developers try to stay motivated to build.

STABILITY AI STABILIZED BY INVESTMENT FROM SILICON VALLEY ROYALTY, NEW EXECUTIVE TEAM

Stability AI has secured investors including venture capital firms Greycroft and Coatue Management, former Facebook president Sean Parker, former CEO of special effects house WETA Digital Prem Akkaraju, former Google and Novell boss Eric Schmidt, and investor Robert Nelsen, who has been involved in 47 companies that achieved billion-dollar valuations.

GLASSKUBE

Glasskube is a package manager for Kubernetes that makes deploying, updating, and configuring packages on Kubernetes 20 times faster than with tools like Helm or Kustomize.

THE CLEAN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION HAS ARRIVED

This year's Breakthrough Energy Summit will share a portfolio of climate change technologies that are proven and ready for the market today.

BALL

Ball is an interactive ball that lives in the macOS dock.

WHY I ATTACK

You can have fun writing attack papers and still care about people.